Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Adeline
Waking up, I have a sense of déjà vu again, like I am missing something.
I try to remember the last thing I can, but the details are fuzzy.
I remember meeting Sam. We had dinner, then we went back to his place and had a few drinks.
Though the memory is there, it doesn’t feel right.
I certainly don’t feel like I’ve had sex.
I also don’t remember driving home, though I do remember seeing my front door.
Did Sam bring me home?
I sit up, pain radiating through my neck.
As I stretch and touch the skin, it feels bumping and raised and stings to touch.
I look at my clock, and it says it is 9AM.
I get up, heading for the bathroom. I quickly pee before washing my hands, wetting my face, and looking in the mirror.
I gasp at what I see. I have a huge round mark on my neck.
I rub it, and it stings, trying to wash it off.
What the fuck? Like, Sam is into some kinky shit, but that? What the fuck!
“Adeline, are you home?” my mother calls out.
“Yes, mom,” I call back, grabbing my phone and dialing Sam’s number. It doesn’t even ring just says his phone has been disconnected.
What the fuck? He bites me, then changes his number? I am going to fucking kill him.
My mother walks into my room, and I turn to face her as she brings in some laundry from the dryer.
“How was your night? Oh my fucking god, what happened to your neck!” she squeals, rushing over and tugging my top away. “Sam bit you?”
“I don’t remember. I remember meeting him. I sure as hell don’t remember him becoming a cannibal and taking a fucking bite,” I tell her, looking in the mirror.
“You need to let me clean that before it gets infected, honey. Why would you let him do that with so many bacteria in the mouth?” she says, her nurse side taking over as she examines it.
“I didn’t, mom, and don’t you worry. I will be giving him a piece of my mind when I see him again,” I tell her, and she nods.
Dropping the washing basket of folded clothes on the end of my bed, she says, “I will fetch the first-aid kit. Meet me in the kitchen.”
I groan. How the hell am I going to hide that for work? I pull off my wrinkled clothes and put on some yoga pants and a singlet. I try Sam’s phone again, but it keeps coming up that it has been disconnected.
Walking downstairs, I sit on the stool. My mother comes over, dabbing the mark with some Dettol, and I hiss as it burns.
“I’m sorry. Gosh, it’s deep for a bite mark,” she mutters, shaking her head before covering it with some non-stick gauze.
“Really, Addie, this is just strange for him to do. Has he bitten you like this before?” she asks, and I shake my head. Sam is into some weird things, but biting isn’t one of them. He is more the pull-your-hair-and-strangle-you type, not fucking-devour-you literally.
“I think maybe, you might need to look elsewhere. This isn’t right,” my mother says, and I have to agree with her.
Yet I just don’t remember anything, and that is bothering me more.
Because of the huge-ass bite mark, I end up staying home all weekend, praying it will heal before Monday.
We laze around the house watching movies.
Maya is still sick with the flu, though my mother is feeling much better thanks to the cold and flu tablets she’s brought.
Monday morning, though, when I haul my ass out of bed, I am relieved to find the mark nearly gone.
Still, I can tell it is going to scar. Great, just what I need.
I pull on my black slacks, button-up shirt, and blazer, choosing to leave my hair down to cover the horrendous mark on my neck that stands out like a sore thumb.
I drop Maya off on my way to work before pulling up in the top car park and catching the lift up to my floor.
I try ringing Sam off the work phone, thinking maybe it’s just my phone.
No luck. The phone disconnects, which I find a little odd.
I’ll just have to go see him one night after work and demand to know what’s happened.
The fact that he has changed his number is a little worrying. Have I done something wrong?
“Hello, Addie,” Cyrus says, creeping up behind me.
I am so consumed with my troubled thoughts that I don’t hear the elevator signaling their arrival.
I spin around and face him. Something is different about them.
Cyrus leans in closer, a smirk on his lips, his manly smell making me lean in closer before he clears his throat, his hand moving to my neck, as his thumb brushes my jaw line, sparks rushing on my skin, making me gasp.
I am completely struck by him. I have always been attracted to them, but something is different. I fear them, yet I can’t bring myself to move away.
“Now that is the sort of reaction I have been wanting from you,” he whispers, leaning in, his lips brushing mine softly.
