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Chapter Thirty-Seven

Noah's lips were on mine before he could even pull the bedroom door closed behind us, the faint taste of wine that lingered on his mouth only intoxicating my senses further.

Running his hands down my waist, his strong arms suddenly scooped around my thighs, picking me up off the floor in one swift, easy motion. As I wrapped my legs around his hips, the short, black lace that had barely been covering me in the first place rode up, allowing his rough hands to knead the bare skin of my thighs as he pinned me against the door.

A sharp cough from across the room suddenly caused Noah to freeze. Pulling my head down gently into his neck with one hand, he turned us both around to look over my shoulder.

"Shit, Karen." As he blurted out the words, he dropped me back to the floor so fast I almost lost my balance.

Pushing one hand through his hair, he continued. "I didn't know you were coming, never mind that you were in my room."

He was flustered, no doubt about it. As I finally got a good look at the person leaning back casually in the chair at Noah's desk, she seemed familiar. Her brown, bobbed hair was immaculate and the black, skinny trouser suit she wore over a nude silk vest was clearly expensive. It was the red-soled shoes that finally clicked in my head; she was the woman I'd seen him with that day in the coffee shop.

Karen? Karen the band's manager? My confused brain tried to grapple with the small amount of knowledge I had about Noah's life.

"What have I told you about getting too involved, Noah?"

As she questioned him slowly, she ran her eyes up and down my body, instinctively causing me to tug the hem of my dress as far down as it would go.

"I had to hear about this from Sarah, you know?" she continued, her voice sharp and well pronounced. "I bumped into her downstairs as I came in and she told me you've gone and got yourself a 'girlfriend' now."

The air quotes she made with her perfectly manicured fingers around the word caused the blood to rise within me.

How dare she?

"This is different," Noah protested quietly, meeting my gaze as he spoke. "Abi's different. We met by chance, she's on the same course as me and the boys."

"Do you think this will go down well at the label?" she cut him off quickly. "You're supposed to be appealing to young girls' wet dreams, but instead we've got one of you having a shotgun wedding and another one busy making doe-eyes at some bimbo in a cheap dress."

"Excuse me?" I snapped, finally finding my voice again. "Who are you calling a bimbo?"

"Leave it, Abi," Noah hissed, instinctively taking a step in front of me as Karen rose up out the chair and began to move slowly across the room.

"Darling," she began, her smile sickly sweet and patronising. "People like Noah were put on this earth to destroy girls like you. You realise you'll just be another notch on his very well-worn belt in a few weeks, don't you?"

"I said this is different, Karen," Noah snarled, his voice threatening as he narrowed his eyes. "Abi's genuine. You can't control me. I told you, I'm done with that shit."

"You'll never be done," she laughed. "Once a lion cub gets the taste for blood he'll never become a vegetarian. This isn't you sweetheart, you're wasting one hell of a talent by tying yourself down to... her."

The way she looked sideways at me with distaste made me feel small and intimidated, and her words cut straight through any ability I had to stand up for myself as she fired her venom in my direction.