Rescue My Heart (23 page)

H
olly stood in the grocery store perusing the rows of candy bars on display near the checkout. She needed sugar.
Badly.

Earlier today, flowers had been delivered to her office. A beautiful vase of red roses.

No card.

There weren’t a lot of possibilities. There was only one man in her life, and he was in it fairly reluctantly. She wouldn’t have laid odds on Adam being the flower-sending type, and the gesture threw her. Especially since he hadn’t made a move to call or see her since they’d left Fallen Lakes.

Thinking about it had led her here for candy. She had a Snickers in one hand and a 3 Musketeers in the other. She’d been trying to make a decision between them and was leaning toward buying both when she felt a hand settle at the base of her neck.

It could have been anyone, but she knew it was Adam by the way her nipples went hard. She angled her head back.

Yep.
Adam
.

“The 3 Musketeers,” he said. “Always the 3 Musketeers.”

She would have liked to eat him up, or maybe put her hands all over him, but luckily her hands were full. She waved the Snickers. “But the Snickers has peanuts. That’s protein. That makes it practically a meal.”

He looked over the display. “I could make you forget the candy,” he said so casually it took her a minute to absorb the meaning of the words.

There was no doubt that he could make her forget the candy. Adam Connelly could make her forget a lot of things. Too many things. “Thanks for the flowers, by the way.”

His brown eyes met hers. “Flowers?”

“The roses that were delivered to my office earlier.”

He cocked his head curiously. A genuine response.

“You didn’t send them,” she said.

“No.”

She stared down at the candy in her hands, feeling incredibly silly. Of course he hadn’t sent the roses. She’d known it wasn’t his thing.

He tilted her chin up, his eyes regretful, and she shook her head. “It’s no big deal,” she said. “Forget it. What are you doing here?”

“Top secret mission.” He nudged her around the corner of the aisle and out of sight of the checkout clerk. Opening his jacket, he revealed…

A kitten.

The little gray ball of fluff was tucked into his hoodie pocket, fast asleep. At the sudden exposure to the bright fluorescent lights, it blinked and yawned, and looked up at Adam with sleepy adoration.
“Mew.”

Adam’s hand came up to cradle the weight, the thing barely filling his palm. His work-roughened fingers gently scratched under its chin, and its eyes closed in utter bliss at the touch.

Holly knew just how the kitten felt. She’d melted from one touch of those fingers, too.

“She’s a belated wedding present to Lilah from Dell and me,” he said. “I’m just getting some supplies.”

Aw. That was possibly the sweetest thing Holly had ever heard.

“She’s cute but a complete menace,” Adam said. “She’s going to drive Brady crazy.” He flashed a badass grin, and Holly laughed. Okay, not so sweet. She should have known.

“Brady’s a pretty tough guy,” she said. An understatement, of course. “This doesn’t concern you?”

“Nah. Lilah won’t let him maim me. She likes my face.”

So did Holly. “Where did you get the kitten?”

He nuzzled the little thing, his voice soft. “Found her abandoned on our doorstep this morning. That happens sometimes—people know Dell isn’t going to turn an animal away.”

“So how did you end up with her?”

“I got in first.”

“Adam Connelly, one big softie,” she said. “Who knew?”

“Yeah.” He lifted the kitten up to his face. Man and feline studied each other. The kitten reached out and tried to bat his nose, making the man smile, his real smile, the one that reached all the way to his eyes. “She faced down Beans and Dell’s damn parrot earlier,” he said. “She’s four ounces soaking wet and held her own. She’s going to grow up a real fighter.” Still holding the kitten, he filled a cart with supplies, and though it was ridiculous, there was something about watching the big, tough Adam Connelly cradle the thing against his chest that did her in.

He checked out and pulled Holly with him out the door.

“Wait,” she said. “The candy.” She
needed
that candy…

He didn’t let go of her as he carefully and gently set the kitten in his truck. Then he not so gently pushed Holly up against the truck and kissed her, slipping a hand beneath her
shirt at her waist, trailing his fingers along her spine. When she no longer remembered what she’d even gone to the store to buy, he lifted his head and gave her a steady gaze.

