Chapter 11 #3
“Please,” Adam said in a low voice. “I need to talk to you.”
“We have talked enough for one day,” I said, hiding behind the door. “Leave.”
“No.”
“Is that Adam?” Luz said, sounding suspicious. “What is that jerk doing here so late?”
“He’s leaving,” I replied, peeking behind the door until I found the restless blue gaze.
“Go,” I mouthed so that Luz wouldn’t hear me. “Or I’ll call the police.”
“We are the police.”
“I mean it,” I hissed. “Go away.”
“Jordie? Are you there?” Luz screeched.
“Please, let me in,” Adam insisted. “Don’t make me beg.”
Under normal circumstances, those words would be enough for me to change my mind, but not tonight. Not anymore.
“You’re making a scene, Markland,” I said through my teeth. “It’s late, and this is a quiet building. If you wake up my neighbors—”
“Then let me in.”
“I’m not letting you in,” I growled. “Get that through your thick skull.”
“I’m not leaving. I’ll sleep in front of your door if I have to.”
“You can’t sleep without me, in case you’ve forgotten,” I said, smiling sweetly.
“I haven’t forgotten. And I’m not leaving.”
“You know what? I’m getting my gun,” I said, letting go of the door and marching across the room. “I’ll shoot you in the foot and call you an ambulance so they can wheel you out of here on a stretcher, but you’re leaving.”
I opened the drawer where I kept my weapon while bringing the phone to my ear. “Luz, I’ll call you back. I don’t need a witness for what I’m about to do.”
I turned and pointed my gun at Adam, only to find myself faced with a bouquet of red roses.
I blinked and shifted my gun to the side, but there was nothing wrong with my eyesight.
Adam Markland was standing in the middle of my apartment and holding a bouquet in his hand.
A gorgeous bouquet, I couldn’t help but notice.
Too big, probably, but a few dozen roses on display were in a perfect state of bloom.
Blood red. Was he going on a date? If he came here to rub it in my face, I wasn’t going to shoot him in the foot. I was going to shoot him in the groin.
“Can you please take this?” Adam grumbled, shoving the flowers in my face. “I feel like an idiot.”
“Why?” I blurted.
“They’re for you.”
Oh.
What?
“They’re apology flowers,” Adam said, avoiding my eyes. “Not the other kind… the… you know… the romantic—”
“I get it,” I cut in, as it started to dawn on me. Slowly.
“Also, can you get that gun out of my face?” Adam added, glancing at my weapon still pointed at him.
“Oh,” I mumbled, lowering my gun. “Sorry.”
“Can you just…?” he said, shaking the flowers with a grimace of distaste.
“Right,” I muttered, looking around. “I’m not sure I have a vase.”
I was so shocked that I could barely remember where my kitchen was. I headed there and opened a few cabinets before stumbling upon a salad bowl.
“This should do it,” I murmured, filling the bowl with water. “Probably.”
When Adam handed me the bouquet, I took it, flinching when our fingers grazed.
“Thank you,” I muttered, avoiding his gaze and placing the flowers into the bowl. “Is that all?”
I didn’t want to be rude or cruel, but I also didn’t want to get hurt again. When my doorbell rang for the umpteenth time, I rolled my eyes.
“It’s probably the damn burgers. Excuse me for a moment.”
After I returned to the room, I found Adam standing by the window and gazing into the distance. It was perverse how well he fit into my apartment.
“Um…” I muttered, rubbing my forehead because my head started to hurt. “Where were we?”
“You were about to throw me out of your apartment,” Adam deadpanned, crossing his arms over his chest. “But I would like to apologize first.”
He was wearing the shirt I gave him. Damn him. Blue looked good on him. Everything looked good on him. I would probably look good on him, too. No. Jesus.
“Apology accepted,” I said, lowering my gaze. “You can leave now.”
“I didn’t mean what I said,” Adam said firmly. “Not a single word. I wanted to hurt you.”
I smiled bitterly. “Mission accomplished.”
Adam bit his lip, glancing toward the window as if it were an emergency exit.
“I don’t like people,” he said finally, looking uncomfortable.
“I don’t trust people. That’s why I’m alone.
That’s why I don’t associate with anyone.
That’s why I behave like an asshole. I never had a friend.
I never had a girlfriend. I never went on a date.
I never had a meaningful conversation with anyone.
No one heard me cry except for my dog Rusty, who is dead, and Verna, whom I’m paying to talk to me.
My parents didn’t care about me. My classmates bullied me.
My foster parents abused me. My colleagues hate me, and my superiors don’t respect me.
I get it’s because I am the way I am. I know it’s because I am thoroughly unlikable.
I’m not saying it so you can pity me. I’m saying it because I think you’re the only person who sees me, and I respect that. I… I like that.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I could feel his eyes on me, but I couldn’t make myself look at him.
