The Assistant (25 page)

Chapter Eighteen

I was plotting subtle ways to kill Adrian in his sleep without looking like I did it. It would be easier now, you know, since I
lived
with him. But I’d be the primary suspect, so I wasn’t going to act on anything just yet.

“Is that the last of them?” Adrian asked once he finished bringing up all my belongings from my old, trusty apartment. I ignored his question and continued folding my clothes and packing them on the shelf of Adrian’s walk-in wardrobe; another thing he insisted I use.

Adrian chuckled at my lack of response towards him, before I felt his familiar solid pair of arms wrap around my waist from behind while resting his chin on my shoulder. “Shortcake. We live together. The least you could do is show a little enthusiasm. And take your clothes off – just so you’re comfortable, of course, I will receive no benefit out of it whatsoever.” I felt his lips lift into a smirk.

I continued to ignore him.

“Come on,” he whined, “I already received the threatening warnings from your family and weird best friend. Cut me some slack; I just saved you from moving back in with your family!” he pointed out.

I stepped out of his hold and glared at him. “You only did that so I don’t move away from
you,
” I snapped, keeping my glare firm to emphasize my point.

He smirked and shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right. Oh well, there’s nothing you can do about it now. I’ve promised your father that I’d take good care of you. That means I need to meet all your needs. So do you need anything from me? Food? Water? Sex?”

My eyes widened in shock at the last suggestion before I launched the sundress I was about to hang up in the closet straight at Adrian’s face. He caught it with ease while chuckling at my reaction, and I began blushing.

“Get out of my room,” I scowled.

“
Our
room,” he corrected with a lopsided grin, catching me off guard. I blinked back at him momentarily before turning away with a frown. “What is it?” Adrian asked, noticing the small notion.

“Nothing,” I mumbled, turning back to my clothes.

“Let’s go watch a movie. You can pack your clothes later,” Adrian said, before I felt my body being lifted off of the ground and thrown over Adrian’s shoulder.

“Adrian!” I squealed, making him chuckle. “You need to stop doing that,” I huffed once he set me down onto the sofa in the living room. “I know how to walk.”

“I know you do. I watch you walk from behind every day.” He smirked, making me roll my eyes and blush. “What movie would you like to watch today, roomie? I’m ordering Chinese.”

I glared up at him and crossed my arms over my chest, ignoring him once again. Adrian needed to know that I was angry at him for forcing me out of my own home and into his – and in front of my
family,
as well. Moving in with him was not a step I wanted to take with him, especially considering the fact that we weren’t even a couple and I had unidentified feelings towards him. Living with him was not helping my current conflicted emotions, at the moment.

“Come on Shortcake, you can’t me mad at me forever.” Adrian pouted, suddenly appearing face to face with me.

I looked straight into his hazel irises and glared. “Yes I can,” I snapped, turning away from him angrily.

I heard a small sigh escape Adrian’s mouth before I felt myself – once again – being lifted out of my position against my will. Adrian sat in my previous position and placed me on his lap, trapping me there by circling his arms around my waist firmly.

“Look at me,” he said earnestly, “I don’t regret making you move in with me. I only regret not telling you before I told your family. To prove myself to you, I’ll do whatever you want for the rest of the day.” Adrian smirked then, and I instantly got the double meaning behind his words.

“Let go of me,” I demanded, still glaring down at him.

“Fine,” he grumbled after a moment of hesitation, retracting his arms from around my waist.

I tried to hide my smug smile as I got off his lap, blushing in the process before going back to our bedroom to continue packing my clothes.

Adrian stayed on my heel the entire time. “Do you want to watch the movie in here, then? That’s okay, I’ll go pick something out the-”

“No, Adrian. What I
want
is for you to leave me alone for the rest of the evening. Don’t talk to me, or be in the same room as me. Let my anger simmer down a little before we talk again. You need to understand that you do not control me and that you can’t throw a little anger tantrum and sleep with 500 women every time something doesn’t go your way. So for the time being, I want you to go away. Go do some work, read a book, take a shower – I don’t care. Just don’t talk or be in my presence.” I gave him a stern look while waiting for him to argue about my request.

Adrian just stared back at me, not saying anything for a while, before nodding. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I repeated in confusion. He wasn’t going to fight me on this?

“Stop trying to flirt with me like Augustus Waters, Shortcake. I said okay.” He smirked, making me blush and roll my eyes at the comment. “But just before I go – I haven’t slept with a woman ever since the week you quit, Emily, because I don’t want anyone else anymore. I’ll leave you alone now.” Adrian closed the bedroom door behind him softly, and I stared at the white object for a long moment, processing his words.

***

It was almost 1AM by the time I was done folding, hanging and packing my entire wardrobe the walk-in Adrian and I now shared. I had not seen nor heard from him since we talked last. I decided to throw on my favourite NYU shirt from college and a pair of yoga pants before heading to the living room.

