Second Lies (The Second Life Series) (14 page)

I don’t think there’s anything scarier than holding on to your whole world and wondering if you are going to lose it…but that’s exactly what I was doing.  Adriana was standing right in front of me, my hands on the warmth of her cheeks.  God, she was so beautiful, so perfect, and for the first time in months, I had to admit to myself that she was no longer mine.  Was there anything more pathetic than a grown man utterly fucking desperate for a girl who had clearly moved on?

“Please, talk to me,” I begged, hearing the trembling in my voice.  She had been quiet for entirely too long. “Tell me what you want.” I demanded.

“I need time,” she looked down and away from me.  Once holding life and fortune every time we were together, her blue eyes were now ghostly and barren. “I need time to think,”
she looked back up, “but I don’t think I can let you leave me tonight.”

I kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, her cheeks.  God, it was such a relief just having her back with me, and if she needed time, I could give her that.  Like a complete idiot, I pushed my luck too far.  I showed up at her apartment, hoping to reconcile with one another.  I thought we could be friends first before I eased back into the way things used to be, but I’ve never been a patient man.  From the moment she opened the door, I knew I wasn’t going to leave until I had my say and tried fighting for her to be mine again.  I just hadn’t exactly planned on telling her that I loved her, but it was a truth I couldn’t deny.

Her stomach growled below us, and we both laughed simultaneously, breaking the tension. “I think you might be hungry.  Do you want to go get something to eat?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.  Let me just get changed
first.”

At first, I didn’t know where I was headed.  It was cold out, and for some reason, I kept passing by perfectly good restaurants.  Maybe, I was trying to prolong the amount of time I had her hand in mine, and then, all of a sudden, it made sense.  I pushed open the door to the Melting Pot, the restaurant where we had our first, miserable date together.

“Hello and welcome to the Melting Pot.  Do you have a reservation?”

“No we don’t.  How long’s the wait?” It didn’t matter.  Part of me hoped it was an hour, so I could keep her with me even longer.

The woman scratched something on the book in front of her and grabbed two menus.  She stepped down
from the podium, “Follow me.  There was a cancellation, so we have something available now.”

“So this is where you were dragging me to,” Adriana beamed.  I remained standing until she took off her coat and sat down on the booth. “I almost started to suspect that you were going to kidnap me.”

“Only if that’s what it has to come to,” I laughed because I wasn’t entirely sure that I was joking.

Adriana
was wearing this red sweater that clung perfectly to her tits.  I was salivating in my seat, stealing glimpses at her.  I’m almost positive she wasn’t wearing a bra, and the chilled temperature in the restaurant confirmed that for me.  God, and those perfect legs.  She had stayed in that same skirt from when I first came over.  Her ass was phenomenal.  It got me hard just thinking about it.

“What have you been up to lately?” I asked to distract myself.  Somehow during the past three months she had gotten herself looking even better than when she was with me.  She was tone and confident.  Hell, she should be confident looking the way she did. “What have you been doing to erase me from your memory?”

“There’s no way to erase the memories of
the
Wesley Holden,” my heart warmed, “but that could possibly be because I’m having difficulty erasing the pain of betrayal.”  Instantly, I knew what it felt like to be cut with a rusty, jagged blade.

“Hey guys, have you been here before?” Our waitress appeared at our table, but I didn’t even look up at her.  I nodded my head. “Awesome, what can I get you to drink while you look over the menus?”

My eyes were kept locked on Adriana.  Something was different about her.  I couldn’t place my fingers on it.  As I replayed the night’s conversation, trying to figure it out, I noticed the table was quiet as both, she and the waitress, were waiting for me to answer.  I shook my head loose, “I’ll have whatever she’s having.”

Adriana cocked her head and frowned.  The waitress said,
“Okay, I’ll be right back with your drinks.  Let me know if you have any questions with the menu.”

