I nod and give him my back. He’s done quickly and catches me from behind, his hands on my body, even in these dire times, a snap of heat I feel in the most intimate of ways.
“Your turn,” he says, and when he releases me, I disappear into the bathroom. He shuts the door, offers me privacy and I hurry through the necessities. When I’m done, I exit the bathroom and he surprises me by pulling me in front of him, tunneling his fingers into my hair, and bringing my lips to his lips. “You have changed me in ways you may never understand.” And then his mouth closes down on mine, and his tongue licks into my mouth in a kiss that is not just a kiss. This is his story, it’s our story, and that story is about hopes and desires, torment and passion. It’s a kiss that devours me, takes from me, and when it’s over, leaves me wanting more. Leaves me with more questions than answers.
For a moment, we just breathe together, and Adrian gently brushes my hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear, his gaze lifting and scanning the restaurant before he says, “We have to go.”
“I know,” I say, wishing it were not true, wishing I could just hold him here, right here, no matter where we are, and ask those questions. But they are not for now. Maybe they will not be for the future. Because maybe that’s all Adrian will ever be for me: a question that was never answered.
Chapter Twenty-Six
PRI
Another hour and a half later, Adrian and I are on the street again, in an area where high-rise buildings prevail and saltwater permeates in the air from the nearby water.
We turn down a side street, walking up a hill, and Adrian leads me into a small alleyway beside a shorter brick building—well, at least compared to the high-rises, and it seems to sit almost on stilts, with open space beneath it. To my surprise, we head down a set of stairs and pause at a door, where he keys in a code.
“What is this place?” I ask.
“Home sweet home, baby,” he replies with a wink. “And if you didn’t notice, we have a museum and bank on either side of us, which makes it easy to piggyback onto their security and cameras.” He holds open the door and I enter to find an elevator waiting on us.
Adrian is quickly behind me, and I watch him secure the door again with another code. And then there’s yet one more code for the elevator. The doors open quickly and Adrian motions me forward. I quickly enter the car and he joins me. “There’s a pizza in our future. Tell me you want pizza.”
“Didn’t we just eat pizza a few hours ago?” I ask.
“That was not pizza,” he says as the doors close. “More like cardboard.”
The elevator starts to move and there is only one floor, and that’s the top floor.
Adrian’s phone buzzes with a text. He removes it from his pocket. “I’ll order you some real pizza,” he says, glancing down at the message.
I want to be nonchalant like him. I want to think about pizza and him and us but instead, I have two things on my mind: that message and the assassins hunting us.
“Everything okay?” I ask apprehensively.
“Just our team confirming they’re securing the building behind us.” The elevator halts. “Let me clear the building before you exit.” He steps toward me and settles a comfortable, possessive hand on my hip. “We’re safe. I designed this place from scratch with a little help from the Walker team. And as for now, tonight, Walker had security set-up before we ever got here and this check I’m about to do is just me being extra careful because you’re here. Okay?”
“Yes,” I assure him quickly, aware of the tenderness in him in this moment, a gentleness that contrasts that darker side of Adrian. The caveat is that I see both parts of him while he only sees the dark side. And both parts of him so easily seduce me beyond the reason I value. And usually, I don’t even care, not with him, but here, in his home, and with so much on the line, I do tonight.
At this point, the elevator doors are open and he punches a hold button. “I’ll be fast,” he says, disappearing into his apartment. His apartment. This is an invitation to see his world, to know him on a different level, but I’m suddenly wondering if that was the problem on the plane tonight. Did the idea of me coming here give him cold feet and regrets about us? Did he push that uncertainty between us about love and our future to remove any chance I’d feel like his home sweet home was mine?