The Adventurous Bride

by Molly Liholm

  “Give me the watch.”

  Adam tossed it to him and with a shake of his head the kid ran off.

  Maureen grabbed him by the arm. “Don’t go after him! He had a gun.”

  Adam wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t worry. He’s gone.”

  “Adam, I was so scared.” She shook, her teeth chattering.

  “I know. But it’s okay now.” He rubbed her back. “I’ve been mugged three times.”

  “Five, this makes my fifth mugging,” she muttered into his jacket, and then stepped back. “I swore if I was mugged one more time I was going to move back to Wisconsin.”

  “Are you?”

  “No. Despite everything, I like New York.” She gave him a wobbly smile. “Come on, I want you to take me home. That was more than enough adventure for one night.”

  Adam took her arm and they walked until they found a taxi and settled in for the drive to Maureen’s apartment. All the while, ever since she’d said the word adventure, and even before, when he’d wondered if he might be killed, he thought of Meg.

  Try as he might, he could no longer pretend. He could no longer ignore the truth. He loved Meg. He’d known for a long time but he just hadn’t wanted to admit it. Or rather, he hadn’t been willing to admit it to her. He’d just thought his love for her might go away. That he would be able to cure himself of Meg if he gave himself enough time. It had been three months and not one iota of feeling had changed.

  Meg had ruined other women for him.

  Truth to tell, he didn’t want any other women. He wanted Megan Elizabeth Cooper.

  Every fear he’d had was just that: fear. He was a coward when it came to love. Sure, he’d had a bad marriage, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to Meg. He and Meg were different from him and Allison. No, what had frightened him had been how carried away he became around Meg. He lost his balance, his tightly held, rational grip on the rest of the world, when he was with her. When he was with Meg, he was more alive than he’d ever been in his life.

  At Maureen’s apartment he walked her up the steps of the brownstone. She fiddled in her bag for her keys, then after she’d found them, she kept her head bent for some time. “Adam, I don’t think I can see you anymore.”

  “Why not?” Even though he’d been trying to think of some graceful way to say goodbye to her, he was still disconcerted.

  Maureen sighed and looked up at him sadly. “Because of tonight. I’m grateful you rescued my grandmother’s ring, but...you were foolhardy. Or maybe you were just being a hero, but I can’t live like that. Worrying that you would do something else crazy like that. I want a much safer, calmer life.” She smiled regretfully. “You’re a great guy, Adam Smith. But you’re not the man for me.”

  MEG WALKED INTO her apartment, kicking off her shoes the second she stepped over the threshold, dropping her manuscript bag and rubbing her toes. On one foot she hopped over to her couch and collapsed. Staring up the ceiling, she wondered if she was tired enough to go straight to bed.

  And dream about Adam? No, it would be better to read a manuscript and watch infomercials on television until she fell asleep on the couch. She’d had to stop watching her favorite old movies because most of them were love stories and depressed her. She’d thought she’d been upset when Max had betrayed her. Now she knew her pain at that time had only been hurt pride. She wasn’t sure she’d ever lose her feelings for Adam.

  The worst of it was that she wasn’t even mad at him. She just couldn’t make him love her.

  “Tough day?” asked a deep voice from somewhere near her window.

  She jumped off the couch, clutching her arms over her chest. Was she beginning to hallucinate? “What are you doing here?” Her voice squeaked.

  So much for cool and sophisticated. She’d told herself over and over again that when she met Adam again she wouldn’t let her face betray all of her emotions. It wasn’t working. Her heart began to pound heavily and she felt heat creep into her cheeks.

  Adam stepped into the light, dressed all in black—the same black jeans and leather jacket he’d worn the first evening. He looked pale and there were deep lines around his mouth. “I’ve come to kidnap you.”

  “Kidnap me? Don’t be ridiculous.” A little bubble of hope began to grow within her, but she quashed it down. It had been over three months since he’d left her. For the first few days she’d had to drag herself out of bed and try to get on with her life. What was Adam thinking now? “How are you going to kidnap me?”

  “I have a gun.” He took a menacing step toward her. Meg held her ground and raised her chin. “No, you don’t.”

  Adam stopped and scowled at her. “Meg, don’t be ridiculous.”

