Chapter 87 NADIA'S WARNING

Chapter 87 NADIA'S WARNING


Ava's POV

Adrian took the phone from Nadia and looked at the photo and his jaw went tight.

It was him, standing outside the hotel entrance, shot from across the street, timestamped forty minutes ago. Whoever took it had been close enough to get a clear image and far enough that nobody inside had noticed them.

Dominic came out of the bedroom and Adrian showed him and Dominic looked at it and said, "they've had eyes on this building since we arrived."

"We need to move floors again," Elias said from behind him.

"Moving floors won't help if they have the building covered," Adrian said, and his voice was controlled but I could hear something underneath it that wasn't usually there when he spoke, a sharpness that came from Nadia being involved and not from strategy.

Nadia was standing near the door and she was calm, not performing calm, actually calm, and I watched her and thought about what she'd said to me earlier about Adrian and thought she was probably that steady about most things.

"How many times has this number contacted you," Dominic asked her.

"Twice total," she said. "First call four days ago, this image tonight."

"They're establishing a pattern," Elias said. "Making sure Adrian knows Nadia is visible to them."

"So what do we do," I said, because the room was filling up with analysis and nobody was saying the next actual step.

"We move her to a different hotel," Dominic said, looking at Adrian. "Tonight. Somewhere not connected to us."

Adrian nodded once and looked at Nadia and said, "pack your bag."

"I just unpacked," she said.

"Nadia," he said.

She looked at him for a second and then went to get her bag without another word and I watched Adrian watch her go and saw something on his face that he usually kept completely locked down.

We moved Nadia to a hotel three blocks away and Adrian stayed with her to get her settled and Dominic and I took the elevator back up and the moment the doors closed Dominic pressed the stop button between floors and turned to me and I looked at him and raised my eyebrows.

"Two minutes," he said simply, and his hands went to my waist and pulled me toward him and I went because honestly two minutes of not thinking about Kade and numbers and tracking was exactly what I needed.

He kissed me, it only started with a fierce press of lips and instantly turned wild into tongues sliding hot and urgent, teeth grazing and our breaths already ragged.

His hands shoved my jacket down my arms, letting it drop to the elevator floor as his mouth tore away from mine and latched onto my neck. He sucked hard enough to leave marks, tongue swirling over my pulse point, and I gasped, arching into him.

I fisted his shirt and yanked him closer, needing to feel every hard inch of him against me. His palms slid under my shirt, mapping my bare skin and when his thumbs brushed over my nipples, already tight and aching, I exhaled a shaky moan that echoed softly in the metal box.

“We have two minutes,” I whispered against his jaw, my voice hoarse with need.

“I know,” he growled.

His hand didn’t hesitate as he pushed straight into the waistband of my jeans, past my panties, fingers finding me slick and swollen and desperate. I was soaked for him already.

I grabbed the elevator wall with one hand, the other digging into his arm as two thick fingers plunged inside me without warning.

“Fuck...” The word broke on a whimper. He curled them perfectly, stroking that spot deep inside while his thumb circled my clit with relentless pressure. The wet, filthy sound of his fingers working me filled the small space, mixing with my ragged breathing. I rocked against his hand shamelessly, chasing the pleasure that was already coiling tight and vicious low in my belly.

He kissed me again, swallowing my moans, fucking me harder with his fingers and faster.

My thighs trembled. Heat flooded my body as the orgasm crashed over me. I bit down on his shoulder to stay quiet, my whole body shaking as sharp, pulsing waves ripped through me. He kept stroking me through it, gentling just enough to draw out every last shudder, murmuring filthy praise against my temple.

“That’s it, baby… give it all to me.”

When the aftershocks finally eased, he withdrew his hand, brought his glistening fingers to his mouth, and licked them clean while holding my gaze. Then he calmly straightened my clothes, tucked my shirt back in, smoothed my hair, and pressed the button and the elevator lurched back into motion.

By the time the doors opened, we looked almost respectable except for the flush on my cheeks, the faint mark blooming on my neck, and the way my legs still felt unsteady.

My mother was standing right there in the corridor. She looked at us for a long second, her eyes narrowing slightly at my disheveled state, then turned without a word and went back inside.

I followed, lips pressed tightly together, the taste of him still on my tongue and the slick heat between my thighs a secret reminder of what we’d just done.

Adrian came back an hour later and sat down and said Nadia was settled and the hotel was secure and then he went quiet in a way that filled the room.

I went to find him after a while and he was in the small kitchen area making coffee he probably wasn't going to drink and I leaned against the counter next to him and said, "she's going to be fine."

"I know," he said.

"You don't have to be okay about it," I said.

He looked at me. "I'm fine."

"Adrian," I said.

He looked back at the coffee and said, "she's the only family I have. And someone used that to get to me." He was quiet for a moment. "I should have been more careful."

"You couldn't have known," I said.

"I should have anticipated it," he said. "Kade used Sera, he used Luca, of course he was going to use her."

I put my hand on his arm and he looked at it and then at me and I held his gaze and he let out a slow breath and some of the tension came down slightly.

"She's fine," I said again.

"She said something to you earlier," he said. "I saw her pull you aside."

"She did," I said.

"What did she say," he asked.

I thought about telling him and decided on the truth.

"She said you give everything to everyone else and keep nothing for yourself," I said. "She said you've been doing it for years."

He was quiet for a long time and then said, "she's not wrong."

I didn't answer that and we stood there for a moment and then he said, very quietly, "she also said I look at you differently than I look at anyone else."

I looked at him and he looked back at me and neither of us said anything.

Then Dominic's voice came from the sitting room, sharp and sudden.

"There's a woman downstairs at the lobby café asking for Adrian by name," he said. "The concierge just called up. She says she's a journalist and she's been looking for him specifically.”