He kept up the dual assault until the orgasm overtook her. Adam kept his fingers pressed against her as he pushed into her a little at a time rather than all at once, which he would’ve preferred at this point.
Her muscles squeezed him intimately, but didn’t try to force him out. Encouraged, he gave her more. He wanted so badly to know if it felt good, but he was afraid to ask, afraid to jar her out of the moment to remind her that this act had been a problem for her in the past. So he let his body speak for him and took his signals to proceed from her breathy sighs and throaty moans.
He’d given this a lot of thought since she told him about her past troubles, and he’d come to the conclusion that he had to keep her so aroused and engaged that there wouldn’t be an opportunity for her fears to take hold and sabotage it for her. So he pressed against her core with his fingers and continued to tease and torment her breasts with his lips and teeth as he worked his way into her in slow steady increments.
Only when he was fully embedded did he nuzzle her neck and kiss her. “Hey,” he whispered against her lips.
Her arms encircled his neck as she opened her mouth to admit his tongue.
Adam flexed his hips, and watched her eyes fly open in surprise. That was when he knew he’d succeeded in overwhelming her senses so completely she hadn’t thought to be nervous about taking him in.
And she was just now realizing it.
“Good?”
“God, yes, very good.”
“That’s what I want to hear.”
“Adam… How did you…”
“Let’s talk about it later. I’m a little busy right now.” He gathered her into his arms and held on tight as he took them both on an amazing ride. He kept her on the knife-edge of arousal the entire time so her brain wouldn’t take over and ruin it for her. Because of their earlier encounters, he knew the signs of her impending climax and tried to be patient. He refused to let himself go until she’d gotten there first.
With his lips close to her ear, he whispered, “Don’t think, just feel. It’s so good. So hot.” As he spoke, his fingers found her clit, caressing and coaxing. Her thighs began to quiver against his hips, so he picked up the pace, thrusting into her harder than he had before.
“Don’t stop,” she said, raising her hips to match the rhythm he set.
“I won’t stop.”
“Adam…”
“Let it happen, honey. I’m right here with you, and you feel so good. We’ve got all night. I’m not going anywhere. I’m all yours.”
His words more than his actions seemed to break her. She lifted off, pressing against him urgently. Her nails scored his back, which nearly undid him.
“Yes,” he whispered, giving her the hard, steady strokes she seemed to like best. “Just like that.”
Afterward, she trembled in his arms as he pressed kisses to anywhere he could reach before reclaiming her mouth.
When he filled her again, she broke the kiss. “You didn’t…”
“Not yet. I want another one from you first.”
She whimpered as she looked up at him, her face flushed and her lips swollen from his kisses. “You have no idea how lucky you were to get that one.”
“It wasn’t luck,” he said with a cocky grin. He hooked his arms under her legs and moved them farther apart, which sent him deeper.
Judging from her gasp, he’d found the spot he was looking for and kept up the deep strokes until she came again.
“So beautiful,” he said, staring down into her eyes when he finally took his own pleasure, although pleasure wasn’t a good enough word to describe it. It was bliss, ecstasy and, in many ways, deliverance from a past that hadn’t included feelings like those she aroused in him.
He released her legs but couldn’t bring himself to disengage from her, not as long as her internal muscles continued to ripple with aftershocks that had him hard again in record time. Still lodged deep within her, he worked a hand under her to squeeze her bottom. “How do you feel?” he asked, worried that he’d been too rough.
“I…I don’t know.”
He raised his head from her shoulder so he could see her face. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No, God, no… It was… I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand, honey?”
“I’ve had all these problems with sex, but with you… I didn’t know it could be like that. I felt like I was someone else.”
“You’re the same beautiful, sexy woman you’ve always been—the same beautiful, sexy woman who knows what she needs in bed and finally told someone. You gave me the keys, baby.” He kissed her once, twice and then a third time because the first two were so satisfying. “You told me what to do, and I did it. That’s all it was.”
“You say that like it was no big deal, when it was a huge deal for me.”
