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So I decided to test it, try for something real. “If that was you losing control, I must say I don’t hate it.”

Adrian's nostrils flared slightly, like control was a word he didn't quite understand right now. "I must not have done a good enough job if you can keep running your mouth like that, honey."

I swallowed thickly, the threat doing nothing butturning me on even more. "It was fine."

Adrian studied me, his eyes narrowing as they searched my face for the very thing I was hiding. That what had just happened absolutely wrecked me. "I don't lie to you, honey," he repeated, pulling me close and pressing a soft kiss on my forehead. "Spare me the same courtesy."

I pulled back sharply. "I don't." Hiding my feelings wasn't lying. Especially when I needed to sort through how real this all felt before I decided if sharing them was a good idea.

“Right,” he said after a moment, his eyes never leaving mine. “We’d better return, then. Keep the show going.”

I should have stiffened at the reminder of the arrangement, but his words carried nothing but a soft, tender tone. Like he was fond of the arrangement. I was too. “After you.”

And the rest of the night, I slipped further and further into insanity, starting to believe that I was introducing my real boyfriend to family friends.

Answering questions about my very real relationship.

Looking up at my very, obviously real boyfriend with adoration in my eyes. Catching his as they held the same.

By the time the night was over and Adrian took me back home, I was battling my own mind, trying to tell her that this wasn't meant to be real even if the smooth passes of Adrian's hands and the dim fire building in his eyes made me want to believe otherwise.

Chapter 17

Reyna

I wanted to shop. To look at clothes and get out of my mind. I nodded politely at the shop owner as I stepped inside one of the stores in the art district, surrounded by galleries and museums fueled by Apollo’s power.

The owner looked startled for a second when he saw me, but then nodded politely, leaving me to my silent browsing. I just needed to distract myself from the war my body was raging on itself.

My mind was on the shore of numbness, wading through ankle deep, frigid water. My heart and stomach were having a fucking field day, spinning and flipping at the mere thought of Adrian before landing into a flourish that hadreal feelingswritten all over it.

While I could distract my heart and stomach, my mind needed attention. On days where the numbness crept back in, I either needed to take the day off or keep moving.

Today, I needed to move.

I was planning on staying home initially, enoughthat I’d given most of my security the day off, save for the new guy pulled from Leonardo’s team—Antonio. I nodded at him while he took post near the door.

Maybe I should have called the rest when I changed course with my day, but I didn’t want to disturb them.

My head just felt too foggy.

I hadn't heard from Adrian the night prior, but I was expecting him.

Lord Jupiter Loses Control: Ex Punched with a Sickening Crunch!

The morning's paper was a doozy, the stories of Adrian's skirmish with Damon on damn near every page.

And my traitorous little heart wanted to talk about it with him, to laugh over the photo of him standing over Damon and of us running away together.

I was starting to believe that Adrian was feeling something under that rock hard chest of his, something more than just his normal swath of bland emotion that he expressed when required. But a little trickle of doubt was telling me I was stupid for thinking him capable of it.

Which was then replaced by the memory of the potent emotion I'd seen in his eyes myself.

Which was consequently replaced by another trickle of doubt that tried to convince me that Adrian was still the same man from the balcony.

I was someone who strongly believed you needed to believe people when they told you what they wanted. And Adrian had said that he didn’t have the capacity to enter a real relationship. That he’d only marry because it made him look good.

But then again, I was good at reading people. And I’dwitnessed him capable of more. More when it came to me, to us. But maybe it was just wishful thinking.