Adam plated the New York strips and took them over to the table, placing one in front of each of his guests. He grabbed the salad out of the fridge and transferred it and the various dressings to the table as well. It wasn’t a four-course meal but it would give them all something to do with their hands and mouths.
They ate in silence for a few moments only occasionally making noises about how good it was. Sarina was markedly silent, pushing her food around her plate in an unconvincing show of eating. Adam had known this wasn’t going to be easy but this barely sheathed hostility was impossible to penetrate and frustrating as hell. He wasn’t the enemy but her cold shoulder made him feel like he was.
Even with Roan and Tess carrying the conversational load, they were done quickly and left staring at each other across the table as the evening slid into twilight. Tess reached out under the table, the weight of her hand on his leg, and the smile she offered centered him and his thoughts.
“Tess tells me that we have a mutual love of motorcycles. Harleys in particular.” Adam looked at his brother and sister, relieved to see Roan’s enthusiastic agreement and resigned to Sarina’s exasperated nod. She didn’t roll her eyes but it was pretty close.
He hadn’t come this far, hadn’t invested this much blood, sweat, money and tears into finding his brother and sister to watch his dreams die a quick and dirty death at this table. It was his responsibility to bring this family back together and he’d do everything in his power to make it happen.
“Our father, he loved riding a motorcycle.” Adam dug into his memories, hoping to find something they could build a future on. “We had this carport attached to the house and he would spend hours out there, restoring this old Harley he’d bartered off a guy passing through the Qualla Boundary. Dad was good with his hands, could fix almost anything, and I’d sit with him and hand off the tools he needed.”
Adam shook his head, surprised at his own memories. It had been years since he’d recalled that moment and he could smell the scent of grease and sunshine and the neighbors cooking sausages on a grill in their yard. How had he forgotten it?
Without thinking, he reached down and took Tess’s hand in his own, comforted by the way her warmth infused his entire body with peace and assurance that this was worth it. What was happening at this table was important. And he wasn’t just thinking about his brother and sister.
Tess was important and he knew the real reason he wanted her here. He wanted her to be a part of this future, his future.
“I remember when he finally finished the work on his bike and it needed a paint job in the worst way but it wouldn’t keep him from firing it up and taking it for a ride.” He smiled wider as the memory came more sharply into focus. “Our mom came running out of the house and yelled at him to stop doing doughnuts in the yard and he blew her a kiss and took off down the road. The bike was a piece of shit and the dust was flying but I thought he looked like the coolest guy I’d ever seen. That was when I fell in love with motorcycles.”
“I think I have a photograph of him on that bike back at my place. It was in a bunch of stuff that ended up in my bag when we were taken,” Roan said, his hands waving around in excitement. “I’ll dig it up and make a copy.” His glance widened to include Sarina. “I’ll make one for all of us.”
The sharp scrape of metal chair legs against the desk made them all jump and Adam swiveled to find Sarina standing, her expression stormy and her jaw set in an angry line. Adam rose to his feet, automatically reaching out to his sister, but her razor-sharp flinch from him kept him on his side of the table. Adam dropped his hand and braced for impact. If he knew anything about his sister, she wasn’t going to come in slow and sweet.
“Sarina, are you okay?” Roan asked, his own chair tipping backward on two legs with his agitation. He reached back, catching it before it slammed to the ground and putting it right.
Sarina tossed her napkin on the table, empty hand slicing across the air in front of her body as if she was cutting all of the tenuous ties between them. Adam’s heart dropped to the depths of the valley of the preserve. He knew what she was going to say and while he didn’t want to hear it, he knew he needed to let her have it out. In reality, he didn’t really have a choice. He might have brought them all together but that had ended any control he’d had over the situation and how it would end.
“Adam.” She glanced at Roan, implicitly including him in her comments before sliding her gaze back to him. “You seem like a nice guy but I don’t know you and I don’t remember any of this happy family stuff you’re spouting off like it’s some movie of the week. I don’t remember the motorcycle or the carport or our mom or the fucking house. None of it.”
“Sarina.”
She ignored him, the hand she’d raised to silence him slowly curving into a fist. “I only remember where I ended up and if I started sharing those tales we’d all need something stronger than what you’ve got.” Sarina took a deep breath and pressed her hands against her stomach, as if she was keeping those memories inside her, physically preventing them from coming out. “I just can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.”
The silence that descended between them now felt impenetrable, worse than it had before, but he couldn’t just leave it like this. He took a step forward and a huge risk by reaching out to touch her arm. Sarina’s eyes narrowed with wariness and she let it sit there for a couple of seconds before taking one step backward. He let his hand drop but maintained eye contact with this woman who had his mouth and Roan’s eyes.
“I won’t say that I understand exactly where you are but I think I get most of it. Something really shitty happened to us, all of us, something that should have never happened and none of our lives were ever the same. And I understand that you were so young that you don’t remember but I do. I remember. I remember your long hair and how you used to braid flowers and follow me around begging for piggyback rides. Those memories, my memories, I’m not ready to give them up.”
