All I Ever Need Is You (10 page)

The rational part of Kerry—a part that seemed to shrink further and further every second she was with Adam—told her she shouldn’t stay, because actually sleeping together had to be a bad idea. But between the busy week she’d already had and all the magnificent things he’d done to her tonight, she could barely keep her eyes open.

Besides, what could one night in the same bed hurt?

“Okay.” Her voice sounded a little slurred even to her own ears. “I should go brush my teeth.” Because of course she’d packed her toothbrush, too.
Be prepared for everything, both in life and during a wedding
. She’d learned that from her mother.

But Adam was already pulling the covers over both of them and curling his big, strong body around hers. “You can do that tomorrow morning.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I had a great night with you, Kerry.”

Her usual walls were down far enough as she hurtled toward sleep that she didn’t question the urge to tell him, “I had the
best
night with you, Adam. The very best.”

And when he responded by pulling her even tighter against him, feeling more content and safer than she ever had, she fell into a dreamless sleep
.

The following day, Kerry ran from one meeting to the next, putting out potential fires left and right. By that night, she was nearly convinced that the previous one at the hotel with Adam must have been a dream. She’d been too busy all day to get in touch, and she knew from what he’d told her at the hotel that he’d had just as packed a schedule. That was one of the nice things about not actually dating each other, she told herself. Neither of them had to feel guilty if they couldn’t fit each other in apart from a handful of hours having hot sex every now and then.

By the time she left the office and made it home, she couldn’t wait to change out of her suit and heels, throw on her most comfortable jeans and a sweatshirt, and collapse on the couch. She’d left her sister several messages—voice mails, emails, and texts—about getting together as they’d planned the previous weekend, but it wasn’t until nine o’clock that Colleen finally answered one of them.

“Hey, Kerr, I won’t be able to make it over tonight.”

Kerry’s stomach immediately sank. She’d known this would happen, hadn’t she? Just like every time her sister told her they were going to have a girls’ Friday night in—and ended up bailing to go party instead. The last thing Kerry wanted to do was put real clothes and makeup back on, but if she could keep her sister out of trouble, she’d do it.

“Why don’t I meet you wherever you are? We could still have our girls’ night out.”

“There’s not exactly room for one more right now.” She could hear Colleen laughing with whatever loser she was with as he said he’d be happy to have her sister join them.

“Call me later, okay?” Kerry pleaded. “I can come join you any time if you change your mind.”

“Drinks are here, got to go.”

Kerry was about to press the call-back button on her phone, but stopped herself. If she pestered Colleen too much, then she might not call later if she needed help getting home. It was such a fine line trying to support and help her sister while not upsetting her so much that she pulled away entirely.

Kerry wasn’t at all sure that she was walking the right side of that line. If only there was someone she could talk to about this.

As if on cue, her phone buzzed again. But it wasn’t Colleen. It was a text from Adam.

HOW’S THE MOVIE AND PIZZA WITH YOUR SISTER?

Kerry’s heart melted. He was so sweet to even remember her plans for tonight, let alone check in to make sure it was all going according to plan.

As she typed in her response, however, she knew he wasn’t going to like her answer. She made herself send it anyway. The best thing about Adam—apart from all the super, crazy-hot sex they were having—was that they were always honest with each other.

COLLEEN CHANGED HER MIND ABOUT TONIGHT

Her phone rang a second later.

“Where is she?” Adam asked.

Kerry didn’t even try to hold in her worried sigh. “I don’t know. I offered to go with her, but she didn’t think that was a very good idea because she was already with someone. He, however, seemed to think it was a super idea to spend the night with two sisters.”

Though Adam wasn’t there, she could see his expression, knew his jaw would be clenching. The curse he uttered confirmed it.

“Did you get to the movie or pizza before she bailed on you?”

“No.”

“A friend of mine makes the best pie in Seattle. I’ll have him send one over to your place. See you in fifteen.”

* * *

Exactly fifteen minutes later, Kerry went to answer the knock at the door.

