by Lydia Rowan
“Which one? The asshole who couldn’t take his eyes off you?” he asked.
Sloan shivered, remembering those cold eyes on her. “No, though he was…unpleasant. The one who was glued to Alistair’s side?”
“Ah, the one who only pretended to keep his eyes off you?” Adam said. Sloan glanced at him, trying to interpret the undertone of anger she heard in his voice, or the fact that he had even noticed the guard whose eyes she had met more than once.
Adam had seemed completely oblivious, hadn’t seemed to be paying anyone but her any particular attention, though she realized she shouldn’t have fallen for that. If nothing else, he was always alert, so it should have come as no surprise he’d seen.
“Yeah, him,” she said.
“Why do you ask?” he said.
She shrugged, not exactly sure how to put her thoughts into words. “I don’t know… He seems different,” she said, knowing she was lacking specificity, but Adam still nodded.
“I plan on finding out a little more about him,” Adam said.
“He seems different to you too?” Sloan said.
“All of Alistair’s men are too well-trained to be babysitting tourists, but he’s particularly of note. A little more than what’s on the surface,” he said. Then he lifted one corner of his mouth. “Besides, he was ogling my fiancée. That’s worth a conversation, don’t you think?”
The warm feeling that settled over Sloan at Adam’s display of possessiveness was one she wanted to ignore but couldn’t. His words, the look in his eye felt so real that Sloan could almost believe him. She wouldn’t, though, and instead turned to another issue.
“Are you kidding?” Sloan asked, letting herself smile, a byproduct of that damn nagging happiness Adam’s words had inspired.
“What would I be kidding about, Sloan?” Adam said.
“You’re really going to use me as a front to poke around?” she said, looking at him skeptically.
“What’s ridiculous about that? I’m a man and you’re my woman. Can’t let that stand,” he said.
Sloan scoffed. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. We are at a couples’ retreat, so I’m afraid you’ll have to find another angle.” She shrugged. “And he wouldn’t be interested anyway,” Sloan said.
“What gives you that idea?” Adam asked, frowning down at her from what Sloan realized was less than a foot.
She shrugged again, acutely aware of Adam’s presence now. “Let’s just say I’m not the type of girl to inspire that particular sort of attraction from that particular type of guy. Besides, you were handling me like a sack of potatoes, so I think you pretty well marked your territory,” she said.
She laughed, but Adam didn’t join in, and instead took a few steps closer, steps that again reminded her of how close he already was. Reminded her of how it had felt to have his hands on her, how her pulse had quickened, how her sex had slickened, gotten heavy with her need.
“A sack of potatoes?” he said.
She nodded, words having left her.
“Why do you say that?” His voice had taken on a different tone, one she’d never heard from him, and certainly not directed at her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it.
Actually, that wasn’t true. She knew exactly how she felt. Her insides, which had been trembling with desire, were again set off, and she could feel the heavy pulsing between her thighs, a need only Adam could fulfill. One that he wouldn’t again, even after that mind-blowing encounter in the ocean.
Sloan tried to laugh it off, waved at him dismissively.
“Say what? How you were marking territory?” she said, looking at him but keeping her gaze centered somewhere around his throat, though that only gave her the opportunity to look at the strong column of his neck, his throat working as he swallowed…
She snapped her eyes up, quickly deciding to keep them somewhere around his lips. No, too easy to think of those lips caressing her skin. She settled on his strong jaw, imagined the stubble scrapping against her breasts… She moved her gaze, looking for somewhere safe, though with Adam, there was no such thing.
“You were saying, Sloan?” Adam said when she finally met his eyes.
Wrong move, but she couldn’t look away, and instead let out a high-pitched laugh that sounded both nervous and breathless, which she was in no small part because of the fiery intensity with which Adam watched her.
“You know how you were touching me, handling the goods, so to speak,” she said, shrugging before she quickly covered the motion, not wanting to give Adam a glimpse of the unsteadiness, the nerve-shattering need this conversation, the thoughts it made her think, inspired.
He chuckled, the sound low, not one of humor but some emotion she didn’t dare try to identify.
“Is that what you call it? Handling you like a sack of potatoes?”
“You call it something else?” she asked, breathless now, her nipples tight, her palms sweaty.
He stepped even closer, and though she wanted to look away from the intensity of his gaze, she had no choice but to keep the connection, stare into his eyes, dark, fathomless, glittering.
Sloan knew she was reading into this, was letting the desire that pulsed in her like an unrelenting heartbeat change her mind, allowing it to see things that weren’t there, but in that moment, she could’ve sworn, would have bet all she valued, that he felt some of the desire she did.
“I do call it something else,” he said, his voice barely whispered.
“What?” she said, her own voice husky, heavy, breathy, and giving away far too much.
Adam noticed. She knew well enough to know that nothing escaped him, but he said nothing and instead kept focused on her. “I call it touching you like a man touches the woman who belongs to him.”
“What?” she said. Belonging didn’t apply here because he sure as hell didn’t belong to her, and he had no interest in having her belong to him. She held on to that truth, though her body desperately wanted to overrule her.
He lifted one corner of his mouth. “I think you heard me,” he said.
