Waiting for You (3 page)

She had no words, none that came to mind. Nothing.

Her breasts became weighted and her nipples swelled against the soft fabric of the negligee, offering them up for his touch. He cupped them through the fabric, testing the fullness in his large hands. He smiled, almost greedily as his thumbs stroked against the material and Audrey felt her knees buckle. Adam wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her up as he put his hot mouth on one nipple. She moaned softly. Still stroking the other nipple, he laved one with his expert tongue, her body bucking beneath him.

He reached for the hem of her negligee and tugged it over her head in an instant, obviously not wanting to wait any longer. She’d reached for him and with shaking hands, had him naked just as quick. The moment her swollen breasts touched his heated, naked flesh, she knew she wasn’t going to last long before the sensations overtook her. “You still sure you want this baby?” he asked, searching her face.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Don’t stop. I need this. I need you.”

He smiled down at her, almost lovingly, as he caressed the loose tendrils around her face. He sheathed himself with a condom before she could figure out where he had one and positioned himself at her entrance. She opened further for him in anticipation and as he eased into her, inch by inch, she thought she would explode. She gripped his strong arms and held on while he stilled a moment, allowing her to acclimate and adjust to his full size. There was a sharp stitch of pain but as he began to stroke within her, her body almost convulsed with the pleasure.

“You okay baby?” he asked as he nibbled the corners of her mouth.

“Mmmmm,” she moaned, unable to form proper words. She clung to him desperately wanting more. The pull began deep within her core as her muscles clenched and she was so overcome with the roll of her first orgasm, the sensation momentarily blinding her by the explosion of pleasure. .

He stifled her loud moans with more kisses as he continued to thrust within her, drawing out her pleasure and his own release. He came thoroughly and collapsed on top of her, their heavy breaths co-mingling.

Audrey had left hours later. Adam had been surprisingly tender and loving, snuggling with her for as long as she had wanted to. She had wanted to stay and fall asleep in his arms and have a perfect moment but she didn’t want to seem childish and clingy and so she had given him the kiss of his life and climbed out his window. Like so many others before her.

“What would you like for dinner Audrey?” Grandpa Joe startled her out of her reverie and she recoiled in shock.

He chuckled and placed his weathered hand on her shoulder. “Sorry
Amado
, deep in dreamland eh?”

She covered his hand with her own and smiled up at him. “Sorry Grandpa, just stuck in my own head.”

“Are you ok?” his grey brows wrinkled together. “I see your face and your eyes hold a great sadness. A deep trouble.”

Audrey wanted so badly to reach out to him and share her past, her story. Her mouth before he said, “I know it’s hard for you being back and how you so desperately wanted to leave when you were younger. You must miss your life in New York and your husband.”

Audrey closed her mouth and smiled at the older man. He assumed her thoughts were on one man when they was on another completely different one. He couldn’t know that her life in the city was the furthest from the truth. “I am ok Grandpa, you are right, I just miss New York but I came because I wanted to see you. I wanted to be close to you so let’s focus on that, okay?”

Grandpa Joe eyed her as though he wanted to say more but, instead, dismissed the conversation.

Audrey thought a moment before asking, “Grandpa, when did Mr. Parker from next door die?”

Grandpa Joe’s eyes dulled with sadness as he said, “Four years back now, I think. I remember they moved out and away just before then when his boy came back to take care of him.”

“Take care of him?” she asked. “Mr. Parker wasn’t old. Did he have an accident or something?” The guilt for prying gnawed at her. She would hate for anyone to be asking these questions about her own life, especially with the answers they would yield. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder. She was greedy for the knowledge, especially with the enigma Adam was turning out to be.

“Didn’t you know? Steve had Huntington’s disease.”

Audrey’s mood flopped. “Oh my gosh.”

“I’m sorry, I thought you knew. He was diagnosed when you were still living here. It just progressed so quick and fast that Adam took an early leave from the Navy to help out his old man.”

“The Navy?” she asked.

