Page 21 of Venomous Vows

ELENA

I got ready this morning,conscious that I had to take this seriously and with a grain of salt. I couldn’t sleep last night, conjuring up ideas and terms to Adrian’s agreement that would suit me a little better than the blunt results he expected.

Meeting him at the small Italian restaurant that he gave me the address to, I was surprised by its quaintness and the small-business appeal. Despite its size, it’s beautiful inside. All wooden floors, tables, and chairs. Strings of white lights hang from the ceiling in zig-zag patterns, almost giving it a stars-in-the-sky look to them.

The establishment is empty, except for the linebackers in suits who I can only assume are Adrian’s personal bodyguards.

Just like the ones Zane had the day of our coffee date.

Without much else happening inside, it makes my approach to Adrian’s table that much more strained and nerve-wracking since I’m the only distraction. His heavy attention fell on me before I found him and I try to proceed toward him without much of a care in the world, when I have many.

But the end goal has been and always will be the same: my sister.

Adrian rises to his feet as I get closer and rounds the table. He’s dressed in an impeccable black suit, giving him this menacing appeal about him. If I didn’t know him, I’d be slightly intrigued.

But I do, and he’s a straight-up asshole.

Pulling out my chair a bit, Adrian invites me to sit. I don’t utter a smart-ass remark that he can lose the chivalry because in all business meetings, there is a level of professionalism.

No matter how you feel internally about the other person.

I mutter out athanksfor manners’ sake and wait for him to take his seat back. But before we can get down to the nitty-gritty—and the arguing part of the conversation, I’m sure—a waiter comes to our table.

“Hello, miss, welcome to Terra and Mare,” he greets me with a friendly smile. “May I offer you something to drink?”

“Water, please,” I reply before Adrian tacks on, “And an apple martini. I’ll take a refill, Antonio, thank you.”

I don’t bother scolding him for ordering for me because it’s whatever at this point. All I want to do is get this over with as quickly as possible so he can start finding my Marcella.

“You look beautiful in white,” Adrian compliments and I hate that I’m stunned by it. That I wouldn’t even be able to take it to heart if I wanted to.

I ignore the softness of his green eyes and the fact that he looks like a damn god in a suit when he’s Satan in disguise.

I’m almost certain of it.

“Thank you for meeting me,” I acknowledge to keep with the theme of the lunch. “I did have a few things that I wanted to discuss about our life together for the five years.”

Adrian gives me a nod but doesn’t give me anything more.

“I’m not going to lie and act as though having children isn’t a big deal because it is. I’d never leave them, Adrian.”

“And I’d never force you to.” His heavy gaze is so substantially draining that I’m having a hard time not fidgeting in my chair. Adrian either knows what he’s doing or doesn’t know the capacity of how much his sole focus is physically laboring to get through.

“Did you ever want children?”

He gives me a dismissive and weak shrug. “I knew they were expected.”

“But you never wanted them.”

Adrian immediately picks up where I’m going with this and leans forward, resting his elbows on the wooden table between us, and still lays down his duties for me. “If you’re concerned that I won’t be a good father to our children, I can assure you that I’ll do my absolute best. Where I’m lacking is when I would expect you to tell me and I’ll take note of anything you said.”

Bullshit.

“You’ve never listened to anything I’ve said,” I chide lightly. “There’s never been a point in my life where you and I have ever been able to communicate civilly.”

“That’s because you’ve always permitted your pride to take a front seat. I didn’t do half the things I did out of spite for you. I did them to protect you from the dangers you were blind to.”

My brows pinch together a bit. “Like what?”

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