by Reina Torres
“You have a tender heart, babe. You want to think everyone can be good. That they have a line they won’t cross.”
“But I know that he did this. He had someone do this horrible thing. And he’s going to blame it on her. I’m sure of it. I just can’t let him destroy her memory too. That’s why I needed to talk to Sadie.”
“Smart thinking.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You know, if it was almost anyone else, I would think you were just trying to be nice.”
“Oh? So, what am I, Blake?”
“You’re a really good man, Adam. Probably better than I deserve.”
He fanned his thumb across her cheek and she leaned into it. “I’m just trying to keep up with you, baby.”
Her expression changed, sobering as he watched her. “I had Sadie call her attorney in Los Angeles.”
Well, that got his attention. He sat up straighter. “Okay.” He said the word quietly, waiting for her to continue.
“His firm handles all kinds of things and I needed someone who could advise me across the board.” She felt his arms tighten a little around her body. “I have a video of that night.”
The corner of his mouth turned up in a sly smile. “Those video glasses.”
Blake nodded. “Yeah. I had those on when I went to see Zoe.” She swallowed and felt the ache in her throat move down into her chest. “Seth is a complete ass. He’s a criminal. But, he’s not stupid. He’ll figure it out sooner or later, Adam. I had to get ahead of this.”
“And so, you told the lawyer.”
She didn’t answer in words, but she knew he saw the truth in her eyes. “We’ve put contingencies in place, in case I can’t get the card myself.”
Any hint of a smile left his face. “Don’t say things like that.”
“I’m a numbers and math girl at heart, Adam. I know what the likelihood is here. And you can hide me here for as long as you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that eventually I’ll have to go back and face him.
“Go back and get that video and show the world exactly what he is. Tell my story and Zoe’s. You won’t be able to protect me from the news or public opinion, and there’s a chance you won’t be able to protect me from Seth and his men.”
“Baby-”
She touched her fingers to his lips to keep him quiet. “That’s not to say I’ll make it easy for him or them, but I have to face facts. And that fact is that I’ll have to walk into the lion’s den eventually.”
“And I’ll be there with you.”
She smiled, but she knew that it didn’t reach her eyes. She’d lived in fear of Seth for too long. Afraid of men like him for too long.
But she knew something else. She knew that Adam would be with her no matter what, because somehow, in just a few days, he was already in her heart.
He was already the reason she hoped that she would end up free of this mess on the other side of this battle.
And while she was waiting, she wanted to take a little something to remember him by when the world fell down around her shoulders.
“Adam?”
“Yeah, baby?”
She looked up and saw him gazing at her with such a tender look in his eyes that she knew, truly, that he thought she was beautiful. That was a memory that she would take with her as well.
That feeling.
This feeling.
Blake set her hand over her own heart and felt it beating, fast and strong against her palm as if her ribs weren’t able to protect it anymore.
It was frightening and yet it gave her a freedom to destroy the walls which Adam already lowered since she’d literally found herself on his doorstep.
“Adam,” she tried to smile, but only managed a slight pout at the corners of her mouth, “remember when you said I had to be ready?”
His legs shifted underneath her and he drew in one long, deep, breath. “Yeah?”
Drawing her feet closer, she set her hands on his shoulders and shifted her body until she straddled his lap before she lowered herself down onto him.
It was an incredible feeling when she was flush against his body and felt the hard length of him pressing between her legs. A soft, needy moan escaped her lips and she ground herself against him.
When she settled back on top of him, she looked him straight in the eye and told him the words that had been dancing on the tip of her tongue.
“I’m ready, Adam. Show me what I’ve been missing.”
Chapter 12
Having Blake straddled across him on the couch was like a dream. Having his hands on her hips, feeling the lush swell of her body under his palms was the best kind of temptation. Knowing that she wanted him to touch her and bring her over the edge made him ache with need.
He’d already had his hands on Blake, drunk her sighs from her lips, but the thought of touching her naked skin and filling her up with his cock over and over had him throbbing in his jeans.
She reached for the hem of her blouse and he stopped her. Gently prying her fingers off the fabric.
Adam ignored the pout in her expression. “You wanted me to show you, right?”
He saw the change in her attitude from the pout to a different look entirely. Her eyes challenged him.
Adam shifted a little under her beautiful body and she gasped at the sensation.
Oh yeah, he was ready for that challenge.
“Let me take the reins, Blake. I promise you won’t be sorry.”
“Reins?” She tossed her head back a little and some of her curls danced around the tops of her ears. “I guess it’s because you grew up in Montana?”
He smiled up at her and slid his hands down to the tops of her thighs and back up again. “Maybe it’s because I like leather… and I’m still remembering what you looked like with your hands on my bike.”
Blake’s eyes darkened and he knew where her thoughts had gone.
“Or maybe it’s because when you get naked, it’s going to be because I took off every single thing you’re wearing.”
Her breaths came faster, accentuating the rise and fall of her breasts.
Adam moved his hands again, gathering the fabric from the hem of her blouse and lifting it up slowly.
