Trashy (Take It Off #10)(47)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Emotion rose up within me, causing tears to form in my eyes. “If I had stayed with him, you wouldn’t be in danger.”

Adam gripped me by the shoulders. “Don’t ever say that again. I’d take ten bullets. Hell, I’d die before I let you go back to him.”

“I don’t want you to die,” I whispered.

“I’m not going anywhere. I have too much to live for.” He stroked my cheek.

“Make love to me.” I was tired of talking. Tired of being scared. I wanted to feel something more. I wanted to feel him.

Adam swept me up into his arms and carried me into the dark bedroom. He didn’t bother with the lights, but it was okay because we didn’t need to see. Everything we did was done by touch.

And for a little while, I forgot everything outside of this room.

But I knew, deep down, when the sun came up, there would be no forgetting.

30

Adam

The higher the sun rose in the sky, the more I began to realize we should have spent more time talking last night and less in bed.

But when she looked up at me with tear-filled violet eyes and asked me to make love to her, I was fucking lost. There was no way in hell I could deny her anything.

Watching her flinch away with my outburst was probably one of the worst feelings I’d ever had. And that’s saying a lot considering the number of wives I’ve had. I never wanted to be someone she ever had to think twice about. I never wanted her to wonder about her safety or my intentions toward her.

Of course, she had yet to actually tell me she was mine. She’d yet to tell me she loved me, even though I whispered it to her all night long.

We were still lying in bed, the sheets tangled around our legs as I lightly drew my fingers up and down her back. She wasn’t a morning person; I’d known this about her for a long time. But I knew she was awake. I knew her brain was working overtime, and I felt the tension in her limbs.

“There’s a present in the kitchen for you,” I said.

Her head popped up and she gazed down at me in surprise. “What kind of present?”

“You’ll have to go look and see.” The excitement in her eyes and the way they twinkled made me wish I’d bought her something more.

For not being a morning person, she sure bounded out of the bed awfully fast. One of my T-shirts was draped across the dresser and she snagged it on her way out the door and pulled it over her head.

Amused, I followed her into the kitchen where her present was sitting with a big red bow on the top. Roxie saw it and squealed, running over to the box like it was a bag of money.

“I’ve always wanted one of these!” she exclaimed, literally hugging the box to her chest. She pulled the bow off the top and stuck it to the counter and began ripping open the box.

I laughed and stepped forward to help her. “You’re torturing the box.”

“Nothing stands between a girl and her coffee,” she quipped.

I shook my head, loving the fact that whatever seemed to be weighing on her in bed wasn’t as important as this Keurig.

“Do you know how to work this thing?” I asked as I slid the large black machine out and onto the counter.

She looked at me like I had four heads and began pulling off all the wrapping and prepping it to make coffee. She sure worked like she knew what she was doing, so I stood back and enjoyed the show.

In no time, she commandeered a spot on the counter, plugged it in, and had the water reservoir filled with filtered water from the fridge. She was so happy with this simple gift that it made me love her more.

Christmas this year was going to be fucking epic.

Suddenly, she gasped and spun around. “I need K-cups!” she went back to the box and started sifting through the packaging.

I laughed and opened up a nearby cupboard. She didn’t even pay attention. I cleared my throat and she glanced up. A smile broke out over her face as she studied the several boxes of K-cups I’d stocked up on. “I didn’t know what kind so I just got a bunch.”

She leapt at me, throwing herself into my arms and planting kisses over my face. Before I could turn it into a steamy make-out session, she was gone again, and the rich scent of coffee filled the kitchen.

She filled two mugs expertly and reached for the fridge. “Please tell me you have milk.”

I snagged the coffee closest to me off the counter and sipped the black brew while hiding a smile. She gasped again when she saw the neat row of creamer filling the top shelf.

“I didn’t know what kind you liked…” I began, but she finished for me.

“So you just got a bunch.”

I nodded, but she wasn’t paying attention to me. She went for the mocha creamer, and I made a note in my brain that was probably her favorite. After she added a generous amount to the cup, she leaned against the counter, cupped the steaming mug in both hands, and took a sip.

Her eyes slid closed and she moaned in her throat. My cock stirred in my boxers.

“Your coffee maker is better than mine,” she said, taking another sip.

“Guess you’ll just have to stay here lots.”

That didn’t elicit the desired effect. In fact, it seemed to drop a dark, rainy cloud over her previously sunny disposition.

“Thank you,” she said, ignoring my comment and closing the space between us to lean up and kiss me fully on the lips. When she pulled back, she glanced at the clock.

“Wanna go down on the beach?” I asked her.

I saw the desire in her eyes, but after a second, she shook her head. “Can we stay inside?”

“Coffee in bed?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

In the bedroom, we opened the curtains so we could stare at the view.

But Roxie didn’t seem to notice. She was growing more agitated by the second it seemed.

Antsy.

Yeah, that’s how she was behaving. And her eyes kept sliding to the clock.

“Do you need to be somewhere?” I asked, draining what was left of my coffee and setting the mug on the nearby table.

“No,” she answered but didn’t offer any kind of explanation for her behavior.

A few more minutes of her growing even more distant and I’d had enough. “Rox, what’s going on? Is there something you haven’t told me?”

“I don’t want to tell you,” she said.

I knew then it was bad. I tried to steel myself for whatever it was, but how did you prepare for the unknown?

“That probably means you need to tell me right now.”

She gave me a look like she had a bad taste in her mouth. A few beats of silence followed, but then she sighed. “Remember how I told you Craig wanted me to help him pay back the money he owes?”