“Hello, Adam.”

Adam cringed at hearing Eve’s sex-kitten purr clearly through his mobile. Having just left Holly’s after a long weekend of sheer bliss, he hadn’t been thinking clearly or he would have checked the caller ID before answering.

“What do you want, Eve?”

“Is that any way to talk to your lover?”

“We are not lovers,” he said through clenched teeth.

“I beg to differ.” She laughed softly, undeterred.

She could beg all she wanted. Adam was done. Had been for a long time.

“We had sex, Eve. It was one night. Don’t make it out to be anything more than that.”

“Keep telling yourself that, baby, but I know better. You and I, we’re meant to be. You will accept that eventually.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay,” she said in a sing-song voice. Her easy agreement set off warning bells in the back of his mind. “But if you do, you might lose your chance to get a bid in on that old gamekeeper’s cottage you were so interested in.”

Adam’s thumb paused over the “End Call” button. “What the hell are you talking about, Eve? The cottage was sold months ago.” To Holly.

“What if I told you the Historical Society is trying to buy back the property?”

“Won’t happen,” he said without thinking. “I know the owner, and she’s not interested in selling.”

There was a long pause, long enough for him to realize his mistake.

“She, huh? So that’s who has captured your attention,” Eve mused. “I should have known. Is she the one you have been doing business with lately, Adam?”

Fuck! He needed to get his head out of his pants and start thinking with his brain again. If Eve thought for a minute that Adam was interested in anyone besides her, she would make Holly’s life a living hell. Things were too new, too fresh with Holly to subject her to that kind of insanity yet. He had to make Eve believe that Holly was not a threat, at least until he could figure out a more permanent solution.

“We’ve met,” he admitted, carefully choosing his next words. “She was interested in a professional opinion.”

“Is that all?” Eve asked doubtfully. In his mind’s eye, he could picture her eyes narrowing and her brows drawing together as she tried to gauge his sincerity. At that moment, he was intensely glad they were not face to face because, after three incredible days with Holly, there was no way he would be able to school his features enough to make anyone believe Holly was anything less than what she was—the one. Eve didn’t need to know that yet.

There were very few women who worried Adam. Eve was one of them. Her behavior over the past six months clearly proved she had a borderline obsessive, and delusional, personality.

“Did she hire you, Adam?” Eve’s voice brought him back to the moment.

“No.” That, at least, he could answer honestly. He would be working on the cottage all right, but not as hired help. But ... this might be a way to get Eve out of attack mode. If he could manage to give Eve the impression that he had just done a consult and wouldn’t be involved any further, it might buy him enough time to work out a better, permanent solution. “She said she would keep me in mind, though.”

“I was hoping you would say that.”

Rather than the rush of relief he had been hoping for, a stone the size of Mount Rushmore settled in his stomach. “Why is that?”

“Because the place was part of the original William Penn estate, so the Historical Society has a vested interest in ensuring that any and all renovations are performed under strict, historically accurate guidelines. If you were doing the renovations, we would know they were being done properly and have no basis for forcing the sale.”

Double fuck! Adam closed his eyes, willing himself to remain calm. How did he keep managing to fuck this up? When would he learn not to underestimate Eve? His mind worked frantically. He did not want her anywhere near Holly.

“It is only the Society’s business if the owner petitioned to have the site recognized as a historical landmark. Has such a petition been made?”

God, he hoped not. He was fairly certain Holly had not done so. In the first place, Holly would have mentioned it when she had given him the grand tour and talked about the research she had been doing. And in that second, he really couldn’t see her wanting that kind of attention. Historically registered landmarks, even those privately owned, had a tendency to draw interest from history buffs, researchers, and tourists. Holly, like him, liked her privacy.

“Oh, Adam.” Eve laughed softly, her voice carrying a barely concealed warning. “Not everything is done by the book, you know. Sometimes, you have to go above and beyond to get what you really want.”

A shiver went down his spine. He knew they were no longer just talking about the cottage. Despite his good intentions, Eve hadn’t been convinced.

“Eve, you leave—”

She was still laughing when she disconnected the call.

* * *

“ADAM, IS THERE SOMETHING you want to tell me?” Holly asked, concern in her eyes as she stroked her hand over his chest.

They lay side by side, still coming down from their incredible love-making. Ever since he had come to pick her up for her “surprise date,” a sunset cruise aboard his personal fishing/cruising boat on the nearby lake, he had seemed distracted.

“No,” he said far too quickly to be believable. “Why?”

She pressed a kiss to his skin. The lake had been perfect, as had the picnic dinner he had brought along. The moment they had returned to her place, he had wasted no time in relieving her of her clothes and making tender, passionate love to her. As wonderful as it had been, something felt off.

“Just a feeling, I guess.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m not really very good at this.”

He tightened his arm around her as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You are perfect,” he said. “And perceptive. I just have a lot on my mind lately.”

“Anything I can help with?” she asked, pushing him from his side onto his stomach. He allowed it. She straddled his hips, resting her sex against his perfect man ass as she leaned forward to knead the tight knots around his upper back and shoulders. Damn, but the man had the sexiest back she had ever seen. Wide at the top, defined from years of construction work, then tapering down into lean hips.

“Yeah. Keep doing that,” he groaned into the pillow. “Damn, that feels good.”

She remained quiet for several long minutes, using her hands to leisurely map and memorize this part of him she didn’t get to see nearly often enough. “If you were having second thoughts, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

He shifted beneath her, rolling to his back. “I’m not having second thoughts, Holly.”

“But if you were, you’d tell me, right?”

She hated feeling this needy. As far as relationships went, she was pitiful. A man like Adam would not appreciate a clingy, needy woman, but she just couldn’t help herself. He—this—seemed too good to be true, and she needed validation.

Adam rested his hands just above her hips, holding her in place. He flexed his hands, squeezing lightly until her eyes met his. “Yes. But I’m not.”

He lifted her as if she weighed nothing, and she sighed in both relief and pleasure as he guided her back down onto him, filling more than her body.

Words were one thing, but he was what she really needed. There was no mistaking the reassurance this connection brought with it. With Adam, it wasn’t just sex. If it ever began to feel like it was, that was when she would really start to worry.

For now, she was content to push the sense of disquiet far to the back of her mind and trust her heart. And Adam.