Blake shifted and her hands settled over his.
“Make it fast, okay? Like a band aid.”
His eyes fixed on the way she bit into her bottom lip. “Baby, let me take care of you.”
She sank down, her thighs spreading slightly, and he felt her heat flaring against him, pulling a groan from his lips.
“You feel so damn good.” He lifted the bottom of her blouse and held it just high enough for him to see her breasts loving cupped in her bra. The cream-colored cotton was magic against her tanned skin and as his gaze moved back and forth from one peak to the other, he watched as her nipples began to tighten.
Blake’s breath escaped her lips as her hips shifted a fraction of an inch.
He couldn’t blame her for wanting to move. He could tell by her heat and the flush of color under her tanned skin that she was aroused. He wasn’t the only one who wanted him to take off that bra and taste her tender skin. Adam could already see the tiny bumps forming in anticipation along her skin.
And he was done waiting.
Before she could read his intention, he lifted her blouse up and over her head and slipped it off the curve of her shoulders. He released it when it was just a couple inches farther.
Adam saw her surprise, but he didn’t let it stop him. Having her arms pulled slightly back had gently thrust her breasts forward.
Lowering his hands, his fingers traced the inner edge of her bra, the tips against her skin, trailing along the elastic stitching and the fabric.
His hands met at the snap between her breasts and with a flick of one hand it was open. He heard her gasp but couldn’t tear his gaze away from the lush curves that he’d revealed. He’d felt them pressed up against his chest. He’d ogled them as they stretched his cotton t-shirt that she used to sleep in.
But he had yet to set his mouth on her skin.
And that, he was going to fix.
Leaning in he used his hands to hold her still as he nuzzled against her breastbone, taking in her scent as she wavered in his grasp. He touched his lips to her skin and felt the fluttering of her heart under his touch. “Blake,” he moaned her name as his hands bit into her waist, “I never want to let you go.”
He felt her move and smiled when he realized that she couldn’t touch him, not with her hands.
“I want to taste you, baby,” looking up into her eyes, he saw that they were beginning to lose their focus, “I want to feel you against my tongue.”
Another deep breath and the cups of her bra pulled back, catching on the tightened tips of her breasts.
Lifting a hand, he grasped the soft cotton and tugged it to the side, baring the tip of her breast to him.
Before she could let worry fill her head, he closed his mouth over her and swept his tongue over the tip.
She rose up, her backside lifting from his thighs, but he didn’t let go. He didn’t let her loose as his tongue laved her skin and drew her flesh into a tight peak that tasted berry sweet in his mouth.
The flat of his tongue swept against the underside of her breast and she gasped, pulling away as her hips rocked against his swollen cock. He set a hand against her lower back and held her against him as his other hand brushed the cotton cup away from her other breast until the warmth of his palm drew her other nipple into an answering point.
“Adam.”
He looked up and met her eyes. Saw the haze that widened her pupils into dark pools and flooded her cheeks with a warm rosy color. Swirling his tongue around the tight bud he made her shudder and rock against him.
“Adam…”
Lifting his foot, he reached out and dragged the coffee table closer so he could plant his feet down on the worn surface. With his feet up, he lifted his legs and her hips slid closer. The breathy gasp that burst from her lips drew his eyes to her mouth.
Those beautiful lips that he would love to see wrapped around-
Blake took hold of one of his knees and the look that she pinned him with was one of blatant challenge.
“Stop playing with me.”
He leaned back and let go of her breast with a pop, his own eyes full of desire. “I’m not playing, beautiful.” He chose to prove himself by cradling her breasts in his hands, gently smoothing his palms all over the ripe swells and rolling her nipples between his fingers. “So damn beautiful.”
Her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear the sounds that she made. He felt the way she moved. The impatient panting of her breath, the rise and fall of her hips against his, the heat of her body against his erection.
Adam nudged her closer again and enjoyed the way they fit together. Oh, how he needed that feeling. Needed her against him.
Leaning up, he opened his mouth to pay the same kind of delicious attention to her other breast but found himself trapped by her hands. They framed his face and held him still as she plundered his mouth, her tongue sweeping deep against his while his hands continued their tender exploration of her body.
“Adam,” she pulled back on a gasp as his hands dropped down and started to work on the button of her pants, “hurry.”
She peppered kisses on his face until he pulled away as he succeeded in working her buttons free.
“How,” he asked as her mouth closed over his earlobe, “your arms-”
“I may be curvy,” she gave him a wink, “but I’m flexible.” She leaned back and got to her feet, extending her hand to him. “Want to see just how flexible I am?”
Sitting there, already hard as a spike, his eyes passing over Blake’s beautiful body, half bare and filling out her jeans like a goddess, he only had one choice.
The truth.
“Nothing could stop me.”
He reached out and took her hand and when he was almost standing Adam reached out his other hand and grabbed her hip, pulling her flush against him.
Groaning, he slid his hand down to grasp her butt as he held her tight and pressed his lips against her throat. He trailed a long hot kiss along her skin until he found the lobe of her ear with his teeth.
