Chapter Ten

Mel sat with her front pressed to Adam’s back as they zoomed through the midnight streets of downtown Indianapolis to their hotel at City Centre. She hadn’t paid much attention during check-in, just remembered everything being clean and bright and luxurious. The thought of staying there tonight with Adam sounded like the most exciting thing in the universe.

Anticipation, mixed with a good dose of nervous energy, had her heart racing and her arms tightening around his waist, trying to get as close to him as possible to prove this wasn’t all a dream. Her hand pressed against his flat, toned abs through the soft cotton of his T-shirt, allowing her to feel his muscles flex with each twist and turn of their bodies on the bike. Her skin felt too tight, and her blood was on fire. She’d waited twenty-four years for this night, but now she wasn’t sure she could last until they got to the hotel. That’s how bad she wanted him. Given his sharp intake of breath when she kissed the nape of his neck, Adam felt the same way.

Seemed that now they’d made their decision, neither could move fast enough.

All those hours of planning and plotting to seduce Adam had left Mel breathless for release. She only hoped she wouldn’t freeze up or let her doubts hold her back when the time arrived. Her fantasies were about to become reality.

They pulled into the underground garage of the hotel and circled downward, beneath the streets of Indy. He parked in a spot near the entry doors, then cut the engine, waiting until she’d removed her helmet before pulling her into his arms, his mouth millimeters from hers.

“You’re sure?” he asked again.

“More than I’ve ever been about anything in my life.”

They crashed into each other once they were off the bike, a jumbled mass of arms, legs, and lips, her back pressed to the cold cement wall while they waited for the elevator to arrive. They’d gotten separate rooms for the night, but only one would be occupied. The bell dinged, and they tripped onboard, Adam blindly slapping the button for their floor while Mel pulled him closer and gripped his rear.

The ride upstairs was a blur. Somehow, they managed to get off the elevator, still kissing. In the hallway, Adam hoisted her up in his arms, and Mel wrapped her legs around his waist. Next thing she knew he was pushing inside his room. Polished wood floors and a bank of windows that glowed with the city’s skyline. Same style and view as hers next door. Not that it mattered.

They finally had privacy. Heat exploded through her nerve endings as she slid down his front. They stood in the center of his room near the bed. Mel couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss his neck, licking the salt from his throat as she’d imagined doing so many times before. Her tongue found the pulse point at the base of his neck, thudding beneath her touch.

Adam groaned low and pulled her chin up to reclaim her lips.

“You taste so good,” Mel whispered, pulling away slightly, her breath panting. “I can’t wait to make love with you.”

His body tensed beneath her touch, and she ran her hands down his back, kneading the bunched muscles between his shoulder blades, hoping to alleviate some of whatever was bothering him. When he still didn’t respond, she pulled back, heart pounding and chest aching. “What’s wrong?”

…

Adam wanted Mel so badly, but once they crossed this line, they could never go back. “Nothing’s wrong. I just…”

Mel leaned her forehead against his chest and took a deep breath. “It’s me, isn’t it?”

“What? No!” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry, Mel. You’re perfect. What we were doing was perfect, it’s just…” He shook his head and stared across the room. “I killed the moment by thinking too much.”

“Yep.” Mel gave him a weak smile, her lips tight. The disappointment in her eyes matched his own mood, and the sizzling heat between them dropped to a low simmer. Every fiber of his being yearned for the electric fire they’d shared minutes ago. In truth, everything about Mel drove him crazy with desire—her touch, her tiny moans into his mouth, her sweet kisses.

Before he knew what was happening, she’d bunched the front of his T-shirt in her fist and yanked him closer, her stern expression taking no prisoners. “Listen, mister. If this has anything to do with what’s back in Point Beacon, let me set you straight. I’m tired of people seeing me as nothing more than James’s younger sister. I’m my own person. I’m Mel. I run a whole frigging library. I go for what I want. No ifs, ands, or buts.”

