13. Chapter 13 #2
And he did. He opened up to me, keeping his voice low, because his story wasn’t fun, and it sounded like he had as many problems with his parents as I did with mine.
I liked him. I liked the way his fingers would trace imaginary patterns on the surface of the table as he told me about himself, about the songs he listened to, and the things he liked doing.
If I believed in love, I’d consider myself one hundred percent down bad for Adrian Henning.
“So…Rox…” he said as we moved out of the Detention Hall together once Mr. Cane had hightailed it outta here with the other kids. “Where you off to now?”
“Rox? My name is Roxana.”
“Nah,” he said, sweeping some of my hair off my shoulder and moving it behind my ear. “You’re my Rox.”
“Yours?”
My breath was coming in short bursts of excitement, almost like I was panting.
“Yeah, baby, you good with that?” he asked, with a smirk on his face that told me not many argued with him. That was hot.
“Yeah…I’m good with that.”
He kissed me. Soft lips against mine, his tongue sweeping out to lick at my lips.
“Let me take you home,” he said, after he pulled away from me, with a soft groan.
I groaned. “Do you have to?”
He frowned for a moment, then he shook his head. “No, but where else would you want to go?”
I sighed. “I have to. By now, my mum would have heard about the detention. She’ll call the cops if I don’t come home.”
Adrian’s smirk should have told me to run, but instead, I stepped closer, relishing in his bad boy mystique. “Do you trust me?”
I should have said no, we just met, but instead, I grinned back at him and took his proffered hand.
Myth
Once I settled things with the boys in church, I headed straight down the hall to my room. Cowboy had told me he hadn’t re-locked it, but he had a feeling that would be telling if she was still in there when I got back.
My heart raced as I approached the door. If she wasn’t here, I’d lose it, and if she was, I didn’t know if I would be able to stop myself from claiming her again. My dick was already hard knowing she’d be on my bed.
Turning the doorknob, I entered the room.
Rox was sitting on the bed, her knees drawn up and her fingers fidgeting with something in her hand. She had a faraway look in her eye and I knew she was deep in thought.
It gave me a moment to really look at her, how she’d grown, she’d filled out, and how fucking drop dead beautiful she was.
She always had been.
“Rox.”
My voice was strangled, almost like I’d been crying or hadn’t spoken in days.
Slowly, she looked up and over at me, her eyes watery and puffy from crying. Immediately, my chest tightened. I hated seeing her upset. I’d murder anyone who tried to upset her, and yet, I knew it was because of me.
“I’ll sleep in another room.”
I turned to leave, to give her space, when I heard her call out my name.
“Please stay.”
My heart hammered, my chest aching at how weak she sounded. I locked the door and headed over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it, my back to her so I didn’t have to see the tears I was causing.
“Adrian, come over here. Sit next to me,” she pleaded. “I won’t bite.”
I felt the smirk break over my face and I stood, turning to face her. She had laid back against the headboard, her ankles crossed over each other. I removed my kutte and my boots, and moved up onto the bed, sitting next to her, in the same position she was in.
We were silent for a while, just being in each other’s company, a calmness washing over me.
Like I was with the only person in this world who truly understood me and it was nice to not have to be someone I didn’t want to be.
I didn’t have to be tough, I didn’t have to be bossy. I just could be…Adrian with her.
“Tell me about him.”
I didn’t know where the question had come from, but once it was out, I couldn’t take it back. I sat and waited for her to respond, every second she was quiet, it was like a dagger to the heart.
“Do you really want to know?”
“I want to know what you’re like away from the clubhouse, what your life is like now.”
I didn’t want to tell her that I knew, that I’d been watching her for years, jerking off when I knew she was horny or when she came home from the club in a short dress and fuck me boots.
“It’s…quiet, calm. Beck is sensible, I guess is the word I’d use.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.”
She sighed, but she wasn’t angry. It was almost like she was sighing because she knew I was right.
“I’m not the same girl from back then, Adrian.”
“And I’m not the same asshole from back then.”
We sat in silence again, each moment killing me inside.
“I hate him,” I said, finally. “I hate that he gets you and that he’s never fucked up. I guess that’s why I am trying to find something wrong with him so I can show you he’s not good enough for you, but the truth is, no one is ever gonna be good enough for you. Not in my eyes.”
