Waiting for You (11 page)

The minute he made contact, she gasped and he took the opportunity to delve his tongue between her parted lips, gently coaxing her. Teasing her. Enticing her. Her fingers slid up the back of his neck, enticing him toward her and fuck if that didn’t send every nerve ending of his body into over drive. His reached behind her, touching as much of her as he could get. Caressing the contours of her back and hips with one hand, he snaked his other down and filled his palm with a handful of her pert ass, molding her against his fast growing erection. He heard a moan and he wasn’t sure if it was Audrey or his own. Her fingers lingered on his shoulders and his chest and Adam was sure it was the most sensual feeling he had ever experienced.

She stood on tip toes as she explored his mouth greedily. He found the hem of her T-Shirt and slipped his hand under to touch smooth bare skin, heated beneath his palm. His fingers grazed the bottom swell of her full breasts.

He was sure she was pulling him in closer when suddenly she pulled away and he was abruptly left empty handed.

He took in her dazed visage, her eyes heavy lidded, her mouth plump and glistening from his own kisses.

“What are we doing?”

He reached for her, “Having fun.”

She took a step back. “No we can’t do this. Not again.”

“Why not?” Adam was aware that his erection was pressed painfully against his shorts and by the sight of Audrey’s pebbled nipples peeking out through her shirt, he knew she was as turned on as he was. He was hoping Audrey would come back into the circle of his arms so they could sort this out together.

“It will end the same. Just like last time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” His rare temper flared and he quelled the urge to let the irritation out.

She was the queen of fire and ice but this routine was really starting to make his head spin. Especially when he had a hard on (compliments of her) big enough to pound nails. “You and I had fun the last time Audrey. I recall you had fun at least two times that night.”

She winced before her affliction flashed. “Yeah, it was fun right up until the point I came back Adam.”

“What are you going on about? You never came back. You used me for my body and then you avoided me like the plague before you up and left for New York without so much as a postcard.”

In the faint light, he noticed her face flush. “I returned the next night and you were kissing some other woman.”

Adam thought back to the night he and Audrey had shared an exceptional evening and replayed the scene to the next day. He’d waited, hoping she would return but instead he had gotten the news about his dad’s health. And then…

He ran his fingers through his hair as he walked himself into a small circle. With his libido taking a nose dive, the pain in his knee was filling his senses again. He limped slightly back to face her.

He couldn’t believe it. She had come back for him?

“I waited for you,” he admitted, the fight draining out of him. “And then my dad came home and I got the news about his disease. The more research I did, the more angry and despondent I became so when some girl crawled into my room that night, I was momentarily stunned and let her kiss me. And that’s the long and short of it. When the surprise wore off, which was less than a minute later, I told her to leave. End of story.”

“You don’t even remember who it was. You’re just so used to random hook-ups.”

“No Audrey. I don’t remember who it was because it was at a time when I got the worst news of my life. The more I read up on how the man who had sacrificed so much to raise me as a single parent would lose his basic ability to eat, breathe, live; the more stunned I felt. Everything else that happened that day was a daze, like I was going through the motions underwater. And you know what, instead of you judging me on what you thought happened in that room, you could have had the decency to come right out and ask me about it. Both back then and now.” he blew out a breath, feeling completely blindsided. “I needed you that day. I could have used a friend.”

Audrey appeared gob smacked. For once she didn’t have a witty or snide comment to pass.

“Instead of expecting the worst of me,” he said steely. “Give me a little credit. Stop treating me like I’m beneath you when you don’t even know me.” He turned and walked away then, as best he could on a bum knee.

Chapter 11

A
udrey awoke the next morning feeling like she was hung over. Not because it had anything to do with the party in a bottle kind but because the memory of the night before was making her feel sick. Everything was messed up, nothing fit into her neat little boxes anymore.

From the minute she had connected with Adam by elbowing him hard in the chest, things spiraled downhill. He had caught her so off guard on all levels. The gut wrenching terror she had endured when she thought he was an attacker had taken her right back to the last night Michael had ever touched her. And as much as she had attended self-defense classes and considered herself more prepared since then, the painful reminder was paralyzing. She had done fairly well. Sadly it had been Adam she knocked around but if it had been an attacker, she would have been able to defend herself.

And then that toe curling kiss. Just thinking about it had her heating up in parts that she long left dormant. Adam had been a skilled kisser back when they were teenagers but he had definitely picked up some tricks along the way. His mouth had teased and taunted her to the point that she had lost all thought. He could have taken her right then and there and she would have been willing and ready to let him. Even now her body betrayed her by craving his touch. Being pressed up against his muscle rippled body and those surprisingly gentle hands. It had been over a year since she had had any downstairs activity and more years since she had had a decent orgasm. That had to be the reason she had behaved without thinking. The very last thing she needed right now was another man in her life. She needed to figure out who Audrey Kelly was-Audrey Kelly sans male companion.

