CHAPTER 30
Eve
Vaughn: Have you seen your boy's insta?
Vaughn: He's definitely trying to send a message.
Me: My boy? And no, I haven't. You know I don't do social media.
Vaughn: (image)
I t's a picture of me sleeping with Adam's football jersey laid across me. I don't sleep with Adam's jersey. The caption says, 'My jersey, my bed, my girl'.
Vaughn: (image)
This one is a picture of me laughing with my eyes closed and my mouth open. The caption on this one says, 'My favorite sound'.
Vaughn: (image)
A picture of me sleeping with my head resting on Adam's chest. It's captioned, 'I've sprayed her with a special paint that glows when touched by anyone who isn't me. I'll know.'
I can't help but chuckle to myself at that one. He's so...so...possessive and matter of fact about it. He holds absolutely nothing back.
Me: I get the gist. I didn't actually know that he had an Instagram account.
Vaughn: Yeah. Funny thing. I don't think he did before he met you. His first post is the picture of you with his jersey. He has only posted pictures of you or the two of you together.
Vaughn: I think that jersey one was posted the day after your great escape.
Me: Should I ask him about it?
Vaughn: I hate to say it but I'm coming around on this guy. I mean, he is definitely insane, but at least he's insane about you.
Vaughn: He's going to lose his shit when you tell him what happened last night. You know that, right?
Me: I'm not sure that I should tell him.
Vaughn: Red alert! That is the worst idea of all the bad ideas. What if you have to testify? He'll wreck everything and everyone if he finds out about this way after the fact.
Vaughn: He'll need the time to prepare; otherwise, I guarantee he will attack the guy right there in the courtroom.
Me: I know. You're right. I had planned to tell him, but I keep waffling.
Vaughn: Waffles are good. Deception is shit. Keeping this from him is deceptive. That's not you.
Me: Who's side are you on here, turncoat?
Vaughn: Yours. Always yours. (Kiss face emoji)
I inhale a deep sigh and put the phone back in my pocket.
Adam walks back into the bedroom and goes straight to the blood canvas. I've taken to calling the canvas Adam used to smear my virgin blood on the 'blood canvas' in my head. He's constantly looking at it and touching it.
"Hey."
He turns to me with a suspicious scowl, marring his perfect face.
"I have something to tell you and...I don't want you to overreact."
He works his jaw and scowls harder as he walks over to me, where I sit on the bed.
It takes several steps, even with his long strides.
The bedrooms in Eden House are larger than most master suites in other homes.
I feel the intensity of his stare in exactly the way that I know he's intended.
Without warning, he scoops me up off the bed and turns, laying himself down.
He's propped up against the massive headboard and I'm sitting across his lap.
He pushes my head onto his chest and strokes my hair reverently.
He says nothing. He just keeps stroking my hair, waiting for me to continue.
"Eli came home this weekend and we celebrated."
His hand in my hair falters for a moment before he resumes stroking.
I explain to him everything that happened from party prep to picking up Eli, to the party, and then everything that happened afterwards.
When I talk about going outside the bar by myself, Adam's heart rate picks up.
When I mention the guy walking toward me, he stops stroking my hair and instead grips it firmly like it's reality, and he's being suctioned into Wonderland by a vacuum-wielding Mad Hatter.
I explain the attack and subsequent scuffle while Adam's entire body quivers and he grips me in an increasingly restrictive hold.
He's seething. There's no misunderstanding what he's feeling right now.
"What's his name?" His voice is smooth and calm, giving nothing of his fury away.
"What?" His question and the tone of his voice throw me off and I don't understand what he's asking me.
"The man who attacked you. Surely, they gave you his name to see if he was known to you?"
"Oh. Uh, yeah. Paul. Paul Hastings."
"Paul Hastings."
His heart rate is beginning to return to normal. He's no longer shaking, and he has resumed stroking my hair. He kisses the top of my head.
"You know that you shouldn't have left the bar alone, don't you."
It's a statement, but I nod anyway.
"I'm so fucking proud of you. You're incredible. Nothing like that will ever happen to you again."
How can he say that? He can't be with me all the time. Shit happens, and now I know I can handle it when it does.
"I don't regret that it happened. I'm proud of me too. I'm glad that I know I can take care of myself when I need to."
"I'm glad that you know that too, but you don't need to take care of yourself. I'll be doing that."
