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  "Tell me about some fabulous building you worked on today."

  "You want to talk about work right now?"

  "I've always been interested in architecture. And not that your ego needs any boost--"

  "Anytime you want to stroke my ego--or any part of me--you should feel free."

  She couldn't help but laugh. Adam might have the world's best self-esteem, but he was also fun and cute. It was quite a package, especially when he had his strong arms wrapped around her in a big bathtub.

  "As I was saying," she continued, "I think what you do--and how well you do it--is really fascinating."

  The kiss he pressed to her shoulder told her how much he liked her compliment. "Thanks, but I don't know how fascinated you'd be with the place I was looking at today."

  "Why? What's wrong with it?"

  "Everything."

  "I thought you said there was no project too big?"

  "Funny, you sound just like my father." She could tell Adam was thinking about the house again because his hands were moving over her skin absently now, rather than with the devastating sensual purpose he usually had. "You saw the picture of what my office looked like before I got my hands on it. Well, this place is in even worse shape."

  "But?" She could hear the interest in his voice even as he tried to convince her that it was a lost cause.

  "But at the same time it's in a great neighborhood, right at the end of a curving lane, with an incredible oak tree in the front yard."

  His words stirred up a picture in her head of her favorite house as a child, so clearly that she had to tell him, "I know this might sound crazy, but I think I might know the house you're talking about."

  "It's on Seaview Lane."

  Her exhaustion suddenly fled as she squirmed around in the tub so that she was straddling him. "Oh, Adam, the most amazing old couple lived there. They built the house together, and it was just so beautiful, all of the hand-carved wood, the inlaid floors, the stained glass in the windows upstairs. They made all of that themselves as a team. They were so sweet together, always holding hands, always giving each other little smooches, rocking together on the front porch. They didn't have any kids of their own, so they'd invite the local kids and our parents to have picnics under the huge old oak tree. And you wouldn't believe the way they'd decorate the whole place for Christmas. It was more than just the light shows you see now--everything was handmade with such love and passion."

  It wasn't until she came to a stop that she realized Adam was staring up at her with such intensity that her breath caught in her throat.

  "Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are when you're naked in the bath with me, talking about houses?" He reached up to tangle his hands in her wet hair and pull her mouth down to his for a kiss that seared through every cell in her body. "Do you have any idea how damned gorgeous you are every single second?"

  Every kiss he gave her took her deeper and made her more and more desperate to get even closer to him than they already were, wrapped around each other in the tub. And, oh, how she loved the way his large hands slipped and slid over her wet curves, moving over her breasts and then to her waist and hips and back up again. They'd only just taken each other against the door, but she needed him again.

  "Adam."

  "I know, sweetheart. I need you again, too."

  The endearment shouldn't have sounded right for two people who were just having fun hotel sex once a week, but everything was right just then. Especially when she realized he'd thought to put protection on the edge of the tub.

  Moments later, he was ready for her and was she ever ready for him. His hands on her waist helped to guide her down over him slowly, so slowly that she gasped at how good it felt to have him inside of her. Every last one of her nerve endings was already on fire when his tongue slicked over her nipples...and then going slow wasn't an option anymore. Because she needed more, needed to sink all the way down onto his rock-hard muscles, needed him to keep raking the edge of his teeth over her breasts one after the other.

  Fireworks had already gone off inside her once tonight, so brilliantly that she'd nearly been blinded. But as this second climax started to take her over, from the tips of her toes all the way to the top of her head, she was amazed to realize that when she was in Adam's arms, there were always brighter and brighter colors to see and even bigger and bigger explosions to experience.

  And then, his hands were back in her hair and his mouth was on hers again, kissing her through not only her orgasm but also his own, and then beyond...just the way they had each time before.

  Finally, with one more swipe of his tongue over her lower lip, he let her up for air. "We weren't done talking about the house yet, were we?"

  Every part of her felt warm and sated as she smiled and shook her head. "No, not yet."

  "How about we continue our conversation in bed?"

  If the water hadn't begun to cool so rapidly, she might have voted for staying in the tub with him forever. "Throw in a couple of steaks, a bottle of wine, and some fresh-baked bread, and you've got a deal."

  A few minutes later they were both wrapped in plush bathrobes, he'd called for room service, and they were sitting on top of the soft duvet drinking from a couple of mini bottles of wine from the minibar.

  "I've thought about the couple who lived in that house more than once since we moved away fifteen years ago," Kerry said, "but I always assumed their house must have sold to some lucky family. If it's in as bad a state as you're saying, I'm guessing that's not what happened."

  "Unfortunately, it went to some distant family members who forgot all about it."

  "You have to save it, Adam."

  "Because you loved it as a child?"

  "Yes, partly because I loved it as a kid. But also because that house, more than any I've ever known, represents true love. A love so pure," she teased, "that even you couldn't have missed it."

  He shook his head, feigning disgust, but she felt as though she was starting to see through him just a little bit.

  "You're planning to go by to see it, aren't you?" he asked her.

