Roses

Chapter 30

Zoey

The sad little pity party I throw myself inside my head makes me quiet for the rest of our date.

It's not fair to him. He was busy with work but still found the time to arrange this beautiful date. Then he rushed to my house, took care of the whole break-in situation and proceeded to be the nicest, most decent man in the whole world. For what? To get a quiet, unresponsive date? It makes me sink a little deeper in my self-loathing but I still don't say anything.

He asks me a few things but upon receiving my mumbled replies, he shuts down himself.

After eating, he texts someone and a woman appears out of a small room I hadn't noticed existed in the back. I think she's the owner of the bookstore as he pays her for the three books I pick out. Then we head out.

It's still drizzling outside and Adam offers me his jacket again but this time I shake my head. He looks angry as he drapes it over my form anyways.

I turn to start walking towards my street but he grabs my hand and pulls me close.

"Sam will be here to pick us up in a minute," he says.

"Why bother him? My house isn't that far."

"We're not going back to your place," he rasps out, annoyance clear on his face.

"I'm not in the mood for it," I mutter. He may be justifiably angry with my behavior, but that doesn't mean I have to have sex with him. This clusterfuck of a night is bound to turn even worse if we jump into bed right now.

"Just shut up, Zoey," he hisses as he looks at me like he can't believe what's coming out of my mouth.

Sam chooses that exact moment to show up. Adam doesn't let me escape as he opens the backseat door with one hand while holding me tightly with the other. Then he literally picks me up and shoves me inside. I have to scoot away as he climbs in after me and closes the door.

"What the f-" I don't finish as he turns to look at me and presses a finger to his lips. He looks way too menacing for me to defy.

Silence fills the entirety of the drive back to his place. Nobody speaks a word inside the car. I think I don't even breathe.

When we circle the driveway and stop in front of the house, the silence continues as he gets out of the car and pulls me out. Sam looks at me with a concerned expression but I don't have time to say anything as Adam carries me away.

He walks up the stairs, down the narrow hallway to his bedroom. The last time I was here was the morning after Martha's murder. Well I spent the entire night here, but I wasn't awake for any of that. I just remember waking up next to him, freaking out and then rushing out the door. I didn't get a chance to look around so I take in the room now.

It looks like it belongs to a man with a king size bed against the opposite wall to the door and dark curtains covering windows on either side of it. But it doesn't look like a bachelor pad. It looks like it belongs to someone far too busy to be having any fun. Even though he has an office downstairs, there's a desk beside the bed and it's covered with documents and files. The part that's not covered matches the rest of the exposed wood in the room in the same rich brown color.

My examination of the room breaks when he carries me inside the bathroom to the right and places me on the counter. He gets down to his haunches and removes my sandals one by one. His palm wraps around my ankle and he brings it up to his face to kiss its inside.

He looks up at me and I expect to see desire but I'm surprised when I find only love in his eyes. There's desperation too, I find when I look closely.

He's desperate for me to explain myself. To tell him it wasn't his fault I got so quiet in the middle of our date.