Page 94 of Tempt

“I don’t know what to say,” she shook her head.

“You’ll say yes. No isn’t an option.”

And then she grinned and starting nodding uncontrollably. “Yes. Yes!”

Higgins bounced his eyebrows, looking as cocky as ever, as he slid the beautiful little ring onto her finger. I snuck away while they made out because there was no way I was standing around awkwardly while they shoved their tongues down each other’s throats.

Adam volunteered to run out to the store and came back fifteen minutes later with champagne and cookies. We celebrated until it looked like the happy couple might start doing inappropriate things on the couch.

“Please go home and celebratealone,” I pleaded.

Nicki blushed and Higgins grinned. “Yeah, yeah. We’re outta here. Have a nice night all of you.”

* * *

“Love suits you,”I whispered to Elizabeth as we closed the door to my bedroom. Adam and Lily were watching a movie on my tiny television, trying to give us some privacy while we caught up.

Elizabeth blushed—which was something that had only happened once or twice in all the years I’d known her. And she had to blush pretty hard for it to show up on her olive-toned skin.

“Thanks. I think?”

Elizabeth was Hollywood royalty. Her grandmother had been one of the most famous Academy Award winning actresses in history. Her mother was a reality television icon. And her father was a war hero. Unfortunately her parents were more interested in fame than their children and Elizabeth had some serious trust issues. She also hadn’t believed two people could truly fall in love until she met Adam and he turned her world upside down.

Oh and Adam?Hot. So hot. I already thought of him as a brother, but if I’d run into him out in the wild, single and sexy like that? I totally would have been all over him. I’d gotten to know him a little bit over the last couple of months through video chats and text messages, but now that he was here—live and in person—it was obvious that his sex appeal was just the beginning of all the things right with Adam Callaway. He was a genuinely sweet, caring, lovely man.

I couldn’t have been happier that my best friend had finally found someone like him.

I plopped down on the foot of the bed and propped my feet up on my pillow, while Elizabeth laid back against my headboard.

“Why would love be a bad thing?” I asked.

She shrugged. “It makes you weak.”

I arched an eyebrow. “That’s what you get out of being with Adam? He makes you weak?”

Her shoulders slumped. “Actually, no. He makes me feel stronger than ever. It’s just that…” her voice fell away and she started fidgeting.

I shook my head while I watched her twist her long dark hair into a knot. “It’s just what?”

“I’ve never felt this vulnerable before, you know? It’s scary. The things I’d do to keep him? How much it would destroy me if something happened?” She took a long, deep breath and blew it out. “I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, but now I’m dependent on it. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

That hit home, and it hit hard. Loving Theo made me feel a thousand things, including that same weird mix of strong and vulnerable.

Fuckitall…love was an evil bitch. “Well, luckily I don’t think you need to worry about that. Adam isn’t going anywhere.”

She seemed to ponder that for a while. “I feel bad. It’s a lot of responsibility…the whole love thing.”

Responsibility.Is that why I was feeling so frantic about Theo? I think maybe it was. “I can see that.” I felt like it was my purpose in life to ensure that Theo was loved and taken care of—and right now there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to fulfill my responsibilities to him.

“I have these ghosts surrounding me like a wall,” she murmured. “I can’t get through them, but they’re not really there either.” She looked past me at the wall, shaking her head. “Adam’s so black and white. The world is simple to him. He loves me, so we’re together. I need something, he gets it. There are no strings, repercussions, or doubts. It’s justblackandwhite. He wants something, he takes it. He needs to do something, he does it. Period. No doubts. Simple.”

Basically Adam was the complete opposite of Elizabeth, who only saw the world in shades of grey. God, he was going to be so good for her.

“And I feel that weight,” she said quietly. “That responsibility. I don’t want to drag him down into the muck with me. It’s not fair. So Ihaveto get my shit together. Ihaveto be better. He deserves that…but man it’s hard when you spend everyday trying to see your life through a thick fog of bullshit.Nothingis simple to me. Everything comes with strings and consequences. Everything is tied together.”

She could be reciting from Theo’s brain right now. His whole life was one complicated ball of strings and consequences. My heart started thumping faster as I started to see things from both sides.

I so desperately wanted him to see things more simply. I loved him. That was enough. There didn’t need to be any other explanations or reasons. There didn’t have to be consequences.

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