Tempting Adeline

19

ADELINE

“What? Last I checked, it rose fine to me.” His voice spoke behind me.

I turned to see him standing there with hands in his pockets, smirking. I wonder how mortified I look right now.

“What...what are you doing here!?”

“I volunteered. Isn’t that what you’re here for too?”

“Since when? You don’t volunteer at all. It’s not your style.” I crossed my arms. “Leave now.”

“I’ll leave but I wonder what sweet Jules might think if you chase away a volunteer who just wants to help out around. She’ll be pretty pissed and I hear kind people can be wicked...really fast.” His face hovered so close to mine that I could smell the candy off his breath.

“Please don’t.” I murmured and pulled away when I remembered that we are not alone. “You win.” I better act as unaffected as a log because if Bridget should have second doubts about us, I’m screwed.

If Wesley finds out, my cellist opportunity is cancelled.

“You must be Adele’s step brother. I am Bridget.” Bridget hurried beside me stretching her hand for a shake. “I’ve heard so much about you. Let me show you around.”

He regarded her for a second, and then looked back at me with a sinister smile. “Sure, why not? At least someone is kind enough to show me around.”

I watched them walk ahead of me and I growled. He looked behind me and winked then continued their conversation like nothing happened. I took deep breaths. He shouldn’t be affecting me like this.

I took my bag and walked out of the shelter. I was already late for work. I was about to reach the entrance when a honk stopped me. He is here again!

“I thought you were playing clueless with Bridget.” I seethe as I entered his car.

“Her name was Bridget? I thought it was Brittany.”

I sighed. “Just drive.”

He dropped me off in front of the gallery. I walked inside, or more like hurried inside at the voice of my boss. I huffed, I didn’t even get to walk normally to the entrance.

When I turned, he was gone.

He was supposed to be here on time. I glanced at my watch and sighed. I have already ordered the camera but George hasn’t come yet and Croix will be on his way here soon.

Apparently, I don’t have a camera so I borrowed it from my trusted guy, George. And now he’s late. This situation just keeps reminding me how hard I need to work to own my apartment and get myself a camera. I should sell my Cello but I can’t. I just can’t bring myself to sell it off for some unknown reason.

I sat outside the gallery, clutching her hair in frustration. It’s September so the weather is chilly. And I wasn’t wearing a coat. I wanted to meet up with the session even though I had a bartending job I applied for recently and Cello practice that I forgot my coat.

“What are you doing?”

I looked up. Croix was standing there with a cigarette in his hand and a frown on his face. I gawked at his form. The bad boy looks elegant and that is a complete turn on for me. He strides towards me in his sleek powerful figure in his all black outfit- black coat, black pants, black shoes and black leather gloves.

I clutched the hem of my blouse tightly. I am desperate to capture this mystery and put it on the page. I stood to my feet and dusted my ass facing him. “I’m really sorry but the camera I asked for hasn’t arrived yet. If it’s fine...”

“Here.” He took off his coat and put it around my shoulders. The coat covered my entire body frame and he buttoned them up for me before lighting the cigarette he was holding.

I wanted to say something but a car parked right in front of us and George came running towards us with the camera. He glanced at Croix and his face paled. He kept glancing at Croix who paid him no attention till he went to me.

“Is this your boyfriend?” He asked, his finger pointing at Croix.

“Nope...my step brother apparently. We are doing a photo shoot.” I took the camera from him.

“Okay but when are you coming for our photoshoot?” He asked, running his hand through his hair. I shrugged. I wasn’t sure yet. I was also a model in a playboy magazine...nothing serious there but I made sure my face wasn’t seen.

“I’ll give you a call later and we’ll fix a date.”

He gave a nod and with that he left. I turned to Croix, ushering him to go inside. I felt giddy. I would have Croix for two straight hours and I wouldn’t want to waste a single second. I choked on my next inhale. He was breathtaking even with his lazy strides.

Warmth pools deep in my belly. And I was more nervous than I should be, but maybe that had something to do with the insane dream that I had of us last night, one that featured me and Croix in positions that could make a porn star jaw drop.

Even now, I flushed at the memory.

Those green eyes flared as if he knew

what he was doing to me. The way he moved wasn’t so s****l but the way his strong, deft fingers slid each button from his shirt cuffs pulling the sleeve to his elbow revealing dark ink made my n*****s tight beneath my blouse.

“Where do you want me?” Gravel wraps his voice. His tone is more sinful, darker even.

Where do I want him? Over me, beneath me and inside me. I almost said that out loud but I pinched myself at the last moment.

I licked my suddenly dry lips. Croix’s gaze dropped to my mouth and my entire body pulsed. No, I wasn’t at school. I was a professional and this was professional. I chanted my already known mantra He is just your brother.