“I did. I meant why? Why did you say that?” she said.
She hated her voice, how heavy it was, how desirous, but she needed an answer to the question.
But instead of responding, Adam again lifted his hand and trailed his fingers down her shoulder, over the bare skin of her arm, making her tremble, and then he moved it forward boldly, rested it at the curve of her waist.
“Aren’t we supposed to be engaged, Sloan?”
“Yes. Yes, we are supposed to be engaged, Adam,” she said, putting emphasis on the word “supposed,” a reminder to herself as much as it was to Adam.
“So how else would I touch you?”
“I don’t… I don’t know,” she said. If it were how she wanted him to, they’d both be naked right now. If it were the way most likely to ensure her sanity, he’d keep his damned hands to himself.
“You think about it,” he said.
As he spoke he lifted his hand to rest just at the curve of her head, and the intense throbbing between her thighs only got stronger.
“Come up with anything?” he asked.
“Umm…”
“I’ll take that as a no, so let me fill you in,” he whispered. “I’m going to touch you however I’d like, as often as I’d like. I’m going to make sure every man here knows you’re mine.”
“So…” Sloan said, grateful she could finally make words, disregarding the fact it was only one. Adam seemed serious, serious enough to make her question her assumption that this morning had meant nothing to him.
“So…” Adam said, mimicking her, except for the fact that his voice was calm, not twisted with the desire that made her knees weak.
Sloan swallowed, forced her mind and body to calm enough to allow her to form a sentence. “So what will I do?” she asked.
Adam lifted the corner of his mouth, huffed out a little laugh. “What you’ll do is get used to it.”
Slo
an felt a phantom tug at her already turgid nipples—the man managed to wring a physical reaction from her without even touching her—and then looked up to meet Adam’s eyes, only realizing after that her own had dropped, gone heavy-lidded with the desire Adam was busily stirring with his words and the caress of his gaze.
“Get used to it?” she asked.
He nodded. “We have to keep up the cover,” he said.
His words had the effect of a bucket of cold water.
Sloan blinked, then looked away, her heart pounding, the warmth in her stomach turning leaden, the weight of her disappointment almost a tangible thing. “Yes. The cover. I understand,” she said quickly. “I’m going to shower, go to bed.”
“Me too. I should get some sleep,” he said.
Sloan nodded but she wasn’t listening, not really, and instead she kept her gaze diverted, focused on the bathroom, only allowed herself to exhale when she was safely behind the bathroom door.
11
Adam looked at the heavy bathroom door, blood coursing through his system, his heart pounding.
There had been times, before, when he’d thought he caught glimpses of desire in Sloan’s eyes. He’d dismissed them, chalked them up to wishful thinking.
But there was no mistaking what had transpired between them this morning. And there was no mistaking what had happened between them moments ago. No mistaking what he’d seen, no mistaking how he felt.
His entire body was alive, primed, ready for her.
Adam should have ignored that, stayed where he was. He’d already lost his head earlier, and he’d told himself that he wouldn’t make that mistake again. That one taste of Sloan would have to be enough to last a lifetime.
He’d been a fucking fool. There might be a man out there with the discipline and focus to not touch Sloan again.
That man wasn’t him.
There was no way he could be this close to her and not touch her. The next thing he knew, Adam was moving across the floor and to the bathroom door. He somehow knew he wouldn’t have this chance again. If he let this pass, didn’t act on the undeniable chemistry between him and Sloan, they’d finish this mission, go back to Seattle, and fall back into the way things had been.
And Adam wouldn’t be able to live with that regret, so now was the time. He was going to lay his cards on the table, see if Sloan was interested in playing the game.
••••
Sloan looked in the bathroom mirror, but her attention wasn’t focused there. It was almost completely centered on the sound she heard coming from the room she’d just left.
Adam was there, Adam who planned to touch her like she was his, Adam who, in a few whispered sentences, could undo her. For a moment, Sloan wished she was a different her, one who would go after him. But she wasn’t, and wishing wouldn’t make her so. So instead of hiding in this bathroom, she needed to get back out there, get used to him like he’d said.
She turned and strode toward the door, noticing that the bedroom had gone quiet. She pulled the door open but didn’t jump when she saw Adam standing there, his huge form filling the doorjamb, his eyes still amber with intensity directly focused on her, the light button-down linen shirt and pants that he wore so not Adam and not doing anything to hide his strong physique.
She had been on the verge of stepping out of the door, which put her directly in front of Adam, close enough to feel the heat from his body. She kept her eyes locked on his, her mind racing but also calm. When she blinked, she felt like something changed. She began to move.
He met her halfway, his lips crashing into hers.
Adam had touched her a lot during the last several days, had been inside her only hours ago, but none of those touches, which she suspected may have been more real than she had realized before, had prepared her for this. Adam’s lips against hers, his big, warm hands against her face, the rough calluses of his palms scoring her skin and making her shiver.
Helpless to do anything else, Sloan gave in to the sensation and pressed her body against his, finally letting her hands free to touch him.
