Adrian (Filthy Rich Alphas)

“I’m going to miss you.”

She looked up at me. “You’ll be fine.”

“I’ve never been fine. Trust me on that, but with you, I was a bit better. I had more control in the chaos.”

Arm-in-arm, we continued down the hallway. Before her, the passageway had been a bare thing, just mahogany wood and tan carpet. When she moved in, she asked Dad if she could use some of the paintings from the attic to decorate the hallway. Not caring about anything but sex, he’d obliged. I’d gone up into the attic with her and a staff member, rummaging through priceless art that had been stacked away in the back and covered with dust.

My mother’s art collection now decorated the property. Picasso’s Guernica hung in the sitting area downstairs. It had been an odd place for Carmen to suggest. The images were grays, blacks, and whites. The painting showed the tragedies of war. Yet, when the servant hung it high above the couches and marble floor, everything went calm.

We grabbed more art that day and raced around the mansion together, trying to beat each other on who would pick the best spot for what. Van Gogh’s sunflowers currently hung in the hallway. I remembered that was the only painting Carmen and I had hung together. What a bunch of amateurs we had been, fumbling with nails and a hammer, while the staff decorated the other walls.

“You’ll find a great woman who will love you for who you are.” Carmen knocked me out of my reminiscing.

“I’ve already found a great woman. It’s just too bad I can’t have her.”

She took her arm away from me and placed her hands in her pockets, but at least she continued to walk at my pace. “You’ll be fine. There are lots of women out in the world that would love to be your…”

I stopped her right there. Shadows hid her face.

“Why can’t we work out?” I asked.

“Must I state the obvious?”

“Yes,” I begged. “With me, you’ll have to state the obvious. I’m a man who does what he wants and gets it all without asking. Tell me why I can’t have you.” I got closer to her.

She stepped back. “Your father is one reason.”

“I thought we agreed he was a douchebag.”

“He’s still your father.”

“He killed my mother. Give me the next reason.”

Silence. Perhaps, I’d pushed too hard.

“Adrian, is that really how you feel? You believe he killed your mother?”

“He killed her, in his way. Dad broke her heart and left her alone and poor. I’m not being naïve.”

“Of course not but—”

“She was never mentally stable. He was able to prove it in court with no problem, which is why he got full custody. He threw a mentally unstable woman out onto the streets with not one dime to her name and no ability to see her child. Can you imagine what that would have done to her?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “It would have made anybody go crazy.”

“Exactly. And do you think my mother’s death has somehow changed his ways?”

“No.”

“He’s been just as despicable with you.” I closed the distance between us. “He won with my mom, though. He’s won all of his life.”

“I don’t think he won,” she said. “I doubt his life would even be considered anything more than sad and pathetic.”

“He doesn’t want you. That’s clear. Fine. Good for you, I say. But don’t you give up on me.”

She let me get close to her and didn’t move away. “A-Adrian, I—”

“Did you look forward to our evening together?”

“I might’ve. I definitely saw you as a close friend.”

“An attractive close friend?”

“No,” she said too quickly and backed all the way into the hallway’s wall.

“You’re lying. You want to fuck me as much as I want to fuck you.”

“That’s inappropriate.”

“I see the way your gaze traveled all over my body when you thought I was too focused on reciting poems.”

“We’re not going down this path.”

“Because you’re into me too.”

She blew out a long breath and edged to the side.

I got back in front of her. “And you like me. Our personalities complement each other. You have to see that. Some nights, we stay up for hours. Sometimes dawn rises when we’re done. People who don’t belong together don’t sit up for hours talking. We have a connection, one that gives us a higher probability of compatibility.”

“Wow. You should consider meeting up with your therapist tomorrow.”

“I’m loony, but I know you want me.”

“You’re a good-looking man.”

I planted my hands on the wall and trapped her in, so she wouldn’t be able to inch away again. “I’m more than that. I’m a sexual god.”

“Oh please.”

“It’s the truth. And you want me.” I leaned her way, wondering if she would back up. She didn’t. I moved in a half of an inch closer. “Do you want me?”

“N-no.”

“You do.”

“Look, Adrian, I—”