Need You Now (Martha's Way Series Book 2) (7 page)

“Your phone,” Rafa pointed out from the other side of the
room.

Lily’s gaze ping-ponged around the room,
avoiding direct eye contact with her parents.
She reached inside her purse
and pressed the
HOME
button and ignored the message.

“Must not be important,” Rafa cocked an eyebrow.

She kept her attention on her parents. If she ignored her
brother, maybe he’d stop poking.

He stepped away from the wall and came to stand by her
side, sl
ung one long arm around her shoulders and
squeezed the daylights out of her. “By the way, I don’t know if I told you but
Minka invited us to the wedding too. And guess what, since we love you and
Minka so much, we all accepted. I can’t wait to get acquaint
ed with.” He paused. “How do they refer to themselves?”

She knew Minka had invited her brothers and was still
waiting for their responses. Two of her brothers were out of town, Rafa had
only returned home a day or two ago from India. Zander was a Navy SEAL
; she didn’t know his exact whereabouts, only he was
somewhere in
in
the Middle East
and Max was doing some photography work
for National Geographic in Russia. Minka would have told her if they were
coming. The light bulb switched on. Her nosy brother had
narrowed down Martha’s Vineyard as the possible home of the
bastard who had impregnated his baby sister. So he was going to do what any big
alpha brother would do, recruit the other
badasses
and invade the island until they hunted
down the bastard responsi
ble for her fall from grace.

Her inside quivered. Lily twisted her neck as if sore and
met her brother’s eyes.
“Locals.”

He nodded, a satisfied smug on his handsome face. “Indeed.
Locals.
By the way, you’ve been going there a
lot lately. You probably feel
like a local yourself.”
He
paused,
seeming to think about his next words,
then gave her one of his smiles that had brought many women to their knees. “I
love you, sis.” He placed a light kiss on her forehead then turned to their
parents. “Mom, I’ve missed
your cooking. Let’s eat.”

Since she couldn’t escape to her old room to avoid more of
her brother’s probing comments, Lily smiled and nodded in agreement. But her
mind was
playing the worst case
scenario.
Her brothers coming face to face with Adam, because
someone or two might not come out alive.

* * * *

On a typical visit to the Vineyard, Lily always enjoyed the
ferry ride sitting on the deck, sipping a glass of wine. Today, feeling dizzy
from her third trip to the bathroom to vomit whatever she had left
in her stomach, she slid her body on an empty chair close
to the window and read Adam’s text once more.

When
I promised, I meant it. Remember, no regrets. See you tomorrow.

The words brought a stream of heat against her skin and
took her back to that
fateful night in
Chappaquiddick.

Nate’s cheating had still been fresh when Minka suggested
she joined her for a weekend. Needing the escape, Lily had jumped on the idea.
She thought she was going to spend a few days with her friend and get to know
Jason Mo
ntgomery, the man Minka hooked up with, much
to Lily’s pleasure.

Instead, she got blindsided by Adam. From the moment he
touched the engagement ring hanging around her neck, he’d penetrated her walls,
forced out the reason for her sadness, then proceeded t
o tease her to laughter. However, it wasn’t until he found her crying in
the middle of the night on Jason’s private beach did she truly meet Adam
Aquilani.

“Liliana,” his voice echoed against the
crashing waves of the ocean.

She turned and came face to fac
e with Adam. A cool breeze rolled off the water and blew
thick, black hair away from his face. The full moon illuminated his features.
Dark eyes searched hers with no trace of the teasing laughter she’d endured
from him all day.

“It’s his loss, you know,”
he offered. “He doesn’t deserve your tears.”

Pain and humiliation swept over her and
she let out a bitter chuckle. “Save the flirting for tomorrow. I can’t do the
bantering right now.”

With a smile, he took a few steps
closer. One long finger touched the r
ing then moved
up to her cheek and brushed away a tear. He cupped her face, his thumbs
caressing her skin. Perhaps it was that he found her at a low point in her
life, but his touch affected her. It made her want to be kissed and touched,
even if common se
nse told her everything about him
was wrong for her. He was a bachelor, a playboy who spent half of his time in
Italy or across the continents racing cars. And way outside her usual dating
circle.

“Let’s go inside,” he said in a low
voice.

Lily noticed th
e
tightness in his voice. Not that it surprised her. Since the moment they’d met,
Adam made it clear he wanted to sleep with her. And what if she gave in to the
idea? As much as she’d sworn off men, his blunt offer to rock her world stayed
with her all day
.
She,
too felt the attraction.

Only she was too logical, too rational
to give in to a momentary attraction. She knew the hottest flames burned the
fastest and she would be yesterday’s trick as soon as the sun came up. Because
of that she fought the tempta
tion to give in to the
flirtation, the teasing. But in private, she wondered how his lips would feel
against her own. His hands against her skin, exploring.

“Kiss me,” she breathed.

