The Assistant(52)
“You take the photo,” he said as he meshed his cheek onto mine. I rolled my eyes while trying to fight the smile that appeared on my lips at his playful behaviour, before turning the front camera on and snapping a picture of the both of us grinning.
“Take another one!” he exclaimed the moment I was done. I turned my face slightly to give him a confused look before pointing the camera back to our faces. Just as my thumb pressed the capture button on the screen, Adrian turned and bit my cheek, making me squeeze my eyes shut in the photo.
“What was that?!” I exclaimed as he put me back down on the sand.
He shrugged with a smirk before snatching the phone out of my hands. “Just because we took photos, doesn’t mean I’m changing my wallpaper,” he declared, smirking down at me.
“Hey! We made a deal!” I scowled, glaring. He shrugged and chuckled as he picked up our soaked towels from the day.
“Come on, let’s go have dinner. The sun’s almost completely gone.”
I looked out to the skyline where the sun was slowly descending into the water. I patted all the sand off my legs and out of my hair before following him up the stairs of the beach house, where we went our separate ways to shower.
***
“If that * looks at you one more time,” Adrian grumbled, glaring at the waiter’s back as he walked away from our table, “I’m going to have a nice long chat with the owner of this place.”
I rolled my eyes at his possessive nature. “Adrian, all he did was smile because I said thank you,” I pointed out with a flat expression. His eyes slowly made their way back to my face before he scowled at me.
“Haven’t I already told you not to talk to any men?”
I gave him an exasperated look before replying. “Yeah, a month ago! Jesus, calm down a little, he’s 16 years old!” I exclaimed, looking back at the poor waiter who was most likely to lose his job thanks to Adrian’s jealously issues.
“Whatever,” he grumbled, ending the topic abruptly.
I sighed before trying to think of a new topic to bring up, not wanting to eat in an awkward silence.
“So… Why are you and your mom so snippy towards each other?” I asked as I shoved a spoonful of mashed potato into my mouth, chewing on it as calmly as possible.
Adrian shrugged before also filling his mouth with mashed potato, and I glared at his lack of response. He sighed before answering. “My mother believes I should get married to a girl she knows from England. You know, good family, important in the business industry, blah, blah, blah. I’m not particularly fond of her method, and neither is my father – which is why he took a liking to you when you two met.”
I almost choked on the mashed potato I was swallowing when he mentioned being married to someone else, but covered up my reaction by sipping the cup of water I had in front of me.
“Is that why she hates me so much?” I couldn’t help but ask, stirring my peas around the plate.
Adrian shook his head and swallowed before answering. “She doesn’t hate you. She just sees you as a threat to her whole plan – you’re the only woman I’ve ever even glanced at more than once. I guess she believes that you’re going to be the wedge that finally stops her master plan once and for all.” He ended the explanation with a sip of his wine.
I looked down at my white dress and let my hair fall over my face to cover my blush. “Oh, I understand,” I mumbled, trying to calm my racing heart.
“What do you want to do when we get home?” Adrian asked, completely oblivious to my internal organs beating against my chest.
I looked up to meet his questioning gaze, and bit my lip in thought. “Let’s play a game!” I suggested excitedly, before blushing again at the loud volume of my voice.
Adrian chuckled at my embarrassed state, before nodding in agreement. “What kind of game? I vote Truth or Dare.” In a loud voice that made people from other tables look over in our direction with puzzled expressions, he announced: “I dare you to give me a strip tease.”
“Adrian!” I hissed, looking over at his amused expression in mortification. He laughed softly before drinking the rest of his wine.
“Are you finished eating?” he asked, looking down at the small pile of mashed potato and scattered vegetables that remained on my plate. When I nodded, he threw a $100 bill onto the table and stood up, making me follow suit.
We left the small restaurant, which was not very far from the beach house, and arrived back home in under 10 minutes. Adrian locked the front door behind us once we entered, before grabbing my wrist and tugging me along with him upstairs. He opened the door to our room and pulled his shirt off and grinned at me.
“I have the perfect game for us to play,” he announced, before leaving me in the room alone. I decided to strip out of the dress then – and locked the door once I remembered it was still wide open, before tugging on Adrian’s shirt.
His smell instantly overcame my senses, and I smiled happily before unlocking the door and going over to sit on the bed. Adrian walked in a few minutes later holding a packet of UNO cards, and I instantly broke out into a grin.
“Now, I have to warn you,” he said cockily, “I’m pretty f*cking good at this game.”
He smirked down at me once he realised I had changed into his shirt. He threw the packet of cards onto the bed before taking off his jeans and climbing in with me – taking a position directly opposite. I pulled down the shirt to try and cover my thighs – as well as the bright red thong Amy had left in the suitcase for me to wear – before I began to shuffle the deck.