Birdie might have said no if he had said anything else. It was crazy. You don’t marry somebody without getting to know them well.
She didn’t even know his family.
But she did know that his family sounded like the kind she had always dreamed of – a family where bringing bad potato salad was a sign of love. Where the potato salad, bad as it was, wouldn’t be thrown away, only because of love for the person who had made it.
A family that had raised Adam, a man who had faced more adversity than anybody should have to, and found a way out of it all.
She understood Adam.
He loved her.
She still found it a bit difficult to wrap her head around that.
Adam Simpson loved her.
As Adam watched her hesitate, he did the one thing he knew would scramble her brains thoroughly. He pulled her to him again and kissed her.
This time, when their lips met, it was a tempest of insistent passion that would not be denied. His lips devoured hers, ravaged hers. His tongue demanded that her lips part for him.
On a long, low moan, Birdie let her lips part and felt his tongue sliding into her mouth, searching for hers. She let her tongue meet his, and she felt him suck it into his mouth. She felt that pull, and it tugged her all the way to the liquid pull deep in her belly, where need for him seemed to be constant.
She felt his hand slip under the t-shirt to cup her bottom and press her closer to him. She could feel his hard manhood pressing against her. She wanted it. She needed it.
She felt his hand sliding down her cleft, between her legs, and she knew that he could feel the evidence of her need.
His teeth closed on her lower lip and pulled softly as his fingers probed and touched that wet heat, making her legs tremble with need.
His arm held her up, pulling her close enough for her to be aware of every throb, every quiver, of his hard member.
His fingers moved along her pussy lips, finding her clit and stroking it so slowly that she moaned in desperation for more. More pressure, faster, firmer – she urged him to give her more, parting her legs for him.
She felt his fingers sliding deep inside her. She felt the curve inside her, finding spots that cried out for attention from him. She felt him twist, she felt him spread her, and she cried out, her head falling back.
His mouth was on her neck, kissing, licking, biting, as his fingers invaded her so pleasurably, so sweetly. She felt him touch her and tease her deliberately, knowing exactly where to touch her to make her tremble. She felt his thumb flick, press, move away as his fingers moved in and out of her.
“Adam, please,” moaned Birdie as she felt his fingers slow down. He made her wait, watching her so intently that she felt his eyes even more potently than everything his fingers were doing.
Her breasts were so sensitive, her nipples so hard, that the fabric of the t-shirt gave her impossible friction that pushed her even closer to the edge.
His fingers were relentless, driving her on, and on, keeping her teetering on the brink of that fall she so desperately needed. He stroked her, until she was so wet that she could hear the wet sounds as he fingered her. It made her want him even more than she could imagine.
She held on to him as he touched her, teased her, tormented her as the sun rose slowly around them. She was bathed in the gentle light of dawn when he finally slipped another finger inside her and pressed, stroked her more insistently, and finally let her find that pleasure.
Birdie screamed, long and low, and he kissed her, swallowing that sound into himself.
He wanted it for himself with a ferocity that surprised him.
He held her as she trembled in his arms. He held her as she tried to find herself again.
“Marry me,” he demanded again.
He would not take no for an answer. He would not let her say no.
But Birdie couldn’t have said no if she’d wanted to. She had surrendered everything to him.
“Yes,” she whispered.
The triumph that Adam felt was more than anything he had ever felt before.
“We’re driving to Vegas today,” he told her.
Birdie could only nod. She was going to marry Adam Simpson.
Chapter 9
Adam didn’t give Birdie much time to think things through. He wanted them married, and as soon as possible. Birdie didn’t really get why he was in such a hurry, but she did find it flattering. She’d known a few men to be besotted with her. She’d received a few proposals of marriage from clients. Some of them had even been serious about it.
But nobody had ever seemed to need her like Adam did. It was a heady feeling.
Of course, it was a heady feeling like being swept up in a tsunami was. But she was willing to be swept away. She’d been swept off her feet.
Thank heavens it was her day off, thought Birdie. There was absolutely no way she’d ever get away with it if Marley knew of it. Thinking of Marley gave her pause for a bit, but when she looked at Adam, all doubts just melted away. Adam wanted her. He loved her. He needed her.
Remembering those things made all doubts feel as if they’d never been there at all.
Whatever magic he had woven, it worked. Before she knew it, Birdie was in a very expensive and exclusive boutique, picking out a dress. True to her own style, she picked an ivory mini dress that showed off her legs perfectly.
They were off, in a limo – they were eloping. Birdie Campbell and Adam Simpson were getting married in Vegas. There was no time for doubts, no room for thought, definitely not when she was in the backseat of the limo with Adam, with champagne flowing.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” said Birdie, getting caught up in the excitement of the romance of it all.
Adam grinned.
“Believe it. I intend to have you, and have you I shall.”
Birdie gave him a long look from under hooded eyes.
“Would you like to have me now?”
Adam’s grin widened.
“Are you offering, Birdie?”
She shrugged.
“Unless you want to wait till we’re married, of course…”
It didn’t seem real even when she said it. Married – she was getting married, to Adam. Was this really true?
