Against All Odds. Gwynne Forster

receiver, so she prepared herself mentally to spend the night there and tried to remember where she’d put her bag of Snickers.

      “If you don’t have a lantern or flashlight, go into the hallway and stand right in front of your door. I’ll be along shortly with light.”

      She looked toward the loudspeaker as tremors shot through her, and she struggled to still the furious pounding of her heart at the sound of Adam’s voice. She hadn’t known that he had come home to Beaver Ridge, only that he’d left New York. It had to be Adam. She couldn’t mistake anyone’s voice for his—no other sounded like it. Did he know she was there? Would he be glad to see her? She opened the door and waited.

      The air conditioning was off, but goose bumps covered her bare arms, and chills streaked through her as the lights approached. He stopped a few feet away.

      “Melissa! What— What are you doing here?” Her eyes beheld his beloved face before taking in the length of him, as though assuring themselves that it was he. “Melissa— Am I hallucinating?” He took a step closer.

      “Adam— Adam, I...I’m standing in front of my new office.”

      “My God!”

      He didn’t want her there. Why had she thought he cared for her even a little? She wanted to back up, but the eerie, unsettling atmosphere and the shock of seeing him kept her rooted there. Her gaze followed the two lanterns as they neared the floor, and then she looked up at him walking to her, a determined man whose motives she didn’t need to guess.

      “My administrative assistant didn’t say she’d rented this suite. Tell me why you are here.” He stood inches away, so close that she breathed his breath and smelled his heat.

      “I—” He stepped closer, and her hand went to his chest. “I— Adam!” Quivers began deep inside of her when his hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her closer, and then wrapping her to him. She couldn’t wait for his mouth, but stood on tiptoe and pulled his head down until his lips reached her moist kiss. She refused to let herself remember that he’d told her goodbye. She had him with her, and she had to have what he was offering her. Her parted lips took him in, and with unashamed ardor she sipped from his tongue’s sweet nectar and fitted herself against his hard body. He thrust deeply into her mouth as though rediscovering her seductive honey, and she arched her hips into him. Her shameless demand must have threatened his control, for he eased the kiss and lightened his caress.