Secret Kiss (3 page)

After he’d enlisted, he’d stopped taking the medication and found the bliss that was training. He knew that most people didn’t look at it that way. The majority of people hated to exercise. But, for Adam, it was the only time he truly felt at peace.

Until this morning. His chest was tight and his legs were on fire as he finished his fifth mile in under thirty minutes, but his mind was still going a hundred miles a minute. It wasn’t quiet. It wasn’t blank. All he was thinking about was whether or not Jane did, in fact, live across the street from him. He’d chosen this property because it was located on a dead-end road that boasted only two residences—the cabin he was renting and the cottage on the hill opposite it—so he figured he wouldn’t be bothered much out there.

His realtor, Lauren Harrison—who wasn’t only a realtor but also a TV celebrity who hosted
Home Sweet Vacation Homes
with her fiancé, Ben—had only told him that the tenant who lived across the way was quiet. That was it. He hadn’t thought to ask for more information. But, after having seen the silhouette, which had disappeared in the blink of an eye, he was wishing he’d asked a few questions.

As his feet pounded faster and faster on the worn path, he inhaled deeply and pushed his body to the limit. His legs burned with exertion, and the cool, crisp mountain air stung as it filled his restricted lungs. He used every ounce of energy he had to concentrate on running. Just running. Putting one leg in front of the other with greater and greater speed, climbing the hill and attempting to clear his mind.

It didn’t work.

Rounding the corner of the trail, he headed back down towards his new home. It had just been a shadow; to the untrained eye, there had been no way to tell if the dark figure was the woman that, since the first time he’d laid eyes on her three weeks and four days ago, he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind.

Jane Marshall.

He’d been shooting pool with his cousin at the bar, and the second his eyes had locked with her honeyed pools, which were surrounded by a thick blanket of dark lashes, he hadn’t been able to see anything but her.

She was all that existed. Time stood still. The rest of the world disappeared.

When Levi snapped his fingers in front of Adam’s face, breaking him out of the spell he’d fallen under, he had no way of explaining the phenomenon that had just happened to him. But he knew one indisputable fact: he needed to stay away from the amber-eyed, raven-haired beauty. Far away.

And he had. For the entire month that he’d been in Hope Falls, Adam managed to keep their contact to a bare minimum.

He avoided her at Sue Ann’s Café, where she was picking up lunch and stumbled into him. He pretended to have to take a call after he’d steadied her, but not before his body had memorized the feel of her soft curves against him and the touch of her satin skin beneath his fingers.

He avoided her at the bar every time he saw her there. He noticed she never had more than one drink. And not only did she never
finish
her first drink, she never actually
drank
it. Each time she’d been there, she allowed her friends to order her a drink, but to say she nursed it was overstating reality. She’d take one, maybe two sips the entire night.

He was almost successful at avoiding her at Levi’s wedding. Actually, he’d done just fine steering clear of her at the nuptials themselves—it was at the reception that he’d slipped up. That misstep ended up turning into a job offer, one he feared might cause him to lose his sanity since accepting the contract to look into the bugs plaguing the tutoring app Mike and Nikki had developed meant he would be working, potentially closely, with none other than the woman who was plaguing his mind for the last month.

Steadying his breaths, he slowed his pace as he came to the end of the trail that led into the dead end road his rental sat on. Looking up, he squinted as the sun rose over the rugged terrain of the Sierra Nevadas. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he stared up at the cottage-style cabin across the street. His eyes scanned the exterior, looking for any clue that would help him solve the riddle of whether or not he’d had a Geto Boys moment and his mind was playing tricks on him.

As the dawning sun ushered the new day in, the unwavering certainty he’d felt last night was slipping away. Shaking his head, he let out an audible sigh as he realized he’d been obsessing over nothing.

What were the chances that the one woman he’d been trying to avoid was now not only his coworker, but his neighbor as well? Hope Falls might be a small town, but it wasn’t
that
small.

Starting up the driveway, Adam couldn’t help but find the amount of time he’d wasted indulging his overactive imagination amusing. He was no psychologist, but his behavior did have him wondering if his refusal to deal with his ex had anything to do with his current state of mind. Like maybe his preoccupation with Jane was merely his subconscious attempting to distract himself from Alexis.

If that was the case, he might need to pick up the phone and get some closure. He still had a couple of hours before he was due at the office. He’d planned on using that time to unpack and give the kitchen some much needed TLC. He loved to cook, and that wouldn’t be happening in his kitchen’s current state. But now, he was thinking his time might be better served by doing some internal housecleaning rather than external.

He strode with determination and had almost reached his front door when he heard the sound of an automatic garage door opening. On instinct, he turned around. When he saw a white Prius backing down the driveway, he didn’t have to see the driver to know that his late-night vision hadn’t been his mind playing tricks on him at all. Nine out of ten people in Hope Falls drove trucks, SUVs, or Jeeps. There were some exceptions, of course.

But he only knew one person who drove a white Prius.

Jane Marshall.

The car’s back tires rolled onto the road and he got a glimpse of her shiny, dark hair and angelic profile. As if she sensed his eyes on her, Jane’s head lifted and her stare locked on his. He stood still, mesmerized by the sight of her. Even though they were looking at each other through the glass of the passenger side window, the moment somehow felt intimate.

His arm moved up of its own accord, and before he had the conscious thought to do so, he waved at her. Awkwardly. As soon as his brain caught up to what his body was doing, he lowered his hand. But not before he saw Jane’s light brown eyes widen as a blush crept up her angelic cheeks.

