Adam, Enough Said (This Can't be Happening) (45 page)

“Oh
my God,” she breathed in pleasure, which meant I needed to get back to work.

I played with her, teased her with my tongue, tortured her with my fingers and loved her with my mouth until she grabbed the
pillow at her side, bit down on the edge and cried out in sheer ecstasy. I held her through every quake and reveled in the feel of her body at my mercy. Every moan was muffled and when they slowed down, I came to a stop.

And then she got quiet.

And then I was flipping her over, bringing her to her knees, spreading her legs, covering her back with my chest and filling her to full, so fast the pillow had to catch her whimpers again. But this time, her face was shoved in it and I didn’t like that.

I tangled my fingers in her hair, she twisted her neck, arched her back and my mouth found hers.

I didn’t even bother with slow, just went straight to full speed and pounded inside her...deep...as deep as her body would let me go. I untangled my hand from her hair, wrapped it around her waist and found her sweet spot….exactly why her shorter size fit me perfectly.

She moaned softly.

“You feel so fuckin’ good, Baby,” I said through my groan and the little minx arched her back more, taking me deeper…all the fuckin’ way.

“Adam…”

“Shit,” I hissed.

I worked my hips harder
, because I needed more, and a sheen of sweat covered my back. When her insides clenched around mine, I couldn’t hold back any longer.

I came…hard. She came with me and shoved her face back in the pillow. With nowhere else to go, my mouth latched onto her shoulder – not hard enough to hurt – just enough to muffle my grunts.

She fell, stomach to the bed and I fell to my side and threw my arm over her waist while we both struggled to catch our breath.

“Sur
ely that got you pregnant,” I breathed, winded and hoped my words rang true.

Mia chuckled and entangled her fingers with mine.

“We’ll see.”

For the next two days, we spent our nights and our days the exact same way. Talking, fighting, laughing, playing, loving, joking, sexing…and more sexing…

Until I got the call.

“Adam,” Mia said to get my attention.

I looked up from my lunch
, but she said nothing.

“Freckles,” I countered and grinned when I saw her roll her eyes.

“Can we go look at cars when we get back? I know I won’t get my check from the insurance company for another couple of weeks, but I just want to look.”

I sat back in m
y chair, crossed my arms over my chest and studied her thoroughly. “And what kind of cars do you want to look at?”

She exhaled.
“I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not an idiot and I definitely don’t waste money. If I get pregnant sooner rather than later, I know I can’t very well fit a car seat into a ’68 Camaro comfortably.”

She
’d probably try her damned best if she still had that damn car, but I still wasn’t comforted by her words. “What do you want?”

“Well, I was thinking that a car seat would fit so much easier into a ’70 Hemi Cuda…
especially if it’s a convertible.”

I stiffened.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked in a dangerous whisper.

Mia threw her head back and
laughed at the ceiling. “Yes, I’m kidding. Jeez! You’re such a sucker!”

I narrowed my eyes on her face, but it didn’t last long
, because her good mood was bringing out my own.

She went on,
“Maybe I’ll get a Tahoe or a big, jacked-up truck like yours.”

“Baby, you’re too small to drive a big, jacked-up truck,” I joked.

“Adam, the only reason you think I’m small is because you’re a giant,” she retorted and lifted her eyebrows in expectation of a retort.

I opened my mouth to reply with my comeback, but
my cell phone rang and prevented me from doing so.

“
Bryant,” I answered on the second ring, even though I wasn’t using my work cell phone.

A second later
, I heard a heavily accented voice say, “It’s done,” and then the line went dead.

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Max Lowe

That bitch was gonna die.

Today.

That fucking whore!

It was my fault for getting her into this shit
. I knew that. And because of that, I decided she wasn’t gonna suffer. I’d make sure she died fast, but she
was
gonna die. Of course, not before I got my money. I needed that money to get out of the country and that bitch owed me. It was the least she could do for fucking me around and wasting my time.

But Adam…he
would die a slow and painful death for touching what was mine.

I glanced at the two henchmen again
- both of whom were still in deep discussion with each other - before glancing around at my surroundings. I had to get out of here.

I
knew they were planning to torture me more and I also knew that the boss man wanted me dead…

But they fucked up.

And boss man wasn’t here.

I couldn’t
understand everything the men were saying, because it was all in Spanish, but I’d worked as a narcotics officer, and for the boss man, long enough to understand what I needed to know.

And I knew for a fact
that boss man wasn’t here. Sounded like he might not be here for another couple of hours.

Which was perfect
, because it gave me time.

Plenty of time.

And I had that feeling in my gut…that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach that lets you know things are finally gonna go your way. That feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you get an idea in your head and you just
know,
with absolute certainty, it’s gonna work out like you planned.

That motherfucking feeling felt great.

But the nausea from being in pain was a bitch. I suppose crushing my left hand in an effort to force me to give the location of the money should have worked, but all that did was ensure my hands would be free from their bindings in only a few more maneuvers of my wrists - no matter how excruciating the pain. I’d cut them off, before I went out without a fight.

Twenty seconds later, I was free.

