Not Just Friends

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“Well, that’s about to change,” Julia said. She set her glass down on the prep table and took a deep breath. “I’m moving to Paris with Jean-Paul at the end of the summer.”

Her friends stared at her, mouths agape, as if she’d just sprouted horns and a tail. “With Jean-Paul? As in, you two are going together? As a couple?”

Julia shrugged. “I suppose there’s that possibility, but no. We’re going for professional reasons. He wants to compete in the M.O.F., so he’s going back to work there for a few years in his family’s patisserie. He asked if I wanted to come.”

Kate frowned. “What’s the M.O.F.?”

“The Meilleurs Ouvriers de France. When you’re certified M.O.F. that means you’re the best. He’s the only teacher at the Pastry School that doesn’t have the certification and that’s because he came to the U.S. when he was just out of school.”

“Are you going to live together?” Frannie asked.

“No. We’re not even going to work together at first. He’s set me up with a very famous pastry chef and I’m going to work in his shop.”

“For how long?” Frannie asked.

“I don’t know. It could be six months, a year. Two, if things go well. Or I could come back after a few weeks if they don’t.” Julia shrugged. “I just feel like I need a change in my life.”

Kate shook her head. “I don’t know, Jules. You had a romantic relationship with this guy a few years ago. As I remember, he wasn’t very nice to you. And now you’re going to Paris with him. It sounds like it’s a bit more than just a professional trip.”

“Do you want it to be more?” Frannie asked. “Are you still in love with him?”

“Still?” In love? Julia wasn’t sure she knew what it meant. After spending less than a day in the general vicinity of Adam Sutherland, she’d decided that if she could take any man to bed in the entire world, he would be the one. Jean-Paul wouldn’t even come in a distant second. “No, I don’t love him,” she said. “This is just a really great opportunity and I can’t pass it up.”

“What about the bakery?” Kate asked.

“The bakery will be fine. I have a wonderful manager and plenty of people who will keep it going until I get back.” She forced a smile. “I need a change. I need to shake things up a bit. Besides, you guys can come and visit. Think of all the fun we could have in Paris. It’s not that far. We could even meet in London or Rome.”

“I don’t think I’m going to have a lot of extra cash for traveling,” Kate said. “We’re putting every spare penny into the camp.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I have frequent flyer miles that would take us both to the moon and back,” Frannie said. “We’ll go next spring. Springtime in Paris. It will be perfect.”

“Perfect,” Julia said. And yet, the thought of Paris didn’t seem quite so perfect anymore. Paris was an ocean away from Adam, from this scary, exciting, confusing affair that they’d jumped into. And though it might be over tomorrow, Julia wanted to believe that there might be a chance it would survive their week at Camp Winnehawkee.

She’d never in her life thought it would happen at all.

And now that it had, she didn’t want it to end. She drew a ragged breath. So, maybe she’d have two months of unbelievable reality before she’d have to return to her fantasies. Two months to get her fill of Adam. And then she’d go to Paris and make another dream come true.

Still, if all she had was two months, she was going to make sure every day counted.

“OUCH! SONUVA BUNNY.”

Adam straightened and set the nail gun down. He worked the kinks out of his neck and back, stretching his arms above his head and groaning softly. He’d been on the roof of Porcupine for over an hour, finishing up the work that he and Mason had begun before Mason had to leave to help Kate with dinner preparations.

Julia was somewhere inside the cabin, working on replacing the screens. And from what he’d been hearing in between the sounds of the air compressor and the nail gun, it wasn’t going particularly well.

He walked across the shallowly pitched roof to the ladder and climbed down. Adam found her hunched over one of the windowsills, a hammer in her hand. He watched through the screen door as she tried to pound a small nail into a strip of wood that held the screen in place.

“Sonuva bunny,” she cried again as she hit her thumb with the hammer.

“Sonuva bunny?” he said.

Julia jumped at the sound of his voice, then slowly turned to face him. “I guess I’m falling back into old habits. We weren’t allowed to swear at Camp Winnehawkee.”

“Why would you need to swear?”

“It’s the only thing I can do. My carpentry skills are almost non-existent. My fingers are all smashed.”

“Can I show you a little trick?” he asked, opening the door.

“If it involves finding a way to make my fingers stop throbbing, I’m listening.”

“Well,” he said. “First things first.” Adam grabbed her left hand and brought it up to his lips, then gently kissed the tip of each finger. “Better?” he asked.

She released a tightly held breath, then shook her head. “Not quite.”

He pressed his lips to the center of her palm. “How about now?”

“That feels a little better. But the pain is kind of creeping up my arm.”

Laughing, he pulled her into his arms. “And has the pain reached your lips yet?”

Julia playfully pressed her hands against his naked chest. “Almost. Do you have a remedy for that?”

Adam nuzzled her neck, biting softly on the silken skin just beneath her ear. “Don’t start something we can’t finish, Jules.”

