by Andre, Bella
Seconds later she was straddling him, her hands tangled in his dark hair, giving silent thanks that his gorgeous mouth was almost beneath hers. “I know we’re not in a hotel, but—”
His lips stole away the rest of what she’d been about to say at the exact moment that her phone rang.
She tore her mouth away from his with a curse. Too late, she remembered exactly why she should have done more—heck, done anything at all—to keep a friendly distance from Adam tonight.
Not only because what she’d just done had been about to blur the very clear lines they’d set up for their arrangement, but also because the whole reason he was over in the first place was to wait with her for her sister’s call.
“Colleen, where are you?”
“The Salty Dawg, but you don’t need to get me. I’ve got a ride.”
Kerry cursed again as the line went dead. “It sounds like she’s planning to leave with someone.”
“One of my cousins is a race-car driver,” Adam told her. “He’s taught me a few things over the years.”
She grabbed her bag and hurried out to his car, which he gunned up and out of her neighborhood in true race-car fashion. “What if we’re too late?”
“Then I’ll have Rafe trace her cell phone ASAP.”
“He can do that?”
“You know he’s a P.I. He can do pretty much anything, even if not all of it is completely legal.” Despite the speed at which Adam was driving, he reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “Either way, we’re going to find your sister tonight and bring her home safe and sound.”
The first time they’d done this, Kerry hadn’t wanted to let herself believe having this kind of support was more than a one-time anomaly. But here he was again, sitting beside her, helping in every way he could, promising her that she didn’t need to worry because he was just going to keep helping.
Kerry had tried not to be angry with her sister these past months. She’d tried to understand how hard it had been for Colleen to get over the hurt of her relationship crumbling.
But now Kerry couldn’t stop herself from wishing she could have one Friday night where she wasn’t on babysitting duty for her fully grown sister. Just one Friday night where she didn’t have to keep pretending that she had any control whatsoever over the situation.
The flash of anger was short-lived, though, when she thought about how much worse things could be if her sister didn’t call some night for pickup, and instead went home with one of the losers.
The thought of anything happening to Colleen made Kerry’s blood run cold. Cold enough to put out the fire Adam had so deftly stoked while they’d watched Star Wars. And by the time they made it to the bar, it felt like having pizza on the couch together had happened in a different lifetime.
She shot out of Adam’s car, and he was only a couple of steps behind her when she nearly plowed into Colleen and her guy-of-the-night weaving their way out of the bar.
“Thank God,” Kerry breathed. She believed Rafe could have traced Colleen’s whereabouts, but it would have taken time. Time in which any number of horrible things could have happened to her sister.
Colleen’s eyes were blurred with drink, but they still went wide when she saw Adam step up beside Kerry.
“Wait, I remember you. The hot guy from last weekend who wouldn’t let me stay and have more fun.” Colleen turned to Kerry. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you?” She made a move to high-five her, but stumbled and Kerry had to catch her instead. “Not such a little goody-two-shoes, are you, out having sexytimes with Mr. Hunk. What other dirty secrets are you hiding from me?”
“Enough.” Adam’s tone was hard. Hard enough to have her sister’s mouth turn down into a pout. “We’re leaving. Now.”
“Why do you always have to come to ruin my fun?”
But Kerry could see that Adam wasn’t feeling particularly charitable tonight. Was it because he was upset that their sexytimes had been interrupted? Or was it something else? Something that made Kerry’s chest ache because she could only think of one reason he’d stick up for her.
Because he cared.
* * *
Just like the previous week, despite the fight she put up getting into Adam’s car, Colleen was fast asleep by the time they got back to Kerry’s house. And after she finished cleaning her sister up and putting her to bed, this time Kerry wasn’t surprised to find Adam waiting in her kitchen.
“You can’t keep doing this,” he said the second she walked into the room.
She’d been hoping for comfort. But she’d known that he was going to confront her, hadn’t she? If only because she’d finally come to the point herself where even she had to admit that she couldn’t keep on like this forever.
Still, since she didn’t have any other answers yet, she couldn’t just let Colleen down. “How can I just turn my back on my sister? What if I don’t go pick her up next Friday night and she gets hurt?”
“You can’t stop your sister from getting hurt if that’s what she wants.”
“Why can’t I?”
Even though she knew she shouldn’t be taking it out on him, Kerry didn’t know what else to do with all of the anger that kept bubbling up inside her tonight. She felt as if it had been bottled up forever. Not just in the past three months, but long before that.
And not just anger bottled up, either. Her sensuality. Her passion.
Herself.
“You know why, Kerry.”
“But if I’m not there for her, she’ll think she’s all alone.”
Kerry knew she was being stubborn, knew he was making a good point, but she honestly couldn’t see any other path right now.
