Taking On The Billionaire (Redhawk Reunion #1) - Robin Covington Page 0,27
with Tess, no matter how he could get it.
But not this way.
“You know what? Don’t answer that.” He tucked a curl of hair behind her ear. “You don’t owe me that. Not just for listening to my story.”
Tess considered him, her green eyes taking him apart inch by inch. He didn’t shy away from it, he was man enough to take it. Her armor didn’t scare him.
“I have a sister too,” Tess began, her smile chagrined as she shook her head in an I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this way. “Her name is Mia and she’s making me prematurely gray.”
“Your parents? Is it just the two of you?”
Tess nodded, breaking eye contact to pull fluff he could not see off her skirt. “My mother was gone when Mia was a year old, I was five. My father passed when I was twenty. I raised Mia.”
“You got the teenage years,” he noted, relieved to see a smile twist up her full lips. “Not the best luck.”
“And she gave me fits. Sneaking out of the house, terrible boyfriends, even worse clothing and hairstyle choices. It’s a miracle we both survived.”
“And now?”
“She’s at college. Whip smart but still has horrible taste in men and clothes.” Tess shrugged, her grin more genuine this time, and his stomach flipped with the impact of it. “We didn’t have an easy time of it. My father was ill, mentally ill, and it made life hard at times. Mia’s success is a happy ending to all of that.”
“I’m so sorry. What did he do? Is Mia following in his footsteps? Did you?”
“What? No.” She waved him off, weaving her fingers with his as she avoided his eyes. This was where she buried the worst of it and he’d let her keep her skeletons where they were. “He was a scientist. An inventor.”
“All scientists are the kissing cousins of poets.”
Tess considered that, nodding her agreement in the end. “That must be true. He was as tortured as a poet. Broken dreams haunted him, things that had been taken from him chased him to the end.”
The pain in her voice was palpable, the words weaving a scent of bitterness in the air that he could almost smell and taste. There were also traces of anger in her tone. Understandable under the circumstances. Anger was something he understood very well.
“So, you see, I know firsthand that family can be hell.”
Tess rose from the chair and Adam took her hand, turning it over to kiss her palm, nipping the most tender part and making her squirm. Tess giggled and he wanted more of it, standing and leaning over to press kisses along her neck, her shoulder.
He pulled back and looked down at her, pleased to see the flush in her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. No more heavy talk tonight. They’d lived it once, they didn’t need to go through it again.
“So, dinner... Are you still thinking about? Can we be seen together in public now that I know you have a sister?” he teased, feeling the mood in the room lighten as her eyes lit up with shrewd humor.
“We just ate. How can you be hungry enough to talk about our next meal?”
“That’s not what I’m hungry for right now,” he said, the truth slipping out easily as the mood shifted again, sliding deeply and completely into something darker and needier.
Tess moved in closer to him, her hands sliding up his chest and around his neck, ensuring that every part of her body was flush against his.
“I love your body,” he growled, running his hands up and down every part of her he could reach. Her fine, full ass. Heavy, soft breasts. The curve of her hip. The soft velvet of her skin. “It should be illegal for anyone to look like you, Tess.”
“I could say the same about you, Adam Redhawk. You’re tempting enough to make me break all of my rules.”
“Really? You always seem to be in perfect control around me.”
“Then you’re not paying attention.” She considered Adam, a wicked gleam darkening her eyes to the deepest emerald as she stepped in even closer. If that was possible. As it was, he wasn’t sure where he began and she ended. “I think you’re hot.”
“Good to know, but I don’t think my looks rock your control.”
Tess let loose with the tiniest hint of a smile, transforming her expression into the epitome of pure sin. “Your taste. I can’t get it off my tongue. I’m always craving more.”