“There’s really nothing to mention.” I try to shrug nonchalantly, but Veronica sees right through me and rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, right.”
“No, I mean it.” Now it’s my turn to bite my lip. Good lord, I’m the world’s worst liar. I mean, what I said was the truth. What we have isn’t a big deal, because what we have is, well, nothing at all. We have some pictures that we’ve posted to social media. We have a false relationship that we have blasted to the world, for each of our own selfish reasons. We have great sex, which wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal, but turns out, it’s hella worth it, and we have a common interest in finishing an orphanage. Other than that, we’ve got nada. Zip. Zilch.
Nothing at all.
“Well, you can downplay it all you want, but girl. That man is so incredibly fine. He’s like, the source of every women’s wet dream. I don’t know how you can be so calm about it. If I were dating Adrian Malone, I’d be telling the entire world about it!”
“You know I don’t kiss and tell, Veronica. I’m a sealed box.”
“That’s fine.” She winks at me. “As long as you don’t seal the other box.” Her eyes drift down to the place that is still aching from this morning’s encounter, or shall I say encounters, with Adrian. “I hope you keep that henhouse open for business both day and night for his cock…”
“Ok.” I hold my hand out and help her up from her chair. “New subject.”
I immediately ask her a few more questions about her date tonight, even though, she’s been rambling on about him for the last hour and a half. Her entire appointment, as a matter of fact. She follows my lead, and the subject is changed. I lead her to the receptionist, make sure that she gets her next appointment scheduled, and then am just about to head back to my chair, when the front door to my salon bursts open, and to my surprise, Adrian rushes in.
He’s soaking wet from the rain outside, his dark hair plastered across his forehead, and his eyes slightly wild as they meet mine. Both Veronica and my receptionist suck in air, but the only thing that I feel, is the change in the atmosphere when Adrian’s eyes lock on mine. My heart races in my chest, and I suddenly feel like I can’t get enough oxygen into my lungs.
His eyes bore into mine, and then, he nods his head towards my office. My body begins to move in the direction before my brain can even tell me to. It’s crazy the way that he makes me feel. Like my body is under a trance, and he is in control, whenever he is near me. It’s terrifying, and at the same time, liberating.
Vaguely, I hear Veronica tell me to keep my box open. As if I need to be told. I’m pretty sure that nothing on me is ever closed when it comes to Adrian. As my office door shuts behind me, his scent surrounds me. He’s so close to me, that I can feel his body heat crashing into mine, and I can’t even stop myself from reaching out to touch him. When his lips meet mine, everything seems right in the world.
Except, it’s not. I mean, it shouldn’t be.
We’re playing a dangerous game here. Every time that I spread my legs for this man, my heart becomes a bit more involved. We’ve taken things down a road that we should have blocked off, and barricaded. Instead we drove head on through the warning signs.
And now, it’s going to be too late.
He doesn’t even ask me if I want him. I guess he doesn’t have to, the man has a way of reading my mind. And as he drops his pants, and pulls my dress up to my waist, I’m panting so loudly, and so desperately needing him that he wastes no time. He claims my body, with one long, deep thrust, sending me spiraling down to the place of no return. The place where Adrian holds my heart.
The place where I surely get it broken, all over again.
“You should come with me.” We’re laying side by side in my bed, both still naked and trying to catch our breath from round number three. It’s well past dark outside, but I can see Adrian’s beautiful features clearly as the moon shines into my bedroom window. He’s brushing a lock of hair off of my face and staring down at me intently.
“To Wisconsin?” My heart stills in my chest. Is he actually asking me to come home with him? That seems a bit…real.
“Sure. Why not? It’s only for two days. We could fly there Friday night, and then we’ll be back late Sunday night.”
I hesitate.
“It’s not as big of a deal as you think, babe.” His smile is soft as he leans down, and plants a light kiss on the tip of my nose. “I mean, yeah. We’d be staying two nights at my mom’s house, because there’s no way that she will let me stay anywhere else, but you’ll have your own space. She’s pretty strict on the no sleeping together before marriage thing.” I burst out laughing, imagining anyone telling someone as huge as Adrian what to do. His smile matches mine. “But they’re good people, and I promise that they won’t bombard you with questions. We’ll get into town Friday afternoon. Friday night I do have an obligation to attend my old high school’s homecoming game, and then a few things that I agreed to do on Saturday. But it will be fun, I promise. And I really don’t want to spend an entire weekend without you.”
I don’t know how I feel about any of that. I’ve been very careful not to parade Adrian around my parents, for the sole purpose that I know he’s not going to be around forever. So, it doesn’t feel right to do it to his. As if he can sense my hesitation, he flashes me his signature cocky grin.
“It’s only three days, doll face. It’ll be quick and dirty, exactly the way that you like it.”
I shove him playfully, and then roll onto my back, staring up at the ceiling. “Adrian, it sounds great, and all, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
And honestly, it’s not. It’s a terrible idea.
Meeting his family is a big deal. I mean, what if I fall in love with them? Adrian’s already grown on me more than I should have ever let him. In fact, he’s more than grown on me. He’s sort of become…my everything.
I just can’t.
