I grinned. “Have you ever left a note on a girl before?”
“Nope. You’re my first.” His eyes twinkled.
I liked being someone’s first at something.
“What about you, sweetheart?” he asked playfully.
I pushed my palm beneath the open shirt and laid my hand over the drawing. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever been given.”
Sorrow passed behind his eyes and the muscles in his jaw ticked. I worried that maybe I’d made too big of a deal out of something he didn’t see as such. But then it was gone and he smiled.
I shrugged out of the shirt and let it pool around my waist on the counter. Adam picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his middle. His palms cupped my ass, and I couldn’t resist rocking my core against him.
He stepped into the shower. My back was to the water and it rained down over my shoulders and saturated the back of my hair.
“You wash my back, I’ll wash yours?” he asked, letting me slide down his body. Just the feel of his hard-on pushing against me was exciting.
“Just don’t wash this off, okay? I wanna keep it,” I said, pointing at his drawing.
“I’ll draw you another one, sweetheart,” he said, dropping a kiss to my lips.
“But I want this one.”
“Whatever you want,” he said and reached up to lean my head back and saturate it with water.
We washed each other under the warm, gentle spray. I got to see and learn his body in ways I hadn’t last night.
It was the first time I was able to really touch him freely without him trying to stop me. Once I was clean and rinsed, I slipped around him so he faced the spray. I grabbed the soap and began to wash his broad back, enjoying the way his muscles felt beneath his skin.
When I’d washed everything in sight, I put the soap down and slipped my hands around his waist. I enjoyed the rippled feeling of his abs beneath my fingertips, and I explored him for a long time. Eventually, my hands began to roam south, to the nest of short, neat curls just above his package.
Adam groaned and leaned back a little, closer to my body. Feeling brave, I wrapped my hand around the base of his cock, reveling in the wide thickness. I was right. When I wrapped my thumb and forefinger around him, they didn’t touch.
I began to stroke him, to explore him, and the way his body reacted was amazing. It was like he turned to putty in my hands.
But I wanted more. I didn’t want to just touch and stroke him. I wanted to taste him as well.
I moved back in front of his body and sank onto my knees before him. I cupped his balls in my hand, testing their weight and fullness. I glanced up from beneath lowered lashes, and the shower water ran down my face and hair.
Our eyes connected and held.
Adam reached out and braced his hands on either side of the shower walls. I held his chocolate gaze as I pulled his cock out toward me, keeping one hand wrapped around the base. Slowly, I took him into my mouth, inch by delicious inch, until I could feel him at the back of my throat.
His hand slid around the back of my head and his fingers delved into the wet strands of hair. I began to move, and his eyes slid closed. Then so did mine.
He was so incredibly smooth and hard, and the feel of him against my tongue, even nudging the back of my throat, was heady. Desire rose up inside me, and I felt my core liquefy, my body readying itself for him.
But I didn’t want to stop.
I wanted to suck him until he let go and filled my mouth.
I kept sucking and licking, changing up my pace and occasionally gently scraping my teeth over his shaft.
When his hips started pumping softly into my mouth, I smiled. I knew he was enjoying this.
When his body went rigid and his cock started to jerk, he tried to pull me back, but I refused to let go.
“Rox,” he mumbled, trying once more to get me to release him.
I sucked harder and gripped his hips in my hands.
His shout bounced off the bathroom walls, and he pumped into my mouth as his semen slid across my tongue. It was salty and warm, kind of like the beach.
I swallowed it without thinking twice. When I pulled back, I wrapped my hand around him and stroked him carefully a few more times. I loved the way his body shuddered, like he just couldn’t get enough.
Then he was shutting off the water and pulling me up. The softest, biggest towel I’d ever seen was wrapped around my body, and he began to dry my limbs.
Once I was mostly dry, he grabbed another towel and hastily rubbed over himself. Adam swept me off my feet and carried me out to the bed, where he laid me across the center and pulled the towel away from my body.
“What are you doing?” I asked, even though I already knew.
“Reciprocating,” he replied, spreading my thighs.
We didn’t leave the bedroom until much, much later.
24
Adam
For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t chomping at the bit to get to work. In fact, I was kind of pissed we had to go. Being alone with Roxie was the only place I wanted to be right now.
Even still, I had a business to run, and since I missed last night, I had shit to make up for.
Although I knew I needed to get my ass in gear, it didn’t stop me from sitting back and enjoying the sight of Roxie wiggling her tight ass into the fitted skirt she had on last night.
I couldn’t help but notice the way she moved a little stiffly, and I felt guilty because I knew I’d overdone it with the sex. It was just so damn hard to keep my hands off her.
I pushed away from the closet where I was pulling out clothes and snagged her around the waist, towing her against me. She didn’t have a shirt on yet, only her bra, and just touching the smooth skin of her waist was enough to turn me on. “You’re sore.”
She leaned against me, the back of her head resting against my shoulder. “It was worth it.”
