“You left!” I yelled. Those stupid tears I had been holding in rose to the surface. “Not a word, Adam! Not anything. It was like you were some kind of dream. You make me feel crazy.”
Crazy.
The concept danced around my brain. How many times had I heard that word? How many people had said that about my mother? Thought that about me?
I can’t be like her…
He moved in on me, his body pressing into mine. The edge of the table was digging into my backside. I placed my palms behind me for support. Damn it, I shouldn’t have had anything to drink. I knew better. It blurred my shield, let everything that I worked so hard to keep hidden slip out.
“I’m sorry, Katelyn.” He gripped my shoulders and stared down at my face. His eyes were like blue starbursts, wild and flickering with heat. “You confused me. I saw you with your cousin, then later that night—”
“What does Simon have to do with this?”
His expression was fierce. “I watched you tuck him in. Take care of him. Like you’d never let anything hurt him.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I know. I saw that.”
I was so lost. What did my relationship with Simon have to do with this conversation?
“You’re not even his mother, yet you care for him. I knew how badly you wanted to get out of that house, but you wouldn’t leave until you were certain he was sound asleep. You stayed while his own mother and father kept company with random acquaintances all night. Would his mother have known if something had happened to him?”
I shrugged.
“No, they wouldn’t have. But you would.”
I frowned. Something had shifted in Adam. Something dark and sad.
“Adam?” My voice cracked and my words were barely a whisper. The man before me had his own demons, but the extent of them was where I was fuzzy.
“I f**ked up, Katelyn.” His hands slid down to my hips. “I don’t deal well with the things you’re forcing upon me.”
“Oh, I’m forcing you?”
He grinned. “Woman, you have no idea of the power you hold.”
He lifted me to sit on the table and stood between my thighs. His breath was tickling over my collarbone.
I grabbed the hair at his nape, leaned in, and whispered, “I think I’m falling in hate with you.”
His hands clutched my ass and rocked me against his jeans-clad erection. “I hope so.”
He kissed me. Hard and deep. Like he’d missed me. And I kissed him back, because damn it, I’d missed him, too.
Gone. I was gone for this man. It was amazing what I clung to—an apology and a glimpse of the lost boy beneath the façade. It was that Adam I ached for. The one who commanded my body. The one I wanted to know and nurture. He wanted to eradicate the skeletons in my closet? I wanted to chase away that darkness in his eyes.
His mouth worked mine. Hot and quick. Passion and desire fueled me. I couldn’t get enough. I fumbled with the button on his jeans. I needed him inside me. Needed to feel that connection again, knowing that when it was severed and he was gone, it would only hurt worse. But like a junkie for a fix, I was desperate for Adam, any way I could get him.
He slid my pants off and threw them behind him, then yanked his jeans down low on his hips. His erection jutted free.
I spread my legs.
He tore my panties.
Fast. Hard. Desperate. I was clawing at him. Trying to find any bare skin I could to run my hands over. He yanked his shirt over his head and I was so grateful. I scored my nails down the hard muscles of his stomach. He hissed and gripped the backs of my knees, pulling me closer. Right when I dug my heels into his ass, he surged inside me.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he groaned and thrust again. “Does it hurt? Are you sore?”
“No.” I clung to his shoulders. “It feels amazing.”
“You feel amazing.” He pushed deep, over and over. I loved that there was no barrier between us. I threw my head back and gasped. Wrapping one strong arm around my lower back, he f**ked me harder.
The whole table shook. The cup of water toppled over, rolled to the floor, and shattered. The sound of glass breaking only urged me on. Apparently it did Adam as well, because he went wild.
He bit at the swell of my breast, undoubtedly leaving teeth marks. I braced my hands behind me and arched into him. He consumed me. Every part of me was on fire and calling out to him to drive the inferno higher. Hotter.
My arms lost strength, so I lay back on the table. Spread out, totally open, I let him have me.
“This—” He gripped my hips in his hands and pounded hard. “This is what you do to me.”
He buried that big c**k into me again and again while yanking my body toward his to meet every thrust. My br**sts bounced, the thin shirt unable to conceal them with the few strings provided. Adam leaned down and ripped it away, then latched on to my nipple. He alternated between deep suction and toying flicks of his tongue. I wound my fingers in his hair and clutched him to me.
“God, yes!”
He sucked harder right before he bit the sensitive peak. I came undone. My orgasm raced over me. Fireworks burst in my blood vessels and I cried out from the intensity. The pleasure was so sharp, it bordered on pain. And all the while, Adam f**ked me through it.
With a groan, he came and I felt the pressure of his release all the way to my core. Warmth spread and simmered. I felt his seed inside me, coating me.
I was marked. Claimed.
My arms and legs wove around him, clutching him close with everything I had. I was not ready to let him go. Not ready to let him leave my body. I would beg if I had to, but he couldn’t leave me. Not this time. I couldn’t handle it. It made me weak, and I should be ashamed. But he was imprinted on my every cell. I might not want to need him, but that was what had happened.
Adam didn’t draw away. He merely wrapped his strong arms around me and lifted me up. Still inside me, he walked down a long hallway. I held on as best I could, but I was limp and dazed.
He slowly pulled out of me. Cool sheets hit my back. I was exhausted. This past four days had weighed heavily on me and all of a sudden, after having Adam, it seemed to disappear. I just needed him. A warm cloth rubbed between my thighs. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know Adam was cleaning me, taking care of me. Then a thick comforter engulfed me.
“Sleep now, lover.”
The alcohol and orgasm induced sleep was creeping up on me. My body tensed. I looked around.
“Shh…” Adam’s hand came down on my shoulder. “You’re in my room. My bed. I’m not leaving this time.”