Adam opened his mouth to speak, and closed it again. Birdie didn’t need his words, not right then. Not when she was lost in her memories.
“I squatted in a couple of empty apartments, stole food when I had to. I worked a few odd jobs, getting by, really. I had always been fascinated by tattoos, though. I saved enough money to get one. I wanted a tattoo more than I wanted a roof over my head. I wanted a smiling daisy on my arm.”
The memory made Birdie smile.
“I was lucky. I had just turned eighteen and was a filthy mess when I turned up at the studio. Nathan owned it, back then. He saw me, and I’ll never know why he didn’t just give me the tattoo and send me off. He… I don’t know. He gave me a job. It was just washing up, mopping, cleaning – it’s a job, keeping everything perfectly hygienic. So, I did that, and at night, I left and slept on the streets. Finally, Nathan realized what I was doing and he let me sleep in the studio. I had a sleeping bag, and about one backpack of possessions. So, I lived in the studio. He helped me with everything – you know, getting a bank account, getting Social Security sorted out, everything. In a few months, I was able to move into an apartment. Boy, it was dreadful, but it was mine and I was so proud.”
Adam’s hand squeezed her softly. Birdie smiled. She had never known how easy it might be to tell him everything, not when he was offering her that support and strength.
“Finally, I had good credit. I didn’t have a record because I was never picked up. I wasn’t in the system. I screwed up my courage and asked Nathan if I could take over when he was ready to retire. By then, he knew that I was as good as he ever was. He knew I’d be better than anybody he knew. So, he made me a deal, helped me get a loan, and I bought the studio. It was the scariest thing I’d ever done. I owned something – a business. Sure, I was neck deep in debt and the man I was buying it from stood as surety for me, but I still owned it. It was mine.”
“It’s definitely yours,” said Adam, and Birdie smiled again.
“I’ve never really told anybody but Marley this before. I keep it to myself, usually.”
Adam raised his eyes to Birdie’s, and the look in them took her breath away.
“You’re one of the two bravest, most compassionate, most beautiful women I’ve ever known. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever known.”
Birdie could feel her body responding to the look in his eyes, the depth of his voice as he said those words, his seductive words.
She wanted him. She knew what was going to happen without a doubt, and she wanted it more than anything else.
“Come home with me,” said Adam softly.
Birdie nodded.
Her hand still in his, they got up.
She was going home with Adam.
Chapter 8
Birdie knew what was going to happen. She wanted it. They’d been headed there ever since the moment they’d seen each other. It was fate.
Birdie had never believed in fate. She’d believed in making her own. Now, as she sat next to Adam, who was driving with fierce concentration, she started believing in it.
She wanted to reach over and touch his hand, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to startle him.
When they parked, her heart was racing.
Adam leaned towards her and yanked her, pulling her onto him, and his lips were on hers in a kiss so fierce that she could hardly breathe. She didn’t care. She needed him more than the very air.
When they broke apart, she was gasping.
Adam looked just as dazed.
“I need you,” he said, and she could only nod.
They managed to get out of the car. Her hand in his, he pulled her in the direction they needed to go. Birdie followed him, and got to the private elevator. When they were inside, they fell on each other again, lips meeting in mindless passion, tongues touching and gliding, hands moving everywhere.
Birdie was barely aware that he had her dress unzipped. His hands were inside it, on her bare back, sliding the dress down. When the elevator door opened, his jacket and tie, and her dress, were on the floor.
He pulled her up onto him. Birdie wrapped her legs around him as he feasted on the soft skin of her neck.
Birdie shivered as she felt the slight rasp of his tongue along her long neck.
Adam was holding her, could feel all that tension coiled inside her. Her muscles were long and tight, wrapped around him.
They were gasping for breath by the time they got to the living room. Birdie felt the world shift, tilt, and realized that she was on the couch. She didn’t let Adam move.
Her hands were busy, undoing the buttons of his shirt. Frustrated, she tugged and the buttons sprang across the room. With a feline cry of sheer triumph, Birdie let her hands roam over the tight muscles of his chest.
She found his hard nipples, so small, and tugged at them. Her nails, short and unpainted, were still enough to move over them, over and over again, making him moan.
Her lips were on his again, kissing him so deeply that she was lost.
Adam could hardly believe how potent the taste of her was. She wasn’t sweet. She was compelling. His tongue found hers and she didn’t surrender. She matched him, in a battle that they would both win.
His hands found her breasts, covered in an insubstantial bra. He squeezed her breasts softly and heard her moan. Knowing that he had made her moan made his head swim. He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anybody in his life.
Her legs were still wrapped around him. He felt her hips moving, rocking against him and he gritted his teeth. With every move, she was brushing against his straining erection and he was close to losing it. But she was relentless, her hands touching and feeling, her mouth moving down his neck to bite and suck gently.
“Oh yes,” whispered Birdie, and Adam gasped as he felt her hand between them, on his crotch. She was rubbing his hard manhood over the soft fabric of the trousers. She felt her busy hands undoing the trousers, unzipping them, slipping over the briefs and touching him again. Adam’s body shuddered as he fought to hold still, letting her feel him.
