Chapter Eleven
Adam shifted from fifth to fourth gear and then down again to third. The BMW purred as it decreased speed, hugging the curves of the twisting mountain road. With the roof down, the wind whipped through the car, pure and fresh and tinged with the pungent scent of eucalyptus.
He glanced at her, flashed his traffic-stopping smile. “I’m pleased you came.”
“So am I.” She wrinkled her nose.
“I didn’t think you would.”
“I wasn’t going to.” Approximately thirty seconds after refusing his invitation, she’d realized her mistake. She’d wanted a chance? Well, what did she think his invitation offered? Yeah, it may only be for forty-eight hours, but what had she expected? A marriage proposal? Two days alone together was a great start.
“What made you change your mind?”
She shot him a wicked look. “What do you think?”
The traffic stopper returned. “I have a confession.”
For someone in the process of owning up to something, he didn’t look particularly guilty. “Am I going to want to hear this?”
“Matt could have made it to the meeting this afternoon.”
“What?”
“I asked him not come.”
“You did?”
“I’m going to Hong Kong on Tuesday for two weeks. I couldn’t leave here without resolving things between us.”
“Is that what I am to you? An unresolved issue?”
He didn’t respond.
“So spending a weekend with me will help you find…an answer to your problem?” She held no false illusions. He’d designed this weekend to work her out of his system. She should be pissed, but how could she be angry when his problem was the fact that she was in his system to begin with?
He slowed and turned off the highway onto a narrow country road. “Until I have you naked and alone, I won’t be able to resolve one damn thing.”
A lick of desire shot through her. She closed her eyes, rested her head on the headrest, and stroked his thigh. The muscles rippled in his leg. “Care to tell me how you intend resolving things?”
His tone dropped a notch. “Sure you want to hear?”
She dragged her hand down to his knee and back up again. “Uh huh.”
He released the gearshift and clasped her hand, effectively stopping her movement. “First off, I’m going to try to not drive us clear off the mountain.” He wound his fingers through hers. “It’s tough concentrating with a raging erection.”
She twisted her head. Sure enough, she could see why his concentration might be compromised. She smiled. “What can you do with a raging erection?”
He turned to look at her with an arched eyebrow. “I can make you very, very happy.”
She leaned back and closed her eyes again. “I’m sure you can. What about after that?”
“I can make you even happier.”
She snorted at the sheer arrogance in his voice. “And then?”
He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. “You can make me very happy.”
“That’s it? That’s the best you got?” She knew he would make her very, very happy. Then she’d return the favor. Tenfold. Still, she knew for a fact he could do better.
“Are you challenging me?”
“No, I’m remembering.”
“Remembering what?”
“Me. You. In your office.”
He was silent.
“I’m standing in your office, bent over your desk.” She kept her eyes shut, drawn back by the memory of his description. “My skirt’s bunched up high over my hips, and you’re standing behind me, staring at my ass.”
Adam cleared his throat but didn’t speak.
“Your gaze burns into my buttocks. It makes me shiver. I want you to touch me, tear off my thong.”
She opened an eye and caught the pained expression on his face. “You can’t decide how to get rid of it. With your hands or your teeth? Your indecision drives me mad.” She closed her eyes again and sank deeper into the seat. “I picture you kneeling behind me, taking the lace between your teeth and dragging the panties over my hips and down my legs.”
“Lexi…” Adam’s voice was rough, but it trailed off.
“But instead, you hook your thumb in the thong and tug it off. Again, your gaze burns me. Knowing you watch me so intimately makes me squeeze my thighs together.” Like she did now, in the front seat. “Your erection grows harder. You want to touch me. You’d roll your thumb over my clit, massage it while you slip a finger inside me.”
Lexi had burned when Adam spun the same story for her, and she burned using it to seduce him now. She undid the top button of her blouse.
Adam swore softly.
In his office, he’d used his words as a weapon against her. Now the war was over, she’d turn his fantasy into reality. A pleasurable reality that would obliterate any remaining animosity.
“You don’t use your hands, though. You know another way of making me come.” She gave a soft snarl. “By this time, I’m wishing you’d do something. Anything.”
Adam’s breath was erratic.
“You push me against the surface of your desk. My breasts are swollen and aching, and I rub them against the smooth wood.” Lexi gulped in air. “I hear your shoes hitting the floor, the shuffle as you remove your pants. Your hands close over my hips, and I almost groan in relief. The tip of your cock brushes against the back of my thigh, grazes my lips. I swear, if it touches my clit, I’ll break.
“When I can’t take it a minute longer, you fill me with one thrust of your hips. Words can’t describe it. I scream, and you pull back and plunge into me again. Your legs are plastered against mine, your hips cradle my ass. You’re so deep inside me, it’s hard to tell where you end and I begin. You thrust again and again. I can’t take it. It’s too good. I’m falling apart…”
She panted—she couldn’t help it. Beside her, Adam drew in a sharp breath.
