I tried not to let the thought of her leaving make me nervous. But regardless of whether we were in a relationship or not, I was starting to get used to seeing her around the resort, and I knew that I would miss her if she disappeared.
“I sure hope so.” Bailey sighed. Then, she smirked at me. “Guess all I have to do is keep hanging out with you, huh? You seem to know everywhere. And everyone.”
Was she implying that she wanted to keep going on these dinner dates with me? I definitely wouldn’t say no to that. But at the same time, I wasn’t forward enough to start flirting with her in response. I didn’t even know if this was a date, really, or if this was just, again, two friends getting dinner together. She probably had business matters that she needed to talk to me about, and she was sensitive enough not to do it in front of Ethan.
Either way, I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t get out much anymore,” I admitted.
Bailey cocked her head to the side. “Well, maybe we need to change that,” she said.
I shook my head. “It’s hard. With Ethan. And everything.” Even I didn’t know what I was trying to say with that ‘everything’, but Bailey nodded sympathetically.
“You know,” she said carefully, “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to bring Ethan to dinner with us sometimes. He’s fun. And I know that spending time with him is important to you.” She held up one hand before I could protest. “I know that you probably don’t want him getting too attached to me or anything. I get that.” She paused. “My parents are divorced, if you don’t remember, so I know I don’t totally understand what he’s going through, but I sort of do. Anyway, just throwing it out there.”
“I appreciate that,” I told her. And I really did. I wasn’t sure that I was ready to start bringing Ethan out with us yet. It would feel a little too much like family if I did, and I was trying really hard not to put too much pressure on this relationship.
Or was I trying really hard not to actually commit to something?
It might be the latter. There were still a lot of things that Bailey and I needed to discuss before we could even be in a relationship. Things were going to be complicated. She was my boss, and her brother didn’t exactly approve of us.
I wanted to ask her about Ian. To ask if he had cooled off at all yet. But I knew Ian well enough to know that he probably hadn’t. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know all the things that he had probably said to her.
“By the way, I’ll see you back at work tomorrow,” Bailey said, a small grin curling her lips.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Ian gone back to Vegas, then?”
“No, he’s still around,” Bailey sighed, pursing her lips. “But I did win the whole maintenance thing. Your job is safe, and Ian and I have come to a certain understanding.”
I shook my head. Of course there was plenty of work that I needed to do around the resort, but I wasn’t sure that going back there while Ian was still around was the best course of action. Bailey had won one battle with him, but it didn’t mean that she had won the war. And I had a feeling that Ian would be doubly pissed about her relationship with me, given that he had no way of removing me from Brooks Mountain now, not without her say-so.
“Don’t worry about Ian,” Bailey said, as though reading my thoughts.
“How can I not worry about Ian?” I sighed.
“Because I’m telling you not to,” Bailey said firmly. “He’s my brother, and the only reason he’s at all worried about who you’re with is because it’s me. That makes it my problem to deal with, not yours.”
I didn’t exactly agree with her, but I didn’t know how to argue with her either. Instead, I just sighed again and took a sip of my beer. “How have things been at the resort anyway?” I asked her. “Level with me, how much shit has piled up on my plate?”
Bailey looked hesitant and then shrugged. “There’s a few things,” she said evasively. “I’m sure Gretchen will have the full list for you as usual. I did what I could.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “How much did you do?” I asked her.
“There were a few things,” Bailey admitted. She grinned sheepishly. “I Googled a few things, actually. But I wouldn’t have actually done anything if I didn’t think that I could handle it. I learned that lesson the first time, when I knocked out the power at half the resort.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You should have called me,” I told her. “But I’m glad you could handle it.”
We continued chatting as we ate, and I was glad when the conversation turned away from Ian. I still couldn’t believe that it was so easy to chat with Bailey. In fact, the only people in my life who had ever been this easy to chat with were Ethan and…Beth.
So when Bailey asked if I wanted to go back to her place with her, it was too easy to want to say yes. Oh, she didn’t ask it like that, with the promise of something more. She just asked if I would come check on something at the resort, and once we were there, she asked me if I wanted to come in and see what she had done with the condo.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” I told her.
“Why?” Bailey laughed, putting a hand on my arm. “Are you afraid that you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off me?”
I could feel myself flush, and I was glad that the parking lot was as dark as it was, lit only by a few lights near the condos. “No, of course not,” I said, and when I glanced over, I thought I saw a flash of disappointment on her face. “But isn’t Ian staying with you?”
“Oh no,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “He decided that it would probably be best for him to stay in one of the other condos for the week. I have the space, but it just has been, strained, I guess.” She frowned, gnawing at her lower lip for a moment.
I grimaced. “I’m sorry I put you in this position,” I told her quietly.
“What position?” Bailey asked in surprised.
“I should never have kissed you,” I said, even though the words, coming from my mouth, felt like they had jagged edges that tore me up even as I spit them out. “I should have been more professional. You’re my boss, and – “
Whatever else I was going to say, whatever other foolish excuses I could make for why I should never have kissed her, were lost as Bailey leaned across the truck and tugged me into a fierce kiss.
