I slipped my heels off, dropping my jacket and bag to the floor. I could deal with that shit later on. As I turned towards the window, I saw a figure sat on the window ledge, an almost empty bottle of whisky next to him. I sighed, Here we go. I didn’t even like to ask where he got a key to my room. Probably stole Shelly’s master key. “Look, it has been a really long night, if you don’t mind, I would just like to sleep.”
“Sit down,” he snapped.
I did so without question, wishing I were more sober right now. Keeping my exit door in sight as I waited for the fight, or the fists to start.
“Have I not always offered youse anything that you needed?” Adrian demanded, “Money, a home, a job, sex? Have I not always been there with that offer even if you refused it and asked for nothing in return other than ye not betraying me?”
“Yes, you have always been more than kind.”
“Then why the fuck would ye go to a sex club instead of asking me for what ye needed!” he snapped, taking a long swig from the remains of the bottle.
“We broke up!”
“Do you think that is any fucking excuse for what youse did?” he demanded, “Ye think I would want ye in some whore den when I could give you what you need here in safety? With no STDs or risk of you being raped or killed? Ye think I wouldn’t do that with no strings just to know that you were safe?”
“I wouldn’t use you that way!” I retorted, glaring. “I won’t treat you like some free prostitute!”
“But ye will do so to a stranger in some club? What is the difference?” he demanded.
We were on our feet and glaring at each other now.
“You wouldn’t understand,” I snapped bitterly.
“Fucking try me, I am not as stupid as you think I am.”
“Because I fucking love you!” I screamed back.
A long silence as we both stared at each other. My admission chilled me to my core. I couldn’t take those words back, but honestly, did I want to? I was ready to belt out of the room, leave everything I owned, even go onto the street bare foot just to get away from this. Six short steps and I could be out of this room. I would manage somehow.
And then, Adrian moved, crossing those few steps between us. Crushing my mouth to his in the most passionate kiss I had ever experienced. I couldn’t help but moan as he pushed me against the wall. I needed this. We needed this. Tonight, we were going to take what we needed from each other and to hell with what happened tomorrow. Tonight, we were each other’s.
Chapter 33
Adrian’s POV
I lay cuddled up to Lily’s back, watching her sleep with the late afternoon light spilling into the room. She loved me; I couldn’t believe it. She still loved me and allowed herself to say those words after all she had been though. That was a start, right? If she loved me, then they had to be able to find a way to fix things surely? I kissed her shoulder as she moved in her sleep. Moments like this I wish I could stay in forever.
She stirred looking up at him, blinking away sleep. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I smiled back, kissing her.
She rolled over cuddling into my chest. I stroked her hair affectionately. “Shall I order us some food?”
“Comfy,” she mumbled.
“We kind of do need to talk about all of this, not that I want to ruin the moment here.”
“I know.” She sighed.
“I can get us some breakfast, and some coffee and we can try to work through this.”
Lily sat up, wrapping the sheet over her naked breasts. “I’d rather do it without waiting to throw up everything I have just eaten.”
I nodded. “I don’t know where we could even start on all of this.”
Lily thought about it as she tucked herself separately from him with the sheets as best, she could. “Why did you come to find me? That very first night, why?”
“I was in the city that night, heading home. I had been there in rehearsals too many times. Seen the nasty messages he sent ye and overheard the phone calls where he and that other guy bullied youse. I had seen some shit he had sent that night, and that ye were heading into my town. It wasn’t right, you didn’t deserve all of that.”
“That still doesn’t tell me why you came, you just said this same thing like six different ways. That isn’t helping. It just sounds like a cover story, well-rehearsed as an excuse.”
I sighed, maybe it was time to tell her everything. The full truth. I had almost lost her anyway by hiding it. “Ye aren’t the first person I saw him do it to.”
“A friend?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Does it matter? He is a great man when he is sober, a wonderful and loyal friend. Dedicated, loving, all ye could ask for. The kind of person who can steal hearts with a single smile. But, when he is high, he is a fucking animal. Manipulative, cold, cruel, abusive. He would sell his own mother for another hit and no matter how many
