Chapter no 25 – Grayson

Heart of Desire

Whatever happened between Adrianna and I this morning, it shouldn’t have happened.

Not that I didn’t enjoy it or crave it, it simply was a dumb

decision. I clearly wasn’t thinking straight.

It wasn’t fair to use her when my head was all over the place. I didn’t come when she orgasmed. And I think it was for the best that I didn’t. Whatever was happening was pretty complicated in many different ways.

I wasn’t the type of guy she would want to be with. I wasn’t the type to buy her flowers just because.

I wouldn’t be the one to go to if she needed chocolates.

I was clearly someone she can just mess around with. She obviously saw it too which is why it happened, but I was still so lost on what was happening,

This situation is different. She’s different. She’s Adrianna Cassian, damn it. She’s the girl that burned my favorite hockey stick.

She’s the girl who put a virus on my laptop in 5th grade and told people I had pink eye when I had just gotten a hockey puck to the eye.

For God’s sake, I fucking cut a huge chunk of her hair in 8th grade and blamed the kid that ate glue.

She stood across on the other side of the island in her kitchen grabbing the sacred ingredients for the damn cookies that Margo is forcing us to make.

Liam takes a billion pictures of every interaction that Adrianna and I have to post on social media.

I thought it was absurd that people genuinely check their phones just to find out about my love life or my friends. On the bright side, August gets to see how much fun I have without her in my life.

“Get the fuck away from the eggs, Brookshire.”

Liam pulled his hands away from the carton while staring at Adrianna in a way that was way too bold.

I was surprised that he didn’t get his dick cut.

“You know you might want to be nicer to me, Cassian.” Liam whispered as her face turned red.

I would ask her about it later, but it couldn’t have been something major as her face contained control.

Juliette read off the recipe for the type of cookies that Adrianna was preparing. Adrianna’s hair was up in a messy bun. She also had an apron on, flour on her fingers, and her long eyelashes directed towards me.

I had realized that it had been a while since I had antagonized her. Just because we had a changing relationship doesn’t mean I should stop.

I picked up my phone and walked over to her. She was a bit irritated that I was in her baking station, “What are you doing?” She questions as I smile, placing my finger in the flour not used, plopping my fingertip onto the tip of her perfect nose.

She looked shocked before she picked up some frosting, slathering it on my cheek. She laughed like an angel.

I take my phone, snapping a picture of her irritated face, full of amusement on mine as she gives me a look I hadn’t figured out.

Liam sat on the floor with Chris. Liam winks at me as I scowl at them, “You need help?” I question Adrianna.

“Not from you.” She snaps back.

I look at her ingredients, “You love my help in a lot of things.” I lean to her ear whispering as her body tenses, goosebumps gather everywhere.

“Yes, well that was a one-time thing.” She pulls away, gathering the pan and placing it in the oven.

“One time?”

“Yes. This should just be strictly business.” She makes a point as I scan her body with a smirk, “I’m serious, Prince.”

“And I am too. I’ve been craving to kiss you again.”

Her cheeks reddened, and heat traveled to my dick. I truly couldn’t control myself around her, could I?

“What did Liam mean when he told you to be nicer to him?” I plop chocolate chips into my mouth as she rolled out the cookie dough.

“He caught me on my escape out of your house this morning.” She shakes her head.

“And? He catches girls walking out of my house all the damn time.” Adrianna’s mouth thinned at my comment, I realized that I shouldn’t have said it. She turned to look at the fridge, pulling out an egg, before smashing it on my head.

Everyone’s eyes on us as she takes off her apron and walks outside. I look at Margo who gave me a nasty look, her other friends staring unsure of what really happened.

I quickly wash off the yolk from my hair, running off to her direction outside on her back porch. I slowly closed the door behind me, “Thanks for that. Eggs are great for hair.”

She turns around to look at me, then turns back around to look out to the abyss.

“Silent treatment.” I nod, walking closer, “I didn’t mean for that to spill out. I just… I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Nothing important.” She looks over, “I shouldn’t even care that you think of me as another conquest.”

I didn’t know what to say to her, something that wouldn’t hurt her. “You were my first orgasm without using my hand.” She lets out as I swallow.

Sex talk never frightened me, I mean we were all over eighteen years old, “Dove.”

“Stop calling me that!” She exclaims. “It fits.”

“Why?”

I pulled her close to me, bringing her body to sit on the ledge.

I stood in the middle of her thighs, “Because it symbolizes innocence, and you haven’t been touched by anything dark.” I gripped her waist; her skin practically had my fingerprints imprinted on her.

“You’re wrong.” She remarks, “You’ve touched me.”

I smirk at her, “You don’t know what being touch by me even fucking feels like.” I tilt my head.

She grins warmly, “Oh right, but the other girls that sneak out of your house do!”

I saw that coming.

“Are you jealous?” I ask with a hidden smirk.

“No.” She pulls away from me, “Are you sure you didn’t get jealous when I went to Brooks game?”

I quiet down as she looked pleased, “Hiring a guard?” She twirls around, her fingertip running to my shoulder, “Don’t think I don’t read news articles, Mr. Prince.” Her finger stays on my shoulder’s bruise.