  Clearly, she thought, he was starting to see through her a little bit, too. "Sitting beneath that oak tree was always one of my favorite places to be."

  He frowned. "I'd hate for your good memories to be changed."

  "Don't worry." His concern was so sweet that she had to reach up to stroke his bristly cheek. "They won't be, no matter how bad you think it looks."

  "How about we go together? That way I can show you why it's not a completely lost cause."

  "I knew it," she said, leaning in even closer so that she could kiss him. "You were already thinking of taking the house on."

  He kissed her back before saying, "Maybe."

  "No," she said softly, "you're not a maybe kind of guy."

  The sudden tension in the room had her realizing that she must have overstepped somehow. Did he think she was talking about them? Or that she was wishing for more than the agreement they'd made?

  Kerry wished she could read his expression, wished she could figure out how to take things back to the playful, sexy place. Fortunately, the ringing of the suite's doorbell broke the slightly tense moment.

  "Hang tight, I'll go get our food."

  Adam was effortlessly gorgeous as he took off the robe and pulled on a pair of jeans to head out of the bedroom and into the connected sitting room. She could still hardly believe that she'd slept with him--or that she'd ever considered not sleeping with him for one second. Because even with that one weird moment they'd just had, having sex with Adam Sullivan was the best thing she'd ever done in her entire life.

  The very best thing.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  "Your turn now," Adam said between bites. "Tell me how things are going with the wedding biz."

  Kerry laughed as she took a bite of bread, swallowing it down with some red wine before saying, "You can't possibly want to hear about the minute details of planning happily-ever-afters."
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br />   "I like listening to you be passionate, whatever the subject. Especially," he added with a wicked grin, "when you're being passionate about something on my lap in the bathtub."

  She threw the rest of her roll at him as she laughed again. He liked seeing her loose like this, her hair down and tangled around her shoulders, her mouth curving up again and again into easy smiles.

  "Well, if you insist," she said with her own little wicked glint in her eyes, "I'd be happy to tell you all about the couple I met with for the second time today."

  Surprisingly, he found he really was interested. Still, he had to tease her by saying, "Let me guess. They were disgustingly, droolingly in love and they called each other Poopsie and Button."

  He was expecting her to laugh again, but she frowned instead. "Actually, they weren't like that at all."

  She looked so sad about it that he pushed the tray of food aside so that he could pull her onto his lap and put his arms around her. "Then what were they doing in your office?"

  She sighed, leaning closer to him. "That's what I keep asking myself." He pressed a kiss to her neck, and she shivered a little at the sensation before saying, "They couldn't agree on anything. Not location. Not size. Not style. Not even the month to have the wedding."

  "Maybe," he suggested, "he feels like a fish out of water talking to a wedding planner."

  "I'd have known if that were the problem," she said with a shake of her head. "This was different. Like they were both determined to push at each other."

  "But they've gotten this far, right? To the point where she's wearing a ring that he gave her and they're talking with the best wedding planner in the business."

  That got him a small smile, which he was glad to see. "True."

  "Some of the buildings I've loved working with most are the ones where, when I've pushed, she's pushed back just as hard."

  "Your buildings are feminine?"

  "Most of them."

  She rolled her eyes. "Figures."

  He gave her shoulder a little nip. "Can I get back to my point now?"

  She lowered her mouth to his shoulder and nipped him back. "Go ahead."

  Of course, instead of finishing his thought, he needed to slide his hands into her already tangled hair to kiss her breathless. They were both breathing hard by the time he finally let her up for air.

  "I think I get your point now." She looked back down at his mouth, then up to his eyes. "They probably have such great sex that nothing else matters."

  He should have jumped to agree with her. But for the first time in his life, he found he couldn't play the part of the player who only had sex on the brain.

  "I'm the last guy to say sex isn't important. But there's got to be more than that if things are going to work long term." When she didn't respond, simply stared at him as if seeing him for the first time, he tried to explain. "My siblings, my cousins--I've seen the way they are with their spouses. Sure, they can't keep their hands off each other, but that's just a part of what binds them together."

  "What else do they have?"

  "Respect. Trust. Dedication."

  "Wow, I'm impressed. You didn't even need to think about that list."

  "Like I said, I've seen an awful lot of couples in love, with my parents right at the top of the list."

  "Maybe you should have been a wedding planner instead of an architect."

  He put his mouth to hers, found her tongue with his, and then gently bit it.

  She was laughing even before he let it go. "Did you just bite my tongue?" she asked through her laughter.

  "Someone had to for saying that."

  He loved the feel of her shaking with laughter on his lap. So much that he really didn't want to let her go any time soon.

  "Look, all I'm saying is that maybe they like the pushing. Maybe they both like the challenge. Maybe they'd be bored with someone exactly like them, someone who thinks the exact same way. Maybe they like the excitement of knowing their partner will always surprise them."

  "I've never looked at things that way." She looked pensive. "I always thought friction was a bad thing in relationships."

