Chasing Adonis (20 page)

Sighing, she placed the overnight bag at the foot of one bed
before moving toward the headboard to draw down the covers. The room would have
to do for one night. But she couldn’t decide whose back she pitied more: hers
and Pauline’s for daring to sleep on these rock-hard mattresses, or Shane’s for
making do with a less-than-well-sprung sofa. When she reached over, a quick
flick of her wrist turned the air-conditioning unit on. It hummed noisily, but
not so loud to make sleep impossible. With nothing else to do until Shane
appeared, she kicked off her sandals and placed them in the closet.

“All set?” a husky whisper tickled up her spine.

Squelching the urge to smooth her prickled neck hairs, she
turned toward the door. Shane filled the room, carrying a still out-cold Tyler
in his arms. She smiled in welcome and patted the bed. Good thing the boy had
been so enamored with his new Prufrock pajamas he’d insisted on wearing them
immediately. Now they could simply put him to bed without the risk of waking
him.

In one fluid motion, Shane lowered the sleeping boy, never
so much as jostling Tyler’s new Prufrock doll. After yanking off the child’s
shoes and socks, he pulled the covers up, leaned down and kissed Tyler’s head.

A wave of desolation swept over Adara at the simple gesture.
She ached to touch this splendid child just once with that same level of
affection. “May I?” she whispered.

Shane nodded and stepped away from the bedside.

Adara knelt by the bed, brushed a stray curl from the boy’s
face and kissed his cheek. His skin was so soft, like a ripe peach, and smelled
like baby shampoo and French fries. “Thanks,” she said, rising again.

“No, thank you,” a sleepy Pauline mumbled from the doorway.
“You’ve gone out of your way to make Tyler feel special. I know he appreciates
it, but more importantly, I do too.”

Pleasure tingled through her at the compliment, and a slow
smile spread across her face. “You’re exhausted, Pauline. Exhausted and
delirious.”

“I’m exhausted, but far from delirious, my dear. You have a
way with children, a true gift. It must come from being around them. Do you
have many nieces and nephews?”

“I was an only child.”

Strange. For the first time in a long time, the memory of
her childhood didn’t leave her bereft. Pauline’s maternal pride encompassed her
with so much affection, she found no love lacking. How could that be?

She wasn’t given time to find answers. Stopping only long
enough to step out of her shoes, Pauline slid into the bed, fully clothed,
pulled Tyler’s skinny body against hers, and closed her eyes, effectively
closing off conversation.

“Well, I don’t know about you,” Shane said, “but I’m still
wired from driving all day. Feel like sitting up in the living room with me for
a while?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind.”

He jerked his head toward the door. “Come on.”

