When It Hooks You (It #1) (20 page)

“Worry doll,” enunciated one of the women sitting at the table. She held up a thumb-tip sized figure wrapped in a teeny, colorful outfit. Trish noticed a small pile of miniature dolls on the table, along with wire, yarn, and bits of fabric. For the next hour or so, the girls showed Trish how to bend the wire into a form and then wind yarn and fabric around it to create the tiny dolls. They encouraged her to try it on her own.

Trish’s creations didn’t look nearly as neat and adorable as the others, but she had fun making them, anyhow. When Adam emerged from the office and came over, she smiled, holding up a tiny man with a tuft of yellow hair and what was supposed to have been a highly stylized purple suit. He laughed, taking it from her. “I’m sure he and I will have many long conversations.”

Trish quirked an eyebrow in question.

“These are worry dolls,” Adam explained. “When the bearer has trouble sleeping at night, he tells his worries to the doll and places it under his pillow. The doll takes on the worry, allowing its bearer to sleep in peace.”

“I like that,” Trish said, smiling up at him.

“We plan to include a worry doll with each candy bar and each tin of cocoa powder we sell. How do you like this for a slogan:
Chocolate and a worry doll—problem solved.
”

“Brilliant.”

“This way, we can train and employ artisans as well as farmers.”

He’s so not playing fair,
Trish thought to herself. She’d already set Adam on a very high pedestal—now she could add kind-hearted and generous to everything else that attracted her to him. How did a girl stand a chance of ever getting over him? “Will I get to touch you tonight?” she murmured almost involuntarily.

His eyes opened wide before shifting to glance toward the others. They were engaged in their own conversation several feet away. Swinging his gaze back to her, he murmured, “Would you like to?”

Pressing her lips into a small smile, she nodded. Heat prickled at her cheeks and up her neck when she took in the inviting way his eyes devoured her.

“Then I think it’s time for us to get out of here,” he said.

Chapter 17

A
DAM
R
EACHED
A
CROSS
T
HE
J
EEP
, taking Trish’s hand into his as he drove into a bustling village. They’d departed from the others and were on their own for the rest of the day. A misting rain had started during their drive, dampening the dirt road and keeping dust clouds from kicking up under cars and trucks as they pounded over it. Adam treated Trish to tapas at a modern café. After lunch, they wandered into a shop, where Trish admired and purchased a richly patterned Mayan
huipil
-styled tunic. At the market, Adam bought a bottle of wine, some nuts, and fruit.

It had been far too long since Trish had left the US. Once upon a time, she’d expected her communications degree to lead her all over the world, either working for a news agency or as a marketing professional for an international firm. But life had led her in a different direction, and she’d been happy enough staying put in her favorite city. Until now. This trip had reignited her itch to experience more of the world.

She and Adam climbed back into the Jeep, and their route took a decidedly upward angle. “Where are we going?” Trish asked, playfully tickling her fingers up Adam’s forearm as he steered.

“To our accommodations for the evening.” The sun had remained hidden behind clouds all day, but shifting tones of darkening gray indicated it was drawing close to the horizon.

“We’re not staying with Luis and Elina?” Trish asked.

“Not tonight.” He kept his eyes steadily on the road. Trish could tell he’d made an effort to keep his tone light, but she heard a thickness in his voice, as if he was teetering on the edge of their agreement to keep from getting too physical.

Wary of forcing the issue and pushing him back onto the strictly celibate side of the fence, she opted for a subject change. “So, the cacao project…does this the sort of thing make investors in Helms Enterprises nervous?” she asked, eager to confirm the harmless nature of the “new areas” Hayden’s associate Len wasn’t comfortable investing in. It would be vindicating to report back to Lyssa that it was something as innocent as a chocolate bar.

Adam let out a small laugh. “It makes Helms Enterprises itself nervous. Even under the best scenario, the operation won’t start paying dividends for years. The board would never approve it.”

“Then how are you involved?”

“This is what my father would call a hobby. I call it a personal investment.”

