Seduce Me Sweetly (Heron's Landing Book 1) (18 page)

She remembered that she’d turned her phone off and never turned it back on. But her mind was mush at the moment, and she just stared at Adam with a blank, tired expression.

He peered at her. “You look like hell. What happened?”

“You’re always so charming. Come in.” She waved a hand to nowhere in particular, grabbing her oversized glass of wine to continue drinking. She knew she was probably flushed and sweaty from the alcohol, but she was buzzed enough not to care.

“It’s only five o’clock and you’re drinking. Something’s happened. Care to tell me?” He gave her a concerned look.

She shook her head. “I have no interest in talking about anything. Only drinking. You can join, or you can go away.” She wandered to her living room, where some Food Network show was playing. One contestant was making a bread pudding, and Joy scoffed. They always made fucking bread pudding because they were hacks. Hacks! She slugged back some more wine.

Adam slowly sat down next to her. He didn’t say anything, but Joy had to admit, she felt better with his presence. He was so strong, so put together, despite everything he’d been through. Here she was, crying over her shitty ex, when he’d lost his wife in a tragic accident. He wasn’t sitting around drinking and crying.

She wiped away a stray tear and decided she’d feel sorry for herself until the clock struck midnight. Then she’d return to being an adult and throw out her single glass slipper.

Now the tears were coming faster, and she felt so stupid that it made her cry harder.

“Hey, hey, what is this?” Adam put an arm around her shoulders. “What happened? You can’t just sit there and cry and expect me to ask nothing about it.”

Joy shook her head, crying into his shoulder. She shouldn’t indulge herself like this, and yet… It felt good. It felt good to have someone to lean on. She’d been alone for so long lately.

He jostled her. “Hey, come on.” He rubbed her arm.

“It’s so stupid,” she muttered.

“Did Mike run out of Cheetos again? Like that kind of stupid?”

She laughed a watery laugh. “No, but that would make anyone cry. No, it’s my ex. He called me and…” She realized she was talking about her ex with her current—boyfriend? lover? her head hurt thinking about it—but at Adam’s curious look, she continued. “Jeremy. Did you know I was engaged before I came to Heron’s Landing? We were. Jeremy and I. We were together for five years and then he fucks my best friend. So I ended everything and now he has the gall to ask to get back together. What an asshole, right?”

Adam seemed at a loss for words. Then he pulled her closer and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “Definitely an asshole,” he murmured.

“I hate him. I hope he chokes on a sandwich and dies.”

“Nah, he needs something slower. Like being dismembered.”

Joy glanced up and met Adam’s gaze. “I had no idea you were so bloodthirsty.”

“Only against guys who fuck around like that. And make women cry. He’s not worth your tears, Joy.” He wiped a tear from her cheek, so gently that it almost made her start crying all over again. “He’s a dick. If there’s any justice in the world, he’ll get chlamydia and have to use Viagra every time he has sex.”

Now she laughed. “If only. He already has enough hang-ups about his…Well, never mind.” She smiled then, wiping away the last of her tears.

She’d been so afraid to admit to Adam that Jeremy had cheated, but now that it was out in the open, she felt better. Why had she been so freaked out to begin with?

“I didn’t want to tell you about Jeremy, you know.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s embarrassing. To be cheated on like that. Like, what was so wrong with me that my fiancé would fuck my best friend? You know?”

Adam didn’t say anything for a moment, but he stroked the bare skin of her arm. His gaze, though, intensified, his eyes darkening. “You know that’s bullshit, right? Cheaters cheat because they’re cheaters. Even if you fed him poisoned hamburgers every night, that still doesn’t mean he should’ve cheated.”

“I know. But. The whole thing makes me want to shrivel up and die.” Joy turned away, Adam’s gaze making her uncomfortable. She hated being vulnerable, and admitting that a man she’d loved had screwed her over like that? She couldn’t help but blame herself in some way for what had happened.

Adam didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he swallowed. “Since we’re already talking about our feelings…”

Joy almost laughed, but at his expression, bit her tongue. “Go on,” she said softly.

“You know that I don’t like journalists. Or, I have a reason for that.”

She raised her eyebrows, waiting.

“When Carolyn died…” He looked away, but still kept an arm around her. “When she died, the press hounded us. She was a celebrity, especially around here, and tons of rumors were floating around. Some true, some not. One in particular that popped up was that Carolyn wasn’t her father’s daughter. That her mother had had an affair.”

“But that wasn’t true, right?” she asked, confused. “I didn’t see anything when I read about Carolyn saying as much.”

Adam smiled a little bitterly. “You wouldn’t have. We paid off and threatened everyone under the sun not to publish that story. Not to mention, none of them could find any proof or legitimate sources. I know it seems like not a big deal, but for the Young family, it was akin to being caught doing heroin. They’ve built their empire on wholesome, Midwestern values.”

Joy wasn’t sure where this was going, but she thought she’d be better off waiting and listening instead of pressing.

“At any rate, the story coming to light forced Carolyn’s mother to confess that she
had
had an affair. Carolyn never knew, that we know of, and we’ll never know her true parentage. Trenton—her father—threatened divorce, and suffice to say after that, we all pretty much loathed anyone who called themselves journalists. They even went after my parents, practically stalking them for information. For months, I was paranoid about being overheard and even looked in my house for wires and cameras, it was that bad. I hated anyone who reported on the news, even the local weatherman.” He finally looked back at Joy and then kissed her forehead. “Until I met you. I was so bitter from that experience it tainted my understanding. I knew there were good writers out there, but I was too angry to see that. You know what I mean?”

