Adam, Enough Said (This Can't be Happening) (25 page)

“
Adam isn’t making this easy, Mrs. Bryant. He’s asking for access to any and all of your bank accounts, he wants the title to your car - which he says he paid for - he wants receipts for every article of clothing you own down to…your panties.” He whispered that part uncomfortably. “He wants you to move back into the house in Clear Lake, but he’s offered to move out, and he’s also asking for spousal support - which I haven’t quite figured out why he would do that other than to drag this divorce out. Texas law states that you must be married for ten years or more, or the spouse seeking support must have been a victim of domestic violence within the past two years prior to the filing date…” My attorney paused. “You didn’t abuse him, did you?”

I growled audibly and squeezed my cell so tight
, it’s a wonder it didn’t disintegrate.

“No, I didn’t abuse him, but if I ever see him again,
mark my words, I’m going to beat every ounce of arrogance and cockiness out of his
motherfucking ass!
” I finished on a shout, flipped my phone shut and threw it so hard it smashed into a million pieces.

“
Ugh
!”

I felt like
I was choking, or suffocating.

I couldn’t breathe.

Why does he hate me so much?

I
would have called him and screamed at him if I hadn’t just smashed my phone.

Fuck!

I wanted to drive over to his house and fuck him up, but that’s exactly what he wanted. The arrogant asshole. He knew I couldn’t afford this divorce. He knew I couldn’t afford much of anything, which had to be exactly why he pulled this stunt; to torture me or punish me, or both.

Well, I was through with him. He wanted
to stay married to me…

F
ine. I didn’t need the divorce. I wasn’t ever getting married ever again anyway.

Men sucked.

Fuck him.

Chapter
Nineteen

Six Years Later

Mia
Bryant

I was frozen, staring at Adam in horror and he looked like he wanted to strangle me.

I hadn’t seen him in
six years and he looked good, but he also looked furious… at me. Why?

Because I was shopping in the grocery store by his house?

He didn’t own it.

And it wasn’t my fault that we only lived fifteen minutes away from each other
, and honestly, I was surprised I hadn’t run into him sooner.

But I hadn’t been expecting to see him
with a beautiful woman who had mousy brown hair and bright hazel eyes.

T
hey looked cute together and I glanced down to see they were holding hands.

I quickly looked
away before I got caught.

I
felt faint and could only imagine how pale I must have looked.

Why did seeing him
still hurt so much?

“Nice to see you,
Lex
," Ryan hissed in a snarky tone toward Adam's girlfriend and I looked at him. I'd completely forgotten he was standing next to me.

"
Waste no time moving from one guy to the next. Wasn’t he the cop on my case?” Ryan finished nodding in Adam’s direction.

Cop on my case?

That was odd.

Ryan was
friends with my boyfriend, Max, and I’d only met Ryan a couple times. I didn’t know him well. I’d seriously just run into him in the canned foods aisle and he’d been following me around like a lost puppy ever since. But now, Ryan was staring at this Lex woman with murder in his eyes.

I looked at
Adam when he jerked his girlfriend out from behind their cart, never letting her hand go.

He got right in Ryan’s face and he towered over him.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t even look at her,” he growled as he nodded to the woman, Lex. “Unless you’re ready to go back to jail, asshole.
And stay the fuck away from Mia
,” he finished in a roar and I gasped.

M
y back nearly broke it grew so rigid.

Something was very wrong here and
it obviously had something to do with Ryan and the woman Adam was with. I was curious to know what it was, but I couldn't very well ask.

Adam turned to
me and clipped, “Let’s go, I’m taking you home.” The hand not holding his girlfriend's, wrapped around my waist and he ushered me forward while he dragged the woman behind him.

I didn't want to go with him, but somehow I
knew it'd be useless to argue.

Why me?
Why did I pick today of all days to walk to this goddamn grocery store? Oh, that’s right, because the one by my house was out of Oreos.

Damn cookies were going to be the death of me.

My stunned eyes looked back at Adam's girlfriend with guilt.

Girlfriend
.

The word
crawled over my skin like a spider. I cringed.

“I can walk without your help, thank you very much,”
I snapped at Adam, and his blazing eyes glared down at me.

“I think I know better than anyone just how well
you can
walk
,” he snapped back, his last words clipped, but he still didn’t let me go. “Walking away was about the only thing you were good at.”

I bit the inside of my cheek.
His words cut me deep and I knew he said them exactly for that purpose. I swallowed hard and turned away from him, because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing my eyes water

After six years, it still hurt
.

“
You’re still an asshole,” I said in an angry whisper.

“If that helps you sleep at night
, Honey, then I’ll be the biggest asshole you’ve ever met.”

“Adam!” his girlfriend
called out in shame. She was probably embarrassed. Either that or she was just now realizing how much of an asshole he really was.

“Stay out of it, Lex,” Adam
ordered and he twisted his neck her way. I was pretty certain I saw him glare at her, but I wasn’t sure.

I kept quiet as we made
it to his vehicle.

Adam put me in the back
seat and made his girlfriend sit up front; obviously being his legal wife meant nothing to him.

