The Kiss (12 page)

Eva lifted her head dispiritedly and looked around the room. It
was as lovely as it had been when she’d first seen it, the furniture still
glowing, the carpet still plush but it was subtly different now. The scene of
her seduction and desertion.

Seized by an immediate and undeniable urge to leave Eva leapt
from the bed. She spotted a pile of clothes that looked like they might be hers
on the chair next to the window and hurried to them. She had to get dressed,
what if he came back? Eva knew that she couldn’t face him. She was embarrassed
and hurt, not a good combination.

You brought this on yourself,
her sensible side insisted.
You
behaved like… well the only word for it is easy
. Eva conceded that the
sensible side had a point, he’d taken her hand, led her to his room and mere
minutes later he’d had his head between her legs.
It was worth it,
her
wanton side argued. But Eva cringed again at her own actions.
What came over
me? What the hell was I thinking?

She tried to imagine what Adam
was thinking now, wherever
he was, but embarrassment stopped her. His absence said more than any words
could.
He probably waited until I was asleep and then fled. An easy lay,
putty in his fucking hands, just like Lily, just like Ryan.

Men did not spend their nights with easy women no matter what
they said to the woman in question.

Shaking her head, Eva slipped on her t-shirt. The bra was nowhere
to be seen but it wouldn’t be of any use anyway, what with him ripping it off
and all. Same story for the pants. She pulled her joggers on and the fabric
felt rough against her skin. The hair band had apparently disappeared. God she
hated her hair loose, no matter what Adam said, apart from the fact it looked
like a total mess Eva did not like it hanging in her eyes. She grimaced and
tucked it behind her ears, she couldn’t spend time searching for it.
I have
to leave now!

Eva was right in thinking it was night. As she crept out of his
room the windows directly opposite showed an inky black sky. Disappointment
raged in her. She couldn’t leave the middle of the night, with no lift and no
money it would be the height of stupidity.
Even dumber than jumping into bed
with someone you barely know.
She’d have to wait it out until the morning.

Feeling like a criminal Eva skulked through the corridors, and by
the sounds coming from more than one bedroom she was not the only one who had
been naughty, though she comforted herself with the thought that it was her
first night of madness, not the second. 

Turning the corner to her room Eva breathed a deep sigh of
relief. She would crawl into bed and try and forget what had happened. Surely
in the morning everything would seem better? Surely in the morning things
wouldn’t seem so bad and the weird little kernel of hurt blossoming in her
chest would fade? 

Taking her key out of her jogger pocket Eva opened the door. Her
room had never looked more inviting, the dim glow of the lamps and the turned
down sheets... she paused.
I didn’t turn the lamps on.

“I wondered when you would get here. You slept longer than I
thought you would.”

Adam was sitting on the chair in the very corner of the room, and
bar a pair of perfectly white, molded to his skin, boxers he was naked.

“What are you doing here?” she squeaked.

“Waiting for you,” he replied as if it was obvious.

‘How did you get in?’ she asked. A stupid question but her mind
had gone blank. Shock warred with excitement. Anger warred with desire.

“A key of course.”

“From where?”

He shrugged one perfectly muscled shoulder. “Does it matter?”

Eva backed up against the door unsure what to do. She was
disturbed by the fact that her heart was already racing in anticipation,
nipples already tingling at the thought of his touch. But more than that, the
most worrying thing of all, was the bubble of happiness that had burst into
life the moment she saw him. 

“Yes it matters,” Eva insisted, confusion making her voice sharp.
“This is my room. No one should have a key to it but me.”

He smiled and stood up. “Not even me?”

Eva took a deep breath and tried to ignore the utter perfection
of his body. She’d never been one for hairy chests but there was no denying
that his was extremely masculine, the way it seemed now that a man should look.
The hair continued down to his stomach and then into a line leading straight to
his waistband. Eva felt herself moan inwardly.
The goodie trail…
He was
so stunning. She could look at him for hours and not get bored.
Get a grip
girl, take a deep breath and freaking concentrate!
She squared her
shoulders and glared. 

