Page 74 of The Law of Attraction
Kurt went into his office, humming tunelessly to himself, and sat down at the desk facing out at them.
For the rest of the afternoon, Adam barely talked to her unless it was about the work they were doing. When he did, he was matter-of-fact and impersonal, like he was putting distance between them. He was treating her the way he used to when they’d worked together in the office, before they were friends. Before they were something more than friends.
They stayed at the plant testing until eleven that night, when they finally threw in the towel. The test they’d just started would have to run for at least six hours, so there was no point sitting around watching the progress bar inch along.
So far their testing hadn’t turned up any major issues. There was still another day’s worth to do, but they had a whole other day to do it, and it felt like they’d be able to make the midnight deadline exactly the way Olivia liked—with time to spare.
If only she were half as confident about Adam.
“Is everything okay?” she asked him on the drive back to the motel.
He seemed startled by the sound of her voice, like he’d forgotten she was in the car. Or maybe he’d just forgotten they could talk about something other than telemetry data.
“Yeah.” He shifted in his seat and ran a hand through his hair. He’d been doing a lot of that today, and it was beautifully tousled. It made her want to put her fingers in it and sculpt it like Floam. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.” His hand squeezed the steering wheel and the tendons in his wrist flexed.
She longed to uncurl his fingers from the wheel and massage the tension out of them, but even aside from probably causing them to drive off the road, she wasn’t convinced he’d welcome her touch. “You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t just say you were fine if you weren’t?”
He threw a glance at her and his expression softened incrementally. “Yes to the first question and no to the second.”
Her brain was clearly failing from her own exhaustion, because it took longer than it should have to parse his response and assign the right answer to the right question. Once she did, she puffed out a breath. “Okay.”
He switched hands on the steering wheel and laid his arm across the console, palm up in invitation.
She grabbed onto it greedily, like Violet Beauregarde snatching a piece of Wonka’s gum. An electric tingle traveled up her arm from where their palms fit together, and her whole body sighed with relief.
She’d never gotten such a rush from the simple act of holding hands. She could actually feel herself being revived by the connection. Some sort of magical Adam energy was pouring into her body, lighting her up like a neon sign. It was as if his skin was an electronic charging pad that juiced up her battery when it came into contact with hers.
Even as some of her uncertainty eased away, she felt a fresh stab of fear. Never once had she felt anything like this before. Not with anyone.
She’d been craving Adam’s touch all day the way a junkie craved her next hit of heroin. His skin was like a drug that brought euphoric highs—or crushing lows when he took it away.
And that terrified her, because he could take it away again.
Their future was far from certain. She had no idea if they were really compatible. They hadn’t exactly worked like a seamless team today. And he’d said he never again wanted to get involved with someone at work, yet that was exactly what he’d done. Would he start having regrets when they got back to the office? Was he already having them now?
Even while he was holding her hand, she could tell from the faint frown between his brows that he was thinking. Maybe even about how to let her down easy and untangle himself from this thing that neither of them had expected or even wanted to happen.
And maybe that was for the best.
Chapter Eighteen
When they got back to the motel, Olivia unlocked the door and Adam followed her inside. The room had been cleaned in their absence, the bed made and the wet towels replaced.
Sitting in the middle of the small round table where Olivia set her purse was a room key and a note from Linda:
Room 27 is all yours if you want it.
As Olivia stared down at the note, Adam came over to see what she was looking at. He didn’t react as he read it, but the words seemed to hang in the air between them.
If you want it.
That was the question, wasn’t it? Did he want to go to his own room? Did she want him to? But even as her mind asked the question, she knew the answer. She wanted Adam to stay.
Maybe they would be better off ending this before it went any further, but she didn’t care. She wanted it. Right now, standing here in this room with Adam where they’d been so happy, she wasn’t ready to let go of him.
But she needed him to want to stay. She wasn’t going to beg or pressure him. He had to choose her freely.
He walked into the bathroom, and when he came back out, he was holding his razor and toothbrush. Which pretty clearly answered the question. He’d made his choice, and it wasn’t her.
