Adam took my hand. “Come on. Let’s get you into some dry clothes.”
He led me through the first floor, through the living room and parlor and over to the massive staircase in the entry. My body was shaking as he led me up the stairs, but whether that was from the cold rain or my nerves I couldn’t be sure.
We reached the landing. I hadn’t spent much time in this part of Adam’s house; though I’d been on the first floor often as a child, I was rarely allowed upstairs. He led me down the hallway and through a door.
“Stand by the fire,” he said, leading me across his bedroom. I looked around, my eyes wide at the massive stone fireplace, the tall four–poster bed, the heavy curtains. It was dark and rich, but seemed to perfectly suit Adam.
I followed Adam’s instructions, standing beside the fireplace as he stoked the embers and brought it to flames. I held my hands out, letting the fire warm them while Adam went to his wardrobe.
“Is this a photograph of us?” I asked, reaching to the photo on the mantel. It was old and a little faded, and showed three smiling children.
“It is,” he said. “Do you remember? That was from the summer my cousin got married.”
“I do remember,” I said. “It was so long ago. I can’t believe you kept the picture.”
“It reminds me of some of my favorite memories.”
He came over with a button–up shirt on a hanger. “Will this work while your dress dries?”
I was shaking again. “That’s perfect,” I said, taking it from his hands. Adam turned around while my hands found the buttons on the back of my gown, undoing each of them and pulling the wet garment off my skin. I peeled off my equally wet slip and shrugged on Adam’s shirt. I reached to start buttoning it up when I paused. My hands quivering, I reached out to Adam.
He turned around, his eyes taking in the sight of me standing wearing only his shirt. “My God,” he murmured, stepping toward me.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to him. The shirt fell away, and my bare skin pressed against his wet clothes, the heat of his body hitting my skin. His lips crashed onto mine, his hands slipping under the shirt and resting on my waist. I grasped the shirt he was wearing, fingers frantically unbuttoning, my breathing heavy. With his shirt unbuttoned, he shrugged it off his shoulders and our bare torsos pulled against each other, skin brushing against heated skin.
Adam turned me around so my back was toward the bed as I reached my hands down, heart pounding as I undid his trousers. As they fell around his ankles, he kicked them off and stepped us closer to the bed. He pulled the shirt I wore over my shoulders, leaving me standing naked before him, lit only by the light of the fire and the lightning outside.
Adam rested one hand on the small of my back as his lips kissed down my neck and to my chest. My fingers tangled in his hair as his mouth latched onto my nipple and his other hand cupped my other breast. I moaned as waves of pleasure filled my body.
“God, Adam,” I sighed.
He kissed back up my neck and met my lips again, slowly walking me toward the bed. He pushed me down gently, and I expected him to climb on top of me, but instead he knelt down at the foot of my bed. I had no time to react until his tongue lashed out and licked my dripping center.
“Oh God,” I cried out.
His tongue continued, finding my pearl as one of his fingers slowly slid inside me. He sucked at my clit and my back arched off the bed, the pleasure so perfect and unexpected. He slipped a second finger inside me, his tongue continuing to press against me. My breathing came fast and hard as sparks flew behind my eyes. I felt it starting in my toes, running through my body, until the ecstasy filled me and I cried in pleasure.
As I tried to catch my breath, Adam climbed up my body. His lips found mine, and I could taste myself on his tongue as his hands ran down my body. I turned onto my side so we were face–to–face, and his hand reached up to caress my cheek. He pulled me close to him, and with a swift move, pulled me on top of him.
With my hands on his chest, our eyes locked. We were both breathing heavy, and I would bet that if I could hear his heartbeat, it was beating as fast as mine. Rising up onto my knees, I reached and positioned him at my entrance.
“Are you sure?” he asked me.
“Positive,” I said, my voice scarcely more than a whisper. In one thrust he filled me, and my back arched at the sensation. His hands found my waist, holding me steady as we found our rhythm, thrusting together.
His hands clutched my hips as we continued together, and he picked up speed, my breath coming in shorter gasps. Once more, I felt the sensation starting in my toes, spots appearing in my vision. From my hazy view I saw Adam bite his lip as his pleasure overtook him, and in just a moment mine followed, overwhelming me, the pleasure running through my body, surging, and finally leaving a tingling sensation. Spent, I let myself collapse on top of him. Adam wrapped me with one arm and with the other, pulled a blanket over us.
Together, we fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty–Five
“I need to go home,” I murmured.
“No,” Adam said, nuzzling into my neck.
It was already hard enough to get myself to leave without Adam’s protestations. I never wanted to leave his arms, or the way he was curled around me, his warm skin against mine. I could stay here forever if given the chance.
“I have to go. If I return too late, my parents will get suspicious, and the last thing I want is for them to get upset with you.”
“I suppose,” he sighed. “We wouldn’t want that.”
I tried to get up but he held me fast. “Adam,” I muttered.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“You live right next door,” I said, trying to reason with both his emotions and mine.
