I laugh. “Okay, duly noted.”
She yawns again.
“Come on, let’s go to sleep,” I say as I take the remote and turn the TV off.
I place it on the nightstand next to me and pull Adrienne to my chest. One arm drapes over my stomach while her head lies on my chest.
“Why are you so good to me?” she asks through another yawn.
“Because you’re mine,” I state simply.
And then she’s asleep.
The next morning when I wake up, Adrienne isn’t in the bed next to me. I look towards the bathroom but the door is wide open with the light off. I get out of bed, throw on some pants and go to the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth.
I move towards the kitchen and hear her before I see her. She’s humming along to a song that’s playing from her phone. When I cross the living room I see her in the kitchen still wearing my T-shirt and cooking breakfast. It brings a smile to my face.
“Good morning.”
She jumps around like I frightened her. “You scared the shit out of me,” she says with her hand on her chest.
“I’m sorry,” I laugh.
“I’ve never made you breakfast before, but I hope you like this. I’m making scrambled eggs, bacon, smoked sausage, fried potatoes, and toast.”
“Sounds amazing. I’m starving.”
“I’m surprised you had all that in your fridge and pantry,” she says with a grin.
“I told you I cook.”
She smiles and continues cooking. “Need my help?” I ask.
“Nope. You go sit over there and watch sports or something,” she says, gesturing towards the living room with a spatula.
“Who’s spoiling who?” I say as I make my way to her and give her a kiss.
“You’re mine,” she says with a shrug and my smile grows even wider. “You can’t come in here without a shirt on. It’s distracting. I’m gonna burn the food.”
“Sorry,” I laugh. “I’ll go put one on now.”
Adrienne hasn’t brought up what happened last night with her ex, and I won’t talk about it unless I know she wants to. I know he was drunk off his ass, and I know he didn’t succeed in doing what he wanted, but I wanted to keep hitting him. I guess there isn’t a point after he’s already been knocked unconscious. If I ever see that bastard again, though, he’ll regret it.
Even though I’m supposed to be watching sports, I can’t help but watch Adrienne as she moves around my kitchen. I’ve never had a woman in here before, let alone one who cooks for me. It’s nice to look over and see her in there humming and looking so happy. This, I’m realizing, is what I’ve been missing out on. Not just a relationship with a woman, but happiness. Seeing her happy makes me happy.
“Okay, come and get it,” she says happily from the kitchen.
“Come and get what?” I ask suggestively as I move from the couch towards the kitchen.
She laughs. “Whatever you want, everything in here is yours.”
As I approach her, I notice she has an impish look on her face. “Everything, huh?”
She nods as she bites down on her lip.
“So this is mine?” I ask as I touch her mouth with my thumb.
She nods.
“This is mine?” I ask when my hand grabs her ass.
Her eyes become hooded, and she nods in response.
“Is this mine?” I ask, my hand moving to her pussy.
She closes her eyes briefly. “Is it?” I demand.
“Yes,” she breaths.
“Good. What about this?” I ask when my hand rests over her heart.
Her eyes widen slightly. She wasn’t expecting me to ask that. We stand there looking at each other. This is a pretty defining moment in our relationship. We’ve known each other for several months now, and although we’ve separated a couple times, it was never for long, and it never changed the way I felt. She’s special, and I know I’ll want her in my life for a long time. Forever. I just don’t know how she’s felt, or how she feels now, knowing what she does about me.
“Yes.”
One word. That’s all it is, and yet it means everything to me. I smile and lift her up. Her legs find their place around my waist. She’s holding a fork in one hand, but still wraps her arms around me. I kiss her cheek, then her mouth, and then the other cheek. She starts giggling, and I kiss her face some more.
“Okay, okay. You might as well just lick my face like a puppy,” she says, laughing.
“I don’t mind licking you,” I say as I raise an eyebrow.
“I know, and I love that you don’t mind. Now, let’s eat before all this food gets cold.”
“Well, I definitely don’t want it to go to waste,” I say, looking at all the food she has laid out. “I can’t wait to eat it.”
“Eat what?” she asks in her own suggestive tone.
“I’ll eat you later. Don’t worry,” I say with a wink.
We sit down to eat at the bar that’s near the floor-to-ceiling window. I’ve always loved sitting here and looking out at the view.
“This view is spectacular,” Adrienne says. “I could never get tired of this.”
“I haven’t yet,” I say with a grin. “What if I moved? Would you still want to come over without the view?” I ask.
“Hmm,” she says as she taps her finger on her chin. “I guess.” She drags out the S. “I do like this view, too,” she says, pointing a finger at me.
“Well, that’s good.”
“Are you really thinking about moving?”
“Maybe. I do really like this place, but I’m thinking maybe I should move further from The Strip, and get a house, not an apartment.”
“I really don’t think you can call this an apartment,” she says, scrunching up her face.
“Okay, maybe not, but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. Well, I’ll come see you even if you’re living in a van down by the river.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Okay, Chris Farley.”
She starts cracking up. “I’m glad you got that, or it would have been really weird.”
We start talking about our favorite SNL episodes, which turns into talking about our other favorite shows.
