Three Little Words (7 page)

            “Not much to look at yet.” Bending, I lined up a couple of boxes in front of the couch, a makeshift coffee table. When I turned back around Adele’s gaze was lowered, and she flushed when she realized that I was watching.

            Giddiness surged through me when I realized that I’d caught her checking out my butt.

            I smirked; I couldn’t help it. Realizing that she was caught, she smiled back wryly, though I was puzzled by the surprise that I saw in her expression as well.

            “I have water, beer. Or vodka,” I added, thinking of the lonely bottle in the freezer. I knew Dorian wouldn’t mind. “Oh, and Kool-Aide. I could make you a stellar cocktail with orange Kool-Aide and vodka.” I remembered tossing a few packets on top of the meager pile of things that I’d packed into the box marked
kitchen
.

            “How about just the Kool-Aide? No vodka.” Adele looked down at her hands, which were twined together so tightly that her knuckles were white.

            I cocked my head slightly with confusion; the Adele I had known had never turned down a drink.

            She’d liked to party. I swallowed the question though—what had happened in the last two years was none of my business, no matter how much I was dying to know.

            “I don’t drink anymore.” She had caught my inquisitive expression, but the guarded tone of her voice told me that was all she was going to share with me.

            There was more to it—it was written all over her face that there was a reason she no longer drank.

            If I pushed it, she’d be right out the door.

            “One orange Kool-Aide, coming up.” Across the room was the tiny, galley style kitchen, barely big enough for the meagre contents of the one small moving box that held cookware. I tore open the cardboard in haste, needing something to do to fill the silence, and extracted a packet of the neon powdered drink mix and two plastic cups. I mixed the powder with water, then presented her a cup with a flourish.

            “Thanks,” she said, lifting it to her lips for a sip. Her lips twisted into a grimace as she swallowed, one that she quite clearly fought to turn into a smile.

            “What’s wrong with it?” Concerned, I chugged from my own cup, and promptly winced at the bitter taste. “What the fuck? Isn’t this shit supposed to be, like, pure sugar?”

            Adele placed a hand in front of her lips, and for one tense moment I thought she was going to be sick. Then a giggle escaped her, and I realized that she was trying not to laugh.

            “You have to add sugar to Kool-Aide. The drink mix, sugar and water.” She giggled again, then bravely took another sip. “It’s not that bad. Not if you’re expecting it.”

            “Ugh. I’m sorry.” I glared at the offensive cup. I wished I had something better to offer her, some fancy wine or something. Oh, except she didn’t drink anymore.

            Shit. I was so in over my head.

            Incredibly, the crappy Kool-Aide seemed to have finally broken the ice. Adele leaned back into the couch, hugging her knees to her chest.

            “Well, clearly culinary school is out. Guess I’ll stick to law.” I grinned, continuing to study her, slightly afraid that I was going to creep her out. But...

            Something was really different about her, something beyond the obvious changes to her physical appearance, but it took a long moment before I could figure out what it was.

            “You’re still forging ahead with law school, then?” She smiled, a look tinged with sadness. “You always did know what you wanted to do.”

            “Yeah. It’s a good fit, I guess.” My heart felt it was being squeezed in a very unmanly way when I put words to my thoughts. I’d been surprised to find that law school was what I truly wanted to do, even once my dad’s wishes had been removed from the equation. And seeing Adele again was a similar realization.

            I wanted her. I’d never stopped wanting her. And I didn’t care who knew it.

            But she’d changed, and I had no idea what she was thinking. Once upon a time, this gorgeous woman had been carefree, her every movement easy and relaxed. Now she seemed guarded, tense even though she’d thawed a bit since entering my apartment.

            I knew I had hurt her with our break up, but I wasn’t such an egocentric jerk that I thought my stupidity had caused that wariness.

            Well, not all of it, anyway.

            “And what about you? Are you working at the hospital?” I was referring to the general hospital that was a couple of miles away. A nursing student, she should be finished with school and employed in the field by now. Nurses were in high demand.

            The thought of Adele in scrubs, a syringe in hand, was so hot it made me squirm in my seat. The scrubs I understood... the syringe, not so much.

            Clearly I was a kinkier bastard than I’d thought.

            I was caught up in the sexy mental picture, and didn’t notice the clouds forming over Adele’s face until the storm was ready to break.

            “Nope. I’m not a nurse.” Her tone was completely flat—damn it, I was trying to be so careful, but I kept bumbling into things that were clearly touchy subjects.

            “What?” I blurted, amazed. She might not have had her panties in a knot over grades like I had when we’d known each other before, but she’d been strong in her belief that nursing was what she was meant to do.

            Her chin raised in defiance, a shield slamming down in front of her before I could even draw in a breath.

            “I dropped out of school.” She couldn’t have surprised me more if she’d punched me in the gut.

            She’d been a free spirit, sure, but she’d known exactly what she wanted and had gone after it with single minded determination.

            Just like she’d gone after me.

            Scrambling to think of what to say, I wound up sitting there silently like an idiot.

            She narrowed her eyes at my dumbfounded expression.

            “I work at Java the Hut.” Her words were clearly a challenge, daring me to comment.

            “I see,” I said slowly, trying to assimilate this knowledge with the memories of the girl I’d known.

            I was beginning to see just how much Adele had changed.

            Adele rubbed her hands on the thighs of her jeans with agitation, then abruptly stood up and shoved her hands into her pockets.

            “I’ve got to go. I have someplace to be.” She seemed like she was deliberately avoiding eye contact. Panic flared inside of me—I’d just found her again. I couldn’t let her walk out of my life for the second time.

            “I want to see you again.” I thought about asking her for her number, but decided instead to just tell her what I wanted. I stood as well, watching as her eyes ran the length of me, hoping she’d understand that I’d changed too.