“You’re so hard, so needy. You need me.”
Adam gritted his teeth, holding his needs in hand as Birdie’s long-fingered hand slipped under his briefs and moved along the length of him.
Birdie could feel him throbbing in her hand. She could feel how much he needed her. She loved how she was making this strong man tremble.
She pulled his pants and his briefs down to let his long, thick erection spring free. Her hands moved to his back. She felt the ridges of his scars, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t gentle. She knew he didn’t want her to be.
She shifted her hips, pressing herself closer to him. The wispy panties she wore were soaked and barely a barrier as she rubbed herself against him, holding on to him.
“Feel how much I need you, too,” she told him.
Adam had held on as long as he could. He pressed her down onto the couch with his weight. Birdie thrilled at his strength.
She felt his hand move between them and she felt her panties rip. She gasped when she felt his hand pressing there, where she was so soft and hot and wet, his fingers slipped between her lips and found her.
“Adam,” she cried when she felt him stroking her, softly, gently. Her need was like a ball of energy that needed to explode, but he was teasing her. He touched her, moved his hand away and touched her again, keeping her on an edge that was both delicious and torture at the same time.
“Don’t stop. Please, Adam, touch me. Touch me.”
Her words were pleas, demands, and he loved it. He loved looking down on her and seeing how much she needed him. She was desperate for him.
He tugged her bra down to expose her breasts and bent his face to one. He kissed that dark nipple softly. It became even harder, even larger as he did. His tongue slipped out and licked it, as his finger touched her swollen clit and moved away again.
Birdie moved against him, writhing against him in desperation to make him touch her again.
He finally closed his lips around her nipple and sucked, softly, sweetly, using his tongue to give her even more pleasure. His fingers finally trapped her desperate clit between them and stroked gently, increasing pressure softly, making her cry out, over and over again.
He could feel that she was close. He wanted her to climax. He wanted to feel her find that peak when his fingers were inside her, when his mouth was on her breast. When she was still gasping from it, he wanted to slide deep inside her and take her.
He could hardly believe how much he wanted to take her.
Birdie’s pants were getting harder, her breathing almost shallow as she reached for that pleasure. She could only feel his fingers and his mouth, doing wicked, sinful things that made her beg for more. She moved against his fingers, trying to feel more as she got wetter.
She felt his fingers slipping deep inside her wet, secret heat as the ball of his palm found her clit again. With every movement, he was inside her and stroking her.
Birdie could take no more. Her muscles clenched. Her body went taut, and she let go.
Adam felt her body coil and relax, before it shuddered, as never-ending waves of pleasure swept through her. He held her, driving her on and on, as he felt her climax in his arms.
He moved away abruptly and slipped a condom out of his pocket. He tore it, slid it on, even his own fingers almost too much for him to bear, he was so sensitive.
Birdie’s eyes opened and saw that he was putting on a condom. She had felt his cock before with her hands and thought it was big. Now, her eyes widened as she saw it.
He moved over her and she couldn’t look away from his eyes.
“I’m going to make love to you,” he told her.
“You are making love to me,” whispered Birdie, and her eyes were on his as he slipped inside her. He filled her, stretched her as she felt his hard length sheathing itself inside the soft, velvet, wet heat of her pussy.
Birdie had never felt so perfect before. Never.
Adam started moving and Birdie stopped thinking altogether. She could hardly believe that she was reaching for pleasure again. She didn’t know if she could take it.
Her legs were wrapped around him as he moved, slowly, steadily, waiting for her to come up again. His rhythm changed and her hips moved with his, rocking steadily faster and faster.
Birdie hardly knew what demands she made. She wanted him to go harder, faster. She wanted him to take her. She wanted to belong to him.
When she felt him thrust into her, drive into her over and over again, going so deep inside her, she felt herself begin to surrender her passion again. She felt her body tense again and let go. She felt it burn through her as the pleasure took her over and made her scream his name, over and over again.
Adam had never seen a sight more astounding than Birdie taking all the pleasure she wanted. He held on, watching her face, until he finally could hold on no longer.
He thrust inside her, madly, hard and fast, over and over again until he joined her in that pleasure and they were both spent.
It took a few minutes for Birdie to feel like her head wasn’t spinning.
She tried to speak. Words didn’t seem to come out of her throat.
She cleared it and managed a croak.
“Water.”
Adam grunted.
“Air.”
Adam finally figured out that he was crushing her. He shifted and rolled off her, onto the lush rug. It still gave him a solid thump. He didn’t have the breath to even say ‘ouch.’ He just thought it.
“Adam?”
Birdie’s throat was so dry, she could hardly get the word out.
Adam just grunted. He looked like he was down for the count.
Birdie got up and made her way, very carefully, to the direction in which the kitchen seemed to be. She was surprised that her wobbly legs let her walk at all. She opened the massive fridge and grabbed a cold bottle of water. Standing right there, she guzzled it.