“I know…”
“I can come over tomorrow, if you want.” I tried to keep my voice casual, but I secretly hoped he’d agree.
“All right, all right.”
He let me go, and I climbed out of the bed. Still naked, I crossed over to the fireplace where my gown was hanging.
“It’s probably still damp,” Adam said. He was sitting up in bed now, the sheets wrapped around his waist, his chest catching the glow of the fireplace.
“It doesn’t matter; I have to walk back through the rain anyway. I can change when I get home.”
“Suit yourself,” he sighed, climbing out of the bed. Despite our recent activities, I still looked away as he pulled on his pants.
With both of us dressed, Adam grabbed an umbrella and we walked together through the woods and back toward my house. Adam walked me to the back door, and under the cover of the porch, leaned down and kissed me.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I confirmed. He kissed me again, and regretfully, we parted ways. Once Adam had disappeared into the woods, I stepped inside the house, only to find Harry standing in the kitchen, arms crossed, waiting for me.
“You were gone for a while.” he said.
“I was with Adam. You knew that.”
“And what were you two doing?”
I prayed my face wouldn’t flush, but it did anyway. “That’s none of your business.”
He smirked. “I know that look. I know exactly what you two were up to.”
“It’s none of your business,” I repeated.
“How was it?”
“Harry!”
“Come on. I need to know if I can tease him about it or not.”
“You absolutely cannot!”
His shoulders slumped. “Fine.”
“I’m not going to talk about this with mum and dad home.”
“They aren’t home. Dad just signed a deal so he took mum to Irving for the night.”
Well, that was disappointing. I could have stayed with Adam.
“I’m still not talking to you about this,” I said.
Harry pouted. I rolled my eyes.
“How are things between you
two?” he asked, sitting down at the kitchen table.
“Harry, I’m not going to give you ammunition so you can have a laugh at his expense.”
“I’m not asking to have a laugh. I’m asking as a brother who cares about you.”
I paused, unsure, before sitting down at the table across from him. “It’s been odd,” I admitted.
“How so?”
“It’s been a bit confusing at times. Last summer, I thought he loved me, but then I didn’t see him for nearly a year.”
“Ah, yes, Adam’s birthday party.”
The color drained from my face. “You knew about that?”
“Adam told me one night when he’d had a little too much to drink.”
“And you were fine with it?”
“At first I was furious. I couldn’t believe that my best friend had deflowered my sister.”
“Oh my God,” I moaned, burying my head in my hands.
“But then he couldn’t stop talking about how much he cared about you, and I realized that he was in love.”
“That’s what I thought too, but then he tried to have me marry the duke.”
“Yeah, that was a mistake,” Harry said.
“Since he asked me to court him, things have been much better, even though he’s been busy.” I knew my voice sounded dreamy, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Yeah, that’ll happen when you’re with a lord and a member of the duke’s council,” Harry said. “You’re going to have to get used to it for when you get married.”
“Now you’re a bit ahead of yourself, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps,” he said with a smirk.
I went upstairs after asking Clara to draw me a bath, Harry’s words still ringing in my ears. I pulled off my wet clothes and glanced at the mirror. I knew that I didn’t actually look different, but I felt different. My body had become free and light, and happiness radiated through me. None of that was reflected in the mirror except for my grin, stretching from one ear to the other.
I slid into the bath, not realizing how cold my body was until I met the hot water.
Could Harry be right? Would Adam want to marry me? That was the point of courting, of course, to get to know your future spouse a bit before marriage. Really, I had been so focused on the idea of simply spending more time with Adam, that looking past that into the future had scarcely occurred to me. But now, our courting was going well, very well, in fact, that I might be Lady Wellington sometime in the future.
I went to bed that night dreaming about Adam and weddings. A lace dress for me, perhaps, with green accents to go with the orange blossoms my mother would insist on. Who would I have in my wedding party? Annabelle and Christine, hopefully, and perhaps my cousins…
Oh, it was silly, maybe, but it made me smile as I fell asleep.
I woke up and wasn’t smiling anymore. A noise, something had woken me up. A crash? And why was I cold? I sat up in bed and my eyes fell on my window. I had to blink a few times to adjust to what I was seeing. The window was broken, the edges of the glass shining sharp in the moonlight.
I scrambled to light the lamp on my side table. With the room illuminated, I could see the damage. Glass was scattered on the floor of my bedroom and in the center of it all was a large rock with a note attached. I stretched my head to look out the window, but the lawn was empty, no wolf or projectile–thrower in sight.
I was stepping carefully out of bed so I wouldn’t step on the glass when Harry came bursting into my room.
“What the hell was that, Hazel?” He looked across the room. “What happened to your window?”
“Someone threw a rock through it.” I picked the rock up off the ground and sat back down on my bed with the rock on my lap. I pulled off the twine so I could free the note.
“What the bloody hell?” He did the same thing I did, looking out the window, but like I had, he must not have seen anything.
