The figured approached, and I sucked in a breath of shock. Backing against the door, I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand smothered my cry. I saw his face and smelled him at the same time.

I reached up and slapped Adam’s face.

“Ow. Shit. What was that for?” he whispered harshly.

“For scaring the crap out of me!”

“Sorry…I was trying to be sneaky. Jordan kept trying to keep me longer for ‘one last night of hellraising.’ I tried to find April to get her to distract him.”

“She’s shitfaced. It wouldn’t have worked.”

“I’m not interested in raising hell with Jordan. I’m going to raise it with you…” Suddenly, his hands were all over me in the dark. “I think you and I have some…unfinished business, don’t you?” His mouth devoured my ear as his hard body smashed mine against the door. Every point, from my neck to my nipples to the place between my legs, pulsed with sexual excitement.

His mouth covered mine, his thumbs already working diligently to tease my nipples to taut points through the thin material of my dress. “You’ve gotta go…” I mumbled only semi-committedly when his mouth freed mine in order to speak.

“What?” he protested, refusing to remove his mouth from my skin, kissing his way down my throat.

I swallowed. Hard. His hands and mouth were turning me into molten goo. “It’s almost midnight.”

“Is your carriage about to turn into a pumpkin, Cinderella?” Now his palms were rubbing across my breasts, his touch deeper, more insistent. More convincing. Oh yeah, he knew exactly what he was doing. And I knew that it wouldn’t be easy to convince him otherwise. I closed my eyes as his hands slid lower.

“It’s almost our wedding day,” I rasped as his hand cupped the inside of my bare thigh.

“I’m well aware…”

“Are you?” I questioned archly. “‘Cause you almost missed it. I almost had to find a stand-in so you could marry me by proxy.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it if my plane were on fire.”

“Well, unfortunately, you got here too late for us to catch up on fooling around before the wedding.” His mouth had not stopped sliding across my skin. Now his tongue was lining the inside of my collarbone and simultaneously turning my bones to jelly. “I’m afraid all future conjugal relations will have to be within the bounds of marriage rather than illicit fornication.”

His mouth found the spot below my ear—that spot he knew drove me insane. My toes curled of their own accord. “What?” he asked. “We’ve got eighteen hours till the wedding. We can do a lot in eighteen hours.”

“We’re getting married at sunset. We’re not allowed to see each other on our wedding day until we’re at the ceremony.”

He huffed. “Silly superstitions.”

“Adam.” I nudged him. “You’re going to make marks on my neck. I can’t have hickeys in my wedding pictures.”

“That’s what makeup is for,” he replied without budging, continuing to nip at my throat.

“Adam—”

He pulled back a few inches to look into my face. When he spoke, it was in his stern, take-command-of-the-room CEO tone as we stood nose to nose. “I have not had sex with you in almost two months. I’m not waiting any longer. This has been ridiculous.”

“The universe has conspired against us, it’s true.” I sighed. “But hey, we’re here. We’re almost married. We’ll have one hell of a wedding night—tomorrow.”

“We sure will,” he persisted as he unbuttoned the top button at the front of my dress.

“Adam, I said tomorrow night.”

“I heard you. Tomorrow night. And…now.”

I opened my mouth to protest, and he plucked another button open. “I don’t just want it. I need it. I need to have sex with you right now. It’s a serious health concern.”

I started laughing. “You’re not going to die from blue balls. You’ve survived it before.”

He didn’t reply as he plucked the third button open and promptly shoved his entire hand inside my dress.

“You’re staring at me like I’m a steak, drooling like a starving wolf.”

“I am a starving wolf. Watch me howl, baby.”

Now both hands were inside my dress, and he was not letting up. “Adam, you’re going to jinx the wedding if you don’t leave. We aren’t supposed to see each other on our wedding day. It’s going to be twelve a.m. in a few minutes.”

“You’ve known me for a total of three years now,” he said, his voice dark with determination and desire, with a husky edge on it that made every nerve inside my body sing with pleasure and anticipation. Clearly, he could tell that my heart wasn’t in this protest. “As well as you know me, do you think there’s a chance in hell I’m going to give up this plan?”

“This nefarious plan.”

“Nefarious or not, you have to admit I’m tenacious.”

“Oh, yes. No one would criticize that description of you. But we should be saving all this for the wedding night. Abstinence, remember? Consummating the marriage on the wedding night and all that good, old-fashioned stuff?”

“Oh, there’ll be plenty left for our wedding night, believe me.” He took me by the wrist and pressed my hand to his ready erection as if to prove his point. My hand molded around his shaft, stroking him through his pants. He hissed out a breath. “And for the entire honeymoon, for that matter. I won’t have done my job right if you’re still able to walk normally at the end of our honeymoon.”

I laughed. “You’re setting the bar very high for yourself.”

He was kissing me again, his hands stroking across my breasts, and I was aflame, smoldering and combusting from the inside out.

“Dammit, Adam. It’s almost midnight…”

“Emilia…”

“I’m still not convinced.”

He stiffened and then stepped away to regard me calmly. “Okay,” he replied in a flat voice. I raised my brows, shocked—and disappointed—that he’d given up so easily. Opening my mouth to reply, I was cut off when he interrupted me again. He turned and walked toward the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”