Chapter 20
Delilah
The day that changed everything started with a simple text.
“Evening coffee at my penthouse in Ruby? Only way to ensure complete privacy.”
My first reaction was to laugh, then to dismiss, and then to reconsider.
Had Adrian learned nothing from our conversation?
In what way was inviting me to his penthouse anything like showing me he wanted more than sex?
Granted, I was so emotionally frayed from everything the past couple of days, I might have been reading too much into it.
When I got this exhausted, a journalistic instinct for curiosity could transform into paranoia.
In this particular case, it was paranoia that Leo, though a giant asshole, might have been right.
Maybe Adrian’s sincerity was all a ploy. Maybe all he really craved was the power to get his way. Maybe he wanted nothing more than to control and dominate everyone and everything, to compress them into his toys.
And yet…
“Only way to ensure complete privacy.”
I had no idea if Adrian knew that the Morrils had spotted us, but it didn’t seem unreasonable.
A man like him would have his own eyes and ears on their eyes and ears, and admittedly vice versa.
As long as we didn’t do anything in broad daylight up on the railing, we would indeed have complete privacy.
The Morrils might notice me going to the Ruby casino, but they wouldn’t know anything more.
They could take some very educated conjectures, but it would still be just that—conjecture.
Past that, though, there was something… yielding in those words. Maybe this was the flip side of the paranoia coin, na?ve hope. Maybe I was reading something that was surrendering to what he wanted to what I wanted. No alcohol, no eyes in public, just us.
Whatever the motives were, whatever the justifications were, and there were plenty of both, I felt an unbearable urge to go.
I had to have answers to this whole saga, and I had to know if the King of Diamonds never changed, just got smarter in who he was…
or if there was a distinction between the King of Diamonds and who Adrian Vale was at his core.
“I’ll be there at seven o’clock.”
I sent that message with no other comment, but I promised myself I would not enter in a state of curiosity but defensiveness.
I promised myself that if it became readily obvious Adrian was playing games of control yet again, I would walk away.
And I promised myself that if I never spoke to Adrian Vale on the record again—in fact, if I never spoke to anyone in the Vale family on the record again—I would still have a great career exposing the lies and corruption of the powerful.
It would be up to me, however, to hold myself to those promises and not succumb to temptation.
The elevator doors opened to the penthouse, and the first thing I noticed was how Adrian had positioned himself.
Sitting at the far end of a table for two.
Not standing. Not with his arms folded, a smirk on his face, or anything to suggest that he was in charge. He didn’t have his feet propped up on the table or a cocky smile for my presence. He looked happy to see me, but in a more grounded way, not in a certain way.
He was still dressed well, but he wasn’t dressed like a man on a mission. He had on black pants and a light blue button-down shirt, but no suit, no tie, and—I especially took notice of this—no diamond cufflinks. The signature item of the King of Diamonds was kept in storage.
Maybe I really would get to see the real Adrian Value tonight.
“You came,” he said. His voice was even, but I swore that in “came,” there was a hint of a hitch, of surprise in his voice.
“You were right,” I said as I walked over to the table, “this is the only private place we could meet.”
I pulled the chair back, only now noticing the cups on the table. I glanced over. Coffee, yes.
I still didn’t trust it wasn’t, say, an Irish coffee versus a regular coffee. But all signs pointed to Adrian being sincere in what he had professed he would do. It was a good start.
Good to what end?
“I know that last time, we were a bit public,” he said. “I know that last time, doing that risked your career, your reputation, maybe even your integrity.”
My eyes widened, a reaction I quickly got under control but one I knew he’d noticed.
There was nothing rising in his voice, nothing to indicate this was the start of some grand speech.
There was only raw honesty, stripping away the King of Diamonds voice and charisma in favor of the simple, bold truth that was Adrian Vale.
He was no longer playing a role, but being himself.
“You said you wanted me to show you that I was sincere,” he said.
“But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d spent my entire life showing off.
