"Ellenore... Hey Ellenore..." called the voice I wanted to listen to for the rest of my life. I roused from current state of slumber, blinking rapidly as I stared into the gorgeous face of the man of my dreams.

Literally, because I had been dreaming about him a couple of seconds ago.

As the fog in my brain began to slowly dissipate, I realised I had fallen asleep on him sometime during our Netflix date, and sometime early too because the last thing I remembered was Jason Statham getting beat up by some of the bad guys.

Talk about embarrassing.

"Oh my gosh", I clapped my hand over my face to cover the flush that was steadily climbing up my cheeks "How long ago did the movie end?"

Noah scrunched up his handsome face, tapping his long finger against his chin in mock thought. "About forty-five minutes ago, give or take... And in as much as I love to watch my beautiful girl sleep on me, my arm was kind of cramping up"

Dang. That means I had been snoozing and drooling on Noah for more than an hour.

"OMG I'm so sorry", I apologized, half mortified and half amused. I pulled myself off Noah's side where I had been leaning while his arm was wrapped around me, into an upright position with my legs folded underneath me on Noah's blue sofa. "I can't believe I fell asleep. Your body just feels like it was made to be my personal pillow", I blurted out

"Only your personal pillow eh?" Noah smirked at me and raised a sly eyebrow in my direction.

I felt myself blush further. "You know what I mean!" I swatted his arm.

"I do know what you mean", Noah leaned into me, his eyes darkening and his voice taking on a deeper tone which sure enough caused wild flip flops in my lower belly "And you have nothing to be sorry about"

His lips were just a few inches away from mine, our noses nudging and our breaths mingling. I felt like I was suspended in time, with one need and one need only and that was to have his lips on mine.

"Noah?" I breathed in a scratchy voice that sounded not quite like mine.

"Gotcha", he whispered back and in one smooth motion, his lips were where they belonged; on mine. I practically melted into him and his lips parted mine and he sucked my bottom lip into his. He deepened the kiss, wrapping his arm around my back and pulling me almost into his lap. I linked my arms about his neck twisting my fingers in his blonde locks and kissed him back with all I was worth.

Finally we broke apart, breathing hard and Noah softly brushed light kisses over the tip of my nose and my eyelids.

"You're tired", he mused pulling away to look into my eyes.

"No shit", I didn't bother denying. Elena had caught an infection our last day in Aspen so since we got back, about two weeks ago, I had to do both Elena and my jobs, while still working with Grayson down at the labs. It was stressful, sure but I was glad to do it. I had just about two weeks left working at Stinson & Co., I suddenly realised how much I was going to miss the place. Noah, mostly. But I didn't want to think about that right now. I just wanted to savour all the time I had with him before I had to return to New York.

"I'm sorry baby... Grumpy old Mr Stinson working you too hard?" he teased me

"The young one certainly is... But in a good way", I wagged my eyebrows salaciously at him

Noah laughed out loud, smacking his thigh and looking extremely adorable. It was completely infectious and I couldn't help but laugh along with him.

"I've corrupted you", Noah smirked at me and pulled me into his arms tucking me into his body as he laid back into the couch. He kissed my forehead. "I can't believe you're going to be done in two weeks"

"Me either", I suddenly felt very sad listening to his heart beat in his chest. I would miss this, him... everything about him. I had never felt so completely attached to someone before in what I felt was a short amount of time and it seriously scared me. My eyes began to burn and I took in a deep breath to hold back the water works.

Noah brushed back my hair from my face and tipped my chin up. "Don't worry, Ellenore... We'll work something out. I don't think I can function if I don't get to see you all the time. Hell, I was up at my dad's floor half the time just to see what outfit you had on that day"

I shook my head at him. "You're crazy Noah", and then I yawned real big and snuggled into him, feeling my eyelids getting heavy once more.

"And you're in need of a good night's sleep", Noah informed me

"Yeah you're right", I sat up once more "I should probably get going"

"Going where?" Noah narrowed his eyes at me.

"Umm... Home?" I giggled at the incredulous look he gave me.

"Like hell you are. As you already know, my bed is big enough for two. You're crashing here tonight", Noah told me with a note of finality.

"But my mom..." I tried protesting even though all I wanted to do was be spooned by Noah all night

"Your mom knows we're dating and she approves", my weak protests fell on deaf ears as Noah flashed me a charming grin.

