by Carrie Elks
With her.
Maybe that’s what Martin meant after all.
She started to wriggle on the bed, responding to his touch. With a grin on his face, Adam climbed onto the mattress, leaning over her as he stared into her eyes, his hands resting on either side of her head.
‘Adam, I need you.’
‘Say my name again.’
Her lips turned up. ‘Adam. Adam, Adam. Do it to me, Adam.’
He laughed and shook his head.
Slowly he unbuttoned her jeans. They were tight against her skin, enough to make her have to lift up her body as he tugged the denim down, watching it slide along her legs until finally he brought them over her feet. That just left her underwear. No, not underwear – lingerie. It was delicate and white, the intricate design on her panties matching those on her bra. It made him hard as a rock to know she’d worn this just for him.
Kneeling over her, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her stomach. Her body was warm and silky beneath his lips. As he slid his mouth to her breastbone, Kitty gasped, her chest rising with the effort.
‘Take my bra off.’
The way she kept trying to boss him around amused him. She didn’t realise that he was planning to do it anyway. But knowing how needy she was, he took his time, making her gasp and squirm as his fingers brushed against the underside of her breast.
She was panting by the time he unhooked her bra.
Man, her breasts were magnificent. Pale and full with pink-tipped nipples, he couldn’t stop himself from staring at them. Imagining how they’d feel in his mouth, his tongue rolling around until her tips were stiff.
Kitty’s hands fluttered to her chest, as if to cover them. Firmly he grabbed her wrists and put her arms by her sides. Right now her breasts were his. Every part of her was his. But what he planned to do was for Kitty alone.
‘You’re beautiful.’ His voice cracked.
‘Really?’ She sounded surprised.
‘Like you don’t know it.’ He placed the pad of his index finger in the dip beneath her neck, tracing a line that intersected her breasts. ‘Look at you lying here, like some kind of goddess. You must hear this shit all the time.’
‘I don’t.’
‘Then you should. Every fucking day.’
He couldn’t wait any longer. The need to taste her, to give her pleasure, was too strong to ignore. He brought his head to her breast, stopping half an inch away from her nipple. Close enough to make her pucker with his warm breath. Pausing, he tasted the anticipation before wrapping his lips around her nipple.
She groaned loudly, making him pulse in his jeans. It was taking everything he had not to grind himself into her, to ease that throbbing ache between his thighs. To distract himself he reached out for her other breast, rolling her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
Kitty’s gasps told him how much she liked it. So did the way she was circling her hips, dancing to a rhythm as old as time.
‘Touch me. Please touch me.’
‘Soon,’ he promised, caressing her breast again. ‘When you’re ready.’
‘I am ready.’ She pouted. Fuck, he wanted to kiss her again.
He had to bury his head to hide his smirk. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right about that.’
She reached down to tug at his sweater. ‘You’re not though. You’ve still got all your clothes on.’
‘I can solve that problem in about thirty seconds.’
Kitty tried to sit up, but the cage of his arms prevented her. ‘What if I want to solve it?’
He couldn’t help but grin. ‘You want to strip me?’
She swallowed visibly. ‘Um, yeah? Is that OK?’
There was something about her reticence that pulled at him. ‘Have at it. I have to warn you, though, it’s a lot harder undressing a man than a woman.’
‘You’ve undressed a man before?’ she asked playfully.
Adam grinned. ‘Only myself. And maybe Ev when he was too drunk to do it himself.’
‘Can we not talk about your brother when I’m about to take your clothes off.’
‘Fair point.’
She took it slow, inching the hem of his sweater up, trailing her fingers over his undershirt. It was his turn to get impatient, putting his arms up to encourage her to take it all the way up. When she did, beginning the torture all over again with his undershirt, Adam thought about taking over himself.
But then he saw the intense expression on her face as she slowly revealed his stomach. The way she stared, licking her dry lips, was enough compensation for the torture.
‘You like what you see?’
She breathed in sharply. ‘It’s OK.’
Adam shook his head. ‘I don’t do OK. That’s something you’ll find out about me. It’s shit or bust all the way.’
Maybe it had been too much bust lately. He’d tried hard for so long and eventually given up. Hiding in this cabin had seemed his only option, the way he could disappear from the world. He wasn’t hiding now, though. He was becoming exposed, and not just physically. With every inch that Kitty pulled up the fabric of his undershirt, she was also opening up something deep inside him. Something he’d hidden for so long.
He wasn’t sure he was ready for that. It felt too raw.
Refusing to think about anything but her body and his, Adam tugged at the buckle of his belt, pulling his jeans down and kicking them onto the floor. That left them both in their underwear – she in her panties, he in his shorts. When he climbed back up over her, his legs between her thighs, he lowered himself until they were grinding against each other.
