by Bella Andre
But before she could, he was saying, "Do you have a wedding next Friday night?"
Surprise had her answering before thinking better of it. "No, not next Friday."
"Good." His voice had lowered even more, the one word so warm and sexy she felt as if he'd reached out through the phone to touch her. "How about keeping it free for me and another fun hotel visit?"
Her heart skipped, leapt, sang! And her smile was so big that she was glad he couldn't see it. Not when it gave away far too clearly just how thrilled she was to know that he didn't want to stop their sexy no-strings fling just yet.
Soon, she knew it would end. But any woman who had experienced the kind of pleasure he'd given her would have wanted more. She wasn't weak for wanting him again, she was simply human. Human enough, evidently, that she continually had to remind herself that it was just sex. Really phenomenal sex, of course, but just sex nonetheless.
She was about to agree, when she remembered. "Colleen and I were talking about staying in, watching a movie, and eating pizza together next Friday. That's the night that's always the hardest for her."
"You're a good sister. Tell me, how does she do on Thursday nights?"
"Pretty good, usually."
"Then how about you and I aim to make it really good?"
Her breath caught in her chest. "Yes, let's."
*
The skies were clear and blue on Thursday afternoon as Adam stood with his father, Max, in front of a big old Queen Anne that had seen better days. In fact, at this point, it actually felt like knocking it down would be putting it out of its misery. But something about the place kept pulling at Adam, so he'd decided to get a second opinion from the man he most respected. It didn't hurt, of course, that Max Sullivan knew wood carvings better than pretty much anyone.
After his father had lost his job a couple of decades ago, when he'd come home from another crappy interview, he'd disappear into his workshop in the backyard and would carve wood until he was able to smile again. Adam and his siblings all joined his father in there over the years--even Mia, who ended up with some mad carving skills--and Adam was glad for what he'd learned from his father. But a job like this, with turned porch columns and hand-cut trim around the eaves and windows, needed a specialist's opinion.
In his typical way, his father hadn't said much as Adam took him through and around the outside of the house. They'd both worn hard hats, and although that hadn't helped when his father's foot went through a stair riser, it had made Adam feel a little safer walking through the place.
The neighborhood had been quiet when they'd arrived a couple of hours ago. Now, as kids got out of school, it wasn't quiet anymore. But it was a good kind of loud--kids having fun, moms and dads chatting as they wheeled strollers past each other, dogs barking excitedly as their little owners finally came back home to play with them. It reminded Adam of his childhood neighborhood, where his parents still lived on the other side of town.
And yet, at the very end of the street where the pavement turned to forest, this house had been left neglected. He hadn't dug too far into its history yet, but from what he could tell, it looked like a fairly standard story. The couple who owned it hadn't had any children and the nieces and nephews they'd left it to hadn't lived close enough to want the house, nor had their heirs been able to agree on what to do with it. Over the years, it had been left forgotten until someone in the family had finally realized they were sitting on valuable Seattle property in a great family neighborhood. The house was being sold as a teardown, but when Mia had emailed the listing to him from her realty office, she'd told him to take a look before he made up his mind.
Even as an adult, Adam relied on his family for so much. Not only their professional support, but support on every other level, too. Friendship. Respect. Love.
All of which brought him back to Kerry, the way so many things had since he'd met her a little over a week ago. She'd taken care of her sister without even a moment's hesitation, just as he would have any of his siblings.
But that was where the similarities ended. Because his siblings had never been as cruel to him as her sister had been to her. If they had, he wouldn't have stood there and taken it. Of course he would have helped them get back home and into bed--but he also would have told them where they could shove their crappy attitude.
His chest hurt every time he thought about the way Kerry had withstood Colleen's harsh words, and his jaw clenched every time he thought about the fact that she hadn't seemed at all surprised by them. He'd wanted to find out what else her sister had said to her so that he could tell her none of those bad things were true, and that she should never believe what someone so messed up had to say about her.
Only good things. All good things. That was what he wanted for Kerry--all the good and beautiful things that she gave to everyone she planned weddings for.
Actually, more sizzling-hot sex was right at the top of the list, too. Especially when five days had turned out to be way too long to go between their hotel meet-ups. Hell, given how good they'd been together, they could have spent the last five days naked together in the penthouse suite without needing more than a little food and water every now and again.
His father cleared his throat, drawing Adam back to the sidewalk they were standing on and the house in front of them.
"If you take this on, Adam, it's going to be a hell of a lot of work." His father turned away from the house to look at him. "You're looking for a challenge, aren't you?"
Again, Adam found himself thinking of Kerry. He hadn't thought he was looking for a challenge with her, but from the first moment he'd set eyes on her and realized she wasn't like any other woman he'd ever known, he'd immediately wanted to find out more. The more he found out, the more he wanted to know. Not just because the sex had been mind-blowing, either. But because she continued to fascinate him in every way.
"I've got more than enough on my plate right now," he told his father. "Too much to even be considering taking on a house like this, where something tells me I'd have to give it one hundred percent focus."