  “If you’re going to kidnap me you have to show me your gun.” She crossed her arms. “Otherwise, it’s not a real adventure. How can I possibly trust you if you haven’t come prepared to kidnap me properly?”

  Adam’s lips twitched, but he suppressed his smile. “I can’t believe you. You haven’t seen me in months.”

  “Three months, two weeks and four days.” Meg held her ground.

  “You are the most impossible woman. When I planned this, I thought you’d fly into my arms and tell me you loved me....” He looked at her hopefully, but Meg only continued to wait. “Right. I’m here to tell you, to tell you...” Adam took a deep breath, looking nervous “...and you want to see my gun,” he finished in a disbelieving tone.

  “I insist on seeing your gun. Otherwise you can’t kidnap me. It’s not how it’s done. I want to know you’re serious. That you’re interested in more than a brief fling. What do you want to tell me?”

  In irritation, Adam reached behind him and produced the same gun he had first pointed at her the night they met.

  Meg smiled. Her toes tingled and the bands of logic and reason she’d wrapped tightly around her heart started to loosen. “What do you want to tell me?”

  “I love you.”

  “How long have you known that?”

  “You’re supposed to say you love me back.”

  “I said that before. Now I want to know how long you’ve known”

  “I’ve known from the first time you kissed me.”

  “The first time!”

  Adam moved in on her with a wicked gleam in his eyes and Meg retreated. “The second kiss made me crazy with lust for you.”

  “And then?”

  “The third kiss convinced me I’d never be happier than if you would agree to spend the rest of your life with me.”

  “But—but you don’t want to be with me.”

  Adam grimaced. “I tried it without you. I even dated some very suitable women. They all bored me. I couldn’t stop comparing them to you.”

  Meg quashed the quick rise of jealousy at the thought of him with other women. Then she wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she had to make sure. “But I’m the Megan Cooper from Sedona. I like trusting my instincts and taking chances.”

  “I know exactly who you are.” Adam smiled, his green eyes boring into her soul. Deliberately he walked across the room to her sofa and sat down. Then he pointed the Smith and Wesson .45 at her. “Come here.”

  She looked at him in amazement as he put the gun aside and leaned back against the sofa. Surely he didn’t think he could just walk back into her life—or break into her apartment—and she’d welcome him back. Unable to help herself, she took a step closer.

  His arm shot out and he captured her wrist and pulled. With a muffled cry, she tumbled on top of him. Adam shifted slightly, letting her fall between his legs. Then he smiled at her.

  “Let me up,” she said, but his legs and the hand still holding her arm held her prisoner.

  “I caught you. I’m keeping you.”

  “Are you?”

  He ran his free hand down her shoulder along her back, and then down her legs to the hem of her skirt. Every area he touched tingled, and she delighted in the feel of her breasts and stomach pressed against him. He began
to raise the hem of her skirt very slowly, running his fingers along her bare leg, and she gasped as she felt herself respond to him.

  “Adam, what are you doing?”

  “You owe me.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I want you,” he said as both his hands stroked from her shoulders to her knees. He pressed his hips up slowly and rhythmically into her waiting juncture, and she could feel how ready he was for her seduction. He increased the slight movement of his hips and she couldn’t help but press herself against him. His eyes smoldered with burning passion as he kept looking at her, waiting for her response.

  Two could play at this game.

  She raised herself up on her arms so that she was looking down at Adam and then moved her body a little higher. “Kiss my breasts,” she said in a throaty, brazen voice. Adam’s eyes widened in surprise and then he pulled up her blouse and touched her with his lips through the lace of her bra. “More,” she begged. “Undo my bra.” With fumbling fingers he obeyed and then held her breasts as he laved and kissed them. He used his teeth on her nipples and she welcomed the edge of pain.

  She reached between them, undid his belt and lowered his zipper, then slipped her hand inside. First she cupped his hardness, feeling the power in her hand, and then she freed his erection. She kept her hand on him, stroking until he moaned between her breasts.

  Meg wanted him now. She wished she could be naked, but all she could do was pull down her panties. As soon as they were off she took him inside her and sighed in relief. His hands went to her hips immediately and they began a fast rhythm, not touching anywhere else, not talk ing. Meg closed her eyes in sheer bliss, but then she opened them again, wanting to watch Adam’s face.

