The chaos inside seemed to surprise him.
“I’m cleaning.” It was a lame explanation, but all she could offer for the moment.
“I can see that.” However, the chaos didn’t deter him, and he went over to the sofa and waited for her to join him.
After she perched near the arm, he lowered himself to the middle, his gaze on her all the while. “I thought about what you said Saturday night—that I’d asked you along to use you…for a payback. I didn’t believe that was my intent, but after what came out of my mouth at the zoo, I realized maybe it was. I thought we had more than a teenage crush. You were more than a new girl in town who I dated for a while. I had started weaving dreams about us, Leigh. I thought you had started dreaming, too.”
“I had,” she admitted. “But Mom reminded me my other dreams were important, too.”
“You obviously didn’t think we could work on dreams together. You didn’t have any faith in what was happening between us.”
Walking away from Adam had hurt her, but now she realized how all of it had looked to him. “Can we get past what happened?” she asked now.
“I’m not sure there’s any point in getting past it. This summer you’ll be leaving for Cleveland. But I had no right to say what I did yesterday. I have no right to judge your life. You’ve set your goals and I admire them. Believe me, I understand about wanting to succeed, about reaching for something more than you had. In your case, you’re reaching for both you and your mother.”
Adam was on target with that. She certainly couldn’t deny it. “So where do we go from here?” she almost whispered.
He moved toward her then, and her heart pounded so hard she could hardly catch her breath.
“Where do you want to go from here?”
“I don’t know. I just know I want you to forgive me. I didn’t want to hurt you. I—” She couldn’t help the quick tears that came to her eyes and caused a large lump in her throat.
When Adam reached toward her, Leigh closed her eyes. She felt him finger a strand of hair along her cheek. Her body trembled as he brushed a few more behind her ear. Then he wiped away one small tear that had escaped from under her lashes.
“Leigh,” he said hoarsely.
Adam’s kisses had always made her world spin, and now as his palm caressed her cheek, as his lips covered hers, the light and excitement and fire racing inside of her brought alive needs that had been asleep. It wasn’t long before his tongue slipped into her mouth.
She reached for him, wanting to relive experiences they’d shared, wanting to touch him again. When she caressed the back of his neck, he groaned. She could feel the same tension in his body that was coiling inside of her. His tongue coaxed hers into a mating that was intimate, seductive and thoroughly arousing. After he pulled the scrunchie from her ponytail, he ran his fingers through her hair, angled her head and ravished her more completely. Although Adam’s passion had always been hotly intense, he was incredibly tender, too. That’s what made it so overwhelming. That’s what made her lose herself in him.
When his mouth broke away from hers, she thought he was going to stop. She knew it was best if he did stop. But Adam apparently had no intention of ending what they had started. His lips trailed soft, wet kisses down her throat. One of his hands stroked her midriff, then moved higher to caress her breast. She was being swept away into an erotic watershed of desire.
Mindlessly she arched into his hand, wanting to feel more, do more. But he was in control. He was leading her, and she could only follow.
As his hand left her breast, she opened her eyes and she could see the fierce need in his. Without a word he lifted her shirt up and over her head, then he unhooked her bra. When she made no move to stop him, he cupped her breast in his hand and fingered the nipple, all the while never moving his gaze from hers. She should be blushing. She should be embarrassed. She should be trying to clear her head of the sexual haze to make sense of what was happening. But Adam was filling her world, not leaving any space for anything else, as he took both of her breasts into his hands and thumbed the nipples simultaneously. She felt as if rockets were going off inside of her. With deliberate slowness, he made incredibly slow rotations around her breasts and passed his hands down her sides. His thumbs met at her navel, and they traced her rib cage.
She could hardly sit still. As arousal cloaked Leigh in its excitement, Adam bent his head to her breast. The chaos in the room and in her heart and in her head vanished in an awareness of only him. His lips were masterful as they teased and taunted her and she breathed his name. After he stopped for only a second, he leaned back on the sofa taking her with him, stretching his legs out under her. She realized Adam had gotten terrifically experienced at foreplay, though she didn’t know if she could stand much more. His hands slid over her backside, and the stretchy material of her leggings seemed to be no barrier at all. She could feel every stroke as if she were naked. Her breasts pressed against the cotton of his shirt and she could feel each one of his breaths. Most of all, she was aware of his powerful arousal. The heavy denim of his jeans couldn’t hide it and she melted over him, wanting to feel more of it.
He brought his arms around her and kissed her again. It was a hungry kiss, marking everything she could give. When she responded with the same hunger, his hands slid up her shoulders into her hair.
Breaking it off, he growled, “I want you.”
“I want you, too,” she whispered.
Taking her at her word, he hooked his thumbs in her leggings and started to drag them down. She wiggled and slid and helped any way she could until they were around her ankles. Using her feet to kick them off, she started on the buttons on Adam’s shirt. They were both breathing hard. They were both in a hurry to get them undressed. They were both aware of an urgency that defied reason.
“I have to sit up to get my shirt off,” Adam muttered. Then he gave her a wry grin. “But I don’t want to stop this.”
“I’ll be able to touch you a lot better if your shirt’s off.”
