Red Hot Lovers: 18 Contemporary Romance Books of Love, Passion, and Sexy Heroes by Your Favorite Top-Selling Authors

by Milly Taiden

  “I’ll get the soup ready, you relax.”

  Christa went back to her iPad and Jonathan searched for a movie they’d wanted to watch. As I scooped the noodles and soup into bowls, Adrian’s eyes closed for a moment.

  “Food’s ready,” I said and his eyes flew open.

  Adrian mouthed I’m sorry my way and joined us in the kitchen.

  “Garlic?” I asked. Christa and Jonathan loved freshly squeezed garlic and chopped parsley in their chicken soup.

  Adrian looked at Christa and then Jonathan, asking, “What do you think? Should I try?”

  “It’s good for you when you’re sick, but it means no kissing.” Christa giggled.

  My cheeks flushed with heat before I asked her, “Who were you planning to kiss?”

  She covered her mouth and the perpetual giggles with her hand. “No one.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Jonathan lift his gaze to see whether Adrian would try some.

  “OK, hit me with it,” Adrian said.

  Jonathan grinned as Adrian took the first mouthful.

  After soup, I made some popcorn in the microwave, and we all sat on the family U-shaped couch. The kids had their special spot on the extended lounger where Jonathan could rest his leg. Christa rolled out the extension underneath, right beside him.

  “Get comfortable.” I pointed out the end of the couch to Adrian. “You need to rest. I feel guilty enough for inviting you over.”

  “Thank you,” he whispered, stretching his legs. “There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

  I snuggled in between Christa and Adrian, asking, “What are we watching?”

  “The Avengers,” Jonathan said.

  I wondered whether he’d chosen the movie because the Hulk was in it.

  Once the feature was playing and everyone’s attention was on the screen, I curled my feet underneath me and leaned closer to Adrian, who was fighting to stay awake.

  “Sleep,” I whispered.

  He didn’t argue. The next time I looked over, his head was resting against a cushion.

  When the movie was over I put my finger to my lips, asking the kids to be quiet. Covering Adrian with a blanket, I tiptoed to get my laptop. The kids hid in their games room and remained there for the rest of the afternoon, which of course they loved. While Adrian slept, I updated my website with the classes I had scheduled for the next month. By the evening, Adrian was still sound asleep, and I got the kids ready for bed, packed their school bags, and prepared their clothes for next day. When nine o’clock rolled around I tucked them into bed and I tiptoed downstairs to the couch.

  Sitting on the floor, I watched him breathe. Adrian’s rising and falling chest captivated me. I wanted to slide in beside him and cuddle underneath that blanket, but I knew he wouldn’t get much rest if I did. His eyes opened lazily, and I whispered, “Hi.”

  He smiled back, slowly lifting himself upward to a sitting position. “What time is it?”

  “After nine. How are you feeling?” I leaned against the couch.

  “Better. I’m sorry for passing out.”

  “I loved having you here, even asleep.”

  “That chicken soup of yours does wonders.” He drew his hand through his hair.

  “Good. I’ll pack you some for home. But I wish you could stay the night.”

  He pulled me off the floor and into his arms. I sat on his lap, curled against him. The feel of his warmth underneath me sped my pulse. Sitting here in his arms felt so natural—as if it was meant to be.

  “Baby steps, T. Today was really good, even if I slept through most of it.” He ran his finger over my brow, admiring me as if he was seeing me for the very first time.

  “No, you’re right. It was really, really good.”

  “I want to kiss you, but I’m afraid that whatever bug I have will infect you.”

  “Didn’t you hear Christa? No kissing.” I bit my lip.

  He released an exasperated breath. “I’m so going to make this up to you.” His warm hand skimmed down to my thigh. “In so many different ways.”

  At times like these being an adult sucked. If it were just the two of us, I was sure neither garlic nor a flu would stop us from being all over each other. I twined my fingers with his, watching them graze against one another, slowly tightening our grip. When our gazes met, all I could think about was Adrian and me alone. It was so intense, the energy between us was charged with need and desire.

