Mystery Date (Harlequin Blaze) (22 page)

As the sorority sisters cheered the married couple, Clint swept Margot into his arms, apparently inspired by this romantic turn of events. Leigh stood apart from them all, watching.

Just as Callum used to watch.

She was happy for Dani and Riley, and for Margot and Clint as well, but she felt lonelier than ever. Why hadn’t she cooled down after her confrontation with Adam and given him that chance she’d talked about with Dani today? Had leaving Adam been worth it?

Dani broke off her kiss with Riley, staring up into his loving gaze. Clint and Margot separated just long enough to toss Riley the extra coats they’d brought, knowing that he and Dani didn’t have anything packed.

“Warm her up,” Clint said to his friend.

While Riley put the smaller coat over Dani’s shoulders, he jerked his chin to Clint. “You don’t have to tell me what a honeymoon’s all about.”

Laughter filled the air around them, the fairy lights on the awning making the night magical. But Leigh merely huddled into her own coat, trying to find warmth.

When Dani turned around and all the other women except Margot gathered to catch the bouquet, Leigh stood toward the back. The flowers sailed right at her, and as that single blip of hope she’d felt earlier started to expand, one of her sorority sisters grabbed the bouquet from in front of Leigh’s face.

“Sorry, baby,” said Jessica Huntly, with her good-time smile. “Ya snooze, ya lose!”

Well, it wasn’t anything Leigh hadn’t been telling herself for the past few days.

One of the sisters handed Dani back her shoes, and they all kissed and hugged the newlyweds goodbye. Then the women headed over to a waiting limo, unwilling to waste one more minute of their night in Vegas.

Dani came over to Leigh and Margot while Riley took care of last-minute matters with the chapel staff. “I still say my parents are going to throw a fit because I eloped.”

“They saw the ceremony on the webcam,” Leigh said. So had Riley’s parents, and anyone else who’d been invited to the official wedding next month had access, too.

“Dani.” Margot hung her arms over Leigh’s and Dani’s shoulders. “We’ll just turn what should’ve been your wedding on the ranch into a massive reception. You and Riley can even take your vows again.”

Dani smiled, then brought them all into a group hug. “I love you guys, you know. You’ve stayed with me through thick and thin.”

Leigh held them close, the best friends she’d ever had. “What else would you expect? We love you, too.”

“Me three,” Margot said.

Tears scratched Leigh’s throat as they huddled together. One friend married now. One engaged. One...

Well, one so very glad for the other two.

Another white limo—this one included in the wedding package—pulled up. A driver got out to open the door. The plan was for Dani and Riley to climb in and start on the champagne while Margot drove Leigh in her pickup to Caesars Palace, where they’d managed to book a few rooms, and Clint took care of Riley’s vehicle. They would all meet up at the hotel before hitting the town.

After Dani got into the limo, Riley prepared to do the same, stopping to playfully waggle his eyebrows at Clint. Then he jauntily waved goodbye to Leigh and Margot before he shut the door.

Dani had already popped out of the open sunroof, though, raising her hands in a sign of triumph. “I’m married!”

And the bright smile on her face didn’t lie. She was over the moon, a stronger woman than she’d been a month before, and surprisingly happy about the turn her life had taken. She disappeared back down into the limo, where Riley had no doubt pulled her.

“So what do you think, Shakespeare?” Clint asked Margot, slipping his arm around her waist. “Do you want to move up the honeymoon, too?”

“I’m going to make you wait.” But she kissed him anyway, and they both laughed, their lips still brushing each other’s.

Giddy. So in love. Leigh sighed.

Now that the bride and groom were behind the darkened limo windows, Leigh dropped her mask, wondering if she’d be able to get through the night without breaking down and crying over her champagne.

A car pulled up on the other side of Dani and Riley’s limo, but Leigh barely noticed. “Ready to get going, you two?” she asked the lovebirds.

“Ready,” Margot said.

Just then the wedding limo pulled away, revealing the sleek black sports car behind it.

And the man who’d just stepped out of it.

