Kit had assured her friend that it was fine, but the situation had been strained. Terrence had barely spoken to her, and it made her sad that he was still so angry with her—though she did think he was taking things a bit hard when they’d only been on three actual dates. They’d been friends for years before that; surely he understood that she hadn’t meant to hurt him?
His behavior seemed unusually possessive, but Kit couldn’t bring herself to believe Terrence was her stalker. Still, she’d be extra careful around him, especially since Jade was still excited about Kit doing the project with the two of them. Kit had expected Terrence to veto it, but according to Jade, he wanted Kit for the role.
Not that she’d know it from his personal treatment of her.
“Hey.” Noah rubbed the lines between her eyebrows. “Why the frown?”
Kit shook her head, not wanting to bring up Terrence. She’d sensed the animosity between Noah and the writer, figured they must’ve run into each other when she wasn’t around. “I’m glad you and Becca are getting along.”
Taking her hand, he tugged her to her bedroom and leaned in the doorway while she slipped off her heels. “Yeah, dodged that bullet. Phew.” He pretended to wipe his brow. “Any guy worth his salt knows you’re toast if you get on the wrong side of the girlfriends.”
Kit laughed. “How did you do it?”
“Told her I was crazy about you.” Smiling lips, dead serious eyes.
Her heart squeezed so hard she could barely breathe. “I have to change,” she said, the words coming out husky.
Stepping inside the room, he braced his back on the wall by the door. “Can I watch?”
Kit’s breath froze in her throat at the unexpected question, the heat in Noah’s gaze searing. “I… Okay.” Gripping her nerves in a tight fist, she walked over to him and, turning to give him her back, swept her hair over one shoulder. “Unzip me. Please.”
A rough breath, his lips brushing her nape before he began to tug down the zipper slow and easy. He touched her nowhere else, but by the time he’d finished, she had goose bumps all over her body. Keeping her back to him, she returned to her original position beside the bed and slid off the long sleeves of the midthigh-length black dress.
A single push at the hips and the soft fabric fell to pool at her feet.
He groaned. “You’re wearing a garter belt with thigh-high stockings.”
Yes, she was. Not simply because she liked the way they felt on her body, but because Noah had once let it drop that he found the look hot. It had been a passing comment while they’d been watching a movie, but she remembered everything when it came to him.
“These old things?” she said and, stepping out of the dress, bent down to pick it up. She was hotly conscious of Noah’s eyes on her ass as she walked into the wardrobe and hung the dress in the section where she put clothes that needed dry-cleaning.
A deep inhale while she was hidden from him, a slow exhale, her pulse a drumbeat.
Going back to the bed using the same unhurried stride, she put one foot on the mattress and unclipped the stocking from the garter belt. The stocking was baby fine and, to be honest, not really necessary in LA. But again, it was all about playing to Noah’s fantasies.
She rolled down the stocking with care, inch by inch. Tugging it off her foot, she dropped it to the floor and started on the second. No rushing, no visible self-consciousness, just a woman slowly, sensuously teasing her lover as she undressed for him.
Though Noah hadn’t moved from his position by the door, his thumbs hooked into the front pockets of his jeans, his breathing was audible. Her own heart thumped hard as stone against her ribs. It was so loud by the time she finished taking off the second stocking that she couldn’t hear Noah anymore. Dropping the ball of airy material to the carpet, she put both feet back on that carpet and went to undo the tiny hooks that fastened the lace of the garter belt around her hips.
It was erotic black, the same color as her panties and the demi-cup bra she wore on top. All a matched set.
Her hands trembled as she removed the lace and dropped it on the bed.