  “I can’t wait.”

  “That’s good. They say good things are worth waiting for, and I vow to prove that.” He kissed the top of my head. I wiggled in his hold, feeling him harden underneath me. “And if it weren’t for your kids at home, I swear I’d take you right now, on this couch.”

  Holy crap!

  Adrian’s breath was hot against my neck, his hand simply skimming up and down my thigh. Even through my jeans, the touch was unbearably stimulating, and I felt the swelling in my groin dampen with ecstasy.

  How was I supposed to not kiss him? Everything inside me melted at his words. And feeling him respond underneath me, the slickness between my legs became unbearable. At the thought of having him right now, my breaths became shallow.

  But of course the responsible thing to do was wait. First, because Adrian was sick. And second, because there was no way I could concentrate when he touched me while my kids were in the house.

  “And when exactly are you planning on doing all that?” I swallowed through my dry throat.

  “Sooner than later. Sooner, if Fran agrees to watch the kids next weekend… if you’re all right with that.”

  “Well, then I better stay on Fran’s good side all week long.” Although I had a feeling that telling my mother this morning about the conditions I’d given Dan would win me a babysitting pass with a big fat ANYTIME stamp on top.

  “Do you have a busy week?” I asked.

  “Yes, but better than the last. I should get going. You have a morning class and I have meetings.”

  I lifted off his legs, and grabbing the thermos off the kitchen counter, walked him to the door.

  “Thank you for a wonderful day,” I said, and it truly had been. So simple and calming. I hadn’t had too many days like this lately, but Adrian’s return to my life had proved more positive than I could have hoped for.

  “Thank you for the soup, T.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Instead of kissing me, Adrian wrapped me in his body, coiling around me, holding on for a few minutes. The longing of his embrace flowed through me as unmistakable love. It blew me away how much his body language could communicate without having to speak. I cherished his warmth and passion as I came to realize I too shared those feelings. My only trouble would be speaking them out loud, because there was nothing more powerful in the world than professing feelings that had been locked away in the bottom of one’s heart.

  CHAPTER 20

  By Friday afternoon, my entire body quivered with anticipation like Jello in a cup set on top of a washing machine. Adrian’s strong hold around me from last weekend was still tightening my muscles. The comfort of having him at home, with me and the kids, had been beyond what I’d expected. He fit in with us as if he’d always been part of our lives. At night, the heat of his promises, plus an ounce of my own imagination, penetrated my dreams. The memory of his erection underneath my behind when I’d sat in his lap on that couch occupied me for the next five days.

  Five of the frickin’ longest days of my life.

  Throughout the week, every few minutes I felt myself wiggle my behind as if I was taunting him, yet he wasn’t there. I couldn’t concentrate during my classes and the private sessions I held in my studio at home. This was one of my busier weeks. Dan had kept his promise and made time to stay with the kids so that I could teach. He’d been taking a cab the entire week and hadn’t complained once. Adrian’s week was sounding like he was pushing through a load of crap himself. One of his suppliers had pulled out of a contract last minute, cr
eating a backlog in his production schedule. I didn’t expect to understand half of what he said, but it sounded serious.

  And now, I drove north, wearing a long flowing dress with buttons holding it together from my cleavage all the way down to my ankles. My palms sweated with nerves. Underneath, my sexiest pair of white panties and bra clung to my body.

  The steering wheel slid underneath my palms, so I wiped them off on my dress. The closer I got to Adrian’s house, the more those butterflies fluttered against my stomach walls. It was teenage nerves and hormones mixed with a ton of adult anxiety that surged my expectations and fear of failure and incompatibility into overdrive. I’d squeezed my thighs together so many times they were beginning to ache.

  When I pulled up in front of his house, Adrian stepped out the door in jeans, a white shirt, and bare feet. Big bare feet! And as I drank him in, all my raging emotions soothed. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets, waiting, watching me with intent.

