At Any Price(46)

Adam finished his latest text and set his phone aside. I leaned my head back against his shoulder and slowly he hitched his arms around me, pulling me fast against him. We sat in silence for many long moments as the night darkened around us. My blood pounded in my throat, an exquisite tension building at the center of my being. It felt so good, just sitting here.

“How’s work? All disasters averted?”

“The old disasters are swept aside by the new ones, as usual,” he said.

“One of your guests said something tonight that I found remarkable.”

“What was that?”

“I hope he was joking, but he said something about hardly believing you had a chance to enjoy your gorgeous home when you work a hundred-hour week as your norm.”

“A hundred hours? That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Amusement tinged his voice.

“But not much, I’d wager, because he also said you regularly sleep at your office.”

He paused. “I’ve never pushed any employee harder than I push myself. If they’re doing seventy-hour weeks, then I’ll do ninety.”

I angled my head to look up at him. “But why have all this, then, if you can’t enjoy it?”

“Who says I don’t? Besides, Miss Doctor, I don’t think you’ll soon be a stranger to ninety-hour workweeks yourself.”

I shrugged. “I guess I’ve been preparing myself for it. Probably why I’ve never bothered with a personal life.”

“You and I have that in common, then.”

I sighed and settled back against him. The phone chirped. Adam picked it up. He typed one-handed while holding me with the other.

“Don’t you ever turn that thing off?”

I could almost hear him smile. “Never.”

“If I asked you to turn it off now, would you?”

He paused and set down the phone. “If you gave me enough of an incentive.”

I smiled. “I’m sure I could think of something.”

He brought a hand to my hair. “I like your hair up. But it’s much prettier down.”

“If you take the pins out now, it will still stay in its same shape, I’m afraid. My landlady did it and she loves a good bottle of hairspray.”

“Hairspray or rubber cement?” he laughed.

“Yeah, it’s going to hurt like a bitch to brush it out.”

He paused for a moment. “I hope you didn’t put it up because you thought you had to.”

I shrugged, prepared to let him think that was the reason I’d put my hair up—and not because I’d wanted to keep his hands well away from my hair. I did not want a repeat of the balcony freak-out in Amsterdam. I took a deep breath. “I know it’s silly, but I really did want to impress your friends. I don’t think I did.”

“On the contrary, I think several of them were quite taken with you.”

I couldn’t resist. I had to say it. “I don’t think Lindsay Walker was.”

A pause. “I wouldn’t worry about that.” But I couldn’t tell what that meant—whether he meant I shouldn’t bother because I’d soon be out of his life or that Lindsay’s opinion wasn’t worth worrying about. I decided not to ask.

“So…” I said hesitating. “With no yacht here, I guess that puts a damper on our evening.”

His head dipped down, his mouth very close to my neck. “You smell amazing,” he said. Urgent need raced through me with those hoarsely uttered words. I turned my face toward his, tilting my head back so I could look him in the eyes out of the corner of mine. His stare pinned me down and I licked my lips. I wanted him to kiss me again.

But he tilted his head away, settling back against the lounge. After a long moment, he kissed my hair, just below my temple, then lowered his mouth to my ear. When he spoke, his breath caressed me, sending frissons of desire down every nerve ending. “We can’t be together tonight.”

But I wanted it, and judging from the bulge of his arousal pressing into the small of my back, he wanted it too. I angled my head to bare my neck without saying a word. His mouth sank to my nape, kissing me there. I gasped at the shock of pleasure that touch evoked. Every cell on my skin came alive as my body readied itself for him. It wouldn’t be tonight, but my body didn’t know any better. It wanted what it wanted. And that evening I was right there along with it for the ride.

And the phone chirped again. I tensed. He didn’t pull his mouth away from my neck, but damned if he didn’t pick that wretched thing up and look at it again. He sent off a quick reply and when he put it down, I locked my hand over his. “Turn it the fuck off,” I groaned as he sucked at my neck.