Page 33 of Wait For You

The force of my climax stunned me. He was still curled around me, his arm banded around my waist as we tumbled over the edge together.

Several moments later, Adam eased back slowly. “Be right back,” he whispered.

I managed to straighten and collapsed on the bed, watching through low-lidded eyes as he returned from the bathroom.

He still had his jeans on when he stretched out on the bed beside me. He smoothed my hair away from my face, dusting kisses along my collarbone before lifting his head again. “Should I go now?”

My heart thumped hard, and I shook my head before I could think about it.

“Could you stay for a little while?”

Chapter Twenty

Adam

Tessa was warm and soft, and I wanted her curled by my side every night, which shocked me. When I thought about that night, now a whopping two weeks prior, and looked into her eyes, it was as if a door into my heart had opened. She walked through, and now she lived there.

I was falling in love with her. I had known her peripherally for as long as I could recall. Even though we hadn’t been close all those years, I trusted her completely.

The depth of my emotions floored me. I had honestly never expected sex to be anything beyond a purely physical exchange. I wouldn’t call it transactional in the driest sense of the word, but certainly not an emotional experience. There was a woman I’d seen off and on in Seattle over a period of years. I still considered her a good friend and cared about her, but that caring didn’t even come close to how I felt about Tessa.

With Tessa, I felt intensely protective. I wanted to slay all her dragons and protect her from anything and anyone who might hurt her. I knew she was strong, strong enough to leave an abusive relationship. I also understood she had to fight her own battles. I wanted to be there to catch her if she fell, to give her more strength if she needed it.

Her fingers traced a meandering path on my chest. I let my hand slide over her silky, soft curls. “When you said a little while, what does that mean?” I cleared my throat.

She lifted her head, her palm flattening on my chest before curling into a little fist where she rested her chin on it. I felt the motion of her shoulder when she shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, you can’t be here in the morning.” Her mouth twisted to the side. “Mom thing,” she added.

“I understand.”

I could feel her heartbeat against my rib cage. We were still naked, and she was lying half across me. She took a slow breath. “Like I said, if Rich were to find out, he would make things more difficult than they already are.”

“That’s a diplomatic way of putting it.”

“I don’t know how else to talk about it.”

“He was abusive. You can just say that.”

She blinked, her lashes falling. For a moment, I thought I had gone too far. When she opened her eyes again, there was a sheen of tears there. I let my hand slide down across her hair to curl around her waist and hold her closer.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” I whispered roughly into her hair.

When I leaned back, she blinked again. “It’s okay. I don’t often say it like that. Rich’s abuse was a secret I kept for years. I still sort of keep it. His parents don’t know. Lord knows what he’s said to them about me.” She chewed on her bottom lip.

“How bad was it?” I asked carefully. I was trying to manage the anger that surged through me and keep it in check.

She let out a little bitter laugh. “It was hell. He didn’t hit me often. Four times total. The verbal and emotional stuff was constant. He was angry and irritable. He threw things, he yelled, it was just impossible. There was no way to keep things peaceful. I felt crazy by the end. Totally crazy. And now…” She shrugged. “You saw me at Colin’s office. I just get so tired. Rich has filed modifications for custody repeatedly, like ten times, I think. The judge on the case is retiring. He’s a family friend of Rich’s parents, so it’s just made the whole thing worse. We have a new judge in Juneau, and Colin thinks it will help.”

“Ten times?” My muscles tightened, and I could feel Tessa tense instantly in response. I forced myself to take a slow breath.

“It’s okay,” she said quickly. I could hear the wish to soothe my tension away in her tone.

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m upset on your behalf. He’s using the court system to keep making your life hell.”

I could feel an incremental amount of tension slip out of her when the tightness in her shoulders eased slightly. “He is. Colin says it’s an unfortunate tactic. I can handle it. It’s nothing like it was living with him.”

“Can I help?” I liked to fix things, to make them better. I liked things to make sense in life. That was why I loved numbers so much. Patterns and predictability were built into them.

She studied me before shaking her head. “I appreciate that you understand. It means more than you could imagine.”