To Hate Adam Connor
: Chapter 23

Adam

That evening as I drove through the colorful city to the restaurant after getting a short text from Jason telling me where I could meet them, I was still replaying the meeting I’d had with my lawyer in my mind.

The leaked sex tape—the alleged sex tape—was apparently real. Whoever was holding the hard copy in his or her hands was trying to get the best bid for it, and to entice the parties to bid higher, they were releasing stills from the video…stills that clearly showed Adeline half-naked with a cock in her hand as she was quite literally captured swallowing it. It wasn’t the most perfect shot of her beautiful face, but it was most definitely the money shot that had all the media in a frenzy over who’d get the full video.

“We can use this,” said Laura, my lawyer. She must have seen the look on my face because she didn’t even pause before continuing. “It’s a low blow, I know, but if you’re serious about sole custody, we can use this to our advantage. Look at the time stamps; if this isn’t altered, it means she was cheating. And if it happened once, we can most likely replace others. Even if there are no sex tapes, we’ll replace something else. We should use this, Adam. It will make our jobs easier, trust me.”

“No. I’m not looking to drag her through the mud. She’ll have a hard enough time recovering from this enough as it is; I don’t want to dig and replace something else. I’m not doing this to destroy her, Laura; I want you to keep that in mind as you proceed forward. I just want my son with me. Find another way. Dig into something else, talk to her lawyers, replace another way.”

The shots weren’t altered. She had cheated on me while we were still married. I knew that for a fact because in the photos you could see her hand, and I could see a small rash on her wrist, a redness caused by an unexpected irritation from a copper bracelet she wore for a shoot. The date matched when she had that rash.

Was I surprised when I heard there was a sex tape? Can’t lie; yes, I was. Adeline…Adeline, for all her faults, had been loyal, or so I’d thought. But I was past the point of being angry about the existence of it. I couldn’t go back and change the time, change the mistakes we’d made together. It didn’t affect me anymore. She didn’t factor into my life anymore. It was her mess, and only hers. I’d already instructed everyone on my publicity team to do their best to keep me out of the whole thing. There would be no comments coming from me. No quotes.

Still, I spent the entire day ignoring every single call that came from Adeline or her assistants. My mind filled with Aiden and what this new situation would mean to him, I left my car with the valet and entered the restaurant at exactly ten past seven. I was ten minutes late thanks to LA traffic.

At first, when I didn’t see Lucy sitting next to Olive, I didn’t think anything of it, but the closer I got to their partially hidden table toward the back, the possibility of her still being with that Jameson guy dawned on me.

Had I made a mistake by leaving her with him?

Had I lost my bright light?

Jason’s head came up from Olive’s neck, and he gestured to me with his hand. Olive noticed me too and offered me a shy smile. My steps faltered before I could get to their table and ask where Lucy was because Lucy emerged from the hallway a little to the right of where her friends were sitting. She sent a beautiful, unsure smile my way.

She looked stunning—as always. She wore black fuck-me heels with a black dress that hit her a little above her knee, and the neckline of her dress made it possible for me to see those delicious swells of her breasts. That was all I could take in as I changed my direction and headed toward her, my steps lighter now that I knew she was there.

With a small smirk plastered on her face, she rubbed her palms on her dress, subtly pulling it down in the process, and started toward me. A waitress walked up to the table that stood right between us, almost tripping me in the process.

Lucy smiled.

I laughed.

Steadying the waitress, I apologized to her and quickly rounded the table.

As soon as I was in front of Lucy, I captured her face in my hands and released a deep breath.

“You’re here.”

She snorted. “Did you think I’d let them celebrate without me? I don’t think so.” Her fingers curled around my wrists. “What’s up with the face holding?”

I nudged her lips open with my own and kissed her until she was breathless in my arms. When I let go and brushed my thumb over her red bottom lip, she was holding on to my shirt.

I cleared my throat and smoothed her hair back just so I could keep touching her for another moment. “For a second there I thought the bastard tricked you into leaving with him.”

One eyebrow shot up playfully. “Do I look trickable to you?”

I laughed and brushed another kiss on her lips. “No. You’re anything but trickable, Lucy Meyer.”

“Good. I’m glad you know that.” Her eyes darted around. “Can we sit down already? People are staring, it’s awkward.”

I didn’t give a fuck about what people thought—I was so used to feeling eyes on me all the time that I barely noticed it anymore—but still, I listened to her and grabbed her hand as we walked back to the table.

I kissed Olive’s cheek, helped Lucy sit down, and greeted Jason.

“I guess we have more than one thing to celebrate tonight,” Olive said with a big smile on her face.

“Olive…” Jason sighed.

“What?” She turned to face Jason, her eyes big and innocent. “I’m not doing anything.”

As she was busy appealing to Jason, I brushed my fingertips over Lucy’s wrist, watching the tiny hairs on her arm rise up under my touch as I murmured into her ear. “Everything okay with the ex?”