“But this isn’t about you and your fucking memories. This is about how you decided that we all needed to get dragged into your therapy-induced experiment. Well, I didn’t ask to be part of your ‘closure’ or whatever the hell you’re doing here. I didn’t ask to be part of any of this.”
He couldn’t have filled the silence that followed because he didn’t have anything else to say. Adam didn’t have the answers, didn’t know how to fix this, and that made him want to howl at the rapidly rising moon.
But Sarina wasn’t looking for answers. From the sharp concrete-hard set to her mouth, he knew she wasn’t going to relent, wasn’t going to end this in a way that didn’t cut him to the quick.
“I’m sorry that you went to all this trouble. Like I said, you seem to be a really nice guy. But I’ve read the files that Tess gave me and all they proved is that you are both total strangers to me and I don’t think that is ever going to change.”
She nodded to them all, a brittle, brisk nod that spoke of years of military training and an even longer education at the school of hard knocks and bitter disappointment. And then she was gone, disappearing into the shadows of the interior of his home toward the front door.
Roan stepped into his rapidly narrowing field of vision, his expression concerned and apologetic.
“Adam, I’m going to make sure that she gets to the hotel. I think it’s just going to take her a little time.” He paused, obviously searching for the right thing to say. Roan hesitated and then reached out, clasping Adam’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “Thanks for this and thanks for finding us.”
He nodded to Tess and sauntered off, following Sarina’s path. Adam stood there, rooted in place by disappointment, anger, sadness and a bone-deep helplessness that threatened to bring him to his knees.
He had failed them again.
And then Tess was there, her arms wrapped around his neck and her words of comfort spilling over him in a balm
that soothed like a summer rain on thirsty ground.
“Adam, it’s okay. You knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It will be okay.”
He leaned into her, briefly concerned that his weight, his need would be too much for her but this was Tess. His Tess. Strong. Smart. His.
And he needed her.
“Tess, tell me you need me. Even if it’s a lie. Tell me,” Adam rasped against the soft, sweet skin of her cheek, heading for her mouth and the sweet relief her kisses could bring. It was selfish and it was too much to ask but he asked it anyway.
The last thing he heard before he took her mouth was the four words that kept him from falling apart.
“Adam, I need you.”
Thirteen
Adam needed her.
Everything that they were about, every rule they had established between them told her to leave, to tell him that he’d be okay and go home. Because if she stayed, this would all be different between them and they would never be able to go back.
But she could never leave him now. Not after seeing the complete devastation on his face, the loss of hope. Adam might be stoic and strong but his bone-deep need to take care of the people for whom he felt responsible made him vulnerable. He hid it well but if you got close enough to see what mattered to him, it was hard to miss.
Tess opened to his kiss, using her own response to calm him, to let him know that she wasn’t going anywhere.
He broke it off, looking down at her, his eyes searching for answers that she didn’t have.
“Are you scared?” she asked him before she could stop herself. There was only so much she could do to soothe him with her body. Other things needed to be faced head-on. He seemed to know that she wasn’t talking about them.
“All the time,” he answered, tucking a curl around his finger. “I can’t fail, Tess.”
“You’re not going to fail, Adam.” She shushed him with a finger laid across his lips. “I don’t know if everything is going to work out exactly like you want it to but you won’t fail. We’ll find the mole and Sarina will come around.”
He shook his head, his dark eyes miserable. “I think she’s right. I was selfish to drag them both into this. They were doing just fine without me.”
Tess didn’t know much but she knew some things and they were going to get those straight right now.
“Adam, maybe Sarina isn’t ready but she was wrong about your being selfish. I was the one you hired, remember? I know what motivated you from the start and that wasn’t part of the equation.”
Adam paused, closing his eyes and clearly rolling things over in his head. He opened his eyes, dark lashes making the amber stand out.
“Are you ever scared?”
Tess didn’t hesitate with the truth. “All the damn time.”
“I need you, Tess.”
“Then take me. I’m yours, Adam. You know this.” Tess was startled by the words that tumbled out of her mouth but she wouldn’t take them back. They were true. They’d been heading toward this place and she guessed that the time was right for them to arrive and figure it out from here. It would probably require another change in the rules and she’d have to come clean about her father but that didn’t need to happen right now.
Right now, they just needed to be here for each other.
She let him lead her over to the outside lounger. Built like a huge sectional, there was more than enough room for both of them to stretch out and enjoy each other’s bodies under the stars. Tess loved the idea of having each other in the wide open. They had so many things between them most of the time, it was impossible for them to erect barriers when the sky stretched out above them like a never-ending story.
Before she could lie down he stopped her, his gaze traveling over her body in a slow, deliberate glide that made her squirm with anticipation. Adam, focused entirely on her, was something she would never get enough of. It made her feel cherished and beautiful and special. Heady stuff for anyone but since she’d never felt this way before, it dug under her skin and buried itself somewhere scarily close to her heart.
