He’d hoped that getting out of town yesterday would’ve helped. That some time away from her eyes, her smile, her scent, her voice, would have given him some much-needed perspective. That some hours out of her presence would have diluted the borderline-obsessive power she held over him. It hadn’t. If anything, she’d been on his mind even more, which he would’ve thought was impossible. It wasn’t.
On his way to meet Kyle, Mike, and Nikki at Kyle’s helipad, Mike had texted him, saying that they hadn’t heard back from Jane so she wouldn’t be accompanying them. Without giving it a second thought, Adam had flipped a U-turn in the middle of Main Street and sped back to their cul-de-sac. Thankfully, it had been early on Sunday; there was no traffic to slow him down and no cops to clock him going over ninety. Of course, this was Hope Falls, so even in rush-hour traffic, there would probably only be two to four other cars on the road.
Still, he’d never been a reckless driver in the past, but he’d left Jane the night before, sitting on her kitchen counter, her foot wrapped in frozen peas, with a couple of Advil and a Benadryl. Not his finest hour.
Pine trees had blurred on either side of his truck as he sped to Jane’s house as quickly as possible. His mind had raced as fast as his truck with visions of her lying helplessly on the tile floor of her bathroom or her kitchen, suffering an allergic reaction to the sting and going into anaphylactic shock.
After screeching up her driveway, he didn’t bother to turn his engine off. He jumped out and ran to her front door. There was no answer when he knocked. On instinct, he tried the knob, and lo and fucking behold, it turned. Stepping inside the dark front room, he called her name to announce his presence, but there was only silence.
As he moved through the house, he continued calling out. Still nothing. At her bedroom door, he paused and battled with himself over whether he should enter. It was a huge invasion of privacy, not to mention maybe a little on the stalker side. But just as he was riddling that out, another vision of her lifeless body overrode everything. Logic. Emotion. Rational thinking. They flew right out the window like a caged bird released from captivity.
Call it training, a sixth sense, whatever you want. Somehow, Adam knew she was on the other side of that piece of wood. He also knew he would have no peace until he saw that she was okay.
Three powerful knocks later, he loudly announced his presence. Then he pressed his ear to cold wood. He could make out a low, muffled sound. Opening the door, he found Jane sprawled out, facedown on her bed, snoring like a chainsaw. Relief flooded him, but it was short-lived. His mind short-circuited after registering the sight.
Her dark hair was fanned out over her crisp, white pillow. The profile of her face was so sweet, so beautiful, that it took his breath away. As his eyes moved of their own accord, searching her for assurances that she was, in fact, okay, he almost had a full-blown heart attack due to what she was wearing—or, more accurately, not wearing. Beads of sweat broke out on the back of his neck as his throat grew dry and his heart pounded like the police doing a raid in his chest.
Jane had on a white T-shirt that barely, barely, covered the rounded curves of her ass. Not only was the length about to put him into cardiac arrest, but also the material was so thin, it was practically transparent. Even though the only illumination came from the moonlight shining through the blinds on the window, Adam could easily see the outline of her red lace panties. When she moved, lifting one leg higher, he immediately lifted his eyes back to her face, knowing that the new position would let him see straight between her legs.
He was a lot of things, but a peeping Tom pervert was not one of them.
After walking over to a chair beside her bed, he grabbed the blanket that was folded over the back. Then he gently laid it over her. She let out a soft sigh of appreciation, and his pants, which had already been tight, grew even tighter at the sound.
He left her house yesterday morning hell-bent on breaking whatever spell he’d fallen under. All day, while they had important pitch and strategy meetings, it took every ounce of concentration he had to keep his mind focused on the project. But he just couldn’t. If anything, he was thinking of her more than ever. Mainly because he was counting the minutes until he could get back to Hope Falls and tell her all the reasons that keeping her front door locked was a necessity, not an option.
“How did everything go yesterday?” she asked, her voice still shaky.
He wasn’t sure if that had to do with the fact that she’d just been choking or the fact that they were in a small space and the sexual tension was filling it to the brim.
“Good. Mike and Nikki decided to stay another day or two.”
“They did what?” Alarm crossed Jane’s pretty features as she pushed off the counter and stood to her full height.
Before his eyes, she transformed from shaky as a leaf to steady as a rock. After grabbing her phone from her purse, she swiped the screen several times and then looked back at him, a tiny crease appearing between her eyebrows.
“I don’t have any messages from them. Why are they staying?”
Adam could see that, for whatever reason, the information that he’d just given her wasn’t sitting well. In fact, she suddenly looked like she was about to come out of her skin.
Taking a step back to give her some space, Adam shrugged. “I assume it’s to continue meeting with associates of Kyle, but they didn’t say specifically. All they said was to make sure that you knew they’d be back on Wednesday at the latest.”
“Oh, okay.” Jane grinned tightly. She was trying to recover quickly from her initial reaction, but the damage had been done. He’d seen the way the news had hit her. He just wasn’t sure why.
He also wasn’t sure why he opened his mouth and these words came out: “I wish you could’ve gone with us.”
