Page 50 of The Last True Hero
Adam clapped a hand over hers, keeping the towel in place.
If you could take what you wanted....
What did he want?
Her. That much was simple. The second he'd walked into her bar he'd known that Mia was different. Gorgeous, brusque, and clearly warning everyone off, she'd barely warmed up to him in the first week. But there'd been moments when she'd looked at him as if intrigued. Moments where her eyes tracked him and hinted that she didn't mind looking at him, even if she wouldn't let herself pursue anything else. Maybe that was what caught his attention: the loneliness that he saw echoed in her eyes.
He'd told himself a thousand times he couldn't have her. But every day only twisted that tension tighter. Every day he realized the attraction between them was growing.
Everything about this was wrong. Wrong timing, wrong situation. Right woman.
Wrong man.
She'll never forgive you, Jake's voice whispered.
Adam pushed away from her. "There's a reason for that. I don't have an answer. I can't afford to live in the abstract. We all have dreams and wants, Mia, but sometimes we have to accept that those dreams don't always come true."
"Adam." That hand drifted across his lower back, splaying over the base of his spine.
And he wanted so much to turn to her—
A knock sounded sharply at the main door.
The breath exploded out of him. Saved by an intruder. This was going to be hell: trapped in here with her at night, trying to do the right thing, when both of them wanted to explore the wrong so badly. He was only a man. That kind of willpower was for a monk.
"Who is it?" he called. The smell of Mia's soap covered all others, and he was reining himself in so tightly that he didn't have access to his better senses.
"Zarina's here," Jake called. "Are we ready to do this?"
Adam dragged a fresh shirt over his head, then reached for his jeans. He paused and glanced at Mia.
She rolled her eyes and headed for the bedroom. "I'm not likely to tackle you right here, with Jake behind the door. Not the time. Not the place. Besides, I want to go look around a bit. I'm just opening up the discussion of what happens when we blow the candle out tonight. I'll give you a minute to get dressed."
"Nothing happens."
"We'll see." She paused with her hand on the door handle. "McClain?"
"Yeah?"
"Consider this discussion postponed," she said. "It's not over yet."
That was precisely what he was afraid of.
