Chapter 28
ADAM
Standing in Engelman’s office, I thanked God for the fact that it was a pretty full room.
Because I couldn’t take my eyes off of her this morning.
Not the biggest surprise.
Even if she didn’t look fucking stunning today with her hair gathered in a bun, and her body wrapped in a cream-colored top and hip-hugging pencil skirt, I’d still be having trouble tearing my eyes off of her.
I had definitely struggled this morning when we woke up.
After hanging out for hours at Gizzy’s yesterday, we’d gone back to my place and relaxed for the rest of the day, bringing a bottle of wine out by the pool. With AJ’s head resting on my chest, we switched back and forth between talking and simply laying there, watching the sun go down.
The sky was streaked with purple, orange and gold when I got the text from Knox.
KNOX: Let’s sign that contract tomorrow.
Before I so much as pumped my fist, I flashed AJ the screen.
And the next thing I knew, she was squealing, cheering with such triumph and excitement that I couldn’t help but forget about Knox in that moment—about why I’d been quietly chasing him for years.
All I could think about was AJ. Because I knew what this meant for her.
Given how closely we worked, my success was always hers, but it was different this time.
Because of RTA. Schilling. She was stronger than to let the demons from her past haunt her every day, but still, I knew this felt good, deeply satisfying—especially since she’d been the one to hook Knox.
To lead that meeting and beat him at his own game of bluntness.
“This is the secret weapon right here.”
Surrounded by his team, Knox sat at Engelman’s desk, nodding at AJ and setting off a round of laughter that allowed me to keep watching her as I pleased.
I liked that she wasn’t looking at me. It gave me the chance to just soak her in as she smiled and talked to Knox, who clearly couldn’t help himself from chatting her up a bit more today, because as gorgeous as she was on her own, she was radiating happiness right now, and it was genuinely fucking mesmerizing.
The glow of her skin was probably a result of the cardio we did till 2AM, but her smile was about far more than that.
It was bigger, brighter than I’d ever seen it, and I couldn’t stop staring even as she caught my eye and snuck a knowing smirk across the room that made a big-ass grin spread onto my lips.
Oh, yeah.
I was fucked.
But I kind of knew I’d be after bringing her to Gizzy’s yesterday.
It was the kind of mistake that I knew I was making as I made it, that I wanted to make because as much as I knew I needed to compartmentalize my life, I couldn’t help but indulge my temptation to just bring her to that happy place of mine.
The private spot that had been my secret escape for so many years.
I couldn’t explain my need to be there with her. To have other people see us together.
I just knew it meant I was fucked.
But in a way that I didn’t exactly mind being right now, because oddly enough, it felt okay. Right, even.
“Too early to drink, Maxwell?”
The question came from Engelman after the room had cleared and he’d asked me to stay behind.
“We’ve had eighteen-year-old Scotch in this room at 9AM before. Is this a real question?” I asked. He laughed.
“Nah. Just a formality,” he said as he poured two glasses. “I only wish I got to see the fucks at RTA react to this news.”
“Trust me, same here.”
“You know, if you keep up this kind of work, you could be partner here soon.”
“I’m flattered, but if anyone’s going to be promoted for the Knox signing, it’s AJ. She did half the work,” I said.
Engelman chuckled. “She’s quite good at what she does, but I’m promoting Davis this year.”
“You’re shitting me. That kiss-ass?” I didn’t even try to hide my contempt, because Davis was an inept suck-up who was the son of Engelman’s college buddy, so it was pretty clear what was going on here.
Engelman shrugged. “What are you going to do, huh?” he said, as if this were just out of his hands.
“I can answer that—you can recognize AJ’s talent sooner rather than later, so you don’t lose both her and me,” I snorted, taking a drink.
“I already told you, I’ll burn Thorn Sports to the goddamned ground if you ever leave us for them,” Engelman said with a grin.
“My best friend’s run the place for the past six years, Don. If I wanted to leave, I would’ve done it awhile ago. You know LA’s my home. Always has been, always will be. And as long as I’m happy here, I’m retiring Engelman.”
“Yeah? So it’s LA forever? Even with Iain and your sister in New York?”
“They visit often enough, and everyone else I love is here,” I said so breezily that I didn’t process exactly what just came out of my mouth till moments later.
“Well, that’s music to my ears. Cheers to that,” Engelman smiled broadly.