Adam was done for. Like a kid, he wanted to keep moving until they were both gasping out loud, until they exploded into a blinding light. But he wasn’t a kid, he was a man. If the years had taught him anything, it was that prolonging a moment was everything. Things tasted so much more delicious if you had to wait for them.
Kitty placed her hands on his behind, using the movement to create friction between them. He dipped his head to kiss her again. Their mouths were heated and desperate, their tongues touching and sliding against each other in an effort to consume. She started to rock against him in a steady rhythm, her gasps quicker, faster, harder. She was close to coming, that much he could tell, and he realised he didn’t want to feel it against his body.
He wanted to feel it against his mouth.
Kitty cried out when he pulled back. Her hands dropped to her sides, her eyes glistening with disappointment. That turned to wide-eyed astonishment as he scooted down, hooking his fingers around the elastic of her panties to pull them down her thighs.
Throwing the scrap of fabric behind him, he reached out to grab her legs, spreading them wide so she was open and exposed. Her hands were grasping the bed covers, her head flung back with her eyes closed. He wanted to imprint that image for ever.
Softly, he scraped his beard along her inner leg, taking his time when he got to the soft, plump skin at the top of her thighs. Kitty moaned louder, one of her hands releasing the covers so she could bury her fingers in his hair.
‘Please…’
‘Please what?’ he growled.
‘Adam, stop teasing.’
But he wanted to tease. He wanted to drive her so crazy she’d never leave. He wanted to blow her mind so hard that she’d have to stay with him in the cabin for ever.
‘You want me to touch you?’
‘Yes!’ She tugged at his hair, trying to move his face closer. ‘Please.’
‘Since you asked so nicely…’ He blew, parting the scant hair that covered her. Kitty shivered beneath his touch, her hips bucking.
He touched the most sensitive part of her with the soft tip of his tongue. Kitty rocked beneath him, crying out as he licked her again. She tasted good, enough to make him want more. Enough to encourage him to slide his tongue over and over again until her cries became screams. His body throbbed with every lick, the need to pull off his shorts and take her becoming almost feral. Ignoring the ache, he sl
id his fingers up, pushing them inside her until her body began to convulse around him.
She continued to buck as he crawled up and over her, pressing his warm, slick lips against hers. Swallowing her cries, he let her wrap her legs around his hips, her body seeking friction as she rode the final wave.
When Kitty finally opened her eyes, they were heavy and dark. She stared up at him, her lips parted. ‘Wow. That was amazing.’
Hearing how good he’d made her feel was like winning an Olympic medal. He smiled, finally allowing himself to grind between her thighs.
‘Babe, that was just the beginning. The best is yet to come.’
19
God hath given you one face and
you make yourself another
– Hamlet
Kitty didn’t want to leave. She was lying in the circle of Adam’s arms, feeling his breath fanning against her back. His body was curled against hers, his chest to her spine, his legs tucked behind her. She felt warm, protected, and a little bit horny, which was crazy after everything they’d done that morning. Every muscle in her body ached.
From the kitchen, she could hear the gentle snoring of the puppy. Strange how her world had taken a one-eighty turn, all while the dog stayed asleep.
The feeling of Adam cradling her, his body moving into hers, had been overwhelming. Every touch of his skin against Kitty’s was like a song playing inside her. He’d filled her up, physically and emotionally, until it felt as though she couldn’t take any more. Being with him had felt like a strange combination of newness and coming home. As though she’d slotted right into place.
The clock beside the bed told her it was almost nine thirty. Everyone at the big house would be up by now. Jonas would be scooping cereal into his mouth, Mia would be drinking mug after mug of steaming black coffee. Everett would be holed up in the library, avoiding everybody. Kitty really should be up there too, doing what she was paid to do.
‘I need to go.’ She tried to wriggle out of Adam’s arms.
‘Not yet.’ He tightened his hold, pulling her closer still. His voice was heavy with sleep. ‘Stay with me.’
From her spot on the bed Kitty could see soft snowflakes falling past the bedroom window. It felt as though the two of them were bubbled up inside a snow globe. Untouchable. Beautiful. Fragile.
‘I can’t stay for long.’
‘We haven’t had a chance to talk yet,’ Adam pointed out.
She bit down a smile. ‘We were too busy.’
‘Well we’re not busy now. Not for the next five minutes, at least.’
She twisted in his arms, turning to look at him. ‘What do you want to talk about?’
He pressed his lips against her shoulder. ‘Tell me about England.’
Kitty frowned. ‘Well, it’s a country across the Atlantic —’
His laughter cut through the air. ‘Not about the country. Tell me about you. What were you like as a little girl?’
