Free Secret Kiss by Melanie Shawn Page A

seen Jane in her gardening gear, he knew what the legs beneath that material looked like. And that knowledge gave him x-ray vision. His fingers itched to run along the slender slope of the back of her knee, up her thigh, and all the way to…
    His phone buzzed again, snapping him out of his momentary fantasy.
    “Hey, D.” He’d been waiting for this call all week. “What’s up?”
    “Hey, man. I have bad news and more bad news. What do you want first?”
    Adam had figured as much since the news Declan had involved Alexis. In the eight years they’d been together, he’d learned a lot, but mainly that nothing could ever be easy with her.
    “Okay, what’s the bad news?”
    “Bad news: she’s not only refusing to vacate the property, she’s now moved furniture in. With her connections, it will take more than the local authorities to get her out. I am working on getting the lease transferred to her name, but again, with her connections, it’s not going smoothly.” Declan took a breath before continuing. “And in more bad news: I just got a counter offer from her lawyer, and she wants more money.”
    “How much?” Adam thought he’d have a stronger feeling about these proceedings, but instead, he felt…nothing. Totally numb.
    “She wants double,” Declan said as if that news would shock Adam.
    It didn’t.
    “I know you want this over with as quickly as possible, so I say we meet her halfwa—”
    “No.” Adam didn’t care about the money. “Just give her what she wants.”
    “Adam,” Declan warned, “that’s two million dollars.”
    “I know.”
    Declan urgently explained, “We can negotiate this down. She’s the party at fault. Most likely, we can even avoid going to court, and I know that a mediator would see it—”
    “I don’t want mediation. I don’t want to go to court. I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to speak to her. I just want this done. Get the papers signed. Do what you have to do.”
    There was a moment of silence—it was probably killing his friend to hold his tongue. Money had always been important to Declan. It was to most kids who grew up like they had. To Adam, money was something he could live without and knew how to earn. Alexis was trying to use it as a weapon, and that wasn’t going to happen. No one and nothing would ever hold any kind of power over him again.
    “Okay.” Declan sighed. “If that’s really what you want.”
    “It is,” he assured his friend.
    “All right. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”
    Adam disconnected the call and waited to feel…something. Anything. Anger. Sadness. Loss. If not for the person, then for the dent in his bank account.
    But the only thing he felt was desire. Desire to see Jane. She had the strangest effect on him. She calmed him down and excited him at the same time. Over the week they’d spent working side by side in silence, just being in her presence had grown to be addicting.
    Which was bad. The last thing he needed was to get into some kind of rebound relationship, especially with a girl as amazing as Jane, but he still rounded the corner to the office a little faster than he would normally.
    As soon as he cleared it, he saw Jane standing in front of the office building, her back facing him. She wasn’t alone. Eli, a firefighter who frequented his cousin’s bar, was with her. Adam had gotten to know the guy over the past few weeks he’d been in Hope Falls, and he liked him well enough. What he didn’t like was seeing him talk to Jane.
    He didn’t like that at all.
    An emotion Adam couldn’t quite put his finger on welled up inside of him like a giant wave about to crash onto the shore. As he approached, he noticed that she was stuttering over her words. Adam couldn’t make out what she was saying, but her voice was about an octave higher than it usually was.
    She was flustered.
    When he got closer, he heard Eli speak, and the words that came out of his mouth did not sit well with Adam.
    Eli grinned