Sixty seconds later, I was a murderer.

Mia
Bryant

Home.

That’s what Adam had called it
when we’d returned from Trish and Tony’s place near dusk.

Home.

It had a nice ring to it.

And somehow, the house
even felt like a home to me now.

But
I didn’t want to be home.

I
wanted to go back to that ranch and spend more uninterrupted time with Adam, I wanted to pet the horses, feed the goats, do all kinds of lazy things, and just relax.

But no.

Adam had gotten a call from the office and we’d had to come back.

Home.

“Baby, I’m gonna run the bags upstairs real quick,” Adam called out and I gave him a shouted, “Okay!”

I walked into the kitchen, pulled a glass from the cabinet
, filled it with ice water, and took a long deep gulp. That two hour car ride had me parched. I wondered if Adam was parched too.

Just as I put the glass down, I felt Adam’s heat
hit my back and his lips on my neck.

“That was fast,” I said softly, wonderin
g if he’d just thrown our bags on the bedroom floor to hurry back to me. The thought was actually calming.

“My heart,
Freckles,” he muttered, lips against my skin and that wasn’t anything close to the response I’d expected, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy all the weight his words held.

I turned in his arms.

I reached up to brush my thumb across his jaw, and without thinking, I told him the truth, “You’re my heart too, Adam.”

His eyes told me my words meant the world to him.
He meant the world to me too.

“
Freckles, I know this is going fast for you, but I swear to God, this past week - minus the bad - has been the best week I’ve had in six years, and I want to keep having weeks just like this with you. I want you to have the proper wedding you deserve.”

And at the word wedding
, his hand covered mine on his jaw. He pulled my hand down, and next thing I knew, he was sliding something onto my finger.

“Adam,” I whispered like a prayer
.

I looked down
and tears stung my eyes at the sight of my old, plain, white gold wedding ring.

“We’ll get new ones, but for now, these’ll do.”
He kissed the ring on my finger and I noticed the ring on his own hand. His old ring. That’s when my sob broke free and Adam hugged me. “Never took it off, Baby. Over a year and I never took it off.”

I was overwhelmed
with happiness, sadness, regret and relief, and when he pulled back, I hated losing his warmth.

His fingers graze
d my stomach and it tightened against his touch. “I really hope your body is working its magic already, Baby, because I want you pregnant. I long for it. I want to be here for you and I want to experience it all with you, Mia.”

“I want that too,
” I breathed.

He got quiet as he towered over me, gazing in
to my eyes, letting me see every bit of truth in them.

“I love you,” Adam rumbled so low and deep I cou
ld feel it.

“I love you, Adam. So much,” I whispered
back as I gazed up into his eyes and prayed that he could see the same love in my eyes that I saw in his.

And then he
smiled tenderly and touched my bottom lip with his thumb, just before he touched his lips to mine for a quick, deep kiss.

He pulled away, smiled down at me…

M
y entire body jerked.

The
blast echoed throughout the room, so loud it was deafening to my ears. I couldn’t even hear myself screaming, “Noooooooo,” when my back slammed into the counter as all of Adam’s weight landed on me.

My arms automatically wrapped around his back to hold him up and I cried,
“Adam! No! Please!”

I heard hi
m grunt in my ear, but he said nothing. “Adam, please answer me!”

Out of the corner of my eye
, I saw Max standing in the doorway and I was shaking, earth-rocking quakes, as I screamed, “What did you do?”

Adam slu
mped further and my hand hit a wet spot on his back. I couldn’t bring myself to look down, but I sobbed as my entire world shattered to pieces, like my heart had been made of glass.

“Fuck
, it burns,” Adam hissed in my ear.

“Oh
God, Baby, please get up. Please!” I begged through my sobs. He groaned and to my complete and utter astonishment, he lifted and stood tall. I gaped at him through my tears. His breathing was ragged and I raised my hands to touch his chest just to confirm he was still breathing before me. It wasn’t until he turned that I saw blood seeping through the back of his shirt.

“Oh
God,” I whispered.

I moved to run
across the kitchen to the phone, not caring for a second about Max until he shouted, “Don’t fucking move, Mia!”

I spun around and screamed through my tears, “Fuck you!”

He raised his gun in Adam’s direction and I froze in fear.

“Mia, stop,” Adam ordered low, rough and pained.
I looked at him through my tears. He was holding his left arm, and I wondered why since that wasn’t where he was shot.

“You shot him in the back,”
I hissed at Max before roaring, “
You shot him in the fucking back, you piece of shit coward
!”

T
he barrel of his gun landed on my face and I narrowed my eyes as I held his soulless ones.

“Baby
, stop,” Adam said giving me a dangerously low command, and I listened, but only because I was terrified Max would shoot him again.

Oh
God. He needs a hospital.

“What do you want
?” Adam demanded to know and his words were clipped, but his voice was gravelly, hoarse and filled with pain.

A
nasty smile grew on Max’s face. He didn’t answer with words. Instead, he trained his gun on Adam and walked toward him. He got in Adam’s face, put the gun to his cheek and barked, “Move,” so loud that I jumped.