Anticipation sparkled beneath her skin. A chance to be alone
with him. Who knew what might happen? She honestly didn’t know what she wanted
to happen, but she sure as hell knew she wanted something to happen.

~~~~

They sat together on the sofa, and Shane flipped on the
television to check the news. Their escape didn’t make the North Carolina local
or the U.S. national news, thank God, but he could bet they were the top story
on the Long Island channels.

Still, as long as they didn’t make national headlines, the
Suffolk County Police considered their flight a local problem. And thanks to
Ted’s generous donation, their location could continue to remain undetermined
and untraceable.

That reminded him. Time to take stock of what they’d spent
today. He pulled a folded packet of receipts out of his wallet and compared it
to the index card he withdrew from his pocket. They’d begun the trip with five
thousand one hundred and sixty three dollars. On the back of the card, he
deducted the totals from the toy store, the department store, and dinner. That
left approximately four thousand eight hundred and eighty eight dollars in the
wallet. Pulling the bills out, he flashed an apologetic glance at Adara
watching his financial wheeling and dealing. “Just give me one sec.”

Start with the big bills. One hundred, two, three, four… He
continued counting, checked the figures on the index card, and counted again.

Impossible!  They still had five thousand one hundred
and sixty three dollars in the wallet. Shit! How could that be? He must have miscounted
the original figure. Well, he’d just have to keep all the receipts and be more
careful with his figures from now on. Heaving a deep sigh, he stuffed the
monies and papers into the wallet and shoved it in his pocket.

“Everything okay?” Adara asked.

“Mmm-hmm. Just double checking our finances.”

“And?”

He smiled. “And nothing. We’re fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Her spine went rigid. “Don’t let the pretty little lady
worry about money matters, is that it?”

Had he missed something? Where had that hostility come from?
Five minutes ago, she was asking permission to kiss Tyler goodnight, and now
she nearly snapped his head off over a stupid remark about the amount of money
they had?

Before he could call her on it, she sighed. “I’m sorry. I
guess all the excitement has taken its toll.”

When her posture relaxed again, she bent her knees, and her
calf touched his thigh. That simple contact inspired softness, and he gently
placed her head against his shoulder. She fit inside the crook of his neck as
if born to match him. He had the strangest impression of himself as a jigsaw
puzzle, walking around in life with missing pieces. Only when Adara was near
was he complete. She made him whole.

You’re tired, buddy boy. Too much excitement for you,
too, in the last few days. You probably should just send her off to bed and
catch a few winks yourself. God knows when you’ll get another opportunity.

Yet when she lifted her head again, he never considered the
consequences before leaning in to capture her lips with his. Electricity
snapped and crackled around his head when her arms moved to his shoulders to
envelop him, drawing him closer. She fused to him. He clung to her.

Chapter Twenty

Never in his life had he yearned to connect with someone
more. Until Adara, his life consisted of black and white. Now, with their lips
bonding them together, vivid colors, like a movie running on hyperspeed in a
darkened theater, flashed across his closed eyes.

The sweet fragrance of her skin, honeysuckle wine, wafted
into his nostrils, intoxicating him. As her lips opened for his tongue, she
moaned low, and the sound reverberated deep in his own throat.  While his
tongue lapped at her luscious mouth, trembling hands reached up to caress the
globes of her flesh through the simple T-shirt she wore. Perfect, they filled
his palms, and as his thumbs rubbed across the nipples, she trembled against
him. Still, she didn’t attempt to stop him.

Her moans intensified and with the slightest increase in
pressure, he pushed her back to rest her head on the arm of the sofa. He lay
atop her now, never losing contact with her supple lips or those perfect mounds
swelling beneath his fingertips. When he broke away to breathe, she arched her
back, and pushed her breasts against his cheeks. With a flickering smile, she
reached to pull the shirt off over her head.

There was no going back now. He knew it; she knew it, too.
The energy and tension that had surrounded them both since their first meeting
exploded.

He barely remembered removing his own shirt, but the sight
of Adara sitting up to remove her bra would remain emblazoned on his memory for
a hundred lifetimes. Her sultry smile teased him while she slowly slipped the
thin straps off her creamy shoulders, revealing perfect breasts tipped with
cotton candy nipples. Licking her lips in anticipation, she thrust her chest
upward, offering herself to him like a delicious dessert.

His arms encircled her waist, and he crushed her against
him, reveling in her satiny skin sliding against his rock-hard pectoral muscles.
But his pecs weren’t the only muscles suffering from rock-hard status.

Somehow sensing his growing need, she puffed warm breath
across the hairs on his neck while her hand slid down to loosen his pants. With
the waist unbuttoned, her fingertips slowly drew the zipper of his crotch,
tooth by agonizing tooth. She teased him with light flutters of her hands until
he groaned aloud with mounting desire.

At last, her hand slipped inside to grasp him. His member
jumped as her fingers enfolded him and began a slow descent. Her index finger
extended to travel even lower, tickling beneath his base. Bliss vibrated
through his bloodstream, and speech became nearly impossible with the
sensations enveloping him. Still, he managed to voice his pleasure in three one-word
sentences.

“Oh. God. Adara.”

She giggled against his ear, shooting shivers from the nape
of his neck to his tailbone. The finger halted its exquisite torture, pausing a
mere breath away from his engorged flesh. “If you want me to stop, I will.”

“You do, and I’ll kill you,” he replied, transforming her
sensual giggles into full-blown sexy laughter.

Immediately, she started the teasing ritual again.

“Two can play your game,” he growled and lowered his mouth
to capture a perky nipple between his teeth.

A sharp gasp erupted from her lips while her finger stopped
its motions and joined the rest of its brethren to clutch him in a desperate
hold. Writhing beneath his body, she arched her back until she nearly bent in
half, drawing him closer, still closer. He paused to stare into her
passion-filled eyes, but she quickly grabbed him by the neck with her free hand
to bring him down again.

“Don’t stop,” she murmured. “Please, don’t stop.”

“You’re too delicious to even consider stopping,” he said against
her rosy skin. “I could taste you all night.”