Showing my wealth. Showing my clothing and my diamonds.
Showing my power. And while I understood what you said, it took me some time to explore what you meant.
It also took me some time to realize what was truly needed to give you what you were looking for.
Which is why I’m here to make a statement. ”
A what?
“I have a debt to you I intend to pay.”
Wait, what? I pressed my feet a little firmer into the ground, ready to stand up if I had to.
“But it’s not financial, and it has nothing to do with power.”
My feet lifted up just a bit, but I still kept my eyes intensely on him. I was not ready to just easily accept what he would say.
“My debt is from you not trusting me because I saw you as something to be gained, not to be with.”
I sat back in my chair, though I still could not quite let go of my belief that this might yet be a game.
“See, I played the game as King of Diamonds for so long that I forgot there are some things that you cannot put a price on,” Adrian said, finally taking a sip of his coffee.
“You, Delilah Reyes. You are invaluable. I cannot ‘pay’ for you, but I intend to show you how you are invaluable. How you are priceless. And it starts not with a grand gesture of power or wealth, but with a simple conversation.”
This was not the conversation I expected to have. Which, maybe, was a good thing. I found myself gradually opening myself up to him, of letting go of some of that guarded attitude in favor of willingness to listen.
“You asked me what I wanted from you, or perhaps better said, what I meant when I said I wanted you. I have come to realize that what I meant by that is that I want you, Delilah Reyes, the woman. Yes, I will not deny I want your body. I want you in my bed. But that is not where my desire for you ends.”
He looked like he was about to stand up but thought better of it, removing his hands from the chair arms and putting them back on the table.
“You are the one person who challenges me to be better, who challenges me not just to be a persona but a person. More importantly, you are the one person who could actually get me to change in that regard. Perhaps even more, you are the one person who I realized I could not live with losing. The one living person.”
He did not elaborate, but I knew his family and his history well enough he did not have to.
“I no longer wish to control you, Delilah. I just wish to be with you. If that means you get Adrian Vale and not the King of Diamonds, whether that be in bed or on a plane or at dinner, then so be it.”
Wait…
Wow.
I sat there almost aghast, mostly floored at what Adrian had just said.
If there was manipulation behind this, it was far beyond what even the most powerful sociopaths I had known could pull off.
There was a rawness to this that even I would have felt uncomfortable hearing, and while a small part of me had wondered if he might apologize for what had happened before, I knew a man like him would be damned if he ever apologized for anything.
Yet even if he had not, he had just laid out that he would not be repeating his mistakes.
Doubt slowly began to recede. Even if Adrian Vale was not a fully changed man, he was a man trying to change, trying to move toward being a man, not an image. The emotion I began to feel was almost… wonder.
Amazement, really. Amazement that even the King of Diamonds could learn to be human.
“Now, this is the part where I give you a choice,” Adrian continued.
“I said coffee, and I meant it. But there is nothing more I can say that pulls back additional layers. I have told you the truth about me and what I want from you. If you wish to stay longer, I have an exquisite dinner with cocktails ready for you. But if even that offer concerns you, or if you have too many doubts, then walk away. I have shown you more of myself than I have to anyone, perhaps even my brothers. I can do nothing more but to offer a progression. The choice, Delilah, is now yours. What will it be?”
The immediate answer came to mind, but I forced myself not to rely on the initial impulse.
Adrian… was sincere. Honest. Again, I could not fathom anyone being this good at manipulation. It was possible, but extraordinarily unlikely.
I swallowed.
“I accept,” I said.
The thoughtful answer, in this case, was the same as the impulsive answer. And what that meant for the rest of the night…
“That was what I wanted to hear,” Adrian said.
He snapped his fingers, and almost instantly, two servants came out with covered plates.
When they unveiled them, I looked down at ribeye steak, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus—a meal cooked perfectly and smelling unbelievably good.
Seconds later, red wine appeared as if out of nowhere.
“Now then,” Adrian said, “let’s enjoy a nice dinner, shall we?”