by Rumer Raines
“I have enough, for now, Alex. I don’t even know how long I’ll be here, so it’s best that I don’t have too much.” I tilt my head when I hear him take in a deep breath and sigh.
Alex drops his fork on his plate and stomps out of the kitchen.
I eat the last of my crepe and put my plate in the sink. I look over at Alex’s barely touched plate and decide to leave it on the table. Maybe he’ll come back to eat once his attitude has settled. I walk into the living room and Alex is sitting on his black leather sofa bent over and rubbing his hand through his hair. Alex looks up at me and stands up and walks over to me taking me by the hand. He walks me over to the matching black leather chair and sits me down. He kneels in front of me and puts his hands on my knees.
“I need you to tell me about him. I want to know everything, Adele. I want to know everything from where you used to live to where the hell he works.” There is no compromise in Alex’s voice and for the second time, I think a Deluca man has given me no other option but to talk.
Alex
It’s another busy night at the club. I spend most of the night behind the bar helping Teddy. I need to be on the lookout for that soon to be a dead fucker, Garth. I couldn’t believe the shit that Adele told me about him. He is a twisted fucker who likes to hurt women. Adele made me promise not to hurt him, but unfortunately, that won’t be a promise I’ll be able to keep. I had her give me their address and I sent it to Oliver. He’s going to have someone keep an eye on him. Oliver did ask me why I wanted a tail on him, I just told him a waitress is having boyfriend issues that came to the club. It’s the truth or at least it’s close to it. I hear Adele laughing and I look up from the bar and she is once again flirting with one of the customers. I hate when she does that shit. I am not sure why it pisses me off, but it does. She manages to tear herself away from the guy and comes to the bar with his order. Teddy is busy so she brings it over to me and as I grab it our hands slightly touch.
“It’s a busy night,” Adele says as I start to mix the drink. I am not sure why this guy has a table if all he’s going to do is drink. He looks familiar and I think this is the same guy I saw her laughing with once before.
“Do you know that guy?” I ask and as I hand her the drink.
“He’s a customer. I have waited on him a few times,” Adele responds and I turn my back to her and walk away.
She heads back over to his table and before I can leave the bar area. I can still hear the laughter that is really starting to anger me.
I stay in the office for the rest of the night trying to avoid Adele. I look over the payroll and other paperwork that needs to be taken care of. My phone rings and I look at the caller ID to see that it’s Oliver so I answer it hoping he has information on Garth. Oliver doesn’t have any good news to share with me. He tells me that they have been watching the house, but there has been no sign of Garth. We even went to where he worked and found out that he took a leave of absence. None of this shit sounds good. If I had to guess, he took time off to find Adele and drag her back home. The minute I hang up the phone, it rings again and this time it’s Frank.
“Hey, Frankie,” I say as I reshuffle some of the papers hoping he realizes that I am working.
“Alex, are you busy?” he asks and I can hear the surprise in his voice.
“Of course. What else would I be doing?”
“Well I hear papers, so hopefully you didn’t just knock it off to put some girl’s naked ass on my desk,” Frank says sarcastically.
“Nope. At least not yet. Did you need something Frankie or are you just checking up on me?”
“We’re going to need to stay in New York a few extra weeks. Lola’s dad is having emergency surgery so we’re staying a little longer.”
“Okay. Take your time. Everything is being handled here,” I tell him as I pinch my nose.
“Everything is working out? Is Adele still there, Alex? You haven’t run her off, have you?” he asks.
“Adele is in one piece, Frank,” I tell him.
“What’s going on Alex? You’re not telling me something. I hear it in your voice,” he asks and I lean back in the chair.
“I know, Frankie,” I acknowledge.
“You know what?” Frank asks.
“I know that she’s on the run from her husband, and how he liked to beat the shit out of her,” I tell him as I feel my heart rate start to race.
“Fuck… she told you?”
“She didn’t have a choice. He showed up and she crawled behind the bar to hide. When I asked her what the hell she was doing because I thought you hired a fruit loop, she told me,” I say, now totally pissed off thinking about that night. I stand up and start to pace the office.
“He found her? Shit, do I need to come back, Alex?”
“No. He didn’t find her because I threw him out. I told him not to come back. I will take care of it, Frankie.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Alex. Think before you act. As a matter of fact, call me before you act.”
“I won’t do anything stupid, Frankie. I’ll keep you posted.”
There is a light tap on the office door and I yell for them to come in. Adele strolls into the office and asks if I am ready to go home. I lock up and on the way home I ask her if she wants to grab something to eat. We find a restaurant that is open twenty-four hours and I scan the room as we’re taken to our table. The waitress is this cute little blond who I notice is flirting with me. I look her over and notice Adele watching me with narrowed eyes. I look down at my menu and glance up at Adele and her eyes are now glued to her menu as well. I am not sure what I’ll be getting from this place since nothing really looks all that great. We both place our orders, which both happen to be breakfast and orange juice and the waitress keeps her eyes on me the entire time. It’s almost rude that she doesn’t even look at Adele while she is taking her order. I thank her and hand her back both menus and when I return my attention back to Adele her eyes are narrowed on me.
