Learning the Ropes (3 page)

John didn’t rise to the bait; instead he smiled in the contented way of a man getting laid on a regular basis. “I’m not here voluntarily. I got kicked out for a couple of hours while Mac finishes up some grading that I’ve been diligently distracting her from. I was just heading home from running a couple of errands when I saw your truck out front and decided to keep you company. But it seems like you’re distracted enough for one night.” John looked meaningfully over at where Rory sat.

“Ha! Just because you’re obsessed with your lady doesn’t mean that you need to start projecting on the rest of us.” Ready to end that line of conversation, Noah set down his pool cue and walked with John to the bar to order a round. “I am glad to see you. How is everything going?”

John took a deep swallow of his beer and sighed contentedly. “Great. Everything is great. How about you? I see you’re still up to your old tricks.”

Noah chuckled. “You know me. Just because I lost my wingman doesn’t mean that I’m going to spend my nights at home.”

“At least not alone anyway,” John cracked.

Noah smiled in appreciation of his friend’s joke, but didn’t bother to correct him on how untrue it was these days. Now that he was in his late twenties, most of his friends seemed to be moving towards settling down, or at least having steady relationships. John was one of the more recent of his fallen brethren and had appeared to go down without a fight. Although Noah could easily imagine doing the same if a woman managed to capture his attention for more than a couple of weeks.

More and more, all he wanted to do after getting home from work was have someone to talk about his day with, and maybe watch some television before heading to bed for some fun. Not exactly playboy stuff, but a normal routine with someone who helped keep the four walls from closing in on him. Despite the fact that hanging out at the bar appealed less and less to him every night, he couldn’t stand to stay alone in his apartment.

Loud laughter from Rory’s table had him shaking off his reverie and glancing over. There was only one guy left now at her table and he seemed pretty intent on making the full-court press to get her to leave with him. John took note of his grimace and followed his gaze.

“What’s up with Rory tonight? I’ve never seen her act like that.”

Noah shook his head and took a long swallow of his beer. “She’s wasted. I’ve been watching guys buy her drinks all night,” he said in disgust.

“Well it looks like that guy may have been making a pretty good investment,” John noted wryly.

Noah swung around to glare at his friend. “Rory’s not like that and you know it. You just said it. Something must be wrong with her.”

John put his hands up in surrender. “You’re right, you’re right. Either way I’m going to have to at least check in with her. Mac would kill me if I didn’t make sure she was okay.”

Noah nodded and tried not to let relief show on his face. “I’ll get your back.” He’d been dying to stop Rory from making a mistake all night. Whether she liked it or not. He knew that an objection from him would more than likely send her headlong into a bad decision just to prove that he couldn’t tell her what to do. Having John’s back was as good of an excuse as he was going to get to find out what was going on with her. Hopefully she would listen to his friend.

John took the lead as they both approached the table. “Hey, Rory.”

Rory swiveled on her chair towards the sound of her name and almost tipped over. The guy with her steadied her with a hand at her waist. Noah almost swore when he saw that the hand steadying her was slipped underneath her shirt.

“John!” Rory’s face lit up and she threw her arms out indicating that John should hug her. With a smothered laugh, John did so, embracing her firmly, and in Noah’s opinion, for too long of a time. But at least the other guy didn’t have his hands on her anymore. “How’s Mac doing?”

John caught her up on her friend and how happy the two of them were to finally be dating. Noah watched in amazement as her eyes went all soft and dreamy as she listened. Rory was probably the sweetest person he knew but—with the exception of one moment that had been all too brief—when it came to him, she was stone-faced.

Rory was laughing at some story John was telling when Noah stepped up. She glanced his way and for once she seemed happy to see him. “Noah, I didn’t see you there.” Noah noted wryly that there was no opening of her arms to him, but he would take what he could get.

“I’ve been in the back for a while, but I couldn’t leave without talking to you.” Normally such a comment would have provoked disdain from her, but tonight she just nodded happily and offered both men a seat. They both ignored the look of frustration on her companion’s face and settled in.

