More Than Rum (The Maple Leaf Series Book 3) (16 page)

Hope stepped back from the
kiss, dusting snow off her glove and smiling like a little devil. A sexy-as-hell
devil.

“You rat.” He pulled at the
back of his T-shirt and sweatshirt to release the snowball she’d dropped down
there.

“Just making certain you’re
awake.”

He set Olive down and in one
quick motion scooped up Hope, her laughter filling the yard and his heart.

“Put me down, Adam!” She
squirmed and wiggled, her legs moving up and down.

“I intend to.” He gave her a
wicked smirk and tossed her into one of the snow banks lining the patio.

She landed with a puff of white
flurrying out on all sides. “This means war, Adam Rouse!”

Watching her trying to right
herself was like watching a turtle flipped onto its shell. Her body had caused
a sinkhole in the snow bank, and she couldn’t quite get the right angle to get
out of it. Adam knew he should help her, but when Olive climbed the bank and
jumped up onto her stomach, he doubled over in laughter.

“Oh my God, wait until I get
free. Just wait.” With a kick of her feet, she dislodged herself enough to roll
out of the bank. Instantly, both of her hands were wrapped around snowballs.
Using the bank as a fortress wall, she crouched and fired.

Adam caught the first ball and
sidestepped the second. “You’re going to have to do better than that, Stannard.
I thought you were a basketball champ. C’mon. You throw like a girl.”

Her mouth dropped open, but the
light in her eyes was nothing but playful. “I do lots of things like a girl.”

“And let me take a moment to
thank you for that.” He ran toward her, making Olive run around and yap like
crazy.

He launched himself over the
bank, wrapping his arms around Hope as they both tumbled through the snow. He
made sure they stopped with him on the bottom so she wouldn’t get too cold on
the ground. Looking up at her, he said, “I’m glad you stayed last night. I
thoroughly enjoyed every minute.” He dropped a kiss on her nose then a deeper
one on her lips.

“Me too. I definitely think we
should do it again.” She cupped his cheeks and planted a kiss on him that made
him glad to be alive.

“Agreed. I have to work at the
tavern tonight. Come with me.”

“Okay. I have a text message
from Sage that she, Orion, Rick, and Lily are heading to Black Wolf tonight too.
Rick’s playing with Shadow Hills, which will improve that band greatly. Maybe
we can flirt like wild there then repeat our firelight performance?”

“Yes, please.” He squeezed her
then sat them both up, moving Hope so she was cradled in his lap. “I want you
to stay here with me, Hope. I want to keep you safe.” He gestured to his barn
and apartment.

She nodded slowly. “I suppose
that makes sense. Can you take me to get some of my things?”

“Absolutely.”

“And where can I work on Jake’s
website today?” She motioned to his home.

 “I have to finish Diana’s
table and work on new chairs for Jake, so I’ll be in the shop.” He arrowed a
thumb over his shoulder at the barn. “You can set up your laptop in there and
work with me.”

“Assuming I can keep my hands
off you while we work.” She patted his cheek with a cold, wet glove then stood
and dusted snow off her coat and jeans.

Adam stood as well. “There’s no
rule saying you have to keep your hands off me. In fact, your hands should be on
me. Definitely.” He grabbed her hand and scooped up Olive, leading both woman
and pup into the workshop.  

“Hmm. Maybe we can schedule
some make-out breaks.”

Oh, Adam liked the sound of
that. He wasn’t sure making out would be enough though.

Hope gestured to Diana’s table.
“You need to deliver this today too?”

“Yeah. You’ll come with me.”

“Don’t get bossy.” She waved a
finger at him and grinned. “We should ask Diana to join us tonight. Kevin too.”

“This is sounding like a
party.” It was sounding like too many people he’d have to get rid of to be
alone with Hope. Although if they could outnumber Daniel, that would keep Hope
better protected.

“I just figure the more people
that are around tonight, the less likely I’ll be to jump over the bar and
publicly display my attraction to you,” she said.

Adam snagged her hand and
twirled her into a hug. Getting close to her ear, he whispered, “I can’t
promise that
I
won’t jump over the bar and publicly display my
attraction to
you.
” He bit her cold earlobe and laughed when she backed
up and clapped her hands.