I groaned and threaded my fingers through her soft, blonde hair. Somewhere in the back of my head, the warning bells were still ringing, reminding me that there were a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t be doing this. I wasn’t ready for a relationship after losing Beth, let alone a relationship with my boss, let alone a relationship that Ian didn’t approve of, let alone a relationship with Bailey. But I just couldn’t stop myself.
Bailey carefully slid across the bench seat and straddled me, her body hot where it pressed against mine, every curve pushing into me. My hands slid lower until they caught at her hips, pulling her closer to me. She rocked down against me, and I was instantly hard in my jeans. I groaned again, head falling back against the seat with a muffled thud.
Bailey laughed breathlessly. “Now, will you just shut up and come inside?” she asked.
I knew all the reasons why we couldn’t do this, all the reasons why I should go home. But it was only too easy to agree.
31
Bailey
I knew that Adam and I hadn’t resolved everything yet. I could tell that he was still holding back. I knew that it was probably partly out of the pain of having lost the mother of his child. Maybe I should ask about her. So far, I had only heard of her from Ethan, and he hadn’t really told me much. But I couldn’t think of a way to ask, and anyway, it still didn’t feel like it was totally my business.
And there was of course the nagging question of Ian. He still wasn’t happy with me running the mountain on my own, and he definitely didn’t approve of me sleeping with one of my employees. We hadn’t spoken again about those terrible things that he had said about Adam that first day that he had found out, about how I
deserved someone better than him. There were a million things that I wanted to say to defend myself, but I was afraid that if I brought up the topic of Adam at all, Ian and I were both sure to get too upset with one another and say things that we didn’t fully mean.
I might not agree with Ian on everything, but he was still my brother. I was sure that he would come around if I just gave him time. It was just a matter of keeping Adam and Ian away from one another until Ian had a chance to accept that this was the way things were going to be now.
For now, I tried to push all those thoughts out of my mind. It was surprisingly easy to do with Adam following me into my condo. I couldn’t help but shiver as I imagined the way his eyes would stroke down my body as he watched me climb the steps. How far would I get to take things, once we were inside?
The kissing in Adam’s truck had only awakened a deeper lust inside of me, one that I wasn’t sure I could slake on my own. Fortunately, as I ground down against him before, I had been able to feel just how aroused he was too. I wasn’t sure if we’d go all the way, but I definitely didn’t think he was going to leave before things got good.
Adam shut the door behind himself once we were inside, and I turned to grin up at him, waiting to see if he would make the next move. He grinned crookedly back at me, stepping forwards to back me up against the wall. My breath caught in my throat as I stared up into his dark, lustful gaze. “Thought you said something about wanting to show me the place,” he said teasingly. “Well?”
I blinked at him, my brain scrambling to keep up. All I could focus on was the close proximity of his body to mine, his heat radiating through his clothes as he pressed me back against the cool, white-washed wall.
“Um,” I finally said, gesturing vaguely down the hall. “Here’s the place.” I coughed lightly. “There’s a bed, you know.”
Adam laughed, and I had to grin crookedly at the silliness of my words. Of course there was a bed! But I couldn’t help feeling tongue-tied around him like this. I wanted this more than words could describe.
Thankfully, he cut off whatever other inane words I might have said, sealing his lips over mine in a bruising kiss. He explored my mouth thoroughly, until I was panting for breath, grinding down against his thigh where he had thrust it between my own legs. I whimpered as he drew back away from me, half afraid that he was going to remind me what a bad idea this was, that he was going to tell me that he needed to get home.
But Adam just smiled down at me, brushing his fingertips across my cheek as he arched an eyebrow at me. “You want to show me where that bed is?” he asked.
I nodded immediately, scrambling to bring him down the hall and into my bedroom. He rested a hand on my ass as he followed me inside, and I had to fight not to squirm at just that barest of contact.
Adam caught me by the shoulders and spun me around so that I was facing him. My mouth fell open as he kissed me again, his fingers working their way up under my shirt. He got my shirt off me and quickly followed it to the floor with my bra, leaving them in a messy pile as he backed me up towards the bed.
He lay me down gently on the bed, covering my body with his, and I helped him out of his own shirt, my fingers roaming across his bare, muscular chest and back as though I could memorize every inch of his body through touch.
We continued to kiss, and I wondered again how far things would go tonight. I didn’t want to hurry things, though. I was pretty happy just like this, his mouth hot against mine, his fingers lightly stroking my flushed skin. The embers of need were hot in my core, but there was a certain desire for intimacy that was already satiated by simply kissing.
Adam rested his forehead against mine, his fingers brushing back my hair. “Go easy on me,” he said huskily. “It’s been a while.”
I grinned at him, my hands coming down to rest on his hips. “For me too,” I admitted in a whisper.
Adam kissed me tenderly, his lips soft against mine. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said seriously.
“I want this,” I told him, sure he could hear the raw honesty in my voice.