As if he could read her mind he said, “You’re so beautiful, Tess.”
“You make me feel beautiful, Adam.”
He nodded, his gaze drifting down to where his fingers were undoing the tiny buttons on her sundress, his skin grazing the sides of her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra and the sensation of his flesh, warm and rough against her, was intoxicating.
“I love the way we look together,” he murmured, his fingers slipping under the fabric to stroke her right nipple. Tess arched into his touch, squirming under his attention as her belly grew warm and her sex grew wet with lust. She could barely think about the question with him touching her like that. “Let me see all of you, Tess.”
He slid the dress off her shoulders, helping it along as it slid down her body and pooled at her feet.
“Are you cold?” he asked, a wicked smile twisting his lips as he put a finger in her mouth, taking it out when it was good and wet and circling her nipple with it, then leaning over to gently blow on it. She shook her head, biting on her lower lip when he angled his neck to look at her from his position. He was teasing her, eating up every reaction, every moan, every frantic pulse of her heartbeat. “I’ll warm you up soon enough.”
Adam took two steps back, maintaining eye contact as he toed off his shoes and socks, and quickly removed all of his clothes. Tess took the time to admire his body, strong and lean, his dark skin dusted by silky black hair across his pecs. If she was beautiful, he was...decadent, delicious, the cause of every angel’s fall from grace.
“I need you.” Adam stepped forward again, kneeling down to remove her sandals, reaching up to lower her panties down her legs, before standing and pressing his body against the length of her own. Tess reached out, a tentative touch to his cheek, needing the physical connection with him right now. “Do you know why?”
She shook her head.
“It’s because when I look at you, none of this matters anymore. All the pressures at work, the mole, my family... None of it matters because I see you and I can breathe again.”
Adam reached out to her, drawing her down to the lounge cushions, settling over her with his body, his face blocking out the sea of stars shining just over his shoulder.
“I asked you here because I need you to make it disappear. You’re the only thing I want to see for a while and then I can do what I have to do.” He reached down, his fingers toying with a curl, wrapping it around his finger. “Does that make sense?”
Tess understood all of it. When you were the one who always needed to be on, to have all of the answers you needed a refuge. They had become that to each other. Somehow in all this insanity and secrets and half-truths, they had become a safe place.
She sat up, pressing her lips to his, filling every soft glide of her tongue with what she was feeling but would not say. Could not say with the secrets she held between them.
“Just look at me. I’ll make it all disappear. It will just be the two of us. We’ll forget it all together.”
Adam’s eyes were hot and needy as he stared down at her, his erection lying hot and heavy against her abdomen. She was wide open, as vulnerable as she had ever been and pouring everything into this moment with him.
“Just keep looking at me.”
Tess reached down between them, closing her hand around him, squeezing and stroking until he writhed under her touch. His breathing was ragged: rough, needy and raw.
“More. Please. More.” He groaned, writhing under each stroke of his erection. His head dipped down, fingers clenching on cushions at the sides of her body, knuckles white and body shaking with his desire. He was gorgeous, skin smooth and damp with sweat, heavy on top of her. “Jesus, Tess. More.”
Adam suddenly gathered her close to him, flipping them both over so that she now hovered over hi
m. Tess threw her head back, letting the starshine rain down over her, coating them both with its power. When she looked down at Adam he was smiling, tracing up and down her sides with the back of his hands.
“You’re a witch, Tess Lynch. You cast your spell and I’ve never gotten away from it.”
“You’re not the only one under a spell, Adam Redhawk. What did you do to me?”
“If you figure it out, let me know. I’ll keep doing it.”
He leaned up and kissed her, deeply and thoroughly, ramping up the tension between them with the twist and tangle of tongues. Adam released her mouth, lifting slightly to trail his lips down her neck, across her collarbone, and into the valley between her breasts. Tess braced herself over him, hands on each side of his shoulders as he took his time with each breast, suckling and licking at each hard nipple until she squirmed against him.
Tess straddled him wider, her slick center rubbing along the hard, hot length of him. It reminded her of evenings in the back seat of cars with boys, not willing to go all the way but enjoying the buildup and anticipation of how good two bodies could feel together. This was better. She knew how good it was going to be with Adam.
“Adam, I need you. Now.”
She reached down between them, taking him in hand and dragging the head of his penis against the swollen folds of her sex. It felt so good, the tip sliding inside her, then the rest of him following inch by inch. She slid down his length, gasping with the fullness of him. He was so hard, so thick. Tess stroked her hands over his chest, enjoying his masculinity. The glide was so sweet, so easy as she rode him at a gentle pace, drawing out the pleasure as long as she could.
Adam fell back onto the cushions, his body arching, meeting every one of her downward slides with an answering upward thrust of his own. He pulled her down to him, kissing her deeply as they rode each wave together, their bodies undulating in a syncopation that dragged them higher and higher with each hot, slick, hungry ride.
Taking on the Billionaire Page 11
