Can't Stand the Heat - Louisa Edwards [90]
He turned her carefully to avoid bashing her head against the bookshelves. Concussion would undoubtedly put a damper on the evening.
His skin was too tight for his body, all of a sudden, as he laid her down and stepped back to take in the vision made real, Miranda sprawled, boneless and sensual, across his bed. She moved a little on the sheets, a sinuous squirm that should’ve made her look embarrassed or ill at ease, but instead made Adam want to rip her clothes off so he could watch her do it again, only naked this time.
“Come on,” she breathed, holding out one hand. “Make me forget. Wrap me up until there’s nothing but you.”
A hard tremor racked Adam from head to foot. Christ, this woman got to him. He reached for her hand and intertwined their fingers, following the slow tug down to the bed.
She needed this, he thought as he covered her with his body. And it was something he could give her. Okay, let’s be honest here, it was something he was dying to give her. But it wasn’t all there was.
And as he settled into the curves of her body, his hips sinking into the cradle of hers, that sense of more throbbed between them like an extra heartbeat in the room. He’d felt it earlier, onstage at Chapel, while he was fiddling with guitar strings and drawing breath to sing. The whole bar faded away until there was nothing but Miranda’s expectant face, her eyes shining and full of something hard to name.
Every beat of that damn song, which he’d meant to be funny and maybe ironic, had turned into a private message for her, tattooed into the air like smoke signals.
It was too much to hope that Miranda, his observant, detail-oriented Miranda, hadn’t gotten the message.
And as she pushed up to meet his kiss, Adam wasn’t at all sure he was sorry.
* * *
The emotional highs and lows of this insane evening combined in Miranda’s system like a double shot of tequila with a vodka chaser. She felt drunk with the aftereffects of adrenaline, the subsequent crash, and the longest crying jag of her life. There was madness coursing through her blood, her thoughts whirling fast enough that she felt she might fly up toward the ceiling at any moment, pulled apart and flung to the four corners of the room, if Adam stopped touching her.
This. Just this, Adam’s hardness and heat pressing her into the soft mattress below, surrounding and enfolding her. This was what Miranda needed.
It had been so long—maybe her whole adult life—since she felt safe enough to let go.
Adam slanted his wonderful mouth over hers again, banishing all thoughts of brothers and secrets and guilt. Miranda arched her spine painfully, pressing as hard as she could to get as much coverage as she could. It felt like it would be impossible to get close enough to Adam. They were touching from forehead to ankles, his weight solid and reassuring atop her, but it wasn’t enough. She wished he would swallow her in a single bite.
He opened his mouth, taking control of the kiss with a hoarse curse, and made a valiant attempt.
His broad chest ground into the yielding globes of her breasts. The thin fabric barrier of their clothes was insignificant in the face of the heat their friction generated. Adam’s hips rocked down in a slow, deliberate circle, teasing Miranda with the growing emptiness inside her. She could feel the hard bulge of his erection trapped in his jeans; it notched in the vee between her legs with short bursts of motion, making her throb with emptiness. And all the time his hungry mouth moved voraciously, sucking at her tongue and tormenting her lips with tiny nips and bites until she could feel the tender flesh puffing and swelling to hypersensitivity.
Miranda whimpered into him, surrendering utterly. It was like the first time she’d tasted his food: a swift shock to the senses, immersing her entire being in a wash of bodily pleasure. Where there was so much pure sensation, there was no room for thinking.
“Whoa,” Adam gasped, pulling back. Miranda frowned in protest, prompting him to pet her soothingly.
“Not going anywhere,” he said, out of breath and