20. Adrian
CHAPTER 20
ADRIAN
“What the actual fuck?” Sydney demands as soon as we’re just barely out of Jane’s earshot.
“Excuse me? Is that supposed to be something I’m able to answer?”
“Are you taunting me?” she demands.
“Again, I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I say.
She looks ready to shoot lightning with her eyes. “I invite you to a party, and you bring some rando.”
I sigh. “Jane is not a rando. As I told you, we’ve been dating for six months.”
“Bullshit. I’d know it if that were the case.”
“With what, your ‘psychic’ powers?”
She narrows her eyes into tiny slits. “You know I’m an intuitive.”
“Intuitive is not a noun.” If she had any intuition at all, it would tell her how awful our married life would be. And that crystals don’t work.
She takes a deep breath. “Look, when you met her isn’t important. What’s important is that we have a baby together.”
I do my best to calm myself as well. For Piper’s sake, the two of us need to learn to get along… somehow. “She doesn’t want us to marry. Trust me.”
Sydney takes a step toward me, eyes gleaming. “Having a mommy and a daddy is the thing she wants most. You wouldn’t know anything different because your parents stayed together. Mine split when I turned five. It was terrible.”
This is a conversation we’ve had a million times. Sydney truly suffered when Tristan and Juliet got divorced, but she doesn’t care when I tell her that my situation was the exact opposite. My mom should have left my dad, and everyone would’ve been happier, but she didn’t.
“Piper will have both a mommy and a daddy,” I say conciliatorily. “I plan to be in her life. That’s the whole point of?—”
“No,” Sydney hisses. “She’ll be better off if she doesn’t even know your name.”
With that, she stomps off.
Fuck. A part of me had hoped that when Sydney learned that I’ve moved on, she’d do the same and abandon her delusions of marrying me. And, of course, stop fighting me on custody. I guess that would’ve been too easy.
Anyway, I’ve left Jane alone for far too long. I turn back to her—and can’t believe my eyes. Sydney’s parents have cornered her like a pack of rabid hyenas.
As I rush over, Jane’s face lightens with relief, so I know I’m just in time.
“You didn’t reconcile, did you?” Tristan says, skipping the usual pleasantries.
Out of the two, I like Tristan more, so I choose my words carefully. “I’m afraid your daughter and I have irreconcilable differences.”
There. That’s much better than saying that his daughter is vapid, shallow, and vain—and that he and his ex-wife messed her up so badly she’d rather deprive Piper of her father than have an amicable shared custody arrangement.
“What a shame,” Tristan says. “If you never get the chance to speak with Piper again, you’ll regret it.”
My hands ball into fists, and I take a step forward without meaning to. “Was that a threat?”
Tristan takes a step back. “A statement of fact. There’s no guarantee you’ll get custody.”
I relax my hands. The last thing I want is to smack Piper’s grandfather. Something like that would seal the custody case for sure. “I will get custody,” I say evenly. “The judge will see that I want what’s best for Piper.”
“No, you won’t,” Juliet says nastily. “The judges always favor the mother.”
She has a point. Even though they’re supposed to consider both parents equally, judges are human and have human biases, so they often do favor the mother, despite the letter of the law.
I take a calming breath just as Jane puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Her touch helps tremendously. My tone is almost pleasant as I address both of Sydney’s parents. “Can you help Sydney realize that what’s best for Piper is for her to know her father?”
Juliet scoffs. “Nothing will help you after this insult.” She glances at Jane.
That, right there, is but a taste of why Tristan must’ve run from her.
“I don’t understand your meaning,” I say frostily. “Nor do I care to.”
Juliet puts her hands on her hips. “The insult is you announcing that you’re going to marry a woman who looks like a cheap imitation of the one who bore you a child.”
“Jane couldn’t be more different from Sydney if someone had genetically engineered her to be so,” I state. Turning to Jane, I add, “I mean that as a compliment.”
Jane blushes while Juliet’s eyes turn laser-like. Yep, that’s where Sydney inherited that from.
I meet her stare for stare. “Now, you’ll have to excuse us.” I turn to Jane and extend my hand. “May I have this dance?”
Clearly ecstatic to be out of this unpleasant situation, Jane beams at me. “I’d love that.”
As I lead her away, she whispers, “A dance without music?”
Winking at her, I swing by the DJ’s table, slip him a few hundreds, airdrop him a file, and reunite with Jane.
“Music issue remedied,” I say. “The DJ was going to start in a half hour or so anyway, so I’ve merely hastened matters.”
The music starts playing.
Jane’s eyes widen. “Is this a remix of the theme from Bridgerton ?”
I smile. “Not exactly. It’s something that I wrote—heavily inspired by it.”
She bites her lip. “You wrote this?”
“I had a feeling you might enjoy dancing to it.” And right now, I have a feeling her plump, juicy lips would be very fun to nibble on.
“Right.” She looks around at a few people who are already with us on the dance floor. “Shall we?”
Fuck. Between the lip biting and us getting this close, Yoda’s lightsaber is extending. Then again, we must be seen as a couple, and dancing speaks volumes.
I take her hands in mine and begin waltzing, but I keep a distance to make sure she doesn’t feel the effect that she’s having on me.
The next song is faster, so we’re dancing apart, and I get to watch her sway her hips as her perfect round breasts bob up and down to the music—in other words, not an improvement over being too close as far as inappropriate thoughts and urges go.
By song five, it’s official.
If I keep dancing with Jane, my balls will resemble a blue robin’s eggs.