Unhinged (Necessary Evils #1)(18)

Adam’s face grew serious. “I would never let anybody hurt you.” The rawness in his declaration almost made Noah teary despite its absurdity. Nobody had ever protected him. Ever. He’d always told himself he didn’t need it. But now, here was this dangerous stranger swearing to protect him from his family. Adam threaded their fingers together on the table. “Besides, are you planning on telling anybody?”

Noah gave a humorless laugh. “And proclaim that a group of billionaire vigilantes killed my pedophile father? They’d either think I was certifiable or they’d throw you a fucking parade and build a statue in your father’s honor.”

Adam nodded. “You’re probably right. But you don’t have to worry about my family. Like I said, I’ll keep you safe.”

Noah’s heart did a little dance behind his ribcage. Adam was so fucking intense. He was like one of those characters in a teen romance novel where the naive girl ignores every instinct with catastrophic consequences. Except, in this scenario, Noah was the naive girl. He liked the attention. For better or worse. The catastrophic consequences were likely to follow but it was so hard to care. Was it wrong that he wanted somebody to love him and look at him with movie level fuck me eyes?

Except, Adam didn’t have the capacity to love anybody. He’d said so himself.

So, what the fuck were they doing?

Before he could formulate a response, a shadow descended over the table and a teen girl stood gazing at Adam like he was Beyoncé. “I’m sorry,” she said, face bright red. “But are you Adam Mulvaney?”

Adam grinned, and the girl looked like she might faint. “Yeah. Hi.”

Noah tried to untangle their fingers, but Adam tightened his grip, his gaze never leaving the girl in her white shorts and crop top.

She glanced back over her shoulder at a group of girls gawking at them before telling Adam, “I’m such a huge fan. Can I get a picture with you?”

Adam glanced at Noah. Was he asking his permission? Only after Noah shrugged did Adam say, “Sure.”

The girl slid into the booth, pressing her cheek to Adam’s, snapping a selfie before extricating herself quickly. Adam never once let go of Noah’s hand. When she spotted this, she giggled. “Oh, my God. Is this your boyfriend?”

Adam looked at him. “Yeah. This is Noah.”

Was Adam his boyfriend? After two days? Why wasn’t Noah more alarmed by that? Instead, his whole body flushed hot until he was sure he was redder than Adam’s biggest fan. She looked between the two of them, then said to Adam, “He’s so cute,” as if Noah wasn’t actually sitting there.

Adam gave Noah a knowing smirk. “The cutest.”

“Anyway, thank you so much.”

With that, she was gone, racing back over to the table where her friends were now all babbling excitedly, crowding together to look at the girl’s coveted selfie with the Adam Mulvaney.

With the girl now gone, it was like somebody had flipped a switch and Adam’s superficial charm disappeared, replaced by that piercing look he seemed to save just for Noah.

“Does that happen a lot?” Noah asked.

Adam seemed to ponder the question. “Nah. Most of the people uptown don’t give a fuck about a hack model with a trust fund.”

“Why did you tell her I’m your boyfriend?”

Adam frowned. “Because telling her that you’re the son of one of my murder victims and we’re together because I happened to get off with you this morning sounded like a mouthful.”

Noah shook his head. “You could have just said friend?”

Adam’s brows furrowed. “But then she might think you’re available.”

Noah’s brain stumbled. “But I’m not? Available?”

“No.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Noah asked, not even mad, just feeling like he’d definitely slipped into an alternate universe.

Adam tilted his head. “Yeah. Did you not want to be my boyfriend?”

Noah laughed at the genuine confusion in Adam’s tone, like the notion was preposterous. Maybe it was.

“I hate to keep harping on this one point because it's starting to feel a little mean to keep bringing it up, but we don’t know each other.”

“You know me,” Adam insisted.

“But you don’t know me,” Noah countered, voice a harsh whisper.

“I don’t need to know everything about you to know that you’re what I want.”

“That makes no sense.”

“It will eventually,” Adam promised. “But if this is too much for you…if I’m too much for you, I get it. I’m…a lot.”

“Why would you want to be in a relationship if you can’t love somebody?”

Once more, Adam pondered the question. “What does that word even mean? Lots of people throw the word love around without actually treating the people they supposedly love like they are loved. I don’t have the same signals firing in my brain that you do. I have to rely on instinct. My instincts tell me you’re the one. What do yours tell you?”

That you’re going to rip my heart out some day, maybe literally. “My instincts have really never done anything for me. If you give me two choices, I make the wrong one every time.”