Jane’s eyes widened slightly, and a tint of pink crept up her cheeks. “Oh, I…I was… I just… I didn’t…” She brushed the stray hair that always seemed to be falling in her face and tucked it behind her ear.
“You slept through Mike’s messages.” Adam stepped in with the assist.
Her honey-colored eyes flew to his. “How did you…? Oh, right. I’m sure Mike told you.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Yeah, I guess all the excitement of the night caught up with me.”
Time to get back on track and let Jane know that he’d stopped by to check on her. “No, Mike didn’t tell me. When he said you weren’t answering his texts and calls. I got worried, so I stopped by your house to check on you.”
“You did? I don’t… When?”
“I knocked, but you didn’t answer. I was worried that you may have had a reaction to the sting, so I tried the doorknob and it was open. You really need to lock your door.”
“I know, but sometimes, the back door sticks and it’s the only way… Wait!” Jane held her hands up. “You came into my house?!”
“Yes, and you need to lock your front door. I’m sorry I just walked in, but I was worried that I was going to find you passed out on the floor.” His reason sounded much more like a lame excuse in the light of day, but his fear had been authentic. That was as real as it got.
Jane must’ve seen his sincerity, because her eyes softened and then narrowed. “Hold on. Did you cover me up?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes widened and a realization registered on her face for a fleeting moment. “Oh, that means you saw me…” She looked down at her feet as her voice trailed off.
“I knocked on your bedroom door and yelled, but when you didn’t answer, I did go inside. And you were passed out. On your bed. Snoring.” He didn’t have to add that last part, but he did anyway.
“I was not,” she said, standing up even straighter and crossing her arms over her chest. “I. Do. Not. Snore.”
Everything Jane did was cute to Adam, but her getting defensive over her snoring pretty much took the entire adorable cake. Mirroring her stance, he, too, crossed his arms over his chest and stood straight. At his full heigh
t—even with her wearing heels—he still towered over her.
Mimicking her tone and speech pattern wasn’t a premeditated move. He just opened his mouth and the words came out that way. “Yes. You. Do.”
“No. I don’t.” Jane shook her head once as she pushed past him, and her heels clicked as she hurried to her desk.
Adam followed her. “Let me get this straight. You’re more upset about the fact that you were snoring than you are about a man walking into your house in the middle of the night?” He would never understand women.
“You’re not a man. You’re”—she held her hands out—“Adam. And I’m not upset. Because I wasn’t snoring.”
“Fine.” He didn’t feel like arguing with her, so he decided to call it a truce and stuck his hand out. “I’ll agree that you weren’t snoring if you agree to lock your door.”
She stared at his outstretched hand as if weighing her options. After a moment, she said, “Fine,” and placed her soft hand in his.
“Deal?” he reiterated, not wanting there to be any wiggle room whatsoever in the handshake agreement they were entering.
“Deal.” Jane sharply shook his hand once before pulling hers back.
As Adam made his way to his desk, his palm tingled where her hand had just been and he immediately missed the weight of her fingers and the feel of her smooth skin. It was like she’d possessed him, like he grew more and more addicted to her with every passing second.
He knew that the first step to recovery was admitting he had a problem, so, hey, Adam figured he had at least taken his first step.
Because, when it came to Jane, he most definitely had a problem.
Chapter 13
‡
Jane loved the sound of the keyboard clicking as her fingers moved across it. She always had. It was like music to her ears. And in that moment, a symphony was playing.
She didn’t think she’d ever typed as fast as she was at the moment, putting together the final draft of an extremely important proposal they’d been working on for the past three months with a large investment firm. It was due at five o’clock—which was in less than an hour. Once she sent it, not only would a huge project be off her plate, but she could also go home for the day, which she was dying to do. In the back of her mind, Jane knew that her fingers’ Speed Racer impression was probably driven by the fact that she was embarrassed, frustrated, and all around agitated. There were several contributing factors to her current state.
First, Mike and Nikki had never, ever, spent this much time away from the office since they’d started the non-profit. When Mike had been serving in Congress, he would often spend more time on the road than at home base. Nikki’s job as a flight attendant had also meant a lot of nights away from home. But that hadn’t been the dynamic since they’d moved operations to Hope Falls.
Even though it was a juvenile theory, she still believed that their absence was much more matchmaker-based than investor-based. She felt a little guilty even entertaining that idea, but it still remained at the forefront of her thoughts.
Second, she wished she could turn back time and not react the way she had to Adam saying that she snored. It had been a knee-jerk reaction. Both her nana and her papa snored, and since she’d been a little girl, she’d been terrified that the trait was somehow hereditary. Was it a rational fear? No, not at all. Apparently, her psyche didn’t care if logic or reason supported its neurosis.
“I’m going to get some coffee. Do you want anything?” Adam asked as he stood from his desk and raised his arms above his head in an exaggerated stretch.
Jane’s fingers stilled as her eyes turned and, like a magnet, locked on the navy-blue material of Adam’s taut button-up. In the immortal words of Uncle Jesse from Full House, “Have mercy.”
