Need You Now (Martha's Way Series Book 2) (2 page)

Stubborn was his middle name.

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*
*
*

Lily stepped out of the elevator while fumbling in her
purse for the keys to her apartment. Once she and Paul ma
naged to get the whole Adam thing out of the way, they had
a good time. Oh, the chemistry was zilch, zero, all because of the man she’d
been casually sleeping with the past year.

A whole freaking year of great, mindless
sex, wherever and whenever.
A low gr
oan escaped her throat
as she opened the apartment door. As soon as Lily stepped inside her condo she
knew she had company, and it wasn’t one of her brothers. She didn’t need to see
him to know who it was either. His presence filled her condo. The smell of
nature, similar to the wilderness–rugged, undiscovered,
and comforting even in silence only belonged to one man. Her body tingled,
betraying her.
Traitor
.
It was definitely time for a
tête-à-tête with her body. It should not be so weak while in a state of
indignation.

Since her lover was obviously inside, Lily did what any
sane woman who was about to dump someone would do. She slowly removed her
jacket and escaped into the powder room to ensure she looked like she was
coming back from an awesome date. She reapplied the
red
lipstick and tousled her dark brown pixie hair to give it the appearance that
someone’s fingers had already been there, and then pulled the little strapless
black dress an inch or two above her thighs.

Well, her eyes were on the puffy side. And she loo
ked a little dazed from her cold, but those attributes
could work to her advantage.

There, Mr.
Italian-sex-god.

She found him on her sofa. All six foot plus of perfect
lean muscles fast asleep. She didn’t approach him. Not out of concern of waking
him up.
Nope. She learned long ago, one should not
seek out a predator. He could and would eat her alive. Instead, she stood a few
inches away, mesmerized. Even asleep, the man managed to look sexy as hell.

 
She scanned the
body she had become familiar with. He ap
peared as if
he threw whatever was within reach on, and oh my, how beautiful he looked in
casual attire. His jeans sat low on his lean hips, the Captain America cotton
V-neck tee stretched across his broad shoulders and his rock-hard abs. She knew
that bec
ause she had kissed every part of him on many
occasions.

A smile tugged the corner of her lips. Such a conundrum he
was. Born American, raised in Italy, and now splitting his time between the two
countries.
A man without a home,
who belonged everywhere and
nowhere.

She took in his large frame. He was too big for her sofa;
his worn New Balance hung over the armrest. He had gotten a haircut since she
last saw him. Although now shorter, his jet-black hair was still unruly with
strands wildly tousled in his fac
e. Lily fought the
urge to reach out, brush the curls aside and touch the scar on his left
eyebrow.
For a fleeting moment she wondered how he got it.
 

Lily quickly dismissed the desire to know everything about
the man on her sofa and continued to
survey h
im.
His jaw was firm and strong, even in
sleep stood with pride. His arrogant masculine nose was slightly crooked, like
it had been broken and left to its imperfections. His lips full, well-defined
and inviting; even in a relaxed state they looked sinfully
delicious. She fought the need to surrender to her desires
and suck on his lower lip. Memories of the many times they brought her to
ecstasy flashed in her mind. Even the thin crease on the corners of his mouth,
not from age but of laughter, was downright
sexy.
Every piece of him was molded to perfection, a thing of beauty and he knew it.

Oh, God. She should not be thinking about ecstasy or how
perfectly sculpted he was. She needed to dump him, not jump him. Lily blew out
a breath and started to walk past
him into the living
room to make her way down the hall to her bedroom. She could dump his ass in
the morning. She paused inches away from him and stole one last glance,
noticing for the first time the fatigue on his face.

Well, what did you
expect, Lily?
T
he man looked like he had flown straight from
Morocco when he was supposed to be in Italy relaxing.

Why would he do that?

“Because you refused to answer your phone,” he muttered,
his eyes still closed as he reached and caught her arm. “I never made it to
Italy.”

His voice and the realization she had spoken out loud
startled her. Oh, well, at least she didn’t voice all the crazy thoughts of wha
t she’d like to do to his body.
“You didn’t go see your parents?”

Eyes still closed, he shook his head. “I came
straight here.”

This meant he had been in her condo during those text
messages. Puzzled, she stared at his handsome face. The question she wanted to
ask but didn’t dare. Why?

“It’s late,” he continued in a calm but steely voice, eyes
still closed. “Where w
ere you? Although I have a
feeling I already know. You’re all dressed up.”

“How do you know that? Your eyes are closed.”