A quarter of an hour had been exactly long enough to tie herself up in knots about how things were supposed to play out between the two of them tonight. If they’d been meeting to have sex, kissing him hello would make sense. But since he was clearly just coming over to keep her company because he was worried about her—and also so that he’d be there to accompany her into the bad part of town just in case her sister called later—what exactly did that mean tonight was all about?

Kerry hadn’t wanted to examine anything beyond their incredible sexual escapades on Thursday, but the truth was that they’d done nearly as much talking as having hot sex. And she’d liked doing both. A lot.

Adam was fun and smart. Surprisingly insightful, too, particularly when it came to relationships. For someone who had no interest in a lasting relationship of his own, he wasn’t at all blind to the way things played out for the people he loved. Whereas while Kerry’s job revolved around love, she far too often felt as though she didn’t have the first clue about what truly made a relationship work.

Her thoughts in a hopeless tangle, she opened the door and found Adam grinning at her, so perfectly, shockingly gorgeous that everything fell out of her head. Everything except being glad he was there.

“Hi.”

He responded in exactly the way she now realized she’d been secretly wishing for—with a kiss that left her breathless. And the truth was that if the pizza delivery guy hadn’t showed up just then, she might have stood in her open front door and kissed Adam Sullivan all night long.

A short while later, they were sitting on her couch devouring pizza that truly was the best she’d ever had, while debating what movie to watch.

“No sappy chick flicks,” he said.

“No movies with pointless violence,” she retorted.

“Nothing foreign with subtitles.” He actually shuddered as he said it.

“Nothing where people get naked for absolutely no reason,” she said with a shake of her head.

He looked at her in surprise. “There needs to be a reason for people to get naked?”

Kerry threw a piece of pepperoni at him, but he somehow managed to catch it in his mouth.

“Remind me never to feed you anything heavy,” he said with a smile that made her heart dance around in her chest. “You love to toss your food at me every time we eat together, don’t you?”

“Only when you irritate me.”

“Like I said—every time we eat together.”

Kerry wanted to tell him how nice it was that he’d come over to help keep her from worrying incessantly about her sister all night long. But something told her he already knew it, and saying it aloud would probably only make things awkward between them. They were having too much fun to let any awkwardness in.

“Nothing sappy, no pointless violence, no subtitles or naked people.” He ticked through their list. “So if
Sorority House Massacre
in French is out, then it looks like all we’re left with is
Star Wars.
The ultimate good-versus-evil story. Plus it has the best line ever put into a movie.”

“Use the Force, Luke,”
she said before he could. Yet again, he’d surprised her—this time by coming up with the perfect movie. “I haven’t seen
Star Wars
in years.”

“Years?” He looked pained. He grabbed her remote. “How do you work this thing?”

“My house, my remote.” She quickly found the movie on her smart TV and soon they were caught up in the epic story.

Her couch wasn’t huge, but even if it had been, she suspected she would still have ended up snuggled in Adam’s arms. Partly because he wasn’t at all shy about pulling her into them. But also because his arms were right where she wanted to be on yet another Friday night where she was waiting for her sister to call for pickup.

Throughout the movie, he kept lightly stroking her hand, or her leg, or her shoulder. She didn’t get the sense that he was deliberately trying to seduce her, but with every minute that passed, each light caress managed to drive her higher. And then higher still. Until she was practically holding her breath waiting for the next one to come, wondering where he’d brush up against her this time.

She should tell him to stop. After all, this was just a friends’ night at home, rather than a night for one of their wild hotel sexcapades. But she couldn’t get the words past her throat. Didn’t want him to stop touching her. Not when she’d never known it was possible for her body to feel this alive with all her clothes on in her living room, while Princess Leia was telling Luke Skywalker it wasn’t over yet.

By the time the movie ended, Kerry was so wound up that she simply couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t remember why she shouldn’t flip around on the couch and devour his mouth in the way she’d been dreaming of for the past two hours.

Seconds later she was straddling him, her hands tangled in his dark hair, giving silent thanks that his gorgeous mouth was almost beneath hers. “I know we’re not in a hotel, but—”

His lips stole away the rest of what she’d been about to say at the exact moment that her phone rang.