Grandpa Joe smiled at her as though he were pacifying a small child. “Yes, dear, he enlisted awhile back.”

Audrey’s head was swimming.
Who was this Adam Parker?

“So…roast chicken and potatoes for dinner then?” he asked, completely unaware of Audrey’s racing and jumbled thoughts.

“Sounds perfect.” She answered absentmindedly.

Chapter 3

A
dam got home well after midnight, his body battered and bruised after a day on the job but he was on a high. They had caught the bad guys. Yippee kayay! Granted that there were moments of struggle, overall it was a productive night.

He had swum the mile from the boat to the hilltop ocean home owned by the Perelli’s. The team was certain that the mobsters would see the rest of the police coming and would attack straight on while Perelli and his henchmen made for the marina to escape. They of course would have seen him coming had he come in on a boat, hence he had taken a strong swim against the current to his lookout point. There had been a struggle when he had accosted Perelli and his two men. Shots were fired but Adam had been trained in a multitude of combative techniques and had easily dodged. He did not, however, see the third goon who came at him from nowhere. The big lug had got in a few lucky shots, one well aimed to his eye temporarily blinding Adam when Oliver had come in and knocked the guy out.

His knight in shining armor.

Adam opened the freezer and placed a bag of peas on his now bruised eye. He was sure to have a shiner in the morning.

He lay back in his leather recliner and turned on his big screen TV. The only man-cave essential he had insisted on. He had made do with little to nothing during his service to his country but being in civilization, his whopper of a television was his single vice.

Despite the aches that were settling in, it had been a good day. Combat always got his blood pumping. It was a channel he used to release his physical and emotional tension. He refused to become one of those military men who became aggressive and listless once they were acclimated back to the real world. Some of those men, good men, had snapped and caused unnecessary bloodshed because they did not know how to properly deal with being a regular man once they returned home. Was there even such a thing after you served your country? There was nothing normal about the things you saw and did in service. And those memories still haunted Adam in the worst ways when he was deep in slumber.

He thought back to the other thing that had his blood pumping today. Well then
someone
that had done so.

Audrey Kelly.

Seeing her had unnerved him and knocked him off center a little.

She was the last person he ever expected to see back in Crystal Valley. Hell, they’d shared one of the sweetest nights of his life together and then she’d high-tailed it out of there and he’d never seen her again – ‘til today.

He’d asked after her of course and her grandfather had said that she was in New York. The older man had always had high praise for her life in the big city. Adam lived in a town of gossips so it was only a matter of time before he had found out that she had gotten married. He couldn’t quite explain the ever so slight disappointment that had weighed on his chest when he’d learned that bit of news. He’d stopped asking after that, not feeling it appropriate to have even an ounce of wanting for a married woman.

She had left without even a glance behind for him and her family if the rumors were true. That part wasn’t his business. Actually neither was she. Especially since she waltzed back into town and froze him out with her nose so far up in the air she was at risk of a nosebleed.

She had come back a prima donna, that was for sure. New York had changed her. That wasn’t his problem.
She
wasn’t his problem. He lived his life the way he liked it, young, wild, and free. Mostly.

No doubt he did get lonely from time to time but he was never in short supply of a warm willing woman when he needed one. He was always upfront and open too, so there were no expectations of a future with a picket fence.

With the PTSD, war stories, and emotional baggage he came with, he didn’t think any woman would deal with, much less live their lives around it. Most days
he
could barely live around it. He managed to keep busy with the police department and his side-lining carpentry projects. Hell, whiny old lady clients were a big enough distraction anyhow.

The TV flickered with some basketball game which Adam wasn’t really watching. Instead, his mind wandered back to the night he had had with Audrey. He had always secretly wondered if she would come to him but never in his wildest fantasies did he think it would be as erotic as it was. When she had come in a small trench coat and an even smaller piece of lingerie.

