Page 38 of Her BRATVA Protector
“What?”
Adam shakes his head. “Ye’re insufferable.”
“Aye, learned from my big brother.” She winks.
I take the glass, drink the little Adam didn’t get, and make a face that puts the entire table on the floor.
Adam laughs into my hair, his broad, warm chest shaking against my back. “Aye, love. Welcome tae Scotland.”
The night goes amazing.
The guys get louder. Fiona teases everyone. Adam orders me a whisky to chase the grim ale and it’s smoky, warm, settling low in my belly. His thumb keeps drawing small circles on my hip, and his beard’s at my temple. He whispers into my ear, low under the noise. Telling me about his lads. Most of them he’s known since they were kids.
“Broke a man’s nose against the leg of that stool, right there. He said somethin’ about Fee.”
He says it flat, easy, in the same voice he used to order my whisky. Just a man talking about a thing he’d do again tonight. Any night.
“Adam!”
The men fucking roar.
Adam dips to my ear, his beard caressing my skin, his scent and warmth all over me. “Ye havin’ a good time, love?”
I turn to face him. “Yes, baby.”
He returns my smile. His just as filled with love.
“Good.”
His hand drifts lower, and my whole body goes warm the way it’s been going warm since a kitchen counter on a Tuesday twoweeks ago… I shift on his thigh, and Adam grunts…low. Half a laugh, half not.
“Lisa Maksimov.”
I bat my lashes, feigning innocence. “…What?”
“Sit still, wife.”
My smile broadens. “But I didn’t do anything, husband.”
“I’m warnin’ ye, hen.”
I loop my hands around his neck, and rest my forehead on his. “Yousat me on your lap, baby.”
“Aye.” His grin’s in my ear. “My mistake. Behave.”
I sit still. For about three minutes. Then one of the guys says something to Fiona I don’t catch, she hollers, slaps the table, and it’s like the whole pub goes with it. And in the cover of the raucous, Adam’s hand slides one inch higher and his mouth comes down on the back of my neck…slow, hot…and he murmurs into my skin: “Time tae go home, lass.”
The pub erupts the second we stand me up.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“Maksimov, mate, ye’ve been here forty minutes…”
“Aye, and they were forty very full minutes, cheers, lads…”
“Adam, ye’re a fuckin’animal…”
“Aye. I am, Davie. Aye.”
