by Alexa Davis
It was the first time I had seen him in weeks. The last time we spoke was briefly on his way out the door with Adam to their Men’s Club meeting. Before that, it had been pretty spacey, both of us involved with other things.
Meghan followed my gaze and scoffed. “What is your brother doing here?”
I shrugged, waving at him through the glass door and said, “I don’t know.”
I wished I did; there were a lot of complicated emotions about seeing him, knowing that he and Adam were still friends. Truthfully, I didn’t even know how he knew that we were here; Mom or Dad must have given him the address without me knowing.
Max came strolling in from outside and met me with a smile in the doorway. “Wow, this place looks great,” he complimented.
“Hey, Max,” I told him with a smile. “Nice of you to stop by.”
He gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek, saying, “Of course! I had to see what all the hubbub was about and what you girls are up to.”
I grinned. “Well, what do you think?”
He glanced around the lobby and smiled. “I think it looks great. You’re definitely pulling it off, sis. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks! Do you want to see my new business cards that Dad designed for me?”
“Sure.”
I skipped over to the reception desk and pulled one out of the holder, handing it to him. It had clean black lettering and a metallic finish that made our logo pop; I was very proud of it. “See, it’s got my name and phone number, the address here…”
“Yeah, everything looks great,” he agreed.
I grinned, folding my arms in front of my chest so that I looked professional and serious while smiling at him goofily. “I even have flyers and some fancy pens, so you know I mean business.”
He laughed indulgently, brushing his hand against the wooden finish of the reception desk and admiring the subtle changes we had made. “Do you want to give me a tour around back?”
“Sure.”
I led him through the back office, black room, and studio, showing him how everything was laid out exactly the way I wanted it. He nodded encouragingly as we talked about what my plans from this point onward now that I actually had a business to work from. We made it all the way back around front and sat down in the lobby.
“You know, Adam misses you,” he told me suddenly.
I turned to him surprised and asked, “What?”
“Adam. He misses you,” Max repeated, looking back at me in earnest. “He told me so the other day.”
My cheeks felt hot, and I looked away from him in embarrassment. It felt weird talking to my brother about this; he and Adam were friends, and they had been for a long time. Still, I couldn’t help but feel betrayed, even though I had no right to be so. It was a difficult situation for him to being in choosing sides. “I don’t know why you’re friend with him; that guy’s a jerk.”
Max sighed, putting his hands up on the armrest and said, “He’s not a jerk—”
“He kicked me out, Max! For no good reason, I might add. I don’t want to play mind games and go back and forth while he figures all this out. I want stability,” I choked out sadly. “I thought we had it.”
“Adam didn’t really have a choice,” he informed me slowly, choosing his words as carefully as he could. “He was trying to protect you.”
Something in his tone caught my attention, and I turned to him for clarification. “Protect me? Protect me from what?”
“Someone broke into the apartment when you weren’t there; that’s who left the flowers. They threatened to hurt you if Adam didn’t play ball and do what they were asking.”
“Wait, what?”
“One of the guys he was prosecuting threatened to hurt you if Adam wouldn’t help him stay out of jail. He’s too much of a pussy to tell you what was going on, but he also didn’t want the guy to get off without fair jail time.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Adam still wants to be with you, he always did. Life just sucks sometimes and you gotta roll with it. I think you should go to him and talk about it.”
“What about the guy?”
Max smiled, giving me a little wink and gesturing a sense of closure. “The trial’s over; there’s nothing keeping him away now. Adam’s just too chicken shit to come back and tell you about what happened.”
“Oh my God…”
Meghan was listening to our conversation wide-eyed. “Vanessa, you have to go to him!”
“We were about to go to the store…” I argued feebly.
“I can take care of that myself!” she laughed in exuberance.
I exhaled a laugh, looking back at both of them. “What time is it?”
“It was a little after five when I got here,” Max responded with a smile.
Meghan nodded eagerly. “Go! I can finish up here; we’ll get together in the morning and talk it out. Go and figure things out with Adam and made sense out of everything.”
With a laugh, I grabbed my purse and went running out the door. I couldn’t get in the driver’s seat fast enough. If what Max was saying was true, then I wanted to see Adam as soon as possible. I wanted to kiss him; I wanted to punch him; I wanted to roll around naked with him in his sheets until we were both too exhausted to move.
It gave me back the hope that I thought was lost, Adam still wanting me. Why would he just push me away like that instead of telling me what happened?
Stupid, stubborn ass.
As I was driving toward his condo, my mind went over a hundred different scenarios of what could happen when I got there. It couldn’t be one of those situations where I fell into his arms and we declared our love for each other; those sorts of things don’t happen. What I did want to happen was to talk things out with him for real and see if there was any chance for us in the future.
I pulled into the parking lot outside and put the car in park, briefly making an assessment of my appearance before going to the door. My hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail, and I had little to no makeup on. In an attempt to bring some color to my cheeks, I pinched them hard to get blood flowing near the surface.