The cocky bastard. He had my mom eating out of the palm of his hand and he knew it. I suppressed a twitch of my lips. Exactly the day after we got back from Aspen, Noah had made a show of appearing at my house declaring his love for me, and requesting my mother's blessing. I mean who did that? I rolled my eyes at the memory. It had totally worked, my mom was overjoyed and threw together a quick 'celebratory dinner welcoming Noah to the family'. Everyone loved him and he had them gushing over him throughout, including Trent! It would have made me sick, if I wasn't so gosh darn in love with him.

I was smack dab out of excuses.

"Fine", I gave a long dramatic sigh with an even more dramatic slump of my shoulders trying to conceal the thrill rushing through my nerve endings.

Noah knew I was teasing him and he smirked. "Don't even pretend like you're not looking forward to having your wicked way with me later on", Noah's satisfied smirk grew as I gasped and blushed wildly, probably because he was absolutely right.

He sat up still holding me against him, leaning forward to grab his Iphone from the coffee table.

"You know what? I'll call her myself if you're so worried", he tapped away at his phone screen, dialling my mom and after a few short rings she picked up.

"Yes, hi Mrs O'Neil... Oh, I'm sorry... Mary", he beamed at me as I rolled my eyes at my mom's willingness to let Noah call her by her first name.

"Work's great, Mary thanks for asking.... Yeah she's with me right now... Yeah about that, it's getting pretty late and there's this crazy fog that's so unsafe to drive in... Oh yes, I would never want to put your daughter's life at risk... Oh thanks, Mary, Ellie would never want to ask that of you..." He laughed, a deep vibration that I felt in the parts of my body that were pressed against him. This elicited another eye roll from me. "... Of course, I'll take good care of her", his eyes flicked over to me "Yeah she's right here... Okay", he stopped talking and handed the phone over to me, indicating that my mom wanted to speak with me.

"Oh hey mom", I called into the phone injecting what I felt was the right amount of pep given the situation.

"I'm going to take a shower", Noah murmured into my other ear, nipping at my earlobe slightly which caused my body to tremble involuntarily. I adjusted my body away from his, letting him get up and felt my mouth water as I ogled my boyfriend's behind walking away and wondering how the heck I had gotten so lucky.

"Ellie... Ellie!" came my mother's impatient voice at the other end of the line

"Huh... yeah mom, sorry I was a little... distracted"

"I bet you were", she said in a knowing tone

OMG she was killing me here. "What was it you wanted to tell me, mom?"

"I ordered this cute little dress for you to wear to your friend's engagement party and it arrived today. It's so pretty... I wish you were here to see it"

"Wow thanks so much, mom. I guess I'll see it in the morning", she really was a great mom regardless of all that had happened "Was there anything else?"

"Oh... Yeah, um... Use protection! I love you! Bye!" and the line promptly went dead

OM-effing-G.

If my face could burst into flames, it would have done so by now. Had my mom just told me to 'use protection'? Ugghhhh! I shook my head as if trying to get her voice out of my head. Guess smooth old Noah wasn't as believable with his excuses as he thought.

I was still shaking off my disgust at my mom's parting words when Noah's phone began ringing. Seeing as I was still holding it in my hand, the caller ID popped up in my face and took a millisecond to register in my brain.

SHA-fucking-NNON.

Her name caused a tremendous amount of irritation to swell up in me. Why was she still calling Noah? Didn't she know that we were together now? I hadn't brought the texts from two weeks ago up to Noah because... well I was embarrassed that I had snooped and read his text messages. That wasn't the way I wanted to start our relationship, by admitting to be a nosy obsessive girlfriend.

It had been bothering me though. For the two weeks Noah and I had been dating, it hovered at the back of my mind... An insecurity that I dared not explore because I was terrified. Terrified of what it could possibly lead to. It cast an ominous shadow on the time Noah and I spent together, which was a lot. It had just been two weeks but I fell more and more in love with Noah Stinson every single day. I felt like I could marry him tomorrow if he asked. And it wasn't just the amazing dates he took me on, and he had taken me on some amazing ones. Actually, I was more than content to just hang with him indoors all day when we weren't hanging out at work, that is. It was just being with him, being near him and knowing that in some incomprehensible way we were connected and this connection made me feel complete. Just imagining myself existing without him terrified the living daylights out of me.