Eyes wide, Adam blinked at her, fresh adrenaline coursing through his blood. The spark of confidence in her eyes stoked the embers inside him to flames once more. Her grip on him wasn’t tight enough to hurt, just enough to let him know she meant business. His pulse galloped like a Thoroughbred stallion. “Now either close your eyes and pretend you’re having sex with the most beautiful woman in the world, or keep ’em open and focus on this.”

His back hit the wall at the same moment she tugged her shirt over her head and unzipped her skirt, letting it fall to the ground. All that creamy, soft skin covered only by a few small scraps of lace. Her perfume—cherry blossoms and vanilla—filled the air, intoxicating him. She moved toward him again, keeping him in place with one finger pressed to the center of his chest.

“Go ahead.” She’d gone from insecure to siren in two seconds flat. “Kiss me.”

Adam obeyed, feeling proud that she’d taken his lessons on flirting to heart. In fact, she’d more than exceeded all his expectations. His lips captured hers before skimming across her cheek and down her neck to the hollow at the base of her throat. He lavished attention there until she moaned, her head falling back. Her response sent a delicious thrill through him, the power of knowing how she responded to his touch. He moved lower to trace his tongue over her collarbone, and she gasped. Adam cradled her head in his palm, and she thrust her fingers into his hair, her nails scraping his scalp as he sucked and licked and kissed and nipped.

Mel felt so good. Tasted good. Smelled good. All his pent-up urges went into hyperdrive, and he picked her up, carrying her over to the windows, where he sat her on the marble ledge. She shuddered as her bare skin pressed against the cool glass, and he broke away to look into her passion-glazed eyes. Her tiny nod gave him the invitation he needed.

Adam was so lost in their kiss he barely had time to lift his arms when she yanked his shirt from the waistband of his jeans and tugged it over his head. He did stop her, however, when she reached for the button at his waistband, only because this was her first time, and it had to be special. Perfect. If anyone deserved perfect, it was Mel, and even as broken and unworthy as he was, Adam vowed to give her that, if only for tonight.

He grazed her cheek with his knuckles, the simple touch sending another ripple of awareness through him. He wasn’t sure how he’d survive it when their deadline arrived, but he’d finally surrendered the fight. This was going to happen, and he wanted to relish every moment.

Adam gave her a small smile. “Years of fantasies are a lot to live up to. This should be a night to remember.”

“I remember everything about you.”

The sexy huskiness to her voice resonated through him, his blood pumping harder. He was no spring chicken in the sack, but this was Mel. He’d had her on an untouchable pedestal for so long. Now she was here with him—ready and willing—and he wasn’t sure how to handle all his intense, contrasting feelings—want, fear, need, way beyond like, edging toward…

No. He stopped those thoughts in their tracks, ignoring the squeeze of yearning in his chest. No L-word. Not tonight. Tonight was about passion and desire and ecstasy. That was all.

Maybe if he told himself that enough times he’d believe it.

I remember everything about you.

There were times, growing up, he would’ve given anything in the world to hear someone say they treasured him enough to remember him. And now here was Mel, handing him that gift with an open heart. He slid his hands down her back to settle in the small curve above her rear. Adam pressed her closer to his body and relished her tiny gasp. He couldn’t give her his heart, but he could give her the rest of him, for what it was worth, for as long as they had together.

She was so responsive, so uninhibited. He picked her up and walked backward toward the bed with her safely in his arms. The back of his legs hit the mattress, and he stopped, brushing his mouth over hers again, then turned and laid Mel on the bed before stretching out beside her, his muscles trembling with barely leashed tension.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked one last time, needing reassurance that all this was real and what she truly wanted.

“Yes.” She traced her fingers down his bare chest to the waistband of his jeans. “Beyond sure.”

Adam trailed kisses from her lips to her ear, then down the side of her neck. She arched against him, her breath panting hot against his skin, and he did his best to maintain control, forcing words past his tight vocal cords. “Slow and easy.”

“To start, yes.” Mel pulled away slightly, her cheeks flushed and eyes dark with passion. Then her little grin turned positively wicked as she tugged him close once more. “But it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.”

