More Than Rum (The Maple Leaf Series Book 3) (22 page)

He positioned her on her back
at his side then set about freeing those spectacular breasts from the confines
of her bra. When he slid her panties off, he almost hated to see the red
silkiness get tossed aside, but he had to touch her, skin to skin. Nothing
could be in their way.

“There’s no one as beautiful as
you, Hope. No one,” he whispered as he traced circles around her breasts with
his fingertip.

“Sage looks just like me except
for our eye colors.” She arched toward him as he touched her.

“I used to think you two looked
alike, but not anymore.” He leaned on one elbow and licked the rim of her ear,
causing her to wiggle beside him. “I see you. Deep down. In here.” He tapped
her chest with his index finger.

Her smile grew and she reached
up to cup his face in her hands. “I see you too.” She brought him down so she
could kiss him, but it wasn’t just any kiss.

No. This one felt different.
This one broke him down into his baser elements. He felt as if he were being
born again. Everything that had happened to him in Afghanistan became a distant
memory, almost as if it had happened to someone else. The details were still
present—they’d always be—but he could separate himself from them, from the
destruction, the failure, the blood, the pain. He could set all the horror
aside and enjoy this woman beneath him, this woman who had deemed him worthy,
who had seen something good in him.

Without another word, Adam made
careful work of worshipping Hope. He kissed everything his lips ran across,
taking special pleasure in the soft skin at the insides of her thighs. When she
opened her legs to him, he didn’t hesitate to taste the offered buffet. With
slow strokes of his tongue, he made her writhe beneath him until she rubbed his
buzz cut and groaned his name. Again and again. Until it was a plea.

He quickened the rhythm of his
strokes, and within seconds Hope’s body shuddered around him. She climaxed then
deflated like a balloon.

“Oh my God,” she said, panting.
“No one’s ever…” She put her hand on her chest as it rose and fell. “No one’s
ever made me come like that.”

“I have talents.” Adam kissed a
line up her navel, between her breasts, and along her neck. “Shall we add this
to the right list?”

“Damn straight. I’m making it
number one, pal.” She nudged him up so his face was in line with hers. “Your
turn.”

She flipped him to his back and
straddled him. If she didn’t do another thing but that, Adam still would be
aroused beyond comprehension. Looking at her parts lined up with his parts made
him horny past all reasonable thought. Feeling her wet heat against his primed
and ready arousal was almost enough to make him lose control.

“Not yet,” she whispered as she
leaned over him. Her nipples traced twin paths down his chest as she moved, and
he itched to take those magnificent breasts into his mouth.

She pressed light kisses over
his hips, down his thighs, around his erection, her eyes looking at him with
such desire as she moved closer and closer to the center of his need. He wanted
to cry out, but bit down on his bottom lip instead, trying his best to tame the
beast wanting release inside him.

She. Was. Killing. Him.

But what a way to go.

Finally, her mouth closed
around him, and he let loose a noise he would later swear had not come from his
own throat. No way would a guy like him turn his control over to a woman so
readily, so hungrily, so… happily. God, Hope Stannard wielded some wild magic.
That much he knew. She had the ability to make visible that silver lining, that
glass half full, all those positive things people were always telling him
existed, but he had never actually seen himself.

Until now.

The fire burned brighter with
Hope in the room. His heart beat steadier in her presence. Breathing was
easier. He felt light and carefree. All those dark shadows that jumped out at
him around every corner or whenever he closed his eyes ran away when Hope
appeared. She was his dragon slayer, his nightmare chaser, his savior.

His angel.

His angel with the lips of a
temptress, gently sucking on his cock and making his entire body clench with
anticipation.

“Christ, Hope.” He gripped the
blanket beneath him, fisting folds of it in his palms and arching his body up
to get more of himself into her mouth.

She took him in fully, her soft
lips applying the right amount of pressure, his tip buried in the hot cavern of
her skilled mouth.

A bright light flashed behind
his closed eyes as he reached his peak and released everything he’d held onto.
Physically, mentally, emotionally. With Hope, he could leave behind all the
things that plagued him. He could emerge from the ash as something better than
his former self. He was remade, renewed, revived.

“Adam?”

His eyes were still closed and
Hope’s voice sounded far away. His own heartbeat was loud in his bad ear.

“Adam?” She sounded concerned
now.

“Hmm?” He couldn’t manage an
actual word, not when he wasn’t on this earthly plane. She’d rocketed him into
another dimension entirely.

“Are you okay?” Her hair swept
up his chest as she moved toward his face.

“I think so. Why?”

“I don’t know. You like… went
somewhere else. I thought I hurt you.”

