Page 68 of The Law of Attraction
“Not really.” She pushed off with her feet and let herself swing. The raindrops smacked her in the face as she sliced through the air, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Okay. I guess we’ll just stay out here in the rain, then.” He was pitying her, which was almost as bad as being repulsed by her.
“You don’t have to stay,” she told him, turning her face up to the sky to let the rain wash her hair back. “I’m fine.”
“I’m already wet. I might as well. Besides, I haven’t been on a swing since I was a kid.”
“Me too. I forgot how much I liked them.”
She heard him get up, and opened her eyes as the sound of his feet crunching on the gravel drew nearer. “What are you doing?” she asked in alarm as he positioned himself behind her.
“I’m giving you a push.” His hands landed on her lower back before she could prepare herself for it. The contact pressed her wet clothes against her skin, and all the breath rushed out of her lungs as he propelled her forward.
She straightened her legs and leaned back as she flew into the air, her muscle memory instinctively taking over to push her higher. For a moment she hung there at the terminus of the arc, suspended between forward and backward momentum, and felt an exhilarating sort of freedom, like there was nothing tethering her to the earth and all her problems.
When she sailed back toward Adam he pushed her again, harder this time, to send her flying even higher. A laugh bubbled out of her throat as she sliced through the raindrops, and she heard him laugh along with her.
“I really do think you’re amazing,” he said.
Her stomach clenched, and she jammed her feet into the ground to bring herself to a lurching halt.
She stood unsteadily and rounded on him as she wiped the rain out of her face. “You’re not making this any easier by saying things like that. Saying things like that is exactly how I ended up humiliating myself.” Her voice was shaking but it couldn’t be helped under the circumstances. She was lucky she’d been able to get the words out at all.
He hung his head a little. “I’m sorry.”
“We should go inside,” she said, and started back to the room.
She made it all the way to the sidewalk before Adam’s hand closed around her wrist, bringing her to a sudden halt. She spun and found herself looking up into his eyes, which were so dark and deep she felt like she was drowning in them.
Before her brain had time to register what was happening, he took her face in his hands and kissed her.
Chapter Sixteen
Adam’s lips were so warm Olivia could feel them all the way down to her toes. She could feel his kiss everywhere, seeping into her numb limbs and waking them up with tingling pins and needles.
She was kissing Adam. Even better, he was kissing her, and he was doing it like he couldn’t stand to do anything else. Hungry and desperate, but still somehow tender and just a little uncertain.
They were kissing in the rain like two people in a goddamn Nicholas Sparks movie, which wasn’t something she’d thought happened in real life, yet here they were. He was Channing Tatum and Ryan Gosling rolled into one, and she was Rachel McAdams or that other actress whose name she couldn’t remember.
When Adam pulled away, Olivia was so dazed she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even open her eyes, because she was afraid if she did, it would break the spell and he’d try to take it back. She stood there in stunned silence with her eyes squeezed shut, waiting for him to push her away again as the raindrops slid down her face.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he pulled her even closer, and his thumb stroked her cheek as he murmured her name. He was breathing hard, all erratic and shaky like he’d just run a marathon. His forehead touched hers and their noses rubbed. Then his mouth found its way to hers again, and this time she gave herself up completely.
Her hands wrapped around his waist as her lips parted for him. Their tongues slid together in a kiss that was hot and wet and urgent, and he clutched at her with the ferocity of a drowning man who’d found something to grab onto. She didn’t know what had happened to change his mind, but kissing him felt too good to worry about that right now.
The pressure of his mouth was bruising as it slanted over hers, and she rose up on her toes, craving even more. Her hands explored the broad plains of his back, her fingernails curling into his wet shirt as she strained against him. He hadn’t shaved that morning and his stubble burned as it scraped over her lips, but it only made her kiss him harder.
His teeth caught her lower lip, and it took her a moment to realize the moan she was hearing was coming from her. It seemed to excite him, and his hands slid down to her ass, squeezing and caressing as he held her even closer.
And then he was lifting her up, his arms banding around her as he settled her on his hips. She wrapped her legs around him as he carried her back toward their room, not breaking the kiss until they’d made it to the door. He had to set her down then so he could wrestle the key out of his pocket and shove it into the card reader. He pushed the door open, dragging her inside as their mouths crashed together again.
She couldn’t believe they were doing this. Her heart was thumping against the walls of her chest, her pulse thrumming with arousal. Their hands were everywhere, like they couldn’t get enough of touching each other, but their clothes were sopping wet, sticking to their skin with shiver-inducing clamminess. They were dripping on the floor, leaving a damp puddle on the rug, and Olivia’s drenched hair was plastered to her face, sending rivulets of water into her eyes and down her neck.
Adam broke free long enough to wrestle off his soaked T-shirt and slick his wet hair back out of his eyes. She reached for the broad expanse of beautiful bronze muscles, pressing her palm against his chest. He winced as her cold hand touched him, and covered it with his own.
“You’re freezing.” His other hand cupped her jaw as his lips grazed hers in a gentle kiss. “We need to dry off.”