“It’s just a kiss,” she said.

“Maybe this morning it was just a kiss,” he murmured. “But I’ve been up on that roof all morning thinkingabout you. And I don’t want to stop at just a kiss. I don’t think you do, either.”

“Are you saying that I can’t resist you?” Julia asked. “Because I can, if I want to.”

He growled softly, dragging his thumb over her lower lips. “No, you can’t.”

She tipped her chin up at a stubborn angle and regarded him coolly. “I resisted you for ten years.”

“Yes, but that was then. This is now.” He leaned forward and brushed a kiss across her mouth, his tongue tracing the crease between her lips. Adam had never really put much effort into kissing. It always came quite naturally. But this kiss would put away the last of her resistance.

At the first flicker of submission, he smoothed his hands over her face, molding her mouth to his and deepening his assault. He could feel her surrender in the way her body sank against his, her hands clutching at his shoulders.

He shifted his touch, moving his hands over her body in a lazy caress. She moaned as he cupped her breast and her body went soft when he pulled her hips against his, his hard shaft evident beneath the fabric of his shorts. And when Adam felt that he’d made his point, he suddenly stepped back, leaving Julia off-balance.

She stumbled and reached for a nearby bunk, her face flushed and her lips swollen. Wide-eyed, she looked over at him. Drawing a ragged breath, she shrugged. “All right. Well, I can see you’re determined. I’ll give you that.”

Adam grinned. But when he heard Mason’s voice outside, his smile quickly faded. Julia frantically ran her fingers through her tousled hair. He crossed to the window and picked up the hammer, turning his back to the door to hide his erection.

“Adam? Are you in here?” Mason opened the door and stepped inside the cabin.

“He’s here,” Julia said in a bright tone. “He’s just helping me with the screen. I keep hitting my thumb with the hammer.”

Adam glanced over his shoulder and nodded. “I’ll just be a minute. I’m going to show Julia how to do this so she doesn’t keep bashing her fingers.”

Mason looked back and forth between the two of them. Adam groaned inwardly. Mason wasn’t blind. He knew when someone was trying to hide something. Hell, he was a schoolteacher. Schoolteachers had a built-in bullshit detector.

Adam picked up the needle-nosed pliers and put a small nail between the grips. “See, you can hold the nail with this and then pound. Once it’s started, it’s no problem.” He quickly handed the pliers to Julia.

“Thanks, I’ll give that a try,” she replied.

“Right,” Mason murmured. “Well, carry on, then. Kate says dinner is in a half hour. I’ll just be up on the roof until then.”

They both watched as Mason walked outside. Neither one of them moved until they heard his footsteps on the roof. “Sonuva bunny,” Adam said softly.

“I don’t think he suspected anything,” Julia whispered. “It wasn’t like he caught us doing anything.”

“Well, I wish he would have,” Adam said. “Sneaking around like this is stupid. We’re nearly thirty years old and we’re acting like a couple of teenagers.”

“This is the way it has to be,” she said.

“Why?” Adam asked. “Give me one good reason.”

“Because if you decide to dump me after three days, I won’t be humiliated in front of all of my friends.”

Her words hit him like a slap to the face. Is that really what she thought of him? That he’d be so shallow, so cruel as to seduce her on a whim? Adam stared at her in disbelief, his gaze fixed on hers.

“I’m sorry,” Julia murmured. “But I don’t want to look like a fool.”

“Jules, I would never do that. I care about you.” He shook his head. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything,” she replied. “I’ll be fine if this only lasts a week. In fact, that would be perfect. I don’t expect more and I’m not sure I want more. But, I don’t want my friends assuming the worst about you or me.”

“And what is the worst?” he asked.

“That you’re a shallow creep and I’m a pathetic loser.”

He drew a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Discussing this was going to take a lot more time and privacy than either one of them had right now. But he did intend to address it the very next time they were alone. “I have to go help Mason. We’ll talk about this later.”

She nodded silently, staring down at the pliers in her hands. Adam reached out and covered her fingers, drawing both her hands up to his lips. He kissed her wrist and she managed to meet his gaze again. “This is not just about sex,” he said. “And I would never do anything to hurt you. Do you believe me?”

She paused before she nodded. “You should get going. Mason is going to be wondering what’s taking you so long.”

With a quiet curse, Adam turned and walked out of the cabin. When he got outside he paced back and forth on the gravel path, fighting the urge to go back inside and set Julia straight. But all the talk wouldn’t change her mind. She was working off an image she had of him that was eight years old. He’d have to show her that he’d changed.

He circled the cabin and climbed the ladder, crawling up on the roof, then crossing to where Mason stood.

“Everything all right?” Mason asked.

“Fine,” he said. “She just needed a little help.”

“Is there something going on with you two?” Mason asked.

Adam shook his head. “No. Why would you think that?”