Silence descended on us again, and it tore at me. I was losing her, I knew it. My impulsivity once won her heart, but now, it was breaking us apart at the seams and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
“Why did you do it?” she asked me. “Why did you mark me as yours when you knew I would have to go home to him?”
“Jealousy. You know I’m a possessive guy, always have been.
You’re still my wife in my eyes, and you always will be, Rox.
I meant it when I said I wouldn’t sign papers.
I’m never going to sign something to say I don’t love or want you anymore.
Ever. Even if it hurts you, even if you beg me. I won’t do it.”
“You broke us, Adrian. You did that. Why would you want to punish me for the rest of my life?”
“I would never want that, Rox, but if you ask me to do it, it would break me.”
She inhaled sharply, her head snapping to the side to look at me, but I couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Why do you want to know about him?” she asked, her voice gentle.
“I want to know how he treats you.”
“Why?”
“There’s something…broken about you, Rox. You’re fiery, sure, but there’s something in you that wasn’t there when we were together. Your confidence is gone. You hide your tattoos, and your hair isn’t as vibrant as it used to be.”
“I’m older.”
“No, Rox, that don’t mean shit and we both know it. Tell me…”
“He doesn’t like the tatts,” she sighed. “He wanted me to laser some off but I wouldn’t, so I cover them up when we go out. It’s no biggie.”
“Those tattoos are who you are. Why would it bother him so much?” My anger was mounting. Her tattoos all meant something to her. “If he loved you, he wouldn’t care about that shit.”
“I’m different now. I’m not her, Adrian. I’m Roxana, not Rox. You need to let the past go.”
“No,” I grunted, angry. “I’ll never let the past go. It’s where you and I live, and it’s those memories that keep me going. I want to know why he’s better than me. You told me you’d never love anyone else and yet stopped wanting to be with me, long before the shit went down.”
“You were never around, Adrian. You stopped caring what I thought long before Stacey happened. You let the title go to your head. You stopped being my Adrian, and started to become Myth.”
“I will always be your Adrian. I needed you then. I need you now, but then, I needed you to be by my side. I needed you to tell me I was enough, and that you’d always love me, no matter who was trying to pull us apart. I needed you to be my Queen.”
“What?” she rounded on me. “Are you kidding me? You are the one who flirted, the one who cheated on me with my own goddamn best friend.”
“Don’t bring that slut into this,” I ground out. “You stopped coming here. Do you know how bad that was? I was trying to prove I was worthy to be President, to fill my Dad’s shoes and you just fucked off. I was angry, but I was also tired of fighting with the men, and then you. Every damn day.”
A sob broke the tension and I looked over at her, her tears running down her cheeks and her eyes red and puffy. “You were mine first. I wasn’t good enough for you, and now, I’m not good enough for him.”
She pulled her top off, revealing her new ink, and my name all over her. My cock grew hard at seeing her like this. I moved her over to straddle my lap, wiping at her tears. Each tear breaking my heart in two.
“He doesn’t see you like I do,” I said to her softly, cupping her face.
“And how is that?” she asked, her voice broken with unshed emotion. My eyes skated down her body, curves in all the right places. My hands settled over her hips.
“Perfect.”
A fresh wave of tears fell from her eyes, her chest wracking with sobs. I wanted to ease her pain but when the side of her fist slammed into my chest, I was momentarily winded.
“Why did you do it? Why did you break us?” she cried out, her little fists flying at my chest. Every word out of her mouth was another chink in my armour I’d constructed for years. “Why didn’t you chase me? Why didn’t you come find me?”
Fuck.
“Rox…”
Her fists stopped and she sat back, her tears stopped for a moment, still shiny in the lighting in the room.
“Why didn’t you do this,” she sobbed, her bottom lip wobbling as she pointed to her stomach, “to me back then?”
I closed the distance between us, pulling her toward me from the back of her neck, until her salty lips were on mine. I tasted her pain and sorrow, replacing it with my tongue, seeking to absolve her of the hurt I’d caused. She moaned into my mouth, crushing her body to mine.