No, but he’d really, really like to. “What about your unwanted admirer?”
She gave him a helpless look that tore at his chest. “I don’t know what to do about him. But I’ll deal with it. He’s not your problem. He’s mine.” A self-depreciating smile played around her sweet lips. “I don’t even know what I ever did to make him like this. I mean, I was always nice to him, but I try to be nice to everyone.” Her eyes, when she looked up at him, were entreating. “I must’ve done something?—”
Adam had heard enough. He closed the distance between them and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Whatever’s happened between you and this guy, it wasn’t your fault, Faye. Some guys just don’t know how to take no for an answer is all.”
She gave him a grateful look, and rested the palms of her hands on his chest as he released her chin. He felt the heat of her touch all the way through his thermal shirt. “Thank you for saying that. But the truth of it is, you don’t even know m?—”
His mouth was on hers, her lips pliant and surprised beneath his own. Adam kissed her softly, carefully, cupping her face between his palms so she couldn’t pull away. Her skin was as soft as silk beneath his fingertips. Tentatively, knowing he shouldn’t, he tasted her, probing between her lips with his tongue until she opened for him and let him inside. A low growl rumbled through him as her fingers dug into his chest and her hands fisted his shirt, hanging on tightly. She tasted sweet and warm and innocent.
She tasted like HIS.
One hand moving to grip her soft hair, he wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her closer until her breasts pressed into his chest and his cock swelled against her stomach. His lungs rose and fell with harsh breaths, breathing in her scent, pulling it inside of him until there was nothing else but Faye. The smell of her, the taste of her…the feel of her.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, and Adam’s wolf purred with pleasure, sensitizing his skin and warming his blood. He stepped forward, trying to bring her even closer. He wanted to feel her against him, skin to skin. Wanted to crawl inside of her until there were no barriers between them.
Faye stepped back as he moved forward until there was nowhere else for her to go and she was pressed against the shelf behind her. Adam ran his hands down her back and over the sweet curves of her hips, then hooked them beneath her thighs and lifted until her ass was on the edge of the shelf and her legs were wrapped his waist. He rolled his hips, growling deep when his rock-hard cock slid along her core.
Holy shit. He was about to come in his jeans.
Thank the gods they weren’t his Brunello Cucinelli’s.
Chapter 6
Faye
Faye gazed off into the distance, not seeing the dirty window above the sink of her RV, the fingertips of one hand resting on her lips, and a persistent ache low in her belly as she remembered the way Adam had kissed her at the museum.
Her other hand was resting in a bowl of warm, sudsy dishwater, the dishes she was washing forgotten as she remembered the way the rough palms of his hands had seared her skin when he slid them beneath her shirt, his fingertips digging in as if he was afraid she would disappear, and a deep moan escaping his throat like he’d never felt anything better than her.
One thing was for sure, she’d never felt anything better than the way that man had kissed her. Her face was on fire—along with certain other parts of her—just thinking about it. She would’ve fucked him right there in the storage room, most happily, if he’d kept going.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t. As soon as she’d slid her hands down his hard chest and grabbed the waistband of his jeans, he’d stiffened against her, his entire body freezing up hard as a board. With one last squeeze of his fingers, he’d broken off the kiss and backed away after carefully setting her back on her feet.
Then he’d apologized.
He’d fucking apologized.
Waving off his awkward words, Faye had turned away and tried to get herself together as she searched for the box of old newspaper clippings she’d been wanting to sort through ever since she’d first found it. He’d helped her carry it out to the truck, where Rocky was waiting patiently, and then she’d begged off dinner, claiming she’d forgotten she’d promised her mom she’d stop by.
The ride back to the garage where she’d left her car was…not comfortable. But like any woman who’d been kissed senseless one moment and then just as suddenly rejected, Faye thanked him and smiled so hard her cheeks hurt as he transferred the box to her car. Then she gave Rocky a warm goodbye with some head scritches and headed to her car. Adam remained standing beside his truck until she got in and started the engine. With one last smile and a little wave, she pulled away.
Just smile and wave, girl. Smile and wave.
She’d made it all the way to her driveway before that smile slipped and the tears began to fall.
Now it was Thursday, and Faye hadn’t seen or heard from Adam since that night. She assumed this meant their date for Saturday was off.
Well, that was okay. It was unfair of her to drag him into her problems with Jeff. She’d go meet her friends alone and make an excuse for Adam. She’d tell them they’d had a fight. Something that would lead to their eventual “breakup.”
She would just say they’d already split, but being engaged one minute and single the next would most certainly raise suspicions. She’d give it a week or two of them not getting along and then admit they’d rushed into things and called it quits.
Of course, she could always just admit that she’d faked the entire thing to get Jeff off her back. Faye thought about that for a second. The idea was tempting. Maybe it would finally get it through his thick skull that she didn’t want to date him so much she was willing to lie about already being in a relationship.
But who was she kidding? He’d probably just turn it around and make it look like she’d done it to get his attention. And then she’d forever be known as the girl who was so pathetic she made shit up to get a guy’s attention.
Sometimes living in a small town really sucked. If she lived in a big city, it would be easier to avoid people and she wouldn’t be reduced to playing high school games.
With a heavy sigh, Faye went back to doing the dishes. She only had about an hour before she was supposed to pick up Jules for their regular Thursday girls’ night out, which consisted of lots of wine in a corner booth of Greg’s bar and many toasts to what they had, what they’d lost, and the amazing things they had coming, in between fits of giggles as they gossiped about the other people in town.