It was as if he had read her mind.
“Believe it, Birdie. I will have you now, and after you’re my wife. You’ll be mine.”
Birdie moved closer to him and smiled, recklessly tossing back her champagne.
“As you will be mine.”
The words made Adam nearly change his mind. He wasn’t going to be hers. She was going to be his. That’s what he wanted. That’s what was going to happen.
He pushed the thought away and avoided answering by letting his mouth get busy on hers. Birdie felt his hands moving over her, deftly getting her out of her t-shirt and slipping her bra off.
“You can change into your wedding dress when we get there. I’ll help you,” murmured Adam, and Birdie let herself be carried away all over again.
His mouth was moving against hers, softly, gently. She could feel him coaxing her into giving in, giving him everything he needed. He needed everything.
Birdie couldn’t deny him anything. She felt strong, irresistible, as his tongue slid over her lips, urging them to part and give him access, give him more. She smiled against his lips, a laugh trembling on her lips, but it ended in a moan as she felt his tongue moving into her mouth. It was invading all of its soft secrets. Birdie wanted to keep no secrets. She felt his tongue stroking hers reassuringly, stroking her into even more heated passion.
Adam’s hands moved over her body, touching her, finding even more sensitive spots this time. There, just above her naval, she trembled. When he slipped his hand up her rib cage and under her breasts, she sighed.
Birdie would give up anything for him. She realized that, somewhere, deep inside her. Her hands were moving over his body, tugging clothes out of the way. She felt his bare skin on her hands and she s
ighed again. She loved how she could make his strong muscles clench and tremble with the lightest of touch.
Birdie’s hands were on his chest as he pushed her back, gently, cradling her head in his hand as he refused to stop kissing her. Birdie panted, gasping for breath, as she too refused to let that connection break. She felt his teeth on her lower lip and gasped again, drawing in breath desperately.
Her short denim skirt had ridden up to bunch at her waist. She didn’t notice. Drowning in need, she wrapped her legs around Adam’s hips, pulling him down with her. She undid the button of his jeans and tugged the zipper down. She could feel his hard manhood pressing against her.
She was so soft, so hot, in that secret center of her passion. She wanted to feel him intimately against her. Birdie moaned, deep in her throat, when she felt his hard erection pressing against her hot, velvet softness, stopped from touching her only by soft cotton that kept them apart.
She writhed as he kissed her, pressing herself against him. She rubbed her crotch against him, feeling his erection pushing against her, straining against those barriers and trying to touch her.
He needed her. He wanted to be inside her with a need that rivaled her own. Knowing that, accepting that, made any doubts that she might have had about the wisdom of what they were about to do go away. She no longer thought. She only felt.
When she felt his lips leave hers, she cried out. She needed him. But his lips were moving down her neck, licking and trailing open-mouthed kisses, finding sensitive places that she hadn’t known she had.
She shivered from the delicious feelings he awakened in her. Even with the cool air in the limo, she felt her skin dew with sweat that spoke of unrestrained passion. Her fingers moved over his back, feeling his scars, but not really feeling them. She only felt his hardness pressing against her softness, and how much she wanted him inside her.
She moaned again as she felt his mouth move down to her breasts, kissing them.
“I could kiss you forever,” said Adam, and Birdie wanted him to. She wanted him to never stop kissing her, never stop touching her.
“Don’t stop touching me. Don’t stop,” said Birdie, and the words were almost a plea.
“You’re so beautiful, so perfect. I want to taste you,” said Adam, and his mouth was on her nipple. She felt his hand on her other breast, pressing lightly, squeezing gently, as his mouth applied gentle but relentless pressure on her large, taut nipple.
She felt his fingers touching her other nipple and she nearly came right then. She was feeling too much. How could she feel so much?
“Adam, I need you,” she told him, desperate to have his hard cock deep inside her, driving her towards that oblivion that she wanted. She needed it.
“I’ll give you more,” promised Adam, as he pulled away from her.
He undid her skirt and pulled it down, drawing it off her legs, though he didn’t need to. Slowly, gently, he hooked his fingers on her panties and pulled them down and off her. He made that simple act so sensual that Birdie trembled at his light touch.
Adam spread her legs and, very deliberately, he looked at her.
Birdie nearly blushed.
“So beautiful, Birdie. You’re so beautiful, so sexy. Do you know how lovely you look right now? I can see that you’re aroused, and ready for me. Your breasts are swollen from my touch. Your nipples are so dark, so hard. But here… here, there are no secrets. I can see how wet you are. I want to touch you.”
Adam stopped. Birdie nearly stopped breathing.
“Touch me, please,” begged Birdie.
Adam smiled as he reached towards her pussy and stopped, almost touching her. Birdie writhed and squirmed, trying to reach him.
Adam’s eyes never left her womanhood, her soft center, when he touched her. His hand drifted over her slit softly, making her arch off the cushions.
Birdie thought she couldn’t take the sheer eroticism when his fingers spread her dark, swollen lips there, and looked at her. She felt his eyes on her as potently as his touch.
