Rachel's Deception (A Temptation Novel Book 4) by Karen Ann Hopkins

Author:Karen Ann Hopkins [Karen Ann Hopkins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-18T07:00:00+00:00

19

Rose

I heard Sarah Ann’s babbling coming through the baby monitor and I rolled over, yawning. After an extra-long stretch, I finally opened my eyes. I was just about to kiss Noah’s sleeping face when I quickly pulled back. There was a bruise on his left cheek and a cut above his right eye. Weirder still was the leaf clinging to his hair.

Since Sarah Ann wasn’t crying yet, I ignored the monitor and stared at Noah’s face, thinking. I was certain he didn’t have those marks on his face the evening before. But then, I did go to sleep early, too exhausted from the work at the dress shop to keep my eyes open. Something must have happened later in the night.

I reached over and gently shook Noah’s shoulder. His eyes opened and adjusted to the dim, morning light spraying through the windows.

“Hello, sweetheart,” he said, grasping me around the waist and pulling me against him.

The touch of his warm mouth on mine immediately caused an ignition of a thousand sparks in my belly. I opened my mouth, partially forgetting about his bruise and the leaf. I rubbed my hand up and down his bare back. He was quickly trying to remove my night shirt, when he shifted position and groaned.

I jumped back and said, “What the heck happened to you?”

Noah pushed the hair out of his face and asked sheepishly, “What?”

I frowned at him and plucked the leaf from his hair, showing it to him. “There usually aren’t leaves in our bed...and your face has a bruise and a cut on it.”

Noah sat up against the pillows. “Nothing gets by you.” He took my hand and kissed it. “Your brother got into some trouble last night.”

“Which brother—what kind of trouble?” I asked.

Noah took a measured breath. “It was Justin. It’s a long story, but basically, he was at a bar last week and. . . ”

“A bar—is he crazy?!”

I was about to leap from the bed to hunt Justin down, when Noah captured my wrist and said, “Please calm down and let me explain.”

I relaxed back into the pillows while a million thoughts penetrated my mind. Justin didn’t go to bars. There must be so much more to the story.

“He was forced to go out with a couple a friends from school on our date night. Sam made him leave the house—he didn’t know that the two boys were going to take Justin to a bar.” My face scrunched as I pictured Sam and what I was going to do when I got my hands on him. But I remained silent and nodded for him to continue.

“He ran into my sister there and...”

I couldn’t stop myself from interrupting. “Rachel—at a bar?!” I shrieked.

Sarah Ann’s chatter was becoming more incessant and I wished that Noah would talk faster. Any moment our baby was going to start crying. I motioned Noah with my hands to hurry up.

“You’re the one who keeps interrupting me,” Noah pointed out.

“Sorry—go on,” I urged.

“Long story short, Rachel has been sneaking out for months and hanging out with a bad crowd.

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