“Stay here with me tonight.”
She laughed. “I don’t think that will help with my soreness.”
“I just want you here. I want you close. We don’t have to have sex.”
She turned in the circle of my arms. “No?” Her eyebrow arched. “But what if I want to?”
“I wouldn’t turn you down.” I smiled.
She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed me. “‘Kay.”
“I’ll show you a couple more things at the club and make sure everything’s straight from last night, but then I gotta head over to Mad Hatter II. I need to check in on the progress and make sure the stock arrived.”
“Tonight’s my first official night as manager,” she said and stepped out of my arms to pick up her tank and pull it on.
“You can call me if you have any problems.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, picking up her black lace top. She wrinkled her nose at it and tossed it on the bed. Her shapely ass sashayed past me as she went into the bathroom. A few seconds later, she came out wearing the white dress shirt she had on earlier.
I grinned. “What is it with you and my clothes?”
She paused in buttoning it up. “Does it bother you?” she asked, suddenly looking a little shy.
“Hell no,” I drawled, moving to help her finish buttoning it. “My closet is your closet. I can’t say I like the idea of all the men at the club looking at you in my shirt. It’s too fucking sexy.”
She laughed. “I have to go home and change. I can’t wear the same outfit two days in a row.”
I grunted. Women. “Get something for tomorrow, then, too so you don’t have to go home again.”
A funny look crossed her face and her cheeks seemed to pale.
“Are you sick?” I asked, going to her side.
She shook her head and then gave me a smile. “I’m okay. I think I just need some coffee.”
“Woman, you know me and coffee is a fire hazard.”
That earned me a grin. “I can make it.”
“I, uh, don’t have a coffee pot.”
She gasped. “I cannot stay where there is no access to coffee.” The horror on her face was amusing as hell.
“I’ll buy you a coffee machine, sweetheart, the best one there is.”
“Hmmm.” She pretended to consider.
I kissed her silly, making her forget all about the coffee. She swayed when I released her. I smiled smugly. “C’mon, get your stuff. We’ll get your coffee on the way to the club.”
We took the Roadster this morning because it was hot as hades outside and sitting on the bike was not appealing. Plus, it would make it hard to drink coffee. The little noises she made when her first, second, and third sips passed through her lips gave me an instant hard-on.
Her Mazda was still sitting in the same spot she parked it in the night before, and I had a flashback of her flushed cheeks from her broken A/C. Instead of taking the spot next to her, I pulled the car in front of hers and left the engine to idle.
“What are you doing?” Roxie asked, glancing at me.
“Take my car.”
“What? No.” She refused, just like I knew she would. She was stubborn with a capital S.
“I will not have you driving around in this heat without A/C,” I told her. “You’re gonna get sick.”
“My place isn’t that far from here. I’ll be fine,” she insisted.
“Yes,” I said. “You will be because you’ll be in this car with the air going.”
“Adam.” She said my name like it was a threat.
It turned me on.
I pinned her with a hard stare. “I won’t have it. What the hell kind of man would I be if I let you drive around like that?”
“The kind I’m used to,” she muttered, looking away.
The words pierced me like an arrow to the chest. It wasn’t anything to do with me, it wasn’t a slam on me, but on every other guy she’d ever known.
“Fuck,” I muttered and climbed out of the driver’s seat, letting the car idle.
This woman was going to drive me insane.
I stalked around the front end of the BMW and around to the passenger side and wrenched open the door. Roxie was looking at me warily, like she wasn’t sure what was going on.
“I shouldn’t have said that.” She apologized. “You’re nothing like any other man I’ve known.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” I told her, crouching down in the open doorway.
“Yeah. I do. That was bitchy.”
“I like me a sassy woman.”
She smiled.
I took her hand in mine, holding it in the space between us. “I’m gonna make something clear right here, right now,” I said quietly, calmly.
She took note of the no-shit serious tone and her hand tensed in mine.
“I’m the kind of man who takes care of what’s his. You make my overprotective instincts go crazy. I’m never going to be a guy who lets you fend for yourself. I’m going to buy you presents. I’m going to fix your shit when it’s broken. I’m probably going to bitch about your sexy ass and bra-like shirts. And under no circumstances am I going to sit around with my thumb up my ass and let car mechanics screw you over while I drive around in my BMW. That’s not who I am, not with you.”
“Adam…” This time my name didn’t sound like a threat. It sounded like a promise.
“Get your sexy ass out of the car,” I said and gave her a tug. She came willingly. “Think you can handle that?” I asked, looking into her eyes.
“Yeah.” Her voice was hoarse. “I can handle that.”
I kissed her softly and whispered, “I love you,” against her lips. She smiled.
I led her around to the driver’s side and held out my hand. “Give me your car keys.”
“Why?” she asked cautiously.
“In case there’s an emergency and I need to leave.”
She fished them out of that endless bag on her shoulder and handed them over. I slid them in my pocket. “I’ll see ya when you get back.”