For the longest moment in recorded history, Leigh stared at him, thinking she was dreaming—that all her longing for love had materialized even before she’d gotten herself nice and drunk.

Adam, with his black hair and golden eyes that yearned for her as he just stood there in his flannel shirt and jeans and boots.

He left his car door open and came toward Leigh. “You’re here.”

Next to her, Margot reached out to grasp Leigh’s coat. She and Clint both went still.

“What’re you doing?” Leigh asked, numb, still not believing that this was happening.

“It’s a long story.”

Getting the hint, Clint dragged Margot away, leaving Leigh with Adam in front of the white wedding tunnel, where the fairy lights seemed as if they were from a whole other world.

Adam nodded to Clint as he left—he’d obviously recognized him from his short time in the fraternity—but his attention returned to Leigh full force.

His voice was gritty when he said, “Beth had told me where you went after you left San Diego. And she said you’d be throwing a party for Dani on Margot and Clint’s ranch this weekend. So I went there. The ranch hand in charge thought I was supposed to be a part of the festivities or something, so he told me where you all had gone, including which chapel you’d be at if I wanted to attend the wedding. So I drove here as fast as I could.”

This
was
Adam, right? The man who’d always hung back from her? But he’d stepped out of hiding and sought her out this time.

“Why’d you come here?” she asked.

“Because I couldn’t say what I want to say over the damned phone. I wanted it to be face-to-face.”

From Adam straight to Leigh, no go-betweens, no barriers.

Hope was more than a blip now, and it was beeping in her, low and deep. “And what did you want to tell me?”

He looked down, and for a second Leigh thought he’d lost his courage to say what he’d come all these miles to say. But when he glanced back up, she saw the same intensity in his gaze that had been there on the day he’d revealed himself to her.

Was this for real? Somehow she kept thinking that this was just another game. The worst one of all.

“After you were gone,” he said, “I couldn’t stand it. Not having you there took away all the life around me, and that’s when I realized what you’d brought to me. With you, I could laugh again. I could smile and be carefree. There was light when you were around me, and when you left, it left with you.”

Her heart felt as if it were bleeding. He’d come all these miles and put her above everything else to be here?

It’d finally happened to her—someone caring, someone wanting to be with her to such an extent that he’d gone ridiculously out of his way for her. But he’d had so many things holding him back, keeping him from truly giving himself to anyone else....

He must’ve known what she was thinking. “I made my peace with Carla. That’s something you did for me, too, Leigh. You showed me it was okay to move on. All you have to do is believe that I’m more than ready now.”

“Have you really changed?” Because she couldn’t stand if she was wrong, giving everything she had to him and then getting crushed.

“Yes,” he said, smiling at her softly. “I have.”

It was the first time she’d seen a smile like that from Adam, and her heart reached out, beating for him.

He said, “You’re everything I want and need, and I was an absolute mystery to myself until you came along to help me figure things out. Can you believe me?”

She allowed her heart to win, running to him, answering yes with a kiss that could leave no doubts. And she pressed her mouth to his with such passionate pressure that she just about dissolved altogether.

Their first real kiss.

She clung to him, this man who could bring her to intoxicating heights. He explored her in the most desperate of ways, deepening the kiss until she almost fell down.

Whimpering under his mouth, she angled against him, wrapping her arms around his waist, impulsively bringing him closer.

This had to be the kiss of all kisses, with Adam ultimately breaking off to plant more tiny ones on her jaw, her neck, behind her ear. Each of them made delight pop inside of her.

It was only when he paused, his face against her neck, that she opened her eyes and thought,
Callum never kissed me.

But Callum was in the past. The future was all Adam, who’d come here and put himself on the line for her.

He pulled back slightly, holding her face in his hands, drinking in the sight of her. “Leigh...I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.”

In a whisper, she asked a question she’d put to him before, but it was under very different circumstances now.

“And what’s next on the agenda?”

Adam smiled, unmasked, his heart in his gaze.

* * *

T
HEY CHECKED IN
to
the room Leigh had reserved at Caesars Palace. It had a view of the blue-lit pools, the decor of a Roman getaway and a king-size bed.

