Mister Match (The Match Series Book 1) (19 page)

Maybe the non-disclosure agreement she’d signed hadn’t explicitly covered their exit strategy from this farce, but the breakup was coming—their fake breakup, to follow their fake engagement. That was fine. It was what she had agreed to, when she’d agreed to the entire scheme.

The only problem was, she wasn’t at all certain she was going to like it, when the time came.

“I have an idea,” Adam said, his deep voice breaking into her thoughts.

“What is it?”

He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, briskly, as if asking her to look into his eyes. She did, and saw he was smiling at her.

“My idea is, let’s take this really slow.” He turned her hand over and ran a finger down the center of her palm. “Like this.” He moved up to her wrist and encircled it with his thumb and forefinger, as if testing its diameter.

“Okay.” Taking it slowly sounded good, although she wasn’t certain she knew exactly what he meant.

“Here.” He took her hand and placed it on his knee, silently encouraging her to explore him. The fabric of his dark slacks was smooth under her fingers, and she rubbed it experimentally, marveling at the newness of it—of him.
This is his knee,
she thought wonderingly,
and his thigh. I’m touching him. I’m touching Adam Masters.

He reached up and traced a fingertip down her cheek. “You’re so soft,” he murmured. “Soft all over.”

Kiss me,
she thought, thought it hard. Screw the exit strategy. Screw the fact that in just a few weeks, they would no longer be together.

That was exactly why they needed to take advantage of the present.

Kiss me,
she thought again. And as if could hear her thoughts loud and clear, Adam leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers.

Chapter
21

____________________________________

T
his kiss was softer and more exploratory than their earlier one. Adam ran his tongue along her lower lip, tasting her, and then drew it into his mouth for an experimental tug before releasing it.

Lisa sucked in a sharp breath, and he grinned against her mouth as his groin tightened
.

Her mouth turned him on. It was so soft and yet firm, just like her, and she tasted incredible—dark like a promise, sharp like a surprise. Perfect, like what he’d been waiting for.

She moaned against his mouth and pressed closer, seemingly mindless of her hands chasing up his thighs, making him throb with their heat and their nearness to his groin. God, how he wanted her to put her hands on him, to wrap her fingers around him. But he wanted to take it slow, for his own sake as well as hers. He wanted to make sure they both had time to adjust to the intensity of their connection.

He let her push him back onto the bed and breathed in deeply as she bent over him, her hair falling like a thick, dark curtain over him. Staring up at her, he locked his arms around her, holding her close, not wanting to let go.

It had been so long since he’d touched a woman. For a long time after his divorce, he had stayed single and alone because of the feelings it had brought of failure and heartbreak. Then, as the business had begun to take off, throwing himself into that had seemed as good an excuse as any to continue avoiding relationships.

But as soon as he’d met Lisa, he’d known he wanted to be with her, like this. He’d wanted her, with all her softness and curves, her scents and textures and secrets, to be his reintroduction into the world of the female body.

Her dark gaze dropped to his lips. He wanted to lean up and claim her mouth with his. But instinctively he knew she needed to go at her own pace, so he stayed where he was, letting her make the moves.

She surprised him by dipping down to press a hard, fast kiss to his mouth.

“Adam.” She murmured his name against his lips, and he almost lost it. Then her tongue flicked out and teased his upper lip. He groaned against her and closed his eyes. He couldn’t take much more of this torture.

She deepened the kiss, and he could taste reluctance as well as something much deeper—desire, he thought, mingled with surrender to the inevitability of their connection—on her tongue.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she murmured, almost to herself. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

When she started to push away, he cupped her elbows to hold her still. “What’s wrong with doing this?”

“Lots of things. For one thing, we’re here on business, and I learned a long time ago that I’m no good at mixing business and pleasure.”

She was referring to her ex again. He was surprised at the pang of jealousy that shot through him. “Stop thinking about Roger. I command you.” He said it jokingly, but he meant it. Somehow, some way, he needed to excise that idiot from Lisa’s mind and heart. Or at least from this hotel suite.

Lisa laughed, then sobered. “Look, you need to understand that Rodney was my business partner and my fiancé, and it went about as badly as it could possibly have gone.”

