Chapter Ten
Lexi’s footsteps echoed through the empty offices, the odor of fresh paint sharp in her nose. The walls were now a mint green, the color chosen specifically for its soothing hue. She didn’t need to close her eyes to picture the place furnished. The couches and armchairs were being delivered next Monday—plump, inviting seats with bold, bright prints that would appeal to kids of all ages.
The new coordinator would also arrive on the same Monday. After extensive interviews, Lexi had found the perfect person to head up the program: Abbey Perkins, a young, dynamic social worker.
Someone knocked on the door, and she turned to the sound, expecting it. Matt had scheduled a meeting, and she was excited to update him on the progress.
Only it wasn’t Matt who stood in the doorway.
Adam.
He looked quite devastating.
He’d removed his jacket and tie and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. Black hair covered his muscular lower arms and peeked over his shirt collar. A five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw and upper lip, and his icy eyes flashed in his tanned skin.
Her stomach lurched.
She hadn’t heard from him since the wedding, more than two weeks ago. In that time, he’d driven her completely bananas. Or rather, thoughts of him had driven her crazy.
Something had changed at the wedding. They’d managed to shelve the antagonism and turn the attraction into something sweet and sexy instead of cheap and ugly. They’d become…friends. Sure, the bond was fragile. Still, it was there. She’d found she genuinely liked him, and unless she’d misread him completely, she’d thought he’d begun to like her, too.
So why the freaking hell hadn’t he phoned? A simple hello would have sufficed, although a marathon session in bed—or out—would have been preferable.
She didn’t get him. One minute he’d act as frigid as his cold blue eyes, and the next, hotter than his naked chest. When he was plain Adam, with his traffic-stopping smile and gentle humor, she melted into a puddle on the floor in front of him.
He was an enigma. What went on in his head? He’d kissed and seduced her and then demeaned and belittled her. He’d chased her away and then begged her to return. He’d mocked her strategy and then supported her ideas. He’d, well…he’d driven her bananas.
What about the trauma buried in his eyes? She’d noticed it several times, and the ill-concealed pain left her reeling. Matt hadn’t just helped him through a “rough patch.” Anyone who housed so much sorrow, who hid so much grief, had to have been through hell.
Her heart ached for him. She longed to offer him comfort. Where would she begin? How could she soothe his pain when he wouldn’t let her in?
“Adam.” She groped around for a casual greeting, which wasn’t easy considering the startling array of backflips and somersaults her stomach performed. “You’ve caught me by surprise. I expected Matt.”
“He couldn’t make it today.”
Bless the forces that kept him away. “I thought you’d decided to have nothing more to do with the program?”
He shrugged. “I was available.”
She had about an hour with him. She had no idea how she’d manage to spend that time without imaging him naked, but she’d damn well give it her best shot.
“How have you been?”
“Good, you?”
I waited around for days for you to phone and pretended not to be disappointed when you didn’t.
“I’m good, too,” she said as he pushed his hand through his hair, leaving it mussed and standing up a little.
Her heart did a three-point turn. That’s exactly how his hair had looked in the hotel after they’d made love for the umpteenth time.
“Uh, would you like to start the meeting by going over recent accomplishments? Or would you prefer a tour of the offices, seeing as you’re here anyway?” She wondered how he’d respond if she kissed him. Just stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his, like she ached to do.
“Makes sense to start with the tour.”
Something about the strained tone of his voice made Lexi peer up at him.
He looked paler than usual. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and frown lines crowded his mouth. Although still ridiculously sexy, he seemed tired and stressed, and he held his shoulders in a stiff line.
“Hey,” she said in a gentle voice, “you okay?” Tension radiated off him in waves. Adam glanced around the room.
“Hospitals make me uncomfortable.”
She sensed a wealth of unspoken thoughts. He wasn’t just uncomfortable. He hated everything about the place. “A lot of people feel ill at ease here,” she said empathically. Had he had a bad experience in hospital? Had he been sick?
His smile was tight. “How about you give me that tour? The less time I spend in this place, the better.”
Ouch. She knew he was talking about the hospital, but she couldn’t help taking the comment personally. He was here because he had no choice. Matt couldn’t make it, so he came instead.
She guided him through the rooms, bringing them to life as she detailed their future furnishings and functions to him.
“And last of all,” she said as she led him into the cramped room with the sink and counter, “this will be the kitchen. We’ll add a kettle and microwave, and we’ll fill the shelves with plates and cutlery and the fridge with drinks and snacks. The kids can help themselves anytime. We’ll put the fridge in that corner—” She turned to point and lost her train of thought.