It’s just a portrait session with a subject, except that I didn’t want to throw them on the floor and ride them till kingdom comes.

“Uh, here is fine.” I croaked, gesturing at the stool I already set up on the plain white background. I’d kept today’s set simple.

He folded himself gracefully on the stool while I checked the settings and snapped a few photos. Even unposed, his photos jumped off the screen, his gorgeous features and piercing eyes tailor-made for the camera.

I spent the next hour coaxing him out of his shell, moving him into various poses, and encouraging him to relax. The pictures so far were beautiful but lacked emotion and without emotion, a beautiful picture is just a photo.

I attempted to open him up with chitchat

about the weather, about the animal shelter to Josiah’s new job, but he remained neutral, aloof and guarded.

I tried a different tactic. “Tell me about your happiest memory.”

His lips thinned. “I thought we were just taking pictures, not having a therapy session.”

“If it were a therapy session, I would charge you five hundred dollars an hour.” I quipped. “You have luggage to unpack in your life.”

“You have an inflated sense of self worth as a therapist.”

“If you can’t afford me, just say so.” I snapped more pictures. Finally, a sign of life.

The click and whir of the shutter filled the air.

“Little Del, I could get you with a snap of my fingers, and I wouldn’t even have to spend a single penny.”

I lowered my camera and glared at him.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

A tiny smirk tugged at the corner of Croix’s mouth. “It means you want me. You wear your emotions all over your face.”

My thighs clenched, and my skin burned until I thought I would fall on the floor like a pile of ashes on the ground. “Now who’s the one with an inflated sense of self-worth?” I managed, my heart racing. He has never said anything like this to me excluding the first day we met.

He was right, but still.

Croix leaned forward and clasped his hands loosely together. “Tell me it’s not true.”

I licked my lips again, my throat dry and his gaze zeroed in on my mouth. That single movement boasted my confidence instantly, compelling me to say something that I normally wouldn’t say. “It’s true.” I almost smiled at the flare of surprise in his eyes. He didn’t expect honesty. “But you want me too.”

His thick, dark brows rose. “Yeah I do want you.”

He stood to his feet, striding towards me. I stiffened when he trailed his fingers down my neck and over my shoulder. His lips curve into a smirk. “Nervous? I thought this was what you wanted.” He taunted. His hand dipped lower, closer to the curve of my breast. The green in his eyes dilates and becomes darker that heats me from head to toe.

My head spun. My n*****s tightened into firm beads, and pulse throbbed through every inch of my body. Somehow, it was worse that he wasn’t touching me where it ached the most; the anticipation heightened my senses, and my skin tingled with phantom caress.

“That wasn’t what I said.” I wheezed. I wasn’t thinking straight. I should push him off me or clear my throat but I wanted to see where this leads.

Croix grazed his thumb over my breast, and I moaned. I moaned, and from a touch that lasted two seconds.

I wanted to die.

His pupils dilated until the green irises were like eclipses ringed with jade. He dropped his hand, and cool air rushed in to replace the warmth of his touch.“Finish the photoshoot, Adeline.”

“What?” I was too shocked by the yet again sudden change in the atmosphere to process his words.

“The photos. Finish it,” He gritted out.

“Unless you want to start something you’re not ready to finish.”

The photoshoot.Right.

I backed away on unsteady legs and tried to refocus on the task at hand. He sat straight backed, his face hard, while I circled him and captured every angle I could think of. The low hum of the heated was the only sound breaking the silence.

“How did you and Wesley meet?” He suddenly asked.

“Well back at high school, he was the school football captain and his uncle is a cellist so we met after practice and hit it off from there.”

Croix didn’t say a word then. He just hummed.

“Okay. We’re done.” I said after twenty minutes of deafening silence. “Thanks...”

Croix stood up and walked out without saying a word.

“For doing this,” I finished, my words echoing in the empty room. I exhaled a long-held breath. He was the most bipolar person I’ve ever met. One minute he’s calm and gentle and understanding, the next he’s an asshole and distant.

I scrolled through the photos seeing how they turned out. Whoa! Croix’s emotion leaped off after our...interaction, and yes, most of it was irritation, but irritation on him looked better contentment on anyone else.

The way the shadow hit the sharp lines of his brows, the glare of his eyes, the set of his jaw...these were possibly the best photos I’d ever taken.

I paused at one of the last shots, and my heart stuttered to a stop. I’d be so busy snapping away I hadn’t paid attention in the moment, but now I saw it clear as day.

Stark desire was written across Croix’s face as he stared at me, his eyes burning through the camera and straight into my soul.

It was the only photo where he wore that expression, so it must have been a momentary slip on his part.

A stripping of his mask even if it was just for a few seconds.

I turned off the camera with shaky hands and I couldn’t comprehend that then and there, my mind has been altered.