Adam always worked on multiple projects at once. When he started to get a little bored with one, he could jump to another. He'd never actually focused on only one building, figuring that split-focus was just who he was. But could he change for this house? Or, rather, could this house change him?
Despite its current wrecked state, there was something about it that told him once upon a time it had been someone's special place, and he couldn't quiet the voice inside that wanted to make it special again.
"No one would blame you if you decided to let this one go. She's going to be damned prickly," his father said. "Parts of her will probably fall down around you right when you're trying to put her back together."
It hadn't escaped his notice that, though Adam's working with the house was still in a very hypothetical--and unlikely--stage, his father wasn't speaking in maybe and might. No, Max Sullivan had already moved on to will and are.
And Adam couldn't miss that tug in his own gut that told him this place might be the ultimate diamond in the rough. Not for an investor or even a Realtor like his sister, but for Adam himself.
"Still," his father added in his deep, steady voice, "it's always hard to walk away from something beautiful, isn't it? Especially when you can sense that giving her your full attention will make both of you happy."
"We still talking about the house now, Dad?" Or had Rafe or Brooke said something to his parents about Kerry--and the sparks that had very clearly been jumping between them at dinner on Friday night at the hotel?
"I don't know. Are we?" His father grinned. "Or is there something you brought me here to talk about other than this house?"
Adam had never been one to kiss and tell. And he'd never wanted, or needed, to pull his parents aside to talk about love and broken hearts, either. But, strangely, instead of outright brushing off his father's question, he realized he actually did have another question for him.
"There's someone I want to help with something personal, but she's pretty tough. Pretty stubborn, too. She doesn't think she needs anyone to help her, but--" Constant frustration and worry had ridden Adam since Saturday morning. Because if anything happened to Kerry while she was helping her sister...
"Tough and stubborn, huh?" His father looked more than a little taken aback at hearing that. "Doesn't sound like the kind of woman you usually date."
Adam wasn't surprised that his father was fishing for details--it was just the way of things. Not because his father wanted to control his kids' lives in any way. Max and Claudia Sullivan only wanted them to be happy. And his parents believed, with one hundred percent certainty, that true love was their children's surefire path to happiness.
"We're not dating," Adam clarified. "I'm not even sure she wants me to be her friend, actually. But I need to be there for her anyway." Because if Kerry kept letting her sister wound her the way she had at the bar... Adam had to deliberately unclench his jaw.
"Of all the kids," his father said after a moment, "you were always the one who immediately reached for the hammer and nails. Or the glue and staples. You hated to watch things fall apart, not if you thought you could save them before that happened. Even if that meant trying to hold things together with your bare hands, like that bird's nest that you wouldn't let go of when you were eight because every time you put it down it fell apart. But sometimes, all you can do is trust that people are going to figure out how to rebuild things for themselves, and let them know that you're always there as a true friend if they ever do want to reach out for you."
"I wish I could use glue and staples to fix this situation." Even though Adam knew his father was right, that didn't make it any easier to stand by while Kerry got hurt.
A few minutes later, after his father had gotten into his car and was about to drive away, he rolled down his window. "I'm not sure I was as much help as you'd hoped I'd be, but if you need anything else--"
Adam could easily finish his father's sentence. "You're always there."
CHAPTER TEN
That evening at the hotel, Adam checked his phone half a dozen times for a message from Kerry. But at forty minutes past seven there was nothing--no email, no text, not even in response to his. He hoped she hadn't bailed on him, even as he worried that something might have happened to hold her up. Something worse than just a meeting that had gone on too long. An accident or--
Thank God, she came in from the sidewalk just then, her long dark hair blowing back as she moved quickly toward him. "I'm sorry I'm so late. The traffic was horrible. I could have gotten out and walked here faster if not for my heels. And my stupid phone was dead."
His only response was to grab her hand, taking her overnight bag in the other.
"Adam?"
Despite the question in her voice, she let him pull her past the reception desk and the bar and into the elevator that was conveniently open for them. He jammed in the room key that would take them straight to the penthouse suite.
The doors were closing as she asked, "Is everything okay?"
"No. But it will be soon."
His hands were already in her hair, and he caught the flash of surprised pleasure in her eyes just before he slammed his mouth against hers.
There was no sweet ramp-up tonight, no gentle whispers. Only the rawest, hottest need.
In both of them.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and met his kiss with such fierce passion that he groaned into her mouth. "More." He could barely wrap his brain around anything other than that right now. "I need more of you."
"Yes." She tore at the buttons on his shirt, and a few popped off and landed on the marble floor of the elevator. "God, yes."
Permission granted, he put his hands on her hips and lifted her so that she could wrap her legs around him. She was wearing something pretty and likely expensive that he knew he shouldn't tear off her. But when her skirt caught on her thighs, there were just way too many layers of fabric between them.
And he wanted her naked.
Now.