“Do you get that a lot?” she asks as she tilts her head.
“What?”
“That girl practically undressed you with her eyes. It didn’t even matter that I was sitting here. A little rude if you ask me.”
“I agree with you. It was rude. To answer your question, I guess it happens often enough. I have a question for you now.”
“Okay. What’s the question?”
“Why in the hell would you stay with a man who hits you?”
Adele shakes her head and closes her eyes. When she opens them, she looks away from me?
“I don’t know. I thought he really loved me. He took care of me. I thought that’s what love looked like,” she says as she wipes her eyes.
“Adele, I know I may not be the nicest guy in the world, but no man would hurt the woman that he loved. He would protect her and kill anyone that considered hurting her.”
“I thought I deserved him,” she whispers and I lean toward her and grab her hands.
“You deserve a man that would worship you, not hurt you. If you were mine, the only thing anyone would see in your eyes is happiness and satisfaction.”
“Tell me more, Alex. If I were yours, what would happen right now? We just left the club and were sitting in this shitty little restaurant. What would happen next?”
I narrow my eyes at her wondering what game she’s playing. Does she want to fantasize now? If that’s what she wants, that’s what she’s about to get.
“If you were mine, Adele. You would already be satisfied. You would have knocked on the office door and I would have pulled you inside the room and yanked up your skirt and started eating your pussy before we even left the club. If you would have been able to walk out to the car, you would have sucked me off on the drive here. I wouldn’t be sitting across from you right now, I would be sitting next to you. Right now, Adele, I would have two of my fingers inside you. I would have you come on my fingers and before that little blond returned, you would be sucking your own juices off my
fingers. That would only be foreplay until I got you home.”
The waitress picks that exact moment to come with our food. Neither one of us acknowledge her, but I can’t help but notice we are both breathing a little harder. Our eyes are glued to the other and Adele’s are a little dazed. I look down at my food realizing that I am no longer hungry because what I want is on the other side of the table and not on top of it.
We barely touch our food and ask for a take-home box when the waitress returns. The drive home is a very quiet one and I can hear Adele’s labored breathing. I don’t even turn on the radio because I like the way it sounds. With every breath she takes, I can feel my dick get a little harder. I start to think about how her breathing would change if I was moving in and out of her. I shake my head at the thought almost wanting to slap myself on the head because I can’t touch this girl. Adele is off limits and she must stay that way. I notice her moving and look over to see her pressing her thighs closer together. She is still affected by what I said I would do to her if she was mine. I hit the gas to get us home a little faster so I can get away from her and take care of myself.
Adele
I toss and turn most of the night. When we arrived home, Alex practically jumped out of the car and ran inside. He wanted to get away from me. I don’t know if that was a good thing or bad thing. I was so turned on by the things he said he would do to me if I was his. I wanted to climb over the table and jump on him. I wanted to know what it was like to be his. I used to belong to Garth and I had nothing close to what Alex offered. Garth abused me and made me feel like I was worth nothing. When Alex described what he would do to me, I realized I never had that with Garth. It was always the same thing with him. Five minutes of routine sex and I never felt satisfied. Sex was a necessary chore that I had to do to keep the peace. Garth never cared if I liked it anyway; it was always about him.
Sleep eventually finds me and there is still one person with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes haunting them… Alex DeLuca. I am hot and sweaty when I wake up the next morning. I walk directly to the bathroom to take a shower and head to the kitchen once I am dressed. I wonder if Alex will comment on my jeans and t-shirt, but he’ll just have to deal with it. When I get to the kitchen there are bagels and fruit sitting on the island and Alex is reading the newspaper.
“Good morning,” I say pulling out the bar stool.
“Morning. I went out and grabbed breakfast. I didn’t want to try the cooking thing again,” Alex says, never looking at me; his eyes on the newspaper.
“This is good. Thank you,” I quietly say, feeling embarrassed because he won’t even make eye contact with me.
We eat in silence and Alex puts the newspaper down and looks over at me tilting his head.
“We don’t have to be at the club until later tonight, so I thought we’d hang out.”
I nearly choke on my bagel and look up at him tilting my head, questioningly.
“What exactly did you have in mind?” I ask.
“We're going shopping. I thought we’d start at Nordstrom’s and then we’d go wherever else you wanted.”
“Alex, I don’t need clothes. I am starting to feel insulted that you keep bringing them up. I do wash them.”
Alex leans towards me and grabs my hand.
“Adele, you’re right you don’t need clothes. You can walk around here naked if you wanted to. You deserve nice things and that includes nice clothes. I want to do this for you. Please do this for me. Let me do this.”
I snatch my hand away from him and his eyebrows rise.
“Okay, we’ll go shopping. I’ll buy what I need. “
“Whatever you say, Adele,” he smiles.
Several hours later, we have been to more stores than I wanted to visit. After I bought a couple pairs of jeans and tops that were on clearance, Alex broke his word. He bought me several more items and I was a little uneasy with accepting any of it. Garth started out buying me things and in the end, he bought a piece of my soul. I don’t want to repeat that with Alex. He is being nice now, but I have seen him at his worst when he is being an asshole. The minute I upset, him he’ll change and he’ll lash out. We throw all the bags into the trunk and Alex grabs my hand indicating we’ll grab dinner before we head back home. He throws more money into the meter and leads us to this little Italian restaurant a few blocks away.
