34. Adelaide
THIRTY-FOUR
ADELAIDE
If Christian’s fat cat wasn’t the most adorable creature on this whole planet, I would have taken him and thrown him out the window.
Not only did he invade my room, but he also completely ripped apart my mattress. Cotton fluffed out of it from every side. It was unsalvageable.
“It seems like Chubby got to your bed.”
Christian leaned back with a hand covering his annoying smile. It was a struggle, really. Keeping my eyes up on his face instead of glazing downwards where I knew he was hard for me. On the ride back, he kept quiet and a respectful distance.
I hated it.
My insides were simmering with lust and want, and I hated him for it.
His parted mouth, the way he looked up while licking me with that delicious tongue of his. Where the hell did he learn tongue tricks like that?
Actually, wait. I didn’t want to know how many women he slept with and how much practice he had.
I was so close when the asshat pulled away because I wasn’t touching him.
Screw him and his need for touch because he wasn’t getting it from me.
“Apparently,” I dropped down to pick Chubby up. He cooed in my arms. The gremlin loved me, but he didn’t care about my sanity when he chewed out every corner of my room in Christian’s apartment. “His father didn’t teach him well.”
Christian glowered. “His father taught him very well, but Chubby does what Chubby wants.”
“Just like his dad.”
It looked like Chubby claimed my room and I wasn’t one to take over the adorable kitty’s space. Even if he did it first.
Chubby leaped onto the ground, strutting away like the bad kitty he was.
At least he knew what he wanted and didn't run from it.
Unlike his dad here.
“What are you doing?” Christian asked when I pulled a bag out of the closet and threw clothes in it.
Was he being serious?
“Not sure if this is obvious,” I cocked my hip. “But my room is kind of trashed and I need a place to sleep.”
He looked stupefied. “That doesn’t answer what you’re doing.”
“I’m going to Umaima’s. She’ll let me crash with her.”
How was that not obvious?
“I have a bed too, you know?” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe he had to say that out loud. “Unless you think I sleep in a coffin.”
“Congratulations for telling me that, but it still doesn’t solve my problem.”
Christian took a step forward, his arm brushing against the jacket I— thankfully—still had on. “You’ll sleep in my bed.”
A full, belly laugh erupted out of me.
He clenched his jaw.
Oh, he was serious.
“Okay, no.” I shook a finger. “I am not sleeping in your bed.”
“We’re husband and wife, we can sleep on one bed.”
“Hm okay. Let me rephrase that. I don’t want to sleep on your bed.”
“Why?” He smirked in his annoying way. “Too scared you’ll jump my bones?”
“Can you not?” I glared hard and steady. “I don’t want to sleep in your bed because I don’t want to.”
“Amazing backup, you’ve won the argument.”
“Christian,” I warned.
He grabbed my wrist and despite his jacket covering the inches of my skin, his heat seeped through it and broke me apart, then dragged me out into his hallway. His room was on the opposite side, shut and dark.
I forced him to stop in the middle, “I’m not going in there.”
He whipped around, nostrils flaring. “I’m not letting my wife sleep at another man’s house.”
“It’s Umaima’s house.”
“Umaima and Hasan’s house.”
There was a dark look in his eyes, and I was getting lost in them. He wasn’t lying to me, nor was he pretending to drag me into his room to get down and dirty.
“You’re jealous of Hasan?” That couldn’t be right. The man had a son and was still madly in love with his wife. “He’s like my brother, Christian.”
His aphotic glare provoked taking a step back. “But he isn’t your brother.”
“Are you being serious right now?” This conversation could go on forever, but my feet were hurting, and my legs were sore from standing and all I wanted to do was get into bed to avoid the oncoming headache.
“I’ll sleep in here,” I directed his attention to the ominous closed door that was always locked. If he didn’t want me going to Umaima’s and I didn’t want to sleep with him, this was our only option.
“Not in there.”
“Christian,” I exasperated. “I’m tired, please just open the door.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s storage.”
Well, wasn't that great.
“I’ll sleep on the couch downstairs then.” He pulled me back into him, my head tucked beneath his chin. I wished my body didn’t illuminate with a ferocious need at his chest to my back, but it did. I’d love for him to take this coat off and finish what we started earlier.
With a grumble, “It’s just sleeping, Adelaide.”
“You don’t want to sleep with me in the same bed,” I pulled away to face him.
A raised brow. “Why?”
“Because…” Other than the fact that I did want to jump his bones?
“I sleep naked.”
Christian stared down with twinkling eyes. “Is that so?”
Feverish and completely compulsive, I nodded. “Yep. No panties or anything. Bare and raw and totally gross.”
He chuckled and all it did was make my core tingle. “I find nothing about your pussy gross.”
Lord, help me because I was so close to getting down on my knees and unbuckling his pants to suck him off. He had the presence of a tyrant but spoke with gentility and it turned me on.
“Right so,” I swallowed the aridness in my throat. “Let’s go then.”
I walked past him.
His room. This was the first time I’d taken a step into his space, and it was unexpected.
Where I thought he’d drown his room in nothing but monotone colours, Christian decorated his room with colourful paintings, antique decorations, and familiar objects I’d seen in his childhood home—in Eunbin’s room .
Right in the middle was a black sleek king-sized bed. Dark and mysterious like the man breathing behind me. The walls enhanced the space, but my suspicions were somewhat accurate.
