by Bella Andre
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 the 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.
He'd meant what he said about needing to taste her. Not just her lips, but all of her. And as tempting as it was to take her there in his car, he needed to lay her out on a bed so that he could have better access to all of her incredibly tempting curves and hollows and beautifully sensitive spots.
He lifted her out of his car and got them to his bedroom as quickly as he could. It was the first time he'd ever wished for a smaller house. Hell, a one-room studio would have been perfect so that he could have walked in the door and just tossed her down onto the bed. It didn't help that she kept distracting him with kisses and roving hands while he tried to get through the living room and up the stairs.
Finally, he kicked open his bedroom door and dropped her onto his bed. Her breath whooshed out of her as she landed, but she was laughing as he leapt over her and pinned her hands above her head, her lovely thighs open on either side of his knees.
Beyond rational thought or action now, he bit at her lower lip, hard enough that she gasped again, but then immediately did the same to him. No woman had ever made him feel this wild. No other woman had ever made him completely lose control. And no other woman could have goaded him into even more wildness the way she did.
He rained kiss-bites all over her skin, her breasts, her rib cage, her waist, the curve of her hips...and then he was momentarily lost. Lost in the taste of her silky sweet flesh as he ate up her arousal, sending her straight toward a second climax as quickly as he had the first one.
He loved hearing his name on her lips, how desperate she sounded as she shattered again. Only now, he didn't have to wait to get her from the car to his bedroom. This time he was already there, having yanked off his own pants while he was eating up every inch of her perfect skin. A heartbeat later he had a condom on, and before she could begin to come down from her climax, he was inside of her, and she was wrapping her arms and legs around him and giving him even more of herself.
More of her sweetness. More of her passion. More of everything that he couldn't get enough of.
More.
More.
More.
Until they both went hurtling over the brilliant edge of pleasure, her mouth and body beneath his the most perfect fit in the world.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Kerry woke the next morning, she couldn't believe last night could possibly have been real.
Because how could any two people need each other that badly? So much that they'd gone from his bed to his shower. And then the rug in front of the fireplace in his bedroom. And then again to his bed.
They hadn't stopped for food. Hadn't needed to drink anything, either, not when they'd been utterly drunk on each other. Again and again, he'd sent her reeling with pleasure--and she'd done the same with him. Only pure exhaustion had been able to douse their fire.
Now, Adam Sullivan lay sound asleep beside her in his huge bed, which had already been unmade when he'd first devoured her on it and was now little more than a tangle of sheets and limbs. The first rays of the sun were just beginning to illuminate the room, but mostly him, as if it were specifically seeking him out so that it could shine over him.
For the first time since she'd met him, Kerry was able to stare. To admire the strong lines of his cheekbones and jaw, the mouth that she found herself daydreaming about during meetings, his long dark lashes. She'd never imagined waking up in bed with a man like him, who could have walked straight out of a magazine or off the movie screen. More than that, she'd never dreamed that a man like him would want her the way he wanted her.
The passion between them was...
Honestly, she didn't know how to begin processing it. And it was tempting, so very tempting, to not overthink what was happening between them. Just to keep letting it happen. Over and over and over and over again until every cell in her body was celebrating being alive and in Adam's arms.
But she knew better.
She'd known all along that she needed to keep her guard up around him. Stupidly, she'd thought it would be easy. Easier, anyway, to keep one foot on the brake at all times and her eyes firmly on pleasure and nothing else.
Yes, last night had been pure pleasure, start to finish. There was no question at all about that. But it had been more than just pleasure. And she thought she knew why: Their other nights together had been planned meet-ups at hotels, but last night had not only been totally spontaneous, it had also been born of more than lust, more than desire.
Joy--pure, unfettered joy--had propelled her into Adam's arms. All because he'd rediscovered her dream house and had promised to bring it back to its former glory with her.
It was that joy that scared her. Because while the sex was great, it was the happiness she felt with Adam that she knew she'd never be able to replace when their arrangement came to its inevitable end.
She was a fun change for him right now, utterly unlike the other women he'd been with--just as he was a total change for her. That was why it was so exciting. Such a rush that they'd both thrown caution to the wind for a night and ended up in his big, warm bedroom instead of staying in neutral hotel territory.
Adam's imprint wasn't only on the walls and ceilings and floors of the home he'd restored, it was also on every piece of furniture and book and framed painting.
She couldn't take a breath without breathing him in, too.
Where pleasure had swamped her all night long, morning now brought panic rushing in to replace it. She needed to get out of his bed, and fast--before she got to the point where she never wanted to get out of it at all.
Kerry had shifted less than an inch away from Adam when his arm came around her waist, and he tugged her so that she was lying across his chest. Chest to chest, she could feel his heart beating against hers. But it wasn't his nakedness, or hers, that made hers beat faster.
It was the smile on his lips, and in his eyes, that stole her breath. And sent an even deeper terror racing through her. Because she liked his smile--loved his smile--so much that she realized she wanted it to be the first thing she saw when she woke up every morning for the rest of her life.
"Morning."
"Good morning."
She put everything she had into hiding her panic from him, but a frown had already begun to steal away his smile. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She made herself smile, hoping it reached her eyes the way his had. "I just need to get going to make it to my office on time."
He continued to frown, but instead of pushing her, he simply said, "I'll make you breakfast first."
The words I'll make you breakfast shouldn't have her heart twisting up in her chest. She was being ridiculous. Melodramatic. Clearly, the endless hours of mind-blowing sex actually had blown out a whole host of her brain cells, and now she was functioning on less than a full set.
She'd let the house--and Adam's amazing kisses--sweep her away yesterday. But in the clear light of a new day, his easy offer to make her breakfast told her without a shadow of a doubt that she hadn't been nearly careful enough about not blurring the lines.
Not to mention the fact that it had felt way too much like they were making love last night when it should have been nothing more than naughty, wicked sex.
The last thing she wanted to do was move off his deliciously hard--and aroused--body. But she couldn't stay here and keep having sex with him. Not when every kiss, every touch, would only drag her deeper into the danger zone.