Adam blinked. “The guy wears baggy purple pants. Of course it went badly. He’s a moron.”

Lisa stared down at him for a second, clearly working at appearing incensed. “I feel like I should be insulted. I was with him for almost two years. I mean, I’m very much over him now, but I used to be in love with him. God knows why, but I was.”

He settled his arms around her lower back, clasping one hand over his other wrist to hold her close. The intimate contact felt perfect, even as it drove him a little bit nuts on a purely physical level. “I guess he was your Ivana.”

She didn’t answer immediately, as if considering. “I guess so,” she finally said. “So, the takeaway here is, never commit to a woman named Ivana or a man who wears baggy purple pants and considers himself God’s gift to women.”

Adam grinned. “Good rule.”

She smiled back down at him.

“But that whole thing about not mixing business with pleasure?” He wrinkled his nose. “That’s not such a good rule.”

“No?” She raised a dark, skeptical eyebrow at him.

“Not always. I mean, sometimes it’s the right thing to do. But,” he said, and rolled with her until she was lying on her back beneath him. Looming over her, he allowed his hips to settle into her, to press against her intimately. “This is a special circumstance,” he continued, huskily. “We’re supposed to be engaged. So even behind closed doors, in private, we need to practice, so we can play the part convincingly in public.”

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, so he laid a fingertip across her lips to still any protests she might have. “Plus, sometimes, when it comes to rules...you just have to break them.” He dipped his head and pressed a slow kiss to her collarbone, allowing himself to taste her skin there.

He was gratified when her chin angled up as if asking for more. He moved up to nuzzle into her neck. “Sometimes,” he murmured, “you have to go against common wisdom to follow your heart.”

There was a long, pregnant beat of silence between them as he realized just what he’d said—
follow your heart.
He’d pretty much just admitted, to her and to himself, that his heart was definitely involved.

He froze. He’d learned from his marriage with Ivana that he was an emotional guy—always had been, always would be. Of course, that didn’t mean he had to wear his feelings on his sleeve. Yet here he was, as good as telling Lisa, the very first time they kissed, that he was already heart-deep and falling fast.

But if his admission alarmed her, she didn’t say so. Instead, she ran her palms down his sides, and then she was tugging the hem of his shirt upward.

He pushed away so she could draw it over his head. His heart was bumping in his throat, and he had to work to keep his breathing somewhat steady as her fingers traced ticklish little paths of flame over his back and stomach.

Then she took him completely by surprise by leaning up and running the tip of her tongue over his nipple before sucking it into her mouth for one hot, fierce second.

The acute pleasure of it nearly overwhelmed him. He couldn’t help but draw in a sharp, ragged breath.

She stopped and pulled back abruptly. “Did that hurt? Was it too much?”

When he opened his eyes to gaze down at her dazedly, he was surprised to see genuine anxiety in her eyes, and something that looked like shame.

“No. God, no, not at all.” He nearly laughed, but cupped her face instead, caressing her cheek with his thumb. He could sense she needed the soothing. “It felt amazing. Too good. It almost made me lose it.”

“Oh.” Still looking slightly embarrassed, she glanced away. “Rodney never liked it much when I did that.”

Adam sighed and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then rolled again onto his back. He pulled her on top of him so that her hair was once again falling into his face.

He reached up and laid a finger lightly on the tip of her nose. “I need a couple favors from you, all right?”

She nodded slowly.

“All right. One, I want you to do that to me as often and for as long as you want. But I can’t be held accountable for how crazy it might make me go. I mean, I might start howling or something.”

She giggled, and he counted that as a point in his favor. “Two,” he went on, and leaned up to nip at her earlobe before murmuring into her ear, “try not to mention Rodney anymore, all right? At least for a little while. He can wait till we’ve got our clothes on again.”

She blushed deeply, and he instantly felt sorry for embarrassing her, but then she was kissing him again, and her hands were tugging at his belt and tickling the skin below, so he forgot all about Rodney and whatever bad things the jackass might have taught Lisa during their ill-advised relationship, and concentrated only on the gorgeous, luscious, curvy woman currently straddling his mid-section and just about driving him over the edge.