Christian kept true to the mysterious stereotype with his black sheets.
He must look insanely hot shirtless in bed. His back muscles flexed as the sun shone down on him in the morning. All the hard ridges protruding and tensing while he pushed himself up with his hands. The blanket would fall down his back and sneak a snippet of his taut ass.
“You done?”
I jumped from the quiet murmur in my ear which succeeded at making my heartbeats crash into each other and it interrupted my flow of living. “We should sleep.”
I hated how breathy my voice sounded. I hated it more that Christian laughed because he could be standing frozen like a psychopath, and I’d still be turned on.
Darting out of his room towards my own bathroom, I splashed water on my face. This was fine— I was fine . Technically, I hadn’t slept in the same bed with another person since him.
Even though I tried sleeping with other men, it never worked. I never made it past the kissing stage.
Sleeping next to someone was scary because what if I snored? It could be worse, there was a chance I’d fart in my sleep, or I’d kick him and not know. The tangible heat between one body and the other felt stifling because what if they could smell my breath and held theirs in because it didn’t smell great.
That thought forced me to floss my teeth twice.
I missed my period this time around, but there was the constant thought lingering of whether I’d get it today. If I did, I’d leak all over his sheets and get them dirty. I’d be a mess and disgust him and he’d never see me in an attractive way again. I didn’t have pads on me either. I usually did, but I didn’t and that was stupid of me because I should have been prepared. I should have multiple pads with me, but I had zero—If I did leak, Christian would know about it and then he’d have to get me pads and then I’d be embarrassed because he’d know and then it would be terrible because he’d look at me in an odd way and would no longer be attracted to me and then I wouldn’t get that much-needed orgasm I wanted and he would?—
A knock bowled through my thoughts with a perfect strike.
Christian opened the door, and a worried look met my frantic ones. He was fresh out of the shower. The silver chain peaked out from beneath his black tank and my mouth watered when I noticed how low his grey sweatpants hung on him.
“Did you come to check on me because you were scared, I’d fall into the toilet?” I joked.
“You’ve been in here for thirty minutes.” Christian didn’t laugh. “I wanted to make sure you weren’t spiralling.”
Thirty minutes? I checked the tiny clock in the bathroom.
“Oh well,” I washed my hands one last time. Pretending that I did my whole routine, and this was normal— I wasn’t spiralling . “You know how skin care is,” I rubbed the skin hard. “Very lengthy and tedious.”
Christian closed the tap and took my hands in his. Softly, he spoke. “You’re good, baby.”
Simple words and I yielded to their consideration.
The next bit was a blur.
Christian guided me to bed with a soft hold to my wrist. He undid the buttons of the coat and folded it neatly on a chair. He didn’t look below my eyes, didn’t seem interested in any other part of me when he shrugged me out of my ripped dress.
A gentle nudge and I was in bed. Naked and vulnerable, but he covered me with his soft blanket.
Loving genes ran in his blood.
The bed dipped under his weight.
The lights were off, my mind was numb, and despite the thoughts I had in the bathroom, having Christian next to me only calmed my nerves, releasing my stress and tension and all those tightened constraints twitching in my throat.
In the peaceful silence, “They’re planning the party for the beginning of September.”
For a moment, I thought he fell asleep. His face was turned to the side and his chest moving up and down in a rhythmic formation.
But he moved it to face mine and all the haziness disappeared.
The world showed me many beautiful creations, but when I was looking at Christian, my vision focused solely on him. As if it was created to only ever see him and nothing else.
“We’ll tell everyone tomorrow.”
Finality. He wanted to sleep.
It was the first time we were in the same place at the same time, and we weren’t arguing or glaring or even kissing.
We spoke with each other, but we haven’t talked to one another.
Hypocritical, I knew that. Since I was the one who told him he wasn’t capable of maturity.
However, conversations didn’t need to be serious or mature.
They could just… be .
Especially with the right person.
“Do you think this will work?” I asked.
The blanket shifted as Christian turned. A hand tucked under his cheek.
“You think too much, you know that?”
During the day, I’d roll my eyes.
At night, with him, I smiled. “I’ve been told by an annoying man once or twice.”
“You mean an annoying, attractive man.”
Pressing my lips to suppress the laugh, “Definitely not.”
Shadows enhanced his flexing biceps while Christian lifted his arm to rub at his eyes.
Talking.
We were having a conversation.
Right.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Osama and I have gone through our plan multiple times to make sure it works.” Sleep draped over his undereye, but he kept his focus on me. “If you want to back out, I won’t stop you.”
“No,” I tucked my own palm under my cheek. “I want to do this. For all the girls and for myself, but I can’t lie about how scared I am.”
“If it helps, I’ll be there with you every step of the way.”
My lips parted and his caliginous gaze trailed down.
“And,” he squeezed his eyes shut. “Rowlen and everyone else will be there for you too.”
I deflated into the bed with cold disappointment. I wish he’d left his words as they were instead of adding more to them.
What he said earlier was playing in my mind. About how he wanted to love me again, that maybe he could.
“Did you mean it when you said you wanted to love me again?”
It was a risk asking him but when else would I get the chance?
He didn’t reply which led me to truly believe he fell asleep.
A sigh broke from my mouth as I turned to the side facing away from him.
It was after a solid two minutes that he replied, “I meant it.”