Bittersweet (30 page)

Satisfied
that she looked pretty and sexy, she went back into the bedroom, a little
annoyed when it took Adam a minute to look up.

As
soon as he did, he closed his book.

She
did a little twirl for him, flushing at the look in his eyes. “Do you like it?”

“Very
much,” he said, a husky note in his voice. But then his expression changed.
“Would you mind covering up for a minute?”

She
frowned in surprise and stopped on the way to the bed.

Evidently
recognizing her disappointment, Adam explained, “I just wanted to talk for a
minute, and you’re way too distracting when you look like that.”

Enlightenment
dawned with a flash of encouragement, as she realized that Adam might be ready
to talk about whatever was bothering him. She hadn’t dreamed he would already
have gotten past his inclination to hold back.

She
grabbed a silk robe from the closet and pulled it on over her lingerie, tying
it closed as she walked over to the bed and climbed in beside him. “What did
you want to talk about?”

Adam’s
lips parted but he didn’t speak immediately. He’d been looking at her, but now
he looked away.

“Is
it what was bothering you earlier?” Zoe asked, partly to try to help ease him
into the conversation and partly because she was starting to get anxious.
Whatever Adam had to say, he was reluctant to say—which meant it went deep with
him.

“Yes.
I wasn’t sure if this was the best time to bring it up, and I’m still not sure.
I’m worried about messing up on the timing again, after things are going so
well between us. But you’ve been pushing me to not hold back so much. So this
is me trying.” He gave her a rueful look.

“Thank
you,” she murmured, trying to sound natural, as if this wasn’t a big deal. Even
though it kind of felt like a big deal. “So it’s something about us?”

“I’ve
been thinking about something. Something I want. And I realize that we might
not be in the same place on this yet. I’m not trying to push you into something
you’re not ready for.  But I just want you to start thinking about it.”

“Okay,”
she breathed, almost trembling as anxiety tightened in her chest. She had
absolutely no idea what he was going to say. “What is it?”

“I
would like for us…I would like for you to start thinking about our possibly
living together.”

Zoe
froze. “What?”

Adam
started talking faster, as if trying to get it all out before she could voice
an objection. “I realize it’s a big step, and you might not be at that point
yet. I’ve been in love with you for a really long time, so I’m probably too
impatient. But that’s what I want. And that’s why it’s been bothering me to
hear you talk like you and Logan will be living by yourselves indefinitely. I
don’t want you and Logan to live by yourselves.” He paused and swallowed, as if
taken aback by how much he’d said. Then he gave her an ironic half-smile and
admitted, “I want to live with you and Logan.”

Zoe
had raised her hand to her mouth as Adam had spoken. And joy, excitement, and
giddy understanding started to throb through her. “You want us to live with
you?”

“I
do. When you’re ready.” He’d been mostly looking away from her, but now he
turned to scan her expression. “Was it too soon to say anything? I didn’t want
to pressure you or—”

Zoe
tackled him, launching herself at him in an ecstatic hug. “I want us to live
with you too!”

Adam’s
arms had gone around her instinctively, but now he pushed her away slightly
with his hands on her shoulders so he could see her face. Winded and obviously
surprised, he asked, “You do?”

“Yes!
Of course I do. I’ve hated not having you around all the time. And Logan feels
the same way. I just didn’t think you were thinking in that direction.” Zoe
grinned at him so blindingly that he seemed to recognize she spoke the truth.

“Of
course I was thinking in that direction. Now that I have you, after so long, I
want everything.” Something awoke in his eyes—something she only saw
occasionally—a blaze of feeling so strong and pure and intense she thought she
might drown in it. “I want everything,” he repeated hoarsely.

She
grabbed his face and kissed him. Then kissed him again and again. “Oh, Adam,”
she said between kisses. “I want everything too.”

Eventually,
he seemed to process her answer enough to respond to her kisses. She squealed
when he grabbed her and swung her over on the bed so he was on top of her. “So
we’re agreed?” he asked, as if he needed confirmation despite the blaze of joy
in his eyes.

“Yes,”
she agreed, reaching up to stroke his face with her fingertips. “We’re agreed.
Only…” she trailed off, not wanting to ruin their moment with a much less
significant issue.

Adam’s
expression sobered. “Only what? You can tell me. It’s all right if you don’t
want to—”

“I
do want to. I do. I love this house so much, and it’s a shame to leave it after
all the work we’ve done, but I’d much rather live with you. That’s what’s most
important to me.”

He
stared at her blankly, his weight still heavy on her lower half as he braced
himself on his forearms. It took him several moments before he’d processed what
she said. “What do you mean?” he asked at last, drawing his brows together. “Of
course, we would live here.”

Zoe’s
mouth fell open. “What?”

Adam
rolled off her and lay on his side beside her, propping himself up on one arm.
“This is our home, isn’t it? I never thought you and Logan would move to the apartment.
I was going to move in here.”

“You
were?” she asked, squeaking embarrassingly in her surprise. “But the apartment
is part of your family. And you’d have to downgrade so much if you move in with
us.”

“It
wouldn’t be a downgrade in anything but real estate value.” His tone was almost
diffident, but that only proved how true his words were. “In every other way,
this would be so much better. And you and Logan are my family.”

Zoe
clasped her hands together as she started to process that she could have Adam
and still have her beloved house. “So you would really move here? It would be
all right?”

His
eyes grew warm in a familiar way. “Well, I couldn’t get rid of Carson.”

“Of
course not.”

“And
I would need an office, but fortunately that renovation is already in process.
And I would have needed a heightened security system, but that’s being finished
tomorrow.”

“Oh!
You little sneak! You’ve been outfitting this house for you all this time!”