He opened his eyes now and met
her kind brown gaze. “Hurt me? Try the exact opposite of that.” He gave her a
smile and lifted a hand to her face, his fingers sliding past her cheek and
hooking on the back of her neck. “I feel as if nothing can hurt me ever again.”

She beamed a smile at him, and
he felt the warmth of it in his soul. “I know what you mean. Being with you is
like being sealed in this protective bubble. The rest of the world doesn’t
exist right now.”

“Good. We don’t need the world
butting in.” He found the energy to grab her around the waist and switch
positions so she was on the bottom. “I need to be inside you. Now.”

“Yes. Now.” She nodded and ran
her left leg up and down his side. “Right now.” She reached down and grabbed
hold of his dick. The sucker was already hard again just thinking about
burrowing into her folds and filling her.

He reached to his jeans and
retrieved the condom he’d stashed in a pocket earlier. After pulling away from
Hope slightly, he rolled it on and, with a few in-and-out teases, he thrust
into her.

She wrapped her legs around his
back and ground her hips against his. They were as close as two people could
get, however, the laws of physics were still intact.

Barely.

They moved in perfect
synchronicity, or at least it felt that way to Adam. As he pumped into her, she
accepted him, deeper, deeper, until they had nowhere to go. The only thing left
to do was explode in a shower of bliss and perfection and… and…

Love.

With a new fire lit inside him,
he adjusted his angle, making Hope cry out and dig her nails into his back. The
sensation made him wild and that was it for him.

They both crested, a wave of
euphoria washing over Adam, drowning him, making him gasp for oxygen. He
spilled all of himself into her and collapsed.

Hope hugged him so tightly.
Those silly physics laws were surely breaking now. Why should they be bound by
the rules of science? They were bigger than that, stronger than that, luckier
than that.

With Hope, he could overcome anything, climb any mountain,
bury any demon.

“Is that a daisy costume, Myah
Rose?” Adam looked down at Orion’s daughter dressed in a green skirt and
leotard with a white sweatshirt. The hood of the sweatshirt had white daisy
petals around its rim, framing Myah’s cute little face. The kid really was
adorable.

“Yeah.” Myah stood up a little
straighter as Hope tied her tap shoes for her. “I told Miss Jeanne that I
should be a rose, but she said there weren’t any roses in a dance recital
number called ‘The Trouble With Daisies.’ I said we could call it ‘The Trouble
With Roses,’ but she said no.”

Adam stifled a laugh as his
eyes met Hope’s. “Maybe next year.”

Myah shrugged then was ushered
by her dance teacher into position on stage behind the curtain.

“Good luck, Myah,” Hope said.

Myah smiled and gave Hope and
Adam a wave then pointed in the direction of the seats.

“I think she’s telling us to
get our butts into the audience,” Hope said. “C’mon. Sage and Orion are saving
our seats.”

“Yeah, after they ordered us to
make sure the kid was ready to go on stage,” Adam said as he followed Hope out
of the backstage area.

“I think they were up to
something.” Hope slipped her coat off as she walked.

“Up to something? What do you
mean?” Adam took her hand as they made their way toward the full row the
Stannard crew—plus Wendie and Orion’s father, Ian—had commandeered to see Myah
perform.

Hope stopped walking and faced
him. “I know my sister. She wanted us to have a little time playing Mom and Dad
to Myah to… you know…”

Adam got a little distracted by
how gorgeous Hope looked tonight in a green dress that hugged her amazing body
in all the right places. Her legs went on for miles, and the shoes she had on
made him want to see her in only those heels.

“Adam?” She touched his arm.

“Huh? What?” He’d let his mind
wander to the fantasy of peeling off her dress and just leaving the heels. He
forgot what they had been talking about.

“Sage wanted us to think about
kids,” she said.

“What, like having them?”
Suddenly a hot sweat broke out on Adam’s skin. Motherhood? Fatherhood? Did they
have what it took? Did they
want
to have what it took?

Remembering the care with which
Hope had tied Myah’s shoes and the way she’d given her niece encouragement,
Adam was sure Hope would make an excellent mother.

But could I be a father?

That was the real question. He
was feeling one hundred forty-three percent better in terms of his PTSD since
starting an actual relationship with Hope. She kept him thinking on the
positive side and dreaming about the future instead of trying to make up for
the past. He supposed nothing got a guy thinking about the future more than
having kids.

But Christ. Having kids of
his own?
 

He imagined a little blonde
girl swinging on a swing he’d made and hung on the twisted birch tree behind
his house. He pictured a blond boy with eyes like his own, who he could teach
to woodwork in the shop. He envisioned both chasing Olive around the backyard
on a Saturday afternoon.

