Chapter 19
Adrian
Night had fallen on my penthouse, and I stood a morose man over the city my family and I had conquered.
Because while my family and I might have conquered Vegas on unambiguous terms and very much would destroy the Morril family on no uncertain terms, I now felt very uncertain about how I would conquer Delilah—and if that was even the appropriate verb for everything.
Conquer. Destroy. Take over. Dominate.
Those were verbs that in days past would speak to me, enthrall me. They still did. But to do what Delilah was asking entailed something more… gentle. More personal. More… ugh, soft.
Sitting in a chair in my bedroom, sipping on some vodka to try to escape the thoughts, I could not and stood up.
I walked outside, looking out over the Las Vegas Strip.
This view typically invigorated me. It reminded me of what I controlled.
It reminded me of how far I could come. Sometimes, when I looked up at the night sky, I’d think about how much farther we might go.
Tonight, though, it only reminded me that I was doing this alone after spending the morning with the most captivating woman I’d ever met.
“Fuck!”
I threw my glass of vodka onto the floor in frustration.
I drew in a breath. How was Delilah affecting me this much?
I had a temper, yes. We all did. But Dante aside, all of us were very fucking good at channeling that temper into proper control.
We were not the Black Reapers. We were not the King’s Men.
We were the Vales.
And yet, there the shattered glass was, lying on the floor from my hot temper, broken from the pressure of the situation.
This was unlike me. I was better than this.
And yet… yeah, fuck, I did miss Delilah and her wit. I missed how she could give me just as much pressure and fire as anyone else. I missed getting a taste of my own medicine.
And if I missed that permanently by not doing what Delilah wanted, if I lost her…
I could not fucking believe the comparison came to mind, but there were hints of what it had felt like losing Virgil.
It was not the same, and I would not say that unless Delilah and I got married and something fucking awful happened.
But she was the first person I felt emotions over possibly losing since Virgil, or at least the first person I allowed myself to feel emotions about possibly losing.
That thought was fucking ludicrous.
But it was also an eye-opener. I was immersing myself in a game that I had never played before, and in such a spot, the worst thing to do would be to pretend to figure it out.
I needed advice, not from a business adviser or a board member or even an old friend.
I needed advice from… someone I did not want to call, did not want to admit looking up to, but could not avoid.
I needed Cassius.
I had only sent a simple text asking Cassius to come to my penthouse. Ten minutes later, I heard the elevator doors to my penthouse opening. I was well aware it was not from anyone else arriving.
“You seek my counsel?” Cassius said as he approached me. At this point, I was leaning on the railing, still overlooking the Strip, breathing slowly to get a hold of myself. The last thing I needed was to let Cassius say something that gets under my skin. “You seem agitated.”
“That obvious?” I said with a chuckle.
“I grew up with you, Adrian,” Cassius said. “Just as I did with Dante, Lucas, and Virgil. I know you all as well as anyone alive today.”
Fair, I suppose. And I had called him for this exact reason.
“How’s Sarah?”
“Good. Wedding planning moves along nicely, and we’re thinking about trying for kids soon. I’m surprised you asked.”
Trying for kids? Already? Fuck. Cassius was moving on from his single days so fucking fast. If I didn’t know him better, I might have even said that he’d wanted the family life farther back than Sarah. At least I could say that wasn’t the case for me.
I was pretty sure, anyway.
“You’re surprised I asked,” I said with a chuckle, “as if family doesn’t ask each other how they’re doing.”
“What, am I supposed to believe the King of Diamonds is interested in that which isn’t flashy?”
“No more than I am to believe the King of Hearts has settled for a heart versus as many hearts as possible.”
Cassius chuckled, keeping that ever-present smirk about him. God, that pissed me off.
“When you find the right heart, it doesn’t matter how many are out there, you’re good with the best,” Cassius said. “But before you move on, care to say what happened with your glass? Doesn’t seem very diamond-like to have broken glass.”