And then that emotional confrontation with Adam when her hormones were still reeling. Yikes! Audrey had gone and emotionally slapped him by bringing up the past. She still chided herself on how wrong she had been all these years, holding on to a childish grudge which was made based on an incorrect assumption. How could she have been so blinded? The answer was plain as day. Because she’d had a crush on Adam since the day he and his dad had moved in next door to her grandparents. He’d been it for her during her teenage years and the moment she had surrendered her virginity to him, she’d also given him her heart. Seeing him with another woman, regardless of what the circumstances, had gutted her and it was easier to be angry than to be hurt. So she had held on to that anger, all through the years, up to last night. Now she knew the truth and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t quite muster up any anger.

The more she thought about Adam’s words, the more her stomach sank. Audrey couldn’t imagine how what he must have gone through having to deal with the news of his dad’s degenerative illness. She didn’t know much about the disease, only the little she had followed from that Doctor on House who had had it. From the sounds of it, all around, it sounded like a death sentence. Adam had been coasting through his life before then and after the diagnosis, he’d had to shoulder all that responsibility on his own. She began to wonder if he had resented it and then realized no, he’d revered his father and when he spoke of the illness, there was no resentment in his tone. He had done his duty as a son and Audrey was sure he would do it over again.

Despite what he assumed she had thought of him, Audrey knew Adam Parker was an honorable man.

She had used her anger at him all these years to put up an emotional wall between him and her but last night had blown that barrier to smithereens. That just left her vulnerable to the carnal attraction simmering between them. The vortex that seemed to suck her in.

She threw the covers off and sat up in bed, needing to get this day going. The longer she sat in bed and stewed, the worse she would feel about her confrontation with Adam. And the very last thing she wanted was to think too much about the pressure of his amazing mouth on hers and the feeling that had thrilled through her body when his tongue had danced with hers.

Get a grip!

Awhile later she found herself digging through the trunk in her attic and sifting through some photos when she came across the picture of Adam and his father years before, both heads bent over the opened hood of a Chevy truck. They both had mirroring smirks, more a side smile than anything else. The love between them was palpable in the shot. She fingered the old frame as her chest pinched. She had always been so fond of Mr. Parker. He’d always taken the time to chat to her when he had seen her in the yard. She had probably had more conversations, meaningful or otherwise, with him than she had with either of her own parents. That made her sad. She hated to think about how he may have suffered before he was finally called to rest. Death was something that Audrey did not feel comfortable with.

She needed to do something…

****

Adam needed to burn off his pent up energy. He didn’t have any hardware projects on the go and the weather wasn’t turning so great to take a long swim. So, instead he laced up his running shoes, plugged in his ear buds and cranked up Steve Aoki’s mix to get him pumped up. The sky was greying as the dark clouds gathered, hiding any semblance of the sun. The perfect reflection of his mood.

The beat blasted in his ears as his paced picked up into a steady run. Adam wasn’t much for a jog, more of a light sprint. He needed his blood pumping and his muscles screaming to shake off the sexual tension that had him tossing and turning last night. He could easily have solved his problem by calling any of his previous partners who would be more than happy to relieve his frustration but he didn’t want one woman to take care of something that some other woman started. So, instead he had solved that problem himself. With the little sleep his brain had allowed, he still ended up having those God awful nightmares. The same dreams that kept him up writhing and twisting his sheets. The decrepit memories of bloodshed and violence. He’d led many a special covert ops mission during his time as a SEAL but no amount of time allowed you to get used to the viciousness of the job. The duty to your country. PTSD is what it was. It had a name. It didn’t matter what it was called, it still had him waking up in a cold sweat from time to time. And it pissed him off. It made him feel weak. As if the migraines weren’t enough of a reminder of his lack of strength.

Between all of that, he’d woken up that morning with a raging erection, a bad headache and feeling grumpy as all hell. A run was necessary. He needed to clear his mind and the best way was to torture his body till the only thing it could do was focus on keeping up. The sweat was starting to build up now, he could feel it trickling down his spine. Good.

He thought about Audrey and their encounter last night. It both turned him on and pissed him off. God, kissing her and touching her again, he couldn’t put into words. She was so soft and lush and he knew that she was as turned on by him as he was by her. Her curvy body had fit into his like they were molded together and Adam had longed to strip her down and take her right then and there.