I found Adrian shirtless, slumped in a chair with a laptop resting on the dining table in front of him and illuminating his features in the dim lighting. My mind went back to his previous words, and my heart fluttered involuntarily. He hadn’t slept with anyone else ever since I quit? My mind refused to believe it. This was Adrian Kingston – surely, I was misinterpreting his words. He didn’t want me; ‘anyone else’ could have been Adrianna or Anna.

I ignored my conscience momentarily and made my way towards him. He looked away from his laptop screen and his tired eyes met mine just as I stopped in front of him and shut the laptop softly.

“Come on,” I murmured as I squeezed his tense shoulders in a massaging manner. “Let’s get to bed.”

A loud yawn escaped from Adrian’s mouth as he got out of his seated position and stretched his limbs; making me blush and avert my gaze from his shirtless body.

“Did you finish packing your things?” he asked once we began walking back to the bedroom.

I nodded mutely, not bothering to formulate a verbal response. I was still angry with him, but I was also feeling a little sympathetic and guilty for kicking him out of his own room.

“That’s good,” Adrian said, stifling another yawn. “You won’t have to do any of it when we come back from work tomorrow then.”

“I’m sorry for kicking you out,” I mumbled as more guilt rushed through my veins.

“You had a right to, you were angry.” Adrian shrugged, before abruptly pulling his pants off. I gasped and covered my eyes in shock while blushing deeply, making him chuckle at my reaction. “You’re still reacting like that after you’ve been in bed with me how many times now?” Adrian smirked just as he pulled my hands away from my field of vision, deepening my blush even further.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, not liking the fact that he knew how to make me squirm. He chuckled again before giving a pointed look. “What?” I asked curiously, frowning.

“It’s your turn.” He smirked, looking down at my yoga pants.

I pushed him away with a scowl. “Just get in bed. We have work tomorrow,” I pointed out, trying to cover up my blush.

“You only want me to get into the bed so you can take them off without me looking,” Adrian said knowingly, and I rolled my eyes in response.

“I’m glad you know me so well. Now, since you’re the one who brought it up, you can turn around now.” I smiled sarcastically and waited for him to do as he was told.

He shook his head. “If I remember correctly,” he began, still smirking, “I said that I’d do whatever you wanted for the rest of the day. It’s now 1:18AM, meaning that I no longer have to listen to you anymore.” His smirk transformed into a proud grin once I gave him a look of disbelief, and I threw the nearest object at him – which turned out to be one of his shirts.

“Turn around.” I scowled, blushing again.

“Okay, okay.” He laughed, putting his hands up in defense before slowly turning so that his back was facing me. I gave his figure a weary look before quickly shrugging off the pants and the bra underneath my shirt. I climbed into my side of the bed and covered up quickly.

Adrian turned back around as soon as he felt the bed dip, and his arms were around my waist faster than I was able to blink.

“I’ve missed this,” he said, sneaking a small peck on my cheek. “For the record, my bed is way more comfortable than yours.”

The mention of my previous bed instantly spiked up the anger within me, and I glared at him. “For the record, I liked my bed – you know; the one you forced me to move away from?”

Adrian let out an exasperated sigh before glaring back at me. “Get over it. I saved you from moving back with your parents. It’s not like that little shitty apartment meant anything to you anymore than-”

“It didn’t mean anything to me?!” I snapped, enraged now. “I had to work three jobs throughout my entire senior year a
nd
college life just to save up for that ‘shitty little apartment’ that you were so adamant on ‘saving’ me from. Then, whatever money I had left over from all my hard work was put into my ‘uncomfortable’ bed and tiny sofa. So excuse me if those things are worthless to you because you had everything handed over to you wrapped in a pretty bow; but they were
my
hard work. They meant a lot to me; and you took me away from that.”

I was shaking, feeling my anger take over again. Suddenly, I didn’t feel guilty anymore. I turned away from his shirtless figure in disgust, shifting all the way to the other end of the bed as a tense silence filled the room.

I felt Adrian shift slightly before a small light illuminated the dark room – I didn’t have to look over to know that it was his phone.

I closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep away my anger and get some rest before work tomorrow, but my phone vibrated on the small nightstand beside me. I picked it up to find a text from Adrian:

Hi :)

I ignored the text and locked my phone before placing it back onto the nightstand loudly to convey my anger.

My phone buzzed again:

I have a strong feeling that you’re ignoring my text.

I ignored it again just as another buzz erupted through the quiet room before I even had a chance to lock my phone again:

I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was that important to you.
I’d offer the apartment back, but… I don’t want you to move out, so that’s not an option. What can I do to prove how sorry I am? Not talking to you today was hard enough. I can tell you another thing that’s pretty hard right now as well…

I let out a surprised choke at the end of the message, making Adrian explode in laughter beside me. I put my phone back down onto the table before turning around to glare at him.

“Say it to my face,” I demanded once his laughter died down.

“Say what to your face? That I have a hard-on for you? Well, you’re really sexy when you’re angry so I couldn’t really control-”

“Not that!” I exclaimed furiously. “Your apology. Apologise to my face, not through text. Then you’ll be forgiven for good.”