Blake gasped and he felt the muscles in her backside tense against his hand. “I was hoping we’d take this into the bedroom.”
He lifted his head and met her eyes, seeing the hunger he felt reflected in hers. “Oh, yeah, we’re taking this in there.”
“Then why the delay?” She arched her back and he felt the tight points of her breasts push against him.
He swore under his breath, shaking his head. “You had to mention flexible.”
She licked her lips and he almost came in his pants like a teenage boy eager for his first taste of oblivion. “Then let’s test it out and make sure that I’m not a liar… just on the run.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Oh, her eyes sparkled.
“Ma’am?”
“Don’t argue, woman. I’m trying to agree with you.”
“But then you called me-”
“Mine.”
That stopped her on a dime and her eyes softened for a moment and lord help him, she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips.
It should have burned with all the lust surging through his veins, but he melted into her kiss and lost the last barrier between them.
He was lost… and found in her kiss.
It should have been impossible.
Having lost so much in his life. Half of his battalion and so many others along the way, he had to work to keep his heart open to his family.
His lifeline.
But now, holding Blake close, feeling her beautiful body against his, and tasting the tender sweetness of her lips, he felt his heart swell and throb with life.
He was in love with Blake Lennox.
When she moved away, she looked down and saw his fingers hooked through one of the belt loops of her jeans.
He started walking, backwards at first, and then he turned, leading her behind him into his bedroom.
Fuck, he growled to himself, their bedroom.
As he neared the bed, he saw her lift an arm across her chest and he pulled her close with a shake of his head. “don’t cover yourself, baby. I want to see you. All of you.”
Setting her in place with the foot of the bed at her back he grasped the waist of her jeans and tugged.
They peeled off and he held them so she could step out, her hands delicately touching his shoulders. Already down on one knee, he went weak as she slipped her thumbs into the edge of her cream-colored panties, complete with a tiny bow centered beneath her belly button, and slipped them over the swell of her hips.
He followed her hands all the way to her knees and watched her lift one foot and then the other before dropping them at her feet.
From there, he followed her hands as they smoothed up her legs, and then her hips, giving him a tantalizing view of her body.
Before he’d made a conscious decision, he was on his feet, and his hands on her.
Setting her on the edge of his bed, he reached behind him, over his head, and pulled off his shirt. “Scoot up, baby.” He lifted his chin toward the head of the bed. “I wanted to taste you first,” his tongue passed over his lower lip as she inched back over his sheets.
“Fuck,” he had to reach down and ease the pressure of his pants against his cock, “I’m going to dream about this moment for the rest of my life, baby.”
Her warm suntanned skin against the cinnamon brown of his sheets was better than anything he’d ever seen or imagined before.
As she found the center of the bed, she looked him over with hunger in her eyes and her thighs squeezed together around her hands.
“Adam, please.”
As if he wasn’t hard enough already, the needy sound of her voice cut him deep.
Made him ache deep in his soul.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a condom wrappe
r. “One day,” he told her, “we’re not going to need these.” He noticed the shock in her expression, but he didn’t say anything more.
Placing the wrapper between his teeth at the corner of his mouth, he reached down and popped his button open.
He kept his eyes on Blake and saw that her eyes were on him.
When he took hold of the pull on his zipper, Blake propped herself up on an elbow. He pulled it down and her lips parted along with her knees.
And damn if her fingers didn’t slip into the curls between her legs as he wrapped his hand around his cock.
“You’re trying to kill me, Blake.” The words were barely audible with his teeth closed around the wrapper
“I’m trying to get you to come over here.”
Adam shoved his pants down, struggling with the briefs that had to slide off and not strangle his dick as he moved. He got one knee down on the bed and shook his pants off the other a second before he climbed on the bed and really, even if he hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered.
He wanted to get to her and he’d gladly spend the rest of the night with his jeans tangled around his foot if she was tangled in his sheets.
Adam crawled up between her legs and dragged his gaze up along her leg and to the sight of her fingers stroking through her heat.
Tearing the wrapper open, Adam pulled the condom free and tossed the pieces to the side. “Do you have any idea how sexy you look?”
Hesitation clouded her eyes and her fingers slowed their movements.
“Don’t, baby. Please don’t stop.”
Her gaze dipped down to the side and the flush in her cheeks wasn’t just from desire. “I wasn’t sure-”
“If you want to touch yourself, do it.” His throat worked over the tight lump lodged inside of it. “What makes you feel good, looks damn good to me. I want to know what you like. If you want to show it to me, fuck yes.”
He saw her curl her fingers between her folds and he fumbled the condom on the bed.
She lifted her sloe-eyes to him and he felt a drop of pre-cum fall onto his hand.
“You need help with that, Adam?”
He shook his head, but he didn’t look down to find the condom. His searching fingers found it in seconds. “If you touch me now, I’m going to embarrass myself.” Gritting his teeth together he tried to ignore how difficult it was to slide the condom over his erection. Necessary, but damn painful in the situation.