Then she’d pushed him off and said all those things about the past. She sure as hell could hold a grudge. And all these years, it wasn’t even a grudge that was justified. It pissed him off because he was tired of people in this town making assumptions about him based on his past as a teenager. Adam was a god damn teenager for Christ’s sake. He was expected to fuck up and mess around. Things had changed since then. He’d stepped up but no, all anyone wanted to see him for was his playboy ways. Fuck it. He didn’t have a single thing to prove to anyone. Let them think he was a scoundrel philanderer. The women he had shared a bed with over the years always knew the score with him, there were never empty promises of a future that he would never keep. Adam knew his circumstances over the last few years had changed him. He was a shell of a man with no family, just the nightmares and migraines to keep him company. That wasn’t much to give a woman to build a life on. So he took and gave mutually what was offered from the women he slept with and they both walked away happy. It was better for all parties concerned.

Audrey Kelly. She was an enigma that he still could not quite figure out. What was the deal with her life in New York anyway? She never spoke of it, except that time she was drunk and she let slip the notion of the formality of her relationship with her husband when he’d called her by an endearment. Other things bothered him too though. Like why did she flinch last night when he reached for her? Almost like she thought he would slap her. Had her ex-husband hurt her?

The thought made him angry. He ran harder now, his blood pumping in his ears, competing with the beat from his iPod. The rain started to fall lightly, cooling his rising body heat. His temples were pounding and he knew he would have a headache for the rest of the day. He could fix that with some ibuprofen but Adam hated any sort of drugs and would avoid them short of having an appendage amputated. Maybe he would try Audrey’s heat/ice remedy and some of the peppermint oil rub. How she even found any of that in his house was beyond him.

An hour later he was winded and panting hard, catching his breath as he rounded back into his house. The run had its desired effect. His mind was clear and his muscles screamed in protest but Adam felt fucking good. Now all he needed was a shower.

****

Audrey drove up to Adam’s house on the hill. The higher up she drove, the greater the mist. It wasn’t too bad yet but she wasn’t used to driving in lousy weather conditions. She parked in front of Adam’s driveway and stepped out of the car with had no idea if he was home or not. His truck wasn’t parked outside but that could be because he wasn’t home or because it was parked in the garage. There were a few lights on inside the house but she didn’t ponder that either. Audrey had come just to drop off the peace offering on his door step and leave. She didn’t know where they stood now but she knew any emotional or erotic entanglements between them was a very bad idea. She retrieved the frame and headed toward his front door and leaned it against the outer frame and turned to leave, her feet crunching on the gravel.

A second later the door opened and Audrey inwardly cringed, hoping she could run to her car and take off before he saw her.

“Audrey?”

No such luck.

Audrey turned nonchalantly.

“What are you doing here?”

Shit.
She hadn’t wanted to be here for this awkward exchange. She took a step forward so she could step out of the drizzle but that just brought her closer to him.

He looked delicious in his sweatpants and T-shirt. His dark hair was wet, like he’d just showered. And hell if that didn’t spring to mind thoughts of his sexy self all wet and glistened with soap and suds.
Mind out of the gutter Audrey
, she chided herself. Besides, considering his face she could tell he was regarding her coolly. He wasn’t interested in continuing their little beach tryst from the night before.

She gestured to the frame at his feet, propped up against the door frame, which he hadn’t noticed. He followed her gaze and picked up the black and white photo which was encased in a beautiful dark hard wood frame. His features softened as he leaned against the door still staring at the photo. She started to wonder if this was a bad idea.

“Peace offering,” she managed.

Adam didn’t move from his spot. He didn’t look at her, just continued to stare at the gift.

A few moments passed and she started to feel antsy. She needed to leave and was about to open her mouth and say just that when he said, “When did you even take this?”

She smiled at him, a sadness sweeping over her. “When you came home from College one summer. I was taking shots of the bugs in the yard when I heard you laugh across the fence. It was the natural thing to do to lift my camera and take some shots of you both. I hadn’t even realized I still had it ‘til I went snooping in Grandpa’s attic. I just figured it would be something you would appreciate.” She paused a moment as he regarded her with a gaze that she could not decipher. He seemed sad but not in a depressed way, more reflective of the past. “And I was hoping we could put our past behind us and start over as… friends?”

A breeze blew passed them and brought with it the scent of peppermint. From Adam? She sniffed again and that was definitely peppermint. And then she remembered his migraines.

“Do you have a migraine?” she asked, searching his countenance for any sign of pain. Worry gripped her stomach, hoping he wouldn’t have to go through that pain again.

“No, why do you ask?”

“I can smell the peppermint on you. Are you ok?” Her brow furrowed.

“I forgot about that.” He stepped aside, creating a space for her to come inside. “It’s just a headache,” he added.

“Oh no, I can’t stay,” she took a step back, knowing that if she stepped into his house it would be like going into the gingerbread house in the woods. She would be in big trouble. “I have plans with Emma and the girls.”

Before he could say anything else, Audrey turned around and walked quickly to her car. She needed to stay clear of Adam Parker. Friends or not, he was bad news for her libido.