“Cheers,” I returned.
And somewhere in the next few minutes of conversation, my mind rewound to what I’d just said.
Everyone else I love is here.
Leaning back in the leather chair, I took a drink from my glass, pretending to listen to Engelman as I realized that it was entirely true.
Holland and Iain were in New York, but the rest of my world was here in LA. Everything I wanted and needed was right here. It always had been.
I just hadn’t realized that until the past couple of weeks.
Say it, you idiot, I told myself, goading myself to admit even in my own head what I knew I felt.
But it was a first. It was different than what I was born feeling for my family. It was brand new. Well, the realization was at least. Because something told me that the feelings I had for AJ had been there for years.
I just didn’t know what I was looking at.
“Go ahead and take the day off if I got you too drunk. I know your sister’s in town,” Engelman said as I got up to leave. I smirked.
“I appreciate it, but I’m not drunk,” I said, despite the fact that I did feel a buzzing in my veins and a risky question at the tip of my tongue. In my head, I knew it was wisest to keep it reined in.
But I didn’t care.
I’d already decided to ask her.
AJ
I was physically at my desk and I was talking to Deb.
But I wasn’t actually there.
My head was back in that fantasy world that felt too good to be true. It had honestly started Sunday at brunch, when Adam came to pick me up, and since then, I hadn’t quite left.
Then again, how could I really be expected to come back to the real world?
I’d just spent two consecutive nights at Adam’s, had the most mind-blowing sex of my life and then the biggest triumph of my career thus far.
I genuinely couldn’t remember the last time I felt this happy.
Of course, there was a petty part of me wishing I could’ve been listening in when Knox called Schilling and RTA to let them know he’d gone with Adam.
But that was only a tiny sliver of my brain, because the truth was that I’d never felt the need to shove anything in Schilling’s face.
The only way I had ever planned on getting my revenge was by living well.
Being successful. Having clients I took care of, whose careers flourished because of me.
The goal was to be happy, proud of myself.
I had never needed anything more than that.
But this victory with Knox?
Definitely a fun little bonus, I thought just as I watched several heads in The Pit—namely Liza’s and Kenzie’s—whip up at the same time.
Usually the sign that Adam was coming.
I smiled when I caught sight of him, and I thanked God that today, we had an excuse to be grinning at each other from well across the floor.
Catching the look on my face, Deb looked over her shoulder.
“Lord, that smile. I’ve never seen him so happy before,” she remarked. I laughed.
“Yeah. He was just really dying to land Knox,” I said, though I knew in my heart that that smile wasn’t for Knox.
It was entirely for me.
“AJ, a word?” Adam said, not breaking his stride as he nodded for me to follow him in.
Excusing myself from Deb, I got up from my desk, trailing Adam with a smile on my face that I had to bite back as soon as I closed the door behind me, because I knew as soon as it clicked shut, I’d feel Adam’s body against mine. And I was right.
The door had barely closed before I was pressed against it, Adam’s hands cupping my face as he sealed his lips against mine, kissing me like he hadn’t just seen me thirty minutes ago.
I was breathless, eyes fluttering when he pulled away, still holding my face and searching me so earnestly that I couldn’t help my shy smile.
“What?” I whispered.
“What if we just told her?” he asked.
“Told who what?”
“Holland,” he said, making me still for a moment. The smile was still on my lips, but I eyed Adam with a cross between nerves and amusement, because he didn’t have to answer the rest of my question for me to know what he wanted to tell her.
“Adam.” My lips spoke before I even knew what I was going to say, because I certainly didn’t know exactly what I was feeling. “Why do you want to?” I asked gently. “We’re not…” Dating, I wanted to say. But I rephrased myself. “We don’t know anything for sure right now,” I said softly.
“I do,” he returned swiftly. “I know I can’t live without you,” he said—and with such confidence and ease that the breath had barely the chance to catch in my throat before he was going on.
“It’s been the case for years and I’ve always known it, but now I know it differently.
I want to be with you. I’m never going to want to be with anyone else. I know that, AJ.”
My heart was pounding. I wasn’t sure when that started, but it was, and it was so loud that I told myself perhaps I’d imagined it. I could barely hear anything besides my own frantic pulse, so what made me think I’d really just heard Adam Maxwell tell me that he wanted to be with me and only me?
Oh, I don’t know.
Just the fact that he said it and this is real and you’re denying this why?