“You’re giving me a headache,” Adrian states.
“I’m having difficulty trusting Mateo,” I state. My heart skips a beat, just saying such ugly words, but it’s the truth. My unwavering faith in the man I love is faltering in this instance. I’m not sure why and I don’t like it, but there it is.
Silence stretches on for a minute. Aladdin is in the background, gushing about Jasmine to the genie. Adrian appears to hate hearing my words as much as I hated saying them.
His silence feeds the seed of guilt I’ve been watering. Mateo’s words creep back to the forefront of my mind, telling me that allowing myself to feel guilt is to give someone else power over me. My sophisticated, logical husband can rationalize physical attraction, even an attraction to the qualities Rafe has that mirror his, but he draws the line at giving another man power over me. That’s Mateo’s arena. He is the sole proprietor—in that more than anything else, there’s no sharing.
“I need Rafe to leave,” I add. “I don’t trust him being here. It feels wrong.”
“Is it him you don’t trust?”
My gaze snaps to Adrian, but he won’t look at me. If he’s trying to make me feel worse, he’s doing a damn good job.
“I only want Mateo,” I tell him, defensively. “My mind knows that. My heart knows that. But Mateo trained my body to respond to certain things, and Rafe reminds me of him sometimes. He reminded me of him in Vegas, that’s why… I was drawn to him. Mateo swears it’s because I have some dangerous protector sensor and I know who to seduce to keep myself alive, but—”
Adrian cuts me off here, casually standing and casting a look at Elise and West. “Why don’t we take this conversation downstairs?”
I didn’t think I said anything little ears would listen to, especially with Aladdin on, but I get up and grab my coat, obediently heading to the door to wait for him. Adrian makes a pit stop at the couch, bending to give Elise a kiss before he follows me to the door.
Once we’re outside, I tell him, “I didn’t think I said anything West couldn’t hear.”
“You didn’t say anything West couldn’t hear, but Elise doesn’t know what went down between you and Rafe in Vegas. Also, as your general bodyguard, I think it’s best not to talk about the seduction skills you practice on men who protect you in front of my territorial wife—unless of course you’re attached to the snow gear.”
“That’s absurd. You would never cheat on Elise,” I state.
“I know that. Let’s just make my life easier and talk downstairs.”
“But there are cameras downstairs,” I mutter.
Since he already knows that, he hauls me to the bathroom.
I sigh as he closes the door behind us, folding my arms over my chest a bit crossly. “So, locking yourself in a bathroom with me is a better alternative than talking at your table to keep your crazy wife happy?”
Adrian shrugs, leaning the bulk of his muscular body back against the closed door. “If they were sane, we’d get bored. Anyway, go ahead.”
“I don’t remember what I was saying.”
“You only want Mateo, but you can’t stop siren-calling Rafe and you want him to leave.”
I quirk an eyebrow at him. “That is not what I was saying.”
“It’s the gist. I saved us a little bit of beating around the bush.”
“I’m not doing anything,” I tell him, a bit defensively. “I’m not trying to attract Rafe, but he’s still flirting with me. He’s not a harmless person to flirt with. If I know that, Mateo should, so why is he pushing Rafe on me? What’s he trying to prove?”
“I agree with you,” Adrian states.
I nod, waiting for him to go on, to explain why I’m wrong, why Mateo is right—to answer my questions and help me make sense of things.
He shrugs, seeing that I’m waiting. “I have no words of wisdom, I agree with you. I don’t know why he’s pushing Rafe on you. I think it’s fucking crazy. The asshole knows he married a siren, he understands your draw better than any of us—why is he trying to lure Rafe into your trap? I don’t know either.”
“You said you weren’t in the dark,” I object.
“I’m not. I know why Rafe’s here, but it doesn’t have anything to do with this—not to my knowledge, at least. I have no idea why he’s doing this. I’ve told him to stop. He doesn’t listen to me unless he wants to.”
“So, do you think he is trying to trap one of us?”
“Not you,” Adrian states, shaking his head. “I don’t know if he’s testing Rafe or not, but I know he’s not worried about you. We all know you’re loyal to Mateo, Mia.”
Even though Mateo more or less said the same thing, I feel better hearing it from Adrian. My beloved husband is a liar, but Adrian isn’t.