“Hi, Holly, it’s Adam. Got your text. Sorry you can’t make it to the expo. Are you interested in grabbing a coffee or something? If you give me a list, I can check out some things for you while I’m there.”
Adam ended the call and shook his head. Way to go, Romeo. Why didn’t he just bite the bullet and ask her out? Instead, he had to hide behind some lame business excuse. Yeah, the expo was cool, but more importantly, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to spend the day with Holly. A nice, long car ride, walking around the half-million square foot indoor arena, maybe impressing her a little bit with his knowledge. Then he would casually suggest dinner, and when he took her home, she would invite him in. And this time, he wouldn’t panic when he got her in his arms.
HOLLY BIT HER LIP WHEN her cell phone lit up and Adam’s number appeared on the screen. She let it ring, waiting to pick it up until after she saw the voicemail icon pop up. For a few moments, her heart stuttered with hopeful possibilities.
Unable to wait, she listened to his message, her heart dropping a little more with each word. Certain words and phrases echoed long after she ended the call. Coffee, not dinner, not take-out Chinese or sausage, pepperoni, and cheese. Give me a list, not “let’s get together.” There was no mistaking those signals; the back-off message was coming through loud and clear.
Yeah, she had definitely been an idiot for thinking Adam was interested in her as something more than a potential client.
She waited until much later to respond, not wanting to give him another reason to think she wanted more than that. Her pride wouldn’t allow it.
Sorry, can’t.
Despite the fact that it was three in the morning, Adam replied almost instantly. Why not?
Shit. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t awake, not when she had just texted him a minute earlier. So much for her brilliant plan.
Tight deadline. It was sort of true. She had promised herself she would finish up the paranormal she was working on by Sunday. There was no need to tell him that she had already submitted a completed draft of her alpha SEAL novel to her editor a full month ahead of schedule.
I understand. Can you take a break for dinner tomorrow? I can pick something up.
Now he mentioned dinner? Obviously, he sensed his fat payday drifting away and was willing to go the extra mile.
No, but thanks, anyway.
ADAM STARED AT THE screen, the last of his doubts fading away. She was definitely pissed. He should have called her over the weekend.
Instead of texting, he called her number. She knew that he knew she was awake and responding, so unless she was really angry, she would have to answer.
“Yes?”
Adam flinched at the sound of her voice. Instead of her smooth, musical tone, her voice was devoid of feeling. Cold. Very un-Holly-like.
“Holly, I’m sorry about what happened.”
“Me, too.”
That threw him. What did she have to be sorry for? She wasn’t the one who panicked or didn’t call even after she said she would.
“For what?”
He heard a soft but weary sigh on the other end. “I’m sorry, Adam. I just don’t have the money to put into the cottage right now. I’ll definitely keep you in mind, though. Thanks.” Holly hung up before he could respond.
Adam stared at the phone for several minutes.
What the hell?
Chapter 17
Adam waited in the hallway for the yoga class to let out. It was a sign of just how desperate he was—willing to risk another run-in with Eve to talk to Holly. Short of showing up on Holly’s doorstep, however, which he had considered doing many times over the last several days, he was out of options.
Last night, he had planted himself in Applebee’s in the hopes of crossing her path, but her and her friend hadn’t shown. After he had witnessed the young female convention amassing in Brandon’s section, he understood why.
Now, here he was, skulking in the corridor like some creeper, hoping for a glimpse of Holly while trying to stay below Eve’s radar. Luckily, though, Eve appeared to have attached herself to one of the muscled bodybuilders from the weight room and hadn’t even looked his way.
“Liz, right?” He stepped out of the shadows as Liz was about to walk past. He glanced down the hallway, but there was no sign of Holly.
Liz paused long enough to wave on a few of the women she had been talking to and faced him. She nodded, eyeing him warily.
“My name is Adam, and—”
“I know who you are. What do you want?”
She wasn’t openly hostile, but she wasn’t sending out any warm and fuzzies, either. Thankfully, there was no hint of the feminine interest that had flared in her eyes that first night at Applebee’s. Thank God for that. The last thing he needed was for any misunderstandings. Unless Holly decided to start taking his calls again, Liz was his best hope for understanding what the hell was going on.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?”
She exhaled and looked longingly at the exit. “Go on.”
“Holly’s not answering my calls.” It was a statement, not a question.
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, waiting. Clearly, she was not going to make this easy for him.
“Do you know why?” he pressed.
She stared at him for a long, few moments. “Holly’s my best friend. I don’t know you from ... yeah, forget I said that. What makes you think I’d betray her confidence?”
Adam blew out a breath. He hadn’t thought of that. It just went to show how out of sorts he was. “I don’t want you to betray anyone. I just thought ... Hell, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He ran his hand through his hair in a classic gesture of frustration. “I’m sorry.”
He turned to go. It had been a mistake to try to approach Holly’s friend, both cowardly and stupid. If he had a problem with Holly, and he obviously did, he should be dealing with it himself. He was just going to have to bite the bullet and man-up. He could get her flowers, maybe, and hope it would be enough to earn him a chance to find out how he had managed to fuck up something that had shown more potential than anything else in the last decade.