God, he liked all those mental
photographs, but they made his head spin too. The buzz in his bad ear combined
with the roar of his pulse set him off balance a little.

Hope had started walking again.
He did his best to follow her, but he seriously didn’t feel well.   

The Danton High School auditorium
lights dimmed, so Hope grabbed his hand and tugged him into their row. After
taking their seats, Adam peeled off his coat and the sweatshirt he’d worn
underneath. He considered removing his thermal T-shirt too, but thought that
would be a bit much. He just had to get the having kids idea out of his head
and he’d cool down.

“Are you okay?” Hope whispered
as the stage curtain slowly rose and music started up.

“Fine,” he said.

Hope settled into her seat
beside him, her left side brushing up against his right in a way that calmed
him. Her presence did that for him. He’d noticed a big difference in himself
since she’d moved in with him officially three weeks ago. Adam had lost count
of the number of times they’d made love. He was growing very fond of their
naked breakfasts in bed. Their naked lunches at the island in his kitchen.
Their naked dinners by the fire in the living room. He assumed all that
nakedness would slow down at some point especially when winter was over and he
was busier with lumberjacking, but for right now, he was enjoying every minute
of having access to a naked Hope.

Too bad we’re not naked now.

But there was a dance recital
to watch. A dance recital with… Adam looked down at the program Sage had shoved
into his hand… a dance recital with thirty-six routines.

How am I going to make it?

Myah had three numbers. One
she’d already performed to a jazzy, upbeat tune. The daisy one was about to
happen right now. And a hip hop one that was the second to last routine.

“Does this thing go on for the entire
weekend?” he asked Hope.

She elbowed him. “Why? Got
somewhere you’re in a hurry to be?”

“Yeah. At home. With you.”

“We’ve been at home together
since I moved in, Adam. Aren’t you bored with me yet?”

He traced the playful arch of
her eyebrow with his index finger. “Nope. Not going to be any time soon
either.” Tipping her head up, he brushed a light kiss on her lips.

He was done with sleepless
nights full of flashbacks to Afghanistan. He was done feeling as if he didn’t
deserve happiness. He had to believe he’d found Hope so he could make something
of himself—so he could live the life he’d been lucky enough to receive.

So he could watch a couple of
kids chase Olive around their backyard?

Oh. That notion still made him
a little woozy.

The stage curtain rose all the
way up and the music pumped through the speakers in the auditorium. Twelve
“daisies” tapped through their routine while the crowd laughed, whistled,
shouted, and generally beamed smiles from ear to ear.

“Myah’s clearly the best,” Sage
said from her seat on Adam’s other side.

“Clearly. You must really be
rubbing off on her, because I
know
Orion has zero dance ability.” Adam
pointed at his buddy who was videoing his daughter’s performance with his
phone.

Sage elbowed him just as Hope
had. “You got that right. He can carve anything you want out of a tree stump,
but ask him to cut a slice of rug and you’re out of luck.”

Orion shot Adam a look, but
didn’t comment so he wouldn’t ruin his video. Instead, he stuck his middle
finger out as he continued to hold his phone to the stage.

When Myah’s daisy number was
over, Sage popped out of her seat and reached around Adam to grab Hope’s arm.

“C’mon, help me get her changed
into her next costume. I have to corral all Myah’s hair into a bun somehow.”

“Impossible,” Adam said.

“Damn near.”

Hope shuffled by Adam, but not
without him swatting her fine ass. She shot him a grin over her shoulder then
disappeared backstage.

Adam watched her leave until
Orion flicked at his ear.

“You’re in love,” Orion said.

Adam rubbed at his ear. “No
shit.”

“Being in love shouldn’t make
you cranky.”

“It doesn’t. I’m only cranky
when she’s not next to me.”

Orion’s blue eyes widened.
“Well, isn’t that a lovely Hallmark greeting card?”

“Shut up, man. Do you have any
idea how ridiculous
you
look around Sage?”

“I don’t care.” Orion shrugged
and started to replay the video he’d just taken of Myah.

Adam watched as well for a few
moments then said, “I don’t care either.”

Orion clamped a hand on his
shoulder. “It’s good to have you back, buddy.”

The two men knocked knuckles
then Wendie was in Hope’s seat.

“Myah is adorable,” she said.

“As always,” Adam and Orion
said at the same time.

Orion’s cell phone chimed and
he squinted at his screen. “Gotta go. Sage can’t tame the hair. Be right back.”

“He’s a good father,” Wendie
said.

“The best.”

“You know who else would make a
great father?”