“I can’t stand listening to her talk to you—about you—the way she does.” He took her hand and drew her closer. “You’re perfect just the way you are, Kerry. Beyond perfect.” He tipped her chin up with his free hand so that she had to look him in the eyes. “Tell me you know that.”
When she opened her mouth, all that came out was a choked sob. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, for the second time that night.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew any other man would have kept arguing with her to try to force her to see things his way. But Adam was simply letting her rest her head on his shoulder for a little while and stroking her back while she let all of the stress, all of the strain of the evening drain slowly out of her.
Tired. She was so tired. But even though asking Adam to stay the night would be the easiest thing—and the most comforting by miles—she had just enough sense left to know that the lines between them had already been pushed way too far.
The last thing she wanted was for things to get blurry between them. Not when it was so lovely to have a man like him in her life. One with whom she could laugh and have hot sex, and not have to worry for one single second about anything more. About perfect. Or forever.
Or, most of all, about setting herself up to be hurt or let down by him like all the other women in her family had with the men they’d thought were their forevers.
“Thanks for tonight,” she said when she could finally force herself to move out of his arms. Arms that had given her more comfort—and pleasure—than she’d ever known before. “I know it’s probably pretty different from how you normally spend your Friday nights.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.”
She knew he never lied to her, but still, it was difficult to take his words at face value. “Star Wars is a pretty great movie,” she joked.
But he didn’t laugh. Just said, “Are we still on to see the house in your old neighborhood tomorrow?”
The cautious voice inside was telling her she should postpone their visit to the house. That the two of them needed space. That she needed some space, at the very least, to get her head back on straight about what she and Adam were. And more important, were not.
But just as she hadn’t been able to resist letting him hold her on the couch while they’d watched t
he movie, she couldn’t resist the thought of seeing him again tomorrow. Especially when it would be the perfect thing to look forward to while dealing with her sister’s Saturday morning hangover.
“I’ll text you after my midday wedding.”
She wasn’t surprised when he kissed her good-bye. At least, not by the kiss itself. But she was surprised by how gentle his kiss was.
And by how much she missed him after she shut the door behind him and he drove away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Three nights in a row.
Adam couldn’t think of the last time he’d seen a woman he wasn’t related to that many consecutive nights. Sure, he’d dated plenty of women. And had enjoyed being with most of them in one way or another. But there’d never been anyone serious for him, no one he’d wanted to see more than once a week. It had always been easy to come up with excuses as to why he couldn’t be available more often, why they both should keep their personal space wide and open. And any woman who had pushed for more than that had been cut loose.
Only, Kerry wasn’t the one pushing for more. It was all him, over and over again.
He was the one who had texted her last night to check on how things were going with her sister. And he was the one who had made sure they were still going to meet here at the crumbling house in her old neighborhood.
The craziest thing of all? It wasn’t suffocating. It wasn’t boring. And he wasn’t regretting it. Probably, he figured, because none of their meet-ups had been dates. It was amazing how that took all the pressure off and made it so that he could actually be friends with a woman while having great sex, too.
And Lord knew he really wasn’t regretting getting a nice eyeful of Kerry stepping out of a taxi and walking toward him in another one of those super-sexy wrap dresses. Especially when the sun behind her was making it just see-through enough that he could drink in her gorgeous curves without even taking off her clothes.
His mouth watered and his hands fairly itched to grab her and pin her to the trunk of the oak tree she loved so much so that he could ravage her mouth, just so that he could finally feel at least the slightest bit sated. Because sated sure as hell hadn’t happened yet. On the contrary, the more he had of her, the more he wanted.
“Sorry I’m late again.”
He didn’t pin her against the tree, but he did tangle up her perfect hairstyle with his hands when he threaded his fingers into the silky strands and kissed her. “I forgive you,” he said when he finally let her up for air. “After all, everyone has to have a fault.”
“It’s not a fault,” she protested. “It’s the traffic in this town. They should really do something about it, like put in better public transportation or make the freeways wider.” But when he simply raised an eyebrow in response, she sighed. “Okay, maybe it’s one of my faults.”
“Wait, you have more than one?”
He loved the sound of her laughter. “You’re the last person I should be saying this to, but yes, I definitely have more than one. Count yourself lucky if the only one you ever have to deal with is my tiny little problem getting to anything outside of work obligations on time. If you saw more of me, I’m sure you’d be overwhelmed by the need to point out all the things I should be working on.”
Normally he would have counted himself lucky that he wouldn’t have to learn too much about the woman he was sleeping with. He’d never been interested in drama. Never looked for someone to fix. And he still wasn’t looking for drama or to change anyone.
But though he’d helped Kerry out a couple of times with her sister and knew that her family situation wasn’t going to get any simpler anytime soon, he still wasn’t itching to ditch. If anything, he’d been racking his brain trying to figure out how to help her. Hell, he’d nearly called his mother to ask for advice.