Adam
actually laughed out loud. “Of course, I have. Why did you think I was being so
pushy about something like an office, when you obviously have no need of one
yourself?”

In
teasing outrage, she berated his underhanded presumptuousness and sneakiness
and  tackled him again, and they had a playful wrestling match until Adam had
gotten her on her back again, holding her in place with his body.

His
face softened as he gazed down, the laughter transforming into something much
deeper. “Oh, baby, I know it was presumptuous. But, when I first saw this
house, I wanted it. For us. And back then I had almost no hope of ever having
you, of ever being with you and Logan for real. But the house still felt like
ours.”

“It
is ours.” The emotion tightened in her throat. “Please come and live with us
here.”

He
kissed her, deeply and so urgently she lost her breath. But he broke the
tension with a lilt in his voice when he said, “It’s about time you asked me.”

She
was caressing his face, stroking the graceful lines of his cheekbones and jaw,
but she managed a somewhat acceptable huff. “I never thought you could give up your
apartment. And it’s inappropriate for someone to invite herself and her
two-year-old boy to live in someone else’s apartment.”

Adam
chuckled and kissed her again.

He
kissed her face in a series of playful, affectionate caresses. But then he
captured her mouth once more, and the kiss deepened to such an extent that it
was clear the conversation was over. As she opened her mouth to Adam’s and
tangled her tongue with his, Zoe was washed with waves of joy, love,
excitement, and pleasure.

She
was breathing urgently through her nose as Adam’s mouth worked over hers, and
she clutched at his hair with one hand as she stroked his back with the other.
Her body began to react to the kiss, and she rocked beneath him, wrapping one
of her legs around his in order to increase the friction between their bodies.

Adam
groaned into her mouth as her groin found his hardening arousal. She rubbed
herself against it, erotic tension deepening below her belly as she felt him
intimately against her.

They
broke off the kiss by mutual consent and stared at each other.

Getting
some leverage with her legs, she managed to push him over onto his back and
climbed over him, pushing the robe off her shoulders as she did to reveal the
lilac lingerie beneath.

Adam’s
eyes blazed hot as they crawled from her tousled hair to her lace covered
breasts to the flimsy mesh barely covering her belly and groin.

She
smiled, pleased with the success of her sexy outfit. Then she leaned down to
give him a hard kiss. She trailed her mouth down his jaw and neck and started
to nuzzle his bare chest.

She
loved the smooth, strong lines of his shoulders and his collarbone. She stroked
his skin there as she lowered her mouth to his flat belly. It shuddered as his
breath hitched when she mouthed the flesh on his side. He wasn’t making much
sound, but her own arousal heightened as she could see how his body reacted to
her touch.

She
focused her eyes up at his face when her mouth lowered below his belly-button.
He’d propped his head up on a pillow so he could watch her progress down his
body. His eyes were smoldering with a primitive kind of heat. His skin had
broken out with perspiration, and his nostrils flared as he grew tenser and
tenser.

Zoe
made a husky noise in her throat—a helpless vocalization of her pleasure. She
palmed his obvious erection through the fabric of his pajama pants.

He
winced and stifled a groan.

She
squeezed him rhythmically, loving how his hips shifted restlessly as he tried
to control his response. When she adjusted her grip and squeezed again, he
released an uninhibited moan and arched up his back, his face twisting in
pleasure. “Oh baby,” he gasped, as she massaged him again. “Please.”

Zoe’s
own arousal was throbbing between her thighs, and she was so wet it was almost
uncomfortable. Her hands shook as she took the waistband of his pajama pants in
both hands and pulled it down gently over his erection.

When
she’d gotten his pants off, she stroked him intimately, her nipples tight and
her skin blazing just from the way his gaze never left her face and body. When
he started to make little thrusts into her hand, she lowered her mouth.

Adam
hissed as she licked the length of him, and he groaned again when she took him
fully in her mouth. His hand twisted in her hair as she tried to establish a
rhythm, but before she’d hollowed her mouth out more than a few time, the
muscles of his thighs and belly tightened palpably and his body became to
shake.

He
choked out, “Zoe, baby,” and made a move as if he would pull her away. But it
was too late. He came hard into her mouth in a series of jerks and spasms.

Zoe
loved it. She loved how his face reflected a rush of pleasure and satisfaction.
She loved how his body released so much tension that he fell limp afterwards.
She loved the look in his eyes, like he’d finally assuaged his thirst after
years of drought.

She
loved it. And she stroked and kissed him gently until his body fully relaxed
and he’d started to soften.

Then
she crawled up higher and burrowed against his side, nuzzling the crook of his
neck.

He
managed to wrap his arm around her and hold her against him, although he was spent
in the way he always was after he came so hard.

It
was a few minutes before he was able to say, “Damn it.”

She
giggled and kissed his jaw. “Don’t be that way.” For the most part, he’d gotten
better about not coming so quickly, the way he had when they’d first started to
have sex. But tonight he’d come much sooner than he would be satisfied with. “I
liked it. And I have faith in your powers of recovery.”

He
smiled at her ruefully and leaned down to kiss her. Then he started to stroke
her body with his free hand, the other holding her tightly against him.

She
stretched against him, humming with pleasure as he fondled her breasts and
caressed down to her bottom. And, when he slid his hand between her legs, she
adjusted to give him better access.

He
stroked her intimately, his fingers sliding against her wet inner walls. She
gasped and grunted as a climax tightened quickly, and she dug her fingers into
his side in her urgency.

He
worked her over with one hand, bringing her to a shuddering climax. Then he
made her come again, until she was sobbing out her pleasure and gasping wetly
against his chest.