Yup, that's how bad it was.

The phone rang again, pulling me out of my reverie. My nostrils flared in anger as I saw the name flash again and I obviously wasn't thinking as I reached out and pressed my finger against the 'Answer' icon.

"Noahhh baby..." her insanely bright, syrupy sweet voice filled my ears almost immediately. She sounded relieved. "You finally picked up"

"It's not Noah", I dead-panned

The line was silent for a couple of seconds and then she spoke, her voice losing its earlier sweetness and sounding like she had just bitten into a sour grape. "Ellie? Is that you?"

"Yes Shannon it is me and I'm so glad you recognized my voice", I tried to sound as cheery as she did a few seconds ago even though I was tense as hell.

"As if", she scoffed "Look, Noah will grow tired of you. Do yourself a favour and save us all the embarrassment"

"Fuck you. Stop calling my boyfriend" I heard her begin to yell a stream of obscenities at me but I ended the call before she could go very far.

Once my temper had cooled a little, I began to feel very guilty. Reading her texts and now picking her calls? I was turning into a jealous version of myself I didn't like very much. I had to talk to Noah about it before it got out of hand.

Grabbing Noah's phone, I shuffled into his bedroom, shutting the door behind me just as Noah stepped of the bathroom, steam wafting after him as he towelled his hair dry with a white towel. I licked my lips and tried not to stare at the tiny droplets of water disappearing down the middle of his ripped abs into the towel wrapped around his hips.

I opened my mouth to speak, and closed it again.

Darn it, you'd think my brain wouldn't frazzle every time I saw Noah's amazing body seeing as he was my bf now and all.

Noah smiled sexily and came towards me. "Missing me already, baby?" his lips were close to my neck when I closed my eyes and took a step back, I had to get this off my chest before I got lost in the otherworldly sensations his lips invoked.

I held up his phone. "Shannon called"

The look on his face turned from teasing to grim in a few short seconds but he didn't look surprised. Rather a fleeting look of guilt crossed his features. What did that look mean?

Damn it, Noah.

I continued. "And I picked and... well, we had a few words. And I also read a text message from her two weeks ago at the hotel in Kansas" I cleared my throat, feeling guilty and embarrassed now "I'm sorry I had no right to invade your privacy like that but I just couldn't help myself", I took a deep breath and looked into his hazel depths, searching from an answer "Should I be worried, Noah?"

Noah's expression softened probably at the look of fear written all over my face. He ran his hand through his still wet hair and let out a sigh. "Shannon wants me back", he explained to me, taking hold of my hands in his.

Yeah... That much was obvious.

"Do you..." I almost choked on the question I was about to ask "Do you maybe still have feelings for her? I mean you guys were together a really long time... It's okay you can tell me, I can totally take it". Although I was sure I would most probably break in half if he confirmed my worst fears.

"Fuck no", he growled harshly, squeezing my fingers in his and bringing them up to his bare chest "I love you, Ellie. My heart and my soul and hell, my entire being belongs to you and it kind of kills me that you would question that"

He genuinely looked hurt and I felt awful.

"I'm so sorry, Noah. I don't know what I was thinking", I blinked away tears from the corners of my eyes and pulled his face towards mine, peppering all over his face with kisses. "I love you"

Noah grinned and wrapped his arms around me, burying his nose in my hair. "I love you too, Ellie... and I just came up with a great idea of how you could make it up to me"

I pulled away from him and looked up at him, noticing the mischievous, yet totally hot glint in those hazel orbs as he looked down at me and began to pull me with him towards his bathroom.

"Noooaahhh", I whined, even though I was growing dizzy with lust "You just showered"

"And you haven't yet", he flashed me a dazzling grin "Twice the fun"

"You're really something", I shook my head, laughing as he nuzzled my collarbone, pulling away at the light pink cardigan I was wearing.

"That I am", his mouth hovered over mine, a few breaths away from claiming my lips "Now if you don't want to get the rest of those clothes wet..."

And all worries about Shannon faded completely to the furthest areas of my brain.

A/N: I apologize for the late update :(. Don't forget to vote, comment and share! Xoxo
-Crystal