“Mia.” Adrian’s finger traces underneath my chin, before tipping it up, forcing my eyes up to his. “Talk to me, baby. What’s going on inside of that head of yours?”
I close my eyes.
“I don’t think that going home with you is a good idea. I don’t know your family, but judging by how great you turned out, I’m guessing that they deserve more than to be lied to. This isn’t something that we should be flaunting in front of the people that we love. They deserve better than that.”
I keep my eyes shut, so I don’t see the look on Adrian’s face. But the silence that follows my words is enough. It’s too much, actually. I open my eyes before he even speaks.
“And I think that I would be doing them an injustice by not introducing you to them. You’re a fucking amazing woman, Mia Jacobsen. My family deserves to meet you.”
Maybe he’s only saying that out of his own selfish need continue having sex on the regular, the way that we have grown accustomed to. Maybe, he just doesn’t want to make this trip alone. Hell, if I know. But I’m a sucker for words like that, but in my defense, he did call me amazing.
“Still, I just don’t know.”
His smirk becomes lopsided, as his lips find my skin. Softly, as he trails his tongue from my neck, down to my chest, he whispers words against me, causing my flesh to basically ignite.
“I feel like I can convince you to say yes.” He murmurs, moving down further until his head is under the blanket. My heart stills, as his hot mouth finds the one place on my body that will never get enough of this man. When his tongue darts out, licking my sensitive folds, my hips buck against his face and all of my will goes out of the window.
He pauses, just long enough to make my mouth open, and plead with him for more.
“Say yes, baby.” His breath caresses against my sensitive flesh, causing me to cry out.
“Adrian, please…”
“Say yes, Mia.” He demands, running his teeth along my clit. My hand fists in the sheet, and I push my hips hard against his face.
“Fine, y
es! Yes, I will go. Now please…”
He wastes no more time, burying his face and tongue inside of me, causing me to float to only the place that he can seem to bring me. Maybe I just made a deal with the devil, but if it feels this good, how could it possibly be wrong?
The air is cool, and the sky is dark even though it’s midafternoon. Prior to the last month, this type of day would have done nothing but bring my mood down. But as I sit next to Adrian, watching the scenery that leads to his hometown whip past me, I don’t feel sad at all. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I actually feel happy.
Go figure.
I suppose that anyone getting as many orgasms as I am these days has every right to be in a good mood, but even though that’s what I try to tell myself, deep down I know that I’m happy for another reason completely, and it has everything to do with the man sitting next to me. His hand is wrapped around mine, my fingers laced into his. Every so often, his thumb strokes the palm of my hand, and whenever we stop, he turns to me with his boyish smile, and presses his lips along my fingers.
I’d almost forgotten what it feels like to be happy. I’d also forgotten how it felt to have a man hold my hand, just because. And the more and more that I think about it, I realize that I haven’t been truly happy in a long time. Starting way before Brett even began cheating on me.
It’s kind of crazy to think about, since I was so sure that he was the man for me. The man of my dreams. The one that I was supposed to spend my life with. But looking back, I realize that more than anything else, I was settling. I was comfortable, and perhaps, I wasn’t as in love as I thought that I was.
It took meeting someone like Adrian to show me that all in all, I didn’t really lose that much when Brett left me. I lost my comfort zone, but I didn’t lose my heart. If I had lost my heart, I wouldn’t have been able to give it to the man sitting next to me. Which is honestly, a pretty fucking scary thing to realize.
“Truth or dare.” Adrian’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts. I turn towards him and roll my eyes.
“What are we, twelve? I am not playing truth or dare with you.”
“Oh, come on.” He squeezes my hand. “What else do you have to do? We have at least another hour in the car, and trust me, babes. The scenery is going to be the exact same the entire way there.”
I glance out at the rows and rows of already picked corn stalks flying past us, the further that we get away from civilization. As a matter of fact, we haven’t passed another car in miles. We really are in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and I don’t have a damn thing to do to fill my time.
“Fine.” I mutter, figuring that I’ll just pacify him with a short game. “But fair warning, when I play truth or dare, I go hard. The last time I played this game, I got suspended from school. I’m a go big or go home kind of girl.”
“That’s my favorite thing about you.” Adrian’s smile is so damn endearing, that my insides melt. “Beautiful on the outside, hell raiser on the inside.”
Truth be told, that does basically sum me up. But if Adrian thinks that I’m about to pick a dare at this stage in the game, he’s dead wrong. I may be a hell raiser, but I’m way milder than I once was. Twenty year old Mia would have been all about the dare game. Now, almost eight years later, I’ll take the easy road. I’m a truth girl, all day long.
“Fine. Truth.”
“Truth, eh?” He nods his head. “Alright.”
He pauses for just long enough to make me nervous about what he’s going to ask me. But then, he pulls his hand out of mine, and glances at me, a serious look on his face.
“Why did you fall in love?”
I still. Every conversation that Adrian and I have had comes flashing back to me, and every single time that he told me not to fall in love with him circles me. Is he really asking me why I fell in love with him? Good god, what is he, psychic? I haven’t even uttered a word that sounded like love, mostly, because I hadn’t realized the way that I felt about him until, oh, I don’t know. Right now.
