Breaking the Rules (5 page)

"That," Adam breathed against her ear, "was just a warm-up. I'll
give you a real kiss when we get home."

It would have been a
discredit to call Adam an excellent kisser. The truth was the kiss he called a 'warm-up kiss' was better than any Carly could remember. Without question, it was the best first kiss she had ever experienced. Adam kept his promise that he would give her real kisses when they arrived at her apartment. There were many, many kisses, and each one seemed better than the one before.

“
When do you fly out?” Carly asked. Now that they had decided to see where things went between them, she felt the need to steel herself for his departure. She would have much rather stayed nestled against him in silence, but she needed to know.

Adam pulled her into his lap.
“I’ll head out about five.” He said burying his face in Carly’s long waves. “I have two meetings in the morning, but then I’ll come back here. Do you work tomorrow?”

Carly shook her head,
grateful that tomorrow was her last day off for the week.

“
Good,” he said relieved. “Want to catch a matinee before I go?”

Carly smiled
, knowing that he was trying to fill his remaining time here in the city by spending it with her. She nodded.

***

Thanks to the weight of having any sort of label on what they were doing, Tuesday was the longest day Carly had had in a long time. She cursed the clock as minutes passed while Adam was in meetings. Those were minutes she wished she could spend with him.

As the thoughts crept into her mind, she admonished herself for having these feelings so
soon. These emotions were foreign to her. There had been plenty of men to come in and out of Carly's life without leaving any significant impression on her heart. Ironically, she'd had no problem getting them into bed. Now, this incredible man she'd known most of her life was leaving imprints on her heart without leaving them on her body.

By the
time Adam walked through the apartment door, Carly felt like she had been sitting alone in the apartment obsessing for days. She needed to get out and feel the sun and the wind on her face. "Ready?" she asked, jumping from the couch.

"Do I have time to change?" Adam laughed, pulling loose his
tie. Biting the corner of her lip, Carly nodded. She worried she was going to push him away in his last hours here by coming across as the needy, clingy girl she’d fought so hard to never become.

When Adam reached for Carly's hand as they walked the six blocks to the movie theater, she felt a
charge running through her arm. The exact feelings she had scoffed at when her friends said they felt it.

Before Adam, she was
certain claims of tingling at the touch of another person were fallacies. No one really felt that. But here she was, feeling it. That charge did nothing to ease the melancholy she felt knowing they were together for only a few more hours.

"You're doing it again," Adam said, still looking straight ahead. His eyes were masked by a pair of dark aviator glasses
, but the smile lines peeking from the sides of the frames told Carly he was giving her a hard time.

"Doing what?" Carly asked, hoping he hadn't
actually noticed the drop in her mood. She was not a girly girl and didn't want him to see her moping. There would be plenty of time for that once he left.

While they waited for the walk light at an intersection, Adam turned Carly to him leaving his hands resting on her shoulders. "You're being a girl," he laughed. "The Carly my sister was friends with all those years ago never looked like this. She didn't over-think things
, and I distinctly remember her saying no guy was worth getting upset over. So, whoever has taken over Carly's body needs to jump the hell out and give me my friend back."

She knew he was trying to lighten the mood
, but it had the opposite effect. Everything he said was true. Carly was more than happy to spend time with guys in school but never become attached to them. And why did her heart sink at his use of the word “friend” again? Sure, they hadn’t said they were “going steady” or whatever adults called it, but what she felt for him was so much more than friendship.

Carly spent most of her life trying to
build the walls around her heart to keep people out. That happens when both of your parents abandon you by the time you're three, leaving you with no memories of them. Luckily, Carly had Gran and Pop Turner. They did everything they could to make sure Carly knew they loved her. That didn't change the fact that the two people who should have loved her no matter what left her. If they could leave her, Carly was certain it would be easy for anyone to walk out of her life without a backwards glance. What made Adam worth the risk? Carly needed to decide if Adam
was
worth the risk and she needed to do it soon.

"Sorry," she said
, leaning into Adam's chest. "You're kind of like a drug, you know that?" The truth in Carly's words surprised her. It wasn't what she expected to say, but it was fitting. She felt like a junkie who was down to one last pill with no clue when she'd get more. The anticipation of her withdrawals was keeping her from enjoying the high while it lasted.

Adam cocked his head
. "A drug? Not sure I've been compared to something that will thoroughly control and destroy lives before, but that’s fantastic to know," he said pulling her closer into his body. "You sure you want to go to a movie with me? We were taught to say no to drugs, so you probably should turn around and go home."

Why did the
man with just about everything Carly never realized she wanted have to live so far away? Why did he have to get on a plane later tonight and leave? How had she never noticed how caring and funny he was before now?

"Yeah... that's what I meant," she said sarcastically. "I just meant you're
addictive. You need to come with a warning label." For effect, she playfully smacked him on the butt.

The light turned and they kept walking. Adam stopped short as they walked past a pub on 7th Avenue. "What do you say we skip the movie?"
He asked as he peered through the front window. Carly shrugged and followed him inside.

"I don't want to waste our last few hours together sitting in a dark theater while old people throw popcorn at us for talking," he said as they walked to a small table near the back of the building. Even though it was late afternoon in the middle of the week, there was a band playing an acoustic set on the small stage.

For the next three hours, Carly and Adam sat next to one another at their small square table. Since everything between them was now out in the open, Carly allowed herself to engage in the easy conversation that had eluded them the night before.

