Secret Kiss (24 page)

“No problem.”

Adam grabbed his tension wrench and held the door for Jane to walk out. As she passed, she glanced up at him, thanking him with her eyes. It made him feel like both an ass and a hero. First, he was glad he could try to make this situation as smooth as possible. But he also felt like an asshole because he’d practically attacked her when she’d come over to his house for help.

As they walked across the street, Adam could feel Walter and Dolores’ eyes on him. They weren’t buying his explanation of what he and Jane had been doing in the garage. Which was fine with him. All he cared about was that Jane wasn’t embarrassed. He would take a full-page ad out in the
Hope Falls Daily
and announce what he and Jane had been doing. He didn’t care who knew.

Jane started asking her grandparents questions about their Bingo escapades as they made it to her front walkway. Adam went ahead so that he didn’t have an audience while he picked the lock. It might have been decades since he’d done it, but thankfully, it was like riding a bike. He had the door open under ten seconds and Walter and Dolores were none the wiser.

After saying goodnight to Jane’s grandparents at the door, Adam started to head back to his house, but he felt Jane’s hand on his forearm. When he turned back towards her, he saw the look in her eyes. She wanted to talk about what had just happened between them.

“Adam,” she began, sounding very unsure of herself. “I just wanted… I just… I don’t do things like… I mean… I just did…but I don’t want… I hope you don’t think—”

He could have assured her with words, but he’d always thought talk was cheap. So, instead, he showed her how he felt by leaning down and kissing her softly. First on her lips, which stopped her rambling. Then on her forehead so that he didn’t get carried away while her grandparents were in the vicinity.

Pulling her into his arms, he held her, and she melted against him. Then he kissed her again on the top of her head. Emotions he couldn’t name constricted his chest, and all he could think as he held her was,
Mine
. She felt so right in his arms.

“Jane honey! Why is your hair dryer blowing?” Walter shouted.

“Oh my God!” Jane jumped out of his arms. “I forgot… I gotta go!” Then she ran inside the house, yelling for them to turn her blow dryer off before she shut the door.

Adam walked back across the street with a smile on his face. His mind was quiet, and he felt lighter than he had—ever.

‡

T
he city lights sparkled as Jane rode beside Adam in the Uber car that was taking them to their hotel. Mike and Nikki had skipped the last meeting because Nikki wasn’t feeling well. It had worked out fine because it had been with the board of a high-tech development firm and Adam had easily fielded their questions. Whenever things had started going over their heads, he’d adjusted, making sure each person in the room was able to follow along.

Seeing Adam in action all day, interacting with everyone—potential contributors, Uber drivers, secretaries, people in line at Starbucks, the bike messenger who’d almost been run over by a trolley, the waiter at lunch, business people in the elevator—had left Jane speechless and in complete and total awe. He was brilliant, yet he had an ease with people and never talked down to anyone, even when he was clearly dumbing down his verbiage. He obviously had book smarts, but he also had street smarts. It was like there wasn’t one person he didn’t relate to on some level.

It was seriously the hottest thing Jane had ever witnessed.

Maybe it was because she never felt comfortable in any social situations, or maybe it was simply because Adam was just that amazing. Whatever the case was, Jane had never felt more enamored with another human being in her life, and she’d met and been in the company of George flippin’ Clooney, when Mike had worked with him on a clean-water project, so that was saying a lot.

If she would’ve been asked last night if she thought Adam could get any sexier, she would’ve answered with a resounding
no
. When he’d opened his garage door sans shirt, she’d almost passed out from the sheer, unadulterated sex appeal radiating off him. Then, when he’d backed her up against the wall and asked her what was beneath her robe before instructing her to
show him
—that was when she would’ve thought his sexiness had peaked.

But she’d quickly been proven wrong.

Not only had he proceeded to give her three orgasms, but after those amazing, mind-blowing climaxes, he’d scooped her up, held her in his arms, and
kissed
her. Kissed her like he’d been making love to her. Which, technically, he had been because they hadn’t
disengaged
.

And the cherry on top of the Adam Is Amazing sundae was that, when her grandparents had interrupted their post-coitus cuddling and kissing session, he’d remained calm, gotten her dressed, and come up with a somewhat believable cover story before seamlessly picking her lock.

Yeah, so she was basically head-over-heels in love with Adam Dorsey. Which was not good news considering she had no idea what was going on with them. They hadn’t had a moment alone all day. Ten hours ago, on the short flight to the city in the private plane Kyle Austen Reed had loaned them for the Latch Key program this morning, their only talk had been about their game plan. With ten meetings scheduled in thirty-six hours, there had been no room for small talk. Then, once they had landed in San Francisco, it’d been a whirlwind of meet and greets, presentations, and board meetings.

This was the first moment of semi-silence and semi-privacy they’d had. The only noise was the music playing over the radio and the Uber driver, who kept trying to make small talk.

In the car, her entire body was hyperaware of every move and sound Adam made, every breath he took. From the moment the passenger door had shut, a sudden bout of shyness had overtaken her. Part of it was because of her overwhelming feelings for the man seated to her left. The other was because she really didn’t know how to act after what they’d done last night.

