The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (23 page)

“Agent Dawson trusts me with your life, and
I’m asking you to do the same,” he told Tashi, even as his mind
began to race with more questions concerning Paul’s interest and
involvement with her.

“I trust you, Adam. But—”

He placed his hands on her shoulders and held
her gaze. “I want you to stop being so brave and let me take care
of you. We don’t know why Agent Dawson singlehandedly risked his
life for you, but until we do, we need to do what he asked. If
anything happens to you, he will never forgive me. I will never
forgive me.” He paused as his mind spun into the future. “There’s
another reason we should get married as soon as possible.”

“What?”

“As your husband, I cannot be forced to
testify against you in court if it ever came to that. As husband
and wife, everything we discuss, everything we share during our
marriage is confidential. It falls under marital privilege laws and
it extends beyond divorce. So even a temporary marriage falls
within the parameters of that law.”

“But— we—we aren’t married, and I already
told you everything.”

“Only you and I are aware of that fact. I can
have a copy of your birth certificate here by tonight.”

Her eyes widened in a panic. “Adam, that’s a
paper trail. They can follow it here.”

He gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze.
“I have ways of being inconspicuous while getting the job done,
Tashi. Nobody will know. I promise. We can be married tomorrow, and
as far as the rest of the world knows, you disclosed the events of
that night after we said our vows. I would perjure myself for you,
but I’d rather not go that route.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t
let you do that, Adam. And—and your father wouldn’t allow it, even
if he knew it was temporary. You see how he got when I told him
that I was illegitimate and didn’t know my father. He cares about
family traditions and lineage, and such.”

That was precisely what Adam was banking on.
As long as Tashi bore the Andreas name, Alessandro wouldn’t dare
deny her the protection of the family—tainted lineage or not. If
there was one thing he knew about his father it was that family
loyalty meant everything to him. He would move heaven and hell to
ensure the safety of the future mother of his grandchildren.
“You’re not marrying my father, Tashi. You’re marrying me. You
can’t fight these people alone. Accept that you need me. Do what
Agent Dawson asked. It’s the best way to keep you safe and alive.
Don’t you want that?”

She looked thoughtful for a minute, then
nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll marry you.”

Adam expelled a sigh of relief. “After
tomorrow you’ll be known simply as Tashi Andreas.” He pulled her
into his arms again and kissed the top of her head as the faint
smell of ginger wafted up his nostrils. She’d had such a lonely
childhood, forbidden to associate with her peers, and isolated from
society. She’d been taught that the world was a dangerous place and
to be suspicious and fearful of everyone, and then her worst fears
had come to life one horrible night in a house in New York
City.

No wonder she’d been so paranoid and
frightened when she’d bumped into him at Mountainview Café and
found herself locked in his arms. It was just her schemas of
vulnerability, social isolation, and alienation at play. She’d
barricaded herself in her apartment, thinking that the multitude of
dead bolts on her door would keep her safe. But she’d been proven
wrong when her most precious possessions had been stolen.

This most recent and blatant invasion of her
privacy was enough to send her into an emotional downspin, but it
hadn’t. She was a survivor, strong, and determined not to let her
circumstances cripple her, and not only that, but she’d challenged
the doctrines of her upbringing and sought out and embraced the
true nature of her own soul. Adam loved her strength, her tenacity,
and her determination to live.

He loved her
. Adam’s entire body
trembled at the knowledge. He’d loved Tashi from the moment she’d
gazed up at him from her bed in her apartment—frail and weak—and
thanked him for cleaning her up. It had to be love at work for him
to dive right in without any concern for his own health or
safety.

The word ‘love’ itself was more than a
combination of letters, or a sound to the ear. People threw the
word out so frequently and casually that it had lost its meaning
and its power. Love wasn’t a feeling, either. Love was action. What
he’d demonstrated that night, and the way Tashi had responded to
his actions was his interpretation of love. His heart had known
since the moment he’d bumped into her, even long before he was
ready to admit it, to accept the truth.