That was actually the first thing Adam had noticed upon entering, but he wasn’t about to push Leigh into anything they weren’t ready for.

Yet when she rushed toward him after closing the door, drawing him into another kiss, he lost all sense of propriety.

His head swirled as he tasted her lips, smelled her strawberry-lotion skin, devoured her while hearing her make small sounds of pleasure under his mouth.

Those sounds drove him on as he sipped at her, and he loosened her hair from its ponytail, digging his hands into all that silk, feeling it glide over his fingers.

When he couldn’t catch another breath, he buried his face in her neck. “We could just talk, you know.”

“We’ve got all night to talk.” But her agitated tone made him think that she had other things in mind for the night.

Her actions made him think the exact same thing as she all but ripped off her silk blouse, revealing smooth flesh and a demure flower-laced bra.

“Touch me, Adam,” she said, and he realized that this would be their first time face-to-face with their clothes off. Callum had been a fantasy, a prelude to a bigger tune, just like the country-noir music that had been playing when Adam had shown her who he truly was. Now it was time for the rest of the piece.

His body assumed the tempo of an upbeat love song as she took him by the hands, resting his knuckles against her mouth, kissing him.

“There was a time,” she said against him, “when I didn’t know much more about you than your hands and voice. And even though I had no idea who you were, I knew your hands were strong yet gentle at the same time. Just like your words could be.”

And those hands were itching to feel her.

He rested his fingertips on her collarbone, tracing her. He wanted to map every inch of the woman he needed in his life so badly that he’d driven all day without a thought to consequence just to be with her, to tell her as soon as he could that she was his light.

Her chest rose and fell as he swept his fingers down over her breasts. Her nipples were already beaded underneath her bra, which hooked in the front. He undid the clasp, watching as her breasts fell free of the cups.

So pink, so pretty.

His blood thudding like a slowly plucked bass, he backed up, toward the bed, sitting on it. She stood before him now, shrugging off her bra.

“My beautiful Leigh,” he said, leaning forward, brushing his cheek against her, her nipple skimming him.

He leaned to her other breast, kissing it as her hand threaded in his hair, pulling it a little. She was canting toward him, encouraging him, her long hair unbound and curtaining him.

With heartfelt deliberation, he stroked his tongue from the underside of her breast upward, tasting the salt and musk on her skin. He licked again, this time toward her nipple, just grazing the tip of it.

A gasp told him that he’d hit a mark. She was his just as much as he was hers.

He kept lightly teasing her with his tongue until she grasped his hair harder, letting him know that she was ready for more. So he took her into his mouth, sucking at her, bringing her down closer to him until she had one knee on the bed.

“Adam,” she said dreamily. “Adam...”

Coaxing a hand between her thighs, he rubbed her there, through her jeans. Now the rhythm of that bass in him was picking up, strings played with more force, pushing up the tempo of the song in his heart.

“I like hearing you say my name,” he whispered, pressing his fingers upward against her clit.

She gasped and looked into his eyes, and the dark green of them swallowed him up.

“Adam,” she said almost angrily, because he was circling her now, making her move her hips, teasing her.

He laughed, and she did, too. Then he unbuttoned the fly of her jeans and shucked them all the way off, along with her boots and socks. She did the same to him, until they were both bare to each other. He pulled her onto his lap so that she straddled him. Over her shoulder, a mirror reflected her gorgeous back and her shapely ass. His hands traveled over her bottom, coming to cup her. Then, parting her thighs more, urging her even closer to him, he watched in that mirror as he slid two fingers up and into her.

While she moaned, he watched as he worked her in and out, making her move up and down. But when she leaned her head back, coming along for the churning ride, the mirror wasn’t good enough, and he put his hand behind her head, bringing her face-to-face with him.

Delirious desire was building in her gaze, and that fed him, forced the music in him to go a little faster...
bam-bam-bam,
the bass in his pulse pounding....

He was so hard for her now, his erection echoing the rhythm, that the song was becoming a mess of notes, muddling his mind.