  At first I hesitated, debating how fast I should run to him. But when I saw the hunger in his eyes as he leaned against the doorframe, my fear mellowed and the need to throw myself right into his arms emerged. Adrian’s eyes flared. They held the special spark of a man who’d had his day planned out the moment he stepped out of bed and could deal with any surprise life threw at him. And today, his plans were all about me.

  I grabbed the bottle of wine from the back seat and strolled toward him. The orange glow on my left intensified as the sun neared the horizon. A dust of twirled clouds changed from yellow to orange and then pink. The smell of baked apples intensified the closer I got to the house, and then vanished when his tantalizing sandalwood aroma filled me.

  Stepping over the threshold, within inches of his reach, I removed my shoes and waited. He simply pulled me inside, shutting the door, and set the wine bottle and my purse aside on the hall table.

  His silence buzzed through me with pleasurable tingles.

  He cupped my face, tilting my head to the side. I closed my eyes, breathing in his scent. Adrian’s mouth brushed mine and my hands fell to my sides. His lips traced along the bow of my upper lip before his tongue dipped inside. I opened wider. He slowly walked backward. My foot brushed against his every few steps. Keeping my eyes closed, I followed wherever he led me until a hard surface touched my back. By this point there was nothing innocent about the way his mouth was dominating me. I heard myself moan and whimper pure lust with each breath. My hand lowered to his jeans and curved around his arousal, stroking the hard length underneath. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I was so desperate for him, for us, I could no longer control my body. His hips pressed in as he groaned inside my mouth.

  When he pulled away, his gaze bored through me with penetrating heat. If he had wanted to, he could have melted those buttons right off my dress. Adrian took me by my waist and lifted me up to the kitchen counter. His fingers slowly trailed down my nose, over my lips and chin, and then along the middle of my neck and upper swell of my breasts until he reached the buttons on my dress. My chest swelled, and all I could think about was how fast he could get this dress off me. With each passing second I found it more difficult to breathe. The fabric was restraining me as if I were locked away in a coffin.

  Unfasten these damned buttons! my mind screamed, but my mouth couldn’t form a coherent sentence.

  But the eager fingers from our teens now had unbelievably arousing patience and experience. Adrian undid the top button open and I looked down, following the movement of his hands.

  He stole a lingering kiss again, and then flicked open one button after another, trailing a downward path until he reached the hem. Parting the fabric to the sides, he took me in, slowly scanning my body.

  “You wore white the first time we made love.”

  “I know.”

  Everything inside me turned and twisted into knots of nerves. As he watched me, my chest tightened inside yet swelled on the outside. The heat coming off his breath and skin was too much and not enough at the same time. My cleavage and stomach were partly exposed for him, and I couldn’t help but hold my breath.

  The skim of his fingers down my arms as he admired every inch of my skin sent beautiful tingles through my body. Adrian seemed in no hurry. I grasped the hem of his shirt, lifted it up and off his torso, and then pushed my dress from underneath me and moved it to the side. It fluttered to the ground, freeing my hips and legs.

  And as we stared at each other, I knew that there was no one else I had ever wanted more than him. He was the soul mate I’d once lost and been lucky enough to find again. That little piece of my heart I’d locked him away in had begun expanding the moment he reappeared in my life.

  Looking at him now, I couldn’t believe how much his body had changed over the past twenty years. I held my breath, admiring the marvel of a man he’d become. His naturally toned torso and sun-kissed skin mesmerized me. The tattoo weaving up his upper arm hid beyond his shoulder and all I could think about was the need for my tongue to trace those dark lines and for my lips to kiss the new patterns inked over his skin. I wanted to throw myself at his hips, wrap my legs around him, and feel him dive into me. How in the world did he have so much control? Or did he do this on purpose? It was as if he compelled me to inspect his pecs and abs and that beautiful path, sprinkled with a shadow of hair, that led beyond the buckle of his pants, just to excite me. I devoured his taut body as he leaned forward, splaying his hands against the counter at the side of my thighs. His thumbs gently brushed against my hips. The flex of his arms and that sexy way he had of focusing just on me—really, really looking at me—made me hungry for more than just baked apples.

