Take This Man by Nona Raines Page A

picnic basket he’d prepared.
“I never thought of having a picnic in the middle of right field.”
    They
sat on a blanket Adam spread in the grass of the town baseball field. An
overcast gray sky threatened rain, meaning the field was deserted and they had the
place to themselves. “Can’t say I’m not inventive,” he told her.
    “Why
not just go to the park?”
    “People
walk their dogs there, we’d be taking too much of a chance. No animals allowed
here. And look how lush and green the lawn is.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“How soft.”
    Heat
raced through her as she caught his meaning, but she rolled her eyes. “Dream
on, dude.” She was just blowing smoke, because the thought of having Adam right
here made her sex pulse with excitement.
    It
wouldn’t be the first time they’d had sex out in the open. As a matter of fact,
their most memorable public interlude had taken place at this very ball field,
right in the dugout. Elyse had been terrified they might be caught, and somehow
the danger made the experience more electrifying.
    The
sex had been spectacular. But what she remembered most about that night was
telling Adam she loved him.
    “You
don’t have to say it back,” she told him as she gently stroked his face. She straddled
his lap, in the darkened dugout, her clothing askew. Elyse hadn’t planned to
tell him how she felt, although she’d loved him for months. But tonight, as she
was panting and gasping in the midst of her climax, the words simply erupted
from her throat. “Oh, God, Adam! I love you!”
    He
didn’t answer. But it was all right. Elyse knew how he felt—he just couldn’t
say the words. Were the words really so important when everything he did told
her how much he cared? The way he treated her, the way he touched her—those
were his “I love you.”
    “I’m
not going to rush you,” she said. “I want you to know I’m not going anywhere. I’ll
be right here, and someday I know you’ll tell me that you love me, too.”
    But
he never did.
    “Elyse.”
Adam was holding out a plastic cup of wine.
    She
took it and gulped a swallow. “Why are we here?”
    He
seemed taken aback by her abrupt question. His hand hesitated as he spread some
soft cheese on a cracker. “You telling me you don’t remember?” He cut his eyes
at the baseball dugout.
    Oh,
she remembered all right. And those memories brought nothing but pain and
confusion. She remembered it as the night she’d laid her heart out for him,
offering all the love she had.
    And
all he remembered was a hot fuck.
    They
said they’d leave the past alone, but here they were, revisiting it.
    But
the past never really stays there ,
Elyse supposed. It’s always with us wherever we go.
    The
only way to banish old memories was to create new ones.
    She
nodded at the cheese cracker Adam held between his thumb and forefinger. “That
for me?”
    He
blinked. “Yeah. Sure.”
    Elyse
took it, popped it into her mouth and chewed. “Mmm…” She swallowed, eyeing him
and licking her lips. “Tasty.”
    He
watched her, the knob of his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as her tongue
swept over her lips.
    “Elyse…”
His voice was thick. “There’s a reason I brought you here tonight…”
    “Mmm-hmm,”
She murmured. She crawled across the blanket to him and knelt in front of him. “I’ll
bet there is. I’ll bet it’s the same thing I’m thinking about right now.” She
rubbed her hands over the soft cotton of the T-shirt covering his broad chest.
    She
wasn’t about to let him know how the memory of that night hurt her. She’d never
give him that power over her again. He thought bringing her here would get her
hot and horny. Well, fine. She’d give him what he wanted, and get something for
herself as well.
    Elyse
thrust her hands under his shirt, palming the warm skin and the crinkly hair on
his chest. He grasped her wrists. “I want to—”
    “I
know. So do I.” She shut him up by clamping her mouth to his