“Okay,” she said shakily, still gripping his arms. “You’re good. You should wrap that up and sell it.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to the other candy.”

Adam spent the next day up north with Brady and Donald, hitting a string of Reid ranches. Adam had provided guard dogs earlier in the year and was doing a quick training session, checking up on the dogs and handlers.

Brady flew them in their chopper, and by the time they arrived back in Sunshine, it was just past six. Adam drove Donald out to his home ranch, and for a minute, Donald sat in the cab of Adam’s truck, chin jutting toward the wing of the huge ranch house where the offices were held.

“Only one light left on,” he pointed out. “Most of my staff knows the value of having their nights off for personal time.”

Adam knew which light was on and who hadn’t given herself a night off.

Holly.

Clueless, Donald slid out of Adam’s truck. “I think I’ll head into town for a drink,” he said. “I’ll be gone awhile.” He cocked his head and studied Adam. “Long enough for any idiot to find his own way to an enjoyable evening.”

Okay, maybe not so clueless…“What the hell are you up to?” Adam asked him, eyes narrowed.

“Who me? I’m an old man. I can’t get up to much these days.”

“Bullshit.”

Donald smiled, clapped Adam on the shoulder, and then was gone.

Adam stayed in his truck a moment. “I’m not going in there,” he told Milo, who was in the backseat.

Milo yawned and plopped down. In two seconds, he was snoring.

Adam let out a long breath, shouldered open the truck, and got out. Apparently he was going to be the idiot, after all.

He found Holly sitting behind her desk, head back, eyes closed. She was wearing a wraparound dress and heels, hair piled on top of her head, glasses perched on the tip of her nose. Forget the girl-next-door fantasy
and
the hot-librarian fantasy—she was currently rocking the secretary fantasy big-time. “Hey,” he said.

She didn’t move and he realized she had ear buds in. Whatever she was listening to had her utmost attention. She was utterly still, with a dreamy look on her face.

He moved into the office and she still didn’t budge. In fact, she seemed to sigh in pleasure, vividly reminding him of what they’d been doing the last time he’d heard that sound come from her lips.

Then, as now, she’d been flushed and…

Aroused.

Fascinated, curious as hell, he came around her desk and perched a hip there, leaning in. The pulse at the base of her neck was fluttering, and her skin seemed dewy. “I have to know,” he murmured, “what the hell you’re listening to.”

With a screech, she jumped up, her eyes flying open. She gaped at him, then tore the ear buds out of her ears.
“Adam.”

“Me,” he said. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’m working. I—” She drew in a deep breath and smoothed the front of her dress.

Her nipples were hard.

“I’m really busy,” she said.

“I can see that.”

“I was just listening to an audio book,” she said, sounding breathless. “For my book club. I’m behind on the book. I didn’t hear you come.”

No, but he had the feeling he’d almost heard
her
come. “You were listening to your book club read?” He knew that Jade and Lilah belonged to the same book club, and they’d both been complaining about this month’s read, which was supposedly pretentious, boring, and had a sucky ending.

Her eyes slid to the iPod on her desk, still on play. “Um. Well, actually…”

He picked up a forgotten ear bud and pressed it to his ear.

A sultry, sexy female voice was narrating, her voice low and suggestive: “He worked his way to her nipple, giving the tight tip a long, leisurely lick before sucking it hard into his mouth. Satisfied with her shaky moan, he slid his hands to her hips, catching the sides of her panties, dragging them down her long, luscious legs. His lips followed, her hips jerking as he got close to the promised land…”

Adam grinned up at Holly. “I didn’t know you guys read porn at your book club. No wonder Lilah’s in it.”

Holly made a grab for the ear bud, but he held it out of her reach.

“Fine,” she said. “So it’s not a sanctioned book club read.”

“No?”

“No, the book club reads are boring.”

Adam stuck the ear bud back into his ear and wasn’t disappointed.

“She writhed beneath him,” the sexy narrator continued, “while he deeply inhaled her rich scent. Bending low, he nuzzled her waxed mound and said…
Trust me
.”

Adam snorted and looked at Holly. “FYI—
never
trust a man who says, ‘Trust me.’”

She snatched the iPod, practically climbing up his body to do so, not that he minded one little bit. “What are you doing here?” she snapped.

