Page 23 of Thorns of Lust
The thirst for revenge outweighed my thirst for alcohol. I needed to make those bastards pay. For what they did to Adrian. For what they did to me. Not doing anything wasn’t an option. It could destroy me - slowly but surely. It had started already.
The nightmares were getting worse.
As long as my questions remained unanswered, I’d keep losing myself inside the web of assumptions and what ifs. My solution was in seeking answers.
And in revenge.
* * *
New Year. New me. New life.
Okay maybe there weren’t so many new things, but I needed to get some answers. My eyes roamed the penthouse. Things were the same, but then they weren’t. Traces of Adrian were slowly fading with each passing day.
The only room I hadn’t entered yet was Adrian’s mancave. Or his gadget room as I called it. I had been steering clear of it, keeping it locked, but now that I needed answers, it seemed the best place to start.
“There have to be some answers here,” I murmured to myself. My eyes flickered to the end of the hallway. His gadget room was on the opposite side of our bedroom. I had to go check what was in there. The deeper into the penthouse I went, the heavier my steps felt.
I made it all the way to the door of his room. Once there, I stared at the door, uncomfortable entering into his domain. I had stepped foot into it once before when I first moved in and never cared to do it again. He had so much shit in it that you could barely move through the room. But Adrian always knew where to find what he was looking for.
My fingers gripped on the handle, but I couldn’t make myself push it open. I stood frozen, Adrian’s scent that I had come to know so well, was always stronger here.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply. I could almost hear his laughter. His footsteps. Feel his touch. The way he teased me.
“I hear you and your friend took a bath in the fountain,” Adrian mused, his eyes sparkling like emeralds. I glared at him, rolling my eyes. “What happened? Was the bathroom in the dorm broken?”
“Haha,” I grumbled. “Very funny.”
He let out a chuckle. “I thought it was. I’m trying to picture it and keep failing.”
“Well, your imagination must suck.”
He laughed. “Trust me, pipsqueak, I have a good imagination. I just think it’s too dangerous to picture you without clothes in a fountain.”
Embarrassment washed over me and I waved my hand in the air. “We kept our clothes on.”
“Ahh, it makes sense.” We both knew it made zero sense. Bella and I were drunk and took the party a bit too far. “Is this kind of like that time you and your friend broke into the nearest pool house drunk?”
I stuck my tongue at him, childish and bratty but what was I to say? Yes, we fucked up and got caught. Those cocktails were so tasty and gave me so many brilliant ideas.
“If it’s any consolation, pipsqueak, I’m sure every boy in a hundred mile radius probably loved the sight. And now, I’m gonna have to kill them all. Or blind them, depending.”
“Man, you’re so damn sweet,” I retorted dryly. “If you can’t handle competition, maybe you should do something about it. Until then, leave those boys in a hundred mile radius alone.”
His laughter followed me all the way out of the room. He didn’t see a smile on my lips. It was a tug of attraction we kept playing. I’d been attending Georgetown for two years now and somehow every time I came back home, Adrian was here.
He started to see me. Like a woman. Like a friend. No longer a little girl.
Those years of college, I learned to flirt. I experimented. But I saved myself for Adrian. I knew he’d make a move eventually. I felt it in every look he ever gave me. Until one day, anger intertwined with his desire, pricking me like thorns.
With all those good memories, the bad ones came too.
His anger during those last few months. The obsessive, almost paranoid way he kept checking surveillances. The way he’d lose his patience unlike ever before. Whenever I’d question him about what he was looking for, he’d dismiss me.
“Go back to your shopping. The role of a princess brat is more up your alley, Tatiana.”
I slapped him that day. It was the only time I had ever slapped a man. Our gazes burned into each other. His words and that look on his face was etched in my brain.Hate. Anger. Disgust.
Something heavy pressed down on my chest. My hand trembled uncontrollably. Was it alcohol or the things that lurked in the shadows?