She tore her mouth away from his with a curse. Too late, she remembered exactly why she should have done more—heck, done anything at all—to keep a friendly distance from Adam tonight.

Not only because what she’d just done had been about to blur the very clear lines they’d set up for their arrangement, but also because the whole reason he was over in the first place was to wait with her for her sister’s call.

“Colleen, where are you?”

“The Salty Dawg, but you don’t need to get me. I’ve got a ride.”

Kerry cursed again as the line went dead. “It sounds like she’s planning to leave with someone.”

“One of my cousins is a race-car driver,” Adam told her. “He’s taught me a few things over the years.”

She grabbed her bag and hurried out to his car, which he gunned up and out of her neighborhood in true race-car fashion. “What if we’re too late?”

“Then I’ll have Rafe trace her cell phone ASAP.”

“He can do that?”

“You know he’s a P.I. He can do pretty much anything, even if not all of it is completely legal.” Despite the speed at which Adam was driving, he reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “Either way, we’re going to find your sister tonight and bring her home safe and sound.”

The first time they’d done this, Kerry hadn’t wanted to let herself believe having this kind of support was more than a one-time anomaly. But here he was again, sitting beside her, helping in every way he could, promising her that she didn’t need to worry because he was just going to keep helping.

Kerry had tried not to be angry with her sister these past months. She’d tried to understand how hard it had been for Colleen to get over the hurt of her relationship crumbling.

But now Kerry couldn’t stop herself from wishing she could have one Friday night where she wasn’t on babysitting duty for her fully grown sister. Just one Friday night where she didn’t have to keep pretending that she had any control whatsoever over the situation.

The flash of anger was short-lived, though, when she thought about how much worse things could be if her sister
didn’t
call some night for pickup, and instead went home with one of the losers.

The thought of anything happening to Colleen made Kerry’s blood run cold. Cold enough to put out the fire Adam had so deftly stoked while they’d watched
Star Wars.
And by the time they made it to the bar, it felt like having pizza on the couch together had happened in a different lifetime.

She shot out of Adam’s car, and he was only a couple of steps behind her when she nearly plowed into Colleen and her guy-of-the-night weaving their way out of the bar.

“Thank God,” Kerry breathed. She believed Rafe could have traced Colleen’s whereabouts, but it would have taken time. Time in which any number of horrible things could have happened to her sister.

Colleen’s eyes were blurred with drink, but they still went wide when she saw Adam step up beside Kerry.

“Wait, I remember you. The hot guy from last weekend who wouldn’t let me stay and have more fun.” Colleen turned to Kerry. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you?” She made a move to high-five her, but stumbled and Kerry had to catch her instead. “Not such a little goody-two-shoes, are you, out having sexytimes with Mr. Hunk. What other dirty secrets are you hiding from me?”

“Enough.” Adam’s tone was hard. Hard enough to have her sister’s mouth turn down into a pout. “We’re leaving. Now.”

“Why do you always have to come to ruin my fun?”

But Kerry could see that Adam wasn’t feeling particularly charitable tonight. Was it because he was upset that their
sexytimes
had been interrupted? Or was it something else? Something that made Kerry’s chest ache because she could only think of one reason he’d stick up for her.

Because he cared.

* * *

Just like the previous week, despite the fight she put up getting into Adam’s car, Colleen was fast asleep by the time they got back to Kerry’s house. And after she finished cleaning her sister up and putting her to bed, this time Kerry wasn’t surprised to find Adam waiting in her kitchen.

“You can’t keep doing this,” he said the second she walked into the room.

She’d been hoping for comfort. But she’d known that he was going to confront her, hadn’t she? If only because she’d finally come to the point herself where even
she
had to admit that she couldn’t keep on like this forever.

Still, since she didn’t have any other answers yet, she couldn’t just let Colleen down. “How can I just turn my back on my sister? What if I don’t go pick her up next Friday night and she gets hurt?”