~~~~

Adara whirled in a wonderland. Shane’s mouth drove her to a
frenzy: licking, biting, and teasing her in inconsistent rhythms. Just when she
thought she would die of rapture, he switched sides and tantalized her other
nipple to the same wondrous heights. A slow ache built deep inside her, pulsing
outward. Greedily, she yanked at his waistband, pulling his pants past his
thighs, and releasing his swollen shaft from its confines.

“Oh-ho,” he said with a chuckle. “No fair.”

In one smooth motion, he whipped her shorts and panties from
her body, baring her to his hot gaze. Proud and eager, she lay as still as
stone, only her breasts heaving with each inhalation of breath. “You’re so
incredibly beautiful.”

His husky compliment warmed her entire shuddering frame, and
she smiled. “So are you.”

He shook his head and rose from the sofa, kicking off his
pants and briefs. Adara’s eyes drank in the hard sinew of his shoulders and
arms, the crisp curls of hair over his well-developed chest, and scanned lower.
Beneath his erection, with the television’s glow for assistance, she spotted
the round, whitish scar at the top of his thigh.

Hands splayed on either side of his leg, she leaned forward
to place a kiss against that small, pale blemish. Releasing a shuddering
breath, he swayed on his feet, and the action encouraged her avid
participation.

With no warning, she drew his shaft into her mouth—just the
head at first, teasing the knob with painless grazings of her teeth. Inch by
inch, she took more of him between her lips. Her tongue lapped at his stiff
flesh, running up and down the bulging vein on its underside. He swelled inside
her, and her mouth wrapped around his rod to suckle him deeply. His hands
gripped her head while his fingers drew massaging circles through her hair and
scalp. She knew the moment he was about to burst, felt the tightening in his
groin, and with one last long lick, released him from her mouth’s hot, wet
grasp.

“Sorry,” she whispered harshly, “but I can’t have you
finishing before we’ve even started.”

He flashed a wolfish grin at her. “I agree. Besides, I’ve
yet to taste you.”

Dropping to his knees, his mouth immediately sought her
center. For one moment, she wondered about the sanity behind their actions. His
family only a few feet away, the television coloring the walls around them in
dappled blues and whites, and the two of them grappling on the sofa like
lovestruck hormonal teenagers.

But when his tongue flicked against the hardened nub of her
center, sanity fled to be replaced with a tumult of emotions. Wisps of ecstasy
melded with flames of longing while a slow, dull ache coiled deep inside her
belly. Low-throated moans rippled from her throat to her mouth, and her limbs
melted, trickling pleasure from her fingertips to the skin of his shoulders and
neck as she ran liquid hands along his hot flesh.

When the dull ache changed to wavering shudders that pushed
her toward the brink, she pulled his head up to her face and kissed him long and
deep, tasting her own essence on his lips and tongue. 

With a sigh of delight, she clasped his hips and, in one
fluid motion, twisted him until he landed squarely on the sofa beside her.
While he stared at her in amazement, she moved to straddle him, then slowly
lowered herself onto his erection.

“See how handy my karate moves are,” she murmured against
his ear.

“Remind me to thank your sensei,” he growled.

No other words passed between them as they lost themselves
in a world where communication needed no other outlet but the give and take of
lovers.

Wet and slick with their combined juices, she slipped easily
down his shaft then rose again. On her next descent, she gripped him with her
vaginal muscles, and he shuddered beneath her. So he liked that, did he?
Reveling in her control of his every sensation, she repeated the action. This
time, he moaned in rhythm with the tremor that overcame him.