The Jeep continued its climb, and Trish flexed her jaw to relieve the pressure that built around her eardrums with the change in elevation. Adam turned the car onto a narrow drive, and they arrived at a large cabin.

“Oh no,” Trish said. “All my stuff is still at the house.”

He smiled. “It’s in the back of the car. I asked the house girl to pack your things and put them in here while you had your coffee. I hope you don’t mind.”

“You sneaky devil.” Her grin let him know she didn’t mind a bit.

“Wait here.” He leaned toward her, laying a kiss on her cheek before he went into the cabin and soon returned with a key. They drove a bit further, and Trish spied a deluxe-looking fort perched high in a tree. The car stopped directly beneath it. “Ready to climb?” he asked.

Trish’s mouth fell open. “Up there? That’s ours?”

He laughed. “I’ll get our bags.”

Trish saw that a rough staircase built of thin boards led to their hideaway. She and Adam skittered through the light rain to the bottom step and moved gingerly up the slick slats of wood. They arrived in a small living room with a rustic sofa, two side chairs, and a coffee table. A large window overlooked a stunning view of rolling forests and rocky peaks in the distance. An opening on the adjacent wall revealed a room barely large enough to hold the king-sized bed within it.

Adam dropped Trish’s bag on the bed and returned to set his own next to the couch. He apparently intended to stick to their “separate rooms” agreement.
We’ll see about that
, Trish thought, setting the bags of nuts and fruit onto a narrow counter that held a small sink.

“If we get hungry for more than that, there’s a restaurant behind the cabin,” Adam said, coming up behind her.

She turned and reached for his hand. “I think I’ve got everything I need right here.” She cringed. “Oh God. That was horribly cheesy. Can we forget I said it?”

He laughed. “You haven’t seen the best part yet.” He pulled her around the counter and through a doorway to a covered balcony. It was wide enough to hold a hammock at one end. The view from here was even more gorgeous than any Trish had seen so far. The cool rain against the humidity of the day created an ethereal mist above the rolling forests below them, casting a mysterious haze over the looming mountains.

Trish and Adam spent a long moment in silence, soaking in the beauty. He spread his arms wide, resting both hands on the thin wooden rail. Everything around them grew dimmer as the sun continued its descent. Their remaining time together ticked steadily away. Trish didn’t want to waste another second. Gently lifting one of his hands, she slid in front of him so that his arms encompassed her. She pulled his hand to her waist and leaned into his chest, nestling her head in the crook of his neck. He pressed his cheek into her hair, and a small, satisfied growl rolled up his throat. She watched the bones at the back of his hand on the rail protrude as he strengthened his grip, exhibiting a tension at odds with the contented sounds she’d just heard from him.

Staying silent, she hoped her own gentle vibe could somehow calm the racing of his heartbeat against her back. She stared at the underside of the darkening clouds—they looked almost like rippling waves. “Everything about this place is beautiful,” she whispered, snuggling deeper into him.

After a beat, Adam spoke. His words came out slowly, his voice deeper than usual. “I often feel like I’m being suffocated by the circumstances of my life. This is a place I can come to breathe. Having you here…it’s from a storybook. Too good to be real.” He let go of her waist, returning that hand to the rail, and his face lifted away from her. She felt immediately colder. “Some things are best left in my imagination.”

She spun around, touching her fingertips to the side of his face. His stormy gaze met hers. “I don’t want to be imaginary,” she told him.

A rumble of thunder trembled from behind the mountains. “I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he said, and she saw the same fear that had raced through his eyes when they’d been about to kiss for the first time.

She slid her fingers slid over his mouth, stopping any more words from him. Heavy drops thumped onto the wooden plank above them and all around, blotting the outside world. Her other hand crawled up his spine, digging into the muscles of his back as she pulled her body flush against his. “Tomorrow everything goes back to normal, but tonight…tonight you’re mine.” Dropping her fingers from his face, she pushed her mouth against his.

