Carter Brothers: Adrian (Rated R Novel)

Chapter 13

Swallowing the lump in her throat she wraps the towel around her, picks up the dress and storms into the lounge.

“This is Vivienne Westwood!” she states at him sat on the couch.
“So I was told. Is it not to your liking?” he simply asks, “would that be perhaps why you are still not ready?”
Sam shoots him a glare and continues her questioning, “Adrian...please tell me you did not buy this for me.”
Adrian’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion. Why on earth would she want him to tell her that? In his experience women have always liked his gifts and generally been pleased with them.
“Of course I did. I have no fetish for dressing up in women’s clothing Sam!” he replies with a shrug. Sam fights the urge to laugh at his sentence and continues with disbelief still stunning her.
“But-I don’t understand-why?...Why would you buy me something so absurdly expensive?!”
Adrian’s eyebrows sets straight again as realisation dawns on him, “is this what the fuss is about? Money? What good is having money and not using it? Consider this a gift...Now will please just get ready?”
Sam chews on her bottom lip, deliberating what she should do. Her mind still can’t wrap her mind around him buying her a present like that, she’s not sure she ever will. People don’t give things without something in return. Still...she would love to just be a girl for a night. Screw it, decides Sam, just for tonight she’ll doll up and enjoy a meal or whatever it is Adrian has planned.
“...I’ll wear it. Just tonight but afterwards, I want you to return it and get your cash-back, okay?” she bargains. Adrian keeps his eyes level with hers, wondering if it’s all a joke, when she doesn’t flinch away, he sighs and glances into the corner of the room.
“Agreed,” he shrugs, not bothered as long as she goes and get’s ready.

With a nod at him, Sam flees to her room and goes to get ready, making sure to only tuck the tag away and not cut it off.

Drying her huge mass of hair, she pulls strands from her face and clasps it in the back with a simply diamante clip. Make up is kept simple but as Sam eyes the blood red lipstick in the box and before she knows it, she’s got the same colour swept all across her lips. A grin forms on those painted lips and she shakes her head wondering what the hell has got into her! Spritzing some perfume, all she needs next is a pair of red heels and slips on her only fake diamond set.

“Sam! We need to go, are you ready yet?” knocks Adrian on her door.
“Yeah, hold on!” she calls back, grabbing her clutch and stuffing necessities inside.
Emerging from the room, Sam is still trying to get her badge to fit into the purse. Finally managing to get it in, she glances up to see Adrian examining her head to toe, with eyes lingering at her breasts and waist before dragging up to her eyes. She’s woman enough to blush at the heated gaze in his bright blue eyes.
Seeing her in that dress Adrian knows that he’s never going to return it. God! She looks like Aphrodite herself. Her curves, those hips, that ass....His mind is in turmoil as his body urges him to just drag her backwards in the bedroom she’s just emerged from and not let her leave until he has to.

“Is...Is it okay? Not too tight or revealing right?” wonders Sam nervously. Her normally confident self is replaced by this...little girl and she knows why. It’s those insecurities showing again. She hasn’t worn a dress in a long time and she knows that when she does, in no way shape or form does she look like the models who actually wear the dresses. It’s why she hasn’t every tried to be that kind of girly-girl. Her sister was one of them. And she does it so perfectly that there had been no chance Sam could compete so she’d given up. Stuck to jeans and t-shirts and her hair tied back in a bun; simple, straightforward and not at all feminine.
 
Adrian steps forward his hands aching to touch her and unable to resist he rests them at her hips.
“You look beautiful,” he simply and honestly states causing her eyes to widen in shock.
Sam feels her breath catch and heart skip a beat. The last time a guy said that to her...was right before she let him into her pants. She knows she won’t be making that mistake again.
“Er...thank you...But isn’t this a bit much for a restaurant?” she asks.
“Not at all,” he replies, swooping down to steal a kiss but she ducks back at the last minute causing him to look at her in confusion.
“Lipstick,” she grins at him, which has him frowning in annoyance and letting her go with a short growl.
“Let’s just go then.”

As the elevator shuts, he decides to ask her about something he’d noticed at her apartment.
“You don’t have any family photographs in your apartment. Or those of friends,” he observes.
Sam’s spine stiffens.
“Sam?” asks Adrian glancing across to see her expression cold set and hard.
“No Adrian. I won’t talk about...them with you,” she declares in a detached tone. 
“Why not? It may be a hard topic for you Sam, I realise that but this is what you wanted, remember? A relationship. Isn’t that all about communication? Talking about our issues and pasts?...Or does that just apply to me Sam?!”
Sam glances across at him, fury in her eyes. What an insensitive jerk! God, and to think it was going so well!
“I never said that! I...I just meant I’m not...ready to talk about them yet, Adrian,” she hoarsely and angrily whispers, tears pricking at her eyes when she remembers the a-holes she had been forced to call her family. Thank God, she left when she did or she probably would have ended up at a mental institute.
Their brief eye-to-eye contact reveals enough to Adrian. He can clearly see the resentment and sorrow in her expression before she glances away.
“Sam,” he states, “Sam look at me.”
His hand raises to tilt her face to make eye contact but she pulls to the opposite side before he can.
“Adrian...” Sam sighs deeply and glances at him, “it’s fine. You’re right. We should...talk about things that are difficult to talk about. I-I promise...later-some other time, I will but...not now, Ade.”
Adrian nods, “understandable.”

As Sam manages to rearrange herself to awkwardly slide into the passenger seat of the car, she’s managed to repress the old feelings she has towards her family and manages to feel excited about the night again.