            I wasn’t weak willed like I’d once been. I’d grown up into a man who knew what he wanted.

            From the second my eyes had locked with her from across the street, I’d wanted her.

            Her eyes seemed fathoms deep as she regarded me back. The urge to reach out and cup her face in my hands was irresistible.

            She shrugged away from the touch irritably, but not until heat as palpable as an electric shock snapped through both us, ignited by the skin on skin contact.

            “Adele.” I wanted to kiss her. If she didn’t stop me, I was
going
to kiss her.

            I wondered if she tasted the same.

            “What makes you think you want me so much now when you didn’t then? What’s changed?” Eyes wary, she stepped back, out of range. “Apart from a handful of phone calls, which I assume were to apologize for being such a douche, you sure didn’t fight very hard for us.”

            Her words were like a knife taken from the fire, slicing and burning at the same time.

            “I did,” I finally managed. “I did come for you. But I took too long. You were gone.”

            Emotion flickered through her eyes. I reached for her, but she stepped back, staying just out of my reach.

            “Why did you leave, Adele?” I held my breath as she turned and walked to the front door.

            With one hand on the door knob, she turned and regarded me again with serious eyes.

            “I came for you too, Mal. But I didn’t find you.” Her words didn’t hold any blame, just raw emotion. “And now it’s too late. I can’t be with you. I can’t be with anyone.”

            “Adele!” My voice thundered out of my throat, surprising even me. I’d never heard dominance layered into its tone before, but I knew, somehow I knew, that I had to do something before this creature who still held my heart in her hands walked out and never looked back.

            Startled, she turned.

            “There’s a reason we found one another again. I want to see you again, and I think you want the same thing.” My voice sounded a lot calmer than I felt. I kept my eyes on her as she regarded me with a serious stare, but I warmed when I noticed the tiniest bit of softening in her expression.

            “The café is right across the street. Hang out in there and you’ll see me sooner or later.” She nodded, and then she was gone, leaving me alone with a confusing mix of emotions and a cock that was shouting for attention.

            Seeing Mal had shaken me up more than I cared to admit, even to myself. I found myself shaking as I walked, my muscles trembling like one of the orange leaves that danced in the wind around me.

            I had never imagined that he had come for me, that he’d gotten over our stupid, stupid fight just as I had. It made what had happened to me at that horrific party all the more tragic.

            If I’d know I still had Mal, I might have been able to get through the taunts, the humiliation that had been heaped on top of the pain of what had already been taken from me. I might have found the guts to stay.

            No one had ever gotten under my skin like he had, and it was beyond annoying that time had failed to diminish his effect on me. When he’d wrapped me in a hug, it had felt like coming home. When he’d cupped my face in his hands...

            The touch had startled me with its intensity, with the need that it pulled from my very core. Half of me had wanted to jump right back in, to pull him down to that ugly couch and lose myself in the bliss I knew he could provide.

            The other half of me hurt. Malachi Hunter was a reminder of who I once was, back before that one night had changed my life.

            And to top it all off, I was horny as hell, which blew my mind. I didn’t even think about sex anymore—I wanted nothing to do with it. But while Mal had been gorgeous two years ago, now...

           
Damn
. He looked like sin, like a man any and every woman would kill for a chance to be with.

            “Forget about him, Adele.” I lectured myself as I hurried around my condo, stripping off my jeans and hoodie and replacing them with the spandex shorts and snug pink T-shirt that I wore to roller derby practice. Though I would wear a jacket or hoodie with long sleeves on the way there, derby was the one place where I felt comfortable exposing the tattoos that colored my arms.

            The ones that reminded me, as Mal had, of the wild, carefree girl who had once lived inside my body.

            I threw myself into practice with even more vigor than usual. I’d always loved to roller skate, had been drawn to the solidity of four wheels beneath my feet even after my mom had decided that skating was no longer an appropriate activity—and when I say
she
had decided, really I meant her husband.

            I’d gotten into derby just over a year ago after seeing a posting for tryouts on a flyer at Java the Hut.

            Derby was wild and unpredictable, full of strong women who didn’t take any shit. When I skated with my team, I basked in that strength, pretending that some of it was mine.

            “Watch out for fresh meat!” One of my teammates called to me, and I feinted to the side just in time to avoid tripping over one of our newer teammates, who had clearly not yet learned to
fall small
.

            I smiled at her reassuringly as I whirled past.

            I noticed that her attention was fixed on the bleachers of the high school gymnasium. Trying to focus as I continued to push past the burn in my thighs, I made out the good looking face and long, rangy build of some random hottie who was otherwise alone on the bleachers.

            For the second time that day, I felt my libido perk up. Huh. Maybe I wasn’t dead down there, after all. Still, just noticing him made me feel guilty, like I was cheating on Mal or something.

            And
 that
made me panic. Finding out that Mal hadn’t abandoned me after all had thrown me for a loop, but I was no longer the kind of girl who could even contemplate a relationship... and I knew, deep down I knew, that Mal would settle for nothing less.

            But maybe... maybe I was ready to think about having sex again. Of touching, of being touched.

            After what I’d been through, surely no one could blame me for that. And so I found my gaze narrowing, zeroing in on the stranger in the stands.

            He was sex on a stick. No wonder Marianne had tripped over her own feet. I could feel my own interest percolating as I skated, no doubt an overflow of the lust that Mal had stirred up in my gut that afternoon, but still.

            I was feeling
something
other than the chill of the ice that had coated me for so long. I’d been cold for two years, and I didn’t think anyone could blame me for reaching towards the warmth.

            Still... if he was here watching practice, then he was probably somebody’s boyfriend. And you didn’t mess with a teammate’s man—derby girls were fucking vicious.