“You fuck me hard, once, twice, and then you tense, but only for a second. You explode, gasping my name. You want to say more, but you can’t. I collapse on the desk. You collapse on top of me, spent, and I relish your weight, your heat on my back.”
She opened her eyes and looked at Adam. “For now that’s the only place I want to be.”
The car had stopped. At some point, he must have pulled over to the side of the road. His eyes flamed. The ice in them melted away.
“I’ve never fucked someone on the side of the road before.” His voice sounded like gravel. “But I swear, if you say one more word, I’ll haul you out of this car, throw you over the hood, and live out every word of that fantasy.”
She practically purred in her seat.
With a soft sigh, he undid another two buttons and slipped his hand into her blouse. A muscle ticked in his cheek. “The road’s deserted. No one uses it apart from me.”
Her stomach lurched as he stroked an aroused nipple.
“Open your shirt.” It was an order, not a request. “All the way.”
She tackled the buttons until the blouse hung open, revealing her braless breasts.
He swallowed hard. “Your belt. Take it off.”
She unbuckled her belt, freeing it from her jeans. There was not another man in the world she’d do this for. Not out in the open, exposed for anyone to see.
“Now the button,” he rasped.
She complied. Traffic from the main road was muted by distance. All around, nature called. Kookaburras laughed from hidden branches, a magpie cawed to its mate, and the wind rustled through the leaves of the surrounding trees. Anticipation hummed through her veins.
“Take them off.” His eyes trained on her waist, on the hand that rested on her bare stomach.
She kicked off her shoes, lifted her butt, and pushed her pants over her hips. Then she shimmied out of her jeans, leaving them in a pile at her feet. Shifting her legs, she ran her finger between them, tracing a line from her lips to her clit and back again. “Wet,” she muttered thickly.
“Get out of the car.” He sounded tormented.
She opened the door and climbed out. Her body rejoiced in the freedom of space, and she stretched languorously.
“Should I leave my panties on?” She looked at him over her shoulder.
From his expression, she assumed he was in no state to answer.
A smile of feminine satisfaction tugged at her lips. Casually, she bent over and removed them, dropping them on the seat before taking a step so she stood at the side of the trunk. Butt naked.
She rested her bottom on it. The metallic paint warmed her ass, and the breeze cooled her bare flesh. “Coming to join me?”
The sound of the door creaking was answer enough.
Expectation crackled between them. Blood pumped through her veins, and need flared in her belly. Her head dropped back, and she closed her eyes. Ran her hand over the neatly trimmed thatch on her mound and lower. She touched herself. Her lips were slick, and she dipped a finger inside, groaning.
Footsteps crunched against the leaves on the ground beside the car, and then silence. He stood before her.
“In your office that day, you got me all worked up. I wanted you to fuck me like you said you would.” She shook her head, remembered her frustration. Remembered the anger in his voice. “You didn’t…you never… All you did was apologize.” She opened her eyes. His shirt was unbuttoned and hung loose. His hooded gaze focused on her hand. “I didn’t just want your apology, Adam. I wanted your touch, too.” She wanted more than that now. She wanted everything he had to give her. “I still want your touch.”
“Give me your hand.” She heard the effort it took for him to speak.
She reached for him with her free hand.
“Not that one.”
Reluctantly, she withdrew and held it out to him. He lifted it to his mouth and licked her with his exquisitely warm tongue. First the nail and then the tip, and then he drew the whole finger into his mouth and suckled.
She cried out, and he released her, guided her hand back between her legs.
“Touch yourself, sweetheart. I want…” He swallowed. “I want to watch you come.”
She wouldn’t make a minute.
She dipped her hand between her slickened folds, watched his mouth open and close, and pulled back out.
Sensation fizzed inside. Her lips were swollen, her groin sensitized. The look in his eyes was possibly the most arousing thing she’d ever witnessed.
She struggled to speak. “Your eyes…watching me.” It was impossible to form whole sentences. “Makes me…heady, hot.” She fucked herself again, massaged her clit. Sensation built, making her breathless.
She gasped. “I’m coming.” The pressure crowned, and waves rippled over her. “Adam…” The orgasm rolled through her, the tremors continuing longer than she’d expected. It was Adam. Watching her. The gratification it evoked was almost as heady as the rush of her climax.
“Fuck, Lexi.” The words sounded as if they’d been torn from his throat.
Before the waves had time to settle, he pulled her off the car, flipped her around, and pushed her shoulders down—like their fantasy. Her breasts squashed against the warm trunk, her ass poked into the air. Her pussy still pulsed from her orgasm.