Fortunately, he’d had a good enough hold on his rational brain to put down the phone before he got Claudia Sullivan all in a tizzy over her hold-out-on-love son calling with a question about how to help a woman with a family problem. His mom was an insightful woman, but Adam knew she was far too focused on getting her last kid happily married to be able to see that Kerry was just a friend. One who rocked his world in the sack, but who was still not ever going to be more than just a friend.
A good enough friend, already, that he knew he needed to force himself to stop mentally undressing her and turn his focus back to the house that she had loved so much once upon a time.
She was still holding his hand as she stared at the house, and he used their connection to take her closer to the oak tree that he hoped could help anchor her in happy memories rather than sadness over what had happened to the property.
Especially because he couldn’t read her expression.
“Oh, Adam.” He couldn’t read her tone, either, and he was just about to jump in to say something soothing when she continued, “I still love it just as much as I always did.”
She’d surprised him a dozen times before now, but never as much as she did just then, when she managed to see beauty amidst the dirt and rubble, neglect and overgrowth.
He was speechless as she drew him closer to the house and ran her hand over the curved porch columns, just as his father had earlier that week. “I want to live here. In this house. On this property.” Her eyes were bright with excitement as she turned to him. “Will you help me restore it to its former glory?”
He could have said a half-dozen things right then. Could have warned her about all the problems she was bound to encounter. Could have rattled off dollar figures that would have made her head spin. Could have explained how difficult the county was likely to be about the property if they did, in fact, deem it to be historic.
He’d come here today planning to tell her not to get her hopes up too high, because renovating this place was going to be a positively enormous project that would test even the steadiest nerves.
But now that she was all rose-colored glasses and memories of love, he didn’t want to do one damned thing to dim her light, her pleasure, or her excitement.
“Yes, I’ll help you.”
She threw her arms around his neck, and he twirled her around, not caring if they looked like they were straight out of a sappy rom-com.
“Every step of the way, Kerry, I’ll be here.”
This time she was the one kissing him, dragging him under, fast and hot, with her passion.
Her joy.
“I want you.” He’d never tasted anything so sweet. Never wanted anyone as much as he wanted her. “Now.”
She echoed the now against his lips, and the only way he could stop himself from taking her right there and then on the front porch was to forcefully remind himself that they were standing outside in a neighborhood filled with families and kids who could walk past at any second. The inside of the house was out, too, because it would start falling down around them if they got too crazy.
“My house.” He could barely fit the words in between kisses. “Come to my house. It’s close. Closer than a hotel.”
It should have been lust that drove him to make the suggestion, but the truth was that it was more than that. He wanted to test her will to resist him, test her belief that walking away from him one day would be so easy. Maybe it wasn’t fair, maybe it wasn’t even entirely rational, but the way he needed her right now—he needed to know that she needed him that badly, too. Badly enough to throw away their rules for one night and come to his house instead of a hotel.
But she didn’t even blink, didn’t pause before asking, “How fast can you get us there?”
Every time she’d asked him that before, it was to go save her sister. Tonight, though, her need for speed was for them and them alone.
“Depends on whether you’re distracting me or not.”
Lightning fast, she was taking his hand and pulling him down the street to his car. He was careful driving out of the neighborhood—and she made sure to keep her hands to herself—but once they hit the freeway, he gunned it. And so did she,
already starting to unbutton his shirt.
“Three minutes. We just need three more minutes.”
He knew she had to be able to feel his heart pounding like crazy beneath her fingertips. And his heart wasn’t the only thing pounding, so when she reached for his belt, he put his hand over hers and held it still.
“If we crash, I don’t get to have you. Give me two minutes to get home.”
Two of the longest minutes of his life, especially when she leaned over and lightly bit his earlobe.
“Sixty seconds.” Which was one minute that he might not live through, not if she kept doing that thing with her tongue.
Finally, they were inside his garage. And then all bets—and any rules that had ever been there between them—were off.
Her dress was up and over her head before she could blink. Her bra and panties torn off and tossed to the floor of his car.
“Come here.”
He shoved his seat back and together they got her onto his lap as fast as possible. Her breasts were perfection in his hands, and then his mouth, and her hips were already grinding onto the jeans he hadn’t let her take off him while he was driving. She was already making those gorgeous sounds that told him how close she was to the edge, and he’d never needed anything so much in his life as he needed to hear her come just then.
“I need to watch you come for me.” He tugged at her hair with one hand so that he could look into her eyes. With the other, he gripped her hip to bring her even closer. “I need to feel it.” He lowered his mouth to her neck to nip at her skin and whispered into her ear, “I need to taste it, too.”
Her mouth parted on a gasp, and when he looked back at her, her eyes were fluttering half-closed as the tremors shook her. They rode her climax together, and though he loved being able to see her face as she came, he needed her mouth too badly not to take it with his.