9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Anastasia
“ I want to go out,” I say after storming into Adrien’s office. It’s been a few days since I last left the house and I’m starting to go stir-crazy.
“I have work,” he says without looking up from his computer.
I close his laptop and force him to look at me. “You said I could only leave with you. So, let’s go. You said I can have an adventure with you.”
“I meant more in the bedroom.” His tone is wry.
I flush and try not to think of his lips on mine. Or his body on mine. Or… Stop, I tell myself. Don’t go there.
“Please,” I say, gritting the words out. I hate to beg but if that’s what it takes. “I just want a day out that’s fun. Take me out.”
His eyes soften for just a moment but I see it. “Fine. I need a break from work anyway. Let’s go.”
I clap my hands together and bounce on my feet. “Yay!”
Adrien softly laughs. It’s a nice domestic moment between us. We haven’t had many of those.
He takes me to the Louvre museum since it will be safer being inside a public building than outside where Remy could find us.
“What’s so dangerous about this Remy guy?” I ask as we wait in line to get tickets.
“He can be a little unhinged at times. Unpredictable. I never know what he’s going to get up to.”
“That makes him dangerous?”
“Very dangerous.”
“I never know what you’re going to get up to. Does that make you dangerous?”
His eyes darken as he wraps his hand around my waist, drawing me in closer. “ Very dangerous.”
I shiver. His touch does wild things to me but I have to keep a clear head around him. “Actually, I think you’re pretty predictable.”
“I stopped listening after pretty. You think I’m pretty?”
I roll my eyes and step away from him. “No. I think you are predictable. You always want sex. That’s predictable. If you want to be unpredictable, then do something for me I’d never expect.”
He falls silent, contemplating.
We head inside the museum after getting our tickets and spend time looking at all the artwork, neither one of us saying a word. What is there to say between us?
We come upon a painting of a countryside landscape. It’s soft and romantic.
“I wish I could live in something like that,” I say.
“You? You would die out in the country. Not enough to do. You’d be bored.”
“You’re probably right. But that’s not what I mean. What I mean is I want to live somewhere that could make me happy. Make me feel light.”
“You surprise me, Anastasia.”
“I can be unpredictable too, you know.”
He gives me a wry look before we move onto another painting. Adrien stops before a painting of a young woman, looking incredibly sad.
“Thinking of how you’d have sex with her too if she was human?” I ask, nudging him.
“Actually, no. I was thinking of what made her so sad.”
I stare at Adrien in surprise. “Really? You actually care what she’s feeling?” And yet, he can’t care what I’m feeling? His real life wife?
“I’m not a complete heartless monster.”
“Just with me you are.”
He ignores the jab and keeps his eyes on the painting of the sad woman. “She’s aching for more out of her life too. I figured you could relate to her.”
I stare at the sad woman. It’s like her eyes are looking straight into me. It’s disorienting. “Let’s move on to another one.”
“Scared? Did I touch too close to home?”
“Coming from the man who’s scared of his own feelings.”
“I’m not scared of my own feelings,” he murmurs as we walk to another painting. “I just know that feelings are pointless. They only lead to bad things. That’s it.”
“That’s such a bullshit way of looking at life and you know it.”
“How do you look at life then?”
“I look at life as if it’s full of possibilities waiting to be explored.
You look at life as if it’s a thing to get through.
You just want sex with women so you don’t have to explore all the parts of life that you can.
Ergo, you’re afraid of your own feelings.
” I leave him standing there, his mouth slightly open in surprise, as I move on to the next painting.
Adrien is silent as we walk around the rest of the museum. It feels good putting him in his place a little, though I do miss his banter with me. It’s kind of fun I’ll admit.
Once we’re done at the museum, we walk towards his car when we’re stopped by two men. They walk right in front of us, blocking our way.
Adrien grabs my arm and starts to lead me in the opposite direction when two more men walk up behind us. We’re trapped.
And then a man approaches us, smirking like he’s won the war. Remy.
“What do we have here?” he asks.
Adrien keeps his hand clenched to my arm. “Remy. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m doing what I should have done the second you stole money from me.” He nods at his guards. “Take them.”
“I have my gun,” Adrien warns. “I’ll shoot every one of your guards in the head in a matter of seconds.”
“But we’re in public,” Remy says. “You don’t want to risk getting into trouble, now do you? For your own benefit, Adrien, get in the car.” He nods to a car behind him – it’s more of a van, ready to haul both of us away.
“Anastasia,” Adrien says. “Run!” He pushes me back as he runs at Remy.
I hesitate too long and one of his guards grabs me around the waist and pulls me to the van.
He clamps his hand over my mouth so I can’t scream and shoves me inside.
Remy’s other guards manage to grab Adrien and force him inside the van as well.
They shut the door behind us, locking us inside.