The back seam of her skirt tore open with one hard tug of his hands, and she immediately took advantage of the freedom, wrapping her long legs around his hips. The heat of her--and the soft press of her curves against every inch of him--made everything flash to white in his brain for a few seconds. And when one of her hands moved from around his neck to his belt buckle, he nearly lost it completely, right then and there in the elevator.
The soft bell that rang as they made it to the top of the building almost wasn't enough to pierce through. Lust had never held him so tightly in its grip before, but he'd worked on enough of these buildings to know that there had to be a video camera in the elevator. The last thing he was going to do tonight was share Kerry in all her gorgeous, naked beauty with the guys in the security room. Especially when he knew she would be the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen.
She was his, damn it.
Only his.
Fortunately, like last week's hotel, theirs was the only penthouse suite, so all they needed to do was make it out of the elevator and in the door. And then he would tear off her clothes and devour every inch of her.
But he couldn't make himself move away from her. Not yet. Not when she was rocking her hips into him and he knew how close she was. So ready for him that all it would take was the barest brush of his hand inside silk to take her over the edge.
From the moment he'd left her house on Saturday morning, he'd wanted this. Wanted to have her in his arms. Wanted to lick across her skin. Wanted to hear the sweet sounds she made when she came apart. Wanted to be inside of her more than he needed to take his next breath.
Tearing his mouth from hers on a rough curse, he yanked the key card out of the elevator, then covered the open seam at the back of her hips with his hands so that the security guys couldn't ogle even that. "Hang on tight." He carried her out of the elevator and to their door, nearly kicking it open when the card wouldn't read at first.
Finally, the damn thing opened up, and in a matter of seconds he had it closed again and locked behind them with Kerry pressed against it. The words, "I'll buy you a new outfit," were barely out of his mouth when he tore again, this time from her neck down. The belt at her waist was the only thing holding the fabric up anymore, but even though a part of him was frustrated that she still wasn't naked, another part of him needed to stop and drink her in.
The first time he'd set eyes on her, though she'd been glossy and elegant and perfect, he'd seen her like this in his mind's eye. Her hair tangled from his hands. Her mouth swollen from his kisses. Her skin flushed with desire as she begged him to touch her. To take her.
But with her hands deftly yanking open his belt, he knew now wasn't the time to stand back and stare. Later, he promised himself. Later tonight, he'd look his fill as she lay naked and soft in his arms.
Look...and run his hands over every inch of her.
By the time she'd undone his zipper, her bra was off and he was gorging himself on the sweetest tasting skin in the world, first one breast and then the other, over and over again.
Her hands faltered on the band of his boxers as she moaned and arched into his mouth. Without the elevator's cameras on them anymore, he was finally able to hook one of her legs over his hip and slide one hand into her panties.
He loved hearing his name fall from her lips in the exact moment that he found her slick and hot. Again and again, she gasped out his name as she rocked into him. And when she shattered with his fingers in her and his mouth on her breasts, he not only knew without a doubt what heaven felt like--he also knew that even though he'd never done one thing good enough to deserve to be here, he wasn't ever going to willingly walk away from the most beautiful, most responsive, sweetest lover he'd ever known.
His hands shook as he grabbed a condom, tore open the wrapper and shoved it on just seconds before she jumped up into his arms again, wrapped her legs around him, and took him all the way inside.
"Nothing has ever felt this good." He thrust up into her at the same time as she came down onto him, taking him so deep that he nearly saw stars. "Nothing but you."
He needed her mouth beneath his again, always needed to be kissing her, even when he would normally have simply been gunning for the finish line. And just as their kisses had taken him even higher last weekend, tonight he felt his chest clench even tighter as she kissed him back. Their tongues tangled, their teeth caught on each other's lips, her hands gripped his shoulders for dear life as he brought her down over him again and again and again.
Until all they could both do was just hold on tight to each other, kissing and kissing and kissing as blazing pleasure shook through both of them.
*
Like the first time they'd made love, they didn't stop kissing for a long time. Only when her arms and legs started to tremble where she was wrapped around him did Adam finally let her go--only to sweep her off her feet to carry her into the enormous bathroom and run a bath.
Sinking into a tub of hot water had never been so good, especially with the most gorgeous man in all creation lying behind her, cradling her body with his.
She leaned her head back against his shoulder and closed her eyes, sighing. How wonderful it was to finally have a chance to relax for a few minutes. Especially since she was still a little off from a second meeting with that difficult couple today, and trying to decide whether or not she should cut them loose.
"Too tired for more?" Adam murmured against her neck.
"I might be persuaded to wake up in a little while," she said as he gently ran his fingertips over her bare shoulder. She wasn't even close to having her fill of him, that was for sure, but as a huge yawn escaped her, the truth was that for a few precious moments, all she wanted was to give in to doing absolutely nothing.
Thankfully, Adam seemed to understand exactly what she was feeling, even though he could easily have turned his gentle caresses into far more sensual ones. Soon, that was exactly what she'd want. But for now, though she knew their meet-ups were supposed to be just about sex, ever since she'd been to his office, she'd been even more curious about what he did. And it would be lovely to think about someone else's job for a while.