All I Ever Need Is You (The Sullivans #14)(14)

Adam was the odd man out. Which was perfectly okay with him.

Unfortunately, his family was having a hell of a time accepting that he liked flying solo. That he preferred it that way. And that even when a great woman like Kerry Dromoland came along, they would never be anything more than friends with benefits.

Having taken care of telling Brooke and Rafe to back off in the nicest way possible, as the waiter brought their main courses over, Adam had sent Kerry a couple of texts. One meant to reassure her that she shouldn’t let his family throw them off.

He hadn’t been able to see her expression after she received the first text, but fortunately she was well within sight by the time he sent the second.

And her reaction was so freaking hot—from the way her cheeks flushed to the little stumble she made in her heels—that if they’d been having dinner with anyone else, he would have blown off the rest of the meal and taken her upstairs right then and there.

Adam stood and held out her chair for her. Her voice was a little husky as she murmured her thanks, and he was rewarded with the faintest trembling of her muscles against his fingertips when his hand accidentally brushed the middle of her back.

Jesus. He hadn’t been lying when he said he couldn’t wait to strip off her gorgeous dress. Every remaining minute at the dinner table with his brother and Brooke was going to be pure torture.

Kerry, however, remained the consummate dinner conversationalist. “You know how much I love your chocolates, Brooke, and all of my friends are getting hooked, too. Especially now that you have stores in the city. You must be thrilled by how much your business has grown in the past year.”

“I am,” Brooke said with a huge smile. “I honestly never thought my chocolates would be anything more than a small business by the lake.”

“I always knew,” Rafe said, giving his fiancée another one of his adoring looks. “Your chocolates are the best I’ve ever tasted.” He was full of pride as he turned back to Kerry. “Brooke and her business partner are going to be opening several more chocolate truffle stores throughout Oregon and California soon.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful! You deserve every bit of your success.”

“So do you. Your weddings are legendary.”

Kerry laughed. “Promise me you’ll say that to my mother if you ever meet her. She was so brilliant at planning weddings that sometimes it feels hard to live up to the legend.”

Brooke smiled in a commiserating way. “As long as you promise to tell my mother how much you love my chocolates at the wedding.”

“When we spoke on the phone last week I mentioned it at least a half-dozen times. And she agreed with me every single time.”

“She did?” Brooke looked a little stunned by this news.

“She’s clearly as addicted to your chocolates as the rest of us,” Kerry said, instinctively knowing exactly what the bride needed to hear before spending time with her mother at her wedding.

When the waiter came to clear away their plates, then left them with the dessert menu, Kerry licked her lips in a completely natural—and extremely sexy—way. “Am I the only one here who wants one of everything?”

Adam caught the waiter’s eye and waved him back over. “We’ll try them all.”

“You want to order every dessert on the menu, sir?”

“Yes.”

When Adam turned back to Kerry, she was staring at him as if he were crazy. “I didn’t actually mean it.”

He could barely keep from reaching out to run his thumb over her gorgeous lower lip, still damp from her tongue. “Yes, you did. One bite of each, Kerry. Think how good that’s going to taste.”

“So good,” she said back, her voice low and husky as she stared into his eyes as if she’d completely forgotten that Rafe and Brooke were still at the table with them. “Too good.”

All night—hell, all week—Adam had been on edge waiting for this night with Kerry. But in that moment when she forgot to hide her desire for him, he nearly hit his breaking point.

He wanted her naked and in his arms as soon as possible, but he also wanted her to have what she wanted. Sugar, he already knew, made her happy.

And tonight was all about making Kerry happy.

Really, really happy.

Thirty minutes later, the four of them ended up doing a pretty good job on the desserts, even if Kerry barely had more than a taste of each one. Kerry and Rafe both tried to pay for dinner, but Adam beat them both to it, having told the maître d’ to charge it to him when he’d made the reservation.

Finally, it was time to say their good-byes, and while Kerry and Brooke were hugging, Rafe asked him, “You heading home now?”

“Not quite yet.”

“Still got that hot date?”

Guessing that Kerry had overheard Rafe’s question because the restaurant happened to go quiet just in that moment, Adam made sure she could hear his response. “Crazy hot.”

Her cheeks were flushed again as she turned to let him help her on with her coat. “It was nice to see you again, Kerry,” he said.

And by the time she turned back to face him, her skin wasn’t just flushed—her pupils had dilated, too, her breath coming just a little bit faster. “It was nice to see you, too. Thank you for dinner.”

“It was my pleasure. I’m looking forward to seeing you again soon.” He leaned close, pressed his lips to her cheek and whispered for her ears only, “Really soon.”