He couldn’t quite read her expression as she said, “You’re stubborn.”

“So are you. But there’s a big difference between stubborn and foolish. And we both know you and Colleen have been lucky so far to get out of those places unscathed. I’d like to keep things that way.” He’d heard her ask her sister for a promise to be safe earlier that night. Now he decided to ask Kerry for the same thing. “Promise me you’ll call me if you ever feel that you need to.”

He watched her battle silently with herself, clearly caught between her belief that she needed to be self-sufficient at all times and the knowledge that she really had been lucky to get out of those neighborhoods in one piece so many times over the past three months.

“Okay,” she finally said. “I promise to call. But hopefully I won’t have to, because Colleen will decide it’s time to turn over a new leaf.” Kerry looked more than a little uncomfortable as she added, “Please don’t say anything about this to Rafe and Brooke. I’d hate for them to think I’m not one hundred percent there for them and their wedding, when I am.”

“They know you are,” he said softly. “And I can’t imagine anything would ever make them think differently. But what happened tonight is just between you and me.”

“All of it?” she confirmed.

“That’s what we agreed on, isn’t it?”

When Kerry nodded, though it should have been a relief to know that they were on the same page about having secret hot hookups with absolutely no relationship pressure, strangely, it wasn’t. Instead, he found that the idea of keeping the night they’d spent together a secret grated on him. Big time.

“Thank you again, Adam. Not just for helping me with Colleen, but for—”

He stopped her by threading his hands through her hair and pulling her close for a kiss. She didn’t need to thank him for anything, and he figured the best way to make her stop trying was to do what he’d been wanting to do ever since she’d walked into the kitchen sweet and fresh from the shower.

Kerry didn’t resist his kiss, but slicked her tongue out across his instead, as if she was still just as hungry for him as he still was for her. They’d been kissing when her sister called—kissing in a way that he’d never kissed another woman, a way that was so good it seemed to have no beginning and no end. Now, it was so tempting to continue where they’d left off. He could so easily lift her into his arms, carry her into her bedroom, strip her bare again, and drown in her sweet scent, her moans of pleasure, run his hands over every inch of her soft skin before finally giving them the release they both craved.

But moving things to her house hadn’t been in their original plan. And even more than he wanted to be with her again, he needed to know that she’d come through tonight’s ordeal in one piece.

Forcing himself to drag his mouth away from hers, he asked, “Do you need me to stay?”

She shook her head without so much as a pause. “No. You’ve already done too much.”

But even though that was his cue, he didn’t let go of her. Not yet. Not when her skin was so soft, so warm, so touchable. And not when all he could think about was kissing her again.

“Do you want me to stay?”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Before he’d even realized the slight shift from need to want was coming. But even though a part of him wanted to take back the too-revealing question, he found that he wanted to know her answer more.

A flash of longing winged across her face—deep and intense—but it was gone so fast that if he hadn’t been watching her so intently, he might have missed it. It hadn’t been a fair question, he knew. Not when they had an agreement. An arrangement. One that was based on hot sex with no emotional strings.

Only, how could either of them deny that tonight had definitely tied some strings? And though he could have told himself that it was simply needing to band together to help her sister that made him feel this close to Kerry now, he couldn’t forget how close to her he’d felt while they’d been making love. Closer than he’d ever been to anyone else. Even hours later, the pleasure still lingered. Enough that he knew better than to ruin it by pushing for something in these too-early morning hours that they’d agreed neither of them wanted.

Kerry had no interest in reforming a bad boy—and Adam had no interest in being reformed. Their arrangement was perfect as it was, and he wouldn’t make the mistake of ruining it.

“Adam...”

He stopped her from having to say anything more with another kiss. A softer one this time.

“Try to get some rest, okay?”

“I will.” She gave him a small smile. “Good night, Adam.”

He finally forced himself to drop his hands and take a step away from her. “Good night, Kerry.”

CHAPTER NINE

It was only noon on Saturday, but Kerry was already drinking her third espresso of the day. Colleen had been sick again in the middle of the night, and Kerry hadn’t had the heart to ask her sister to clean it up herself. And when Colleen had begged her not to tell their mother what had happened at the bar, Kerry had agreed, just as she had a dozen times before, not to say a word.

Colleen’s horrible Friday nights were their little secret. So very different from the secrets they’d shared when they were little girls—secrets over stealing a cookie or wearing lipstick at school. Kerry had never been so thankful to have to go meet with potential new clients on a Saturday, nor so guilty about not being able to spend any more time nursing her sister.