When the singer started thrumming his guitar and singing about running out of time for love, Carly felt tears collecting behind her eyelids. What they shared between them wasn't
necessarily love, but she could understand the sentiment of the words.

***

When Adam had boarded the plane to come to New York, he had been upset with his boss for making him cancel another in a long line of first dates. It seemed all of his friends were reaching the point in their lives when they were settling down and starting families. Adam liked to think that was in his own future, but it wouldn't happen if he wasn't home long enough to meet the right woman. It scared him a bit to admit that this trip could be a step in that direction.

“Hey, you doing okay over there?” Adam asked, noticing Carly pulling into her
shell yet again.

He hated everything about the
ir situation. If only he had known how well they complemented one another when he was a horny teen with a crush on his sister's friend, he would have pursued his feelings. Maybe then, she never would have moved away. Maybe they would now be happy together with their own little family.

“Yeah, I'll be fine,” Carly lied. “I wish you didn't have to go.” Adam hated the
sadness that was filling her eyes.

“I know babe, but I'll be back.” It was the
slow time of the year for ETS, but Adam hoped he would still be able to get out here a couple times a month.

“Yeah, but that does nothing for the fact that the bed's going to be cold tonight,” Carly sighed.

Adam leaned in so that his forehead pressed against Carly's. “Hey, we got through all these years without each other. The difference is that now we know the bed won't always be cold. You're going to get sick of listening to your damned phone going off because I'm going to be calling and texting so often.”

“True, but what will I do when I walk into the dark alley after work tomorrow night
, and there's no creepy stalker there waiting for me?” She asked, trying to lighten the mood that she'd pulled into a dark recess.

“If you walk out there alone, you'd better be prepared for an ass chewing when I find out,” Adam said sharply. While Carly claimed
he had caught her on some of the few nights she had left the theater alone, he was unconvinced. He prayed she would listen to the single request he had made of her for the times when they were apart.

“Yes, creepy big-little brother,” Carly chuckled twisting her face and sticking out her tongue. If it was possible, Adam was even more attracted to her when she got smart with him and made goofy faces.

Three songs later, Adam looked at his watch. If he had any hope of making his flight, they were going to need to catch a cab back to the apartment and pray the cabbie was willing to wait while he grabbed his suitcase.

***

It would have been easier to say goodbye at the apartment, but Carly insisted on riding with him to the airport. By the time they circled their way around to his terminal, Adam realized he was in huge trouble. The pain in his chest let him know he was falling hard for Carly Turner. It was way too soon to call this feeling love, but there was undeniably something there. Something he wasn't looking forward to leaving behind.

“Okay, so I guess this is me,” Adam said as the cab pulled to a stop in front of the door.
Even though he knew he was running behind and needed to make his way inside, he took his time pulling out his wallet to pay the cabbie. Stepping foot on the sidewalk would make it seem more real that this time was over.

“Yep,” Carly mumbled. She tried avoiding making eye contact with him. When she did look up to him, it crushed his heart to see a single tear rolling down her cheek.
He slid out of the cab and reached for Carly’s hand, pulling her close to him.

“Hey, I'll call you the minute my plane lands,” Adam assured her. “And tomorrow, I'm going to make some calls to see how soon I can get back out here. And you're coming home in September, right?” Carly nodded. “It'll be okay.” Adam ran his thumb across her cheek, wiping away her tears.

Carly sobbed into his chest. “I know; I just hate goodbyes.”

“So don't say it,” Adam whispered between gentle kisses to the top of her head. “You have to promise me you're not going to stay like this for long. You're killing me here.”

“I'll be fine. Just go,” she said softly. She sucked at lying. Adam could tell this was just as hard on her as it was on him. He wanted to figure out how to ease her pain.

Adam cupped the sides of Carly's face in his hands brushing his lips against hers. Sensing her tension, he gently nipped at her lower lip. He needed to taste her. He needed this kiss to stay on her mind until he could come back to her.

Carly pressed harder against his lips as he entered her mouth. She tasted like a heavenly combination of red wine and sweetness that was distinctly Carly. She moaned softly as his tongue traced every surface of her mouth before she started sucking gently on it.

Under the overhang at the crowded airport terminal, their bodies nearly melded into one, neither willing to loosen the embrace. Feeling the way her body nestled into his chest, the top of her head made it hard to move.

“You'd better get going,” Carly sighed.

Adam buried his face into the mess of blond
e waves loosely piled on Carly's head. She smelled like jasmine and lavender, his new favorite scent.

“I know,” he said softly, “I really wish I didn't have to.”

“So don't,” Carly said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Did they re-book the end of your week?”

Shaking his head, Adam reached down for the handle of his suitcase. “No, but I have meetings in the office Thursday and Friday.
If there was any way I could miss them, I'd burn a few more vacation days for you.”

I
f he truly thought he could get away with it, Adam would burn every hour of vacation time he'd banked for the past eighteen months just to have more time with Carly. It was too soon to know for sure, but this girl held more promise of being 'the one' than any woman he had dated in the past three years.

“I suppose I
could rebook for tomorrow night,” Adam said after a moment of contemplation. “I don't have anything going on tomorrow, and I can tell them I'll work remotely. Would that make it all better?”

***

Carly wanted more than anything to tell him that yes, his spending another night with her would make everything right with the world. Unfortunately, that would mean they would have to go through goodbye again tomorrow night. She hadn't expected Adam to take her seriously when she mentioned him not getting on the plane. If she had thought for a moment that he would stay, she wouldn't have said anything.