She hadn't planned on this. In fact she had been telling herself since the moment her eyes had happened to fall on Noah Everette, that she was going to avoid him at all costs. But every time she turned around, he seemed to just be there. Of course he'd done his best to pretend like he hadn't noticed her either, but Athena could feel his eyes on her every now and again while she was busy entertaining. Then there was Jeremy who had noted his presence also.

Athena had known the exact moment that he had recognized Noah, by the way he stiffened at her side. "Deal with that," he had muttered under his breath before pulling away from his wife, off to entertain a small group of his peers.

Lizzie had been the one to bring him, Athena had deduced while she'd spent the better part of her afternoon actively trying to avoid Noah, willing to admit to her own cowardice for the time being while she hid behind the excuse of entertaining guests and making sure that everything was being executed perfectly. 

- x - x - x - x - 

Lizzie saw his reaction, jaw clenched so tightly that a vein had begun to throb at his temple. The moment that his gaze landed on her, his eyes boring into her own, Lizzie knew that she had orchestrated the entire thing. In the frigid silence that ensued Noah accused his twin sister of complicity and treachery with nothing more than a glance, and then he turned and strode away from her. 

Elizabeth caught him just as he reached the stairs. "Wait!" she called out, her voice louder than expected and inadvertently drew the curious gaze of the few people around them. "You're not going to leave are you?" She asked quietly,  her voice lowered.

His pride wouldn't allow him to leave, Lizzie realized as she watched her brother snatch a flute of champagne from a passing caterer and toss its contents back in a single swig, which she'd been counting on admittedly. The younger twin, was hoping that he would at least let her explain herself though. 

"Leave?" Noah repeats back to her. "But you made sure that I couldn't, didn't you? Congratulations on your duplicity and your disloyalty," he states scathingly, feeling every bit like a caged animal. "I overstepped your boundaries, yes...But it's clear to anybody with eyes in their skull and a brain between their ears that there is still something between the two of you," Lizzie stated softly. 

"If I'd wanted to see her I wouldn't have needed your assistance or anybody else's permission," Noah states, eyes flicking away from his twin's own; while beating down whatever it was that he'd felt when his gaze had inexorably landed on his ex-wife. 

- x - x - x - x - 

For the rest of the evening, Athena watched Noah from the window of her daughter's nursery while he laughed and rubbed elbows with the company that she wouldn't have imagined he could fall so easily in with just years ago.

Her heart ached in a way that she had never imagined a person being able to hurt at the sight of him... She wanted to go to him to try and offer some explanations for how she'd left him, but that would only open the door for questions she wasn't ready to answer. 

- x - x - x - x - 

He hadn't meant to run into her this way after an afternoon of trying to i, at least that's what Noah told himself, when he noticed Athena closing a door behind her with her head ducked down. The shock of seeing her for the first time in six years, had fortified his anger for most of the evening, but he no longer had the advantage of that barrier. 

She had hit him like a freight train, every memory assaulting him. 

The first time she'd come over to the house to spend the night with Lizzie, when she'd been too shy to look him in the face. Their very first sparring match, when she'd been perfectly dissheviled wearing nothing more than a band t-shirt and her underwear in the bathroom... He could still recall how she'd tried to denuy the fact that her and Liz had gotten drunk the night before despite smelling like cheap liquor. 

Most of all, he remembered how Athena felt when she melted in his arms, the sweet generosity of that romantic mouth of hers. She was a natural temptress, Noah decided. What she lacked in expertise she more than made up for with willing passion.

Furious with his weakening resolve, Noah shoved away from the tree and put his glass down on the nearest table, then he bade the people around him good night and headed for his room, intending to drink himself into a private stupor if that’s what it would take to keep him from going to her.

- x - x - x - x - 

Her head was still reeling with the tension of the day, and despite the fact that a good portion of guests were still milling around downstairs, Athena was confident in the abilities of her employees and caterers that the night would still go off without a hitch. Her only concern now, was to crawl into her bed and hope that Lizzie would have asked her brother to leave by morning. 

She didn't want to delve too deeply into the why she was so bothered by Noah's presence though, worried about what she might find lurking under the calm surface. 

Just as she was reaching to flick another light on, on her way to the master washroom, a masculine voice formed from the shadows. "I seem to recall, the last time I waited for you, was the night of our anniversary," Noah says in a lazy drawl. Athena spun around, her heart beginning to beat in deep, fierce thuds as she took in the sight of him. 

Noah Everette was sitting in the rooms only chair, the image of relaxed ruggedness, and Athena suspects that he's drunk, though he holds his liquor well. "I can explain," Athena says automatically. But she's not sure that she can. How was she going to explain anything about her actions, without disrupting her life now. 

"I didn't come up here for conversation, 'Thena," Noah says casually, reverting back to his old nickname for her with ease.

Even his expression was casual. Too casual. Somewhere in Athena's whirling thoughts she registered that he was treating this momentous meeting with a cool nonchalance that didn’t seem at all appropriate. But she was so thrilled to have him this close, and so much in love with him that nothing mattered.

"What are you doing here, Noah?" Athena asks alarmed, still reeling from her realization of only moments ago.

What the hell was he doing up here, invited or otherwise, Noah wonders angrily, with the same woman who’d left him without a word on their anniversary? "What I am doing is leaving,” he clips off, already stalking the three steps to the door.

No! The word burst out of her suddenly, and Athena's not sure if she'd actually said the word or merely thought it. But Noah stopped, her word keeping him rooted in place. "Don't leave," Athena pleads softly.

She doesn't care about the consequences of what might happen, just knows that right now she wants Noah to stay, and god help him if he didn't want the exact same thing. Athena flung herself against his chest, all soft, entreating woman, drugging his senses with the sudden familiar scent and feel of her.

Their mutual awareness of their embrace filled the room, making the silence inaudibly crackle. If fate -- or his sister -- had not put them in one another's path, Noah would have heeded the voice of reason chanting the hundred reasons why this was a mistake. Instead he took a step that would complicate everything, not only for Athena, but for himself too. 

He kissed her. 

With the last thread of rationality he possessed, he lifted his mouth an inch from hers, and gave her one last chance to call a halt. “Are you sure?”

"I know what I'm doing, Noah," she says with a calm she doesn't feel, but his arms around her -- while startling, was sweeter than she imagined. Though not for long. His kisses grew from a warm press, seeking welcome, then demanding. 

This single kiss was a little fulfillment of a namesless expectation that she hadn't experiences in years. The intimacy mesmerized her, awaking parts of her body and heart that she had been hiding from for os long. 

One kiss became many, each one burning into them new memories of want and need. Both of them had changed so much in the last few years, but Athena was thankful that this hadn't. How much they both still wanted one another. 

A poignant sign of relief choked her. She wanted to nestle forever in this human connection, and forget the rest of the world and it's expectations.   Whatever thoughts of revenge and wounded pride had driven Noah up here to Athena, were forgotten for the time being.