Seduce Me Sweetly (Heron's Landing Book 1) (16 page)

Chapter Twelve

With his feet propped up on his desk, Adam set Joy’s story down, rubbing his chin. It was good—great, even. He hadn’t really known what to expect of Joy’s writing abilities, but she’d impressed him. She had a stylish tone that permeated her writing, and he could almost hear her voice in his ear as he’d read the article.

She’d made River’s Bend sound like an up-and-coming attraction, as opposed to a declining vineyard in the middle of nowhere. She’d even described the owner as a “dedicated individual with an immense knowledge of wines,” which he had to admit he’d smiled at. Thinking about the last time he’d read about himself in a story, he scowled, forcing those memories away. This was Joy, and hadn’t she already shown him that she wasn’t like the journalists that had almost ruined his and his family’s lives? Joy may use writing to pay her bills, but she clearly respected boundaries and didn’t use other people’s pain and misfortune for a quick buck, either.

He was just about to text her to let her know she could publish the article when his phone rang. “This is Adam,” he said when he picked up, mostly out of habit than because it was rare anyone other than him ever used his phone.

“Sadie and Robert are here for their meeting,” Kerry chirped in his ear. “Should I send them back?”

Adam had completely forgotten that the couple was coming to River’s Bend to discuss using it for their wedding. “I’ll come get them. Be sure to offer them something to drink, if they’re interested.”

Ten minutes later, Adam seated the couple across from his desk, apologizing for the mass of papers and folders scattered across the surface. He rarely had meetings in his office, and certainly not with people he’d consider clients. But both Sadie Parsons and Robert Lyle had grown up in Heron’s Landing, and they hardly noticed the lack of décor. Sadie was a plump, blond girl no older than twenty-two, her hair in ringlets that made her look like Goldilocks. Her fiancé, in complete contrast, was dark-headed and rather taciturn, preferring to grunt his responses and rarely using complete sentences. They were the exact opposite in terms of personalities, yet they seemed to complement each other perfectly. Adam didn’t understand it, but he had to admit that they only had eyes for each other.

Sadie brought an entire binder full of ideas, pointing to flower arrangements and table setups and even aisle runners until Adam’s head spun. Robert offered nothing beyond a few grunts of agreement when Sadie prompted him, although he did end up saying, “No pink, Sadie,” to which his fiancée gave him a sad pout.

Adam scribbled down Sadie’s jumbled ideas, his own head whirling. He had no idea what he was doing, did he? How did he think he could become some wedding coordinator and just hope things worked, when they hadn’t worked the first time around? But he kept a straight face as he talked with Sadie, nodding and offering any suggestions that happened to spring to mind. By the end of the meeting, he’d gathered that the bride wanted a country wedding with loads of flowers and that she hated carrot cake. When she began talking about her dress and the cowboy boots she’d wear with it, Adam had to restrain the urge to put his head down on his desk.

He escorted them out, shaking hands with both and telling them he’d be in contact with them shortly. That was when he spotted a bright purple head out of the corner of his eye, and to his surprise, Joy was at his elbow, asking if Sadie and Robert were the bride and groom to be.

“Oh, congratulations! I love weddings. Did you two just finish talking to Adam?” Joy asked, a gleam in her eye.

Adam almost told her that the couple was headed home, but Sadie responded to Joy’s enthusiasm equally. “We did. We’re still considering between River’s Bend or having it at Robert’s parents’ home.”

“You have to have it at River’s Bend! It’ll be so gorgeous, overlooking the river as the sun sets behind you two. What does your dress look like?”

Adam hadn’t seen Joy this excited since she’d discovered that she could order her favorite kind of potato chips from Chicago online. He watched her and Sadie talk animatedly, Robert simply standing aside and letting his fiancée talk. Adam had a feeling that was Robert’s usual role, and the guy didn’t seem the least bit discomfited by it.

“If you have the wedding here,” Joy was saying, “I could write a story about it, since it would be the first one River’s Bend would be hosting. I could even contact some friends of mine in Chicago, see if they want to provide some things for the wedding. You know, sponsor you and then I write about them, and they get free advertising.” She snapped her fingers. “Easy as that. Plus, it would generate more revenue for me, too,” she added with a wide smile.

Sadie laughed, but Adam shifted on his feet. “Once we make our decision,” Sadie said, “I’ll let you know. I’d love to have our wedding made into a story, though. Wouldn’t that be romantic, Robbie?”

Robert grunted, and Sadie beamed.

The couple finally departed, a wide smile on Joy’s face and Adam trying hard to keep his misgivings to himself. So what if Joy wanted to make some money? his logical brain told him. That didn’t mean she was going to screw him and everyone else over to write some op-ed piece that could hurt people as a result. But the anxiety surrounding the subject still niggled at him, and when Joy turned to him, her smile slowly disappeared.

“Are you okay?” she asked, peering at him closely. “You look like you’re going to puke.”

Kerry, sitting at her desk, was watching the exchange closely, and although the town had already figured out that Adam and Joy were canoodling (Kerry’s favorite word), he also didn’t want to advertise their canoodling, either. Especially not if it resulted in some disagreement.

He took her aside and kissed her cheek. “Want to come over later?” he asked quietly. He didn’t want to think about stories or journalists or anything else. And with Joy pressed into his side, her sweet scent filling his nose, all of his worries dissipated like mist.

Joy glanced at him, but her expression became mischievous. “Maybe, if I have time,” she replied airily. “Do you have something good to give me?”

“Sweetheart, I always have something good to give you. And if you come over, I’ll show you exactly what I mean.” He kissed the side of her neck, a place where he knew she was extra sensitive. She shuddered a little in his arms.