“Dropping off your dad.” He stroked a damp tendril off her forehead. “You look like you need a man, Holly.”

She raised her chin and looked him in the eye. “I’ve discovered I don’t need a man to be happy.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes,” she said. “And besides, you’ve made it perfectly clear that you don’t need me, either, so…” She moved to walk around him but he caught her wrist.

“You’re right. I
don’t
need you,” he said. “I don’t
need
anyone.” He pulled the struggling, pissed-off woman in between his legs, waiting until her flashing eyes met his. “But I
want
you, Holly. Always have, always will.”

She went still, staring at him as his cell phone rang, with the tone that told him it was an emergency. Still holding her gaze, he pulled his phone from his hip and glanced at the screen. Shit. Reluctantly, he let go of her.

She fisted her hand in his shirt. “Wait a minute. You’re just going to say that and then leave me? In this state?”

He looked down at his own erection. “If it makes you feel better, you’re not the only one.” He pressed a hard, fast kiss to her very kissable mouth. “Have to go.”

“But—”

He slid the ear bud back into her ear. “This seemed to be taking you where you need to go,” he said. “Finish listening to it. I’m going to like thinking of you, here, getting off on it.”

She blushed and bit down on her lower lip. He groaned and leaned in for one more kiss and then forced himself out the door.

The emergency call from Kel turned out to be a countywide drill. A fucking drill. But it was mandatory, and it kept him out at Bear Lake for the rest of the long hours of the night: cold, icy, miserable.

Well, except for the one thought that warmed him every time it crossed his mind, which was constantly—Holly at her desk, hot and bothered, listening to that book.

Two days later Holly was in the Reid Ranching offices, neck deep into quarterlies, when Grif called her on Skype. She answered with a huge smile, waiting as her brother’s pixelated image swam into view. He was in army cammies and dark wraparound sunglasses that he pulled off at the sight of her.

As always, she studied him carefully, heart in her throat, but he looked good, she decided. Then again, he usually did. Unlike Holly, he’d taken the best from his ancestral gene pool: their dad’s height, dark good looks, and quick smile and quicker wit, plus their mom’s unusual gray eyes and ability to see right through any and all bullshit. He’d gone into the military about the same time as Adam, choosing army. It hadn’t been trouble that Grif had been running from, though; it had been Sunshine itself—and ranching.

And their father.

This life here in the Idaho mountains might seem idyllic and slow and perfect to her, but the very thing she loved about it was exactly what Grif had never wanted. Unfortunately, as the only son of a ranching icon, he’d faced a lot of pressure to stay.

But he’d gone, and though he’d come back on leave whenever possible, he never remained in Sunshine for more than a week or two without going batshit crazy. Though Holly would never push him to stick around when he clearly didn’t want to, she missed him. A lot.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” she said.

“Same goes.” His usual fast smile faded. “Been trying to get you for a few days.”

She’d missed his call yesterday. “Dad’s okay.”

“He had a fucking heart attack?”

Dammit. “You’ve talked to Adam.”

“Yes, but only because he answers his phone.” Grif blew out a breath. “I heard it from a friend of a friend who works at the hospital. When I couldn’t get you, I called Adam—who
didn’t want to tell me, either, by the way. You’re all on my shit list.”

She winced. “You called at three in the morning. I’m sorry, I had my ringer off.”

“It was the only time I could get through. Tell me, Holly.”

She sighed. She’d like to wring Adam’s neck, except then she’d have to see him again. And after the other day and her most embarrassing moment, her current plan was to lie low. “Apparently he had a mild heart attack three months ago. I was in New York and you were…well, somewhere. He managed to hide it because his hospital stay was only a few days. He says he’s been following doctor’s orders and doing everything he’s supposed to. But from what I can gather, Deanna dumped him because his mortality scared her.”

“Or because it reminded her that he was an old son of a bitch.”

“Or that,” she said dryly. “In any case, he was suddenly alone, and depressed. Or was, anyway.”

“Was?”

“Well, once we got him back, news sort of spread that he was a free agent. Now he’s got both Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Rodriguez visiting all the time, cooking for him.”

“Mrs. Graham, the hot forty-something redhead mayor?”