“What are you thinking?” I asked.  She slid a delicate hand through her brown hair. 
Shit, I remember that hand on my cock…and that mouth.  I shifted in my seat at the sudden tightness in my pants. “What do you think about me showing up at your place?”

“I don’t know what I think,” she fidgeted nervously in her seat, looking left to right like someone was going to catch her here.  Did I do that to her or did she really have someone to worry about
catching her?  There was that asshole at the bar.  Maybe he did end up fucking her that night.  I pushed the thought out of my head.  That wasn’t any business of mine, and I wouldn’t want to know anyway.  “Only you know how to leave me feeling conflicted right when I’ve finally felt like I moved on.”

“Moved on?” She nodded.  I gulped and bravely inquired. “Does that mean you’re seeing someone else?”

There was a long pause.  She looked away and then finally back at me. “Not exactly.” She shrugged. “Not monogamously.”

She
was
seeing someone.  My mouth went completely dry at the thought.  I couldn’t stand the idea of anyone touching or looking at her the way I used to. “Please, let me know if I’m overstepping my boundaries, but what’s holding you back from making this relationship monogamous?”

“It’s complicated,” she answered.

I shook my head with a chuckle.  That answer was used so much throughout time that it surely had to be a cliché by now. “Which end?  Is it complicated because of you or him?  Who is this guy anyway?  Is he treating you right?  Tell me it’s not that juiced up cocksucker from the bar.”

“I wonder how a man can
boldly ask so many questions when I don’t owe him a single answer,” she sneered.  The waitress returned with our drinks.  It was some fruity, pink martini with a slice of watermelon hanging off the side.  What the hell did this girl order?

“Are you guys ready to
pick your fondue?” The waitress asked.

“We’ll just be having drinks tonight,” Adriana answered
snidely before I could open my mouth. “I have a feeling we won’t be staying long.”

Feeling the tension, the waitress suddenly left.  As much as I hated to admit it, Adriana was right.  I promised myself that if she’d see me tonight I wouldn’t screw this up.  She was furious when she heard Darth’s voicemail…and rightfully so.  It wouldn’t take much to bring
those old feelings up, so I had to stop being so damn possessive with her, not when she had all the power to just walk away.

“I miss you,” I reminded her as she sipped on her drink.  She stared up at me through those almost translucent, blue eyes, visibly shaken by my words.  She could play strong all she wanted.  This girl was still mine, and she knew it.  She knew it straight down to her core. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back.  I’ll never give up.”

A peculiar look took her eyes, like a distant thought came into her head. “Can you live without me?” She asked.

“What?”

“It’s a simple, fucking question.  Yes or no, can you live without me?”  She slapped the glass down on the table, making it slosh and spill around her hand.

Patiently, she waited for my answer. “I wouldn’t call what I’m doing living.” I said finally. “I go to work, come home, eat, sleep, and then do the whole damn thing all over again in the morning.  It’s not much of a life.”

Mysterious hope sprung into her eyes. “Do you mean, like the basics, like you’re just
surviving
without me?”

“Yes, that’s a good way to explain it.”

She looked relieved.  I don’t know what I said exactly to cause that look, but I’d replay the whole conversation if it kept her that way.  She pressed on. “What do you want from me?  I can’t give you a relationship right now.  That’s just not going to happen.”

Although blunt, we were making progress.
This was the start to some negotiations of which I’d happily bend and concede to whatever terms she laid out before me.  Honestly, I was just pretty excited she hadn’t stormed out of the restaurant and left me with two pink martinis and one lonely night.

“Tonight,” I answered. “All I want from you is tonight, no commitments, no promises, no strings attached.  We’ll take it one step at a time.  Just let me have tonight with you.”

She thought for a while, took a sip from her drink, and then nodded her head briefly.  Through those sexy, pouty lips of hers, she agreed, “Yes, we can have tonight with no strings attached.  You can come back to my place.  We can talk.  We can watch TV.  I don’t really care what we do, but…” There was a long pause. “We’re not having sex, and you’re certainly not spending the night in my apartment.”