…

The first rays of sunshine peeked through the windows when Mel blinked her eyes open. They’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms, and she had no idea how long they’d slept. It was Saturday, and she had the rare weekend off, so it didn’t matter. She had nowhere to be today. Nowhere except here, with Adam.

My lover.

A shiver ran through her when she thought of what he’d done to her last night, what she’d done to him. What they’d done together. It had been incredible, unforgettable, unbelievably erotic, and yet so sweet it made her chest ache.

Adam’s soft snores rustled the hair on the top of her head, and she snuggled against his chest, her cheek rubbing against his jaw, now covered with dark stubble. She inhaled deeply, loving the scent of his skin, loving the way his arms tightened around her, as if he would never let her go. Loving everything about him, really.

Her restless movements must’ve awakened him, though, because next thing she knew, he was yawning, then kissing her temple. “Good morning. You’re amazing.”

Mel giggled, burying her face in his throat, suddenly shy. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Adam chuckled, the sound rumbling beneath her ear.

“You okay?” he asked, shifting downward in bed so their faces were aligned. “Need anything? Water? Food? Ibuprofen? I always keep a bottle handy in my duffel bag.”

“I’m fine.” Mel ran her fingertips along his shadowed jaw, his concern threatening to melt her into a puddle of goo. But the last thing she wanted right now was for Adam to move, to get up and leave her. She wanted him staying right where he was. “Never better.”

He kissed her softly, then closed his eyes again, his breath evening out into the patterns of sleep once more. Mel lay there, watching him. She’d wanted to ask him all sorts of questions, her analytical side coming out again. Had she done all the right things last night? Had she pleased him as much as he’d pleasured her? Had it been good for him, too?

The moment had passed, though, so she just savored the feeling of being in his arms, reliving all the moments from the night before. The way he’d moved and tasted and sounded, the way his blue eyes darkened with desire, the way her lips still tingled from his kisses and her body ached in all sorts of new places from Adam’s touch.

Seducing her bad boy had been all she’d ever dreamed of and more, her feelings for Adam only growing deeper, stronger, richer.

She wondered if he felt the same about her.

You’re on your own with the love part. I don’t do love.

His words from when they’d first started this crazy project reverberated through her head, causing her heart to pinch and her breath to catch.

He didn’t do love. She’d agreed to that from the start, had known what she was getting into with him; still, she couldn’t squelch that little spark of hope that maybe things had changed, that maybe he’d changed, because of his time with her. That maybe, just this once, she was enough, enough to make him want to take their relationship public and risk it all to be together.

Mel shook off those silly thoughts. No. That was her old self talking. The new Mel lived for the moment, threw caution to the wind, took life as it came at her.

Eyelids heavy, she laid her head over his heart, the smattering of dark hair covering his pecs tickling her cheek. Adam’s chest rose and fell, reassuring in its steady rhythm. Unable to help herself, Mel moved her hand to trace the line of hair trailing through the middle of his taut abs before disappearing beneath the sheet. Truth was, he’d more than lived up to the hype. In fact, he’d blown the hype clear out of the solar system.

Her body still trembled from the aftershocks.

“Whoa there, cowgirl,” Adam grumbled, peeking one eye open to peer down at her and placing a hand over hers. “Checkout’s at eleven.”

“Hmm.” She leaned up to see the clock on the nightstand. “It’s barely six now.”

Adam turned onto his side, and Mel propped one elbow on the mattress, resting her head in her hand. He gave her a brazen once-over, then smiled slowly, his sleepy blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “Trying to make up for lost time?”

“Something like that.” Mel waggled her brows at him, laughing as he tumbled her over onto her back, his arms around her and his mouth claiming hers. Processing all her jumbled emotions could happen later. She wouldn’t worry about the future now. There’d be plenty of time for considering the consequences, to deal with the fallout. Given her birthday was only a few short weeks away, reality would return soon enough. Today, she’d treasure what she had.