She nodded, her throat tight. Her heart ached with his confession, and a part of her was terrified of all of the layers they were shedding as they got closer and closer.

“I understand anger,” she said. “I get it, so much. I was so angry with Jeremy after he cheated and wondering what I did wrong…”

“You, Joy McGuire, deserve better than him,” Adam said firmly. “The only good thing to come out of this is that he doesn’t get to have you. Because you’re talented, beautiful, and—”

“And so sexy you can’t look at me without getting a boner?”

“No, I was going to say that you’re funny, but I guess if you want me to say that you cause me to pitch my tent, sure, that’s true, too.”

She laughed out loud. Turning, she pulled his head down until his lips reached hers. It was a messy kiss, the angle awkward, but it was one of the best kisses Joy had ever experienced. It was true, and it was fun, and it was filled with a tenderness that she reveled in. He kissed her and licked at her mouth and nipped her bottom lip, and she did the same. The kissed heated up, and soon enough, she was underneath him as he kissed his way down her neck.

“Joy, any man who’d cheat on you is scum of the earth,” he said as he kissed her belly button. “You have to know that.”

“Mmm, I do now.” She shimmied a little, her eyes closed.

When Adam pulled her jeans down to her ankles and kissed her inner thigh, nothing else needed to be said at all. The stubble on his jaw scraped against her sensitive skin, and he stroked and caressed her legs. He kissed the inside of her knee, and he kissed a small scar on her shin. He traced a few stray hairs she’d missed shaving on her ankle. He even kissed her brightly painted toes, neon orange, courtesy of Grace.

Then he slipped his fingers underneath the elastic of her underwear, and she lifted her hips to help him. Adam loved to go down on her, and damn if she didn’t love him for it. Jeremy had gone down on her every once in a while, but only when she’d asked. Adam, though, did it without her having to beg, and as he parted her folds and gave her a leisurely lick, she thanked all the gods in existence for sending this man to her.

Any prayers in her mind disappeared as he kissed and licked, sucking at her folds and spreading her moisture across her sex. His thumb dipped insider her; she shivered. Her body tensed, and she grabbed at the pillows on the couch for something to hold onto. But when he mouthed her clit, it didn’t matter what she was holding onto: she was lost, completely lost in this man. He played with her. He licked and kissed and thrust a finger inside of her. And then he sucked her clit so hard that her body burst. It burst into pinwheels of light and she bit her hand to keep from screaming out loud.

And thoughts of her ex? Adam had chased them all away.

***

At Trudy’s a few days later, Joy shared a huge plate of pancakes with Adam while stealing sips of his coffee. He kept playing footsie with her under the table, and it was so childish that she couldn’t stop laughing.

“Are you serious right now?” she asked, amused and exasperated.

“I’m always serious.” His tone was deadpan as he speared another bite of pancake, kicking her lightly.

She pressed down on his foot, but he got free and kicked her a little. She squealed, and as Grace walked by with a raised eyebrow, Joy felt herself blushing.

But the laughter, playing footsie, the pancakes—it all faded away when she heard the door to Trudy’s open and a voice she’d know from anywhere ask for a table for one. “I just need a cup of coffee,” the voice said, tired, a Chicago accent tingeing his words.

Joy was faced away from the entrance. She stiffened, and she wondered if she were dreaming. But as she heard footsteps, she turned.

And came face to face with the man she’d hoped she’d never see again: Jeremy, her cheating ex-fiancé.

Chapter Fourteen

As Adam watched the blood drain from Joy’s face, he knew instantly who this man was. And at her softly murmured, “Jeremy,” his assumption was confirmed. Her ex—this was the guy who’d cheated on her? Adam had to restrain himself from grabbing the guy by the collar and punching him in the face. Instead, he curled his hand into a fist underneath the table.

Jeremy looked like a guy who’d cheat on his fiancée. Tall, lean, his slacks and shirt perfectly ironed and his hair coiffed just so, he looked like he’d cry if you told him he shoes were ugly. Adam hated him on sight.

“Jeremy, what are you…? What are you doing here?” The blood was coming back into Joy’s face, but now slashes of red bloomed on her cheeks. Adam could feel her tapping her foot underneath the table.

“I was just in the neighborhood…” Jeremy laughed, fiddling with his collar a little. “I came to see you, Jo-Jo. Why else would I be here in—what is this place called? Heron’s Nesting?”

“Heron’s Landing,” Adam said gruffly.

      
Jeremy turned toward him, as if just noticing him for the first time. His pale eyebrows raised, he looked from Adam to Joy and back to Adam, as if assessing what, precisely, was their relationship. “And you are?” He didn’t hold out his hand, which was probably a good thing, since Adam wanted to break his fingers one by one.

“Jeremy, meet Adam Danvers. He runs and owns the local vineyard here. Adam, this is Jeremy Evans.”

“Pleasure,” Jeremy drawled, his gaze returning to Joy. “Can we go somewhere private to talk?”

Joy hesitated. She looked at Adam, and he wanted her to say no.
Tell the guy to fuck off,
he thought. But this guy had also been her fiancé, so the history was there. If Adam understood anything, it was the weight of history between two people.

That didn’t stop him from being angry that Jeremy was here, in Heron’s Landing. And it didn’t stop him from seeing red when Joy got up and told Jeremy she’d meet him outside. And it didn’t stop him from rising from the booth and slapping some dollars onto the table before stalking outside.

Was she really going to treat this guy like he hadn’t broken her heart? He’d seen her tears earlier that week when she’d told him Jeremy had cheated on her. He was scum of the earth, and now he wanted her back?