Although Jane had done a poor job of expressing it to Adam last night, she was not a one-night stand kind of girl. In fact, in her almost thirty years, that was the first one-nighter she’d ever had. All of her other experiences had been in the confines of a committed relationship. Since she and Adam were only pretending to be together, she didn’t think it counted.

The car came to a stop, and Jane put the phone away, she’d been pretending to check e-mails. How pathetic was that? She’d had over twenty minutes when she could’ve made small talk or casually chatted like a normal person would have done with the man they were not only in love with but also had made love to the night before—and she’d pretended to read e-mails because she had no clue how to act!

Why had she been born without the gene that caused people to be cool in these types of situations? Why?

Before she’d even collected all of her things, Adam was holding the door open for her.

“Oh,” she said, a little startled by his appearance, “Thanks.”

He offered his hand to help her out, and Jane hoped that it wasn’t totally obvious that she wiped both palms on her thighs before slipping her hand into his. She couldn’t help it that he made her palms sweaty, her knees weak, and her heart race like it was being chased by the police while carrying several pounds of heroin.

As his fingers wrapped around her hand, visions of what his fingers looked like all over her body started flashing in her head like an X-rated slideshow. So she could now add blushing like a tomato to her list of physical effects brought on by the mere nearness of Adam Dorsey.

“Are you okay?” He leaned in so that she could practically feel his lips against her ear and spoke in a low, deep tone that rippled through her. “You look a little flushed.”

“I’m fine,” she said in a breathy whisper.

“Good.” He grinned down at her as he placed his hand on her lower back and led her into the W Hotel.

Jane was having a difficult time focusing on what she needed to do in the busy lobby. She tried to quiet the pitter-patter of her heartbeat and ignore the arousal swirling in her belly like a twister gaining speed.

Task at hand, Jane. Task. At. Hand.

Okay, their luggage had been delivered this morning by courier, so presumably, all they needed to do was pick up their room keys. That should be easy enough.

As they made their way to the counter to check in, Jane heard a familiar voice.

“Jane, bella!”

Like in a movie, the crowds parted, and Mauricio appeared. The hotel manager closed the distance between them in two strides with his long-legged gait. Mauricio stood before them, and instead of shrinking or slumping, he embraced his height and stood tall and proud at six foot five.

“Mauricio, so good to see you!” Jane gushed as he placed European-style kisses on her cheeks. “Mauricio, I’d like you to meet—”

“Adam Dorsey,” Mauricio said, finishing the introduction. “Charmed, I’m sure. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Jane did a double take at her friend. She couldn’t imagine that Nikki and Mike had taken the time to fill Mauricio in on Adam. As much as she wanted to ask just who had been talking about Adam, she wanted food more.

“Nice to meet you, Mauricio. This place is amazing.” Adam lifted his arm, commenting on the hotel.

Again, Adam had known the right thing to say. Mauricio took so much pride in the W, and at the compliment, his entire face lit up.

“Thank you. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to call.” Mauricio pulled his card out as well as two keycards. He handed one first to Adam and then another to Jane. “You’ll be staying in our
Fabulous
room #1410. There are champagne and strawberries, and your party is already waiting at Trace.”

Jane noticed that both of the keycards were for room #1410. “Wait. I booked two rooms and a suite for Mr. and Mrs. Gowan, and did you say that they were waiting at Trace for us?”

Confusion swam in Jane’s head. Mike did like the restaurant, but they’d made no plans for dinner tonight and Nikki wasn’t feeling well.

Mauricio smiled graciously at Jane, but she could tell she wasn’t the only one confused. “Yes. Two rooms and a suite. I checked Mr. and Mrs. Gowan in this evening and Mr. and Mrs. Marshall in this afternoon. They told me that you and Adam would be sharing a room.”

Mr. and Mrs. Marshall? Oh no.

“My grandparents are here?”

“Yes. And can I just say they are a colorful pair. I see where you get your chutzpah from.” Mauricio led them to the elevators. “Now, they said not to rush you but that they were hungry and not to get tied up doing any self-defense demonstrations.”

As the double doors opened, Mauricio leaned inside and slid his key to give them access to their floor. To the
same
room.

“Remember, let me know if you two need anything,” Mauricio repeated as the doors shut.

Jane could barely think over the buzzing in her head. Would Adam think she planned this? She would’ve tried to get another room, but she already knew that the hotel was booked.

She needed to open her mouth and tell him. Okay, she could do this.

“Adam,” she began, but when she looked over, he was on a call.

Or at least pretending to be on a call like she had pretended to be checking e-mails.

Jane’s stomach dropped. This was going to be a long night.

*

“All right. Thanks, D.” Adam disconnected the call and paced the room that, in a fun twist of events, he’d be sharing with Jane. He wished he’d gotten better news from Declan, but he wasn’t going to let it get him down that he hadn’t.

All day, he’d—literally—had the hardest time being next to Jane and not touching her. Not kissing her. Not telling her how beautiful and brilliant she was.

After last night, he had known he was in trouble. Last night hadn’t only been physical. Never before in his life had he felt so connected to someone. But after spending the day with Jane today, he’d realized that trouble didn’t even begin to express what he was in.

Then, today, he’d seen her totally out of her comfort zone. He’d heard her mumbling to herself under her breath in what he’d assumed was a personal pep talk. And he’d seen her try to pick up on social cues in each new setting they’d entered. He was sure no one else had noticed her little tics though.