Or, most of all, about setting herself up to be hurt or let down by him like all the other women in her family had with the men they’d thought were their forevers.
“Thanks for tonight,” she said when she could finally force herself to move out of his arms. Arms that had given her more comfort—and pleasure—than she’d ever known before. “I know it’s probably pretty different from how you normally spend your Friday nights.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.”
She knew he never lied to her, but still, it was difficult to take his words at face value. “Star Wars is a pretty great movie,” she joked.
But he didn’t laugh. Just said, “Are we still on to see the house in your old neighborhood tomorrow?”
The cautious voice inside was telling her she should postpone their visit to the house. That the two of them needed space. That she needed some space, at the very least, to get her head back on straight about what she and Adam were. And more important, were not.
But just as she hadn’t been able to resist letting him hold her on the couch while they’d watched the movie, she couldn’t resist the thought of seeing him again tomorrow. Especially when it would be the perfect thing to look forward to while dealing with her sister’s Saturday morning hangover.
“I’ll text you after my midday wedding.”
She wasn’t surprised when he kissed her good-bye. At least, not by the kiss itself. But she was surprised by how gentle his kiss was.
And by how much she missed him after she shut the door behind him and he drove away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Three nights in a row.
Adam couldn’t think of the last time he’d seen a woman he wasn’t related to that many consecutive nights. Sure, he’d dated plenty of women. And had enjoyed being with most of them in one way or another. But there’d never been anyone serious for him, no one he’d wanted to see more than once a week. It had always been easy to come up with excuses as to why he couldn’t be available more often, why they both should keep their personal space wide and open. And any woman who had pushed for more than that had been cut loose.
Only, Kerry wasn’t the one pushing for more. It was all him, over and over again.
He was the one who had texted her last night to check on how things were going with her sister. And he was the one who had made sure they were still going to meet here at the crumbling house in her old neighborhood.
The craziest thing of all? It wasn’t suffocating. It wasn’t boring. And he wasn’t regretting it. Probably, he figured, because none of their meet-ups had been dates. It was amazing how that took all the pressure off and made it so that he could actually be friends with a woman while having great sex, too.
And Lord knew he really wasn’t regretting getting a nice eyeful of Kerry stepping out of a taxi and walking toward him in another one of those super-sexy wrap dresses. Especially when the sun behind her was making it just see-through enough that he could drink in her gorgeous curves without even taking off her clothes.
His mouth watered and his hands fairly itched to grab her and pin her to the trunk of the oak tree she loved so much so that he could ravage her mouth, just so that he could finally feel at least the slightest bit sated. Because sated sure as hell hadn’t happened yet. On the contrary, the more he had of her, the more he wanted.
“Sorry I’m late again.”
He didn’t pin her against the tree, but he did tangle up her perfect hairstyle with his hands when he threaded his fingers into the silky strands and kissed her. “I forgive you,” he said when he finally let her up for air. “After all, everyone has to have a fault.”
“It’s not a fault,” she protested. “It’s the traffic in this town. They should really do something about it, like put in better public transportation or make the freeways wider.” But when he simply raised an eyebrow in response, she sighed. “Okay, maybe it’s one of my faults.”
“Wait, you have more than one?”
He loved the sound of her laughter. “You’re the last person I should be saying this to, but yes, I definitely have more than one. Count yourself lucky if the only one you ever have to deal with is my tiny little problem getting to anything outside of work obligations on time. If you saw more of me, I’m sure you’d be overwhelmed by the need to point out all the things I should be working on.”
Normally he would have counted himself lucky that he wouldn’t have to learn too much about the woman he was sleeping with. He’d never been interested in drama. Never looked for someone to fix. And he still wasn’t looking for drama or to change anyone.
But though he’d helped Kerry out a couple of times with her sister and knew that her family situation wasn’t going to get any simpler anytime soon, he still wasn’t itching to ditch. If anything, he’d been racking his brain trying to figure out how to help her. Hell, he’d nearly called his mother to ask for advice.
Fortunately, he’d had a good enough hold on his rational brain to put down the phone before he got Claudia Sullivan all in a tizzy over her hold-out-on-love son calling with a question about how to help a woman with a family problem. His mom was an insightful woman, but Adam knew she was far too focused on getting her last kid happily married to be able to see that Kerry was just a friend. One who rocked his world in the sack, but who was still not ever going to be more than just a friend.
A good enough friend, already, that he knew he needed to force himself to stop mentally undressing her and turn his focus back to the house that she had loved so much once upon a time.