Shit, I’ve been at work all day. I probably look awful.
That was just my luck. I never ran into someone that I wanted to impress when I actually looked good. I sighed, climbing out of the driver’s seat and slowly walking toward the door.
My heart was pounding in my chest as I stood on the step outside and knocked on Adam’s door. It seemed to echo in the late afternoon air, and I felt my nerves come alive. My palms were getting sweaty, and I was breathing heavily through my nose, knowing that he was just behind on the other side of the door.
All the things he said when he was telling me to leave felt too real; it broke my heart to think that maybe he had meant them. Would he want to see me again? I had no idea what his reaction would be after the abrupt end to our…whatever it was. I didn’t want him to think I was crawling back to him, begging him to give us another chance, like some hopeless romantic. I just wanted answers, and after everything we’d been through, I felt like I deserved it.
What is Max was lying? What if he was just trying to be helpful and wildly optimistic? I thought to myself nervously.
For a second, I thought about turning around and walking away, acting like this never happened to hide my shame.
Behind the door, I could hear movement as he undid the locks and then the door swung open.
Chapter 37
Adam
Tuesday
My hand rested on the doorknob as I pulled it open and found Vanessa standing on the mat outside. She looked beautiful, with her eyes wide in expectation and her long blonde hair clipped back on the side of her face. I could almost feel my heart skip a beat, wanting to take her in my arms the second I laid eyes on her. She gazed up at me with the most heartbreaking expression of hurt, confusion, and need that I wanted to kiss her right then and there.
My jaw fell open for a second as I for
got myself, dumbstruck by the beauty that lay before me and the thrill of seeing her again. When I shook it off, my heart started pounding harder in my chest, knowing I’d been given a second chance. “Vanessa! Hi,” I sputtered. “I… I wasn’t sure if you would come.”
Her eyebrows puckered as she stared at me confused. “What do you mean?”
I sighed, opening the door so she could pass and said, “You were very angry the last time you were here. I wanted to explain things, but didn’t know if you’d ever give me the chance.”
“Well, here I am.”
I nodded eagerly. “Yes, you are. And you look beautiful, by the way. Would you like to come inside?”
She blushed, taking a tentative step toward me, and said, “Sure.”
I step aside to let her pass and gestured back into the living room. She nodded cautiously and stepped in through the doorway, setting her bag down on the coat rack. The apartment was filled with the smell of sizzling tomatoes and spices cooking on the stove. “Are you hungry? I’ve been making dinner in the kitchen; there’s plenty for both of us.”
She laughed dryly. “You made enough for two? How did you know that I’d be coming?”
“I didn’t,” I told her honestly. “I just hoped. I practically begged Max to go and talk to you, but I wasn’t sure if you would come.”
Her eyes were dark and skeptical as she listened to my explanation and demanded, “Why? Why would you ask him to do that?”
I swallowed hard, my heart rising in my chest, and looked her in the eyes. “Because I miss you and I want you back, for real this time. I’d do just about anything to make that happen.”
Her blush deepened as she broke eye contact with me and stared at the ground uncomfortably. “Adam… I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I thought we were doing well before, but then you broke my heart. I’m not sure I’m willing to put myself out there again.”
“It will be different this time,” I promised.
Vanessa bit her lip and smiled. “How do I know that you’re not going to pull some crazy 180 on me again and decide you’re done with me?”
“Because that’s not who I am, and if the situation had been different, I never would have asked you to leave. This, right here, is everything that I want for us. If you can’t trust me right away, I respect that. But I’m not giving up. Will you at least have dinner with me and consider it?”
She made a face while contemplating that, trying to hide her smile. “I am hungry…”
I took her gently by the hand and led her back into the kitchen. The candles had all been lit to create a sense of ambiance, and the meal had filled the air with a delicious aroma. “It smells good,” she complimented. “What are you making?”
I smiled, pulling the dish out of the oven and said, “Thank you. It’s chicken parmesan. I figured Italian was always safe.”
Vanessa cleared her throat, watching me as I set the table and said, “So, Max told me some of what happened, but I’m not really clear on the details. Do you mind filling me in?”
I cleared my throat uncomfortably and nodded. “This is going to be all over the news soon anyway, so I might as well tell you about the case. Are you familiar with Brandon Fletcher?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Never heard of him.”
“That makes sense; you’ve been out of town for the last few years. Brandon is on the city council; he’s been running for reelection. I found out over the Christmas break that he’s also part of Men’s Club.”
She made a face and urged me to continue.
“I just felt something weird about him when we met. He was sketchy as hell, and I didn’t trust him, but Max told me to not make a big deal about it, so I didn’t. A few weeks later while I was investigating some of my other cases, his name came up. It really messed me up because I don’t like having people like that affiliated with me. That made me happy to file charges against him and get that sent over to the DA.”
“DA?”