Adam laughed softly, as if aware of her internal battle, and
walked towards her. Eva’s hand curled around the doorknob, caught in a flurry
of indecision. Wanting to leave yet wanting to stay. She wasn’t ready to face
him again but every part of her yearned to stroke him.

Determined that she would not fall for him so easily again, Eva
stretched out her hand, warding him off. 
I have to show some sort of spirit…
but I want him. I want to feel his tongue on me again, his body stretching
me...

“You don’t want to go anywhere Eva, and God knows I don’t want
you to. I need you here,” he said. “Let go of the door handle and come to me.”

The air was pulsing with the same tension as the last two days.
Desire, thick and heavy and swirling with intent.

“Ah, Eva, now tell the truth. You were not happy when you awoke
to find me gone,” he said. His voice rippled over her like honey, muddling her
thoughts again and Eva bit down hard on her lip to recollect herself. “That is
why you’re angry. But you have nothing to be angry about. I merely wanted to
get to know my new lover a little better and where else to do that but her room
where all her things are?”

“You were looking through my things?”

‘Yes.’

Outrage filled her. How dare he, had he no right.

“You are a very talented artist,” he said, stepping a little
closer.

“You looked through my drawings!” she shrieked, fury growing by
the second. “They’re private.”

“They’re excellent,” he said.

Eva’s mind went straight to Adonis Supersize, as she had named
him, her statue. “Why did you tell me to call you Adonis the first time we
met?”

He smiled slightly. “It’s a nickname, given to me by a very
beautiful woman.”

Ignoring the jealousy those words produced Eva glared at him.
“You know about the statue, don’t you?” she asked, for what other explanation
made sense but the fact that it was written on her sketches. “Who else has been
looking through my things?”

“No one that I know of,” he replied.

“Grace?”

He shrugged. “What does it matter?”

“It matters,” Eva insisted. “You can’t just come in here and look
through my private things, and neither should anyone else, and whilst we’re on
the subject I don’t like being made into some sort of joke between you and my
boss.” Eva felt strangely hurt. The thought of him and Grace colluding to make
an idiot out of her was not a happy one.

Crossing his arms over his chest Adam sent what Eva could only
describe as a tender sort of look. Her nipples tightened instantly and her
heart gave a strange little flutter. “You’re hurt because I wasn’t there when
you awoke and I apologize for that,” he said. “But let’s not argue. You want to
be with me as much as I want to be with you and we’re wasting time pretending
otherwise. Time is not something we have a lot of.”

“How dare you assume...” Eva began, but was given no chance to
say another word. Adam’s arm snaked out and grabbed her wrist. He pulled her
against him and lifted her chin so that his eyes, his perfect brandy eyes, were
looking directly into hers.

“I always dare, Eva. It is best for both of us if you realize
that now.”

“This was a mistake,” Eva said. “What happened earlier was a
mistake. I knew it as soon as it happened, I should never have let it and it
will
not happen again. Freaking hell, I barely know you.”

The fact that her nipples were engorged to the point of pain
against his chest was of no consequence, neither was the fact that Eva could
feel her whole body clamoring for his touch.

“What happened earlier was inevitable from the very first moment
you arrived,” he said. “I wanted you immediately and you wanted me. Whilst I’m
here you’re mine and I’ll pleasure you whenever and however I want.”

The bloody arrogance!
“I won’t do this,” Eva insisted, but
her voice came out weak and breathless, and completely contradicted the whole
sentence.

She tried to hold on to the embarrassment she’d felt earlier.
Tried to tell herself that she was behaving like a moron, a weak spineless
moron at that, but the words just weren’t going in. Her body did not want to
listen. All it wanted was Adam.

“Mine,” he said again. “As I am yours, and you can pleasure me
however and whenever you want.” And he lifted her by the waist and threw her,
literally threw her on to the bed. 

“How dare you,” Eva said again.

Adam’s gaze roved over Eva’s tightened nipples, her flushed face,
and excited eyes. “It’s fated,” he said. “Get used to it, because I have.”

