“Come,” Noah said, turning toward a checkout lane. “Let me pay for these, and you can follow me back home. I’m just down the street.”

“I’ll take one.” I reached for a bottle, grabbing Noah’s hand instead. He straightened as if a shock of electricity jolted through his spine. Was it the same bolt of lightning that crashed through me the moment my hand closed around his? What the hell was that? Why were my toes tingling, my heart fluttering, and my thoughts suddenly tangled up like a pair of wired headphones lost inside of a coat pocket?

“I, uhm,” Noah started, moving his hand back so that mine fell down to my side. “No need. I’ve got it.”

“No, seriously,” I said, making a grab for the bottle again, closing my grip around glass and not Noah this time. “I don’t want to show up empty-handed.”

Noah nodded and let the bottle go. Was there a blush on his cheeks? I couldn’t quite make it out, Noah turning and walking to the cashier with his back to me.

The tingles and flutters continued until I pulled up behind Noah in his driveway.

And then the flutters and tingles only got more intense, mixing with the nerves that sprouted like a rose garden inside my belly.

3

NOAH BARNES

Damn, Jake smelled good. No, not even good. He smelled divine. Like a mixture of pine trees and leather and sex. Masculine with a soft edge that made me want to bump into his side and start purring like a cat begging to be pet. Maybe that’s why I had gotten the genius idea of inviting him over to join the book club, even though he knew none of my friends and barely even knew me. Sure, we were quickly becoming work buddies, but that was worlds away from the type of friendships I’d cultivated with the people currently sitting around my dining room table.

“Ready?” I asked Jake as I unlocked my front door, the sound of laughter and music already leaking out through the threshold.

“Born ready,” he answered, smiling a toothy grin that lured me in like a floundering captain trying to make it to the lighthouse before his ship sunk. I blinked away the spell and walked into my house, announcing our presence and being greeted by a couple of happy cheers.

“I come with not just wine,” I said as I turned the corner into the dining room, “but also a man!”