adrianlia bot

adrian volkov & lia morelli from deception trilogy by rina kent.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

broken ballerina and her mobster husband.

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She laughs. My wife���s head tips back, bearing her pale throat as my ears fill with the delighted sound of her laughter.
“How is any of this funny?” I try to sound stern, but I love the sound of her laughter too much to actually be mad.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

Besides, he awakened something inside me earlier by merely sitting in the audience. I chalked it up to coincidence, but now that he’s standing in front of me, my legs tingle with the need to move, to do something, anything.

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Not only my body that he’s able to possess in this exhilarating yet frightening way.
It’s also my heart and my soul.
It didn’t even matter when I thought I was a different person. I fell in love with him all the same and I’m starting to think there’s no way out for me after all.

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Lia stares at me with a hopeful expression. She’s wearing a flowery dress and has gathered her hair in a ponytail, which highlights her soft complexion. Even her rose scent is stronger than usual today.

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Jer clutches his sleeve, gazing up at him with those huge eyes that neither of us can resist. “Papa, please.”
Adrian releases a sigh. “Fine.”
“Yay, Papa!”

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I wrap my arms around his neck and search his harsh but ethereal gray eyes and the light in them. There are exhaustion lines on his face, and it takes everything in me not to smooth the crease between his brows.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

My feet dangle as I sit on the tall chair in our living room that smells of burnt food because Mom hates cooking and she’s terrible at it. My book, The Nutcracker, lies on my lap, although I haven’t been able to read due to Mom’s mood.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

As if he’s peeling away the exterior and trying to peer at what’s inside. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being the subject of his interest. It always feels odd, yet strangely endearing, for a cold man like him to care about me.
He’s cold to the world, but not to me.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

���Are you going to hurt me?” My voice is small, divulging my erratic heartbeat.
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“On your ability to follow orders.”
“W-what orders?”
“Have dinner with me, Lia.”

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

I don’t tell him he’s the only one I’ve been thinking about, in the most terrifying way possible, and that when I saw him again in the audience, something inside me unlocked. That I think I had my best performance yet, just because I knew he was there.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

“What do you think you’re doing, Lia?”
I love the sound of my name on his lips. In fact, I love it so much that I may have leaned closer merely to hear it clearer in the tenor of his voice.
Snap out of it, Lia.
“Just dinner,” I say with nonchalance.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

“Then he asked me to prepare lunch boxes so he could take them to you. After that, he at least started eating dinner. And ever since he married you, he makes the time to eat breakfast and lunch with you, too.”
“There are a lot of things that you’ve changed about him.”

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

This morning, he feels closer somehow. It could be because he didn’t leave before I woke up or because he told me about himself as normal couples do.
Wait. We’re not a couple.
Right?

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

“Is she really your fiancée?” Lia’s apathetic tone greets me.
I start removing my coat.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she bites out.
“Why not?”
“Whether you’re leaving or staying is up to the answer to my question.”

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“Are you my shrink now?”
“Not your shrink, no. I’m merely trying to understand that part of you better.”
I don’t know why that warms my heart, why everything in me becomes even more tender at those words. He shouldn’t care, he really shouldn’t, so why does he?

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

Will this pull between us ever end? Will there ever be a day where I’ll be in Adrian’s vicinity and not wish to be closer?

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His lips twitch in what resembles a smile. “The phone call, Lia.”
“Uh…nothing.”
“People don’t make phone calls for nothing.”
I rack my brain for something because I really don’t want to tell him I was on the verge of hyperventilating due to a visceral nightmare I had about him.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

Resting my nose against his scalp, I inhale his marshmallow scent. “I’m going to miss you, my angel.”
“It’s okay, Mommy. I’ll play with Papa.”
“I’m sure you will.” I straighten and glimpse at Adrian who’s standing behind him.
A scowl is etched across his beautiful features.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

I love this man, I really do, but he’s so apathetic sometimes, it drives me insane. Well, he’s apathetic most of the time. The moments he’s not are few and far between.
Why couldn’t I love someone normal?
Oh, right. Because I’m nowhere near normal myself.

[adrianlia bot @foradrianlia]

“I’m not drunk.” I hiccup and giggle, hiding the sound with the back of my hand. “Oops. Maybe a little.”
“A little?”
“Okay, a looot.” I nuzzle my cheek against his hand and sigh. “You’re so warm.”