  He was looking at her and she smiled, feeling powerful, like a female goddess. They moved together in strong sure strokes, faster and harder until Meg felt the beginning of her orgasm. A small exclamation escaped her lips and Adam drove himself into her twice more before she felt his release. She stayed with him all the way, riding out their storm together until she collapsed on his chest.

  They lay together for several minutes, her arms around his neck, him cradling her to his chest. He brushed his lips against her ear. damn, that was good.”

  “Yes.”

  “You are the woman for me.” Adam brushed her hair off her face and kissed her forehead. Gently he helped her stand up and straighten her clothes. She watched him, mesmerized, as he walked back to her window and picked up one of her travel bags. “Put your shoes back on, unless you want to be kidnapped barefoot.”

  “Adam, you’re crazy. Did you really break into my apartment?”

  “Yes, you’ve turned me into a desperate man, Megan Elizabeth Cooper. I can’t live without you, so I’m taking you.”

  Meg couldn’t help the grin that split her face. “Where are you taking me? I should change.”

  “Oh, no you don’t. I like this New York City look of yours, your short skirt and high heels. I’m looking forward to stripping them off you. It’s one of my personal fantasies. As long as my Meg from Sedona is wearing them.”

  Meg laughed and ran to Adam. He caught her as she wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him. Her senses reeled as she breathed in the smell of Adam, tasted him, felt him. He cupped one hand under her bottom and dragged the other through her hair, angling her lips so he could take their kiss deeper.

  “Enough of that for now,” Adam finally gasped, putting her back down.

  Meg pouted. “Why do men always say that just as it’s getting interesting?”

  “Come on.” Adam took her hand. “Let’s go. By the time we get to three kisses I plan to have you naked and in a bed where we can take forever saying hello again.” Meg put on her shoes. “Okay. But where are we going ?”

  Adam looked at her with love on his face. “Megan Cooper, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my days with you. Together, we’re going to have a lifetime of adventures!”

  Epilogue

  MEG STEPPED THROUGH the church doors, blinking for one moment at the contrast between the bright sunlight and the dimmer vestibule. She grinned and had to restrain herself from skipping down the aisle to her groom. The man she’d waited all her life to marry. Their life together would be the greatest adventure of all.

  Her father squeezed her arm. “Ready?” he asked.

  “Raring to go,” she said with a smile. She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for agreeing to have the wedding here. Sedona means so much to me and Adam and our new friends.”

  Her two attendants began the walk down the aisle, first Kelly, who was sporting a brand-new engagement ring from Freddie. The ring he had made for her this time truly was one-of-a-kind. Then Abigail followed, grinning broadly at her friends as she passed them along the aisle.

  “I only want my daughter to be happy. When you and Adam disappeared six months ago, I was beginning to fear the pair of you had eloped.”

  “No, I wanted a proper romantic wedding with all my friends and family.” Meg smiled at everyone as she and her father began their studied walk. Jason winked at her and held Michelle’s hand, and Meg glowed. Love was making her positively giddy. She wanted everyone to be as happy as she.

  Adam had been perfectly willing to marry her at any point during their travels, but Meg had insisted that she wanted a proper church wedding. She’d agreed, however, that they could have their honeymoon first. And she had enjoyed their perfectly splendid adventure. She and Adam decided they would travel together across the country with no particular agenda. Even including the time they came across the poor lost child they’d restored to her parents and the time they’d foiled the bank robbers, the adventure had been fabulous. After six months, they agreed it was time to return to their more regular lives, confident that even the most mundane existence would still be good because they were together. Two weeks ago they had arrived back in Sedona, and Meg had declared that this was where they would be married.

  She had called her friend Emma Delaney Thome, Max’s wife, and insisted that the bridal consultant owed her big and had to plan her a wedding in less than two weeks. Emma had groaned but agreed. After all, she did owe Meg a wedding.

  Meg reached the front of the church and took her place next to Adam, the place she belonged for the rest of her life. Adam grinned rather foolishly at her, his eyes a little too bright, and Meg knew exactly what he was feeling. They were truly blessed at having found each other.

  She, Megan Elizabeth Cooper, the adventurous bride, was marrying the man she hadn’t even known she was dreaming of. She couldn’t have wished for a better ending. Or for a better hero.

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-6439-7

  THE ADVENTUROUS BRIDE

  Copyright © 1998 by Malle Vallik.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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