He raised his brows again. “That’s the second time you’ve said ‘you people’.”
I responded on a long exhale. “Yes, you people. Cops. Detectives. Investigators. Whatever the fuck. You’re all arrogant, trouble-making, cocky, assholes who think the world revolves around you.”
His grin widened when he pointed out, “You like cops, though.”
“See what I mean…jerk,” I whispered to myself, and I watched him bite his lip, probably to keep from laughing. Then, I watched his eyes veer to the right and over my shoulder, but they came back to me, so fast I almost didn’t catch the movement.
“Mrs. Bryant, here’s my card,” he said as he handed it to me.
I looked at it a second before snatching it out of his hand.
“It’s Dayes,” I mumbled, obviously to myself, because it seemed Officer Asshole never listened.
“Don’t forget what I told you to do if Max calls, and if you need anything at all, or if you have information for me, please call me right away.”
“Can I just change my number?” I asked. I let my eyes plead with him, but all he did was chuckle.
“No, Mia. Max's trouble runs deeper than the department. We have an idea who he's involved with, and if we're right, it’s better if we get him to come in before he gets himself killed…if he hasn’t already.”
My body jerked at the image that put in my head. This was unbelievable. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I whispered.
"Look, don't worry about it, don't stress about it. Stay with Adam. He'll keep you safe. And I'm sure with a bite like yours, you can take care of yourself.”
I felt winded by the strategically timed remark that felt like a sucker punch. I had a feeling it had been meant to take my mind off the bad, but the meaning behind it infuriated me.
That motherfucker!
Adam really did show people my bite mark. I was going to beat his ass!
Ugh!
And then I felt it, the change in energy, and I knew he was there. He’d probably been standing there the whole time. Of course he would have been.
He was Adam. Enough said.
But I wasn’t going to let him get away with this.
I looked up into the grinning investigator’s face and gave him a seductive smile in return. I took a step forward into his personal space and his grin fell flat. I lifted a hand to his neck and I watched as his body jerked. I traced my finger from his neck to his collar bone and purred, “You want my bite?”
“Mia, quit fuckin’ around!” Adam shouted at my back and I could hear him storming my way. I dropped my arm and smirked.
I leaned in to hiss in the investigator’s face, “If there is a next time, I’m not just going to bite him…I’m going to rip out his jugular.”
I turned and ran smack dab into a wall of hard chest. My eyes skimmed up to Adam's face and kept going until they met greenish-blue eyes, burning so heatedly they could melt ice. His eyes left mine to glare at the investigator behind me and, seconds later, I heard him retreat.
“You’re an asshole,” I hissed and he grabbed my chin gently to tilt my head higher. He placed a deep, soft kiss on my lips, and when he lifted, he looked down at me with a face full of concern.
“You have a small red mark where that asshole touched you,” he said, so roughly I was momentarily caught off guard.
And then my stomach growled and I remembered to be pissed.
“Freckles, you still ignoring me?” Adam asked for the eighth time since leaving the station. I just kept peering out the window with my arms crossed over my chest. He was an idiot and obviously thought I was too. Of course I was ignoring him, and no matter how much I wanted to acknowledge his presence, that would only defeat the purpose... of ignoring him.
“Baby, it was a joke. I didn't really show him your bite mark. I've known him for years."
Oh, like knowing him for years should make a difference. Though, Adam not actually showing him the bite did make me feel a little better.
"Do you want me to stop and pick up food or do you want to sit down somewhere?”
Really?
No matter how loud my stomach growled, I’d starve before I opened my mouth to speak to him. I wouldn’t even open my mouth to tell him I didn’t want to stay at his house, which was exactly where I knew we were headed.
“Okay, fine, you twisted my arm. I’ll cook for you,” he answered his own question, and at that exact moment, his phone rang. I didn't look, but I could hear him searching his pockets for it.
A couple rings later, it stopped, only to start up again right away.
