Precious Virtue ✓

Chapter 25: His Fiery Touch

Precious Virtue

Chapter XXV: His Fiery Touch

[Adrien's POV]

"You look stoned in this picture, Preston."

"The fuck? I do not, lemme see it." Preston scoffed. He snatched the phone from Joseph as he looked at the picture. "Okay, maybe I do look a bit stoned."

Joseph snickered, stealing the phone back from Preston. "Come on pretty boy, let's retake the picture."

I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched the two of them stand over by the kitchen table, the area decorated head to toe in black, white, and gold balloons, and star-shaped fairy lights strung about. Joseph extended his hand out, holding his phone up while he and Preston held up champagne glasses and smiled. Kade ran over before Joseph could take the picture and stuck his head between them, holding his own drink up and grinned wide.

Joseph snapped the photo, the three of them laughing to themselves afterwards. A smile cracked my face—I leaned my elbows against the kitchen island. I snatched a vanilla cupcake from the cupcake stand, taking off the 2022 decoration on top of the cupcake.

As I brought the cupcake to my lips and licked at the white frosting, my eyes remained on Preston. He chatted away with Joseph and Kade, laughing at something they said, periodically sipping from his champagne glass. He looked good tonight—he wore a black lace button-up shirt with black jeans, a silver necklace and an assortment of rings on both hands. His hair was slightly slicked out of his face, a few strands loose against his forehead.

"Hey, Adrien—" Asher voiced, hand touching my shoulder. I broke out of my daze and tore my gaze from Preston to look at Asher, lowering the cupcake from my lips. Asher smiled amusedly. "You have icing on your lip."

"Shit," I cursed. I tried to lick away the icing from my lip, failing miserably. Asher laughed, wiping the icing away with his thumb, sticking his thumb into his mouth afterwards. I released a sigh, "thanks, Asher."

"Mhmm. Your outfit's cute," Asher commented. He rang his fingers over the fabric of my blazer as he took a good look at it—it was black and sparkled.

"Thanks. I went to the mall with Preston on Boxing Day, and found this blazer," I replied, "thought it would be perfect for tonight."

Kourtney thought it would be nice for all of us to get together at her place tonight for a New Year's Eve party. She brought up the idea a couple of weeks ago in our group chat, and everyone excitedly agreed. It was nice, being able to hang out with everyone again. The transition from seeing each other every day in high school to attending different universities and almost never seeing each other was difficult, but it did make our reunion that much more special.

"Preston huh?" Asher hummed. He flashed me a playful smirk and leaned in close to me, nudging my arm with his elbow. He glanced in Preston's direction and said, "he looks pretty hot tonight, doesn't he?"

I shrugged, taking a bite out of my cupcake. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Guess so? You were practically making out with that cupcake while eye fucking him." Asher laughed.

"Huh??? I was NOT eye fucking him!" I blinked, a heavy blush coating my cheeks. Asher brushed me off as he grabbed the red wine and refilled his champagne glass.

"Sure honey, whatever helps you sleep at night."

I rolled my eyes and flashed Asher a glare. Asher smiled at me amusedly, sipping his wine.

"Of course, while Preston does look pretty fine tonight, no one looks as hot as my boyfriend," Asher said, his gaze turning to Daniel as he walked into the kitchen, carrying two large pizza boxes. Asher batted his eyelashes at him, followed by a wink. Daniel chuckled, shaking his head as he walked over to the kitchen counter, setting down the boxes.