Bending Steele

Chapter Fifty

Adam laid in the dark listening to the rhythm of Abigail's breathing as she slept curled against him. Her head was nestled into the crook of his arm and she had one hers splayed across his chest. Every inch of her was pressed up tight, melding to his side like a kitten to a hot brick. Even her legs were tangled up with his, but he didn't mind. Once upon a time ago he would have felt confined, trapped and itching to leave if a woman had wrapped herself around him like this. But now, he not only liked it, but craved it. Craved the connection, the contact.

Picking up a lock of her hair, he carefully rubbed it between his fingers, enjoying the silky texture. Everything about her excited and amazed him. Tonight when she had kissed him on the couch, it had been filled with something he couldn't quite categorize. Not that he ever considered their kisses dull, he thought with a soft chuckle, but this one...this one was fueled with something powerful and it had affected him...deeply.

In that single moment, when she had glanced up at him with enough heat in her silvery depths to burn him, all he could feel was his heart beating through his chest. That's when he knew, she had him and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it even if he had wanted to. He had fallen hopelessly in love. No...not hopelessly, he corrected himself. Of the many things he had received from knowing this awe-inspiring woman, was the gift of hope. Hope for a better future than he had ever imagined possible for himself. Hope that love wasn't a faceless destroyer of the ignorant and weak, but that it was in actuality a beacon. A light to guide him out of the darkness.

Adam looked down at her sweet sleeping face. She was his hope...his light. He smiled into the darkness, stunned how easily she had wrapped him around her finger and could break his will with a simple brush of her lips.

He had no intensions of allowing anything more to happen between them tonight and was resolute about spending some simple time with Abigail. Not because he didn't want her. God knew being with her, inside her, was all he thought about, but this time he wanted to prove he wanted more. He wanted to learn about the woman under the guarded exterior she presented the world. He had hoped she would let him in, not because she needed him. He snorted to himself. Fuck, he had a feeling she had stopped needing anyone a long time ago. No...he wanted her to let him in because she wanted to. He thought by admitting the embarrassing truth about the condoms and recanting the story of how JC came to be a part of his life...it would encourage her to relax and drop some of those walls he was well aware she still maintained.

But those plans had been shot to hell when she had laid that kiss on him. His resolve shattering in a blink of an eye, a touch of a lip. Smiling, he gently tucked the hair he'd been playing with behind her ear, careful not to disturb her slumber.

Never in his life had he been led around by his dick. He was adamant it would never happen to him. Adam chuckled to himself. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Especially when there was a woman involved, he amended. Well...at least he could say if he was going to be lead around by his genitals, he was happy about it. Fucking ecstatic actually.

Adam settled in and closed his eyes, but after several failed attempts to relax, he opened them again. He couldn't sleep. He sighed...heaven knows he should be drained enough, but it continued to elude him. Deep down, he knew there would be no rest for him, not with his mind still reeling. Parts of him were experiencing the feeling of elation, contentment and deep emotional connections he never thought he would be capable of feeling. He was loathed to miss a second of his new found discoveries. But...there was also much rage, anger and resentment towards the man who had caused her pain. Those turmoil of feelings combined together made a toxic concoction.

Rolling towards the warmth radiating at his side, he took a deep breath of her now familiar scent. He would never be able to relax fully knowing the possibility of her being plucked away from existed and was lurking out there waiting. Kissing the top of her head, he eased himself out from underneath her and got out of bed. She didn't stir. No doubt exhausted. It had been an emotional day for the both of them, culminating with them making love for hours. Even his own muscles complained as he stretched. A smile eased across his lips again. It was a soreness he would gladly suffer from for the rest of his days.