Tempting Adeline

17

ADELINE

Something smelled delicious like spice and heat. I wanted to wrap it around me like a blanket. I snuggled closer to the source, enjoying the strong, solid warmth beneath my cheeks. I didn’t want to wake up but I’d promised Bridget, my co-worker, to volunteer at a local pet store with her this morning, before my afternoon shift at the gallery.

I allowed myself one more minute of coziness. Had my bed always been this big and soft before I opened my eyes and yawned? Weird...My room looked different. No photograph prints painting the wall, no vase of sunflowers by my bed and did my bed just move on its own?

My eyes fell on the broad expense of bare skin beneath me, and my stomach dropped. I looked up straight into a pair of familiar green eyes. Eyes that stared back at me with no humour last night.

He flicked his gaze down and I followed too. To my realization and abject horror, I was touching Croix’s c**k. Unintentionally, but he had his sweats on, but still.

I was touching Croix’s c**k.

And it was hard.

Mortification washed over my features. My brain screamed for me to remove my hand but I was frozen to the spot, paralyzed by shock, humiliation and something I would rather not name.

A flash of the memory of his bare body entered my mind. So this is how it feels. I have always had this feeling that it would feel like this.

“Please take your hand off my c**k unless you plan to do something with it.” He said coolly with a playful smirk on his face. The asshole is getting off on seeing me like this. I wanted to slap that smirk off his face but that would mean taking my hand off his family jewels.

I finally yanked my hand away and scrambled back, my heart racing in my chest that it might actually fall out from there. I tried to get my bearings.

“What happened? Why am I here? Did we...?” Memories of last night came flooding in. I was the one who wanted to stay here after my horrible nightmare that I struggle to remember. “I’m sorry. I should leave.”

“Irrespective of my bad reputation Wesley and the town tries to paint me as. I would never take advantage of a traumatized girl. Clearly you have some unresolved issues. I would never sleep with you in that case.”

Those words were meant to comfort me, that he didn’t sleep with me but it does the opposite, it pierces my soul. Of course, he wouldn’t think of me that way. He wants someone normal, someone that wouldn’t thrash in the night when they are cuddling.

I hit my head, to his surprise. He’s my step brother. I shouldn’t be feeling this way.

“You know what you’re right.” I said, masking a cool indifference look. I slipped out of the covers and walked towards the bathroom. Why didn’t his house have bathrooms in their rooms but just one bathroom?

I washed my face, brushed my teeth and took a shower. I entered my room and I was about to put on some clothes and tie my hair with my scrunchie but it wasn’t there where I left it. I searched for it everywhere which only meant I had left it in Croix’s room.

I put on a tank and shorts and walked there. I opened the door, no one was in there and I didn’t see the scrunchie on the bed either. I was about to leave when I caught sight of something.

A sketchbook.

What’s a dude like Croix doing with pencils? What kind of things does he draw? Of course he’s a tattoo artist but what things does he draw? I go to the desk and take the sketchbook in my hands.

I turned the pages of the book admiring the cartoon figure, the houses, and the streets, among other things but at the last page of the sketchbook is a drawing of me...sleeping. My fingers brushed over the drawing, the naked collarbone and the bare thighs. Faint lead coated my fingertips. It was a recent drawing.

The door opened with Croix standing at the threshold holding his towel around his waist. His eyes fell on me and for a moment, he frowned. “I am sorry I hurt your feelings back there. What I actually meant was...”

“You have a picture of me.” I said with feigned surprise. I don’t want to know what he meant. Croix is an honest person and I’m not ready for the truth yet. “Nice drawing.”

He narrowed his eyes then walked up to me taking the sketchbook from my grasp. He drops the book on the nightstand and then takes off his towel unashamedly, like I wasn’t in the room.

I turned my face away, my cheeks heated and red as I struggled to make eye contact. The fact that he had a drawing of me proves a lot that he really has a fixation for painting...me. It gave me the courage I needed.

“I’m going to ask you to help me with my application please and in exchange you can paint me.” I said, my eyes on him. “It’s a mutual benefit for us.”

“So you’ll be my muse for a whole two months without fail, whenever I call and however position I want?”

“Yes but on one condition though” I bit back a cough when he said those words.

“What, little Del? You are not even in any position to give conditions, you know.” He said with a smirk. “Are you backing off?”

“No s*x though. I’m still in a relationship with Wesley.” I said with my chin rose daring him to protest. He’s been lenient with me considering that I can leave this room frustrated and he, without a single care because they were other ladies that would love the positions Croix has to offer.

“Fine, I agree.”