The #1 Bestsellers Collection 2011(259)

A ping of something warm and sweet echoed inside her for a moment or two. A few weeks ago … heck, even a few days ago, she would have loved to hear Adam say that to her. It would have given her hope, made her think that there was still a chance for them.

Now she knew better.

Gina looked into his eyes and could only think that now, it wasn’t enough. The worry for her, the fear that she’d been hurt was no more than he would have felt for a neighbor. An acquaintance.

She wanted more.

And she wasn’t going to get it.

“You’re still cold,” he said.

“I am.” So very cold. Colder than she’d ever been and Gina had the distinct feeling she’d better get used to the sensation.

“I can fix that.” Adam lunged forward, grabbed her arms and then swept back, pulling her up against him, stretching his long legs out in the hot tub.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her head down to his chest. She nestled in, listening to the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear.

“Don’t do that to me again,” he said, his voice rumbling through his chest.

Hot water sprayed up onto her face and the pummeling jets pounded at her back as Adam stroked her skin. She thought he might have kissed the top of her head, but Gina dismissed that notion immediately, sure she was only fooling herself.

“I won’t.” Not that she’d have the chance to worry him for much longer. Her time at the King ranch was definitely coming to a close. And when she left here, Adam wouldn’t give her another thought. He wouldn’t have to be concerned about her whereabouts. He’d have what he wanted. A twenty-acre parcel of land to make the King holdings whole again.

In a few months time, she’d be nothing more than an inconvenient memory. Maybe he’d walk that acreage he’d worked so hard to earn and think about her. Maybe he’d wonder then what she was doing, or where she was. But then, he’d put it out of his mind. He’d lock the memory of her away as completely as he had that of Monica and Jeremy.

“At least take your damn cell phone with you next time,” Adam said, stroking his big, rough hands up and down her back in long, steady caresses, a silky counterpoint to the hot tub jets. “About made me insane when I called you and heard the phone ringing up here.”

“I will.” She hadn’t been thinking when she left the ranch or she would have told someone where she was going. She’d been raised to know better. Accidents could happen anywhere, anytime and finding someone on a ranch the size of Adam’s could have taken weeks. As to the cell phone, she hadn’t wanted it with her. Hadn’t wanted anyone to be able to intrude on her ride into Adam’s past.

“Damn it, Gina …” This time his voice was more of a growl. She heard the need in it, felt the hard, insistent throb of his erection beneath her. His body was tight, his heartbeat quickened and in seconds, his hands were moving over her with more hunger than care.

“You could have been hurt,” he muttered thickly and turned her face up to his. He bent his head and kissed her, hard and long and deep. His tongue swept into her mouth, his breath dusted her cheek and the low moan that issued from his throat slipped inside her, becoming one with her own.

The rhythm of the jets pounded at her, pushing her closer to Adam, hammering home her need as if in punctuation to the raw desire rising up in her.

He was hard and thick and ready. His breath came in strangled gasps as she slid one leg over his middle. His big hands came down on her waist and settled her atop him. Their eyes met and held as Gina felt the slow slide of his body into hers. He filled her and she savored it. Relished it. Imprinted the feeling on her memory so that she’d always be able to recall with perfect clarity the feel of his hands on her slick skin. The scent of him. The taste of his kiss.

Because without her diaphragm standing in the way, she knew she’d be pregnant soon. Knew that even as he touched her, even as his body and hers became one, they were already pulling apart.

And she knew that every touch from this night on, would be a silent goodbye.





Two months later, Adam was in his study, going over reports from his brokers and projections from several of the smaller companies the King ranch held an interest in. At least once a week he was holed up in this room, going over the insane amount of paperwork a huge corporation like his generated.

The study hadn’t changed much since his grandfather’s time. The walls were a dark hunter-green. There were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on two of the walls and a bank of windows displaying the wide lawn at the front of the house. A mahogany wetbar took up one corner of the room and a fifty-inch plasma television was hidden behind a copy of one of his mother’s favorite Manet paintings. There were two sofas, facing each other, waiting for someone to sit down and have a conversation, along with two oversize club chairs in maroon leather. And for winter, there was a stone fireplace with a hearth big enough for a child to stand up straight in.