“What? From hockey?” I defend.

She smirks, “So you didn’t break a guy’s legs and give him a concussion?”

“He was asking for it.” “I highly doubt that.”

“If he didn’t want broken bones, then your name should have never escaped his fucking lips.”

Adrianna looks at me with a thoughtful look, “I could only imagine if it was about August,” She laughs, “You obviously only did that because you had to keep up the fake boyfriend act.”

I nodded, as she breathed out, “I would’ve sent him to an early grave.”

Adrianna’s mouth thinned once more, but I refused to think much about it. “Clearly your intentions are just strictly for August. She’s lucky.”

I stayed quiet, I had no idea how to answer, “Even if this fake relationship goes on, we still are very much incompatible, and you are just a frenemy.”

She ran up to me, crashing her lips onto mine. I couldn’t help but moan into her mouth. She was fucking addicting.

Her fucking smell all over me, her hair in between my fingers, such a perfect length for me to wrap around my hand to pull while I fuck her senseless.

Just my frenemy, my fucking ass.

Her body always seemed to soften when she touched me, and mine hardened. She was a fucking catalyst to my body, and I didn’t know how to react. She gripped my shirt, “Fuck you.”

“You’re pathetic.” I couldn’t help but smile against her lips, my hands roaming to her ass, “What do you want from me, Cassian?”

“I hate you.” Her hands clash with my hair, pulling and wanting. I pull away looking at her, “What do you want from me?”

Her throat looked like it was clogged. So, I fixed the issue as I pulled her in, her soft lips envelope on mine, scared to let go because if she did,

she might disappear.

“Do you still hate me?”

She gently laughs against my lips, her hands shaking as I look at her, “This.” She kisses me, “This makes me feel alive.”

“I think the cookies in the oven might burn.”

I interrupt as she pulls away, “Grayson.” She mutters as I look at her a bit concerned, “Do you not like kissing me?”

The burning question. Of course, I liked kissing her. Fuck that, I love to kiss her. I could kiss her all day if I could.

But I couldn’t tell her that.

“I just think we should take a step back,” I suggested, watching as her hands pulled away from me like she’d touched a hot stove.

She stayed silent. “I think you’re making a huge mistake by not letting me be the one to explore your sexuality with,” I said, trying to defend my decision, but her eyes were locked on mine, and I wasn’t sure what else to say.

“So, you’re telling me I should just go find someone at a bar and ask them to take my virginity?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Sure sounds like it.”

“I just don’t want to betray August any more than I already have.”

Her expression crumbled, like my words had shattered something deep inside her. I wished I could take it all back in an instant.

“Right.” She pulled her jacket tighter around herself as if suddenly cold.

“Then we should keep things strictly professional,” Adrianna coughed out, clearly nervous about what came next.

I felt something for her, but I didn’t know what it was, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. Even if I did feel something, it couldn’t compare to what I felt for August.

That was the whole reason I started dating Adrianna. Sure, there were other reasons—like dealing with my father—but this was a line that couldn’t be crossed.

“The cookies are probably burning,” she cautioned, and I nodded. It was obvious she wasn’t comfortable being around me anymore.

I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to talk to me either if I’d just told someone I wasn’t interested in sleeping with them.

And I don’t know why it was so hard for me to just get angry at her like I used to.

Her big brown eyes shimmered as she turned away, heading back into her house. I tilted my head back to look up at the sky.

“What do you want from me?” I whispered into the void.

Liam walked out. “There you are. I was worried she’d killed you and buried the body,” he joked, then noticed my expression. “Why the long face?”

I sighed. “I don’t think she deserves this,” I muttered.

Liam stepped closer. “No one deserves it,” he said with a laugh. “But you’re not going soft on me, are you, Prince?”

“Of course not.”

“This is Adrianna fucking Cassian we’re talking about. Her father is the reason your mom breaks down every night with alcohol and meds.”

Did that mean I should take it out on her?

“A father’s worst fear is his daughter’s heartbreak,” Liam continued. “It’s a one-and-done, Prince. You get August back, your dad’s trust, and the company.”

My life was all laid out for me, wasn’t it?

“Now go make that fake girlfriend fall in love with you.”

I smiled at Liam, who winked. “You know, she dropped a box of condoms outside when I ran into her. You bang her?”

“No.” I suppressed a laugh. “Why not?”

I shoved Liam as he laughed. “If I’m going to play Hawthorne’s diamond for all she’s got, she can keep the one thing she’s been guarding her whole life.”

“Spoken like a true poet.” “Screw you.”

Liam headed for the door. “You coming?”

I started to follow him when my phone rang. I answered, “August.” I smiled at Liam, who took the hint and walked off.

“Prince.”

“What do I owe the pleasure?”

“I realize I shouldn’t have yelled at you at the game.” I couldn’t help but smile.

“You got the flowers?” “Yes, I did.”

“Your girlfriend okay with that?” she asked in a whisper.

I rolled my eyes at her comment. “Adrianna is purely a means to an end, and I think you know that.”

“Does she?”

No, she didn’t, and I wasn’t planning on telling her of course, “I think you should stop sending me flowers.” August mutters.

I pause, “Why?”