“What’s next?”
I shrugged.
“I suppose you’ll want an interview with me at some point, so?—”
“No, Adrian, stop being obtuse,” she said. “You want this? Stop speaking in circles and riddles. Start speaking honestly.”
Start speaking honestly? Fucking hell, I prided myself on speaking honestly.
“I will call you when I want you,” I said. “Of that, you can be certain.”
Delilah opened her mouth, but no words came out. I could practically see her brain ticking along, churning through severalpossibilities, before she finally just nodded and got out. She didn’t say goodbye, didn’t say thank you for the morning and afternoon, didn’t say anything other than her final words of “start speaking honestly.”
It felt…
Cold, really. Like that was it?
Well, no, it wasn’t it. It was up to me to regain the upper hand. It was up to me to show Delilah that I really cared about her.
By the time she was in her own car and reversing, I was all smiles.
OK, this was how Delilah wanted to play the game? I could still win on her terms.
And who knew?
Maybe I’d get something even better than I had bargained for.
CHAPTER 18
Delilah
Iheaded to the office purely to get my heart rate down.
It wasn’t working very well.
I was in an absolute whirlwind of confusion, trying to make a damn bit of sense of what had just happened. Relying on the skills of my trade, I focused on grounding myself in the facts.
Fact: Adrian and I were immensely attracted to each other, so much so that without inhibitions, we would have shamelessly and very deliberately crossed the journalist-subject line and fucked like rabbits.
Fact: As fun as that was, I was past the age in my life where I would have enjoyed the thrill of that without reservation. I needed a bit more out of my relationships, even if “a bit more” was genuine interest in going on some dates.
Fact: Adrian…
I could not say anything about Adrian that was a fact. Was he truly uncertain about what he wanted? Was it just yet another compartmentalized decision on his part? Or was it something coldly calculated, a feint to set me up for making love before ultimately blowing up in my face?
I got to the office parking lot and sighed. I put a finger to my lip, biting a fingernail nervously, but all that did was remindme of the way Adrian had kissed me. Of how he had pressed me against the wall. Of how he had slid his fingers across my body, across my clit, almost into…
I shivered as I felt a terrible pit of anxiety within me. I really couldn’t tell if I was anxious because I couldn’t wait to get naked with Adrian, or anxious because I still might be a pawn in his game.
“Fuck!” I uttered in frustration.
I was out of control, and it was a sensation I absolutely despised—a fact, I suppose, for both me and Adrian. I could sit here and claim that I needed to return to the journalist in me, but here was another fact. Until something major happened, until the tension was unwound and resolved, that would never happen. I had a weakness for the King of Diamonds, and I could only speculate if he had a weakness for me.
I got out of my car, grabbed a pair of sunglasses, and began walking to theLas Vegas Timesoffice. I desperately needed the presence of other journalists, of colleagues, of even Eric, my boss, to ground me a bit. Wearing shades into the office was nothing unusual with the desert sun, even in the winter, but right now it felt like I was trying to mask a hangover and doing a poor job. The only difference from others was that this was an emotional, not physical, one.
When I got inside, the smell of hours-ago brewed coffee hit my nostrils, as did the sound of someone typing away. Very briefly, oh so briefly, the sounds brought me into my element.
And then I saw a headline on the wall about King of the King’s Men falling, bringing me back into the world of dark, dangerous men, and my two worlds melded together.