LIZ BIT HER LIP. HOLLY had been miserable these last few days, and Adam looked no better. Holly was her best friend, and since Liz had been the one to encourage her to go out with Adam in the first place, she felt partially responsible.
Holly had confessed everything the night before. It was the first time in nearly ten years that Holly had wanted to skip their girls’ night out, prompting Liz to show up at her door, drag her ass out, and pry the information out of her with a combination of humor and two-for-one drink specials.
Adam certainly wasn’t acting like a man who was only interested in Holly as a potential client, and her female spidey senses backed up that assessment. If there was even the slightest chance Holly had made a mistake, a mistake that might be rectified if she would just talk to him, didn’t she owe Holly that much?
“Adam, wait.” Decision made, she jogged a few steps and caught up to him. If she was wrong, so be it. “I don’t know all the details, but Holly thinks you might only be interested in her as a client.”
The sheer surprise on his face told her that her instincts had been dead-on. “What? Why would she think that?”
“Apparently, she overheard something.”
Adam narrowed his eyes. Liz could practically see the wheels turning.
“It’s not true, though, is it?” Liz asked, watching him closely.
“No. Hell no. Look, I did say something like that, but only because I didn’t want Eve giving her a hard time.”
It was Liz’s turn to narrow her eyes. “Eve? Eve Sanderson?”
Adam nodded. “Yeah. You know her?”
Realization dawned in Liz’s eyes. A strange expression stole over her face before it blanked completely. “Wait. Let me guess. Eve decided she wants you and won’t take no for an answer.”
He arched a brow. “Yeah, something
like that.”
Liz muttered something distinctly unladylike under her breath. “Well, you’re not the first she’s pulled that crap on, and you probably won’t be the last. Unfortunately, if she’s set her sights on you, you’ve got a bull’s-eye on your backside until someone else catches her eye.”
“A lot of people catch her eye,” he grunted.
“Yes, but the only ones she latches on to are the ones who look the other way. As long as she’s the one walking away, you’re golden. But if you do the walking ... well, let’s just say Eve doesn’t handle rejection well.”
“How do you know so much about her?”
For a brief moment, the mask cracked and Liz grimaced as though in pain. “Let’s just say I have my own personal history with Eve. The question now is: what are we going to do about Holly?”
She glanced down the hall, seeing the bodybuilder showing off to a younger girl while Eve glared at them, looking like steam was about to come out of her ears at any second. If what Adam had said was true, and Liz had no reason to think otherwise, Eve might spot him and forget about the bodybuilder. She had to get him out of there ... fast.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing his forearm and leading him toward the exit. “We’ll talk about it over coffee. You’re buying.”
Chapter 18
Adam hadn’t felt this nervous since the first time he’d had sex. He had been sixteen at the time, though he had looked old enough that, when he told the pretty co-ed he was a junior, she had assumed he was talking about the university. He might have been young and inexperienced, but he hadn’t been stupid enough to correct her.
He knocked again with one hand and gripped the roses tightly with the other, inadvertently crushing the stems. A missed thorn dug into his flesh, but the minor pain was a welcome diversion.
“Holly, I know you’re in there. Please answer the door.”
His coffee with Liz had been enlightening, to say the least, though kind of scary, too. Unlike Holly, Liz had absolutely no problem saying exactly what was on her mind. She had asked Adam point-blank what his intentions were with Holly. When he had blurted out the truth, she had told Adam, in no uncertain terms, exactly what he had to do.
She had then smirked when his face had turned the color of a turnip and his jaw had hit the table, but hadn’t wavered for even a moment. Once he had gotten over his initial shock, he had to admire her absolute confidence.
And hope to hell she was right.
“IT’S LATE, ADAM,” HOLLY said wearily, opening the door a few inches. Obviously sitting in the dark and ignoring his repeated knocks was not conveying the message any more effectively than the unanswered texts and calls. “What do you want?”
Adam used his much larger body and pressed forward. She stepped back, tilting her face upward toward his.
His blue eyes were dark and intense, his movements deliberate. Pure male power radiated off him in waves, making her innermost parts clench against her will. But it was nothing compared to the next words out of his mouth.
“I want you, Holly.”
She gasped slightly. Disbelief, hope, and a big surge of lust rose up inside her, drowning out her rational mind’s increasingly weak protests that Adam was not interested in her that way.
“Apparently, I’ve done a piss-poor job of letting you know that my interest in you is anything but professional, and I’m here to set that record straight right now.” He tossed the flowers off to the side, red and pink blooms scattering to the floor.
He brought flowers?
She barely had time to process that thought before he was stepping forward again, right into her personal space. She countered by taking another step back, though the length of her stride was less than half his.
“If you have a problem with that, now is the time to say so, Holly. Say the word, and I’ll go.”
Did she have a problem with that? Her thundering heart and beading nipples didn’t think so.
He waited through several of those thundering heartbeats before she whispered, “No. Don’t go.”
