Page 54

He invites me to join him in the gym, but I pass. He likes to work out, I like to read, and as long as he knows that I’m safely inside of the house, he doesn’t have to be up my ass every minute he’s home.

However, the time we are together just reiterates how lonely I am otherwise. Being back in Harmony Heights doesn’t help. I used to have friends here, a closer family, neighbors that I grew up around. These days? I just have Adrian.

Is it any wonder that I regard my positive feelings for him as some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? I mean, seriously… I should not be as giddy as I was that the bastard had the decency to send an apology text after pushing past my boundaries the night before.

And now it’s Monday again. I was in a good mood, but after Adrian disappears after dinner, forgoing our TV time to take care of something for Jack Collins, I’m back on the ‘Adrian Heller can jump off a bridge and I wouldn’t even be sad’ train. Especially when he presses a kiss to the top of my head, reminds me that he’ll join me in bed when he’s done, then leaves the house while I’m still fucking stuck here.

I could leave. I have a phone. My own cash. A debit card. Nothing is stopping me from grabbing a ride—taxi or otherwise—across town to get my car. Icould… and yet I don’t, and I try not to look too closely at that.

Instead of heading to his room, I stay in the living room, watching the big screen television while keeping an ear cocked for Adrian’s return. Even after I start nodding off a little, the show I put on doing nothing to keep my attention, I stubbornly stay put. Only when I feel like I’ve been stood up do I finally curse under my breath and head upstairs.

Once again,my stupid brain forgets to turn off. Even though I did everything I could think of short of taking a sleeping pill, I’m still wide fucking awake when Adrian slips into the room.

When he sees that I’m awake, he flips the switch that turns on the dimmer light. It’s enough that he can see me without searing my retinas with the stronger one, but when he gets a good look at me, he slaps the wall, triggering the brighter light.

“What’s this?”

“Leave me alone, Adrian. It’s too hot for me to put up with your shit tonight.”

It is, and if I want to blame the fact that heat rises for my crappy mood instead of him returning back to the house when it’s almost eleven o’clock, that’s fine.

Because I don’t feel abandoned, why do you ask?

And I didn’t decide to go to bed naked because I wanted him to regret leaving me alone this long, either…

Two weeks ago, there was a heat wave in Harmony Heights. We hit mid-nineties, and I was glad that Adrian kept the air conditioning cranking as high as he did. It would be humid and soupy andhotif I went outside. I used the nasty temperatures as another excuse why I didn’t leave, knowing full well that I was avoiding the gossips in town more than anything.

It only lasted a couple of days. I should’ve remembered that the end of June is really only the beginning of summer in Harmony Heights because now that we just celebrated the Fourth of July a couple of days ago—when I joined Adrian in the back of the house, watching the fireworks from the park only a few streets down from where he…we…live—summer decided to make a vicious comeback.

Thermometers outside reached a hundred degrees. The heat index? We’re talking one-ten, minimum, and even Adrian’s power and money meant shit when the AC got overloaded.

It’s hot. It’s brutal outside, but even inside… I’m hot. I didn’t even try to climb under the heavy comforter. I grabbed a sheet from the linen closet down the hall instead, using that as a covering. Beneath it? I’m butt ass naked, and from the way his gaze has zeroed in on the length of leg poking out from under the thin sheet, he knows it.

And, yet, even though it’s so much hotter in here than it has been, he looks like a sinful devil in his tailored suit.

Seeing that I’ve already stripped, Adrian starts to do the same. He kicks off his shoes first. The jacket goes next. As he starts to unbutton his dress shirt, he offers, “I could crank up the AC.”

“I already tried. This is as cool as it’s going to get.”

He pauses. “A fan? Would a fan help?”

Probably not. “Don’t listen to me. It’s not that bad. I just got used to your house being like an igloo so now that it’s a little warmer, I’m bitching. Sex would be a bad idea right now,” I add, just in case he starts thinking that a naked Loni means a horny Loni… and he’d be right, but I’m still pissed about being left alone so, yeah, that’s going to be a no from me. “But if we’re just laying here, it’s alright.”

“So you’re not overheated already?”

I should’ve known that there was a reason he’s asking, but the way he immediately showed concern for me made me more uncomfortable than I want to admit. “Not really.”

“Good.”

Adrian finishes getting undressed. Since I’m naked—and, whoa, and I’m regretting that boldness a bit now that he’s here?—

“My body heat too much for you?”

Prick. “I’ll be fine.”

“I might not be.” He strokes my shoulder with the tip of his pointer finger. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me, princess?”

Kind of, and it might even be on purpose. Not like I’m going to tell Adrian that… though odds are he definitely knows. “I’m just trying to go to sleep.”