Or was it just because I wanted to see a lot more of her?
I really should get out before I fell any deeper for her. It had every chance of breaking me if I continued this, and yet every single chance of healing me as well. Sighing, I took my damp jacket off and laid it over her sleeping form before taking the bottle of whisky to bed with me. Half thinking as I went, that I really did not have the right to judge her binges when that man messed me up just as badly.
Maybe tomorrow things would make sense again.
They couldn’t really get worse, could they?
And there I was, stupidly tempting fate to fuck me in the ass without any lube.
Chapter 11
Adrian’s POV
I had to be up early that next morning for radio interviews, not easy with yet another crushing hangover. Lily was still sleeping peacefully on the sofa, I missed her being in our bed. Since when had it started to feel like ‘our’ bed? I hardly even knew her, and still I felt more drawn to her than any lover in my entire existence. Not just because she needed help. There was something about her, a spark, a light; it was hard to put it into words. But even as broken and hurting as she was, this girl was special. She was going to be someone one day, maybe even bigger than I was. Even when she messed around singing, she had the voice of an angel and so much natural talent. If only she could start realising it about herself!
Even without considering her amazing skills at drawing, I knew that I could point her to a good future when she was ready. I wanted to ask her to design the cover on the upcoming album now I knew how skilled she was. She would need to trust me far more first, so she wouldn’t think I would screw her over for royalty like that other asshole. There were a number of more abusive texts on my phone from the bastard, that I would forward to Brad as part of the ongoing case of harassment against them both. ‘Pay her, and do it right and the photos get burned, your choice.’ So, what if I got done for blackmail, I could afford the court case. He however could probably not, given the way his last album barely broke the top five hundred and faded away almost as quickly as it arrived. He had to be existing on the credit he had and his savings to keep up the high lifestyle he was used to living and that his parasites were attuned to.
The morning went by far too slowly, agonisingly so. Not only was I angry about that man, my head was pounding, and I just wanted to get home to Lily and take her shopping. The interviews asked the same old boring questions. Always about my personal life. Who was I dating? Was I gay? When could they expect me to settle down and have children? Wasn’t I worried about being an older single man in the music trade?
Older? I was thirty-four on my next birthday, hardly over the hill!
It was nothing to do with the music for most of the day, never about the music. Why couldn’t they just finally understand that my personal life was personal? Not open to the front pages of every single paper on the planet! The amount of relationships I lost due to the vile lies spread in the media. The number of good friends who believed the lies. I loved my job, but the damn drama of social media and the press was soul destroying. An endless source of frustration to me when I was trying to move my personal life forward and separate from the band and my work. I swore to myself again that I would completely control what the press knew about any future relationships, or even potential ones like Lily. I would not lose anyone else to the games of fame. And certainly not her. She got dragged far too deep into this hellish underbelly already. I couldn’t spare her from what she already saw, but I could try to protect her from seeing any more of it. Even if it killed me and today these tedious meetings felt like they might. Watching the minutes tick by on the clock across from me until I could go meet Lily for a late lunch. I hoped she saw the note I had left for her when I rushed out the house.
I rushed out of the studio and into a waiting taxi, even the few minutes across town felt like eternity. I needed to be back with her. Staring around the restaurant until I spied her sat in the corner of the room, nursing a pint of cider. Wearing one of my sweaters, dwarfing her small frame. Even baggy on her it still showed all her curves in just the right ways.
“Hey, English,” I said sitting down. “Did ye have a nice morning shopping?” I nodded towards a cloth bag next to her with books. “You found the local bookstore then?”
Lily nodded. “I found more than one, I wanted to read more about the hauntings in town after the ghost walk.”
I flicked through the small stack of books, ghost stories, fables, folk tales. “Youse certainly have a lot of reading to do.”
She glanced back down at the pile a little guiltily. “Sorry, you did leave me