He chuckled, that cocky, confident chuckle that used to
irritate her when they first met. No, she corrected. It still irritated the hel
l out of her.

“How long have we been together now?
A little over a year.”

So he was keeping track. A year, two months and two weeks,
but who was counting? “We are not together.”

He smiled that sweet, sexy smile that always made her want
to devour him.
Tonight was no exception.

“You were checking me out,” he continued, his voice filled
with humor, though Lily also traced fatigue underneath.

She stared at him. Long, thick eyelashes no man should have
swept over his hard and handsome face. “I wasn’t,” she
lied. “You look tired, so I was concerned.” Naturally she cared, even if
they were fuck-buddies.

Eyes the color of the earth, rich and fertile, opened,
captured her gaze and held it. Lily loved his eyes. They were expressive and
changed based on the time o
f the day. At sunset,
they’d had golden flecks in them that would fade as night settled in. They had
the power to captivate her, hold her hostage.

She always found herself gazing into them a little longer
than she probably should. They held warmth and know
ledge
in them, secrets as well. Secrets that sparked her curiosity but never felt
close enough to him to ask. Even after a year of sleeping together, they were
still strangers.

“So you actually care,” he teased, bringing her back to the
reality of the stat
e of their relationship. They
didn’t do feelings, sentiments or any of that mushy stuff. No, those were for
Keely and Blake and now Minka and Jason.

Still holding her hand, he came to his feet and circled his
arms around her waist. His lips touched the cor
ner of
hers.
The same lips that had been
kissing another woman only forty-eight hours ago.
Peeved, she brought her free hand
against his muscular chest and pushed out of his grip.

“What are you doing here?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I missed you.”

“You flew f
rom Morocco to see me.
I didn’t realize I was that good
.
”
She
walked past him into her small kitchen to turn on the stove and retrieved a tea
kettle. She needed a hot toddy, tea with a nice shot of whiskey to take care of
this darn cold. Of course he follo
wed, every piece of
her sensed his presence in the tight space of her kitchen. God, he radiated
sex.
 
Pure, unadulterated, raw, wonderful sex.
And good-looking, she reminded herself.
Too freaking good-looking
for his
own
good. Good looks and sex appeal wer
e a lethal
combination.
 
Her body went damp,
responding to his closeness.
 

She went about setting the kettle in an attempt to show his
presence didn’t affect her. That was a complete lie, of course; she felt his
gaze warm on her back as he leaned against
her bench
top inspecting her every move,
her black fitted dress and her four-inch heels elongating
her legs. She glanced at him as she walked over the pantry to retrieve the raw
honey. His lips twisted into a snarl; obviously the realization she had been o
ut on a date had settled.

“What happened to our not sleeping with
anyone else rule?”
His voice was controlled and tight. She knew him well
enough to know he was livid.

Good. That makes two
of us
.

“I was on a date, Adam. That doesn’t necessarily mean
I was
screwing someone’s brains out.” She
crossed her arms over her chest and smiled at him. “Something you wouldn’t be
familiar with.”

“We had an agreement.”

Lily squared her shoulders and forced herself to face what
she was trying to postpone till the morning.
No time
like the present, her mother always said. And the images of Adam lip-locking
with that woman still seared anger through her. She reached for her phone on
the counter, flipped through her pictures until she landed on a particular one
and tossed it
across the room at him. He caught the
device just as it hit his chest.

“Our agreement is now void.” Take that. Two can play this
game.

She watched his eyes focus on the picture, the one of him
kissing that floozy. His brows creased and then the unexpected
happened. He smiled.

He actually smiled and looked amused. Why was he smiling?
Feeling her anger rising, Lily glared at him, but he seemed unfazed and took
three easy steps to close the gap between them.
 
She cursed her kitchen for being so
small. Her only
reaction was to take a step back,
away from him and ended pinned against the wall.
Literally.

“You stayed up and watched my race.”
A smug smile tugged the corners of his
mouth, satisfaction radiating off of him.
As
much as she hated
his
profession
,
she ac
tually watched him win the last Formula One. He
was missing the point.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

He grinned. “You’re lying.”

So what? Everyone who knew her could detect when she was
lying. “Whatever.”

One long, tanned finger stroked her bottom lip. “She kissed
m
e,” he explained.
His voice
low
and husky.
“The camera chose not to show the part
where I broke it off. Do you know why I did that?”

She knew. They had an agreement. Nonetheless, she waited,
wanting to hear it once more.

“Because of you.
Because of us.”
Hi
s lips were
dangerously close to hers now. “I only want to kiss you, touch you, fuck you.”