Fuck.
I hadn’t even bothered to ask anyone to clean it up. Probably because even though I had staff to do it, it felt too much of a “me” thing to put on someone else’s shoulders.
“Shit happens,” I said.
“I see,” Cassius said. “What did you call me up here for, anyway? Do we have an issue with the Morrils?”
“We always have an issue with the Morrils,” I said, wishing I suddenly had a glass of vodka. “No. Cassius, allow me to…”
I paused for a moment. Fuck. I was really about to tell my older brother all of this, wasn’t I? The man that pissed me off and helped me more than anyone in this world.
Well, if anyone was going to get what I was going through, it was him.
“Allow me to discuss the story of your fiancée’s friend, Delilah Reyes.”
I then proceeded to recap everything that had happened—carefully, of course.
I was honest, but I wasn’t weak. I hinted at the feelings of losing control, but I sure as shit wouldn’t let Cassius know I was out of control.
He just stood there the whole time, silently listening, the icy eyes never changing expression.
Finally, I reached the end.
“We left Aces Up stone-faced to each other. It’s a weird dynamic, and she’s forced me to think about things.
I thought I knew how to play this game, and for anyone else, I’d handle it myself.
But this time? This time, I’ve got an opponent of equal caliber.
And I need to know how to get a leg back up? ”
“A leg back up,” Cassius repeated. “So what you’re saying is, the King of Diamonds has lost a little of his sheen, huh?”
“Not a fucking chance,” I snapped. “Just… just that you’ve danced this before. I don’t know why you’re getting married so fast, but you seem to have figured out your game. So any input on how to play the game would be great.”
Cassius nodded, looked out over the Strip, then nodded toward a table.
Silently, annoyed he wasn’t saying anything yet, I led him to the table.
He snapped his fingers as we sat down, and true to form, two servants came out, one with a glass of bourbon for him, one with a glass of vodka for me.
Once they were distributed, the two of them hurried to clean the mess I had made.
“Your first mistake is thinking that it’s a game to be played,” Cassius said. “Would it be fair to say that Delilah wants you, Adrian? And think about what I mean by what I say before you speak.”
I knew damn well what he was saying. He didn’t need to add that bit at the end.
“Yes, it is fair.”
“Then it is anything but a game to her,” Cassius said.
“Think about it. If she gets caught—and we know the Morrils have eyes on all of us, to say nothing of other people or just those wanting fifteen minutes of fame on social media—she can lose so much. Yet she’s still going with you.
You call that a game? If you knew that our ten-figure wealth was on the line, would you be treating shit like a fucking game?
Or would you be taking things a little more seriously? ”
Fair enough, I thought. I only shrugged in response, though I trusted that Cassius knew well enough to see I understood the message.
“You’re trying to control everything, and yet in doing so, you’re letting the best woman you’ve ever met slip through your grasp.”
“The best?” I said, arching an eyebrow.
“I have never heard you speak of a woman like you have of Delilah Reyes.”
Fuck me. For a man who prided himself on seeing what wasn’t spoken and seeing how pressure made people snap, I sure was doing a poor job of recognizing it in myself.
“Take out the game. Take out the desire to break her. What—”
“I don’t want to fucking break her, Cassius! I just want her!”
Both of us got wide-eyed. Once more, both of us heard what was not spoken. I just want her… around. With me. By my side. Not just in my bed. Not just on my cock. Not just fucking me.
… fuck.
“Alright,” Cassius finally said, though even after that, he took several more moments to gather himself.
I needed even longer. How the fuck had Cassius gotten me to say everything out loud?
“You just want her, the person. Guess what? She doesn’t want the King of Diamonds.
She doesn’t want the winner of the game between the two of you.
She wants Adrian Vale. And if you are going to give that to her, you have to start by being honest with yourself. ”
“I am.”
“No, you are not.”
