the way he looked her, in the way he smiled. And she wasn’t imagining it. Had it always been there? Could she have been so wrapped up in her own infatuation that she’d never noticed?
She smiled and glanced down at her coffee. After that one attempt—the letter that had gone horribly astray—she’d never tried again. But what if she had?
There were many things to regret about her ten-year crush on Adam Sutherland. But she was through with regrets. From now on, she was going to take chances and damn the consequences. And if she made a complete fool of herself, she’d just run off to France and hide for the next two years.
2
Year three at Camp W. I’ve decided that I will put all my secrets in this book. And the one secret I want to write first is that HE IS THE CUTEST BOY EVER. Way cuter than Luke Perry. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk to him. And before the summer is over, he is going to kiss me. My life will never be the same again.
ADAM OPENED HIS eyes to the morning light filtering through the trees. Raking his hand through his hair, he sat up and looked around the cabin. Julia was gone, her side of the bed neatly made. He smiled to himself as he stretched his arms over his head and yawned.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent a night in bed with a beautiful woman and nothing had happened between them. But then, maybe leaping into a physical relationship upon first meeting wasn’t such a bad idea. Where had that gotten him in the past? Sure, there’d been a lot of great sex, but nothing much beyond that.
He was almost thirty. The big three-oh. And he wanted more from life than just a series of shallow relationships with beautiful, but brainless, women. He wanted a challenge, a woman who wouldn’t melt in his arms and tell him everything he wanted to hear. He wanted someone who’d keep him interested for more than a few months.
Hell, Jules had kept him interested for ten years. And now that she’d reappeared in his life again, Adam realized that the interest hadn’t waned. He swung his legs off the edge of the bed, working the kinks out of his neck as he retrieved his duffel bag.
He’d probably missed breakfast, but if he was lucky, he’d find a cup of coffee and some of Julia’s leftover pastries to get him through until lunch. But he really wasn’t interested in food. He wanted to see her again.
He found a pair of faded cargo shorts in his bag along with an old T-shirt, then stripped out of his jeans and polo shirt. As he dug through the contents for a fresh pair of boxers, he heard the screen door squeak.
Adam slowly turned to find Julia standing in the doorway, a mug of coffee in her hand. Just the sight of her was enough to make him grin like a goofy school kid. She was dressed in a pale blue camisole, a flowing cotton skirt and a pair of sandals that revealed perfect toes painted in a bubblegum pink.
Though she was a pastry chef, it didn’t look like she ate much of her work. She was slender and long-limbed, with a body that he longed to touch. “Morning,” he said. “Is that for me?”
“It is. Everyone has been wondering about you. I told them you got in early this morning, after I was up.” Her gaze slowly drifted down his body as she approached, the mug wrapped in her outstretched hands.
Adam smiled. He liked that she stared. She was interested enough to look. Curious, maybe? They’d have a whole week together and he didn’t want to waste another moment. Adam wanted to know more about her, to spend some time together, to see where this attraction might lead. Yet he knew he ought to be patient. Jules wasn’t the kind of woman who jumped into bed without careful consideration of the consequences.
“I guess I fell asleep,” he said, taking the coffee from her. “I probably should have taken one of the bunks but—”
“It’s all right,” she said, shifting nervously from foot to foot. “Nothing happened. You were the perfect gentleman.”
“Lucky you couldn’t read my thoughts,” he said taking a step toward her. She didn’t move away and Adam took that as a good sign. He brought his hand to rest on her waist and smoothed his palm over her hip. Then, he slowly bent closer and brushed his lips against hers.
The kiss was a test, he reasoned. If she reacted negatively, then he knew exactly where he stood, but if she… An instant later, Julia threw her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. But this wasn’t a test. This was a full-on, tongue-tangling passionate kiss.
Adam stumbled slightly, the coffee sloshing onto his hand and scalding him. With a groan, he dropped the mug and it smashed on the wooden floor. But the kiss easily distracted him from the pain in his hand. He grabbed her waist and pulled her along to the bed and they fell onto it, her body coming down on top of his.
He cupped her face in his hands, trying to slow the frantic assault and she softened beneath his touch, then drew back to look down into his gaze. Her eyes were wide and questioning. “Are you all right?” he murmured.
Julia nodded, breathless.
“That was nice. Do you want to try it again?”
She frowned. “Was there something wrong with the first time?”
“Oh, no. There was nothing wrong. Here, let me prove it.” Their second kiss was much more relaxed and they lingered over each other’s mouths, teasing playfully, tasting deeply. “Who needs coffee when I have you to wake me up?”
She ran her hands over his bare chest, pressing her lips to shoulder in a deliberate trail. “You can’t stay here,” Julia said. “You have to find another place to sleep.”
“I know.” She kissed him again and he groaned softly as his hands trailed over her back. He bunched the fabric of her skirt in his fists, pulling it up until her legs were bare. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to stay.” He ran his thumb over her lower lip, still damp from his kiss. “What if I come back in the middle of the night when no one is awake? I’m really good at sneaking through camp without getting caught.”
She nodded. “You need to come to breakfast. They’re going to wonder where I am.”
“Only if you kiss me. Once more.”
She smiled then leaned down, running her tongue along the crease of his mouth before indulging in one last, long, perfect kiss. Then Julia pushed off of him and stood beside the bed, clutching her hands in her loose skirt.
“I think we should keep this between the two of us,” she said. “I don’t want to be the talk of Camp Winnehawkee.”
Adam nodded slowly. He was going to let her set the terms for now. “All right. That sounds reasonable.”
She walked to the screen door, then paused before she turned back around. “I’ve always wondered what that would be like,” she said. “Kissing you. Back then, you kissed a lot of girls at Camp Winnehawkee.”
“The only one I really wanted to kiss was you.”
“And was I what you expected?”
Adam nodded. “You do know how to kiss, Jules, I’ll give you that.” He looked down at the erection pressing against the fabric of his boxers, then covered it with his hands. “Sorry. That tends to happen when I get excited.”
With
