The Beautiful Thief (Stolen Hearts #2)(41)

She glanced over her shoulder to see that Adam’s eyes were open. “Don’t stare,” she said as she rolled to face him. “It’s rude.”

“And here I thought I was a Southern gentleman.” He ran his fingertips over the curve of her shoulder and down her arm.

She let out a laugh. “I don’t think anyone’s ever accused you of being a gentleman.”

His hand stopped at the crook of her elbow and his callused thumb ran back and forth along the sensitive skin. “That list is a little short.”

As much as she wanted to stay like this, she knew there were too many outside factors that were going to tear them out of this bed. “I need to turn on my phone.”

He didn’t look surprised, but didn’t seem happy about it either. “Pressing need to check your Facebook?”

“No. Toni should’ve stormed through that door hours ago. Maybe her flight just got delayed, but it could be something more serious. I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”

“You’re worried about the sister who is coming here to drag you out against your will?”

“Sisters,” sighed Melody as she started to reach across Adam for where her phone was on the nightstand. He groaned as her back arched, bringing her breasts even closer to his face, but she tried to tune it out. Good grief. If she gave into every impulse with this man, she was never going to leave the bed.

Once she had the phone, she rolled back over onto her back and Adam followed every movement with his eyes. She couldn’t help the self-consciousness that crept over her at his constant attention. Even in the earliest stages of her relationship with Ben, he’d always been distant in some ways.

Considering Adam was basically a mercenary who she didn’t trust, it was surprising that he could be such an attentive lover. It was as though she needed to reconcile all these different parts of him, none of which really made sense to her.

The phone took about a minute to power on and as soon as it did, the notifications seemed to blow up. “Shit,” she muttered as she brought up voicemail. Except when she thought she’d see a string of messages from her family, they were from someone much more unexpected. “Shit,” she repeated.

“Who’s Ben?” asked Adam, not bothering to hide his snooping.

“My ex.” She opened the first message.

“Mel, I don’t know what’s going on, but this chick just showed up asking for you. I would’ve thought that you’d be the first person to scream from the rooftops that we’re not together. I’m not a fucking bed-and—” The message cut off and another one started. “She says her name is Jane, won’t give a last name. I don’t know what trouble you’re bringing to me, but you need to get this chick now.” The next five messages were all more of the same. Melody hung up after listening to all of the messages as she tried to understand what happened. Adam had been close enough to hear the entire thing.

“You don’t think....”

“That the girl from Ace of Spades showed up at my ex-husband’s house?” she finished. It was the last thing she wanted to think, but that was the only random woman she’d really run into lately. And the timing worked. Huntsville was about an hour and a half out, and the first call was maybe two hours after she’d last seen the woman on the street.

Shit. She jumped out of bed and started to look for her clothes.

“What are you doing?” asked Adam, not moving a muscle.

She found some panties and then a bra in one of her drawers. “You heard him. Someone showed up at my old house yesterday, looking for me. I’m going to check it out.”

“No. I’m not going there. It’s too small and Forbes will be looking for us. It would be the perfect trap.”

Pants.... There were her pants. “I didn’t ask you to go with me.” She didn’t realize how harsh the words were until they were out of her mouth, but it was too late to take them back now. Just because they’d slept together didn’t mean she was going to beg him to put his life in danger. Besides, the idea of Adam Smith walking into Huntsville might be her worst nightmare come to life. Her two worlds didn’t need to mix, and right now it felt as if they were on a collision course.

“You want to walk into a trap without me? I know you didn’t want to sleep with me but that’s no reason for your death wish to come back.”

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “This isn’t about you. That girl, Willa, needs us.” She winced at the slip-up. “She needs me. She wouldn’t go to some strange town and knock on a strange door unless she needed help.”

“You’re projecting,” he said, still not making any effort to move off the bed.

“Thank you, Dr. Smith, for your expert analysis. If you really want to help, get me my gun.”

That had him getting off the bed. “Your gun?”

Her eyes immediately went to the parts exposed from the falling sheet and she had to physically turn around to look away. “My gun. I bought it and let you hold onto it for me. If we’re splitting up, I’m going to need it back.”

“For fuck’s sake, Mel. I’m going with you.”

She whipped back around and thankfully Adam had managed to pull on his jeans. “You’re what?”

“If you die, your sister is going to kill me. I’m looking out for myself here.”