"Jesus," I heard him mutter, but I still didn't look at him. This time he must have hit a silence button, because the ringing stopped mid-ring.
Five minutes later, the phone rang again, and I glared at him. This time, he answered.
"Babe, I'm kinda busy," he answered, and every muscle in my body tightened.
Oh my God!
Through the phone, I could hear a woman's voice on the other end of the conversation, but I couldn't hear what she was saying.
"No," he said.
"I'll tell you about it later," he sighed.
"I said no," he growled.
"It's not the right time," he sighed again.
"Can we please just drop this for now?" Silence for a beat as the woman spoke in a rapid rant. We turned into his neighborhood and, suddenly, I wasn't so hungry anymore. "Damn it, I'm just about to pull up to my house. I’ll call you later,” he finished and hung up. My hands fisted. I was dying to ask who that was on the phone, but I already knew.
One of his many women, I was sure.
“Adam, I’d like to go to a hotel please,” I said, deciding it was finally time to break my silence. Adam glanced at me with narrowed eyes and muscle ticked in his jaw.
"No," he growled, and faced the road again.
"Adam --"
"No, Mia. I'm not taking you to a fuckin' hotel," he snapped, and I closed my mouth. We pulled into his driveway and I decided I was never talking again for the rest of my life.
When we walked into the house, Adam turned on all the lights and I scanned my surroundings like I'd never been here before. I felt lost. To my right, was the living room, where most of the decorations were now smashed on the floor. To my left, was the kitchen, and straight ahead were the stairs. Alongside the stairs was a hallway, and that hallway led into what I remembered as the family room, or entertainment room.
But instead of moving to any of those rooms, I just stood in place not knowing what to do or where to go, in this house, or in my life.
Until I felt a hand grab mine.
I looked up to the left where Adam stared down at me with tenderness.
“Come on,” he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the stairs.
I went willingly, following behind him until we walked through his bedroom to the bathroom. Adam let my hand go, turned on the shower, stuck his hand in the water and waited until the temperature was to his liking before he came back to me.
“Shoes off, Baby,” he ordered in a voice so soft it sent shivers down my spine. I complied instantly, more than ready to be out of four-inch heels. The only problem was that after stepping out of them both, I had to look way up to see Adam’s face, but as soon as our eyes connected, he bent and touched his lips to mine.
When he lifted, I felt him shift my hair over my shoulder, before his hands wrapped around my back to unzip my top, and immediately after, he lifted it over my head. I let him. I was too tired to fight him and I wanted a shower so badly I could taste the water. Adam’s hands moved to the button of my jeans and in record time, he bent at the knees, slid them down my legs and waited until I stepped out of them before tossing them aside.
Quickly, he gripped my hips, fingers splayed over the top of my ass, and he kissed the top of my thigh, then my other thigh. My stomach grew taut. I closed my eyes, loving the feel of his warm lips on my skin as they traveled up, kissing and teasing along the way unti
l he made it to the edge of my panties. I cupped the sides of his face.
I felt his finger dip into the edge of my panties and, in a flash, they were gone too, but, instead of concentrating downstairs, he stood and wrapped his arms around my back to unhook and remove my bra. When it was free from my arms, I gripped the hem of his shirt, but the second I started lifting it, he stopped me with a tight grip on my wrists.
“No, Mia.” His eyes held mine. “You take a shower. I’m gonna go back downstairs to make us something to eat.”
Uhhhh...huh?
“But I’m not hungry anymore,” I whispered, even though that wasn’t really true. I was hungry, for him.
He swept his thumb across my bottom lip, following the movement with his eyes.
“You’re so damn beautiful, you know that?” Adam said as a sweet smile played on his lips, but something about his words was like a slap in the face. I shook my head to clear it, but when that didn’t work, I took a step back and covered myself with my hands as images from the past flashed through my mind…something I couldn’t stop no matter how hard I wished them away.