Cassius, Dante, and Lucas might have been the only men who could have gotten away with bluntly disagreeing with me like that. Anyone else would have been lucky to escape without a brutal yelling.
“You are telling yourself you want to fuck her, that you want her, the prize to be bragged about. Keep lying to yourself if you can live with knowing she will hate your guts and forever be gone if you fuck her and that’s where it stops.
But if you want to not win her, but to be with her?
Then start by admitting that to yourself.
You can’t be a king of others if you can’t have control over yourself. ”
Fuck, I needed another drink. At least when Cassius got going on this type of thing, I didn’t need to interject one damn bit. He’d carry the whole fucking conversation, and I would just listen.
Maybe that was something worth considering for Delilah. Maybe I didn’t need to dominate every conversation with my presence and my words. Maybe I could just listen.
“I don’t need to tell you that I made similar mistakes with Sarah, and that I very nearly lost her as a result,” Cassius went on.
“That period where I’d thought I’d lost her?
Fucking brutal, Adrian. Absolutely fucking brutal.
I do sincerely hope that if your honesty with yourself makes you realize you want Delilah, the woman, not Delilah’s pussy, then you get her.
But I would never wish that period of darkness on anyone. ”
“It’s nothing I haven’t experienced before,” I growled.
“Not to the degree that you will feel.”
I took a sip of my vodka. Cassius did the same with his bourbon.
“It’s almost like you’re saying I should surrender instead of control,” I said with a sarcastic laugh.
Cassius said nothing.
And then it began to click.
What I had sarcastically laughed off might very well be the key to what I wanted.
To fuck Delilah purely for the thrill of it, I just needed to do what I was doing now. Control. Exert. Show off. Be the King of Diamonds.
But there was a world of difference between fucking a woman and being with a woman. Cassius’ sudden shift in personality, from ruthless, hard single man to still cold but more gentle engaged man, made sense now in that light. It had required a paradigm shift of sorts.
In order to have the woman—not the pussy—I wanted, I needed to release control. I needed to surrender to the vulnerability and honesty it required. And I needed to not keep looking back for it.
“It’s not almost,” I muttered in between sips. “It is.”
“Yes,” Cassius said, barely audible, but audible enough.
So.
The big brother turned out to know a thing or two about having a woman. Not about manipulation, but about having genuine intent.
Which meant, per Delilah’s words, my next move couldn’t be a power play. I couldn’t take her to my penthouse and fuck her. I couldn’t take her to one of my casino’s top floors and flaunt my wealth to get my dick sucked.
I needed something more… real.
As strange as it sounded, though, I almost didn’t know how to do that.
In a weird way, by being a fit billionaire, I’d never really had to work for a woman.
Instead of being a starving man trying to talk his way into a meal, I had my choice of a buffet of women.
But Delilah was above that; she always had been.
She’d briefly allowed herself to come to me—maybe even nearing coming for me—but she was too strong to let herself surrender to a single moment.
But that was a minor concern.
I had always figured out a way forward to what I wanted. I might need some more time to think, some more time to consider the options, but I would not fail. I had not failed in building an empire, I had not failed in being the King of Hearts, and I would not fail at this.
“You have given me what I sought, Cassius,” I said. “I suppose you have your fiancée and possible baby to run home to.”
“No baby at the moment,” Cassius snorted. “Not even one developing right now. But I do have someone I love to run to.”
That felt like a thinly veiled shot, but I let it slide. Cassius had actually proved helpful. Let him get the victory shot in.
Even if that’s just you reading into what’s not there.
“I will see you soon, Adrian,” Cassius said as he walked past me. “Do keep me updated. It would be good to know what a journalist might be writing about us.”
I chuckled.
But the statement drove home an important point.
As much as I now knew the right path forward, I still had to tread carefully.
I was playing a very delicate game, and if I crossed the ever thin lines of vulnerability and excitement into power and domineering, it wouldn’t just affect Adrian Vale.
It would affect the King of Diamonds and the entire Vale family.