Page 327 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
I frowned, wanting to ask her more about it. But I wasn’t sure what to say. It wasn’t like I had any right to ask her to open up to me, not when I was being so careful not to open up to her and tell her all about my insecurities and uncertainties. Not when I wouldn’t even tell her what Ian had said to me last week about not deserving to be with her.
No, I couldn’t ask her to spill her worries to me, as much as I wanted to fix everything for her. If she wanted to sort through things on her own, I had to respect that. So I let her change the topic of conversation to something else.
But I couldn’t help spending the rest of the night wondering if I had done the right thing in suggesting this. I had meant for it just to be two friends hanging out, trying to get Bailey’s mind off whatever it was that was bothering her. I mean, she had been the one to ask me to dinner in the first place, and that as my boss.
This felt date-like, though, in ways that I couldn’t describe. It was like we were getting to know one another, with the promise of more than friendship at the end of things. And that feeling only intensified later, as I stood at the counter doing the dishes.
Bailey laughed and tried to grab the saucepan out of my hands. “Come on, you don’t have to do that,” she insisted. “You already did the cooking. Let me wash up. Please.”
I shook my head. “I was the one who suggested that I cook,” I reminded her. “That means this is all my responsibility. Now, you go relax again.”
Bailey finally managed to wrestle the pan away from me, her fingers curling around my wrist. I froze and then looked slowly over at her. She tugged me off balance and into a kiss.
For a moment, I couldn’t help but kiss her back. It was Bailey, after all, and even though I knew logically that I shouldn’t be kissing her, that didn’t mean that I didn’t want her. I moved my lips gently against hers, my tongue twining with hers. But as she pressed herself up against me, I suddenly pulled back.
“Bailey, you know this isn’t a good idea,” I sighed, but it was hard to really pull away from her. I found myself resting my forehead against hers, my fingers resting against her hip, thumb rubbing small circles against her bare skin just above the waistband of her jeans.
Bailey sucked in a quick breath and looked like she wanted to say something, but then, she shook her head, looping a hand around the back of my neck and kissing me again. This time, I didn’t protest. She needed this, and I knew that I did as well. It might be a mistake, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t already crossed that line.
And besides, it was Bailey. How was I really supposed to say no to her, when her lips were pressed against mine and her scent was in my nostrils? I wanted this too damned badly to tell her no. There was no logic involved.
CHAPTER 39
BAILEY
I was surprised when Adam suggested that he come over to my place and cook dinner for me. I couldn’t help but feel touched by the gesture. He clearly could tell that there was something wrong, and he wanted to be there for me. Suddenly, I wondered if he really had been avoiding me all week or if that had just been my imagination. Maybe he really had just been busy.
Or not. But either way, he was here for me now, and that was all that I could ask for.
I couldn’t seem to think of a way to bring up the Ian conversation, though. At first, I’d thought that Adam could help me figure out what to do in that situation, but the more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Ian had been downright mean to Adam when he had caught us kissing. He and I might have been alone and behind closed doors when Ian said that thing about Adam not being good enough for me, but it made me wonder how close of friends they had ever really been. Maybe they had just been friends because they liked to pull the same kinds of pranks. Maybe they had never really known one another that well at all.
And besides, I couldn’t help but think that the Ian situation was something that I needed to figure out on my own. He was my brother, after all. It was my fault that he was causing trouble for the resort. As the owner of the company, I had to figure out a way to deal with that. If I couldn’t handle those sorts of problems, I didn’t deserve to be running the company.
Not only that, but there was a part of me that felt ashamed for Ian. He should know better. Dad had trained us to be so much savvier as businesspeople. The mistakes that Ian had made were pretty basic; it was like he didn’t understand anything about running a company. Which damned well wasn’t true, I knew. He had a good head on his shoulders, and he had plenty of experience. He just had a little too much pride. He had tried to change too many things too quickly.
I didn’t want to tell a near-stranger all about Ian’s problems. There had to be some way for Ian to get things back on track, the way that things were meant to be. I should talk to him about it before I went blabbing about the family troubles to everyone else at the resort. I owed that to Ian.
So when Adam finally asked about it, I brushed him off. It really wasn’t important. I had managed to send back most of the stuff that he had bought for the resort, so really, this wasn’t an issue with the resort. It was more an issue with Ian’s employment and the casino business. I should keep it that way.
I was glad to have Adam there with me, though, even if I didn’t want to really talk about any of it with him. I knew that I didn’t want to be on my own tonight, thinking about all of this. And Kayla would have wanted to talk things to death. She would never have let me get away with saying that I would handle things on my own. It was one of the things I loved about her, but it was also something that made nights like this difficult; I just didn’t want to talk about it with her.
So it was good to have Adam there, a rock-solid presence. Couple that with the fact that his simple dinner had been delicious, plus he had come out of his shell even more and actually talked to me about his week and everything that was going on in his life? Well, it was a pretty good evening in the end, I had to admit.
Maybe not the evening that I had planned for us. I had planned to talk to him about why he was so uncomfortable and awkward around me now. But I could see, now, that it really was just about being out in the resort, where anyone could see us. In here, in private, he was just as charming and friendly as ever. So maybe we didn’t need to have that conversation after all.
Of course, it threw me a little when he told me that this was a bad idea. I wanted to say something, to explain all the reasons why he was wrong. But then again, if he really didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be here, my mind insisted. He would have stepped back away from me, or even left. He certainly wouldn’t have kissed me back.
So I went in for another kiss, and even though I could still sense a slight hesitation there, or a nervousness maybe, Adam leaned into me, his fingers touching my bare skin and sending a shiver shooting down my spine.
To be honest, I was nervous as well. The last time had been so good but so overwhelming at the same time. I didn’t know if this could live up to the same again. Maybe last time had been a fluke. Or maybe it had just been the newness of it all. It had been a while since I had had sex before, and it had been a while for Adam as well. The first time back was bound to be incredible and amazing and overwhelming.
But as I led Adam to my bedroom, his fingers on my body still sent electric currents of pleasure pulsing through me. He stripped me down carefully, his eyes hungry as they roved over my skin. He pushed me down on the bed and climbed on top of me, laying a trail of kisses down the entire length of my body.
I groaned as he tugged my panties off with his teeth, the same teeth that he raked lightly across my skin moments later, raising goosebumps. He kissed my folds, making me arch against the sheets, desperate for more of the sweet sensation. His tongue flicked out, sliding across my clit and then darting inside of me. He began to work me open with his tongue and his fingers. I gasped and tangled my fingers in his hair.
He spread my legs open even wider and settled between them, giving me barely a moment of warning before he thrust fully inside of me. But I was slick and ready, my body needing that pleasurable intrusion more than the very air that I breathed. He rocked into me in a frenzied manner, unable to hold himself back.
And as for me, I clung to him, letting him use me, wordlessly begging for more and more. Things between us had been so shaky ever since Ian caught us kissing, but right now, they felt utterly right, as my world narrowed down to just the two of us, him and I. How could I possibly want anything else?