"Oh, for fuck's sake, Doc Holliday. I'm not Wyatt Earp and this isn't Tombstone. I'm fu-"
Adam cuts off my next words in a bruising kiss. He's gripping my face and pressing our lips together hard. There's no tongue, no movement, just the closeness. He pulls away and speaks into my lips.
"I'm going to run us a bath."
He slides me over to the bed and goes to the bathroom.
He shut me up. He is a master of manipulation.
I have got to get better at this game. Maybe I should make my own Instagram and just post pictures of myself.
No. I'd rather scrub my brain with sandpaper.
Plus, who would I even add, friend, or whatever?
Eli and Vaughn? Well, there's Cal and Cotton too.
And Ada and a few girls from the team. Adam, of course. I have friends. Several of them.
Is this what I've been holding myself back from all this time?
Could I have been making friends and meeting people long before I came here?
Maybe I could have prevented all the cold shoulders I received when I got here if I had just tried pushing myself years ago.
Where would I be now? Maybe I should've let Adam kill Nathan.
This isn't a valuable train of thought. Besides, am I not happy where I am?
I am happy. I love Adam. I love Vaughn and Eli.
I really like Cal, Cotton, and Ada a lot. I could love them too one day, I think.
......................................
Adam's hand is between my legs. His fingers are massaging my clit, and his face is nuzzling my neck.
"Good morning, Love."
"Mmmm Good Mo-...Ah"
"I love to hear you moan. I love it almost as much as your laugh."
I'm panting and moaning, but all I can hear is the blood rushing in my head as liquid heat coils in my middle.
He continues to flick and play with my clit.
My knees rise up off the bed and my back arches.
Adam is murmuring into my neck, but all I continue to hear is the blood thrumming through my head.
My orgasm explodes through me in a rush, and I hide my cries in the blanket that still covers me.
Finally, I regain control of my senses and look into Adam's coal-black eyes.
"Good morning. What time is it?"
"Early."
"Why are we up early?"
"I had some calls to make. You're up because I need access to you."
I laugh quietly into his neck as he pulls my naked body over onto his. He runs a hand up my back and into my hair. His hand on my ass is kneading and massaging. I reach down between us and grab his heavy cock stroking it. He sucks a sharp breath in through his teeth making a "sssss" sound.
"I need to be inside you, Love."
"Mmmm."
Lifting up and straddling his hips, I line his erection up with my entrance before slowly gliding myself onto him. He's gripping my hips tightly, trying to force me down faster but I resist, drawing out this moment and enhancing his need.
"Eve, dammit."
I giggle softly. His eyes are burning with desire and frustration at my torturous pace. When I'm finally seated flush with his hot skin, he moans.
"You are the best feeling. Nothing else feels like you."
"How do you know? You haven't felt everything."
"I don't need to feel anything else because I know what this is, and you'll just have to take my word for it because no one else will ever experience you the way I do."
I've been rocking my hips forward and backward, but now I brace my hands on his defined stomach and use my legs to lift myself to the end of his shaft before slamming back down. Adam growls at the contact.
"You're so beautiful."
I lift and come back down onto him fast and hard over and over again while he grunts and moans with each contact.
"I love watching these perfect tits bounce."
He grabs my hips, lifting me and slamming me back down repeatedly, causing my breasts to bounce faster.
"You're perfect for me."
The buzz that I've felt all over my body at our first contact begins to travel to my core, pooling into a euphoric out-of-body experience.
I lift my hands into my hair and throw my head back, crying out while Adam continues to lift my hips and slam my body back down onto his rigid cock.
At the same time that I lose control, I feel his dick jerk inside of me.
I'm nearly falling backward as he slams me down again and again, using the thrusts of his hips to meet mine as we both ride out our orgasms together, panting and moaning in unison.
He reaches for me pulling my upper body flush with his as he peppers kisses all over my face and squeezes my ass in both hands.
"You. Are. Perfect."
I giggle into his neck and kiss up his jaw to his temple.
"No one is perfect. Least of all me. I'm a social nightmare." Kiss. "A little too mouthy." Kiss. "I'm in love with a borderline psychopath." Kiss.
Adam grabs me by the hair and jerks my head back so that we're face to face.
"You know that you can never change your mind about this, don't you?"
I look at him, seeing the fear and determination in his eyes.
"Yeah. I know."
"Good girl."