Her honest words brought a flair of desire to his eyes, and moments later he was bare-chested and her fingers were sifting through thick brown hair. She looked up and then found herself lost in another kiss.
The phone rang.
Adam didn’t break away and Leigh didn’t care. She had an answering machine.
His tongue suggestively stroked hers.
The phone rang again.
Neither of them paid it any heed…neither of them cared who was calling.
However, after the fourth ring, a deep male voice said, “Leigh, it’s Dr. Chambers. I’ll leave a message here, then I’ll also try to reach you on your cell phone.”
Adam and Leigh broke apart at the same moment. Leigh was on her feet racing to the kitchen as Dr. Chambers went on, “The results of the tests are back.”
Her breath coming in short gasps, she plucked the receiver from its cradle and somehow managed to find her voice. “Dr. Chambers? It’s Leigh.”
“Leigh. Wonderful. I’m so glad you’re there. I know you want to give this information to Mr. Bartlett as soon as you can. He’s a perfect match.”
Adam had followed Leigh to the phone. As she took in the news, she sent up a prayer of thanks. Mark had a chance now, he really did—that is if Adam went through with the harvesting procedure. With the way he felt about hospitals—
“I’ll tell Adam…Mr. Bartlett. What about the Cambrys?”
“Officially you can’t say anything to them until Bartlett signs a consent form. That’s procedure, Leigh.”
She knew that. She just thought that in this case since everyone knew each other… “All right. I’ll tell Mr. Bartlett that, too.”
“Fine. Call me back after you reach him. The faster he makes his decision, the better for Mark. If he’s going to do this, we need to get the boy into the hospital and get him prepped. This is going to be a rough road for Mark, but at least he has a road now. I’ll let you go so you can call Bartlett.”
Although she was self-conscious about her nakedness now, she didn’t want to keep the news from Adam any longer than she had to. “You’re a perfect match. The news couldn’t be any better than that. Now you have to decide if you’re going to go through the harvesting procedure. The sooner you decide, the better it will be for Mark.”
As Adam digested what she’d told him, she hurried to the sofa, slipped on her bra and slid into her panties and leggings, pulling them up quickly. After she tugged on her T-shirt, she joined Adam in the kitchen once again. “Do you want me to go over everything that will happen?”
She was trying to be professional when all she could do was stare at his bare chest and think about the way he had kissed her, the way he had touched her, the way she had responded with an abandon she’d never felt before. Yet another part of her was relieved the phone had rung. Making love to Adam shouldn’t happen on impulse. Not with their history…not unless they were both sure they wouldn’t have regrets afterward.
Adam had been staring out the kitchen window. Now he shifted and met her gaze. “Marietta explained it all thoroughly. Since I already had a physical, they’ll admit me when Mark is ready for the transplant, prep me and give me anesthesia. Then they’ll extract the bone marrow. I’ll stay overnight and be discharged in the morning.”
Her heart racing, she nodded. “Your hips will be sore, and you’ll feel as if you took a bad fall on the ice. Somebody should drive you home. Have you made up your mind you want to do this?”
“I don’t have any choice. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to save Mark’s life. Can we tell him the news?”
“No one can tell him until you sign the consent papers. That’s the procedure.”
“All right. Fine. Then let’s sign the consent papers.”
Leigh checked her watch. “It’s almost eight. Nobody will be at the hospital—”
“Didn’t you say the sooner we do all this, the better for Mark?”
“Yes, I did.” She thought about it. “Let me call Dr. Chambers back. If you sign the papers tonight, we could admit Mark in the morning.”
Moments later, her conversation with the chief of staff was short and to the point. The administrator agreed to meet them at the hospital in the conference room she’d used before. He would have everything he needed with him.
When Leigh put down the phone, she looked up at Adam. He was standing a good two feet away.
“Dr. Chambers said he’d meet us there. You can sign the forms tonight.”
“Good. Then we can tell the Cambrys. Are you ready?”
The sparks in Adam’s eyes told her he was looking at her as if he remembered what state she’d been in just fifteen minutes before. She remembered, too. The problem was, though, he wasn’t acting as if they’d almost made love on the sofa. He was acting as if nothing had happened.
For now, they’d have to forget about the two of them and concentrate on Mark. Maybe that’s what Adam was doing and that was the distance she felt between them.
“Give me two minutes. I just want to change my T-shirt and grab a jacket.”
As she hurried to the bedroom, she saw Adam move toward the window again. He stared out unseeingly, and she wished she knew what was going through his head.
Chapter Seven
Shifting gears from almost having sex with a woman to the realization that he was going to become a transplant donor kept Adam from dwelling on either for too long. Although the phone call had seemed to come at an inopportune moment, he was thankful for it now. Leigh’s vulnerability had grabbed him in the gut. Impulse and an overstimulated libido had taken over. Frustratingly, he’d wanted her as he had years ago, and he’d acted on that.
However, if he’d given in to fulfilling his physical needs, he would have been sorry. Everything about this situation with Leigh was unsettling. They’d been thrown together and, apparently, neither of them knew how to react to that. Still, they weren’t teenagers any longer. They were adults with adult decisions to make. He wasn’t about to become involved with Leigh Peters again when she’d be leaving in June.