She licked and kissed her way down his chest to his stomach, making his cock go tight and hard with need. God, if he didn’t find release soon, he might split open from the pressure—

And then she sat up and stared down at him again. Her dark eyes were almost black. “I want—” She stopped.

“What?” It came out in a grunt, the most coherence he could manage. “Anything.”

“I want you to take off your pants.”

The desire, spoken with such bravery and uncertainty, was all it took to drive the last little bit of his self-control over the precipice. He reared up and caught her in his arms, pressed a hard, wild kiss to her lush mouth, and then pushed her off him to settle her, startled, on the comforter.

He shoved out of his pants and his boxer briefs in about two seconds flat. Her eyes rounded as she took him in, which pretty much made him feel like a king.

“Um.” She swallowed. “Wow.”

He pumped a fist in the air and pantomimed bowing to an invisible audience. “Yes. Just what every guy wants to hear when he gets naked.”

She laughed and then shivered.

He climbed back onto the bed and ran his palms down her arms. “Are you cold?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine, I’m just...”

“Are you all right?”

She nodded mutely.

“We don’t have to do anything. We can just hang out and play cards, or something.”

She grinned. “Did you bring a deck?”

“Always.”

Her smile turned wicked. “I guess strip poker would be pointless, since you’re already down to nothing.”

“Then let’s just say I lost and you won,” he murmured, and took her chin in his hand to pull her mouth to his.

Chapter
22

____________________________________

L
isa was currently existing on two levels of consciousness: the one in which she was feverishly kissing a devastatingly naked Adam Masters and enjoying every sizzling second of it, and the one in which a part of her was standing back, in awe of what was happening between them.

The man was just so insanely hot. And gorgeous, and kind and sexy, not to mention hot as hell, and sensitive and sweet, and had she included hot? Because, hands down, Adam was about the hottest guy she’d ever seen naked, ever.

And that cock of his. It was thick and gorgeous, perfectly formed. Just the sight of it literally took her breath away.

She had the perverse urge to pause their make-out session so she could call Willow and Clare to crow over her good fortune. Which would probably go over very well. “Excuse me, Adam, mind if I just make a quick phone call? Be right back. Don’t move a muscle.”

God
, his muscles. She ran her hands over his chest just to feel those hard pecs, his hot, smooth skin that stretched tautly over them. She moaned, a small, deep sound in the back in her throat. She couldn’t help it; the sound came out of her of its own accord, elicited by the depth of her attraction to him.

His palms were on her thighs, sliding up under the hem of her dress as he kissed her languidly. How, she thought feverishly, could he stand to be languid at a time like this? As their lips and tongues tangled together, she felt as if she were about to die, or explode, or scream—something loud and chaotic and out of control—if she couldn’t have, touch, taste, feel, envelop every single atom of him, right this second.

“I want to see you,” he murmured against her mouth. “I want to see your skin. I want to see you bare.”

She wanted to rip her dress off, her bra and panties, and be laid bare to him...but there was still some light in the room, and she wasn’t sure she was ready yet to be that vulnerable to him. “I...” she started, but stopped.

“What’s wrong?” He pulled away slightly and looked into her eyes. “Did I say something wrong?”

She shook her head, her heart banging in her throat. Then she pulled away from him. “Hang on.”

She moved off the bed to switch off the lamp near the door, and then went to the window to draw the heavy curtains closed. Where the room had been dim before with the falling light of evening, now it was nearly dark.

She stood there a moment, shocked at how liquidy her legs felt, as if they could barely support her. She could just make Adam out, as her eyes adjusted to the near-darkness. He was lying on his side now, propped on an elbow, watching her. The little light left in the room sculpted the planes of his shoulders and cheekbones, and left his face cast in shadow.

Her breathing was shallow as she reached behind her and unzipped her dress, and then slowly shrugged out of it to let it fall at her feet.

Now she stood in just her bra and panties, thanking the Universe that she’d put on nice ones. But she wasn’t sure whether she should slip out of them as well, or wait for Adam to come to her and do it himself, or—

He solved that dilemma for her by rearing up and reaching for her with a growl. He pulled her down onto him and pressed his face between her breasts. He took in a huge breath before letting his head fall back. His expression was nearly comical in its pure ecstasy. “God, you’re gorgeous. Your body is so lush. So full.”