Rory made cursory introductions and Noah and John coolly acknowledged the other man. Noah waited until John had captured Rory’s attention before turning to the interloper with a cold stare.

The other man fidgeted. “So you’re a friend of Rory’s, huh?”

Noah only nodded. The other man cleared his throat and blundered on. “She seems like a nice girl. We just met tonight.”

Noah smiled, but there was little warmth to it. “She’s a very nice girl.” He waited a beat before adding, “And she won’t be going home with you.”

“I don’t really think that’s your call.”

Noah clenched his fist on the table and reminded himself to remain cool. “Like you said, I’m a friend of Rory’s. I’m not going to let her make a stupid drunken decision.”

The other man stared at him in anger for a moment, seemingly trying to decide whether to make an issue of it or not. Noah waited in silence, almost wishing that the guy would be that stupid. Apparently he wasn’t, though, since he just abruptly stood up from the table and walked away.

Rory noticed his departure and frowned at his receding back as he stalked out of the bar. “Why didn’t he say goodbye? He seemed so nice and we’ve been talking all night,” she asked in confusion.

Noah just shrugged as John eyed him in amusement. “Subtle.”

John checked his watch before standing and stretching. “Well, I think that’s my cue. My Mac-imposed exile should be over and she’s most likely done with grading papers. Noah, can you make sure Rory gets home okay?” John winked at him and clapped him on the back without waiting for an answer. “Rory, it’s been so good to see you. Depending on the weather, we’re going to have a little get-together tomorrow. Give Mac a call.” He leaned down to give her a quick hug so she wouldn’t get up and waved at both of them as he left the bar.

Rory stared after him in confusion. “He moved so quickly he made me dizzy.”

Noah cracked a smile. “I bet a lot would make you dizzy tonight. But yeah, he left so fast he forgot to pay for his drink.” Noah was sure that John would consider it payback for the ridiculous fix-up he had just engineered. He was also sure that Rory wouldn’t have been happy about it if she had realized what just happened. “Let me go settle up my tab and then I can bring you home.”

Rory nodded, absorbed in fishing the cherry out of whatever fruity drink she was finishing.

At the bar, Noah settled up not only his and John’s tab, but the tab for what Rory had been drinking. Apparently, in his angry dash out the door, her special friend hadn’t bothered to pay for the drinks he had been plying her with. The thought that he didn’t pay for them because he didn’t feel like he was getting his money’s worth from Rory was like a coal burning through Noah’s gut. He thanked his lucky stars he hadn’t decided to stay home with a pizza and an action flick tonight.

He circled back to the table and collected a very wobbly Rory, trying not to enjoy the feel of her leaning heavily on him. Despite how unusual her capitulation to him was, he would be as bad as the other guy if he took advantage. But she was very tempting. He’d always liked the look of her pale skin with her bright blue eyes and dark hair. She looked like a china doll sometimes. But he knew that she wasn’t anywhere near that fragile.

They maneuvered awkwardly through the door and out into the cool evening. Rory shivered a little as the night air hit her bare arms, and snuggled in closer to him. At this point he was almost carrying her over the gravel surface of the parking lot. When they reached his truck he did in fact have to lift her in since even the running board seemed too complicated for her to figure out.

He settled her into the seat and leaned over her to buckle her in securely. He froze trying to fit the buckle in as she leaned close and buried her nose in his neck. “You always smell so good. What is that?”

Noah cleared his throat to say, “Just soap, but some fancy stuff my mom gave me for Christmas.”

Rory giggled and burrowed in closer, her words muffled by the collar of his shirt. “Smells yummy. Like sandalwood and sweat.”

Noah eased back to see if she was joking or not, but the blissed-out look on her face said she was barely even aware of what she was saying. He stared at her for another minute. Even though her eyes were slightly hazy from the alcohol, they were still a startlingly bright blue. Usually they frosted over when she looked at him, but now they were warm and a little sleepy. Trusting. He leaned closer—to do what, he didn’t know—when she shivered. “Brrr. Close the door, Noah, it’s cold out there.”

