The Sweetest Seduction, Breakaway Hearts by Crista McHugh

and uncertainty shining from their jade depths. Now he understood why she clung so desperately to her restaurant.
    And he was the son of a bitch threatening to take it all away from her.
    Adam laid his fork down, his stomach too tied in knots to enjoy the meal. “I hope Amadeus finds one of my other properties suitable.”
    “So do I.” She reached over and covered his hand with her own. “I know I’ve put you in an awkward situation, and I appreciate the fact you’re trying to work out a solution that meets both our needs.”
    If she’d been any other woman, he would’ve expected her to play a sympathy card to get her way, but there was nothing fake or manipulative about Lia. And he respected that.
    He flipped her hand over and examined her palm. There were calluses and scars from burns she must have sustained in the kitchen, but they matched her character perfectly. Lia was someone who’d worked hard to get where she was, so different from the spoiled little rich girls he’d known his entire life. And maybe that explained part of his attraction toward her.
    He laced his fingers through hers. “He was a fool to treat you that way, to not realize what a treasure you really are.”
    Her lips parted, the lower one trembling ever so slightly. “Thank you,” she whispered before unraveling her hand from his and picking her fork back up.
    ****
    Lia didn’t know what else to say. For the last four years, she’d thrown herself entirely into her work, ignoring the one event that had started her journey to find herself. And then, just like that, she spilled her guts to Adam, a man she barely knew, and told him things only her mother had been privy to. Oddly enough, though, she trusted him.
    But as soon as one burden had been lifted from her shoulders, a new one strapped itself to her. She hadn’t expected him to react the way he did. For those few blissful moments while he held her hand, she forgot about the restaurant, Trey, and everything else that had been keeping her up at night. Her body relaxed from the warmth that spread through her. However, when he called her a treasure, her heart jumped, and that gentle warmth turned into uncomfortable heat that made her breath quicken and her body long to have him touch her in other ways.
    No doubt about it—she was in over her head when it came to Adam Kelly.
    Lia glanced down at what was left on her plate, her appetite for food had vanished. Adam’s plate remained mostly untouched, too. Their brief moment of intimacy had now become awkward, a signal that she probably needed to leave. She took both plates without asking if he was done and cut a straight path to the kitchen. “I’ll get started on the dishes.”
    The rushing water from the sink soothed her rattled nerves. There was peace here within her domain. The kitchen had been her place of refuge whenever she was troubled, and menial tasks like washing dishes or chopping vegetables had always allowed her mind to drift far away from her worries.
    Until now.
    Adam came up behind her and shut the water off. He pulled her hands from the soap suds. “I can do the dishes later.”
    She let him turn her toward him, staring at the way he cradled her wet hands as though they were delicate and precious to him. Her pulse doubled, and a fine tremor worked its way into her bottom lip.
    “I said something that made you uncomfortable, and I’m sorry,” he said as he brought her hands to his chest, cupping his hands around them.
    “No, it’s not that. I’m just feeling a little....” Confused? Uncertain? Frightened to acknowledge that I could be falling for you? “Overwhelmed.”
    “That was the last thing on my mind, Lia.” His breath bathed her forehead as he spoke, drawing her to closer and closer to him. “I only wanted to express my admiration.”
    She took the final step to close the space between them. Her body melted into his embrace, her hands still over his heart. Time faded as she breathed his scent in and