Five Minute Man: A Contemporary Love Story (7 page)

Scenario B (her favorite): He was very interested, but he was an old-fashioned type who wanted to court her properly.

Or Scenario C (her least favorite): Not even the allure of this lovely cottage was enough to keep him around, and he had made his exit with polite grace.

There was one more, remote possibility: He was interested in her, but he didn’t think she was interested in him. That wasn’t likely. She couldn’t imagine she’d given him a wrong impression, not when she liked everything about him. That had to have come through. And he
had
been a complete gentleman all night – bringing dinner, listening politely, saying thoughtful things. He’d even helped clear and wash the dishes!

And
he said he wanted to see her again. Sure, a lot of guys said that without really meaning it, but Adam didn’t seem like the type of guy who would say he wanted to see her and ask if he could call if he didn’t want to and wasn’t going to.

God.
How could she write successful romance and suck at the real thing?

Holly changed into her pajamas, but wasn’t even remotely tired. She was too wired, too full of ideas. All evening she kept mentally translating his looks, his actions, his words into something she could put into her stories. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that he really did want her. His gentlemanly restraint forced her creative imagination to run wild with the possibilities.

Adam was not only hot, intelligent, and interesting – he really was the perfect muse!

“S
o?” Brandon asked, looking up from his physics book when Adam strolled in. “How’d it go?”

“Good, I think.” It had gone well, hadn’t it? She certainly seemed interested, but maybe he’d misread the signals. He wasn’t good at this kind of shit. For all he knew, she just wanted him for his professional expertise, maybe thought he was good for some contractor discounts and free labor. It wouldn’t be the first time.

No
, some part of him said, quickly rising to her defense.
Holly’s not like that.

“You going to see her again?”

“Yeah, probably.” Hell, if it was solely up to him, he’d hop in his truck and go back right now. But that wasn’t smart. There were rules to be followed, and right at the top was
don’t do anything stupid
. He needed time to process this, give it some serious thought. He wasn’t a kid anymore, jumping in with both feet without taking a real good look around first.

“When?”

Shit, he didn’t know. “Don’t you have studying to do?”

“Yeah, but this is way more interesting,” Brandon grinned unrepentantly. “So?”

“So what?” Adam grunted.

“When. Are. You. Going. To. See. Holly. Again?”

Adam popped open a beer and sat down in his favorite chair. As annoying as it was, Brandon was much better at this stuff than he was. Just like his father. Might as well take advantage of it. “What’s acceptable these days?”

“You really like her?”

Did he? That would be a great big hell, yes. He nodded.

Brandon sat back, contemplative. “Then you don’t want to wait too long. You want to give her time to think about tonight, but not too much. I’d give it three days, then call her.”

Three days?
Fuck, that sounded like a really long time. Especially when the weekend loomed around the corner with no plans other than working around the house. Alone.

He made it twenty four hours. Less than that, really, considering it had been after eleven when he’d finally hauled his sorry ass home and it was barely seven pm. All day long he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Wondering what would have happened if he had kissed her. Would he have been able to stop? Would she have wanted him to?

The moment he heard the soft hello on the other end, the words rushed out in a jumble. “Hi, Holly. It’s Adam. Listen, I know it’s short notice, but would you be interested in getting together tonight? If you don’t have other plans, that is.”

***

H
olly looked at the three slim plastic DVD cases on her kitchen counter, the tub of chocolate marshmallow ice cream she’d just bought, and the bag of white popcorn kernels. Yeah, she had plans. The same plans she had every Friday night – order a pizza and veg out with Max watching movies while horking empty carbs in massive quantities as a reward for being good all week.

But spending time with Adam could trump that easily. “What did you have in mind?”

He hesitated, as if the question was unexpected. “Maybe dinner in town, a movie at the Cineplex?”

On a Friday night? The very thought of the crowds gave her a case of the hives. Making a split second decision - and a tremendous leap of faith - she asked, “What about pizza and Redbox instead?”

