Before he could go, he turned to the woman sleeping in the center of the bed. He scribbled out a note, thanking her, and placed it on her pillow. He left her with one soft kiss against the center of her brow, murmuring, “Love you,” beneath his breath.
And then he was off. One chapter of his life well and truly closed.
Another—he hoped—open and ready to begin.
Chapter Eleven
It’s my favorite time of day.
Jo could hear Adam’s voice in the back of her mind as she walked. Around her, twilight was settling in, the stars just beginning to come out, and she felt…
Brittle. But okay. Peaceful, in a strange sort of way.
Needing some kind of a distraction from the fact that Adam would be returning the following day, she’d spent the last nine hours in the lab, only leaving when the world beyond the windows of her office had started to dim.
One more night. Tomorrow, he’d be back. And who knew what would happen then.
All week long, she’d been circling, flitting between bitter pessimism and these stupid, ridiculous flares of hope. She’d settled now into something carefully neutral. He’d choose what he chose, and whatever it was, she’d live with it.
Clutching her binder closer to her chest, she directed her gaze up at the sky. A thousand odd miles away, under a slightly different set of stars, Adam was making his decision, or maybe acting on it, even. And she was here, doing exactly what she always did. Working. Surviving. And keeping her expectations low.
Ahead of her, the twin houses they lived in loomed, and she steeled herself. The lights in the girls’ house shone brightly, music wafting through the air. The whole crew was probably there, half of them three sheets to the wind. It’d be another late night. She’d put in an appearance, and then she’d excuse herself to her room and try to get some sleep instead of tossing and turning, letting her nerves churn.
Sighing, she dropped her head and sped her pace.
And then a voice called out to her. “I was starting to worry I was going to have to go looking for you.”
She stopped cold, peering through the darkness, her gaze homing in on the bench between the houses, the one where Adam liked to sit sometimes, except he wasn’t supposed to be here. Not tonight. He was supposed to be in Baltimore with the love of his life. Except—
Except he was here.
Something inside Jo started shaking, but she pushed it down. Adam was here. Even she and her lowered expectations couldn’t find a way to twist this into something bad.
At least the night hid the way a smile snuck across her face. It didn’t hide the catch to her voice. “I thought you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.”
“I caught an early flight.”
“And skipped an entire night?”
He rose from the bench, unfurling to his full height, the staggering breadth of his shoulders silhouetted against the light of the house. She stopped a half dozen steps away from him. Her breath fluttered hot inside her lungs.
“And skipped an entire night,” he confirmed.
Oh God.
All these worst-case scenarios she’d been spinning out over the past few days—she’d worked so hard to convince herself he’d be spending the entire conference realizing why he didn’t want her. She was too jagged, too much to handle. She’d never be able to give him what he wanted.
She hadn’t even begun to prepare for the idea that what he wanted might be her.
“And your girlfriend—Shannon—”
“I imagine she’s in Philadelphia by now.” He took a step closer, until she could see the outlines of his expression in the dim light. His eyes blazed, and there was a nakedness to him. The ways he’d been holding himself back before he’d left were stripped away. “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
Her throat went tight. “No?”
“No.”
He reached right through the distance Jo had put between them, demolished it, and shattered the last bit of reserve she’d kept against the storm she’d always known that he would be. Warm and huge, his hand settled on her arm. And then it was drifting up. Higher. To cup her face.
Her body was glass, and beneath his touch, it melted, flowing and liquid and bright hot. Throwing sparks.
“You came back for me.”
“Just like I said I would.”
“Because you can give me everything now.”
The earnestness on his face threatened to break her. “And more.”
It was the most terrifying thing she’d ever heard.
Good thing she wasn’t a big fan of listening anyway. Before he could get out another word—before she could ask another question she wasn’t ready to hear the answer to—she lifted her arm and curled a hand around his neck. His skin burned into her palm, the short hairs at the base of his skull soft and yielding beneath her fingers.
This time when she lifted up onto her tiptoes to press her lips to his, he didn’t stop her. She didn’t get the barest corner of his mouth. With a sound that set a deeper, hotter fire inside of her alight, he turned into her, pulling her hard against him. Her binder came between them, keeping her from feeling the full expanse of that muscled chest, but it didn’t matter. His one hand curved around her cheek, thumb stroking the point of it with a reverence she couldn’t think about yet, while his other gripped her hip, possessive in a way that made a lot more sense.
And his mouth—fuck, his mouth.
She scraped her teeth over the wet flesh of his lip, anticipation and need crashing and combining in her abdomen, twisting together and shooting off sparks. The points of her breasts flashed hot.
And just like that, she couldn’t take it anymore.
After all this time, inching closer and closer to each other but never quite getting there, she was ready to wreck him. Couldn’t wait to get her hands on every inch of his gorgeous body, wanted to ride him until he screamed. Finally get that fullness and satisfaction to ease the ache that had been building and building. When she was done with him, she’d have him covered in bite marks and scratches and come. And—
Shit. She tore herself away from him, shifting the hand on the back of his neck to his chest to shove at him, stealing an inch of space for herself so she could fucking think.
That was the kind of stuff she did with her one-night stands. She picked guys who looked like they were ready for it, and she never made any pretense about what she was after. It never really mattered what they thought of it, anyway, because hell if she ever planned on seeing them again. But Adam was different. That night she’d tried to kiss him, he’d held her off with so much passion in his eyes. Everything about him had said that if they went down this road, he’d be looking for more.
And even if it was just one night—for these next five weeks, they’d be living and eating and sleeping and working within spitting distance of each other. Manning a telescope together, their advisors and all these people here gossiping about them.
She had to stop. Had to slow down.
Except slowing down seemed to be the last thing Adam had in mind.
His gaze was molten in the darkness, his eyes hooded, and he didn’t let her get very far. “God, Jo. I want—” He bit off the word, the same way she’d been nipping her own desires in the bud.
It made her breath catch in her throat. “Yeah?”
“I want you. So much.” His fingers flexed against her hip, like he wanted to hold her even more tightly but wasn’t allowing himself to. “I’ve been thinking about it. The whole time, ever since I got on that plane to come back here.” He shook his head. “Since the first time I saw you. I’ve tried not to, but I couldn’t help it. What I want to do to you—what I want you to do to me…”