“It was for me, too. I love the way you feel, so hot and so sweet at the same time. You make me crazy.”
She curled her legs around his, drawing him deeper into her. “Will you do it again?”
Adam laughed, delighted by her. “As many times as you can handle.”
“I’ve got a lot of fake orgasms to make up for.”
“Good thing we’ve got all night.”
“I think we’re going to need it.”
Feeling like she’d just been admitted to a secret club where all the answers to her most vexing questions were housed, Abby gorged on him. They did it with her on top, and then he took her from behind and blew her mind all over again. She was officially addicted to sex with Adam McCarthy.
“You’re a fucking god,” she declared at four a.m. when they finally collapsed on the bed, seven orgasms later.
“Excellent swearing.” His chest heaved from the effort to draw air.
Abby should’ve been utterly exhausted, but she was exhilarated instead. She caressed his chest and belly, where his penis lay spent. “I think we broke it,” she said, studying him with puckered lips that amused him.
“You’d better think of some way to fix it if you want more.”
She had an idea of what fixing it might require, another act she’d never particularly cared for in the past. But after all he’d given her, she was willing to try for his sake.
Rising to her knees, Abby began with kisses to his belly, giving special attention to each of the well-defined muscles that rippled in response. She moved down to discover he was fully onboard with her mission. “That didn’t take much effort on my part.”
“He’s not completely convinced, so you might want to make sure he’s here to stay.”
She smiled as she took him in hand, stroking him gently, trying to learn what he liked—and what he didn’t. There seemed to be much more of the former than the latter. “I’m not very good at this.”
“You’re holding the evidence to the contrary.”
“What do you like?”
“Anything you want to do. I promise I’ll like it.”
“Anything?”
“Use your imagination.”
“How’s this?” Abby bent down to run her tongue over the tip, which drew a sharp inhale from him.
“Very good. Do it again.”
She did it a second time, adding a bit of suction.
When he fisted a handful of her hair, she let him guide her down, taking him into her mouth. “Use your tongue. Yes,
yes
, like that. Abby… How can you say you’re not good at this?”
Encouraged by his response, she took him deeper the next time.
“Stop.” He tugged gently on her hair. “Stop.”
She looked up at him. “Did I do it wrong?”
“No.” Adam sat up and reached for another condom and then for her. “You did it perfectly right. So right that I’m about to explode—again.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “Come here.”
“I’m here.”
“Closer.”
Abby straddled his lap. “Is this close enough?”
“Almost.” With his hands cupping her bottom, he raised her and brought her down on his length.
“Is this close enough?” she asked.
“Not quite.” His lips hovered close to hers, and his chest hair tickled her breasts as she took him in. “Now wrap your arms and legs around me. That’s it. Tighter. Mmm. Perfect. Finally close enough.”
Abby took advantage of the opportunity to comb her fingers through his thick dark hair. “I love your hair.”
“I love this spot on your neck,” he said, placing a kiss that made her sigh. “You do that every time I kiss you there.”
“Do what?”
“Sigh with pleasure—at least I hope it’s pleasure.”
“It is.” She’d never known such pleasure. Sex without anxiety was all new to her, and she discovered she quite liked it. “So much pleasure, I’m drunk on it.”
“So much better than tequila, huh?”
“Way better.”
“Kiss me.”
Happy to do as he asked, Abby brought her lips down on his and kept them there as he picked up the pace. When he reached down to coax another orgasm from her, she tore her lips free and held on tight to him. As she climbed toward release, she couldn’t believe the way he seemed to always know what she needed. Lost in a sea of overwhelming pleasure, Abby was barely aware of him turning them so he was on top as he drove them to the finish line, which they reached together in a moment of utter harmony.
They remained locked together for a long time afterward. Abby had never felt closer or more in tune with another human being. Here was what she’d always wanted and had begun to fear she’d never find. Once again, however, she’d ended up with a man whose home and life were elsewhere. She wouldn’t think about that until she had to, she decided as he lay heavy and warm on top of her. For now, for as long as they had together, she’d enjoy every minute and then let him go when the time came.