But it was what she said next that made his eyes widen. “How about you take me back to your office and show me right now?”

Adam, to put it plainly, had never been that kind of guy. His life was orderly, pristine, and he made love in beds and the occasional countertop. Always at home, and never at work. Hell, he and Carolyn had been so busy they’d almost had to put each other on their respective calendars just to see one another.

Now, though, he wanted to throw caution to the wind. He danced his fingers along Joy’s spine, feeling the silk of her bare back, and said in a low voice, “Lead the way.”

Surprise suffused her face until she broke out in a wide grin. Almost running to his office, she tugged on his hand and then after locking the door, burst into laughter. “You should’ve seen your face! I’ve never seen someone so shocked!”

He growled a little and yanked her close. “You shouldn’t dare a guy who never backs down from a dare.”

“Oh really? I thought you were the guy who rolls his socks in perfect cylinders and irons his underwear for good measure.”

“I only iron my silk thongs, and you know it.”

“You sure know how to a charm a girl,” she said on a sigh.

He’d already begun kissing her neck, licking and tasting the sweetness of her skin. She leaned backward, sighing again. She was wearing some light yellow dress with too many straps and a zipper that didn’t seem to exist. When he was about to pull the thing over her head, she yelped and stepped back.

“If you rip my new dress I’ll kill you in your sleep.” She unbuttoned the front, and he didn’t even hear the next words out of her mouth, he was so focused on her breasts encased in light pink lace. “This dress is one-of-a-kind.”

“And it’s also in the way.” He helped her arms out of the straps and tossed the concoction onto a chair. If he had to buy her another one—if he had to buy her twenty new dresses—he’d do it. But looking at her dressed in skimpy lingerie that matched perfectly, Adam’s brain essentially shut down.

Joy was, in a word, colorful. From her purple hair to her green eyeliner to her colorful clothing, she could’ve looked garish and ridiculous. Yet she managed to maintain an elegant, feminine air about her despite the bright plumage. He wasn’t sure how she managed it, and he’d never expected to be so obsessed with a woman who was so outlandish compared to his own personality, but he was. From the tattoo on her arm to her nose ring to her purple toenails, he couldn’t get enough.

If he thought too much about it, he’d probably turn tail and run.

But right now, he walked her backward until she sat down on his desk. They gazed at each other, breathing heavily, and Adam traced the lines of her tattoo. He had only glanced at it before, but now he studied it, intrigued. Drawn in swaths of purple and blue and lined in black, it was a mermaid with a graceful tail and long, blue hair. It reached from her upper bicep almost to her elbow, an expansive piece that looked alive.

“Why the mermaid?” He traced the strands of the mermaid’s hair on her skin.

Joy smiled a little before shrugging. “When I was a kid, I told people I was going to grow up and be a mermaid. Not a doctor or a ballerina.” Adam looked up at her, and his heart twisted a little at the expression on her face: uncertainty, perhaps a little sadness.

“But then some brat told me mermaids didn’t exist, and that dream ended. So I got the tattoo because I guess I like to think I can do and be anything I want.” She shrugged again. “It’s cheesy as hell, I know.”
      

He brushed his thumb down the mermaid’s tail. Then he leaned forward and kissed her arm. “I like it,” he said simply. And he did. He liked
her.
And it was a heady, intoxicating feeling.

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thanks. But you’re distracting us from the task at hand.”

“Which would be?”

“Well, taking off my bra would be a start.”

Adam certainly wasn’t going to say no to that. Brushing his hands down her back, feeling the curve of her shoulder blades, he found the bra clasp and flicked it open. It sagged in front, and Joy took it off, folding it neatly in his office chair. Her breasts—pale white with pink nipples, already hardened into sweet little berries—were up-thrust, like they were waiting for his touch.

“I always thought of myself as an ass man,” he said, “but I’m thinking your breasts are changing my mind.”

She laughed. “You’re full of shit, but I’ll allow it.”

She didn’t believe him? Then he’d show her, just like he’d said he would. Kneeling on the floor, his head was level with her chest and it gave him perfect access to what he wanted. He cupped both breasts, teasing the nipples, loving how her head tipped back as he played with her. He could just make out light blue veins underneath her skin, pumping blood through her chest.

His touch turned to licking, and he kissed and licked each breast with a thoroughness that had Joy moaning and running her hands through his hair. He shushed her more than once, but when she swatted him on the head, he gave up. No one was close enough to hear them, and at that point, he didn’t even care if someone did hear.

He sucked one nipple into his mouth, rolling it around on his tongue. He sucked until Joy trembled and her fingers tightened even harder in his hair. He sucked one then the other until they were red and swollen.

He was so hard he didn’t know if he could keep this up much longer, but seeing the glazed look in Joy’s eyes? It made the pain of waiting worth it. He wondered if he could make her come just from sucking her nipples. She was so open, so responsive, her body arching and moving, her feet flexing, her eyes closed, that he didn’t think he’d ever seen a more beautiful sight.

It suddenly became too much. He stood up and, grabbing her, turned her around. He hooked his fingers into her underwear and tossed them where her dress had landed. Massaging her ass and dipping his fingers into her cleft, they both groaned at how wet she was.
      

Kissing her neck, he said, “I can’t wait any longer.”

She shuddered. “Then don’t.”

He hardly remembered putting on a condom, ripping it open with shaking hands. Joy had leaned down, her elbows on the desk, her ass in the air. She gazed at him under her eyelashes, a flush across her cheeks.

Adam kissed her back, down her spine, even kissing her tailbone, which made her laugh, and then he pushed her down slightly so she was level with his cock. He teased her opening. She was dripping, desperate, and she bucked against him. Her body was a swath of white and pink, soft and silky, her purple hair brushed to one side.