  “There, that’s much better.” He leaned in and kissed me. “Hi, Thumbelina.”

  “Hello.”

  “Would you like some of my pie?” His brows rose up and down suggestively.

  I giggled, suddenly feeling like a teen again, all silly with no responsibilities or worries.

  “I would, but I’d like that pie.” I pointed to the oven.

  “That’s what I meant; what were you thinking?” He let go of my waist and raised his hands up in innocence.

  “You’re up to something.” I said.

  “Of course I am. I’m about to get my dessert.”

  Adrian was already at my neck, nibbling gently up toward my earlobe. I braced my hands on the counter and leaned my head to the side. The trail of his hot lips flowed down to my cleavage, right into the tip of the V between my breasts. He grazed up toward my earlobe. The touch of his mouth there was so minimal I could feel his lips tickle against the cartilage, tracing the shell of my ear. His hands remained on the counter, testing my patience, because all I truly wanted was to feel them on my body—all over my body.

  He pulled away, his gaze piercing mine. “Telling you how much I want you is not enough.” His lips teased my lobe while his hot breath brushed against my skin. “My memories of us together are so clear. Yet here you are, in front of me and I still cannot believe it. It’s like I’m having one of those dreams I don’t want to wake up from because if I do, you’ll disappear.”

  I swallowed hard and drew my hand up to his face, cupping his cheek. “I’m here for you. For us. And I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

  I leaned forward and touched my mouth to his, holding it there, feeling the temperature of my lips changing. His were hotter, much hotter, and I savored them until the oven beeped.

  “Fuck the apple pie,” Adrian said against my mouth. Spinning on his heel, he put on his oven mitts.

  God, he looked so sexy, half naked with nothing on but his jeans and those mitts. The vibrancy in his body drew me toward him like a moth to a lamp. I’d never experienced anything like that before. Yet in that moment, all I could do was sit and stare. Adrian didn’t waste any time and quickly removed the baking pan, dropped the mitts to the counter, turned the oven off, and then spun back to me, lifting me up and off the counter. His mouth crushed mine and I wrapped my legs a
round him. Tightly pressing me against his chest, Adrian carried me somewhere out of the kitchen, but I couldn’t see where and didn’t really care.

  He lowered us until my back touched a soft cushion. We were in a family room, on an extended beige chaise attached to the couch. Aqua light filtered from an aquarium against the wall. The soft sound of bubbles floating to the top filled the cozy space.

  And as he took me away into the wonder of his luscious lips, I lost track of time and place. The room spun around us in my mind, and we became the center of a deep whirl from which I had no intention of crawling out of. In fact, I wanted to drown in it, with him. His rough hands slid up and down my body, covering every inch the same way they had when we were young. We’d loved each other hard and deep that first time, and twenty years was a long time to hold onto that feeling. Yet here I was, experiencing the same euphoria in Adrian’s arms as if I were fifteen again, because he was my first. The passion we’d shared so long ago had always been locked away somewhere deep inside us, only to be released again.

  His lips controlled my mouth and aroused me beyond my wildest dreams. His hard skin and expert tongue, and the pressure of all of him on me, unveiled my longing. He possessed me and guided me to feel things I hadn’t felt in years. A deep yearning woke up and slid through my body like a sinful snake, wanting a taste of that forbidden fruit he offered on the tip of his tongue. And I took it all, weaving my hands into his hair and then lowering them to find new and old paths along his chest and ribcage right under my fingertips.

  In that one kiss, which was so similar and different from our first, I knew I’d never kiss anyone like this again. It would be impossible to find that perfect match anywhere else—ever.

  When he pulled away, I was panting and I wondered how I’d find the strength to stand later on, but it didn’t matter.

  “I can’t make it upstairs,” he said, trailing his kisses down my neck and chest while he adjusted his straining crotch. I’d never seen jeans burst at their seams, but I was beginning to believe I’d get a chance tonight.