“You need me to touch you here. Here, like this,” said Adam, and stroked her softly, finding exactly where Birdie craved his touch.
His eyes moved to her face as he touched her, stroked her, slipped inside her and moved, over and over again. Birdie was on the verge of giving in and screaming his name when he bent down and licked her, softly, slowly, over and over again.
She felt his lips nuzzling her and she couldn’t stop herself. She screamed his name as she reached her climax, as if an inferno had been set alight inside her.
Before she finished his name, he was moving over her. His cock was out, and he was pressing himself against her.
It was the first time he hadn’t used a condom. Birdie didn’t even think of it. She didn’t think of anything but how much she needed him inside her.
She felt his long, thick erection pressing deeper and deeper inside her with every thrust as his hips rocked and moved over her. Birdie locked her legs around him, pulling him deeper inside her with every thrust.
He kept his movements slow and steady, keeping Birdie in the throes of that pleasure that threatened to rip her apart. She wanted to be ripped apart from it. She never wanted it to stop.
“Come for me again, Birdie,” demanded Adam, as his movements got faster. His hips were thrusting harder, faster, as he reached deeper and deeper inside her.
Birdie was so hot, so tight, so welcoming. Adam thought he could drown inside of her. He held her, and he refused to admit how much of what he had told her was true. He refused to admit to himself that the need he told her he felt for her was real – far more real than he wanted it to be. He refused to admit that he was pushing her to do this, pushing her as far as he could, because he wanted her to belong to him.
He drowned all thought in his pleasure as he mindlessly drove into her, over and over again. He felt her arms around him, holding him closer and closer and he felt her shatter under him again. Finally, Adam let himself go, too. He needed to.
He didn’t realize that he was chanting her name, over and over again, as he finally emptied himself deep inside her, filling her with his seed.
He didn’t question the depth of what he felt as he held her, in the gently moving car, and watched as Birdie finally succumbed to the exhaustion and fell asleep.
He refused to think about any of it, because he knew it all. He knew it far too well.
*****
Birdie looked at the ring on her finger. It sparkled, and it was far larger than she liked. She’d wanted something smaller, more elegant – something that would stay out of the way while she worked. Adam had promised to get her something more like it.
She was married. Birdie could hardly believe it. She was married.
Now that she was, there was no way to keep all of that guilt at bay. Sighing, she turned to Adam as they had their wedding lunch.
“Adam, we shouldn’t have done this.”
Adam looked at her steadily. She was his. If she was having regrets, it was just too late.
“We shouldn’t have eloped. I mean, I haven’t met your mother. Or your nana. Or your father. They should’ve been here for your wedding, shouldn’t they? What will they say when we turn up and declare that we’re married? I mean, it’s not the same for me. I don’t have a family. My grandmother is gone. But you have a family, and it sounds like you’re close. Well, most of you.”
Adam felt like he’d been punched in the face.
Of course they should have been there. He hadn’t even thought of it. He had been in such a hurry to get it done, so focused on making Birdie his, that he hadn’t even thought of the logic behind eloping. If he wanted to get married to make his family happy, involving them in his wedding would have been the first step. Any fool could see that.
His father was going to have a fit. He would consider this the ultimate rebellion on Adam’s part.
Richard was going to kill him, too.
“Marley is going to kill me,” fretted Birdie.
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Adam looked very uncomfortable.
“We’ll have a real wedding soon. We can plan one. You can meet my family, and you can plan one with my mother and my nana. Maybe we can tell them we’re engaged, and we can have a church wedding. We’ll just tell them that we’re already legally married, so it’s basically a renewal of vows. Or something like that.”
Birdie considered it. “I’m sure that would be nice for your family, but I can’t lie to Marley, Adam. I never lie to Marley. We just don’t do that.”
Adam sighed. “Birdie, I don’t regret what we did. I wanted to marry you. We’re married. Now, we can do whatever you want to do, to make the people in our lives happy. But we’re married.”
There was a finality to his words that made Birdie wonder. But she nodded.
“I know that. I was there, you know,” she teased, making him smile again.
Birdie loved it when she made him smile. He looked younger, and the sadness that she so often saw in his eyes was wiped away then. If she could make him smile every day of his life, that would make her incredibly happy.
“I know. I’m a very lucky man. I know that. Your every wish is my command.”
Adam was trying too hard to make up for… He wasn’t sure.
He hadn’t acted logically. That was very unlike him. He had told himself, right after he met Birdie, that she was different. It hadn’t taken very long – just one kiss, really – for him to decide that he wanted to marry her.
He had conveniently blamed the pressure from his family for that, but that wasn’t really true. He was old enough to deal with the pressure. He had commitment issues, he admitted to himself, which was a strange thing to admit right after he got married.
He wanted the whole world to think that he loved Birdie. He wanted her to think so, too. But within himself, he wanted wiggle room – he wanted to hold on to that part of himself that he had to surrender to truly be in love.
Except, he was no longer sure if he had managed to do that. He had acted like a man in love – he had acted like a besotted man, to be honest.
Be My Everything (Brothers From Money Book 11) Page 24