I watched her slip into the driver’s seat of the Roadster. She seemed nervous.
“I’ve never driven a car this nice before.” She worried, chewing on her lower lip.
“Get used to it.” I leaned down in the doorframe.
“You know I don’t need presents or fancy cars… All I really want is you.”
And that’s exactly why I was going to give her everything.
“Call me if you get held up,” I said, shutting the door and poking my head through the window to kiss her one last time.
“You’re a really good boyfriend,” she whispered as I was backing away. Then she gave me a little wave and reversed out of the lot.
I watched until she turned onto the main road. I wondered if she realized what she just said.
I was pretty sure she hadn’t meant to call me that. But I was fucking thrilled she did. She hadn’t answered my question last night. She hadn’t told me yet if she would be mine.
But now she didn’t have to.
I already had my answer.
25
Roxie
A slip of the tongue.
It’s all it took for me to know how I truly felt.
Boyfriend.
One word.
One seemingly insignificant word.
Adam was so much more than my “boyfriend,” but I had no idea how else to classify him.
Keeper of your heart, a voice in my head whispered.
My stomach squirmed with nerves because it felt like too much too soon.
We’d only just started seeing each other. Technically, I guess we still weren’t. I never did tell him if I would be his. My subconscious told him, though.
I wondered if he noticed what I called him just before I drove away. I was sure he did, and he didn’t correct me. I smiled and turned up the radio.
This car was incredible. It slid over the road like its tires were made of butter. Yet I felt like it owned the road, that it was stable and reliable. The seats were buttery soft leather, the controls on the dash right at my fingertips. It was a convertible two-seater, but it was just too hot to have the top down. The A/C was sinful, and I sighed in appreciation at how cold and crisp it blew out of the vents. My car’s air never got this cool, even when it worked.
But even if Adam didn’t have a nice car or an apartment on the beach, I would still have fallen for him. He didn’t seem to put much value into material things. I think he just liked nice stuff. I couldn’t fault him for that because everyone liked nice stuff. And he worked for the things he had; he put in the hours and the late nights. He earned it.
He didn’t try to sell his girlfriend into adult films to pay his bills.
I blanched, a sour taste in my mouth. I’d almost forgotten about that little confrontation I had with Craig. But then Adam mentioned tomorrow, and it all came crashing back.
Be at that address day after tomorrow, Roxie. Come dressed like the trashy bitch you are.
It’s already a done deal.
Craig expected me to show up at some skeevy address tomorrow and have sex on command. Sex with someone I didn’t know. Someone I didn’t want to know. Someone who would probably make my skin crawl.
If I had any doubt that I had any love left in my heart for Craig, it was completely gone. I could never love anyone who tried to whore me out. Literally.
I hadn’t lied to Adam. In fact, the truth had been hard as hell to say out loud. But I wanted him to know. I wanted to give him all the info before he decided he really did want me.
Craig would always have a little piece of my heart. I think it’s like that for all first loves. At least I hoped it was. If not, then I was one twisted bitch.
But I was finally okay with that. I was okay with it because that little piece of me belonged to the Craig I knew when I was seventeen. The guy who wore hoodies in the cold and sang to the radio way too loud and off key. He was the guy who fed me Fritos right out of the bag and the first guy to make my heart flutter beneath my ribs.
That Craig wa
sn’t the same one I knew today. This Craig scared me.
I wondered what he would do when I didn’t show up. How angry he would be. What if he took his anger out on Adam and not me? Could I live with myself if Adam got hurt—or worse—because he got caught up in my past?
But I couldn’t go. Just the thought of starring in some porn made me want to pull over and vomit. Yeah, Craig mentioned it when we were still together. He brought it up more than once. I always told him he was crazy, and he always sort of laughed it off.
But he hadn’t been joking.
One night when he was really drunk and really high, he came home crying. He smelled like cinnamon schnapps, and it made my stomach heave, but even still, I sat with him, close to his side, while he cried about how unworthy he was.
We’d had the same conversation many times.
It didn’t matter how many times I told him he was good enough, that he was worth more than he thought… Turns out you can’t tell someone their own self-worth. They have to feel it for themselves.
And then he turned desperate. He told me he had a way to get us free of the life we were living, a way to solve all our problems.
If I did just a couple movies, we’d have enough to settle all our debts (our debts = money he owed his dealers), and he could go to rehab, get clean for real, and then we could start a new life. A better life.
I already knew the only better life for me was one without him. I’d known for a long time. I just didn’t know how to get out. I didn’t know how to get away.
Of course I told him no. I said it as gently as I could. I promised I’d find another way to get him into rehab and out of debt.
He didn’t like my answer.
He screamed ugly things at me. The scent of that damned cinnamon schnapps gusted over my face. He told me I had to do it. I didn’t have a choice.
I tried to leave.
He hit me.
He hit me more than once.
When he passed out, I snuck out. I slept in my car that night.
Shortly after, I met Harlow. I moved out and months passed.
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