All I could see was the ecstasy on her face as she reveled in the feel of Adam beneath her. I could see exactly how good she looked doing it. I could easily see her flawless figure, her platinum blonde hair, and just how much Adam had enjoyed her in his lap.
I'd always wondered how far things would have gone had I not been seen, and knowing that he probably would have had sex with her, especially while I'd been pregnant, shattered me all over again.
Once the images hit me, it was hard to think about anything else. He swore he didn’t cheat, but I saw him kiss her with my own eyes. It was so clear in my mind it was like it happened yesterday, and nothing could take those images away.
"Baby, what's goin' on in that head of yours? What's wrong?" Adam asked roughly, and I closed my eyes, refusing to bring up the past, even though I wanted to do just that. I wanted to scream at him for ruining me. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs until I lost my voice. I wanted to slap him for stealing away my confidence, and for every ounce of self-doubt I harbored. I hated myself for feeling so weak around him.
What am I even doing here? In this house? I shouldn't be here.
I opened my eyes and Adam's expression was the epitome of worry and fear combined. I had to admit it felt good to believe he actually cared, but I knew I was only another body to him; one that he probably cared about only slightly more than the others because it held a lot of old memories for him.
I could feel Adam’s eyes on me and knew that he was watching me closely, but my mind wouldn't stop working. Honestly, I was sick of myself. I made these decisions so I had to live with them, but I didn’t want to.
I felt dirty and confused.
I'd had sex with Adam, twice, knowing I had a boyfriend. The fact that I didn’t have a boyfriend the day after I’d had sex with Adam didn’t count because said ex-boyfriend didn’t know it yet.
Even though Max had gotten in trouble and we were over now, I still cared about him and was even a little worried about him. Would I never see or talk to him again? Was he on the run or had he been hurt or killed? And why did I care?
The problem was, I knew he was a good guy that made a bad decision, but that didn’t stop me from caring.
"Mia?" Adam said my name like a question, and I quickly gave him a smile that I'm sure didn't reach my eyes. I wanted him away from me before I broke down.
“Sorry, nothing's wrong. I'll just take a quick shower and be right down."
"Baby, tell me what you’re thinking in that head of yours so I can fix it," he rumbled deeply.
I shook my head. "It's nothing you will ever be able to fix, Adam. Please stop trying."
He exhaled loudly and rubbed a hand over his head and down his face in clear frustration. "I've made so many damn mistakes with you, Mia, but I can easily see that the biggest one I made was staying away from you for so long."
"But that's what I wanted...what I want," I corrected and I watched in fascination as his body grew taller and his shoulders grew broader.
"Mia, stop lying to yourself; it's really starting to piss me off," he snapped and I stiffened at the abrupt changed in tone. He reached for the linen closet door. It opened, closed, and then he came out with a towel, which he handed to me right away.
“Cover yourself and go to the bed. I’m gonna talk, you’re gonna listen and then you can take a shower.”
I narrowed my eyes on his face, but I still wrapped the towel around myself because I was naked and uncomfortable - not because he ordered me to - and then I watched in longing as he turned off the shower.
When he turned, I still hadn’t moved from my place and his eyes met mine.
“Can we do this later?” I asked, hopeful.
“Move, Mia,” he ordered.
I sighed and did what he’d said, but only because I wanted to get this over with.
He started as soon as I sat on the edge of the bed and looked up.
"I'm gonna say this, and I'm only sayin' it once so listen close and let it sink in: What you wanted was for me to come crawling back to you on my hands and fuckin' knees, begging for forgiveness, but I didn't do that like I should have because I was fucked in the head thinking I killed my baby, and lost you because of it.”
I closed my eyes, hating his words.
“I drank myself into oblivion until I couldn't remember the day before. I didn’t eat for days, and sometimes, I didn’t even wake up to go to work. I was fucked up, Mia. In the beginning, I was giving you time, but during that time, I was only digging myself into a hole I couldn’t get out of. I couldn't even fix myself, so how the fuck was I supposed to fix us?”