Not that it ever did
.

“Where a
m I taking you?” Adam asked like he really didn’t know where I lived.

I rolled my eyes.

Did he really think I didn’t know that he drove by my apartment?

No, he wasn’t that stupid. He had to know that I was bound to see him since he’d been doing it for the past six years.

Yeah, he knew that I knew, but he obviously didn’t want his girlfriend to know. I decided against starting a fight and gave him quiet directions to my apartment.

Adam didn’t even have the Tahoe in park and I jumped out of it without so much as a ‘thank you’. I ran up the steps and tried hard to make it inside my apartment before Adam could catch up to me. Not that I thought he would try, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Mia, do not go inside that
fuckin' apartment,” I heard Adam shout just as I made it to my front door.

Damn.

I twisted my neck.

“Go away, Adam. It would be rude
to keep one of your bitches waiting too long,” I snapped, just before he stopped to stand right in front of me.

I had to look up.
Way up.

“Why the fuck were you with Ryan?” Adam asked and I narrowed my eyes.

How dare he?

“
Hi, Mia, how are you?" I asked sarcastically, before answering for him. "I'm fine, thanks for asking, Adam… You look well, Mia. Why thank you, Adam, so do you, whoring fits you so well... Would you still like that divorce, Mia? Why yes, yes I would, Adam.”

His jaw clenched and I watched his body turn to stone.

"Since you touched on none of those subjects most normal people would after seeing somebody for the first time in six years, I'll tell you this… how I know Ryan is none of your fucking business.”

His breathing
grew ragged and his already huge muscles strained. “It became my business when I saw you with a fuckin’ piece of shit who beats women,” he growled in my face.

I froze and breathed,
“What?”

“He beat his ex-girlfriend, who just so happens to be my sister-in-law.
So, you don't like my line of questioning after six years, too fuckin' bad.”

I didn't catch anything after sister-in-law.

Oh my God!

“How can you have a sister-in-law when we’re still married?
We are still married, aren’t we?” I asked in a tortured whisper. Had he divorced me and I didn’t know about it? Was that even possible?

Adam stared at me a minute and then
suddenly, his face softened. I cringed when I realized my mistake.

“Baby --”

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.

“Freckles,
you’re still my wife.”

Oh. Shit.

I nodded. I wasn’t supposed to care, but no matter how many times I chanted that in my head, it didn’t change the fact that I cared.

“So, how do you know Ryan?”
Adam continued to press, but he still hadn’t answered the sister-in-law question.

Had he finally met his half-brother?

“Mia, tell me. How do you know Ryan?”

Oh shit again!

“Ummm… he’s an acquaintance of my boyfriend. I’ve only met him a couple times,” I answered in a whisper.

Adam’s back straightened and
his body stood taller. “Who’s your fuckin’ boyfriend?”

“Adam, I’m not telling you.”

“You don’t tell me, I’ll find out on my own,” he vowed.

I sighed.
“Why do you care? Don’t you have a woman sitting downstairs waiting for you? Or another twenty women lined up outside your house? Or do you only prefer strippers --”

I didn’t get to finish
, because Adam’s mouth was suddenly covering mine. It happened so fast that I didn’t know what to do.

“I fuckin’ miss you,” he breathed against my lips, and I felt tears
prick my eyes as my double-crossing body relaxed into his.

I missed him too, but I’d never admit it to him.

Our kiss was soft, but needy and he cupped my face in his hands like he was desperate to touch me, but before I knew it, the kiss was over.

Adam lifted and my eyes flew open.

His amazing light green eyes gazed into mine. He caressed my bottom lip with his thumb and my nose burned from the tears that stung. I was desperate for him, and I wanted him to tell me he still loved me. I knew it was stupid after six years, but I still loved him.

"I miss you too," I admitted, and my words
came out broken.

I
watched him stiffen as he studied my face closely. Then a second later, he opened his mouth and ruined everything when he said, “Have a nice life, Mia.”

What? No!

Before I could beg him to stay, he turned and jogged down the stairs. I watched him go until he made it to his vehicle, because my feet refused to move. It wasn't until he shut the driver's side door behind him that I walked inside my apartment.

The front door closed behind me and
I collapsed to the floor.

Part II

Chapter
Twenty

Three Months Later

Present Day: The Morning After

Mia
Bryant

Twenty-Six Years Old

My eyes flew open and a slight dizziness washed over me as I took in my surroundings; the nightstand, the lamp, the clock, the rock hard chest I was lying on, covered with a light sprinkling of hair…

Oh no…Adam…

I felt sick.

What did I do
?

I mean,
I knew what Adam and I did in the literal sense, but I also knew my life had just made a U-turn, turned right onto Crazy Street, and headed straight into the No-Deed Restricted neighborhood of Monumentally Fucked-up.

And I was
currently wrapped around a whole lot of fucked up.

Not
Adam wrapped around me, but me around him like a vine…or like a leech.

My
cheek was on his chest and my left hand was wrapped underneath his right shoulder. His right arm was wrapped around my back. My right arm was wrapped around his torso and my right leg was wrapped around his right leg, and his left leg was pressing them together.