There were a thousand reasons why this might be considered a bad idea, but right now, none of them mattered. Maybe they never had. I wanted this, I wanted Adam, and we would figure out a way to make things work. Even if it turned out we weren’t right for one another.
Adam slowly kissed his way along my jawline, nibbling at my earlobe and grinning against my skin when he heard the way that I gasped. His fingers slowly worked at my belt, and I, in turn, palmed at his hard cock through the denim of his pants. He rocked into my palm, his breathing gone momentarily unsteady. Slowly, we worked one another’s clothing off until we were both naked on the bed, bodies tangled together, skin pressed against naked skin.
Adam plunged his fingers inside of me, thumb teasing my clit as he delved into my slick hole. My legs fell open even wider to accommodate him, and I moaned out his name. For a moment, Adam froze, but then he groaned, pressing his forehead against my collarbone as he withdrew his fingers and pushed his hard cock into me.
His hips stuttered against mine, and I knew that this was going to be over all too soon for both of us. But I was already imagining the next time and the time after that. There were still ten-thousand reasons why this wasn’t the smartest idea, but we fit so perfectly against one another that I couldn’t imagine this being the last time we were together like this.
I pressed my heels down into the mattress and rocked up into each thrust, my fingers grasping at Adam’s shoulders for leverage as well. Adam continued to slam into me, and I could barely breathe with the force of lust spilling through my body. I sobbed his name, so close to coming but not quite there just yet.
And suddenly, Adam slowed down, leaving my body aching and desperate. My hips jerked out of sync with his a few times, and I grabbed at his hips, trying to get him to go back to the same rhythm as before. He only grinned down at me. “Wait,” he said, the single word deep with promise.
I took a shuddering breath and tried to counsel myself to patience, but it was so hard when each new movement that Adam made sent shivers of pleasure through my body. The pace of Adam’s thrusts began to build again, driving me back towards the edge. A further edge, really. I had never felt lust like this before, had never felt so totally overcome by a man before.
He pushed into me again and again, pulling almost all the way out with each new thrust so that I could feel the entire length of his cock, until I was keening with anticipation for when he would thrust back into me again.
Suddenly, heat burst through me, filling my whole body from head to toe to fingertips. I trembled as white spilled through my vision, feeling the heat arcing between our bodies as Adam gave two final thrusts and then came with a muffled groan. He leaned into me, and I could feel him twitching inside of me, even as my whole body shivered with overstimulation.
We collapsed down against the bed, both utterly spent, exhausted, pleasured beyond belief. Adam’s hand rested against my hip, still somehow strangely intimate even after everything else that we had done. After a moment, he rolled so that he was facing me, a grin on his face. I grinned sleepily back at him and wiggled over until I was in his arms, my face buried in the crook of his neck. I was slightly overheated, flushed with warmth and pleasure, sticky with sweat, but I still just couldn’t get enough of the feeling of his skin pressed against mine.
I had to smile when Adam lightly kissed my forehead. But then, I sighed. “Guess you probably have to go, huh?”
Adam huffed out a noisy breath. “Yeah,” he said, but he made no move to leave.
I could tell that he didn’t want to pull away from me, and I didn’t want him to either. If I could have my way, I would stay there in his arms all night. It was funny, really, because I had never been the clingy kind of lover. But there was something about being there, curled up in Adam’s arms, that just felt so nice. Comfortable. Safe.
“So what happens now?” I asked quietly. I immediately re
gretted the words, feeling foolish for even saying them. I wasn’t trying to have that sort of conversation now. I just wanted to revel in how good I felt. But something made me worried that if Adam walked out of there right now, before we had talked about whether or not this was going to happen again, then we might never make it back here.
After all, there were a dozen reasons for me not to get involved with Adam. Ian was just the tip of the iceberg. There was also the fact that it was the busy holiday season at the business that I had just bought. The business that he worked for. And I was sure that Adam had reasons of his own for why he shouldn’t be with me. It would be too easy never to make it back here again.
But Adam pulled back, looking seriously down at me. “You’re going to have to be patient with me,” he said slowly as he brushed back my hair, fingers lingering on my cheek. “But I don’t do this kind of thing with just anyone. I care about you, Bailey.”
I grinned at him, unable to keep the pleased excitement from my face. “Good,” I said quietly. I tilted my face up for one last kiss. “And I care about you too, which is why I’m telling you to get out of here. Go get Ethan from your dad’s place. But I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the hill.”
Adam laughed and kissed me again, chastely. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he agreed, the words a warm murmur against my lips. Yet again, there was the promise of more in the dark, lustful gaze that he sent my way as he pulled away. I smiled goofily, curling around a pillow as I watched him get dressed and go.
32
Adam
I found myself whistling as I made breakfast on Thursday morning and paused for a moment, surprised at myself. I couldn’t remember being in this good a mood since before Beth got really sick. Funny that one night with Bailey could be enough to totally turn my mood around like this.
One Shot At Love: A Billionaire Single Father Romance Page 18