When we enter the restaurant, Alex takes us right over to a booth in the corner. I look over at the greeter, wondering if he’ll get pissed that we just seated ourselves? The greeter comes over after seating a couple and pulls Alex into a hug and pats him on the back.
“Nice to see you, Alex! It’s been too long!” he is practically yelling.
“It has been. I want you to meet someone. Adele, this is Ricky. Ricky, this is Adele.” I reach over to shake Ricky’s hand. Ricky is an older man with salt and pepper hair. He looks like he could be at least fifty and he has the friendliest blue eyes I have seen. The only other blue eyes I can compare them to are Garth’s, so I guess I am not the best judge of character.
“Can I get you and your friend a bottle of wine?” Ricky asks and Alex tells him to bring over the best bottle that they have. Once Ricky heads off, I look over at Alex and smile.
“You do realize how much the best bottle can cost don’t you?” I ask.
“It doesn’t matter, Adele. I want you to have the best.” I narrow my eyes at him.
“Uh huh,” I moan as I tilt my head looking at Alex.
“Is there a reason why you didn’t take me shopping at the mall, Alex? Did you not want to run into Alexis while you were with me?”
“Where is that coming from?” he asks.
“Just asking. The mall would have been the logical place to shop, wouldn’t it?” I ask and I notice an accusing tone in my voice.
“Maybe it would have been. You can shop at the mall anytime. I don’t see you splurging at Nordstrom, so that’s where I took you. I am not embarrassed to be seen out with you, Adele. As far as Alexis goes, I don’t like her in my business, but I wouldn’t like her in my business if I was with you or anybody else.”
“She knows I work for you and Frank. I don’t think she would have had issues with us being seen together.”
“I don’t like Alexis knowing the women I fuck around with,” Alex states and Ricky comes back over with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Alex keeps his eyes on me as Ricky pours both of us a glass and I need to cross my legs to stop the ache I am starting to feel between them.
Once we have had several glasses of wine, Alex and I place our order. Alex keeps his eyes on me the entire time. It almost feels like he is considering my soul and I can’t stop my heart from fluttering when he stares into my eyes. I ask Alex about his family and he talks about his mom and her boyfriend who works for the police. I am not convinced that he likes the guy, but he says that the man makes his mom happy. He also starts to talk about his father. He tells me about him being diagnosed with cancer and how it brought the family closer together. He talks very briefly about Frank and Lola, but he has the most joy talking about his niece and nephew. I can tell he loves those kids and it makes me wonder if he wants his own kids.
“Do you want kids of your own?” I ask and Alex runs his hand through his hair.
“I think I would. I’ll deny this if you ever mentioned it, but sometimes I am jealous of Frank. I have to wonder if a nice girl would take me.”
“I’m sure a nice girl would take you in a heartbeat, Alex. She would be lucky to have you. At least on your nice days,” I chuckle and Alex tilts his head and laughs.
I watch Alex as he laughs and he is beautiful. I realize men don’t want to be called beautiful, but I don’t know how to describe it. He was a jerk from day one, but from the minute he realized I was in trouble he became a different person. He has become giving and kind and I honestly feel so protected whenever he’s near. I know Garth can’t touch me if he is around. I shake my head as I look at Alex and he narrows his eyes at me.
Our dinner is finally served and we make jokes and Alex starts to ask about my family. There is not much to tell on the family front and Alex looks at me with sadness in his eyes. My parents have never had an interest in me and what relationship we had ended when Garth forbid me from talking to them.
Alex picks up the check and we grab our leftovers as Alex grabs my hand to walk back to the car. I can’t help but feel something as he leads me to the car holding my hand. Alex looks over at me and squeezes my hand as he opens the car door for me. I watch him walk around the front and climb into the driver’s seat.
“Did you have anything in mind for dessert?” I ask and Alex looks over at me and his eyes darken.
Alex
Adele and I are soon heading to the club for the night. I can tell she doesn’t like going in with me and I can understand why. Who wants to be seen arriving with the boss? She’ll have to get used to it though because there is no way she is leaving my sight until Garth is found. I know I’ll also have an argument on hand when we reach the club. I had the car she was driving moved back to Lola’s house. I pull into the alley and drive into my spot, where her car was previously parked. I hear Adele gasp and sit forward in the seat.
“Oh my God. It’s been stolen!” she puts her hands over her mouth and I look over at her and I see the sheer panic.
“Don’t worry it hasn’t been stolen. I had it moved back to Lola’s house.” I turn to look at her as she lowers her hands.
“Why would you do that? I need that car to get around!” Adele practically yells at me and I can feel my eyebrows lift as I glare at her.
“Where do you plan on going? I can take you.”
“I don’t want you taking me everywhere, Alex. I especially don’t want to come to the club every night with you. What would the other girls say?” Adele asks.
“Fuck what the other girls say. I will bring you in and take you home. Just let me know where else you want to go and I’ll take you.”