“Then, you didn't show up to mom's funeral and, honestly, yeah, I was pretty fuckin' pissed at you. More than pissed, but I had no idea you actually came, which is your fault…” he pointed in my face, “…for not confronting me then and there. So, I let more time go by, still drinking, still thinking I killed my baby and ran you off... and then I get a call from you a year and a half later wanting to meet, and picture this, I'm still half drunk when I get the call, but I’m out of my mind ecstatic thinking I'm getting my world back, my heart back, and then I see you, and all you do is tell me you've met someone else and that you want a motherfuckin' divorce," he spat the word.
“Adam--” I tried.
"No. I guess in the long run, I needed that wake-up call because I cleaned my ass up and, in doing so, I was able to see how much I needed you back, but seeing as how you’d already moved on, I knew it was too late. So I was even more pissed at you. I even hated you a little, but you still belonged to me and there was no fuckin' way I was letting you go. So, I ran that little piece-of-shit Cole off. He had a record, anyway, so it wasn’t hard."
He paused and I held my breath. My heart was beating uncontrollably and my stomach was knotted so tight it hurt. Adam took a step, closed the distance between us, framed my face with his hands and tilted my head up further. I exhaled hard. This was too much to take in, but somehow I needed to hear this. I needed to hear that he’d been hurting just as much as I had.
"Freckles, here it is, for the last time, I didn't cheat on you. The stripper was a case I was working, because my Lieutenant at the time made it sound like it would fast track my career. I had my dad's money that I didn't want to touch, but then I had you, pregnant with my baby and I wanted to give you the world, but I couldn't afford to. I realized too late that all you wanted was me."
His eyes were so beautiful, I thought, before my vision began to blur and tears threatened to spill.
His voice softened. "The night I was given the case, I will never forget coming home to find you asleep and your pillow wet from crying...tears that I knew I'd caused for being such an idiot, and I knew... knew that I’d made a mistake by taking that case. I swear to God, Mia, Breena’s touch made me cringe; I hated it, and that kiss you saw probably saved my life."
I jerked my face
out of his hold. "What?" I asked in an angry breath.
"I'd been to the strip club three times, but the first two were just to talk. Breena was a stripper, but she was also an informant who refused to talk to anyone else but me. She was only nineteen, had one look at me and decided I looked like the only person she could trust. By the third night, she knew her boss suspected I was a cop. When you saw her kissing me, she was trying to save me. She warned me before doing it. She whispered in my ear and I had to let her kiss me because all I could think about was not getting myself shot, so I could come home to you."
"Oh my God!" I whispered as a tremble wracked my body.
I felt queasy.
"I never touched her, Mia. Think about that. I know what you saw, but think back real hard. I never fuckin' touched her and nothing...I mean nothing else would have happened. I was done, I knew at that moment, that was it, I was gonna quit if they wouldn't have let me off that case."
His thumbs caressed the apple of my cheeks as his eyes gazed into mine.
Tears spilled over my lashes as I took it all in, but some things still didn’t make sense and I needed answers.
"Why was she at your mom's funeral? Why do you still remember her name?"
Adam’s fingers stopped moving on my face and I took that as a really bad sign.
“Tell me,” I ordered through the tightness in my throat.
He sighed.
“It’s a really long story, Mia. Basically, I ran into her outside of court about a month after you left. She felt responsible for messing up my life. And, because I ran after you the night of the case, I fucked up her life. Again, it’s a long story, and I’ll tell you everything another time, but I sort of felt responsible for her after what happened. I knew she was out of a job since the club had been shut down, and…I don’t know…I also felt I owed her for helping me, so I helped her get a job. A waitressing job. That was it. She showed up at the funeral to be nice, and maybe a little out of misguided feelings for me, but you missed the part where I made her leave.”
By the guilty look on his face, I knew he wasn’t telling me everything.
Adam, Enough Said (This Can't be Happening) Page 20