“District Attorney,” I clarified. “That was the same weekend Max and I went out to the meeting at Bowling Green. A guy approached me while we were there and demanded that I drop all charges against Brandon. He was trying to threaten me, which I didn’t appreciate at all, but then he threatened you…and I just couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt because of me.
“Max and I left, but when we got here, there were those flowers on the table. You thought they were from me, but it just proved that Brandon had sent someone to the apartment; they were in our house.
“It was too late for me to explain everything at the time. I just wanted you to be safe, so I lied. After you moved out, I called up Max, and he helped us trace back the paper trail to prove that Brandon was heading up a drug ring. I could never have done it without his help. Anyways, the verdict was yesterday, and he can’t touch us any longer.”
Her eyes grew wide as I was explaining everything, and glanced down at her plate. “Oh my gosh, I think I’m going to be sick. Someone was in our apartment? Ugh, I feel so…violated.”
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore; no one is going to ever do that again.”
She nodded slightly, crossing her arms across the counter and looking at the dinner.
“Would you like me to dish some of this up for you? It’s basically finished.”
“Sure.”
I served up two plates and got down a bottle of wine. She followed me over to the table, and we sat down in the wooden chairs.
“You’ve been pretty busy,” she commented thoughtfully as we started eating.
I nodded. “Yep. How about you? What have you been doing all this week?”
She glanced down at her plate, picking it apart with her fork and said, “Well, Frank fired me on Monday, so that was a great start.”
My stomach plummeted, and I buried my face in my hands and said. “Oh, Vanessa. I’m so sorry.”
She laughed. “No, it’s okay. After that my dad kind of swooped in to rescue me. He gave me the money to start my own company, and now we even have a storefront.”
“Vanessa, that’s great!”
She smiled. “Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. I still don’t have any clients yet, but Meghan is going to help with that. She knows the industry better than I do.”
“Meghan’s working with you?
“Yeah, she quit after Frank hired me and came along with to the startup. It’s been one hell of an adventure.”
I grinned. “That it has. It took a lot of convincing on my part to get Max to agree with me. I spent the last two days begging for his help and may have promised him a kidney somewhere along the way.”
She laughed, the sweet melodious tinkling of her voice filling my stomach with butterflies as approached me slowly. “Why would you do that? Why would you want me back so badly?”
I swallowed hard and told her, “You know why.”
“Maybe…” she conceded with a grin, “But I want to hear you say it.”
It was the most vulnerable I had ever let myself become, admitting that I needed her and wanted her in my life. My heart was on my sleeve, open to rejection, and I didn’t know if she would take me back after the way that I had treated her. “Because I’m in love with you,” I admitted.
She closed her eyes and smiled, a delicate blush rising up across her cheeks. “You’re in love with me?”
I smiled. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I am.”
She exhaled an exuberant laugh and smiled, looking back at me with tear pricking in her eyes. “I think I love you, too. This past week has just sucked. I don’t like fighting with you. I don’t like being away from you. I just wish things could go back to the way they were before.”
“Me, too,” I agreed, my heart beating faster as I became encouraged by her response. “I’m so sorry all this happened to you, I just couldn’t let Brandon or his goons hurt you. I thought I was doing the right thing. Will you forgive me?”
“Yes.”
“Will you come back and li
ve with me again? I don’t want to spend another day without waking up beside you.”
I got up off the chair and walked over to where she was sitting. My heart was beating fast as I put my hand around her waist and pulled her closer to me. “Adam…”
“I need you,” I told her softly. “Please, give me a second chance.”
She wet her lips with her tongue and looked up at me with big brown eyes, and before I knew what was happening, my lips were on hers. She was surprised at first, but leaned into it willingly, kissing me back with equal vigor. Her lips were soft, and so was her body, welcoming me with a sweet and delicious warmth.
Encouraged by her response, I wrapped my arms around her, letting my hands slide down her waist as I admired her womanly curves. Vanessa reached up, wrapping her arm around my neck and opening her mouth a little wider to kiss me deeply. I groaned at the feel of her skin, touching the milky white flesh as I lifted the hem of her shirt.
As our passion escalated and bodies melted into one another, she edges her knees apart so that I was cradled in between them. My hand wandered across her thigh and hitched it higher on my waist so that I could pull her closer. I wanted her to feel how much I needed her, how much I wanted her.
I wouldn’t make the same mistakes as last time, though. I could take it slow. Vanessa sighed, untangling herself from me and leaning back so we could look each other in the eyes.
“Say it again,” she pleaded.
“I need you.”
She launched herself at me, kissing me passionately on the mouth. Her tongue grazed along my bottom lip and then darted inside, deepening our kiss and awakening my libido. Blood went flooding to my groin, springing my erection to life and filling me with primal need. She smiled against my lips when she felt my arousal and drug her nails down across my back.
“Ahhh, fuck! Vanessa, I want you so badly.”
“Then go ahead and take me. I’m all yours.”
I tightened my grip around her and lifted her into the air, carrying her back into the bedroom.
Chapter 38
Vanessa