The fact that he could love someone he knew
absolutely nothing about proved that the past of the object of
one’s desire was immaterial. What was pertinent about Tashi was her
smile, her smell, the silky warmth of her body, the flash of her
emerald eyes, the sexy sound of her voice and chuckles—though
hesitant at times—even her frowns, her uncertainties, and her
paranoia moved him deeply. Those were the virtues in which his
heart delighted.

Sadie was so right when she’d asked if it was
he or his heart that had been in love before. His heart hadn’t been
involved with what he thought he’d felt for Claire and Denise,
especially Claire. Because of the way his mother had raised him,
he’d mistaken lust for love, and had further convinced himself that
he loved them to get his father off his back. It was his mind at
work. Not so with Tashi. Both his mind and his heart loved her
deeply, and he wanted so much to tell her, to shout it from the top
of Mount Washington.

But he knew if he shared his feelings, she
might take it upon herself to leave in order to protect him—just as
she’d tried to do after he’d nursed her back to health. Unwilling
to risk her life and his happiness, Adam concealed that sweet
knowledge in the warm abyss of his heart for now, just until the
opportunity to reveal it presented itself—not too far in the
future, he hoped.

“Are you hungry, sweetheart?” he enquired
when her stomach rumbled against his. “It is after one o’clock, and
we haven’t had lunch.”

“I don’t want to eat. I just want to sleep.
I’m so tired.” She sighed deeply.

“Of course. All that crying, and reliving the
horror of that night have drained you emotionally and physically.
Do you want me to carry you to bed?”

She snuggled into him like he was a comfy
mattress. “No. I just want to stay right here if it’s okay.”

“It’s okay, Tashi. It’s okay. You can stay
here with me.”

She raised her head and looked at him with
tired eyes. “What about your parents? They know I’m here. Suppose
they—”

“I asked them not to say anything. They
wouldn’t.”

“Thank you.”

Stretching out on his back on the sofa, Adam
eased Tashi down on him. He laid her jasmine-vanilla-scented cheek
into the crook of his neck, and arranged her auburn, ginger-spiced
curls across his chest.

He pulled a brown qiviut shawl from the back
of the sofa and spread it over them. “Just close your eyes and
sleep,” he said, wrapping his arms about her.

Tashi awoke to the sound of a steady
heartbeat beneath her cheek, the rhythm of labored breathing in her
ears, the pressure of a hand in the curve of her back, and another
on her buttocks. She wasn’t scared, but the feel of something hard
pressing against the insides of her thigh made her tense, just a
little, and brought her fully awake.

She opened her eyes and scanned her
surroundings. She was in Adam’s office, on his sofa, or more
precisely on top of him, where she’d fallen asleep. She glanced out
the French doors where the bright light of the sun indicated it was
still daylight—probably midafternoon—and eventually, the reason she
was lying in Adam’s arms surfaced to the forefront of Tashi’s
mind.

She’d told him everything about the worst
night of her life… and about the FBI agent, and his request that
Adam marry her. Tashi wished she’d known Adam was
that
man
before she’d revealed that bit of information. His knowing, and
offering to grant his friend’s request to marry her and protect her
had changed the dynamics of their relationship.

No more was
she
merely a helpless
stranger whose life he’d crawled through a window to save, and
he
wasn’t just the sweetest, kindest, sexiest man she’d ever
met.

She was his charge, a young, inexperienced
girl he was supposed to protect.

Would he have treated her differently if he’d
known from the beginning who she really was? Would he have taken
the liberties he’d been taking with her—encouraging her to undress
for him, dance and play with him naked? Would he have protected her
from himself and the raw desires she saw in his eyes each time he
gazed on her naked body?

