Not the life he wanted for her.
She deserved sunshine and wildflowers.
He was the thunder in the storm cloud and the snake in the garden.
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop,” she said, smoothing her hands over his shoulders. “I can feel the tension. Here—” She pressed her thumbs into his trapezius muscles between his shoulder blades and Adam groaned. “And in the scapulae here.” With firm pressure, she indicated another set of tight muscles along each side of his neck. “And here.” Her fingers kneaded the flesh at the base of his skull, and the hurt felt so good, Adam never wanted it to end.
Magic hands.
Strong, sure, and backed by years of education and experience, Eve found his trouble spots and worked him into a mindless puddle. His eyes closed. Time stopped. The world receded.
There remained only the crackle of the fire, the heat spreading throughout his body, and the erotic bite of her short nails in his skin. Everything, everywhere, his entire universe existed in one woman.
Eve.
Muscles relaxed and head heavy, it didn’t take much coaxing on her part to get him to tilt his chin up to rest the back of his head against the pillow of her breasts while she smoothed her fingers over his brows and massaged his temples.
Heaven. He’d died and gone to heaven.
Odd because he always assumed his path led straight to hell.
He drifted. Lost and found in the same breath, and the breath after that, and—
“Earth to Adam.”
“Mm?”
“You falling asleep on me?”
God, he wished.“Maybe. Anybody ever mention you have magic hands?”
She laughed. “All the time.” She raked her nails through his hair, and he came full awake and hard in an instant. “Headache?”
“Gone.”
“Good. Time for bed.”
“You want me to come with?”
Hands cupped around his jaw, Eve tilted his head all the way back, leaned over and brushed her mouth against his. “You’re sweet for asking, but move your ass, Mr. Bossy Pants. I have a dream date scheduled, and I won’t be able to sleep if your butt’s parked out here on the recliner.”
Long and loose, waves of silky hair surrounded him, reddish-blond locks pooling against his bare chest, smelling like strawberries, and tempting him to claim what he shouldn’t.
He kept his lips on hers. “Dream date, huh?”
“Yep.” She popped thep, and Adam damn near spontaneously combusted when she nipped at him for added emphasis.
“What kind of dream date?”
He felt her smile. “The best kind. Now get your guns and come to bed.”
An order he never thought he’d hear, but one he was more than happy to comply with all the same, Adam responded in the only appropriate manner. “Yes, ma’am.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
For the firsttime in two weeks, Eve woke to a dream instead of a nightmare. Half sprawled across Adam, she lay with her head on his chest while his heart beat a steady rhythm. The sound a balm for her nerves.
With each deep breath, his lungs inflated, and his rib cage expanded, rocking her gently.