Leaning against the pristine counter, she looked down at herself. Surely, she must look different after that… experience?
She still looked like herself, though.
She hoped she hadn’t scratched his outline. That would suck.
Despite the dinner with its many courses, Birdie found herself extremely hungry. She found what looked like leftover potato salad in the fridge and took it out. Ravenous, she took a hearty mouthful.
She paused, making a face. Good God, was it possible for potato salad to be so crappy?
Adam walked in while she was pondering spitting the damn thing out and looking for a kitchen napkin.
“Shit, don’t eat that. My mom made it.”
He handed her a kitchen napkin from a roll on the wall. Gratefully, Birdie took it and spat it out. “Wow, Adam, your mom really cannot cook.”
“Nana is an awesome cook. She made the shrimp casserole.”
“Trust my luck to get the potato salad, then.”
Birdie turned around and bent over, opening the fridge, looking for the shrimp casserole. Still naked, she was giving Adam quite a view. Adam grinned. He was spent, but he could possibly be ready for round two.
They went back to the living room and sat on the rug, eating shrimp casserole ravenously.
“You know, I liked the place you took me to before much more than the fancy place tonight. You know, Mama Maria’s place.”
Adam grinned, adoring Birdie in that moment. “I do, too.”
He kept looking at her, so steadily, that Birdie felt like she couldn’t draw in air properly.
“Birdie, I have something to say to you,” he said, finally, and the words made her go completely still. She recognized the signs. She recognized that look on his face. But it couldn’t be, could it? It was far too soon.
“I really, really like you,” he told her, and she smiled. Her heart felt like it was being held in a fist.
“I really, really like you, too. I don’t eat shrimp casserole naked with people I don’t really, really, really like,” she teased him.
“I’m serious, Birdie. I’ve never met anybody like you. You’re special. I don’t know why I was so drawn to you, but I’m so glad that I was. I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
Birdie smiled.
“I’m glad I’m here with you, too.”
“Spend the night with me,” said Adam, and his words were soft and simple. Birdie felt everything in her heart open when he said the words.
She nodded. She would spend the night with him.
*****
Birdie woke up at the crack of dawn and found herself in an empty bed. She was wearing one of Adam’s t-shirts. She hugged it to herself. It felt right, to wake up in his T-shirt, but it didn’t feel right to wake up alone.
She got up and went looking for him. She found him on the balcony that opened from the living room. She looked around and took in the luxury of the penthouse condo where Adam lived. She’d never seen anything like it outside of magazines.
It was amazing how she didn’t feel out of place. But maybe it was because she could feel Adam in every part of it. Despite its definitely bachelor décor, she felt comfortable there. She felt as if she belonged. It was very odd, but comforting.
Adam turned around and smiled when he saw Birdie. They had barely slept all night. They’d been far too ravenous for each other to waste time on something as mundane as sleep.
“You need to get some sleep,” he told her when she walked to stand next to him. But he slipped an arm around her waist and kept her there, nonetheless. She rested her head on his shoulder, and he felt calm.
He felt surer of his decision with every minute she spent with Birdie. She was everything he wanted in a wife, in the mother of his child. Perhaps it wasn’t very romantic that he was going about it so logically and methodically, but commitments were serious business. They needed thought, not impulses. He was sure.
There was no point waiting any longer, wasting any time, when he was sure. “I love you.�
�
Birdie felt like the world was spinning when she heard the words. “Adam… I…”
“I know we’ve known each other for only a few weeks. I don’t care. You’re the only woman I’ve ever felt like this for. You’re the only woman to whom I’ve been able to tell things without being judged. Without feeling like I’m losing a part of myself. I love you. I don’t want to wait to say it when I know I love you. Marry me.”
Birdie thought she might have pitched right off the balcony if Adam wasn’t holding her so firmly and so tightly.
“Adam, what… I…”
Birdie couldn’t believe her ears. She must’ve misunderstood.
“I want you to marry me.”
“Adam, you barely know me,” she pointed out, weakly.
“Do you love me?”
“I…”
Did she? She didn’t know. She wanted him. She was fond of him. She felt… things she hadn’t felt before, for him.
But love? Wasn’t that a bit of a leap?
He pulled her to him and kissed her. It was a long, sweet, drugging kiss that left her gasping for breath and thought. She moaned as she twined her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her, pressing herself to him as she kissed him deeper, longer.
Adam raised his head when they both came up for air.
“Do you love me?”
“I do,” whispered Birdie, and she felt as if the words had come straight from her heart, pulled out by his kiss. What did it matter if it made no sense? She felt what she did.
“Will you marry me?”
Birdie still hesitated.
“Birdie, I’ve never felt safer with anybody. I’ve never felt safe with anybody in the last year. Only with you. I want that for the rest of my life. I want to have children who will be raised by the woman who will protect them above everything else. I want to be with you, know that you will be there when I open my eyes in the middle of the night because nightmares won’t leave me alone. I want to be able to hold you and you will chase them away. I need you. Marry me.”
Be My Everything (Brothers From Money Book 11) Page 23