That day in the garden, when she’d
voluntarily undressed in front of him, she’d been eager to test the
limits of her newly discovered passions, but Adam had told her that
she wasn’t ready. Tashi hadn’t understood his reluctance at the
time, but in the past three days as she gained deeper insight into
and control of her own mindfulness through yoga and meditation and
learned to love and accept the uninhibited spirit of her true
essence, she’d come to appreciate Adam’s wisdom. It seemed as if he
knew her better than she knew herself.

During the past few days, Adam had told her
that most people went through life being unconscious of so much.
He’d stressed the importance of becoming still, of listening to the
universe speak to her. He’d taught her to be conscious of her
breathing and allowing it to awaken parts of her she hadn’t been
conscious of before.

After understanding all that, Tashi knew that
if she and Adam had made love that day, it would have been a
mistake for both of them. She had no doubt that it would have been
intense, sweet, and like nothing she’d ever experienced, but the
aftermath would have been counterproductive.

The restrictive teachings of her upbringing
were still prevalent in her heart and mind, and their power over
her would have filled her with doubts and shame and guilt. She was
certain that once caught in the moment, she would have enjoyed
Adam, but she was just as certain that making love that day with
him, or any other man, would have destroyed her perception about
the overall sexual experience, perhaps for the rest of her
life.

And Adam? Well, he would have been plagued
with guilt for taking her innocence, for robbing her of the
opportunity and the joys of first accepting and embracing her own
sexuality before sharing it with another.

In that respect, he was not only the sexiest
man she’d ever met, but also the wisest and most patient of them
all. During her years in New York, Tashi had learned a few things
about male sexuality, and one of them was that men needed sex on a
regular basis, that it was all they thought about, day and night.
It had to be killing Adam not to make a move on her, yet he’d
promised to wait for her, wait until she knew in her heart and
without a doubt that making love with him was what she truly
wanted.

Would he look at her differently now that his
role in her life had taken on a different meaning? Were their days
of naked yoga and meditation a thing of the past? God, she hoped
not because even though Adam never touched her in an explicitly
sexual way when they were naked—which was more often than not—it
was obvious that they shared an intense physical awareness of each
other, even when they were fully clothed. The long hours of yoga
and meditation with Adam were the moments when she felt most
desirable, cherished, like she belonged to something bigger than
herself.

As if to eradicate her doubts about him,
about them, Adam’s hands began to roam slowly across Tashi’s back
and buttocks. She held her breath and remained still. This touch
was different from all the other times he’d touched her. It carried
a thread of urgency and expectation. He was touching her for
pleasure, not for comfort, healing, or instruction.

As the delightful sensations washed over
Tashi, she tucked her hair behind her ears and lifted her head.
Adam was staring at her, his dreamy blue eyes brimming with passion
and light and some other warm, drugging, deeply affectionate
emotion she’d never detected in him before. Her first instinct was
to look away as she’d done when they first met, but harnessing the
energy of tantric soul gazing he’d taught her, she locked her gaze
with his.

They were both fully awake and aware now—not
just physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and sexually. The
waiting was over. Their relationship had meaning and purpose now.
He was seeing her differently, but not in the way she’d feared.

“Tashi.” The husky whisper of her name
reverberated throughout Tashi’s body as if Adam had shouted it from
deep inside her. Her pulse quickened in response and she felt that
familiar tingling in her belly and the warm rush of moisture
between her thighs.

She gasped aloud when Adam suddenly shifted
his body beneath her, and brought their sexes in perfect alignment.
The pressure of his hard length pulsing against her softness sent
waves of pleasure careening to the core of her being. She trembled
and moaned at the first deliberate intimate contact of their sexes.
It was shockingly electrifying and intensely titillating, even
through the barrier of their clothing.

His hand slid slowly down the dune of her
buttocks, and when his fingers skimmed her upper thighs, just below
the hem of her shorts, her heart began to hammer in her chest. She
licked her lips and moved restlessly against him, unable to control
this new form of fierce sensuality that was spreading like slow hot
molasses through her veins.