“I know I hurt you, Jordan, and I’m sorry. But trust me, you can hurt me a million times more. Just being here hurts me. I don’t want to be here or feel this way, but I can’t stay away either. I tried, but I can’t stop thinking about you.”
I can’t stop thinking about you.
Yeah, that sentence right there made no sense, so I had to ask for clarification.
“Right,” I murmured, my mind in a whirl. “Is that... like some kind of metaphor?”
“It’s the fucking truth, Jordan.”
“The truth,” I blurted. “Right. Um... I’m sorry if my next question sounds insensitive, but… are you perhaps drunk?”
Adam smiled sheepishly, bringing his index finger and thumb together.
Cute. So fucking cute.
“Do you forgive me?” he said, looking nervous.
“I forgave you the moment I saw you on my doorstep,” I replied, rubbing my forehead in frustration. “That’s not the—”
“I’m flattered by everything you said to me,” Adam added hastily. “The liking me part, I mean. I like that. I like that you like me. I also… fuck, why is it so difficult to say it?” He paused, sounding exasperated. “I… um… I like you too.”
When I said nothing, he glanced at me, but I couldn’t speak. I was speechless.
“That other part, too,” he added, avoiding my eyes. “I feel the same about that… other part.”
I blinked in confusion. “I’m sorry, which other part?”
“The… um… that other part,” Adam said, sounding frustrated. “When you said that… well, you know what you said.”
I tried to remember, but my brain barely functioned. Then it dawned on me.
Oh.
Ooh.
“Oh,” I vocalized it, too.
Adam nodded, lowering his gaze. “Yeah.”
I had to say it. I had to be sure.
“You mean…” I paused, hesitating. “That… um… that you want me?”
“Mm-hmm,” he mumbled without looking at me.
When I burst into laughter, he finally did.
“I’m sorry, Adam,” I said, laughing. “You have no issue telling me to ride your dick, but you have an issue telling me you want me?”
He grinned, disarming me. “Yeah, I guess so.”
I glanced at the bouquet on the kitchen counter.
“So, you bought those, huh?”
“Actually, I paid someone to buy them for me. I was too embarrassed to do it myself.”
He gave me a goofy smile that made me all gooey on the inside.
“I see…” I mused. “Well, thank you. For the flowers. And for the apology. And for sharing your story with me. And…” I grinned because I couldn’t help myself. “For telling me you want me.”
He looked uncomfortable again, but fuck him. I deserved it after everything he said to me.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your dinner,” Adam said, glancing at the table filled with food containers.
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I wasn’t hungry anyway. You can take some of it with you. I don’t want it to go to waste.”
“No, I’m not hungry. Thank you.
“You’re welcome.”
“Erm… I won’t keep you,” Adam said, sounding hesitant. “It’s late.”
I nodded. “It is.”
“So… yeah. I’ll… I’ll be going.”
I bit my lip so I wouldn’t smile. “Okay.”
He headed to the door, and I followed him.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” he said as I opened the door for him.
“Of course.”
“Okay. Well… Good night, then.”
“Good night.”
After he left, I closed the door behind him, grinning like an idiot. I stood there with my hand on the door handle, wondering if what just happened really happened, when I heard a knock. I forced my smile away and opened the door, only to see Adam standing on the doorstep.
“Um…” he muttered, looking at me from under his lashes. “Can I perhaps stay?”
I smothered a shriek of excitement and, for once, kept myself under control.
“Why?” I said, raising my chin in defiance. “What do you want?”
“A sleepover.”
“What else?”
“A serving of your cum.”
He actually said it with a straight face.
“Hmm,” I hummed. “Do I get to taste yours, too?”
“How many loads can you take?”
“You have no fucking idea.”
In the next moment, his lips were on mine, and I was flattened against the closed door.
It was a gentle kiss, the kind that makes it impossible to breathe.
The kind that makes the hair on your body stand up, but in a good way.
The kind that makes your heart pump faster, and your dick thicken in a millisecond. Tongues, barely grazing.
“Wait,” I said, breaking the kiss while I could still think. “You don’t think it will complicate things?”
Adam grinned. “Oh, abso-fucking-lutely. Now, can you shut up so I can finally put my mouth on you? I have been imagining it the whole day.”
“Ah, fuck you,” I muttered, giving in and unbuttoning his shirt. “I hate you so fucking much.”
“The feeling is mutual,” he said as his lips found my neck, making me yelp. “I’m going to mark you. Listen to you stammer tomorrow when the guys ask you who did it to you.”
“Eh… they will know who did it,” I said, hissing when he sucked on my flesh roughly. “Jesus.”
I was unbuckling his belt when he stopped me.