The heat from the car warmed her nipples, soothed her breasts. She heard the rip of a condom packet, felt his pants as they swished down his legs, and there he was, pushing into her, filling her. She’d craved this. This and so much more. He readily surrendered his body to her—would he surrender his emotions as well?
She gasped as he thrust, desire exploding like giant fireworks. There was no time to adapt to his presence, to shift to accommodate him. He slammed into her hard and fast, repeatedly.
“Oh God, Adam.” Rational thought became impossible. She wanted to connect with him on a deeper level—sex wasn’t the only thing she desired from him. But at this point, it was the only thing she could focus on, the only thing she needed.
The last orgasm had been gentle, rippling through her in soft tremors. This one blindsided her. It came on swift and powerful and sent her into violent spasms of pleasure. She screamed as the euphoria engulfed her, deafening everything but the sound of Adam’s moans. Her inner walls clenched around him, nerve endings igniting in a fire of delight, demanding his release. He gave it to her, his orgasm as wild and uninhibited as hers.
When it was over, he collapsed on top of her, and the two of them lay on the BMW, dazed in the aftermath of their passion. Adam’s chest pressed into her back. With no small measure of satisfaction, Lexi registered the synchronized pounding of their hearts. She’d successfully shared his fantasy, turning it into a very pleasurable reality. Perhaps now he might share more of himself with her, maybe even reveal his secrets to her.
…
The last rim of golden fire dipped below the line of trees on the horizon, leaving a pale orange-and-pink glow bathing the leaves in an ethereal light. Adam sipped his scotch as he watched Lexi. She stood beside him, leaning against the rail of the balcony.
“It’s breathtaking,” she whispered, as though loath to disturb the tranquility that descended around them.
Birdcalls faded with the sun, and in their place frogs chirped noisily. The leaves rustled in the breeze and the calm of the evening enveloped him. Here he could be himself. Here he could let down his defenses and let go of his anger and his sadness and simply enjoy living. It was the only place he found any peace.
“I’m glad you like it.” The wind played with her hair, sending tendrils floating around her face.
“I’ve been transported to another world. There’s no one around for miles, is there?”
“Think I would have pulled over earlier if there was?” They shared a private smile, and Adam tried unsuccessfully to ignore the intimacy of the moment. “Katoomba’s about a twenty-minute drive from here, and the closest neighbors are five kilometers away. I like the isolation.”
“It’s a perfect escape. You must come out here every weekend.”
He shrugged. “I come when I find the time. It’s not as often as I’d like.” If he managed to get here once every two months, it was a lot. This weekend he’d had to come, and he’d had to bring Lexi with him. His chance meeting with Tracey had dredged up old memories and left him shaken. For the last ten days, loneliness had descended on him like a thick, grey cloud. This morning he’d experienced a compulsive need to squelch his self-imposed isolation. Just for a weekend.
The hurt was always there. Always lurking. With Lexi, some of the pain eased. It never left; it just abated a little. He needed this time away with her, this time-out from his memories.
“It’s your reprieve from life, isn’t it?”
He didn’t answer, didn’t want to.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes.”
Adam lifted his glass, tried to take another sip, but he couldn’t swallow. He put the glass down and stared out at the night, heard the stream below trickling over rocks in its path. “What look?”
“The haunted one.” She stood closer to him, touched his cheek. “The one that tells me you’ve lived through the worst life has to offer.”
Damn it. He couldn’t get into this, not now. This weekend was meant to help him escape his memories, not confront them.
“What happened to you?”
He shook his head.
“Talk to me, please.”
The words jammed in his throat. He wasn’t ready. He’d never be ready.
“Let me in. Help me understand.”
If anyone would understand, it was Lexi. Part of him wanted to tell her, to open up. Another part couldn’t go there. It hurt too damn much.
“Trust me,” she whispered.
He shook his head again. “It’s not a matter of trust.”
“Then what is it?”
“Please, don’t ask.”
“I want to help you.”
“I can’t go there.” Even he could hear the pain in his voice.
“Adam…”
“You have to cut me some slack on this one. Give me some space.” He didn’t mean to snap, dammit. It was the pain. He had to make it go away.
Her hand vanished, and she took a step back. “I… I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
He grabbed her hand, held it in his, but the contact wasn’t enough. He pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tight. “Some things…” He cleared his throat, tried again. “Some things are too…hard to talk about.” Then for lack of ability to say any more, he simply repeated himself. “Some things are too hard.”
She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him. “I’m sorry. It isn’t my business. You don’t have to say anything.” She opened her mouth again, shut it, and chewed on her lower lip. Then, as if rethinking her words, she added, “But when…if…you ever need to talk, I’ll be here. I’ll be right here.”