After he found a place in the parking garage, they walked across the catwalk to the hospital. It seemed quiet. Adam hated the idea of Mark being admitted here and everything the young boy was going to have to go through. His own part in it…
He’d handle it as he’d handled everything else in his life. He was a master at shutting down his thoughts and doing whatever he had to do. Letting himself remember what had happened to Delia and thinking about what was going to happen next wouldn’t help anyone.
They took the elevator to the fourth floor, and still Leigh didn’t say anything. He didn’t know if she was thinking about her job or what had almost happened on her couch. She’d avoided his gaze as they’d left her apartment.
Maybe the couch was winning.
The fluorescent glitter of the overhead lights on the tile floor brought back too many memories as Adam strode quickly to the conference room. Somehow Leigh kept up. When they arrived, the door was already open and Adam spotted Dr. Chambers and Marietta waiting inside.
“Marietta,” Leigh said, surprised. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”
The counselor shrugged and her answer encompassed both Leigh and Adam. “Dr. Chambers wanted me here in case Adam had any questions. I’ll go over the consent forms with you,” she added with a patient smile.
Chambers was apparently making sure all of his bases were covered with this one. The success of this whole endeavor could bring more funding to his hospital in several ways. Adam couldn’t fault the good business sense in that. It was just a shame that practicing medicine had boiled down to dollars and cents.
Was that true for Leigh, too? Is that why she wanted to become a doctor? She’d told him more than once that she was happy with the work she was doing. Then again, she might be even happier with a medical degree.
Before they took seats at the conference table, Dr. Chambers shook Adam’s hand. “This is a fine thing that you’re doing. I wish more people would sign up with the registry and realize they could help save lives.”
“It’s hard to get the word out,” Leigh agreed.
After the women were seated, Adam took his chair, too. He glanced at Marietta. “I hope we didn’t disturb your evening. This could have waited till morning, but I want to tell Mark and his family that he has a chance.”
“I understand completely. You didn’t disturb my evening. I was having dinner with my cat.”
Her light tone brought a smile to Adam’s lips, and he relaxed a bit, realizing that had been her intent.
For the next half hour Marietta explained the consent forms as Adam signed and dated them. In a mere nine days his life had changed drastically. He knew who his biological father was now. He knew he had a twin. Connections to Mark were becoming stronger day by day.
And Leigh?
Leigh was making him need again.
When all the necessary papers were signed, explanations made and questions answered, Dr. Chambers shook Adam’s hand again.
“We’re going to tell Jared and his family now. That’s all right?” Adam asked.
“Yes, that’s fine. Jared knows he’s supposed to contact Leigh with any questions…or he can always call me. I’ll get in touch with him tomorrow because we’ll have to admit Mark and get the ball rolling.”
Twenty minutes later Adam and Leigh were at Jared’s front door. The lawyer himself answered and, when he saw Leigh with Adam, his expression became worried. “Do you have news?”
“Yes, we do,” Leigh said as Adam kept silent. “Adam is a perfect match.”
For Adam this moment meant everything. Not only could he be a donor for Mark, but Marietta had explained the test results that confirmed he was definitely Jared’s son.
Without saying anything, Jared motioned them inside. He looked stunned. “I was afraid to hope,” he murmured. “
Please come in. I’ll get Danni.”
Suddenly there was only one place Adam wanted to be—in Mark’s room, telling him the news. “Is Mark still awake?”
“Shawna’s with him.” Jared’s gaze met Adam’s. “If you want to tell him, go ahead.”
When Adam reached Mark’s room, the door was ajar and he pushed it open slowly. Shawna was sitting by Mark’s bed reading a magazine and the little boy looked as though he were asleep.
When Shawna saw Adam, she came to the door. “He fell asleep a few minutes ago.”
“I don’t want to wake him. I have good news, though,” he added with a smile he couldn’t keep in.
“You’re a match?” Shawna’s voice rose.
“Yes. We just got the news tonight. I signed all the forms, and Dr. Chambers is going to call your dad tomorrow about admitting Mark and getting the conditioning started.”
“I wish Chad were here so I could tell him. His way of dealing with this is to hang out with his friends. He’s hardly ever home.”
“Maybe now that will change.”
“Maybe it will. Oh, I can’t believe this!” She clasped Adam’s arm. “You’re really my brother.”
He couldn’t suppress his grin. “I guess I am.”
“I feel like I’ve been holding my breath ever since you got tested,” she admitted.
This teenager was so open, and Adam admired that. In some ways she reminded him of Leigh when Leigh had been in high school. “I feel that way, too. I want to celebrate yet I know we have a long way to go.” He was warning her that they weren’t out of the woods, and she was intelligent enough to get that.
“I’m going to sit here with Mark until he wakes up even if it’s the middle of the night so I can tell him. I’m sure he’ll want to e-mail you right away.”
“I doubt if I’ll get much sleep tonight. If he e-mails, I’ll get right back to him.”
Suddenly Shawna threw her arms around Adam and gave him a giant hug. “Thank you. Thank you for doing this.”
Take A Chance On Me (Logan's Legacy) Page 9