He loved pizza, didn’t really give a shit about the movie, and would have her all to himself for the next couple of hours. “Sounds great, actually.”

“Awesome. Pepperoni, sausage, and extra cheese okay?”

Adam closed his eyes in bliss. Christ, this woman was too good to be true. “More than. I can pick it up on the way. Can I bring anything else?”

“I’ve got a six pack in the fridge, popcorn, and ice cream.”

“Perfect. See you in an hour?”

“We’ll be here.”

***

“I
hope you’re not partial to your crust,” Holly said cheerfully as she straightened out the edges of the fluffy blanket and plopped down on the floor, picnic-style. The lights were down, the DVD loaded. The pizza was hot and fresh, the beer cold, and the miniature popcorn machine was plugged in and ready to go. This was so much better than a rowdy crowd at TGIFridays and an overpriced movie theater filled with noisy teenagers and cell phone addicts.

“Why is that?” he asked.

“Max usually calls dibs.”

Adam looked at the big dog, currently laying on the blanket between him and Holly. Though he appeared to be in the exact same position as he’d been only a few minutes earlier, Adam noticed he was several inches closer to the pizza box, his concentration absolute, as if he could will the pizza into his paws.

“I think I can share. Does he like popcorn, too?”

“Loves it.” Which is why Holly had pulled three bowls out of the cupboard instead of two. She worried for a moment that maybe Adam was a little put off by the way she treated Max more like a person than a dog, but he seemed more amused than anything else. And he was kind to Max - she’d seen him slipping pieces of fortune cookies under the table the night before. For his part, Max seemed to have taken to Adam just as quickly.

––––––––

T
he movie was both funny and filled with action, a flick about so-called retired special agents finding themselves back on active duty. Adam had been a little worried at first when she’d suggested Redbox. What if she was really into those tearjerker chic flicks? Not that he wouldn’t be willing to sit through one if it meant spending time with her, but this was so much better.

Once they’d had their fill of pizza, they paused the movie and made some popcorn. When they started it up again, she sat closer to him on the floor, enough that their shoulders touched. Warmth spread through him from the point of contact, sinking deep into his overworked, tired muscles. As entertaining as the movie was, it was difficult to pay attention when all he could think about was how nice it was to have her next to him.

As the final credits rolled across the screen, Adam turned to look at Holly, only to find her already looking at him. Her gaze moved from his eyes down to his lips. He’d been able to resist kissing her once, but that same strength fled him now.

He leaned toward her slowly, giving her every opportunity to stop him, to turn away, but she didn’t. His lips brushed hers, tasting of salt and butter.

Her lips were so soft. Soft and full, and parting slightly in clear invitation. Adam deepened the kiss, his tongue allowing him a proper taste, and groaned. Needing more, his hand cupped the back of her head, silk beneath his fingers, holding her exactly where he needed her to be.

Jesus
. It felt as if liquid heat had been injected into his veins. Every nerve fired to life in a wave that started from where their mouths met and flowed out from there. In those moments, everything else ceased to exist. There was only Holly. Her taste, her scent, her soft and pliant mouth and the hesitant, exploring touch of her tongue.

Never before had a kiss had such an effect on him. Never before had he felt such a sense of rightness nor a blaze of hunger that threatened to turn him to ash where he sat.

When he finally pulled away, he looked into her eyes and saw the same dazed confusion he knew must be mirrored in his own. He wanted to say something, but for the life of him, he couldn’t think of a single, coherent thing. The only things popping into this mind were single words or simple phrases, like “more” and “fuck yes”.

She was staring at him, her little pink tongue grazing over her bottom lip and said...“I think Max has to go out.”

It took him a few long seconds to translate her words over the rush of roaring blood in his ears, obviously on the express train south where the rest of his blood seemed to be gathering. Her lips were darkened and slightly swollen from his kiss, her skin flushed, her eyes sparkling. He was vaguely aware of Max pushing his way up between them, his paw coming to rest on Holly’s arm.