“I can feel you thinking again.”
“How can you feel someone thinking?”
“You get all tense, and your lips get tight.” He traced a finger over her mouth to make his point. “What’re you thinking about?”
“Nothing, really.”
“Don’t start lying to me now, Abs. Not when you’ve been so honest about everything else.”
His insight only made him more appealing, if that was possible. “I wish things were different. That’s all.”
“What things?”
“I wish you were planning to stay here, for one thing.”
“How do you know I’m not?”
“Maddie said something tonight about you going back to New York to deal with your company. That was news to me.”
“Sorry you had to hear it that way. Nothing has happened yet beyond asking my lawyer to get involved. I expect it to drag on for months, which is why I didn’t say anything. There’s nothing to say until something happens.”
“What’ll you do if you win?”
His hand moved in a soft caress on her back. “Hard to say until it happens. If it happens.”
“What made you decide to fight?”
“I got past the shock of it all and finally got mad. When I called my lawyer, he was already mad on my behalf and had only been waiting for my call to press forward. He says we have a very strong case.” Adam shrugged. “I’m trying not to think about it until I hear more from him.” He raised his head from her chest and kissed her. “I’m sorry you heard it from someone other than me.”
“It’s okay. I understand why you wouldn’t want to talk about it.”
“In the meantime,” he said, kissing her, “I’m right where I want to be.”
“So am I.”
When he started to withdraw from her, Abby stopped him. “Stay.” She wanted him to stay forever but would never ask that of him. She told herself this was enough. If it was all they ever had, it would be enough. But even as she had the thought, she knew it wasn’t true.
Adam woke to sun streaming in the window and Abby warm and naked in his arms, her legs wrapped up in his. Since he couldn’t move without disturbing her, he stayed still and enjoyed the peaceful quiet of the morning after a night he wouldn’t soon forget. The sex had been incredible. But more incredible had been the emotion, the intimacy and the connection he’d experienced with her.
Now that he knew what he’d been missing with Sasha, he couldn’t believe he’d stayed with her as long as he had. He was more convinced than ever that she’d done him a huge favor by screwing him over—in more ways than one.
If he were being honest, it was also a huge relief to no longer have the weight of responsibility for the company weighing on him every minute of every day. For many, many years, he’d loved the work, the rat race and the thrill of watching the company he’d built from nothing find success unlike anything he could’ve dreamed of at the beginning. But after nearly two weeks away from the company, it was a major revelation to realize he didn’t miss it—at all.
With his mind and body fully relaxed and sated from the best sex of his life, Adam dozed off again, waking to his ringing phone sometime later. After years of running for ringing phones, he ignored it because he could. When it rang again about five minutes later, he thought about getting up to find it but couldn’t seem to work up the effort it would take. The third time it rang, Abby stirred.
“Is that your phone?”
“Yeah. Third time in fifteen minutes. I’d better get it.” By the time he disentangled from her, he’d begun to worry about his family as he pulled the phone from the pocket of his jeans. He glanced at the caller ID and saw his lawyer’s name. “Hey, Rick. What’s up?”
“Glad you finally answered.”
“Sorry, I was sleeping in.”
“Must be nice.”
He glanced at Abby in the bed, eyes closed, lips plump and swollen from passion and dark hair spread out on the pillow. “It’s very nice.”
“We’ve had a somewhat major development in your case.”
Hoping Abby would go back to sleep, Adam took the phone into the bathroom and closed the door. “What’s that?”
“Sasha resigned last night. The board has reached out to you with a letter of apology and an invitation for you to return as CEO. They’ve set a meeting for four o’clock today, and they’d like you to be there. This is moving very quickly, Adam. We’ve got them right where we want them, and this is your chance to return on your own terms. I got the sense that they’re prepared to move forward with other management if you’re not interested.”
Adam listened to Rick and tried to absorb it all. Sasha had left. The company was his for the taking if he wanted it. Did he want it?
“If you don’t wish to return, and part of me wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, they still have to buy you out, and they know it. So the ball is totally in your court.”