The room was small with the two of them squeezed into it. They stood so close they almost touched. Adam made no pretense of looking where she pointed. He’d pinned his gaze on her mouth, his eyes hot and hungry. His lips parted, and he swallowed hard as she stared back at him. The hunger in his expression took her breath away.
Lack of oxygen almost choked her. Lord, what this man did to her with only a look. If he’d reach out and touch her now, she’d surrender herself to him in a heartbeat. Here in the kitchen, in the middle of the hospital, she’d kick the door shut, claw his clothes off, tear her own away, and let him fuck her.
“Lexi.” His voice was gruff.
“Adam,” she whispered back.
He kept staring at her mouth.
Her eyelids grew heavy and fluttered closed. She hung there, suspended in the tiny room, waiting. The sound of their breathing drowned the noises outside. She floated toward him, her body pulled by an invisible magnet. Her lips parted slightly. It was a matter of time before his mouth touched hers, his tongue sought hers. Her heart raced, and goose flesh skittered up her spine. Blood pooled—
“I’ve seen enough here. Let’s get on with it.”
Lexi blinked in shock.
Flecks of ice glinted in his eyes.
She gaped at him, mortified. Talk about misreading a situation.
Unable to take the mockery on his face a second longer, she pushed past him and called over her shoulder, “If you’ll come with me, I have a list of issues to discuss in my office.”
The quicker they got there, the quicker they could get this meeting over and done with. She practically raced through the lounge and into the hospital corridor. If the floor opened up and swallowed her now, she’d face her fate happily. Of course, that wouldn’t happen. Nothing ever happened the way she wanted it to with Adam around.
Once in her office, she closed the door and invited him to sit down. He declined, electing rather to lean against the wall, one foot crossed over the other. She stood behind her desk and briefly consulted her folder. Not that she needed reminders about today’s agenda. It gave her somewhere to look other than his face.
She refused to let him see how much his rejection threw her.
She shoved aside any thoughts about preliminary discussions, loath to prolong her time with him. Instead, she launched straight into the facts. “We’ve accomplished a fair amount since last I met with Matt. In summary, I’ve hired a program manager. She’s a social worker with a medical background. The furniture is due to arrive the week after next, and the promotional material has been distributed to the wards and the reception area. We’ve set up a media interview for Wednesday, three weeks from now.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Matt will be attending that.”
The words tumbled out of her mouth; she couldn’t talk fast enough. If she could finish this meeting, she could get him the hell out of her office. Then she would afford herself the luxury of curling into a tiny ball on the floor and squirming in embarrassment. And anger.
“The doors open officially the following Monday, after the staff establish a formal agenda and program. Abbey Perkins, the new manager, will run a five-day training program for all staff members and volunteers involved. That will take place in two weeks’ time. We already have three children enrolled in the program, siblings of patients currently in hospital. The ward staff has been primed with information, and referrals have started trickling in from them. We’ve taken out advertisements in women’s and health magazines, as well as a couple of online medical publications and social media. Slowly, the word is circulating.”
She finally looked at him, ensuring she wore a vacant expression on her face.
She’d be damned if she let him see how bent out of shape she was. “That is it in a nutshell. Any questions?”
Adam pushed himself off the wall and took seven—she counted each one of them—very slow, very calculated steps in her direction. His face was unreadable, hypnotic, and she couldn’t tear her eyes away. He walked past her desk. Unsure of his intentions, she swallowed a tiny gasp as he stopped a mere heartbeat away from her.
The hunger was back in his expression, as it had been in the kitchen. Only this time, she refused to fall for it. Once bitten…
She took a step back, creating space between them. Wrong move. Her butt touched the desktop, and she was trapped, caught between a slab of wood and a wall of muscle.
He stepped closer and inhaled slowly. When he exhaled, his breath mingled with hers, sending a wave of longing shimmering through her.
She wanted to punch him in the nose.
His aftershave tickled her senses, and she made a concerted effort to hold herself down and not reach over and bury her face in his chest and gasp in his masculine scent.
Desire overrode her aggravation. Need pulsed through her, so powerful it rendered her muscles useless. She stood paralyzed, aching for his touch.
Her lids grew heavy. She fought every impulse to close them, fought the temptation to tilt her head slightly backward and offer him her mouth as she had in the kitchen.
“Look, Adam—”
He swooped in and kissed her.