“Now, those are terms I can certainly agree to.”

We didn’t stay long at the Melting Pot.  Now that I guaranteed myself some time alone, I was quick to get her back to the apartment.  I wanted to go back to the simple things, the underappreciated ones.  As soon as I got inside, I went into my pocket and pulled out a DVD and flashed it in her face.

“What’s that?” She laughed, appearing much livelier and happier. “Do you always carry DVDs with you?”

“Only for special occasions,” I put the disc in the DVD player and grabbed the remote.  Her favorite Adam Sandler movie started, and she looked overcome with joy. “I was preparing and hoping for the best, so I grabbed this from the store on my way here.”

“It’s my favorite movie,” she took a step closer, and I had to fight with myself
against pulling her into a kiss.  She gave my hand a squeeze. “Thank you.”

We sat on the couch together and played the movie.  Adriana held a pillow to her chest and laughed for the hundredth time while Adam Sandler fought to win the love of Drew Barrymore.
  The irony wasn’t lost to me.  As his tactics became more and more creative and Adriana started snorting from laughter, I wondered if I should maybe be taking notes during this thing.  I swore every time she watched this movie she fell harder in love with Adam Sandler.  Perhaps, if we lived anywhere near Hollywood, I’d be a little nervous because clearly she had a thing for funny, older guys.

I couldn’t help but watch her as she quoted every line and laughed at all the right places.  She peeked at me through the side and hurled her pillow in my direction.  I blocked it, and it went soaring behind the couch. “What are you staring at?” She laughed. “Are you waiting for me to snort again?”

No words could describe how unbelievably beautiful she looked.  God, this woman could do things to me.  She made me lose all control, so without thinking I moved in close and kissed her.  I pressed my tongue into her mouth and breathed in her smell, a mixture of flowers and vanilla.  It was hungry and hard and passionate, taking everything with greed.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I pulled myself off of her.  She remained in front of me, wide eyed and gasping for air. “That was stupid of me.  I promise
d I wouldn’t try-”

She kissed me hard and climbed on top of me, raking her hands through my hair like she used to.  Carefully, I maneuvered us, so I was on my back and she was on top of me.  I had to let her control the pace of this.  I wanted this.  Fuck, I wanted this bad, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to push her too far. 
At least like this, the ball was completely in her court.

Her tongue plunged into my mouth.  Her hands groped through my hair.  Tentatively, I ran my hands to the revealed flesh beneath her skirt.  She didn’t protest, so I explored further, grasping two handfuls of that perfect ass.  Fuck, my dick was hard.

Without another thought, I took the control back.  I stood up, still with my hands tucked under her skirt, and carried her to the bedroom.  I dropped her onto the mattress and briskly removed my clothes while she watched my every movement.  I couldn’t help but feel a bit smug when I removed my boxers and caught her staring at my hard on.

“Let’s get this shirt off,” I purred into her ear.  I removed the sweater, so she was topless in front of me with her nipples peeking.  Deliberately, I sucked on the point, making her groan into my ear.  Yes, I still knew what she liked. “You did this on purpose, Adriana.  You were trying to drive me crazy, running around all night without a bra.  Do you have any idea what that makes me want to do with you?”

I pushed her down on her back and started undoing the button on her denim skirt.  She laughed, “I was trying to torture you, but you know you always win when it comes to sex.  I can’t deny you.”

For a split second, I froze in place.  Did she really just say she couldn’t deny me of sex?  Fuck that was so hot.  I yanked down the skirt and marveled at the naked beauty lying before me.  She
was still waxed, just the way I liked her, soft and smooth beneath me.

Before either of us could change
our minds, I laid on top of her and kissed her as I dug myself inside her tight pussy.  Adriana’s back bowed as she fought to let me in all the way inside of her.  She clawed at my back and moaned my name in a way that had me begging to come already.