“You’ve never seen Lost?” she asks like she’s appalled.
“Uh. No.”
“Why do you say it like that? Lost is awesome!”
“I don’t know. I heard something about a smoke monster, and I was just like, no thanks.”
“Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but really, you HAVE to watch it. It’s so good, you’ll get hooked. I know it!”
“Mmm…I don’t know,” I say, just trying to get her all riled up.
“I have all the seasons, I’ll bring them over, or you can watch them at my place, but you will watch them.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. It will become our lazy Sunday thing to do.”
All of a sudden, watching Lost doesn’t seem like a bad idea. I like the notion of lazy Sundays being ours.
“Okay. I’ll watch it.”
“Really? You will? Yay! I’m so excited. I promise you’ll love it,” she says excitedly as she claps her hands.
“I guess,” I say, dragging out the S like she did earlier.
She rolls her eyes at me.
“That means you have to watch something I like.”
“Like what? Porn?” She starts cracking up like it’s the funniest thing in the world.
“No. Not porn,” I say. “But, I don’t mind watching that with you either.”
“Of course not. Are you running out of ideas?” she says playfully.
“Of course not.”
She laughs again. “Okay, so what do you like?”
“Breaking Bad.”
She scrunches up her nose.
“Sons of Anarchy?”
She shrugs.
“Oh come on. You have to watch one of them.”
“Fine. I’ll watch one. You pick which one. We can switch each Sunda
y between super, awesome Lost, and whatever you pick.” She says the last half like she’s sure it will be terrible.
“Okay, I’ll surprise you.”
“You always do,” she says as she leans forward and gives me a kiss.
It’s been a month of lazy Sundays with Jace. Okay, so that’s only four, but those four have been the best lazy Sundays I’ve had. We’ve sat around at either his place or mine in pajamas, taking turns making food for us throughout the day, and watching Lost and Sons of Anarchy, which I’ll admit is pretty damn good.
I’ll also admit that I’ve fallen in love with Jace. He’s stolen my heart, and I don’t even want it back. It’s his. We’re coming up on our six month anniversary, and I know it’s annoying when people celebrate anniversaries by the month, but I have something planned for that date. There’s no way I could wait another six months for what I have planned. It’s nothing big, and he doesn’t even know there’s going to be an ‘anniversary’ date, but it’s my way to finally express to him how I feel about him. I’m nervous about saying the L word. Probably because even though I know he really cares about me, he’s never said it either, and there’s that tiny little bit of doubt that he won’t feel the same.
I head out to go meet up with Em at the coffee shop. She’s been managing it for about three years, and has become very close with the owner. The owner, who’s pretty old now, is talking about handing it over to Em. She’s so excited, and I couldn’t be happier for her. It’s such a cute little place.
It’s about six-thirty and since it’s November, the nights have gotten cooler. I walk into the fairly empty shop, and see Em sitting at one of the tables clutching a coffee cup in her hands.
“It’s effing freezing out there,” she exclaims.
“Oh, come on. It’s like fifty degrees out there. That’s not too bad.”
“Actually, it’s forty-eight.”
“You know, people who live in Alaska would probably laugh at you for complaining about the temperature. It’s probably twenty-something degrees there now. I’m sure forty eight is pretty warm for them,” I laugh.
“Remind me to never live in Alaska, then.”
“Okay,” I laugh.
“Let me get you some hot chocolate,” Em says, walking behind the counter.
“Thanks,” I respond as I sit down.
She gets back and sets down my hot chocolate and some cookies.
“So are you ready for Thanksgiving? I’m ready to go eat some of your dad’s delicious food again,” she says.
“I’m always ready for Thanksgiving.”
“How’s your dad doing anyway? I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“He’s good. He’s been busy working, you know him. Plus, he went on vacation to the Bahamas for a few weeks.”
“The Bahamas? Dang, he could have taken me along.”
“I know, right? I wanted to go with him, but work gets in the way of that.”
“Yeah. Damn responsibilities. I’ll be sure to take some desserts or something when I go, so he doesn’t have to do all the work.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna make the ham and some sides. He makes the best turkey, so I’ll leave that to him.”
“Good idea.”
Em has been spending the holidays with us for about six years, ever since her parents died. She lost them both in a car accident when she was twenty-one. She makes sure she brings the dessert her mom used to always make for any occasion: strawberry trifle.
“Where’s Jace?” she asks while chewing on a cookie.
“Doing work stuff.”
“Ah. So that’s why I get to see you,” she says giving me a sly grin before she takes a sip of her drink.
“Oh, whatever. Where’s Troy? He hit that yet?”
She almost spits out her drink. Her hand covers her mouth before it spews all over the table. “Oh my God!” she laughs. “I wasn’t expecting you to say that,” she says as she wipes some hot chocolate from her chin. “But the answer is no. My lady parts are lonely and sad.”
“Well, if you aren’t going to give Troy a chance, I’d stop talking to him as much as you do. Honestly, you guys drive me crazy. When you two are together, it’s so cute! Y’all are all flirty and try to touch each other in these sneaky little ways. Just do it already! The sexual tension is killing me, and I am getting laid!”