“There
is
no us,” she managed to argue, but even
in her own ears, the argument sounded feeble and weak.

Chapter Two

“In a perfect world, you could fuck people
without giving them a piece of your heart. And every
glittering kiss and every touch of flesh is another shard of heart you’ll never
see again.”

Neil Gaiman

“Am I forgiven?” he w
hispered.

Oh, so close, she could easily slip her
tongue into that delicious mouth of his and take over.

No.
At least that’s what
common sense told her to say; instead her lips parted for him, wanting and need
to feel his mouth on hers.
 
But she
held back,
savoring the sweet torture. “I don’t want
to forgive you.”

His eyes gleamed with amusement. “We
can’t kiss until you do. It’s important to me that you believe I would never
break a promise.” The beguilement was now replaced by an intense look of
determina
tion. The heat of his breath caressed her
face, making her shiver with need.

She closed her eyes and blocked the
seriousness in his. Not too long ago, similar words were spoken and broken by
another man. Only the funny thing was, she believed Adam. He’d ke
pt their promise for the last year.
Sex and fun, but only with each other.
At least, until the kiss.
With his lips so close she couldn’t
think straight.

“Liliana?”

The
sound of her name in that seductive accent slid over her and pooled in her
belly.
Did he
really need to say her name? That was pure sexual torture.
No man should have the power to make a woman’s name sound so sensuous.

“I’m thinking.”

His finger trailed along her cheek to
her jaw then her bottom lip.

“You’re not playing fair,” she breathed
so
ftly.

He
threaded his fingers
through her hair, yanked her head back and skimmed his lips over her neck,
almost but not quite kissing her.
“I never intended to play fair. So say you believe me.”

She did. But something else nagged her.
Fear that she might b
e a bit too inexperienced for
the game they’ve been playing. Fear, sooner or later her heart would be
affected and want more.
Liar.
You already want more
, the little voice inside her taunted. Lily quickly shut it
down. Wanting Adam was one thing, allowing
her heart
to get involved was another matter. Her goal had always been to keep a firm
grip on her emotions, live on the wild side a bit and be reckless. But
somewhere along the way, her heart had gone bonkers and changed direction. The
nonchalant, unconcer
ned was all an illusion.

The truth was she cared. More than she’d
like to admit.

Even
after the disaster of her engagement,
she still believed in the HEA–Happily Ever After. Just not with Adam. Behind
that calm, cool demeanor, lay a force she’d only seen d
uring moments of passion, but she guessed it ran deeper than he’d allowed
her to see. A
bête
noire
, that
was Adam.
Too dark, too intense, and too impulsive.
A part of her feared him, fear of being
consumed by him, driven over and flattened to nothing, burn
ed to a crisp by his intensity. Nope, she wanted none of
that. The last thing she wanted to do was lose
herself
in loving him.

“I believe you, Adam.”

He tilted her chin. “But there’s more.
Tell me what’s bothering you.”

The fact they expected nothing from
each other helped and made it easier for Lily to voice any
concern. Finally she opened her eyes. “When will we know this is too much?”

Rich cocoa eyes penetrated hers, giving her once again a
glimpse of his spirit. Lily swallowed
hard.
 

“Do you want to en
d us, Lily?”

Yes. No
. Her stomach filled with angst.

“Just say the word and I will walk away.” His voice was
curt with no hint of being affected by the possibility of their end.

Could it really be that easy?
“Just like that?”

With his body still pressing
against
hers, he nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

Something buzzed insistently against her. Adam stepped an
inch or two away, reached in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his phone.
His shoulders tensed up a bit as he frowned at the screen. “No fuck
ing interview,” he growled, ended the call and dropped the
phone on the counter.

“Another woman?” she asked, arms crossed over her
chest.
  

“No other woman
,
Liliana, just you, for as long as you want. I gave you my word.” He walked over
to the stove and p
oured the hot water into the cup
with the tea bag. Then he opened her refrigerator to retrieve a piece of ginger
and a lemon. Lily watched him move with ease and familiarity around her
kitchen. He knew where everything was located.

She recalled the nervous
feeling the first time he came to visit. Even after the
half pitcher of sangria Minka had poured down her throat, her heart had been
racing. And now here he was standing in her kitchen like he belonged. The fact
that her condo was not even half the size o
f his
house in Chilmark, or that their relationship was nonexistent didn’t stop him
from settling right in.