Chapter
Nineteen

“Eva.”

Eva halted at the bottom of the stairs to find Grace watching
her.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come down,” Grace said. “I wondered
when you might show. I doubt you got much sleep the last couple of days after
all.”

Eva wanted, no needed, to blush. She was rigid with embarrassment
and absolutely mortified. It was obvious Grace knew something of what had
happened last night and Eva didn’t know if she was going to be difficult about
it. Despite what Adam had said Eva wondered if it was a sackable offence to
sleep with the guests. To not show up for work for a whole day? Adam had
assured her Grace would not mind, that she’d do as she was told, and caught up
in the lust Eva had gone along with it. Now though, faced with the older woman
she was nervous.
It would be just my luck to lose my job down to my own
rampant desires and foolish heart.
Coughing to clear her dry throat Eva
decided the best thing she could do was to brazen it out. “Why would you think
that, Grace?”

Grace smiled slightly. “Walk with me please.”

She set off out of the main foyer and towards the library. Eva
followed on her heels, which click clacked in time with the beat of the clock.
It occurred to her then that Grace was actually quite a small woman, and the
heels were an effort to make up for that fact. Dressed in a smart grey suit,
with her steel hair pulled back into a tight bun, she looked severe. Yet if you
looked closely, like when she had smiled when Adam arrived, there were traces
of the beauty she must have once been.

They turned into a small room, a parlor maybe, that was adjacent
to the library. Grace shut the door behind them and indicated that Eva should
sit down opposite her. “Tired, Eva?” she asked. “You look it.”

Eva
was
tired, her whole body ached in fact. Adam had kept
her up most of the night. The things they’d done... Eva blushed to even think
of them. But it hadn’t all been sex; they’d talked of many things. He’d asked
about her life, her family, her art and her other jobs. Eva had talked and
talked and then they’d pleasured each other some more.

It had been one of the best nights of her life and she wasn’t
ashamed to admit it.

She’d never known anyone like him, never experienced the same
feelings in anyone else’s arms. The lust she felt filled every single cell and
she couldn’t wait to see him again.
Damn I’m in trouble.

“So you spent the last two nights with him?” Grace continued. Eva
knew it wasn’t a question but a statement of fact. “Don’t be embarrassed Eva,
I’m not exactly surprised,” she said. “You’re a beautiful girl and I knew as
soon as he saw you that he would choose you.”

Unease, not the ‘I might lose my job’ kind, but something much
deeper, blossomed in Eva’s chest. “It was just last night actually, Grace, and
what do you mean choose me?”

“As his personal maid,” Grace replied.

Adam’s words came back to her. How Grace insisted on the title,
personal
maid
. Eva’s unease deepened, with the thoughts of the previous night, the
ones Adam’s amazing lovemaking banished, returning.

Just what type of ‘work’ were they expected to do?

“And what does being a personal maid entail exactly?” she asked
slowly, trying to feel her way around whatever felt wrong. “Because I’m
starting to wonder if this job is about more than serving drinks and making
beds.”

Grace laughed softly. “What do you mean?”

Eva leaned forward in her chair and the action reminded her of
the interview, was it just over a week ago? “Grace, you know I’m not stupid so
please don’t treat my like I am,” she said. “I saw how it was the first night.
The guests are all, well they’re lovely and I couldn’t help but notice that the
staff, the staff
you
picked are all just as beautiful.”

Grace shrugged her shoulder delicately. “My guests appreciate
beauty, Eva.”

‘And when they came and we were lined up, it was like I don’t
know being on parade or something, and I was chosen and then that other man
chose Lily, and when I walked back to my room on the first night… well the
walls aren’t that thick!”

“Eva, if a guest is attracted to one of you and the feeling is
mutual I don’t see the problem,” Grace replied.

Eva shook her head. Grace wasn’t being honest she could tell. It
wasn’t anything Eva could put her finger on, just a feeling, but it was
becoming stronger.
You should have listened to your feelings long ago Eva.
Days ago in fact.