  How, he wondered, had they progressed to talking so seriously about relationships? What they did on their nights together was supposed to be just sex. Instead, somehow, he was having to work to stop himself from thinking about how a real relationship with Kerry wouldn't be boring, because they didn't think the same way at all. Because she always surprised him.

  Sex. He needed to turn the focus of their night back to sex, and quickly, before things went any deeper and they both had regrets in the morning when they came to their senses.

  "All this talk of friction"--her skin was soft beneath his lips as he laid her back on the bed, peeled open her robe, lifted her arms up over her head, and began to kiss his way down her gorgeously naked body--"has given me an idea. Want to hear it?"

  "Maybe," she said as she licked her lips, "you should just show me instead."

  "It would be my pleasure." He grinned as he pulled the satin sash from her robe. "And yours, too, I hope. Have you ever been tied up before?"

  "What?" She sat up with a start. "No." She shook her head. "God, no."

  She looked so adorable when she was shocked that he had to kiss her. "Good."

  "Good?" She looked confused and maybe even a little irritated, too. "Why is that good?"

  "Because," he said as he gave her another kiss, "I like knowing I'm going to be your first."

  "You're not going to be my first. I can't let you tie me up."

  "Why not?"

  She made a little growly sound at the same question he'd asked her when she'd first told him she couldn't date him, and he was hard-pressed not to grin like a fool. There really was something to this oil-and-water stuff, it seemed.

  She was just so much fun, both to wind up, and then to watch come unfurled in his arms.

  "Because."

  He couldn't hold in his laughter anymore. Fortunately, by now her lips were twitching at the corners, too. "One good reason, Kerry. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't use this strip of satin to tie your wrists to the headboard."

  "Here's one great reason: I'm not like the other women you've been with."

  "I've never for one single second thought that you were." He dropped the sash so that he could put his hands on either side of her face. "And if I ever do anything to you that makes you feel like you are--if I ever do anything that you don't like--promise you'll tell me so that I can do everything in my power to make it up to you."

  *

  All her adult life, Kerry had stuck to her list of what was and wasn't acceptable. Obviously, letting a man tie her up in bed was on the not acceptable list. Then again, since she was already having a sexy night in a hotel with a totally inappropriate man...

  "I've liked everything you've done to me." But that wasn't good enough, wasn't anywhere near close to the full truth, so she made herself tell him, "I've loved it."

  The way he kissed her told her how much he liked hearing it. And then she surprised them both by shrugging off the robe, lying back against the pillows, and lifting her arms over her head.

  "Tie me up." Heat flared in his eyes, but when he didn't move to do it right away, she knew he was concerned that she might not really mean it. So she added, "Show me how much I'm going to love this, too."

  Finally, he smiled, and reached for her wrists with the sash. "You'll never look at a headboard the same way again, that's for sure."

  Despite her sudden nerves at trying another new thing with Adam, she had to smile back. His grins were infectious.

  Heck, everything about him drew her in. His smart mouth. His wicked smiles. His passionate kisses. His brilliant hands, always knowing just how--and where--to touch her.

  When he'd finished tying her up, he shifted back to look at her, his heated gaze slowly roving head to toe and then back up again. "You've got to be the most beautiful woman I've ever set eyes on."

  She could feel her sk
in flush, both at the way he was taking in her nakedness and at his compliment. "Thank you."

  "Jesus, hearing you say that prim little thank you while I've got you tied to the bed... You just might be the end of me, Kerry." His eyes looked a little wild and a muscle in his jaw was jumping as he directed her. "Tug on the sash."

  She tried to move her arms, but though she wasn't in any pain, they didn't have much give. She was well and truly at his mercy now. But though she supposed she should have been nervous about giving herself over to him this way, the only thing pumping through her veins right then was a desperate anticipation.

  "Looks like you're all mine to play with now, aren't you?"

  Did he know how his question--just on the edge of wicked--made her heart feel as though it were going to pump out of her chest? Or how badly she wanted him to kiss her?

  And then, just like magic, his mouth was on hers. Warm and heady, reassuring and wild, all at the same time. She got so lost in his kiss that she almost forgot her hands were tied up until she tried to reach for him. That was when he finally drew away from her mouth.

  "Every inch of you," he promised. "I'm not going to miss a spot."

  And, oh my, did he ever make good on his promise as he took advantage of having her at his mercy. He ran his fingers and lips and tongue over her curves, her hollows, lingering at the most sensitive spots. Higher and higher he took her with every caress, with every sensual stroke of his fingers over her until she was simultaneously shattering and begging for more of him.

  Thankfully, he didn't keep teasing. Maybe because he could see that she was at the breaking point. Or maybe because that was right where he was himself. Barely able to survive staying apart, when all either of them wanted anymore--all either of them needed anymore--was to be connected in the most elemental way possible.

  Her name was on his lips, and his was on hers, as he cupped her face in his hands. The moment hung between them like a gift you couldn't wait to open, but wanted to savor for just one more moment before you tore off the wrapping paper. And then, a heartbeat after he'd sheathed himself, his mouth was on hers again as he thrust into her.