Page 13 (1/2)

They both settled and went still The only sound was their breathing, which see which he counted the soft flakes falling out of the sky and lightly fluttering down just outside the opened doorway

"Adahed He didn’t want questions or a visit down memory lane He wanted solitude and decompression That’s what he’d alanted Except…Except in this moment, he didn’t knohat he wanted She confused the shit out of hi his brain He had no idea why he even tried to control his feelings around her Habit, he decided He always maintained control, in every aspect of his life It’s what had gotten hih

His therapist had warned hio of that control Easier said than done

Not buying his possu hi at hi to see hi her look at hi in his life dissolve into nothing Now it made him unsettled They were in far too close proxiht

Retreat…

Too bad there was nowhere to retreat to Which meant he had no choice but to man up "Yeah?"

She came up on an elbow and he braced hiot that But she couldn’t She could never understand the places he’d been, the darkness he’d lived

Her expression held uncertainty

He should reach out to her, touch her, assure her But he didn’t trust hi all too well how easily he could lose himself in the physical attraction between the a desperately needed release But he would never allow himself to use her that way

"I have a question"

Great "Okay"

She drew a deep breath "Why did you really let me come with you today?"

Ten

Holly held her breath for Adam’s answer She wasn’t even sure he would answer She didn’t know about hi back one ca and been alone But never with a barrier between them

He spoke, his voice low and a little husky, as if he were filled with the saive me if I left you back in Sunshine"

"And you care why?"

Another pause "I owe your father," he said carefully "And I owe you, too"

Holly tried to read his face Carefully blank He was good at that Hell, as she kidding, he was the ood cahts, and that alone was enough to break her heart There’d been a tiiven up her soul in order to allow his to be shared, but she’d long ago stopped believing she could get hih to let her in

Why that still hurt, she had no idea "You owe ," she said "And my dad--"

"Believed in avewreck, he helped es didn’t stick," she started, but he shook his head

"They’d stuck in my head," he said very softly

She knew this She knew all too well how ret he’d carried But she also knew that even if that cop hadn’t died, Adaht have been the catalyst for hiardless "Adam--"

"Go to sleep, Holly To that was true, she closed her eyes…and then caarded her own decree She’d rolled right over the bunched-up jacket and onto Ada

And that wasn’t the worst part She’d vacuu off his body Carefully, without le inch, she took stock Adam was flat on his back, innocent--which did not help her Because she knew him, at least she had known him, and there wasn’t much innocence to him There never had been

But he was innocent now It was she who’d climbed all over hi across his forehead, his body relaxed as she so rarely saw it She lay there in the crook of his ars, her hand settled disturbingly low on his belly, her position speaking of a deep, abiding trust Trust in this an to slowly back off of hi cat His ar hand curled around her shoulders, the other sliding down her back to her butt, gripping a cheek with startling possessiveness His breathing didn’t change, re slow and steady The tortoise Except he was more like a cheetah, wild and wily and sneaky as hell She found his gaze locked on her in the barely there light "Sorry," she said, and tried to extract herself delicately

He tightened his grip to stop her He wasn’t sather himself, he flipped them so that his hard body covered hers Hisher plenty of tiot lost in the translation fro, Yes, yes, yes "Ada me up in my sleep"

"No, I…"

He turned his head and his lips brushed the inside of her ar with her other one

She was holding on to him

He nipped the skin he’d just kissed and she felt herself go damp Dammit "Okay, yes," she said "But I didn’t lide that oh-so-talented ainst the hollow of her collarbone "We’ve both done a lot of things that we didn’t mean to," he murmured

She wanted to concentrate on his words, but hisher an entire body shiver "Don’t," she whispered, clutching at him so he couldn’t escape She closed her eyes "Don’t toy with me"

Above her, he went still "Is that what you think I’ainst her skin, and he dipped to taste, stirring up all kinds of fire within her He aze, his own dark and heated as he slid a hand down her leg, pulling it up, around his hip, which grinded into her

He was hard His mouth arm, fir

"Does that feel like I’ame, Holly?"

Before she could respond, he traced a sensual line fro the outer shell before lightly sinking his teeth into the lobe

She sucked in a breath and tightened her grip on hi, she cradled his hps within hers, and her inner ’ho rejoiced