“You have a permanent green
light to do that, Adam. In fact…” She raised an eyebrow as she took Olive from
him and went to the stairs to his apartment. “I dare you.”

He followed her inside. “You
don’t know what you just unleashed, sweetheart.”

“I think I know exactly what I
unleashed, and I can’t wait to play with it.” She arched an eyebrow as she
grabbed her purse and Adam picked up his keys.

He didn’t want Hope to have a
crazy guy stalking her, waiting to abduct her, possibly hurt her or worse, but
knowing he was going to spend the entire day with her felt like a good thing.

A really good thing.

****

The smile on Hope’s face as
Adam drove them to her house could not have been chiseled off. He’d let her in.
They’d made love. She’d be spending the whole day with him. Depending on how
long it took to catch Daniel, they might be spending several days together.
While she didn’t want a lowlife on her tail, and part of her brain was still
processing the fact that she’d been freaking abducted, she definitely loved
everything about Adam wanting to protect her. About her meaning enough to him
that he wanted her safe.

Adam’s truck cut through the
snow-packed roads while Olive tried to stand on all fours in the back seat.
Every time they hit a rut, the dog flopped over and let out little sounds of
defeat.

“Stay down, sweetie,” Hope said
over her shoulder.

Adam looked down to his lap
where an obvious bulge showed beneath his jeans. “Yeah, stay down.”

“Feeling a little turned on
this morning?” she asked innocently.

He slid his gaze her way then
looked back out the windshield, a lovely grin on his perfect lips. “All your
fault.”

She hoped it stayed this way. Fun,
light, heated. Adam had almost shut down last night when she’d discovered that
scar. The puckered, discolored skin indicated that whatever had happened had
gone physically deep. She imagined it went emotionally deep too, because he was
the only survivor. That was probably why he’d disappeared for those few months.
Maybe “regular” life had become too much to handle. She wanted to take away
whatever pain he held inside. If he let her, she would try. She would try so
hard.

Olive barked as soon as Adam
pulled into her driveway. “How do you know this is home already? Who’s a smart
doggie?”

The pup’s tail beat against the
backseat as she looked out the window, whining to get out of the car.

“Okay, okay. Hold on.” Adam
parked and turned to Hope. “Don’t feel the need to grab a ton of clothes. You
won’t be needing them.”

“Plan to have me naked, do
you?”

“You wear naked so well.”

With heat washing over her
entire body, Hope grabbed her purse and got out of the truck. She opened the
back door, and Olive darted for the front porch, zipping up the stairs, missing
the first one a little but recovering quickly. She sat on the welcome mat Joy
had by the door and gave Hope pleading dark eyes.

“Oh, but who could resist?” She
kneeled beside the pup and gave her a complete scratching. Touching Adam
instantly popped into her head and she stood. “I seem to be collecting
irresistible things I can’t keep my hands off of lately.”

Adam came up behind her and put
his hands on her hips. “Me too.” He nudged her hair out of the way with his
nose and dropped kisses on the back of her neck.

Slowly, Hope turned in his arms
until she was facing him, but he wasn’t exactly looking at her. His hazel eyes
scanned the front yard. The Marine was on alert, which should have made her
feel safe, but freaked her out instead.

“Let’s get inside.”

She picked up Olive, unlocked
the door, and led Adam in. The first thing Hope noticed was the two wineglasses
on the kitchen counter and the half empty bottle of wine. The second thing was
the water running in the downstairs shower. The third—and most horrifying—thing
she heard was laughter. Her mother’s.

Hope stood paralyzed in the
kitchen, not sure whether to dash to her room or leave altogether. What was
going on here? Well, she knew what was going on, but her brain refused to
sketch in the details.

Thank God.

“We should—”

Before Adam could finish his
sentence, the bathroom door opened and her mother appeared in the hallway. She
had on her fuzzy pink robe and her hair was wet. She stumbled to a stop when
she saw Hope and Adam standing there.

“Oh.” The word came out on a
shocked gasp. “You scared me, sugar.” Joy looked between the two of them then glanced
back at the closed bathroom door, a look of equal parts horror and delight.