After a tiny wave of acknowledgement and a small grin, Jane faced forward and drove down the street. Adam watched as her car disappeared around the corner. Seeing that Jane was, indeed, his neighbor made him aware of several things at once.

First, his gut instinct had been proven right once again. Since things had gone sideways with Alexis, he’d been hesitant to trust himself.

Second, not only was he going to be working side by side with the only woman who had tempted him in years, he was going to be
living
side by side with her. Or was it face-to-face? He wasn’t sure.

Third, the thirty or so seconds their eyes had met had made his heart pound harder and faster than it had the entire time he’d been punishing his body with the vigorous six-mile run he’d just done.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

‡

E
verything’s fine. There’s no reason to panic,
Jane assured herself as she tried to steady her shaking hands, which were gripping the steering wheel like her life depended on it.

During the time she’d spent as the right-hand man—or, in her case, woman—to a high-profile politician, Jane had learned a few tricks to deal with stressful, overwhelming circumstances. The first was to remain calm. Check—or semi check for effort, at least. The second was to rationally list the events or issues at hand. Sometimes, facing an issue head on made it a little less scary. It took some of its power away.

So, while turning onto Main Street, she began doing a mental run-through of her current predicament with as little drama as possible.

Okay, a very uncomfortable interaction had just occurred. Sure, Adam had seen her with no makeup on. Yes, he now knew that she lived across the street. True, she’d ogled him like a sailor stepping on dry land for the first time in months, smack-dab in the middle of a strip club. But it wasn’t like she meant to have an Adam sighting at five thirty in the morning, especially one in which he was wearing sweats and a damp T-shirt that clung to him like a second skin. A mouthwatering, chiseled skin.

Holy. Hotness. Batman!

Before this morning, Jane had given zero thought to Adam’s attire. She’d seen him in jeans and shirts that were either button-up or cotton. She’d seen him in a suit and tie at Levi and Shelby’s wedding. He was definitely one of those sexy guys who wore clothes well.

If someone would’ve asked her before this morning if Adam had a nice body, she probably would’ve blushed and admitted that, yes, she thought he did. His frame appeared to be athletic. And the couple of times she’d been lucky enough to witness him shooting pool at JT’s Roadhouse in a short-sleeved shirt, she noted that he had quite the muscled biceps.

But seeing the sweat-drenched, light-grey, cotton material he was wearing this morning had given her an entirely different—and much more accurate—assessment of Adam’s form. His broad shoulders were capped with rounded muscles she’d only seen on athletes at the events she’d had to attend as part of her job. His wide chest looked like it had been carved from stone. And while those things were incredible, the real showstopper was located south of his pecs.

Umm…I mean…not
that
far south!
she mentally stuttered.

Jane flushed with embarrassment at even the thought of his very southern region. She might not have had a point of reference, but somehow, she was sure that
that
was a showstopper as well. But she digressed. No, she was thinking of his abs. Even though they were covered with a grey shirt, it was easy to make out the lines of his six-pack. In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if Adam had a twelve-pack.

How could one man be that sexy
and
that smart?

Jane’s mind was still spinning like a top on a marble counter when she pulled into her designated parking spot at work and heard her phone buzz a text message alert.

It was probably someone from the East Coast. Sometimes in business, people weren’t exactly sensitive to the three-hour time difference. Especially if they felt like something desperately needed her attention or response. “Emergencies” in politics—and, she was learning, in business in general—was a relative term open to interpretation.

When she saw who the sender was, her stomach tightened. She’d just had her weekly check-in with her grandparents a few hours ago. After she’d clicked on the message and read it, her heart dropped and she felt as deflated as a balloon that’d been pricked with a needle.

Her grandma was telling her that they were so happy that she’d finally met someone. They couldn’t wait to meet Adam, who sounded like such a “nice boy.”

How in the name of Peter Pan had her nana and papa already formed an opinion of a man she’d said nothing about other than his name?

Great.

This
is why she didn’t lie. She was bad at it. Really bad. Closing her eyes, she dropped her head back against the headrest. Damage control had always been one of her specialties. She’d only ever used it in a professional arena though, so she hoped her expertise translated to a personal level.

As she formulated ideas of how to “break up” with her imaginary boyfriend, who happened to have the name of her real-life fantasy crush, without disappointing her grandparents or tarnishing the pretend-man’s reputation in her grandparents’ eyes, her phone vibrated again.

The desire to ignore the text was strong, but Jane forced her eyes open and read that not only were her grandparents both ecstatic over her new romantic development, but apparently her news had magical healing properties as well. Her grandmother wrote that her grandpa’s blood pressure had already gone down since he’d heard the news.

“Or it could be the
medication
he’s taking,” Jane responded with a frustrated sigh to the text. Out loud. Totally alone. In her car.

Okay, so she could add “talking to herself” to the list of things Adam’s presence in Hope Falls was inspiring in her. So far, she was quickly racking up the appealing personality traits.

First, she’d been a stalker—or, at least, stalker lite!—a few weeks ago when she had seen Adam heading into Sue Ann’s Café one afternoon. Jane had surprised herself by taking a totally unnecessary detour, following him inside and ordering a to-go lunch she hadn’t needed since she always packed a lunch to save a few pennies—and also keep the advantage over the ten-pound war she was always waging with her body. When she ate out, she rarely made healthy choices, so bringing a lunch alleviated that temptation. At least, the kind that put weight on her.

And what had she gotten for her stalking efforts? She’d run right into him, interrupting a call he’d been on. Embarrassing? Yeah.