“Full?” She tried to push away. “That’s the first time I’ve ever been described as full.”

“Oh, no you don’t.” He flipped her over onto her back and looked down into her eyes. “Your curves—they’re perfect. Your breasts are—oh, God. They are amazing. The first time I saw you, in that massage room back in Austin, I just wanted to reach out and— Well, let’s just say, you’re every man’s fantasy.”

Great.
He was in it for her tits. And he was also a liar. “I am not. That’s ridiculous.”

“Nope. It’s true. You’re my fantasy, anyway.” He slid a palm up her side, over her ribcage, and brought it to rest for a moment just below her breast. Then he cupped her and squeezed lightly, and her eyes fluttered shut. Suddenly, she felt full, just as he’d described her—full of him, and of the power of her own body.

But could she trust that power? Could she trust him to handle it?

“You’re in control here, Lisa,” he whispered. His thumb grazed her nipple through the lace of her bra, but he didn’t move to dip beneath the fabric. “You’re running the show.”

He was trying to let her know they could go wherever she wanted, and stop anytime she was ready. She knew that, and she appreciated it.

But she didn’t want him to stop. She wasn’t sure yet how far she wanted this to go—this moment, or the entire relationship—but she did know she didn’t want him to stop now.

In answer, she arched her back enough to reach back and unsnap her bra one-handed.

He grinned. “Wow. Hidden talents abound.” He peeled the garment off her, slipping the straps down over her shoulders, letting the cups slide off her breasts until just the very tips of her nipples were still covered.

She was covered in goose bumps, tiny constellations of nerves and anticipation on her skin, and her breaths were coming in short and hard. She wanted him to touch her—to take her into his mouth and suck her into that sharp, sweet oblivion. “Touch me, Adam, please touch me,” she murmured, trying not to worry about the fact that she’d just begged, and would probably do it again soon.

He grunted, a low, husky sound almost like laughter, and then latched onto her with his mouth.

Good Lord, the man knew how to suckle a woman. Her eyes slid shut and her head fell back as he pleasured her, one breast and then the other and then,
Ohh yes please and thank you so very much,
back again. She felt wildly, crazily on the edge, as if he was going to bring her to climax just by loving her nipples.

Was that possible? It had never happened to her before, but she felt unbelievably sensitized. And then she became aware of her hips grinding rhythmically against him. Apparently her body was as attuned to the dance as her mind lost itself in blissful pleasure.

“Sweetheart,” Adam rasped, “if we don’t slow down, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop.”

“Don’t stop,” she urged him, and then she felt his fingers slide beneath the hem of her panties into the heavy, thick wetness below, and her whole body shivered in gratitude. And then he slid his fingers inside her and rubbed a spot deep within, and she felt like—like—well, it was just indescribable—and he rubbed some more, his palm rubbing against her sensitive clit, and then suddenly she came, shuddering, right in his hand.

She lay, twisted and broken, convulsing from the power of the orgasm, for seconds or minutes, there was no way to tell. As she gradually floated back down and put the pieces of herself back together, she realized he was holding her, and staring down into her face with a slight smile.

“That was so beautiful,” he murmured, and pressed a kiss to her full, swollen lips.

“Well, I sure liked it,” she managed. She lifted a hand, which felt attached to a boneless arm, to press it to her forehead. “God, I can’t believe how fast... It usually takes me a whole lot longer than that. What did you do in there? You’re...”

She couldn’t finish, wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say. Some instinct deep within her was telling her to be embarrassed, but all she could feel was relief, and a funny sort of pride. She’d just come, shudderingly and completely, in about ten seconds flat, in an orgasm that had made her forget her own name. If she were on the computer and unconcerned about social niceties, she’d post it as a Facebook status.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Adam said, with laughter in his voice.

“I haven’t—I haven’t done this kind of thing in a while.” As soon as she said it, she winced. Why had she told him that? It had just come out.

“I haven’t either,” he said. This time he didn’t sound as if he was smiling. She opened her eyes a crack and saw that he was regarding her soberly, and she felt a quake deep in her stomach. Something significant had just happened. They hadn’t just engaged in some fun, fleeting, casual sex. It had meant more than that for both of them. Somehow, she felt sure of that.