His lips enveloped hers, and his tongue took possession of her mouth. It delved inside, hot and wet and demanding. And sweet. Oh, so sweet. Waves of pleasure spiraled through her. Her toes curled and her stomach quivered, and she almost wept at the relief she found in his arms as they wrapped around her, pulling her against him.
Almost—but not quite. Still smarting from his earlier rejection, she held herself still, refusing to respond.
But Adam only kissed her deeper, hotter, until her knees trembled and she couldn’t resist another second. Her mouth relaxed and her lips responded, and she accepted his searching tongue, feasting on it. Flesh burning and breasts tingling, need rolled over her hard and fast.
She curved herself into him, flattening her breasts against the solid mass of muscle that was his chest, fitting her hips around his groin so his erection pressed into her belly. He kissed her, until finally, breathless, he tugged his lips away and rested his forehead on hers.
“Christ,” he said. “I’ve waited a long time to do that.”
“Adam…”
“Come away with me, Lexi. Tonight. I have a place in the Blue Mountains. It’s wild and it’s beautiful, and I’d like to share it with you.”
She pulled away from him, confusion and frustration winning out over desire. One minute he rejected her cold, the next he scalded her with his kisses. Now he wanted her to go away with him?
She was getting whiplash, for sure.
“One weekend, Lexi. All I ask of you is this one weekend.”
She shook her head, dizzy from the staggering effects of his kiss and the emotions whirling about in her stomach. “I don’t get you.” She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes and pushed down hard, as if the action would somehow clear her jumbled thoughts. “I don’t understand what’s going on inside that head of yours. Five minutes ago I embarrassed myself stupid waiting for you to kiss me, and you weren’t interested. Now you want me to spend a weekend with you?”
“You think I wasn’t interested?” He snorted and clasped her hand in his, pulling it away from her face. “You think I haven’t wanted to touch you since I walked into those rooms and saw you standing there?” He moved her hand down and placed it on his groin. “Christ. I look at you and I get an erection.”
She molded her hand around the shape of his hard shaft, hungry for his kiss again. He felt so good, so real. She ran her fingers over his rigid outline, and he growled.
“The first time I saw you, I wanted to kiss you.” He drew in a ragged breath and traced first one heaving breast and then the other. “I ached for you. I wanted to touch your skin and taste your lips and bury myself in your body.” His eyes were hooded, and his voice was low and deep and soft, so soft that if someone stood behind her, they wouldn’t hear. “I thought spending the night with you would take care of it. That I wouldn’t need you anymore.” He settled his lips against the tender spot below her ear then nibbled his way up her lobe. “I was wrong.”
She should move, should push his hand away. They were in her office. Anyone could walk in.
She had neither the strength nor the inclination to do so. Instead, she remained where she was, pinned down by his mouth, helpless to fight him. She squirmed as another wave of longing washed over her.
“I can’t sleep for needing you. I want to see you naked, hear you scream my name. I want you so hot from my touch that you burn inside. Like I do. Night after excruciating night.”
Oh God, did any man have a right to talk like this? She was at work, for heaven’s sake.
Pull yourself together. Push him away.
She would, she vowed, as soon as she found the energy.
Keeping his lips close to her ear, he breathed, “Come away with me, Lexi. Let me make love to you tonight. Let me hold you and touch you.”
If her body answered, if she responded on gut instinct alone, she’d accept. She’d wind her arms around his neck and let the man carry her out of her office and straight to his car.
If.
Somewhere, a small part of her brain still functioned normally, and it focused on one sentence. All I ask of you is this one weekend.
She couldn’t do it. She knew she was nuts. A weekend away with Adam—a weekend of wild, uninhibited sex with the world’s most gorgeous man? What more could a woman ask for?
A chance, that’s what. A chance to get to know him. A chance to give whatever sparked between them time to ignite—and not just in bed.
Adam intrigued her; she couldn’t keep away. She wanted—no, she needed—to find out everything about him. His past, his present, what made him into the man he was and what he’d been through that caused him such pain. And why, why, her attraction to him was so powerful that no matter how many times or how savagely he pushed her away, she kept coming back for more?
A weekend of carefree sex would hardly give her that chance. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go. It was time to acknowledge that when it came to relationships, Lexi wanted the world. She wanted what Sarah had. She wanted what Daniel had. A weekend away wasn’t going to cut it. Not by a long shot. Nothing less than a whole lot of honest-to-goodness, real-life time spent in each other’s company would do.
He offered forty-eight hours.
Using every ounce of available energy, she dropped her arm and pulled back from the hand that trailed an exquisite path over the upper curves of her breasts. “I’m sorry, Adam.” She shook her head. “I can’t.”