A thin sheen of sweat broke out on the back of Jane’s neck, and her stomach did several flippity-flops. Adam’s body wasn’t one someone would assume belonged to a programmer. Yet, displayed right in front of her, was all evidence to the contrary. She’d seen him at work—both in front of the computer and on a weight bench—and both were equally impressive.
Adam was brilliant. Not just in the way people nonchalantly threw the word around. No. He was a certified genius. Not only in the IQ department, which, even without knowing the exact number, she knew was staggering. He also excelled in all things creative. He had the rare talent of being gifted in both left-brain and right-brain tasks.
His work on Latch Key’s tutoring app was astounding. The interactive play of the tutorial program he was designing for elementary school kids was fun and vibrant. And the engaging interface for the middle school kids had an almost urban feel to it. In contrast, the program for high schoolers was clean and sophisticated.
In one week, he already had an early-stage skeleton beta up for all three. Jane didn’t impress easily—at least, not when it came to things like fame or social status. But Adam’s work performance had more than wowed her; it had left her speechless.
Not unlike what the chiseled form beneath his shirt’s soft cotton material was doing now.
“Jane?”
“Oh, um, no, thanks. Three’s my limit.” She motioned to her empty third cup of coffee.
“Three’s the limit. Got it.” Adam nodded once before heading out the door.
It wasn’t until he was safely outside that Jane let out a sigh of relief and sexual frustration. Relief that, in that small interaction, she had had zero “Lucy” moments. And, well, the sexual frustration was pretty darn self-explanatory.
When her phone buzzed, she saw that it was Nikki calling.
“Soooooo, you guys decided to stay a couple of days longer, huh?” Jane asked, skipping over the niceties.
She’d left several messages for both Mike and Nikki, and although they’d gotten back to her in a timely manner, that didn’t change the fact that they were gone during a pivotal time. She’d been sending them sections of the forty-page proposal that she was working on to them, incorporating their notes, making corrections, and then starting the entire process over again.
Nothing was technically slipping through the cracks, but they normally had about a five to fifteen minute “check-in” meeting every morning. It was a good way for them all to know where they were each at with their own portions of the project, as well as a mini brainstorm meeting, and also a time to introduce new business. It started out as kind of an informal thing, but now that there were so many irons in the fire, it had become crucial to their operation.
Jane felt totally out of the loop, which wasn’t the position she liked to be in when it came to loops. With work loops, she preferred to be smack-dab in the middle of those suckers.
“Yep. We’ll be home in time to head back to San Francisco.”
Oh no! Crap! San Francisco!
Jane had completely spaced that she, Mike, Nikki, and Adam were heading there on Wednesday morning and staying overnight. They had over a dozen meetings with potential investors and developers Nikki and Mike had met last week. Mike had messaged her about it on Saturday; she had seen the messages after coming in from gardening. But then she’d rushed around, getting ready for the fundraiser, and it had totally slipped her mind.
“Oh, okay. Great,” Jane said brightly. Maybe a little too brightly.
“Everything all right?” Nikki asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“Yep.” Jane’s mind was running faster than nylons on a nail bed as she tried to mentally run through her to-do list, panic rising in her chest.
“Were you able to get the suite at the W?” Nikki asked.
“Yep. I have another call coming in. See you guys soon.”
“Okay. Don’t forget about Book Club, and tell the girls hi if I don’t make it back in time.”
“Got it.” Jane disconnected the call after lying through her teeth not once, but twice.
There was no other call and she sure as heck hadn’t secured a suite at the W. Mike had asked her to do it right away because it was such short
notice—that had been two days ago. Now, it was ridiculously short notice.
After clicking over to the W Hotel in San Francisco (which was Mike’s preferred accommodations while staying in the city), Jane checked the availability of the Extreme Wow Suite.
“Come on, come on, come on,” she whispered as her computer loaded the page.
When the words No Availability appeared before her eyes, she wanted to cry.
Okay. Everything’s fine, she assured herself. She tried the Fantastic Suite next and held her breath while her page refreshed. A mirror image of the previous message flashed on the screen, and Jane knew that everything might not be fine.
Grabbing her phone, she decided to do something she never did—call in a favor.
Over the years Mike had been in politics, Jane had made connections at several of the hotels he’d frequented. She tried to never bother any of them, especially when she had messed something up. Mike wouldn’t care whether or not he stayed in the suite—at least, he wouldn’t if she hadn’t opened her big mouth and lied about the fact that she had, indeed, secured it.
Why had she said that? She wasn’t a liar. Yet she’d lied to her grandparents about Adam being her boyfriend, about looking for a contact lens when Adam had shown up for his first day of work, and now about having already taken care of reservations. Which she hadn’t done because she’d been too busy getting ready to go to the fundraiser with—yep, you guessed it—Adam.
Jane didn’t have to be a cryptology expert to pick out the pattern here.
It was one she needed to break immediately.
She’d made up her mind after Disaster #4 had asked her to not wear heels (because he was a tad on the short side) and to stop using certain words like “really” and “obviously” (because they irritated him) that she would never compromise herself or change who she was for a man again. This time, she wasn’t even in a relationship. Not a personal one, anyway.
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