“I don’t touch him in sneaky ways!” she gasps.
“Yes you do. I’ve seen it, Jace has seen it, and we talk about it.”
“Ugh. Whatever. We’re just friends.”
“Uh huh,” I mumble before taking a drink.
“Whatever happened to just having sex for fun with no strings attached? I’m pretty sure you were the one pushing me to sleep with Jace even though I had seen him out with girls.”
“Well,” she pauses to think. “That’s different.”
“I don’t think so. I think you’re just realizing that you really like him, and don’t think you can handle his job. You’d be a jealous, crazy, psycho girlfriend, and that’s fine! You just have to admit you actually like him. That’s why you won’t go forward with anything. You don’t want to get hurt.”
She stares down into her cup like she’s looking for an answer to appear there. She finally looks up at me and I can see the emotion in her face.
“You’re right. I do really like him, and being his friend, and talking and hanging out with him, is only making me fall for him more and more. He’s perfect, Adrienne. For me anyway. He’s so funny, he gets my crazy humor and isn’t embarrassed by my antics. We get along great, and obviously he’s sexy as fuck!” She sighs. “I just hate that when I’m not with him or talking to him on the phone, I think about who he’s with and what he’s doing. I wonder if he’ll fall in love with one of the women he has sex with.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Em,” I say as I reach out and rub her arm.
She lets out another exasperated sigh. “Let’s talk about something else. No talk about guys.”
“Okay.”
After a few moments of awkward silence, she breaks it. “Okay, so any good Jace stories?”
We both laugh and I end up telling her about my six month plan. She thinks it’s a great idea, and I only hope that Jace does too.
We end up staying at the coffee shop until way past closing time. The other employees and customers left a while back, and with Em and I being so engrossed in our conversations, we didn’t even think to leave to go anywhere else. With hot chocolate and little goodies to keep us happy, we were fine with staying.
“Well, I guess I better head home,” I say as I stand up and stretch.
“Yeah, me too. I gotta be back here early in the morning.”
I help Em clean up and turn off all the lights and we walk outside together.
“Jesus effing Christ! It’s gotta be like negative ten degrees now,” Emilie whines.
“Okay, I’ll agree that it’s a lot colder, but definitely not negative anything,” I laugh. “Maybe just right at zero,” I say, knowing even that is an exaggeration.
“Which is too cold. I’m gonna run to my car. I’ll catch ya later. Good luck with that six month thing.”
“Thanks,” I say as I turn and walk the other way to my car.
Three days later is November fifteenth, our six month anniversary. I’ve been excited and nervous all day. I hope I haven’t let on to Jace that anything is up. I’ve gotten all my little gifts all packaged and ready to go, and I’ve talked to Troy about making sure Jace stays at home at a certain time today since I’m having the packages delivered. I’ve also made sure to get all pampered and done up for our date tonight.
Oh, God, I’m so nervous. I hope he doesn’t think this is too cheesy. The packages are already with the delivery person, and he knows when to deliver them. All I have to do is wait to hear from Jace. I sit down in my baby blue, chiffon, tea-length dress, and tap my feet on the floor, waiting anxiously for Jace’s response.
Troy and I are hanging out in my living room, w
atching some basketball, when I get a call saying I have a delivery.
“That’s weird,” I say when I hang up the phone.
“What’s up?” Troy asks.
“John just called up here saying someone is coming up with a delivery. I didn’t order anything, though.”
“Hmm. That is weird,” he responds. “Well, man, I’m gonna get outta here.”
“Alright. Take it easy. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Okay. Let me know what’s up with this package. Hopefully it isn’t anthrax or anything.”
“Funny.”
He laughs and shows himself out. I wait by the door for the delivery guy to show up. When he does, I’m shocked to see it’s two packages. One is fairly big, but the other is pretty small.
“Mr. Jamison?” he asks.
“That’s me.”
“Great. Here you go,” he says as he hands me the packages.
“I don’t need to sign anything?”
“Nope. Have a good night.” Then he walks away.
I close the door and take the packages to the kitchen. I inspect them trying to find a name or logo on them. The only thing I do notice is that the large box has a number one written on it, and the smaller one has a number two. I grab a knife and cut through the tape that’s on the box. After digging through some paper, my hand hits something that feels like metal.
When I pull it out, I laugh. It’s a crown. It’s silver and gold and has what I hope aren’t real diamonds in it. KING is written in large letters on the front. Adrienne. It can only be from her.
I place it on the table, and pull out more paper. At the bottom of the box is an envelope and good sized silver metal bar. When I pull it out I notice it has nice designs carved into it, and the bottom is a dark colored, round jewel. The top is uniquely shaped with gold designs running through it. When I finally figure out it’s a scepter, I laugh even harder. Such a smart ass she is.
I tear open the envelope and read her perfect, girly handwriting.
Jace
I know you change your mind on whether you want to be a king or a God, so why not be Zeus? He was the king of the Gods. Here’s your crown and scepter. You are now official.
Living in Sin (The Escort Series) Page 25