And she wasn’t sure if that knowledge made her feel good, or scared out of her wits.

“But you didn’t, I mean, you didn’t get to—” She glanced downward, in the direction of his groin.

“That’s okay.” He ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “More than okay. That was amazing for me. I got to watch you. That’s all I need.”

She felt heat rush up her cheeks as she came back into her body more fully, simultaneously becoming more aware of the hardness of his erection pressing bluntly between her legs.

She pulled away from him and rolled to sit on the edge of the bed.
Honesty, remember?
she thought, and took a deep breath. “This is so strange.”

“What is?”

“Being here. With you.” She looked at him over her shoulder. “Naked.”

He grinned. “You’ve still got one layer on. And I guess it’s a little strange, but it’s kind of fantastic too, right?”

She managed to smile back. “Honestly, I’m not sure exactly how I feel about it yet.”

“Well,” he said, and she felt him run a hand down her back in a quick, soothing stroke. “How about you decide later? No reason to rush anything, right?”

“Hmm,” she hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. She was too drowsy to do either, already slipping into sleep.

He moved off the bed, and she reached behind her to pull the covers around her.

“I should let you get some sleep,” he said.

She nodded, grateful they didn’t have to have an awkward should-we-sleep-in-the-same-bed-or-not conversation. At the same time, she felt a little bit disappointed that he apparently didn’t want to stay. She wouldn’t have been opposed to some cuddling, at least for a little while.

He grabbed his underwear off the floor and put them on, and she felt another pang of disappointment as those beautiful hips and butt of his disappeared under jersey knit.

Then he moved back to the bed, lifted the covers and joined her.

“What...”

“Scoot over,” he murmured. “Make space, woman.”

She did, and then complied when he shifted her gently onto her stomach. Then his hands began moving over her back in slow, soothing strokes.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ll bet you don’t get a massage very often,” he said as he kneaded her shoulders. “I know I’m no professional, but at least I can try to make you feel good. You can give me pointers, if you want.”

He was giving her a massage. No one had given her a massage, paid or spontaneous, in so long she couldn’t even remember. And here was Adam, doing it just to please her, after he’d already pleasured her so thoroughly and selflessly. Her heart bumped in her throat. She was utterly touched.

“You’re doing great,” she managed, as his hands moved to her lower back, his fingers pressing experimentally.

When she let out a moan as he kneaded into the muscles along her spine, his fingers stilled. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, that feels amazing.”
Don’t stop, please, don’t stop.
As long as he never took his hands off her, she would be okay.

“Oh. Okay. Good.” His fingers started moving again, and she closed her eyes, losing herself in the pleasure of his touch.

A bleeping sound permeated her foggy thoughts.

“Damn,” Adam said. “That’s my phone. Sorry. Hold on just a minute.” He moved off the bed, and she heard him fumbling around with something, heard the jingle of what must be his keys in the pocket of his pants that he’d shed onto the floor. “Here it is,” he muttered, and then, after a beat, “Hello?”

Lisa kept her eyes closed as Adam moved into the suite’s living room. She didn’t want to listen in on his conversation. She just wanted to fall asleep.

“Hey, Dan.” There was a pause. “Yeah, Lisa and I just...we, uh, just got back from dinner a little while ago. What’s up?”

She snorted in her half-sleep state.
Just got back from dinner
—that was about the most boring euphemism for ground-shaking, earth-moving sex she’d ever heard.

“Again?” Adam was saying. “Wait, you mean new ones? Today?” As he spoke, his voice grew louder and then quieter again, as if he were pacing nearer to the bedroom and then farther away again. After another pause, Lisa could almost hear his business partner’s voice on the other end of the line. The man sounded angry, or agitated.

Or maybe she was imagining it. And she definitely shouldn’t be listening in. She fought her deliciously sleepy state to reach up, grab a pillow and stuff it over her head, to muffle the sound of Adam’s voice.

It seemed like only a moment later, she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.

She cracked an eye open to peer out from beneath the pillow.

Adam was standing there, by the bedside, leaning down to look at her with a concerned expression.

Suddenly, Lisa’s stomach felt funny. A sense of foreboding tickled up her spine. She pushed the pillow off her head and shoved up onto one elbow. “What’s up?”