I moan as his tongue slips into my mouth. He presses himself against me, and I feel my panties dampen with arousal. The phone rings, snapping me out of the weird trance I am in, and I jump, pushing him back, confused. Why did I just let him do that?
He watches me stepping back as I rush around my desk to answer the phone, dropping it on the desk with my butter fingers in a flustered state. Cyrus grabs it, handing it to me with a smirk on his lips as I take it from him, and I find myself struck once again by his beautiful caramel eyes.
“Are you going to answer it?” he says, raising an eyebrow at me, and I shake my head, stuttering as I answer the phone.
I hear him chuckle before he walks off in the direction of his office when I notice Eli is also standing in the foyer watching us.
I feel my face heat up at my reaction to him, feeling guilty that that is the second time I have let him kiss me, the second time Eli has caught me with his husband.
What the fuck is going on? I feel like my life is slowly falling apart.
I am not able to wrap my head around everything that is going on.
First, I lose an entire night and can’t relay anything.
Sam bit me, then changed his number, then I have been daydreaming about my bosses all day and have literally got no work done and can barely focus being around them, which they seem to be enjoying.
What the fuck is going on with me? I may need to speak to my mother. Maybe I am starting to lose my mind.
Just before my lunch break, Cyrus comes out and stops at my desk. “You are going to pick Maya up soon?”
“Yes, I need to drop her at my mother’s. Why, what’s up?”
“I was wondering if I could come with you. I need to drop something off on that side of town.”
“When do you want to leave?” I ask him, and he smiles down at me.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
“We can go now and pick Maya up on the way back.”
He nods, and I grab my bag. As I walk to the elevator with Cyrus, I notice Eli standing in his doorway, leaning on the door frame, watching us.
We hop in the car, and I start heading to the address Cyrus has given me, pulling up at some post office. Cyrus gets out, walking toward the post-office boxes. He unlocks one, grabbing the mail out of it.
“You have your mail sent here?” I ask when he gets back in the car.
“Some of it. Usually, we have everything sent to the office. I just haven’t checked it for a while, so I thought I would come with you. Give me a chance to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Soya City,” he says, buckling his belt.
“I told you I can’t go. How many times do I have to say that? And I didn’t appreciate you going behind my back and trying to use my mother to persuade me.”
“I like your mother. She seems very… what’s the word? Current with the times?”
“Current with the times?” I ask, shaking my head.
“Yes, she seems very open to a three-way relationship. Also, very open with our sexuality. It is quite refreshing.”
“Our relationship? You mean our non-relationship?” I tell him.
“Because you hated kissing me this morning,” he says, and I feel my face heat.
“No, I don’t know what came over me. I probably had too much coffee. You made me flustered,” I tell him, and he chuckles.
I pull up at Maya’s school just as the bell rings. Cyrus gets out, following me to the gate.
“You can deny it all you want, Addie, but you will agree eventually,” Cyrus says.
“To Soya City, or being with you?” I ask before rolling my eyes at his cockiness.
“Both,” he says, placing his hand on my hip and pulling me against him.
I don’t bother removing his hand, knowing it is pointless. But I also like the feel of his hands on me, not that I would tell him that. Maya comes running out excitedly.
“Mr. Cyrus, why are you here?” she asks, looking up at him.
He smiles down at her before holding out his hand, which she actually takes as we walk back to the car.
“I came with Addie,” he tells her, and she skips happily to the car.
Cyrus buckles her into her seat before climbing into the car again. I drop Maya to my mother at the surgery before coming back out to the car and heading back to work.
“Maya seems to like you two,” I tell him.
“Hmm, I don’t like people or children in general, but I do like your niece. She is quite sweet and very well-behaved, from what I have observed. She is growing on me.”
“How can you not like kids?” I ask, and he looks at me.
“I just don’t like people in general. I like you and your family. Other than that, I don’t usually bother and just stick with Eli. Eli is more of a people person. Humans annoy me.”
“Humans? You realize you are one, right?” I chuckle.
“I suppose you’re right,” he says, his lips pulling up in a smirk.
“What’s so funny?”
“If only you knew,” he says mysteriously just as my car’s Bluetooth starts ringing.
I hit the answer button, but I don’t recognize the number as it comes up on my stereo screen.
“Hello?” I ask.
They say nothing, but I can hear their breathing.
“Hello, can you hear me?” I call out again, turning the corner.
“Ada?”