He’d kept his distance from her out of respect for Grandpa Joe who was the only person outside of his dad who had treated Adam as a fair adult and who had not thought the worst of him because of other people opinions. He respected that and as such had squelched his own hormones and kept it cool with Audrey, despite the desire that stirred each time he saw her.

It was doable in the beginning because she had been underage. Then she had turned eighteen and wowzah. She instantly became a woman. Where she had previously had a straight ironing board figure, the year he had returned from college she had hips that had filled out and soft creamy breasts that shaped every outfit she wore. Her long legs no longer seemed gangly and awkward. She had grown into herself and her body sauntered with grace and purpose. She was beautiful and ethereal and he had admired her from afar.

It was his suspicion that she was a virgin when she came to him that night. Adam certainly had never seen her with any boys; although he had seen many of them trail after her. He had the best intentions to turn her away but the minute she lost the coat, he had lost his mind.

He had wanted to give her a memorable night, to make it special for her since he was so privileged to be her first. He’d had a rude awakening when she was the one to quietly seduce him. With her soft touches and gentle open mouth kisses, she had taken him out of his own head and back again.

He’d hoped she would come back for another night but she hadn’t. His ego had slightly deflated; the minx had just used him for his body, a means to get the sex out the way before she fled to college.

And then he’d gotten the news that had rocked his entire life. His father’s Huntington’s diagnosis. And everything else had ceased to exist.

Adam recalled as his father had sat him down and told him that he had not been feeling well and had decided to get his annual medical check-up. He didn’t expect to get the news but he had tested positive for Huntington’s disease.

Adam had taken the news calmly at first, until he had gone back to his room and done the research. He’d read about how the disease was degenerative. How his father would lose his motor functions. Simple things like grasping and walking and then more progressively chewing, swallowing and eating. How could someone go through that and live? The latter stages would be cognitive and psychiatric disabilities before his expected death.

Death.

That had about killed Adam. His father was his hero.

The man had practically raised him on his own from the moment his mother had walked out on them. He had never made Adam feel like he was weighing him down or that he wasn’t wanted. Adam had vowed on that day that he would build himself up so he could take care of his dad fully and totally when the time called for it. The next day he had enlisted and he has never looked back.

There were times when the twenty hour a day physical and mental training had others dropping out, Adam always focused on his reasons for enlisting and he trudged on. When his muscles were trembling and he could barely stand, he thought of the muscle control his father would involuntarily lose and he kept going. He kept on fighting and proving himself for all that his father would lose.

When the call did come, Adam had been stoic and ready. Nothing could have prepared him or anyone else for the battle ahead. He had bought his own place high on top of the Valley, away from prying eyes and ears. He had transformed the home into a living luxury, a modern dream. He wanted to give his dad the privacy and comfort he deserved to live out his illness with dignity.

Every day his reality chipped away at Adam as he watched a once strong, able man, succumb to a pit of nothingness. He was resigned to feeding, bathing and taking care of his dad’s every movement. He did it with no regret. It was the least he could do after all the sacrifices his father had made for him over the years

Adam shook his head to clear his thoughts and chastised himself for allowing his mind to veer in that direction. He’d had a good day and didn’t want to end it torturing himself about his past.

He chucked the bag of peas back in the freezer, stripped out of his clothes and hopped into the shower. The hot sprays were like heaven on his sore, aching muscles. He dried himself off and climbed naked between the cool sheets of his bed

He fell into a quick slumber and was tortured with dreams of Audrey, young and innocent opening up for him and then leaving him to get married. He watched her jump from his bed into a white dress saying “I do” to a man he did not know. The anger and disappointment ate away at him as he felt used and discarded, just another Crystal Valley citizen viewing him as someone to be cast-off. He put on his Navy issue wet suit and swam deep into the ocean, his lungs burning for oxygen, trying to escape the rejection. And then he reached the ocean bed and his dad crawled out of the underwater grave with his head flopped to one side and his dirt covered hands twitching as he clawed the earth to get to Adam.

He woke with a start, the sweat soaking his hair and the sheets, his heart pounding out of his chest.