Harry bent down to pick up the larger shards of glass while I opened up the note.
“What does it say?” he asked, looking up at me from the floor.
“You were warned and you didn’t listen. You will regret it,” I read.
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone is angry at me.”
He almost laughed. “Who could possibly be angry at you?”
“Hattie and Lillian,” I said. “They’re the only ones who have ‘warned’ me.”
He took the rock from me. “I can’t see either of them doing something like this,” he said. “I don’t even know that any of them are strong enough to launch this through your window.”
“They’re the only ones I can think of that would be upset with me.”
“Maybe this was a mistake? Maybe they meant to throw this at a different house.”
“Harry, we’re in the middle of nowhere. Our nearest neighbor is Adam, and he’s about a half a mile away.”
“It is strange,” he mused. “Why don’t I go take a look outside, and you can stay here.”
I didn’t like the prospect of being left alone, but I also wanted Harry to track down who was responsible.
I sat up in my bedroom while Harry left to go investigate. While he transformed and skulked around the house, I found a spare blanket and hung it in front of my window. The curtains weren’t heavy enough to keep out the rain and the cool night air. I stepped back down, careful not to let my foot land on an errant shard of glass, when a sound started from outside. It began low, growing louder, a harsh snarl drifting up to my bedroom. I sat down on the bed, pulling my knees close.
The snarling continued. I closed my eyes tightly, praying that the wolf wouldn’t try to get into the house. I moved slowly across my bed toward the window, not sure if I really wanted to look down at the wolf in the yard. My hand moved toward the blanket when a second, deeper snarl rang out. A whimper followed it, along with the sound of paws on the ground. One moment later, there was only silence.
I stayed up in my room until Harry returned.
“I saw it,” he said breathlessly. “A silver and gray wolf, but I don’t know who it was. It ran off as soon as I got close.”
I could only nod.
“Why don’t you sleep in my room tonight?” he asked.
“Harry—”
“It’s fine. You take the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor. You can’t sleep in here with the broken window, and I’ll feel that you’re safer if I’m near you.”
“Really, Harry, that’s not necessary.”
“I think Adam would disagree.”
I didn’t have a rebuttal for that, so I grabbed my blanket and followed Harry to his room, where I curled up on his bed. While I tried to sleep, Harry sat up, keeping watch over me, just as his best friend would want him to do.
I didn’t sleep well that night, unsurprisingly. Once the sun was up I went back to my bedroom and fell back to sleep for a little bit longer. When my head was less cloudy and hurt a little less, I got up and got dressed, ready to start my day.
My parents wouldn’t be back until the next day, so I was able to spend the day simply relaxing. I had planned to visit Adam in the evening, but my plans changed a little bit when in the late afternoon, there was a knock on my door.
I’d heard the knock, but hadn’t paid much attention to it since Harry was home. He came into my bedroom, though, looking worried.
“Is everything all right?”
“Someone’s here to see you,” he said.
“Who is it?”
“See for yourself.”
I followed him into the parlor, where Hattie Thorn was seated by the window. My mouth dropped open.
“You have a lovely home,” she said to me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her. “Throwing another rock through my window?”
She frowned. “What are you talking about? I didn’t...but…”
“But what?”
She bit her lip. “I think perhaps you should sit down.”
“Hatti
e, what sort of joke is this? You don’t even like me. Why are you here?”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Will you please sit down?”
I sighed. “Fine,” I said, crossing the room and sitting beside her. I looked at her for a moment, and she looked at her hands.
“I’m here to apologize.”
“Apologize?” It wasn’t really a question, more of an incredulous statement of surprise.
“For everything over Adam.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Well, that’s very big of you. Thank you.”
“There’s more,” she said. “Look, I didn’t...I didn’t know that she was going to act like this.”
“Hattie, I’m confused.”
“It’s Lillian. She took this way too far,” she said. “I had no idea that this would set her off like this. Both of us sort of fancied Adam, but I was willing to move on, and she wasn’t. She started obsessing over it. It was all she would talk about, and then she started hurting you, and I thought that was the end of it, but then she told me about the doll she sent you—”
“That was her?”
“I was horrified. I had no idea she would do any of this. I wanted to...I don’t know, warn you.”
I blinked a few times. “Well, thank you for that.”
“I don’t want to be associated with her madness in any form.”
“I’ll be sure you aren’t,” I said.
“Don’t tell her I told you. I don’t want her going after me.”
“I wasn’t planning on speaking to her anytime soon,” I said with an eye roll.
“That’s probably a good idea. Stay away from her.”
“I’ll do that.”
“I need to go back home. I don’t want anyone knowing that I’m here.”
“Well, thank you, Hattie,” I said. She gave me a curt nod, and I watched her leave.
The moment her carriage pulled away, I sprang up from my chair. I needed to go see Adam, to tell him that my suspicions had been correct. I gave myself a quick check in the mirror, pulled on a pair of boots, and left out the back door.
The Wolf's Choice (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 4) Page 20