“Why did you fall in love with that guy, Mia? What was it about him that you fell in love with?”
I breathe an instant sigh of relief. Brett. He’s talking about Brett. But even though it’s an easy question, it’s not an easy answer. Mostly, because now that I’m looking back on our relationship, I can’t really put my finger on it. I’m not sure what it was about the guy that made me fall so hard for him. It’s a question that I may never have the answer to.
“Honestly, I can’t be sure, but a part of it, is because I was so young. I was a junior in high school when we started dating. Brett was my first,” I pause, and make a motion with my hand. Adrian raises his eyebrows. “You know.”
“Yeah, I get the picture.” His eyes darken. “Go on.”
“When we broke up, I missed him, a whole lot. In fact, it broke my heart. So, when we ended up getting back together a few years later, it felt like it was fate. We both wanted to same things in life, at least, back then we did. He wanted to get married and have a family. We both wanted the quiet little life that we had growing up. We just seemed to fit together again. It seemed like we were meant to be.”
I pause, glancing out of the window of Adrian’s rental car, chewing on my lower lip, trying to get the rest of the words out, without totally giving myself away.
“But then, things got complicated. Business in my salon started to boom. My attention shifted from him, and I focused on building my brand. I guess that I was so sidetracked, I didn’t notice that slowly, things started to change between us. I became comfortable, when I had no right to be. And while I was busy believing that things were fine at home, he was busy falling in love with someone else. I didn’t give him the attention that he needed. That fault falls on me.”
“That still doesn’t excuse what he did to you, Mia.” Adrian’s voice is stern. “Cheating is never the answer. If he wasn’t happy anymore, he should have ended things right then. Instead, he took the cowards way out, which is why it’s so baffling to me that you would even want to get that guy back.”
I pause. It is crazy of me, that at one point I was even considering wanting Brett back. But that was just my pride talking, and of course, this ridiculous history that I have with Michael Ann.
“If I’m being perfectly honest, getting him back was more about his new girlfriend than it was about him. She and I have history. Lengthy history, that stems from our entire childhood. She was a real shit to me growing up, always trying to ruin what was mine, or to take what was mine. I thought we had put all of that stuff behind us when we grew up, but turns out, she’s still playing the game.”
“And you decided to play along, too. That doesn’t make you much better, babe.”
I flip him off, which only makes him smirk. Ass.
“Look, I’ve done some things that I’m not proud of, but I’ll own them, alright? I’m grown enough to admit that I let things spin a bit out of control. Anyhow, my turns over. I answered your question. Now it’s your turn, hot shot. Truth or dare.”
“Since I’m driving, and picking dare wouldn’t be the safest option, I’ll follow your lead. Truth.”
I ponder my question for way longer than he did. There are just so many things that I want to ask him, so many in fact, that it’s hard to find just one question. But the one that keeps circling in my head, seemingly on repeat, is that one that must be asked.
“Ok.” I clear my throat. “Why are you so against settling down?”
His cocky smirk fades, and his hand that was just a second ago stroking mine stills. He’s quiet, before finally clearing his throat, and shrugging his shoulders.
“Settling down was never in my game plan. I’ve always figured that in order to settle down, I’d have to meet someone to completely spin me out. Someone who made me rethink everything that I thought I knew. Someone worth taking the risk for. No one that I’d met in my past was worth taking the risk for, Mia. No one was worth putting myself out there for.”
I
hate his answer. I hate is so much in fact, that I don’t want to play this game anymore. But honestly, what did I expect him to say?
You can’t change someone’s truth, even if you don’t like what it is. Adrian’s truth isn’t what I wanted to hear at all, but maybe, I needed to. I needed to hear that he hasn’t met anyone worth settling down for, because I need to get the vision of us actually ending up together out of my head.
“Fair enough.” My words are clipped, and when he tries to reach for my hand again, I just pull it away. Instead, I lean my seat all the way back, and fake a yawn.
“I’m done playing games, Malone. I’m too tired.”
And I mean it. I’m done playing games. I’m done living a lie, and I am tired.
Tired of loving people who don’t love me back.
“Showtime, babe.” Adrian nudges me gently, waking me from the light sleep that I was able to drift into. “We’re here.”
My eyes open slowly, and I see that we have now arrived at a huge white farmhouse, tucked into a clearing in the woods.
I blink a few times, letting my eyes adjust to the light, and then force my best game face on, and climb out of the car. Adrian takes my hand in his, and then leads me up the steps and onto the wrap around porch, before finally leading me inside of his childhood home.
Before the door even closes behind us, a plump, brown haired woman with beautiful blue eyes squeals, and then throws her arms around Adrian, squeezing him tight.
“My baby.” She sighs, burying her head into his chest, her face looking at complete peace. As I glance up at Adrian, I notice that his face mirrors hers. He doesn’t pull away from her embrace, in fact, he sinks right into it. This is something that I didn’t expect, but honestly, I’m not really surprised.
Adrian Malone is a total mama’s boy.
Another woman steps into the foyer, pretending to look annoyed as she nods her head towards Adrian.
Rule Play (Saints of Love Book 1) Page 13