He grinned wolfishly and took another step. So did she.
One more, and he was close enough to reach out, wrap his arm around her waist, and pull her against his hard body. She closed her eyes for just a moment, relishing the feel of all that hardness, the heat seeping through his clothes and hers, and the scent of clean, powerful male. Her nipples grew to diamond-hard tips against his ripped torso, easily distinguishable through the thin material of her ratty tee-shirt.
Without permission, a slight moan managed to escape. He took full and instant advantage, lowering his head to claim her mouth. At the same time, she felt his large hand skim along the curve of her waist and over her hips, pausing only when he cupped her ass and lifted her, drawing her tightly against something incredibly large and extremely rigid.
It felt so right to be fitted against all those hard ridges and bumps. Her much softer, feminine parts yielded instantly to his much harder planes, filling in every dip and curve.
She moved her hand between them, flattening her palm against his chest. Not in an attempt to push him away, but to curl her nails into his chest like tiny claws, fierce and possessive. He rewarded her by thrusting his tongue into her mouth.
She wanted more, so much more, of him thrusting parts of him into parts of her.
Suddenly, her feet were no longer on the ground. She was in Adam’s powerful arms, being drawn even closer until every possible inch of her sensitized flesh was pressed against his granite hardness. Total surrender was a given as he ravished her mouth mercilessly, taking as much as he gave, capturing her throaty moans for his own.
Then they were moving. Without easing his grip, Adam walked them forward until her back was against the wall, using his weight to pin her in place. It felt so good, all that pressure, all that unyielding strength against the thousands of nerve endings crying out for his touch.
She felt a rush of cool air as he reached down between them to grasp the hem of her shirt, felt his rough calluses skimming over her heated skin.
His palm paused briefly over her heart. Surely, he must have felt it thrusting itself against her ribs.
When he smiled against her mouth, she knew he had.
“Say no and I’ll stop.”
“I’m not saying no, Adam.”
He pushed his big, muscular thigh between hers, holding her in place as it pressed suggestively against yet another part of her shamelessly begging for his attention. She tried in vain to flex her hips to relieve some of the ache, but he only pressed harder, letting her know that he was the one in control, and she was all but powerless to stop him.
Why, for the life of her, would she even want to?
Something niggled at the back of her mind, some faint echo of warning, but it was lost in the flood of endorphins as he moved his hand upward, cupping one of her breasts through the thin bra cup.
He growled then, a purely masculine sound that she felt as much as heard. Though she wouldn’t have thought it possible, her breasts swelled even more, the hard beads of her nipples pressing forward.
It was both heaven and hell the way he teased her, rubbing his thumbs over them several times before giving a skillful flick of his fingers to release the front clasp of her bra. The soft support vanished, the cups peeled aside and were mercifully replaced with his hot, rough hands. She might have whimpered.
“So fucking beautiful,” he hissed, releasing her mouth and dropping his head to suckle her through the thin cotton of her tee-shirt. This time, there was no mistaking the sounds she made, crying out at the hard pull of his mouth, not in pain, but in pleasure.
When he nipped her tender skin, she understood instinctively that it was a mark of his approval. A few heartbeats later, he grasped the waistband of her lounge pants and pushed down hard.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he commanded, his voice husky and thick with need.
Holly obeyed without question, eagerly stepping out of her pants and snaking he
r arms around his neck.
She nearly cried out when she felt his fingers between her legs; his groan another sign of his approval at finding her slick and oh-so-wet.
For one interminably long moment, he pulled away from her. She was about to protest until she heard the glorious sound of a snap and a zipper, followed by the tear of foil. Then he was back, grinding his hips against hers, lubricating the proof of his desire with what she had provided. It wasn’t enough.
She dug her nails into his shoulders, needing more.
Thank God he seemed to understand. A slight tilt of his hips poised the blunt head right at her entrance.
He paused, breathing hard. “Holly ...”
Why had he stopped?
She looked into his eyes and saw the raw, stark need matching her own, as well as his unspoken question. She knew instinctively that it was the last time he would ask. Her answer would determine not just the next few minutes, but their future.
“Yes ...” she answered in a husky whisper, using her legs to pull him closer.
Adam pressed forward, penetrating the wet, silken need that had become the focal point of her entire body.
“Oh, fucking hell,” he murmured as he worked his way deeper.
This time it was Holly who rewarded him with another rush of silken heat and a tight squeeze made possible by years of Kegel exercises. Judging by the strangled moan that erupted from his throat, they were worth every second.
When his balls pressed against her swollen folds, he paused, a single brief moment only. For that moment, time and space ceased, hung in a suspended sense of nearly unbearable anticipation.
She looked into his eyes, now polished sapphires, and whispered the only word she was capable of. “Please.”
Adam grunted in affirmation. He withdrew and thrust again and again with long, thorough strokes that stretched her to her physical limits and filled her completely. It still wasn’t enough. He was holding back, and she needed him, all of him.
Five Minute Man_A Contemporary Love Story Page 8