He let out a groan. At last, both of his hands left the rail to thread through her hair and press into the small of her back. She didn’t let up on the pressure of her body against his, wouldn’t give him a chance to push her away and slip back into his drowning depths. She’d surround him with the light he saw in her, replacing whatever dark memories lurked inside of him with brilliant new ones.

The rain around them intensified, becoming an impenetrable curtain. They were truly alone in the treehouse, safe from anything on the outside that might want to break them apart. His mouth left hers to bite a trail across her jaw and down the side of her throat.

She let out a yelp when his arm hooked around the back of her knees, lifting her. He broke suction with her neck, his face rising to be level with hers. His eyes were half-dazed, half-animalistic. If she hadn’t already been determined to lose her revirginity, that look alone would’ve decided it.

They stayed locked in each other’s eyes as he carried her to the bedroom. The only sounds were the pounding rain and their hot, heaving breath. He set her gently onto her knees on the bed and stood on the floor before her. She busied her hands at the button and zipper at her waist. He watched her strip, so she gave him a show. Rising to her feet on the bed, she let the shorts fall around her ankles, then lifted them with one pointed toe, flicking them to the floor.

A corner of his mouth lifted in a sultry smirk while his eyes drank in the curves of her newly exposed flesh. She sauntered across the cushy mattress to him, taking his hands and bringing them to the buttons of her sleeveless blouse. He started unbuttoning from the bottom. When he’d undone a few, he slid the fabric out of his way and glided his tongue over the flat muscles of her stomach. She twisted her fingers into his hair while every inch of her purred.

With his hands at the small of her back, he guided her down to the bed. Abandoning his work on her shirt, he slipped off her panties. The blanket felt cool against the increasing heat of her skin. He lifted one of her feet to nip at her ankles. Trailing his dexterous fingers along the inside of her thighs, he stirred her purrs into moans.

He kissed one of her calves, the back of a knee, down her thigh. Then his feverish mouth came fully upon her. She stiffened at the sound of her own pleasure-filled shriek, but remembered where they were—halfway up a mountain with no one close enough to hear—and let her sensuous howls loose.

The noise seemed to spur Adam on. His lips and tongue kept steadily at it, exploring and pulsing and driving her mad. She tightened her muscles around him, wanting to commune with him, to move together as a solitary unit. He groaned, lifting his mouth away from her enough to be heard. “Trish…”

“Adam…” Her voice was a whispered plea.

He scrambled onto his knees, fumbling with his belt and pulling a condom out of his pocket. Trish rose onto her elbows. Before she could muster a coherent thought, he was on top of her, fiercely plunging inside the folds he’d just so tenderly caressed. Their voices rang out in grunts and gasps as they frantically pumped against each other, their bodies reacting to the initial connection in a frenzied spasm. Adam was the first to find a steady rhythm. With a slow, reassuring kiss, he calmed Trish enough to join him.

Keeping his mouth on hers, he pressed her head to lay all the way back on the pillow. She tasted herself on his tongue and lapped at it, relishing the flavor of their love. At their more controlled pace, Trish became irritated by their remaining clothing. She wanted it gone, wanted every cell of her flesh in contact with his. Skimming her hands down over the smooth roundness of his ass, she touched the waist of his pants and boxers. She pushed them as far as she could, then used her legs and feet to work them to his ankles.

He kicked his bottoms off and rolled sideways, onto his back, pulling Trish along so that she now straddled him. Together they finished unbuttoning her shirt and slid it off. Her bra soon followed. He cupped his hands over her fleshy mounds, rising to lick at them, all while continuing to rhythmically thrust into her. Trish interrupted his suckling to pull off his shirt. She took a brief moment to admire the smooth, lean muscles of his straining chest before pressing her bare flesh against his.

They again turned, with Adam now falling and rising from on top of her. She sensed vulnerability in his unsteady panting, in the soft kisses he randomly touched upon her face. He wasn’t simply fulfilling urges. He was giving himself to her. She surrounded him, and he was letting her have him. All of him.