4. Adam

Tessa’s last text played on a loop. I’d like that kiss. Promise?

It was a little echo in my thoughts. I imagined hearing it in her low, raspy voice.

I didn’t know what happened the other night when I encountered her in the hallway at my sister’s dinner party, but it felt like a door had been kicked open inside me. Awareness and need rushed through, the force of it intense enough that I couldn’t ignore it.

Tessa was beyond cute and sexy as hell. I was still marveling that I hadn’t noticed her like that before. I knew what McKenna would say if she knew my thoughts. For starters, my only sister had pointed out many times that I was closed off ever since Julie died.

As if I didn’t have enough baggage in my life growing up. Our family had plenty of messy dynamics, with our father dying and our abusive grandfather running through our family like a wrecking ball. I craved stability in my life when I was in high school. Julie had given me that. She’d been pretty and nice, and we fell in love.

She died during our freshman year in college in a cycling accident. Even worse, I found out after she died that she’d been planning to break up with me. College had been a new social world for us. While I’d craved stability and familiarity, she’d wanted something else. I would never know all the details, but she’d started chatting with some guy. I wasn’t mad at her, not even then, but it hurt. I knew what I felt for her had been young and childish and that nobody could’ve ever lived up to my expectations, but I still carried a touch of bitterness.

I didn’t know what the hell happened the other night, but that moment with Tessa had been like dry grass catching fire inside.

I’d answered Tessa’s text with, Promise.

The question remained as to when I would keep my promise to her.

I was impatient to see her, champing at the bit. For the first time, I found myself looking around town, constantly wondering when I might see her in passing. Fireweed Harbor was a small town. For years, I’d been glad to be away from my hometown. Seattle had suited me when we had our corporation’s headquarters there. I could be invisible. I didn’t have to worry about my family’s history hanging over me like a dark cloud.

I was irritated when Rhys insisted on moving the headquarters back to Fireweed Harbor. Surprisingly, it had created a sense of freedom for me. Old wounds healed and all that. As a family, we were doing much better. Yet while my siblings fell like dominoes into love, I hadn’t even felt the slightest inclination.

Tessa had never come to mind in this way for me. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about her now. The subtle flush on her skin. Her big brown eyes. The way I could hear the shallow pants of her breath. The way it had taken almost every ounce of my discipline not to kiss her the other night. Just one brief encounter had lit a flame.

I forced myself to focus on my work. I could lose myself in numbers. I enjoyed numbers because understanding them came to me easily. They were orderly and predictable.

I was working late after the office had closed when I heard Tessa’s voice. “Okay, I’m just going to stop in the bathroom. Is that okay?”

She must’ve come to meet my sister McKenna for some reason. Her voice was like a crack of lightning just after thunder rumbled through the sky in my nervous system.

I waited for McKenna’s response. “Of course. I have to hurry over to the winery because I told Jack I’d be there already, and I’m late. The doors downstairs lock automatically, so don’t worry about it. I’ll meet you there.”

My pulse lunged, and impatience crackled inside me. I waited for McKenna’s footsteps to disappear down the hallway. The minutes ticked by until I heard Tessa come out of the bathroom.

“Tessa,” I called.

My voice was low, but I hoped it was loud enough for her to hear me. I heard her steps approaching. There was a hesitation in her stride before she stopped in the doorway. She studied me for a moment.

“Adam,” she finally said. “You’re working late.”

My eyes never left hers. I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I usually do.”

I stood from my desk, then crossed the office and stopped a few feet from her. She stood just inside the door. It felt like a force field began to vibrate between us, the voltage intense and electric.

“Well?” I prompted.

My gruff voice conveyed my frayed control. I didn’t have to be specific. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew what I was referring to.

Tessa took a step closer. My fingers itched to reach beyond her and close the door. But this had to be her choice entirely.

Her hand curled over the doorknob before she closed it with a decisive click. A flush rose on her cheeks, and my lungs tightened. Every cell in my body fired.

And still, I waited.

She took another step closer until she was immediately in front of me. My thoughts flicked back to the other night when I’d encountered her in the hallway at the dinner party. It was as if a path had formed between us. Heat and electricity shimmered in the space now.

“Tessa?” I prompted when I saw hesitation flicker in her eyes.

I could feel her take a deep breath when her breasts rose against my chest as she took one more incremental step closer. She lifted a palm, placing it in the center of my chest. There was no doubt she could feel the rapid drumbeat of my heart.

“Oh, good,” she whispered.

“What’s good?”

“Your heart is beating as fast as mine. Maybe.” Her lips kicked up at the corner in a wry half-smile.

“Do you still want a kiss?” I asked.

Her swallowing was audible in the near-total silence of my office. All I could hear was the rush of my own heartbeat and the subtle sound of us breathing.

“More than anything.” Her voice was a raspy whisper.

I was almost trembling when I lifted a hand and brushed one of her loose curls off her cheek to tuck it behind her ear. Her auburn hair was silky soft. I let my fingers slide into it, lightly cupping the nape of her neck.

My eyes were on her wide brown gaze as I dipped my head. Time felt simultaneously suspended and as if racing forward at a breakneck pace.

Her eyes darkened, her lashes sweeping down just as my lips came within a whisper of hers. I brushed over the plush surface of her lips once and then again. I heard her soft sigh followed by her body melting closer to me.

Finally, fucking finally, I angled my head to the side and fit my mouth over hers. Our kiss started slow with a tease of my tongue over the seam of her lips. Our tongues twined together in a lazy tangle when her mouth opened for mine.

I breathed her in, absorbing her scent. The imprint of her soft curves against my body sent electricity sizzling through me. When my fingers tightened in her hair, she let out a sweet little moan in her throat. I took another step, nudging her back until she bumped into the door. I slapped my hand against it, sliding the other over the curve of her shoulder, down along the sweet dip of her waist, and over the generous, lush curve of her hip.

My cock was as hard as a tire iron, burning hot, and nestled in the sweet cradle of her hips. We fit together perfectly. Our kiss went on and on and on, and I felt wild from it by the time we broke apart. My heart pounded in my ears, and my breath came in deep, ragged heaves.

We stared at each other. Her wide eyes were dazed with passion, just as I imagined mine were. I had to claw my way back to thinking, to finding a way to speak.

“You said you wanted a kiss.” My voice was guttural. I barely recognized myself.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this out of control. For a second, I thought it had to have been when I was in high school. That was different, though. Youthful, driven by the endless revving of the hormonal engine of adolescence and early adulthood, of the newness of it all.

The cynicism that scored my heart burned through every interaction since then. I’d always felt entirely under control with my hands firmly on the reins. This was beyond all of that. It was the desire cast into streaks of lightning, the winds of the storm blowing it wild and in unexpected directions.

Tessa blinked. “I did ask for a kiss.” Her low, throaty voice spun into the heat, nearly burning me up.

I scrambled inside, wanting to feel in control of the situation. Frankly, I wanted to just feel in control of myself. “Is that enough?”

As we stared at each other, it felt as if something shifted in the air around us and inside me, another door opening.

“No,” she said.

As I held her gaze, I thought I saw doubts casting shadows there. She lifted her chin, her tongue sliding across her bottom lip, sending a hot shot of blood to my cock.

“What do you want next?”