Obsession (Sinners of New Orleans #3)

Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

Madi

I ’m home the next evening, lounging in a pair of sweats and replaying every moment with Adrian this week.

I’m crazy.

I have to be.

Because there’s no way I’m falling for my arranged husband.

I’m in the process of trying to convince myself I’m just doing this for Sam, when Adrian walks through the front door, a gorgeous woman with pink hair following behind him. Immediately, my stomach drops at the sight of her. Feelings of dread fill my stomach. Is he over me already? The logic is drifting from my brain, being replaced with jealousy as I watch the pink-haired girl smile as Adrian leads her inside. She’s wearing a fitted black dress with a black choker and matching heeled boots. She’s way cooler than me.

“What’s going on?” I sit up straighter.

“This is Ashley.” Adrian gestures to the girl without even looking at her. “She’s here to fix your hair.”

My brain freezes. Of all the scenarios I concocted in my head, that was not one of them. “What? What are you talking about?”

Adrian takes three measured steps toward me, bending slightly as he takes a lock of my dark hair between his fingertips. “Do you like this color, princess?” His voice is serious, not flirtatious like it’s been the last few days.

Still confused, I ask, “What?”

“Or would you rather it be blue again? Because I know it’s not my hair, but I preferred it when it was blue.”

I’m not sure what to say. It’s taking me a moment to process his words. He preferred my hair when it was blue? The color everyone around me hated and my mother forced me to dye this neutral shade. “Are you saying…?”

“Dye it blue again. Or dye it whatever color you want. As long as you’re still you, it doesn’t matter what color your hair is.”

I feel tears prick at my eyes and I push them down. That’s oddly sweet for the man in front of me. The one who forced me down the aisle. But I guess I wouldn’t be married to him if it wasn’t for the blue hair… since that was what drove my other suitor away and Adrian stepped into his place effortlessly.

“Okay.” I swallow, trying not to cry at the nice thing he’s doing for me. He can’t possibly know how much my hair meant to me. It’s just a color, after all.

“Great!” Ashley claps her hands. “I’ll get everything set up.”

Ten minutes later, Ashley has turned Adrian’s kitchen into a makeshift hair salon. I’m sitting in one of the dining room chairs with a cape draped over me while she mixes up the perfect shade of teal blue. Adrian sits at the counter on one of the bar stools, typing away on his phone. Every few minutes, he looks up, making sure I’m still there.

I can’t describe the feeling that’s swirling around in my chest. It’s an odd sensation. I feel…happy. I’ve felt happy before in my life, but it was a feeling that came far and few between and only when I was away from my family. It’s always felt like it was going to fade, like it would never last because the other shoe would always drop.

Is that what’s going to happen now?

Adrian’s being sweet, but no one has ever really been there for me in this life. Trusting him is difficult. But as Ashley begins to apply the dye to my hair, I can’t help but feel grateful. He literally hired a hairdresser to come to his home to give me the hair I so desperately miss.

It was my one attempt at independence, and my mother stripped it away from me. And now, he’s telling me it doesn’t matter what color my hair is.

Butterflies flutter in my stomach, another strange feeling I never really experienced before him. Adrian is growing on me, and I don’t know how to handle it. I think I’m falling for him harder every day. And I don’t think I can convince myself it’s just for Sam anymore.

An hour later, once the dye is washed from my hair and Ashley dries the locks and curls them, she reveals the final product.

The girl in the mirror has dark roots that ombre into teal blue and a wide smile on her lips. It looks even better than it did before.

“I love it,” I say, smiling.

My husband smiles back at me. “I love it too,” he says, pressing a tender kiss to my forehead.

As our eyes meet in the mirror, both of us smiling, I forget how we got here. All the family drama and obligations. The war that’s going on and how I’m meant to convince him to help Sam. It all slips from my mind, and for a second, I think this is what it would feel like to be a normal couple deep in love.