He brought out the cutting board to
slice the ginger and split the Meyer lemon. Then he squeezed the juice into her
tea, and stirred the pieces of t
he seed-bearing plant
in the cup as well. He walked over to the other side of her kitchen to the
liquor cabinet and poured a shot of whiskey into the cup and finished it with a
tablespoon of raw honey.

“There,” he said with a smile as he
handed her the cup
.
“A hot toddy.
This will knock you out for the night.”

She took a sip of the warm liquid. Hot
and sumptuous, with delectable undertones of sweet vanilla that awoke her
slumbering palate and filled her with comfort. “Thank you.”

He didn’t move. Instead, hi
s large body leaned against the counter as he continued to
watch her. And the more he did so, the more she wanted to spread her legs and
welcome him home. Especially since the last time they were together was a month
ago.

Home.
Ha! Not in a million years.
Get over the romantics, Lily. She couldn’t even fault Adam
for that. He had always been straightforward about their relationship–a
physical commitment with no emotional attachment.
Sex with me only, because I’m the alpha male.
I rock your world, and I prom
ise I will only have sex with you too kind of commitment.
Nothing serious.
He never made promises or led her to
believe they could be more.

Lily brushed away the thoughts.
 
No thinking about possibilities. That
was a definite no-no.

For four hundred and
si
xty-nine days.
A year, three months and two weeks she
had been fine with their “committed but no chance for happily ever after”
status. Lord knew it was exactly what she needed after her failed engagement. A
relationship where the only thing she could coun
t on
was Adam’s physical fidelity. Anything else would be too complicated and at
this point in her life, complication was a major no-no.
Except for that nagging void creeping up lately.
Again, she dismissed it.

The question echoed in her head. What
was she
thinking?

Sex with no strings
attached
rarely resulted in uncomplicated. More
like a complete disaster.
Especially
when feelings were starting to crawl their way in, never mind she was never
really good at the just sex thing.

She blamed it all on
her
heart.

Treacherous heart.

“Should I call for a car to pick me up?”
His voice interrupted her thoughts.

If she said yes he would not fight her,
this much she knew. He’d walk out of her life the same way he entered. Totally
unexpected, and it would leave
her broken because as
scared as she was of what ifs, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye. “You look
tired.” She gave him a coy smile. “You should at least stay the night.”

He arched a brow. “Is that your excuse
for me to spend the night?”

“I have a cold. I cou
ld use another hot toddy later.” She took another sip of
the drink Adam had introduced her to over the winter. A drink she’d come to
associate with him. It even tasted like him, delicious and intoxicating.

Adam smiled. He walked over and erased
the distanc
e between them. “I see that.” He brushed
her bangs away from her face. “I’m still going to fuck you.”

He better.
“You might get sick.”

His wide hands cupped her face. “Have I
ever told you I like to live on the edge?”

Yes, as a matter of fact he’d
established that right away. His thirst for natural rushes
usually involved snowboarding, surfing, plane gliding and, let’s not forget,
the need for speed.

“Once or twice.”

“Besides.”
Strong arms circled her waist and held
her against him. “I don’t get sic
k…ever.”

 
Somehow she believed that.

“But if I were to get sick, I can’t
think of a more beautiful woman to get sick with,” he continued with that sexy
smile of his.

Adam had a way of making her feel as if
she was the most beautiful woman in the world. On
e
day she might start to believe him.

“You’re worth me getting sick, Liliana.
I need to lose myself inside you.”

His hard-muscled body
rubbed against hers. Desire flared and
Lily
convinced
herself it was just physical. Never mind her head was spinning and
she wanted him more than her next breath.

“Kiss me,” she
begged,
her voice deep and husky.

Adam obeyed and their lips touched. A
gentle touch filled with the promise of what she knew would follow.

“You’re beautiful,” he said low, lips
inches away.

Her chee
ks
scorched, burning her skin. Her ex used to call her cute and pretty at times,
but never beautiful. The past year, the word had become synonymous with her.
Adam made her feel beautiful.

Too overwhelmed to use words, Lily
circled her arms around his neck,
drawing him back to
the warmth of her lips.

In the year since they’d begun her
desire for him had only intensified. Every time he touched her, she yearned for
more. His tongue slipped inside her mouth to explore. The sound of his moan
filled her head as h
e nipped her lower lip. She
gladly went along for the ride.

“I want you naked,” she said, fingers
impatiently tugging on his T-shirt.

“Good, because I want
to rip this dress off your body.
We should burn it.”

Her
brows went up. She already knew the reason
for his
words. Adam took. Adam possessed. In some ways, she belonged to him.
“You’re not jealous because I wore it
on a
…
”