Adele
I toss and turn most of the night. When we arrived home, Alex practically jumped out of the car and ran inside. He wanted to get away from me. I don’t know if that was a good thing or bad thing. I was so turned on by the things he said he would do to me if I was his. I wanted to climb over the table and jump on him. I wanted to know what it was like to be his. I used to belong to Garth and I had nothing close to what Alex offered. Garth abused me and made me feel like I was worth nothing. When Alex described what he would do to me, I realized I never had that with Garth. It was always the same thing with him. Five minutes of routine sex and I never felt satisfied. Sex was a necessary chore that I had to do to keep the peace. Garth never cared if I liked it anyway; it was always about him.
Sleep eventually finds me and there is still one person with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes haunting them… Alex DeLuca. I am hot and sweaty when I wake up the next morning. I walk directly to the bathroom to take a shower and head to the kitchen once I am dressed. I wonder if Alex will comment on my jeans and t-shirt, but he’ll just have to deal with it. When I get to the kitchen there are bagels and fruit sitting on the island and Alex is reading the newspaper.
“Good morning,” I say pulling out the bar stool.
“Morning. I went out and grabbed breakfast. I didn’t want to try the cooking thing again,” Alex says, never looking at me; his eyes on the newspaper.
“This is good. Thank you,” I quietly say, feeling embarrassed because he won’t even make eye contact with me.
We eat in silence and Alex puts the newspaper down and looks over at me tilting his head.
“We don’t have to be at the club until later tonight, so I thought we’d hang out.”
I nearly choke on my bagel and look up at him tilting my head, questioningly.
“What exactly did you have in mind?” I ask.
“We're going shopping. I thought we’d start at Nordstrom’s and then we’d go wherever else you wanted.”
“Alex, I don’t need clothes. I am starting to feel insulted that you keep bringing them up. I do wash them.”
Alex leans towards me and grabs my hand.
“Adele, you’re right you don’t need clothes. You can walk around here naked if you wanted to. You deserve nice things and that includes nice clothes. I want to do this for you. Please do this for me. Let me do this.”
I snatch my hand away from him and his eyebrows rise.
“Okay, we’ll go shopping. I’ll buy what I need. “
“Whatever you say, Adele,” he smiles.
Several hours later, we have been to more stores than I wanted to visit. After I bought a couple pairs of jeans and tops that were on clearance, Alex broke his word. He bought me several more items and I was a little uneasy with accepting any of it. Garth started out buying me things and in the end, he bought a piece of my soul. I don’t want to repeat that with Alex. He is being nice now, but I have seen him at his worst when he is being an asshole. The minute I upset, him he’ll change and he’ll lash out. We throw all the bags into the trunk and Alex grabs my hand indicating we’ll grab dinner before we head back home. He throws more money into the meter and leads us to this little Italian restaurant a few blocks away.
When we enter the restaurant, Alex takes us right over to a booth in the corner. I look over at the greeter, wondering if he’ll get pissed that we just seated ourselves? The greeter comes over after seating a couple and pulls Alex into a hug and pats him on the back.
“Nice to see you, Alex! It’s been too long!” he is practically yelling.
“It has been. I want you to meet someone. Adele, this is Ricky. Ricky, this is Adele.” I reach over to shake Ricky’s hand. Ricky is an older man with salt and pepper hair. He looks like he could be at least fifty and he has the friendliest blue eyes I have seen. The only other blue eyes I can compare them to are Garth’s, so I guess I am not the best judge of character.
“Can I get you and your friend a bottle of wine?” Ricky asks and Alex tells him to bring over the best bottle that they have. Once Ricky heads off, I look over at Alex and smile.
“You do realize how much the best bottle can cost don’t you?” I ask.
“It doesn’t matter, Adele. I want you to have the best.” I narrow my eyes at him.
“Uh huh,” I moan as I tilt my head looking at Alex.
“Is there a reason why you didn’t take me shopping at the mall, Alex? Did you not want to run into Alexis while you were with me?”
“Where is that coming from?” he asks.
“Just asking. The mall would have been the logical place to shop, wouldn’t it?” I ask and I notice an accusing tone in my voice.
“Maybe it would have been. You can shop at the mall anytime. I don’t see you splurging at Nordstrom, so that’s where I took you. I am not embarrassed to be seen out with you, Adele. As far as Alexis goes, I don’t like her in my business, but I wouldn’t like her in my business if I was with you or anybody else.”
“She knows I work for you and Frank. I don’t think she would have had issues with us being seen together.”
“I don’t like Alexis knowing the women I fuck around with,” Alex states and Ricky comes back over with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Alex keeps his eyes on me as Ricky pours both of us a glass and I need to cross my legs to stop the ache I am starting to feel between them.
Once we have had several glasses of wine, Alex and I place our order. Alex keeps his eyes on me the entire time. It almost feels like he is considering my soul and I can’t stop my heart from fluttering when he stares into my eyes. I ask Alex about his family and he talks about his mom and her boyfriend who works for the police. I am not convinced that he likes the guy, but he says that the man makes his mom happy. He also starts to talk about his father. He tells me about him being diagnosed with cancer and how it brought the family closer together. He talks very briefly about Frank and Lola, but he has the most joy talking about his niece and nephew. I can tell he loves those kids and it makes me wonder if he wants his own kids.
“Do you want kids of your own?” I ask and Alex runs his hand through his hair.
“I think I would. I’ll deny this if you ever mentioned it, but sometimes I am jealous of Frank. I have to wonder if a nice girl would take me.”
“I’m sure a nice girl would take you in a heartbeat, Alex. She would be lucky to have you. At least on your nice days,” I chuckle and Alex tilts his head and laughs.
I watch Alex as he laughs and he is beautiful. I realize men don’t want to be called beautiful, but I don’t know how to describe it. He was a jerk from day one, but from the minute he realized I was in trouble he became a different person. He has become giving and kind and I honestly feel so protected whenever he’s near. I know Garth can’t touch me if he is around. I shake my head as I look at Alex and he narrows his eyes at me. Our dinner is finally served and we make jokes and Alex starts to ask about my family. There is not much to tell on the family front and Alex looks at me with sadness in his eyes. My parents have never had an interest in me and what relationship we had ended when Garth forbid me from talking to them.
Alex picks up the check and we grab our leftovers as Alex grabs my hand to walk back to the car. I can’t help but feel something as he leads me to the car holding my hand. Alex looks over at me and squeezes my hand as he opens the car door for me. I watch him walk around the front and climb into the driver’s seat.
“Did you have anything in mind for dessert?” I ask and Alex looks over at me and his eyes darken.