“Your cat, Frisco.”

Wendie launched her fist into
his upper arm. “No, dummy. You.”

What’s with all the kid
contemplation tonight?

“Based on what facts, Wendie?”
He really wanted to know.

“You know how to take care of
people, Adam. You’ve been taking care of me for years.”

“You’re the one who keeps my
refrigerator stocked, so I think you have that backwards, sis.”

She shook her head. “I keep
your stomach full, but you watch over me. And you saved Hope’s life… more than
once. And you fought for our country. Any kid would be proud to call you Dad.”
She rubbed his forearm and smiled. “But first you have to make things with Mom
official.” She angled her head to the backstage where Hope was.

Something warm spread out from
the center of Adam’s chest to his extremities. He really liked the idea of
making things official with Hope.

Or he was scared to death of
it.

****

“That recital was well done.”
Hope sipped the hot cocoa they’d stopped off to get for the drive home.

“That recital was long,” Adam
said. “We should have had Myah show us her routines at her house or something.
Would have been quicker.”

Hope slapped his arm. “You
sound like a grouchy old man. Sitting through that recital was not that bad. I can
think of far worse things.”

Like being held at gunpoint
in a bar.

She tightened her coat around
her and took another sip of her cocoa. The warmth flushed out the bad thoughts
of Daniel. She didn’t have to worry about him anymore. He was in jail for a
long time thanks to the statements from a good number of Danton’s finest
citizens. Despite DiNoble’s power, the justice system couldn’t overlook dozens
of witnesses to Daniel’s actions. Hope had made her own statement and loved
that she didn’t have to worry about being afraid of going out, especially to
Black Wolf Tavern.

She was, however, a little
worried about how quiet Adam had been through the recital and even now in his
truck. He appeared to be thinking really hard about something. Something that
was furrowing those blond brows of his. Something that made him chew on his
bottom lip as he drove.

“Myah’s a great kid,” she said,
hoping to get him talking.

“Wonderful.” He swallowed
loudly, but didn’t say anything else.

Okay. Time to be more
direct.

“Penny for your thoughts,
Adam,” she said.

He didn’t say anything for a
few, long moments. He set his hot cocoa in the cup holder between their seats
then gripped the steering wheel with both of his hands. Blowing out a breath,
he stared out the windshield as he drove.

Oh, boy.

It appeared she was going to
have to pay more than a penny for his thoughts.

****

Kids. Making things
official. Kids. Making things official.
These words looped in Adam’s mind
as he navigated through the snow. His hands grew sweaty in his gloves, and his
heart beat erratically in his chest. He was on the brink of a panic attack. That
pissed him off. He hadn’t had one in a long time. He’d thought he was done with
them.

“Do you want kids?” he asked.
He couldn’t see Hope’s face, but her silence told him he’d caught her off guard
with his question.

“Do you?” she asked softly.

He blinked several times,
trying to clear the spots from his vision. His breathing wasn’t right either.

What happened to all the
oxygen in the vehicle?

“Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t
know.” He pressed his foot down onto the accelerator. He had to get home. Like
now. He regretted asking the question. He didn’t want to have this
conversation. He wasn’t ready.

“Adam.” Hope touched his
forearm, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He. Was. Freaking. Out. Could he
be a husband? A father? Did he want to be?

He couldn’t swallow.

“I’m not pressuring you, Adam,”
Hope said.

“I didn’t say you were.” The
words came out harsher than he’d meant. She was right. She hadn’t pressured him
at all. Hope had been nothing but patient, kind, gentle… perfect.

But she’d want the whole
marriage and kids thing eventually, wouldn’t she? He wasn’t sure he could give
her that even if he had let himself picture it a few times.

“Breathe, baby.” Again Hope
reached out to touch him.

His overstressed psyche made
him pull away.

“Okay.” She cleared her throat,
and he feared he’d made her cry. “You need some time alone to process whatever
is on your mind. Drop me off at my mom’s.”

Shit.

“Hope, look, I—”

“Do it, Adam. I don’t want to
be in your face while you contemplate your future. I’d offer to help, but I
know that’s not your style. You need a little time to sort things out. Maybe I
moved in with you too fast. Maybe we need to slow down. It’s okay.”

But it wasn’t okay. He was
hurting her. Again.

His truck took them to Joy’s
house anyway. Hope opened the passenger door but turned to him before getting
out. In the dim glow of the interior light, he could tell she had cried. Her
lovely brown eyes were watery and red. He felt like a total ass.

“I hope you choose us, Adam. I
really do.”

His throat was so tight he
couldn’t respond. Not that he knew what to say anyway.