She heard his quick inhale and for a
split second the surprise registered
on his handsome
face.

“You’re vulnerable right now.”

He stood before her like a book of
poetry. She was the starving artist, dying to read all the beautiful words
written into his infinite space. “But you want to.” And so did
she
.

He shook his head and too
k her hand in his. But she could tell he was fighting the
temptation. “Not like this. When we kiss, I want you to only want to kiss me.
Not when you are crying over some loser who couldn’t keep his dick in his
pants.”

“And you could?”

With their eyes locke
d onto one another, he answered without hesitation. “When I
make a promise, I mean it.”

Somehow, she believed him. Lily let out
a sigh. If there was a man who could make her forget and take away her pain, at
least temporarily, it would be this gorgeous man
standing here with her. Commitment wasn’t in his vocabulary; good thing she
wasn’t looking for one. The last two days he had openly flirted with her, and
now that she was throwing herself at him, he was suddenly making sense.

She stepped out of his touch
and walked back toward the ocean, where she’d spent the
last hour contemplating how to move on from the pain, the familiarity. For
three years Nate had been a part of her life; he’d even moved in to her condo.
They’d talked about babies, building a future
together
as husband and wife.

Some distance away, Lily sat on the cool
wet sand. She brought her legs to her chest, leaned her chin against her knees
and stared at the way the moon, almost too bright to look at, hung over the
ocean; its light creating twin
kling stars on the
water.

“You should throw it in the ocean.”

She glanced over to where Adam was now
seating next to her. “What?”

“Your
engagement ring.
Throw it in the ocean and let go of the
pain.”

Funny.
Only a few minutes ago, the same thought had cro
ssed
her mind but she’d dismissed it. No woman in her right mind would throw a ring
worth thousands of dollars into the ocean.

Adam hoisted back to his feet and
extended a hand to her. “Let’s do it. I’ll hold your hand the whole time. And
maybe after I’ll
kiss you,” he finished with a smile.

He was teasing, of course. He’d been
doing that since they first met. Slowly, Lily placed her hands in his and came
to her feet. In silence they inched closer to the waves. He leaned into her and
removed the necklace ho
lding the ring and slipped it
into her palm.

“I’ll be throwing away thousands of
dollars.” Really, she was trying to talk some sense into herself.

“It will make you feel better.”

She inhaled the fresh salt air, and
without giving it much thought threw the
ring as far
as she could. A fleck of water jumped in the dark and swallowed the weight that
had been holding her prisoner. Lily stood, spellbound by the cleansing feeling
that swept through her. The sea shimmered with indomitable power, granting her
joy, f
reedom.

She turned to Adam. “Let’s go skinny
dipping.”

Adam’s laughter rang into the night like
the strong currents of the uncontrollable waves of the ocean.
“That good, huh?”

“I’m serious.” Lily persisted and
watched as the humor faded from his face.

“We
would be
naked,” he said, his tone filled with sexual tension.

She nodded, well aware what skinny
dipping implied. “Scared?”

“Liliana,” he rasped, “I can’t promise
not to touch you.”

Lily smiled. “Then don’t promise.”

With her gaze locked on Adam, she stri
pped out of her shorts, threw off her tank top and stood
before him in her thong and bra. His eyes darkened, burning her skin. He
muttered something in Italian; whatever he said, she could tell he was losing
the battle with control. He removed the crisp wh
ite
tee, stepped out of his jeans and stood before her in white boxer briefs. Her
breath quickened, fingers aching with the need to touch every one of his hard
muscles.

“You might as well take those off too.”
Her eyes lowered to the fitted briefs
that look
ed oh so delicious on him. “Once wet, I’ll
be able to see everything.”

He arched a brow. “You’re playing with
fire.”

“I’m aware.” And to prove just how aware
she was, she unsnapped her bra, wiggled out of her matching panties, and stood
completely naked b
efore him.

He sucked in a deep breath as his eyes
took in every inch of her.

“Liliana, I need to know you’re sure of
this,” he said, his voice very quiet.

She stared back at him. “I’m sure.”

Absolute silence settled between them.
She watched Adam’s face
, and her heart clenched at
the raw desire in his eyes. Without a word, he removed his T-shirt and slipped
out of the boxers and stood gloriously naked in front of her with the most
impressive erection. Now that they had officially crossed the line they ha
d been teetering around the last few days, Lily found
herself uncertain of what to do next. So she gawked at the perfection before
her.

“First one in the water gets two
orgasms,” he shouted over his shoulders as he ran toward the ocean, giving her
full vie
w of his perfect ass.

She laughed softly. She heard the rush
of the waves and caught Adam’s silhouette floating. What the hell! She owed him
two orgasms. She sprinted toward the ocean, the grainy sand tickling her toes.
The second the water touched her fe
et, she felt a
healing coming little by little over her body and soul. She dove in and let the
cool waves embrace her.