Noah lurched back from her and shut the door as she commanded. He took his time breathing in the night air as he rounded the truck to the driver’s side. Rory in this new, sweet mood was more dangerous to him than she was in her usual surly mood. He needed to keep his guard up.

The truck moved through pools of street light as he navigated the back streets to bring her home. Luckily he knew the way to her apartment already because she would have been no help to him. She was nodding off with her head propped against the headrest. He had turned on her seat warmers once the engine was started and now she seemed to be plenty warmed up.

He had thought she was asleep when she spoke softly, “I think it’s so nice that John and Mac are finally together. Don’t you?”

Noah nodded and then glanced over to realize that she still had her eyes closed. “Yes, I do.”

“They make such a cute couple. She’s so petite and he’s so tall and handsome.”

Noah straightened up. “You think John’s handsome?”

Rory giggled. “Of course I do. I would never, ever make a move on him because he belongs to Mac, but he’s very cute.”

Noah clenched the steering wheel. “But if he and Mac weren’t together, would you be after him?”

Rory thought for a minute that seemed never-ending before finally answering, “No. That whole tall, dark and handsome thing doesn’t work for me. I like tall, blond and handsome.”

“I have blond hair,” Noah couldn’t help pointing out.

“Hmm, you do. And you’re tall.” Rory paused for a moment and Noah thought that she had fallen asleep, before she continued, “And handsome.”

Noah couldn’t suppress a grin. “Aw, Rory I didn’t think you liked me.”

“I like you. Too much.”

“Now, honey, there’s no such thing as liking me too much.” Noah kept his voice calm and soothing but inside he was a riot of emotions. If someone had told him that morning that Rory would confess to liking him, he would have called them crazy or a liar. But hearing it from her own mouth was certainly making it hard to dispute.

Rory shook her head against the headrest but didn’t open her eyes. “Yes, there is. It’s not fair that I should like you when you don’t like me at all.”

“Who says?” Noah asked mildly. If she would just open her eyes and glance over at his lap, she would see how much he liked her. He understood what she meant about it not being fair that a person could still like another when that sentiment wasn’t returned. Hadn’t he been cursing the exact same feeling with regard to her? She seemed completely oblivious to him and it burned him up. It was a relief to find out that she wasn’t as impervious as she seemed.

She snorted loudly. “No one had to
tell
me. I’m a smart girl; I figured it out on my own. Besides, when a guy kisses you to make your head spin one day and completely ignores you the next day, it’s not a hard code to break.”

Noah’s head snapped so hard towards her that he felt the jolt down through his spine. A flash of anger ran through him but he kept his tone level, if not cordial. “Well when a woman lets you kiss her and melts all over you like honey one day and then you find out she’s dating one of your good friends the next day, it
is
a little hard to figure out what’s going on.”

It was Rory’s turn to jerk her head to look at him in astonishment. Noah used the excuse of keeping his eyes on the road so as not to face her whilst he got control of his temper. After he and Rory had shared a heart-stopping kiss, he had believed that there was something special between them. The next day he had found out the something that was between them was his friend, Greg, and that Rory was dating him. When she had bounced up to him at the bar that night,
sans
boyfriend, he had given her the cold shoulder rather than air out what an idiot he’d been. Despite knowing that she had lied to him and cheated on her boyfriend, it had taken everything he had not to comfort her when her blue eyes had filled with hurt at his rebuff. Rory’s voice brought him back into the present and the first time either of them had acknowledged their ill-fated kiss.

“What are you talking about? When you kissed me, I wasn’t dating anyone. And what are you talking about ‘melts all over you like honey’? You are an insufferable jackass!” With each word, her voice rose to a higher and higher pitch. Noah winced as he pulled up to a stoplight and turned to face her.

“That’s the way I remember it, baby. One kiss and you were primed and ready. If Celeste hadn’t needed you for one of her boyfriend-related crises, we would have been in bed faster than you could have said it.” Noah’s intentionally cruel words were cut off by Rory’s hand meeting his face. The cab of his truck echoed with the crack of her slap as the two of them sat through an entire light cycle in silence. He knew he had gone too far. Knew it even as he was saying it, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. What was it about this woman that brought out such strong emotions in him?