Adam’s lips against hers, her hands against his body, was perfection, or at least Sloan had thought so until he slipped his tongue between her lips and deepened their kiss, let his hands go lower to bring their bodies fully together. And there was no way she could miss the sensation of his hardness against her, no way she wanted to.
She moaned, the sound lost in Adam’s mouth, but he soon broke the kiss, looked down at her, breathing intently, his chest rising and falling with his heavy breaths.
Her gaze searched his, and she looked into the swirling depths of his dark eyes. The moment extended, and Sloan was frozen, wanting to go forward, not trusting herself to recover if he rejected her.
Adam made the choice for her. He again swooped down and closed his lips over hers, kissing her with a depth of passion unlike any other before. His lips against hers, the urgency of his kiss, made it impossible for her to do anything but respond. There would be consequences for this, and Sloan knew once they got back home she’d have to piece her heart back together. She’d deal with that later. For now, she had Adam.
She sighed hard and Adam laughed, but he didn’t break the kiss. Instead, he pulled her closer and let his hands roam her body. But it wasn’t like it was before.
Sloan had thought he’d been daring, open when he’d touched her before, but his hands on her now proved he’d been holding back. His touch now was one of possession, gentle yet controlled, everything she had hoped it would be and so much more.
It was only when Adam broke the kiss that Sloan realized she’d curled her fingers against his chest, clinging to him. She loosened her fingers but didn’t let him go, and when Adam reached for her skirt, she began working the buttons of his shirt open, trying to distract herself, or she would come on the spot.
So as he pulled her dress up her legs slowly, she worked at the buttons equally slowly, pausing to place a kiss against each patch of skin that was exposed, letting her gaze and then her fingers and then her mouth trail against him, her body shaking with desire.
“Take your dress off, Sloan,” Adam said, his voice almost inaudible.
Instinct bade her to comply, so she did, reaching for the fabric Adam had pooled at her waist. She had no intention to be seductive or even try, but her body felt uncoordinated, leaving her incapable of moving fast. She didn’t know whether that was good or bad. The longer it took for her to remove the dress, the longer it would be before Adam touched her again. But she couldn’t deny that watching him watching her was one of the most erotic things she had ever experienced, this morning in the ocean topping the list.
Finally, when she thought she would combust from the heat of Adam’s gaze on her, she pulled the dress over her head and tossed it aside.
“Now the bra,” Adam said almost immediately.
Sloan moved even slower now, unhooking the bra with even less finesse than before. Some of her passion was displaced by hesitation. Her breasts were on the small side, definitely not in proportion to her hips, and Sloan was still shy about them.
She needn’t have been, not when she saw Adam’s worshipful gaze on her partially bare body. He pulled his shirt off, baring his own chest, and then closed the few inches between them, reaching for one of her breasts as he closed his lips around her nipple.
“Umm,” Sloan cried out when Adam sucked hard, teasing her hard nipple with his tongue. His stubbled face against her skin, his rough palm against her breast, only added to those sensations, and Sloan went slack against him.
But Adam held her up, dropping his hand from her breast to anchor around her waist. She threaded her fingers through his dark hair, torn between feeding him more of her breast and pulling away. As overwhelming as the feelings were, Sloan couldn’t imagine them ending, so she arched her back, pushing more of her flesh against Adam’s magic tongue.
He huffed out, his warm breath making goose bumps break out on her skin. When he released her breast, S
loan frowned, which made Adam smile. He trailed a hand up her waist, grazing his fingers over her nipple, and up to brush his thumb across her bottom lip. Then he moved forward and kissed her deeply.
Sloan reached for him, but he abruptly broke away again and began kissing down her neck, over her collarbones, and down the center of her chest. As he went, he bent his knees, moving lower until he kneeled in front of her. Sloan reached for his shoulders, unable to do anything else, including stand on her own two feet. How could she when Adam Reins was on his knees in front of her, his face two inches from her pussy?
One inch.
He stopped moving, looked up into her eyes for a split second, his gaze searing. Then he broke her gaze and moved forward, kissed her cloth-covered mound tenderly. Sloan tightened her grip on his shoulders, her knees further weakening.
Adam continued to hold her up and then reached for her panties, breaking contact long enough to pull her underwear down. He gripped her thighs then, holding the ample flesh as he kissed her. Adam breathed deep.
“You smell amazing, Sloan,” he said, his warm breath against her even warmer skin was heaven.
“Thank you,” she said, knowing she sounded silly, but unable to hide the passion in her voice. “I apprecia—”
Sloan’s words cut off on a deep moan when Adam snaked his tongue out and pushed it between her slick lips and curled it around her clit. Adam sucked hard and then let go, sliding his tongue along her wet folds and then back to her clit, over and over again until Sloan thought she would explode.
Adam still held her, his muscled forearm wrapped tight around her thighs, one hand on her hip as he worked his tongue, lips, and teeth against her pussy, eating her with the same relentless focus he brought to everything else.
“Adam…” she said, her voice weak, her fingers locked in the hair at the base of his neck.
“Yeah, baby?” he said, his breath again hitting her heating skin and again taking her breath.
“I need…”
“What do you need, Sloan?” he asked when she trailed off, punctuating each word with a swipe against the hard nub of her clit.