caught at his heart. He didn’t know much more about her past after several weeks than he had the first night. What he did know was her sweetness and her tender heart. Not for the first time, he wished they’d met a different way, that he hadn’t jumped the gun with a fake proposal. He’d likely ruined any chance of something solid happening between them.
But she was just here for the money, and because she’d needed a safe place to land for a while. Why? He still didn’t know. He’d never found a good way to ask, and it probably wasn’t any of his business, anyway.
It wasn’t like they were really a couple... though it would be very easy to forget that right now with Riley perched on his knee, pressed against his chest, with her arms around his neck. This went beyond putting on a show in case someone came past the open office door. She really felt like she belonged in his arms.
Maybe... maybe she did. Maybe he could redeem their spontaneous meeting and his outrageous request. Maybe she was coming to see something more in him, just like he was seeing it in her.
Adam lifted his face from the damp spot on her shirt collar and studied her. Her gorgeous blue eyes, her unruly hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. He traced the tiny freckles dotting her cheek with one tentative forefinger.
Their gazes locked. Held. Then her lips curved upward, just enough to give him courage.
He pulled her closer — how was that even possible? — and caught her lips with his. “You’re amazing,” he whispered.
Riley’s eyes darkened as her arms tightened around his shoulders. And then she kissed him back.
It wasn’t their first kiss, not by a long shot. It also wasn’t the first one to stir Adam’s heart and soul. But something new had passed between them. An understanding of more than a mutually beneficial pact.
There might be hope here, hope for something real and true. He wouldn’t rush it with words, though. Not until he was sure it belonged to both of them.
He trailed kisses over her tiny freckles and back to her mouth.
“Are they doing the thing with their tongues?”
“I can’t tell for sure.”
Riley jerked out of his arms and shot to her feet, her eyes wild as she took in his sisters, who stood much too close. How had they snuck up on him and Riley? And what on earth were they doing, discussing kissing techniques? They were thirteen!
He pointed at the door to the kitchen. “Get out.”
Alexia crossed her arms and raised her chin. “You can’t make us. This is our office, too.”
“Yeah.” Emma peered from behind her twin. “We wanted to check our email.”
“But you’re blocking the computer and sitting in the best chair. I think it’s you who should get out.” Alexia looked between him and Riley.
Adam spun the chair and logged out of his email before surging to his feet and grabbing Riley’s hand. “Maybe we will.”
Riley was flushed from the kissing. He probably was, too, but all he wanted was to hold her close and do it some more. Somewhere without an audience of impressionable girls barely in their teens.
“What’s it like?” Alexia’s voice was full of curiosity. “It looks kind of gross, so what’s the big deal?”
A snort-laugh erupted from Riley, and she dragged him out of the office and through the kitchen and dining room to the foyer.
A cold wind cut through Adam as they stepped out onto the covered porch.
Riley shivered. “Brr.”
“I’ll warm you up.”
She shrugged away. “Back to your best behavior, cowboy.”
“Promise.” The moment might be broken, but he could still tuck her close to his side as they walked back to the cabins. But going inside together might not be the best idea. Not tonight, when his emotions were barely under control.
Those twins!
Riley gathered her wits around her along with her down jacket as she stood on the steps to her own cabin, the cold wind whipping at her.
What had just happened in there?
She’d known since that first night that Adam was a good kisser. He’d obviously done a lot of it. The celebrity singer was not likely his first girlfriend. But there’d been something about this kiss in the office that came from a deeper place.
Now he stood two steps below her, waiting for her to go inside. He sometimes came in, just as she sometimes entered his place several doors down. It didn’t look like tonight was going to