Fuck! He must have been hit in the head harder than he thought.

****

The next morning Audrey startled awake. She sat straight up in bed, her pulse beating heavy through her body as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight streaming into the room. Not her room. Panic slowly started to creep in.
Where was she?

She blinked a few times and recognized the dresser across from her. It was her room. Her childhood room.

Relief washed over her as she kicked her legs over the side of the bed, breathing in deeply through her nose and out through her mouth. It took a minute or two before she began to feel human again and then she hopped into the shower to get her day rolling.

She wanted to go into town today. Laila had said that the signed divorce papers were in the mail and Audrey wanted to get them. She needed to see them. For a small piece of her sanity. She needed to know that, legally, Michael was out of her life.

She brushed her hair off her face and gathered it into a sleek ponytail. Gingerly she fingered the raised scar behind her ear, almost deep into her hairline. It couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. She knew it was there. She knew every one.

Voices downstairs prevented her from delving into that catacomb of misery and Audrey was glad for the distraction. She bounded down the stairs and opened the front door to see her grandpa standing with his legs apart, deep in thought surveying the house. His brows were knitted together as he raised his gaze upward to the roof.

More distracting though was the man beside him, a similar expression on his face. The six foot two mass of solid muscle, with his arms folded across his chest. His black T-shirt was taut across his tight chest and his biceps stretched out the sleeves. Adam Parker had certainly built his body in all those years she was away. She’d never seen a more chiseled physique in the flesh. And not one of those buff bodybuilder type bodies either. Adam’s lean form was honed and sculpted from physical labor.

They both looked down at her as she walked toward them. She felt Adam’s dark gaze on her as she approached. “Morning,” she greeted, noncommittally as she headed for her grandpa and kissed him on the cheek. “What are we looking at?”

“Shingles,” Grandpa Joe responded.

“Um ok, why?”

“We got leaks,
filho
. The storm is coming soon and it needs to get fixed.” His eyes took in the entire roof and when Audrey followed his gaze she noticed that indeed the roof was old and unkempt. “Adam is going to fix it for us.”

Audrey turned sharp eyes to Adam. “Is there anything you don’t do?” she mentally slapped her mouth shut when the words were out. The rudeness was rife even to her own ears. And she wasn’t supposed to know so much about him anyway.

Instead of being offended, he appeared amused as he smiled that infuriatingly sensual half grin. “Knit?” he offered, his single dimple deepening his stubble roughened cheek. Audrey caught herself wanting to tough his cheek and feel the rough hair against her palm.

It was then that she took a good look at him and noticed the purple bruise around his eye and temple. “Whose boyfriend did you piss off?” she asked, gesturing to the artwork.

He smirked again and she silently fumed. Wasn’t there anything that could offend the big oaf?

“Work hazard,” he said simply.

Wasn’t he just a ball of conversation
. She wondered, not for the first time, whether he even recalled that night they had shared all those years ago. The way he treated her now was as though she were just the neighbor’s pesky granddaughter. Audrey retreated into that sixteen year old shell again.

“A shingle fall on your face?”

“Drug lord.”

“Oh.” Now didn’t that make her feel like a damn fool. “Well you better ice it down. You look awful.”

She didn’t wait for his retort, instead she approached her grandpa who was already heading around the back of the large house. “Papa, I am going into town, do you want anything?”

“No, Adam and I will be busy here. You go and have fun.”

She kissed his head and walked around to get her keys and hopped into her little sports baby. She revved the engine for good effect, maybe even to show off a little to the hot mess that was Adam Parker, then reversed and zipped off to the Crystal Valley Town Centre.

The short drive was just the reprieve she needed. With the window down and the wind whipping through her hair, she almost felt like she was eighteen again in this sleepy town.

Audrey parked in front of the post office just as its doors were opening. She walked in to the front desk and waited as the clerk tapped on her key board, searching if her package had arrived. She went to the back room and a few moments later Audrey was walking out with the sealed package in her hands.