Yikes.

“I wasn’t expecting you home
yet,” Joy said.

At the same time, Hope said,
“We can leave.”

Joy shuffled to Hope and rested
her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “You don’t have to leave. In fact, I
have you to thank.”

“Huh?”

At this point, Olive was doing
her best to get out of Hope’s grip and into Joy’s arms, but Hope barely
noticed. She was actually hoping to keep the dog in front of her chest like a
shield between her and whatever her mother was going to say next.

Joy took the dog and cooed
softly to her. “Who’s Grammy’s favorite? Who is?” She rocked the dog and nearly
twirled to the kitchen.

Twirled!

Hope was still considering
running out of the house when the water in the shower shut off. Her gaze locked
on the door, the notion of seeing someone come out of there with a smile that
matched her mother’s ripping at her gray matter.

Something touched her arm and
she jumped.

“It’s just me,” Adam whispered.

Again, that should have made
her feel better, but she was horrified that he was witnessing this whole scene
as well.

“I took your advice last night,”
Joy said.

“Which advice was that?” She
clearly remembered
not
telling her mother to bring someone home.

“I went to Black Wolf and saw
Jake before that creep took you.” Joy shivered and pulled the collar of her
robe closer to her neck. “We had a few drinks. Talked about old times. It was
nice.” Her mother blushed and for the first time in a long time, Hope saw true
happiness in her mother’s blue eyes. Joy was upbeat and funny and always saw
the good in everything, but Hope knew her mother had to work at that. She knew
when her dad died, he had taken a piece of Joy with him. A piece that had been
missing all these years.

Could Jake have brought it
back?

“I called him when you returned
and…” she gestured to the wineglasses in the kitchen, “well, I didn’t want to
be alone. And then we—”

Adam held up a hand. “I think
we know what happened next.”

“Please, I beg you, do not tell
us,” Hope said.

Joy smiled. “I probably should
apologize for acting like a teenager, but I can’t find the desire to do so.”

“You can act however you want
to act,” Hope said. “And you can bring home whoever you want to bring home.
It’s your house. It’s your life, Mom.”

“And I think I’ll start living
it again. It only takes your daughter getting abducted to realize we all need
to live our lives.” She pulled Hope into a hug as the bathroom door opened.

“Oh God,” Jake said.

Hope turned to face him. A few
droplets of water glistened in his bushy beard and the look of panic on his
face was priceless. He quickly buttoned his flannel shirt and stuffed it into
his jeans.

“I didn’t realize Black Wolf Tavern
made home deliveries,” Adam teased.

“Oh… uh… just in special
instances… I… you know, make exceptions.” He looked over Hope’s shoulders at
Joy and grinned at his
exception.
He looked back at Hope. “You were
right, darlin’. Your mother is my soulmate.”

Soulmate?
She didn’t
recall ever using that word. She knew Joy and Jake had been friends before her
father died, and she’d had a feeling they’d be good together now, but
soulmates? What exactly had they done last night?

If it was anything like what
I did with Adam…

Well, okay then. “Don’t let me
interrupt your morning,” she said. “I’m going to get to work on your website
today, Jake.” She looked at Joy. “But I’m going to do it at Adam’s where I’m
going to stay until… until…”  

“Until that numbskull is locked
up again,” her mother said, her hands fisting at her sides.

“Speaking of that numbskull,”
Adam said, “I’m going to call Kevin and see if there’s been any progress.”

“I’ll be right down,” Hope
said.

She left Adam with Joy and
Jake, hoping it wasn’t too awkward. In her bedroom, she pulled out a small
suitcase and dumped a few essentials into it. After a quick trip into the
bathroom for supplies, she went back to her room to her underwear drawer and
rummaged around. So far Adam had seen her two sets of lacy black underwear and
appeared to have been a fan. Tonight called for something hotter. Something
silkier. Something red.

She pushed aside all her sensible
underwear and located what she wanted. A bright red pushup bra with lace on the
sides to the clasp on the back. The matching panties were high on the legs and
low on the waist with a lace panel in the front. She held them over the
suitcase, contemplating whether they were just right or too much.