She gave me a small smile and nodded. “I think this time it’s really over.”

“It wasn’t over already?”

What exactly had they talked about after I’d left?

She shook her head and reached for her water glass. “No, it was, but I think this was it, you know. Final. I don’t think we’ll ever see each other again.”

“And are you okay with that?”

She took a small sip of her water and nodded, her eyes turning back to her friends.

I decided I could wait a few more hours until we were alone so we could talk. “I hear congratulations are in order,” I said, interrupting Jason and Olive’s quiet conversation.

“Oh, thank you,” Olive replied, beaming at Lucy. “But I think congratulating Lucy would be more appropriate. I did absolutely nothing. She is the one who got the deal after all.” She turned her eyes back to me. “And by doing so, she officially accepted the fact that she is my agent now.”

“Congratulations,” I repeated, reaching for Lucy’s hand under the table. “To both of you.”

They both gave me brilliant smiles.

After that, we gave our orders, and I discreetly asked our waiter if he could bring out a bottle of champagne. We fell into easy conversation as the night went on, and I discovered a different side of Lucy as I watched her interact with Olive. She looked free and happy with her. She didn’t look troubled or worried. That was exactly how I wanted her to be when she was with me.

More than a few times, I found Jason looking at his wife with love as she laughed without abandon with Lucy. Despite everything that was going on with Adeline, I found myself laughing along with them.

When two fans who were having dinner at a nearby table came over and asked for autographs both from Jason and me, we quickly signed the napkins they were holding out and before we could object, they took a quick picture of the four us then hurriedly walked away.

Lucy’s tense body leaned into me, and she whispered, “Aren’t you gonna go after them?”

“To do what?”

“To take their phone and delete the picture?”

“Lucy.” I sighed and pulled her chair a little closer to mine. “They weren’t the only ones taking pictures tonight. Trust me, from what I saw, at least three other tables were secretly taking our picture.”

“Is that okay? I mean, I know how these things work…what if they post it online? I guess that’s a stupid question because they probably already have.”

“So?” I asked, watching her intently, trying to understand what had her so worried.

“So?” she choked out. She leaned back and tilted her head, thinking something over. “Huh. It’s like that, then. You were serious about what you said earlier.”

“And you weren’t?”

“I didn’t know…”

“You didn’t know what?” I prompted when she trailed off.

“I didn’t know what you meant exactly. I thought we were gonna talk about what you said earlier today.”

“What part was hard to understand? You’re mine now. Don’t know how to explain that further.”

“Ha ha,” she said without humor.

The waiter brought our desserts and another bottle of champagne for the ladies, cutting Lucy’s little speech short. As soon as he left, she was back at it.

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“Actually, I don’t, but let me be more clear. You’re mine means, from now on, you’re mine and only mine.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “That’s your idea of an explanation? That explains nothing. Does it mean we’re having sex, exclusively? Does it mean we’re dating? And if it does, can you even date? Are we in a relationship now? Do I have to sleep in the same bed with you all night? These are important questions, and I don’t have the answers.”

“Looks like you’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

“I’d like to know what I’m getting into.”

“How about you stop worrying about it?”

“How about you give me a hint?”

“Wasn’t me telling you I’m falling for you a good hint? I thought that explained everything.”

A small gasp had our heads turning.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please keep going,” Olive whispered, looking amused.

“I hate to interrupt this, but I think it’s time for us to leave,” Jason said, his eyes aimed at the entrance.

I glanced back and saw the manager talking to a few people that kept pointing toward us; it appeared there was a sea of paparazzi waiting outside. Jason called out to our waiter and asked if we could walk through their kitchen and take the back door, something that was unfortunately not new to either one of us.

As soon as we got the okay, we were on our way with Olive and Lucy taking the lead as we were ushered toward the back door.

“I should’ve called Dan,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head. “With everything that’s been going on with Adeline, they’re probably lying in wait in front of the house, too.”

Jason glanced back at me as we reached the back door. “Call him now so he can come here and take care of your car. My driver will drop us off. You’ll use the wall so they won’t know you are home.”

“Thank you. I think that’s a good idea.”

As we waited for Jason’s driver to come around the back to pick us up, I gave Dan a quick call, asking him to pick up my car and then check up on Adeline and Aiden before he got back to the house. As much as I didn’t mind ignoring her calls that day, it didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about how she was treating Aiden with all that’d been going on. She might still be angry at me for the upcoming custody battle and refuse to let me see Aiden whenever I wanted to when it was her week, but that didn’t mean I’d just let her be.

“Is there something I can do to help?” Lucy asked once I was off the phone with Dan.

“Car is here, guys. Let’s go before they think of posting a lookout back here too.”

I gave Lucy what I hoped was a reassuring smile to let her know everything was okay—or at least would be—and guided her outside to the waiting car.

After we all piled in the car and drove away from the madness that was building up at the entrance of the restaurant, it was Lucy who took my hand in hers and made me feel like I had conquered the world.