Dorie Graham - Tempting Adam

Lauren gaped at her, then rounded on him. “What do you know about caring for kids? They’re lots of work. You’ve got to feed them, and play with them, and…and feed them.”

“I’ll read up on it. Hopefully my wife will know a little about all that.”

“Read up on it? They don’t come with manuals, you know.” She folded her arms. “You can’t just decide all of a sudden that you want a wife and kids.”

“Why not? I told you I wanted more in life. And that’s what I want…eventually, anyway,” he said.

His smile faded and he shifted in his seat. “She’ll have to be the stay-at-home kind of mom, though. None of that palming the kids off on the neighbors.”

Lauren stared at him a moment, a mixture of surprise and compassion swirling through her. “Adam, your parents didn’t palm you off on us.”

“Sure they did.”

She straightened. His parents had traveled a lot. He’d probably spent more time at her house growing up than at his own, but she’d never known this had bothered him. Having Adam around had always been a way of life.

Needing to soothe him, she touched his arm. “Good thing for me they did, then. Who else would I have whomped all those times in Crazy Eights?”

“I was the Crazy Eights champ. Your memory’s flawed.” The corners of his mouth lifted in an easy grin.

“Well, maybe…” She again had that feeling of a shifting hologram. Adam the Dependable morphed into Adam the Sexy.

An unprecedented wave of desire rippled through her. She swallowed. As with his laugh, it was as if she’d never before experienced the charm of that grin. Sure he’d used it to cajole her into giving him his way hundreds of times before, but never had the mere curve of his mouth sent her pulse speeding.

Damn Kamira and her imagination. Damn this new Adam. His pupils dilated and he tilted his head. Did he feel it, too?

Lauren blinked, hoping the old Adam would slide back into view, but the new Adam remained, exuding sensuality. How had she not noticed before?

“I’ll get that.” Kamira stood, bowls in hand, her gaze intent on Lauren.

The wall phone in the kitchen pealed. By the look on her housemate’s face it wasn’t the first ring. “No. I’ll get it. I’m sure it’s Elliot. I’m supposed to have that marketing plan done.”

Without a backward glance she hurried inside.

ADAM PULLED INTO his driveway. His house loomed above him, dark against the blackness of the night. Why had he bought the monstrosity?

His footsteps rapped against the hardwood floor as he entered. He flicked on a light and the great room he’d once so admired stretched before him, still and devoid of life. He dropped into a leather chair set by the tiled fireplace.

“Honey, I’m home.” The words echoed through the structure.

He leaned back his head and closed his eyes. The silence pressed in all around him. He used to think he wanted peace and quiet.

He’d have stayed longer at Lauren’s, but she had her usual work she’d brought home. Besides, she’d seemed tense tonight. He could have sworn she’d breathed a sigh of relief when he’d hugged her goodbye. Sure, she’d come clean on the secret-admirer thing, but something else was bothering her.

She was keeping secrets.

Dinner had been enjoyable, as usual, in spite of his slip of the tongue. But something had changed when she’d come out on the deck. She had acted even more uncomfortable, or distressed somehow.

Moments from the evening drifted through his mind. Had he imagined it, or had she… Words escaped him. His stomach tightened. If he didn’t know better, he’d say she had reacted to his touch earlier. They’d danced together, even wrestled each other, but never before had there been…what? A feeling? An awareness?

And you think I’ve never thought of you in that way?

Was that what had rattled her? Surely she knew he’d never act on such passing instincts. Lauren was like a sister to him. Yet, the possibility tugged at the corner of his mind. Something new, something different had shone in her eyes when he had smiled at her earlier. The moment swept over him, her gaze soft, dreamy, the first rings of the phone going unheeded.

Could it be she wasn’t upset by his admission, that instead, she was intrigued?

“You’re losing it, Morely. Losing it.”

Even if Lauren was suddenly thinking of him in other than brotherly terms, she certainly wasn’t supporting his plans to settle down. She had sounded decidedly disappointed in his new scheme.

Couldn’t she understand he needed the warmth and energy that filled her house, made it a home? He missed all the evenings he’d spent with her there, playing poker, finishing some project she’d half started, knowing he’d pitch in to help, or just talking till the wee hours.

But that had been before she’d started the agency.

His gaze took in the oversize couch and matching chairs in warm plaids she’d helped him choose. She had a nice touch, had even managed to bring some of her essence into these rooms, though not enough to capture the same homey feeling of her town house. Furniture alone would not make this house a home.

People—warm bodies would help. A wife and kids really weren’t a bad idea. He hadn’t actually thought much about having either, until today. Actually, he’d told Lauren he needed a wife more to get her attention, but the idea had sounded right even as he’d said it. The patter of little feet, the smells of dinner cooking and the warm greeting of a wife, happy to see him after a long day’s work, held an intoxicating appeal when faced with the emptiness of his house.

He drew a deep breath. He had to face facts. Without Lauren, he didn’t have much of a life. Though she’d been too busy to notice, it’d been months since he’d taken a woman on a date. He couldn’t work up the stomach for it. Lauren was right. Meaningless sex wasn’t all it used to be.

He had to make something more of his life.

Exhaling, he rose. He plodded to the sprawling master bedroom. It was a shame she was so wrapped up in her work that she couldn’t see that she, too, was missing out. Having her life revolve around her agency might sustain her at the moment, but once she got her business on an even keel and learned to work smart, not hard, she’d realize what he’d just begun to know over the past year.

Work did not make the world go round.

As a contractual landscaper, he’d found more work over the years than he could handle on his own. With a full crew at his disposal, he spent much of his time meeting with landscape architects, implementing construction plans on site and inspecting projects. Sure, his work fulfilled him to an extent, but it wasn’t enough.

He stripped down to his Skivvies, then stretched out on his king-size bed, made up in the green and maroon linens Lauren had handpicked for him. At least she’d squeezed time into her schedule to help him shop. He couldn’t have done it on his own.

She’d been invaluable in choosing this house, too. Perhaps it wasn’t such a monstrosity, after all. Not only did it offer the flexibility needed to accommodate his plans, its market value had already increased by a tidy sum. She knew how to pick them. Now, all he had to do was get her to turn her energies toward finding him a wife. No one knew him better than she did. If anyone could find the right woman for him, Lauren was the one.

Unless, of course, she had thoughts of filling the position herself.

LAUREN TURNED from her computer as Elliot breezed into her office the next morning. With a grand gesture, he deposited a thick stack of flyers on her desk. “For Bennett’s mass mailing.”

Stifling a yawn, she glanced over the stack. “Too bad we couldn’t afford to have them folded.”