Somewhat shaken, Adam leaned back enough to allow Holly to rise.
Shit. What the hell just happened?

***

H
oly earth-moving kisses, Batman
. Holly knew she was moving toward the back door, but it was not by conscious effort. Her feet took care of the left-right-left-right forward motion, her hand automatically reached for and opened the door. She even managed to step out into the cool summer evening and inhale a few deep breaths.

She’d read about kisses like that. Even wrote about them herself. But she had never actually experienced one before. One minute, she and Adam were sitting next to each other; the next, his lips were on hers and she was lost. For a few minutes, everything else ceased to exist, and there was only
Adam...
The feel of Adam – all hot, hard, and warm. The taste of Adam – salt and sweet and spice. The scent of Adam – clean and fresh and male.

If not for Max’s interruption, would they still be kissing? Or would they have progressed to other things? Would Adam’s hand have moved to cup something other than the back of her head? Would his skilled mouth have found something besides her lips to stroke and sip? Would she have let him?

Absolutely
.

Holly wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, and not from the gentle breeze. It was completely unlike her to lose control so quickly, especially over a
kiss
.

But good lord, what a kiss!

Holly was a very staunch advocate of the five-date rule: no sex until a minimum of five dates, and they had to be
good
dates that spanned a multitude of venues and activities – not just hanging out at a bar or watching a game. Since the number of men who’d actually made it that far were countable on one hand, she didn’t have a lot of experience. And of those, none had managed to light a fire in her core the way Adam’s kiss just had.

Had it been the same for him, too? She had been pretty out of it when he finally broke away, but when she had managed to pry open her eyelids, she thought he looked every bit as lost in the moment and stunned as she’d felt.

Her lady parts tingled with a potent combination of hope, lust, and anxiety. The really big question was, what was she going to do about it? Technically, this was only the third time she and Adam were seeing each other. Coffee, dinner and a house tour, pizza and a movie. Was she willing to break her five-date rule? Was she strong enough to go back to kissing (
yes, please!
) and
not
melt into a puddle of sexual need at his feet?

One thing was for certain, she thought as she impatiently waited for Max to do his business – she sure as hell wasn’t going to find any answers out on her porch.

As it turned out, she wasn’t going to find any in her living room, either.

A
dam put the last of the throw pillows back on the couch with a little more force than necessary. He had turned the lights back on. The DVD was back in the case; the remnants of their little indoor picnic gathered and the immediate area tidied.

He was still reeling from that kiss. Though kiss seemed a woefully inadequate word for what they had done. He could still taste her on his lips, still feel the way she’d softened so readily for him. His thirty-two year old body felt eighteen again, hot and hard and pumped up with primal urges.

From a fucking
kiss
. It was unnerving as hell.

He didn’t have to turn around to know that Holly had returned; he could sense her. His cock twitched in welcome as she hovered in the archway separating the living space from the kitchen area, looking every bit as off-balance as he felt. It was that – that hint of vulnerability – that made up his mind for him.  

“I should be going,” Adam said, his voice somewhat husky. His eyes flicked over her, but he didn’t hold her gaze. If he did, if he allowed himself to look into her eyes and see the passion burning just below the surface, he couldn’t be responsible for his actions. He wanted her with a ferocity that shook him to his core.

Disappointment and confusion flashed in her eyes as Holly accepted the empty popcorn bowls he thrust into her hand.  “Okay.”

“I had a great time.” The words fell so far short of the mark that he winced. It sounded more like an insincere platitude than the heartfelt sentiment it was. The evening had been perfect, exactly what he needed after a long day of busting his ass.
Holly
had been perfect.

How was it that he felt so comfortable, so at peace around her when he hardly knew her? At least until he’d started kissing her. Then the comfort and peace burned up like dry tinder in the sudden flames consuming him from the inside out.