This wasn’t the usual post one-night stand conversation. Not that this was the usual one-night stand, either. It happened in the morning for a start. Kitty closed her eyes, savouring the sensation of Adam’s body pressed to hers. She really needed to stop overthinking this.
She turned to him, a quizzical look on her face. ‘Why do you want to know?’
He looked almost childlike in his embarrassment. ‘I made a list of the things I wanted to ask you.’ He coughed hard. ‘My therapist suggested it.’
She tried to swallow down the laugh that tried to escape from her chest. ‘He did? Why?’
‘I told him I liked you. He suggested I try to be your friend. As you can see, that’s working out really well right now.’
This time her laughter exploded, and he joined in, pulling her against him to feel his chuckles. ‘Jesus, what a mess,’ he said, finally getting back under control.
‘But a beautiful mess, though.’ She ran her palm over his jaw, as if to emphasise the point. ‘OK, let’s start again. What do you want to know?’
‘Let’s start with your family. Tell me about them.’
For a moment he reminded her of the man he was on the big screen. The documentary maker, not the sexy guy lying in bed with her. His interest was genuine, his scrutiny warm.
‘I’m the youngest of four sisters. We were brought up in a big house near Hampstead Heath – that’s in the north-west of London. At first it was the six of us, my mum, my dad and my sisters, but when I was ten my mum died in an accident.’
Adam kissed her shoulder again, his hand stroking softly on her stomach. ‘I’m sorry.’
She swallowed hard. ‘I really think it’s possible to miss somebody you can’t remember that well. I know I missed her dreadfully as a teenager, or the concept of her at least. My sisters were wonderful, they did all they could, but there’s no love like a mother’s.’
Her mouth felt dry from the words. Memories of that day fourteen years ago were still just below the surface – the merest rummage and they flew back up again. She’d been at a friend’s house when the accident happened, could still remember her mother’s best friend, Hugh, coming to pick her up, his face solemn. She hadn’t realised her world was about to fall apart when he took her hand and led her down the steps. That her life would be divided into two – before and after Mum. She’d gone from being the much-loved baby of the family, to a loose thread, even if her sisters did their best to take care of her.
Adam squeezed her hand gently, as though he was giving her strength. He didn’t seem to mind that she was baring her soul to him – maybe because he was used to it. Not that he usually filmed documentaries in bed, did he?
For a moment she wondered who else he’d had in his bed, but the thought made her stomach lurch.
She took a deep breath, shaking off her melancholy. ‘But we were lucky. Before she died we had the perfect life. We laughed, we lived, we did a lot as children. We skated and we played and we argued a lot.’
‘You said there were four of you?’
‘That’s right. I’m the youngest.’
‘Four sisters. Wow, I can’t even imagine…’
‘My poor dad never really knew what to do with us. Sometimes we’d be shouting at each other and he’d open his study door, peer around then scurry back inside. We wouldn’t see him for the rest of the day. I don’t think he ever imagined he’d be bringing us all up without a wife by his side. Plus he was as upset at her absence as the rest of us.’
‘He loved her.’
‘He did,’ Kitty agreed. ‘Theirs was a true romance. He was a stuffy professor; she was an actress who caught his eye. The two of them were like chalk and cheese and yet somehow they worked. They brought out the best in each other.’ Her sister had written a play about it, casting their parents as star-crossed lovers. Except the crossed star in this case happened to be an old uninsured white van, that her mum’s car ploughed into.
She wasn’t sure whether he wanted to hear all this, but she was telling him anyway. It felt good to talk about her family for a change. In LA nobody seemed interested in where you came from – it was where you were going to that counted. Nostalgia was for wimps.
‘Are your sisters still in London?’
‘Cesca is for some of the time. She’s the second youngest. But she travels a lot with her boyfriend, he’s in the business too.’
She didn’t need to clarify what business. Anybody who worked in Hollywood knew what she was talking about.
‘What about the others?’
‘Well Lucy, that’s the eldest, she lives in Scotland. And Juliet lives in Maryland.’
‘She lives over here?’ Adam asked. ‘Maryland’s not that far away.’
Kitty frowned. She hadn’t really thought about how close Cutler’s Gap was to her sister. She was so used to living on different coasts that it didn’t even seem as though they were in the same country sometimes. The fact was, Juliet was almost as close in miles to England as she was to California. America really was that big.
�
�It’s not exactly walking distance.’ A 600-mile round-trip was hardly a hop, skip and jump. ‘Anyway, she’s busy with her own family. She has a little girl.’
‘She’s got a kid? How old is she?’ Adam sounded surprised.
‘A few years older than me. But she got married young. Poppy’s five now.’
‘That’s a pretty name.’
Kitty smiled. Poppy’s birth had been the best thing that happened to the family for years. Though they were scattered around the globe, somehow the tiny baby had brought them back together.