Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 125: Memories of him before

Chapter 125: Memories of him before

Mia grounded her teeth as Neil gave the girl a phoney, appreciative smile that made her blush with pleasure as she counted out their change. "Here’s your order," said the girl, handing them their orders and change. Mia automatically reached for the white bags of food and Cokes, her frightened face silently pleading with the girl to call the authorities or the manager or someone, but the seemingly teenager was too smitten by Neil’s charm to notice anything.

Mia passed the bags to Neil without daring to meet his gaze, her hands trembling so violently she nearly dropped the Coke cans. She could feel his eyes on her, boring a hole into her, but she tried her best not to look his way and meet those savage gray eyes.

As she drove away from the window, she expected some sort of action from him, but since her plan had failed miserably, Mia was not prepared for the eruption of raw rage she heard,

"You little troublemaker, are you trying to get yourself killed? Stop the car in the parking lot, right there where the girl can see us, she’s looking our way suspiciously!"

Mia obeyed automatically, her chest rising and falling in sharp, shallow little breaths as she felt the raw rage emitting from him, it was so much so she could barely think or breathe.

He brought out the cheeseburger from the bag and unwrapped it. "Eat this," he commanded, shoving it in her face. "And smile with every bite like a happy wife should, or you will face the consequences if that girl calls the authorities."

Again, Mia obeyed. She chewed without tasting, every fiber of her being concentrated on calming her shattered nerves so that she could think again. The tension in the car grew very heavy, adding to her strained nerves.

She spoke simply to break the silence. "C-can I have m-my Coke," she said, reaching for the white bag of drinks on the floor near his feet. But before she could reach it, his hand gripped on her wrist in a strength that threatened to break the fragile bones. "Y-you’re hurting me!" Mia cried, fighting down the rush of panic that swelled inside her at the savage look in his gray eyes.

Neil, however was too consumed by his rage to care that he was hurting her. All he could think about was the fact that she had almost fooled him into trusting her. His hand tightened more painfully before he flung her wrist away as if he didn’t want anything to do with her.

Mia reared back in her seat, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes, swallowing the huge lump in her throat and rubbing her throbbing arm.

Until a few moments ago, he hadn’t actually tried to inflict pain on her, and she had deceived herself with the misconception that he wasn’t a depraved monster but rather a man who was mentally ill and was in need of help in the asylum. She had let herself relax enough to want to fool him.

She wondered desperately why she had allowed herself to believe that he wouldn’t be just as likely to harm her or the innocent teenage girl who could sound an alarm and have him captured. The reason was that she had been deceived and misled by her memories of him – memories from when he was still a substitute professor, when he had kissed her on the couch in his living room as though she was everything to him, and whispered, ’Don’t ever let any other man kiss you the way I did. Even if I’m not there, I’ll know if you let anyone touch or kiss you. Remember my words, Harrison, I’ll kill whoever you let touch you in my absence. You must remain a virgin.’

She would always remembered the man who had uttered those words to her. She had allowed herself to relax, thinking he was still the same person and would never harm her. She had been deceived by memories of Neil Wayner; the glamorous stories about him being a hero in the world’s eyes in magazines and on television, memories of numerous nights fantasizing about meeting him.

And the most shameful truth was that when he had claimed he was innocent, a part of her believed it might be possible he was telling the truth, as it seemed logical for him to attempt an escape to prove his innocence.

For some incomprehensible reason, a tiny part of her still clung to that possibility, probably because it helped her control her fear, but it didn’t lessen her desperation to get away from him. Even if he was innocent of the crimes for which he was sent to prison, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill to prevent being sent back there, and that was if he was innocent_a very big, highly unlikely if.

Mia’s whole body jerked in alarm when the bag on the floor crackled. "Here," he snapped, shoving a Coke toward her hand.

Refusing to look at him, Mia stretched her hand out and took it, her gaze remained on the view through the front windshield. She now realized her only hope of escaping without getting anyone hurt or killed was to make it easier for him to escape in her car and leave her behind than it was to stick around and try to stop him from escaping.

Which meant she had to be out of the car and in full view of onlookers. She had blown her first attempt to escape; he knew now she was desperate enough to try again. He would be waiting, watching.

When she tried again, everything would have to be exactly right. She knew somehow she wasn’t likely to live to have a third chance. At least there was no further need to carry on any stupid act that she was on his side.

"Let’s get going," he snapped sternly when she didn’t move to start the car.

Wordlessly, Mia turned on the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot of the restaurant.

Half an hour later, he ordered her to pull over at a roadside phone again, and he made another phone call. He had not spoken a word except to tell her to pull over, and Mia suspected he knew that silence caused more havoc on her nerves than anything else he could do to intimidate her; he was silently punishing her.

This time when he made his phone call, he never took his eyes off her. When he got back into the car, Mia looked at his impassive features and couldn’t endure the silence another moment. Giving him a haughty glare, she nodded at the phone booth and said, "Terrible news, I hope?"

Neil bit back an amused grin at the rigid, rebellious look in her eyes. Her pretty face gave out a false, stubborn courage and acid wit that continually caught him off guard. Instead of replying that the news he received from Liam was very good, he shrugged causally. Silence ate at her, he had noticed and he would continue to give her that silence for her silly attempt earlier.

"Start driving," he said, leaning back in his seat and stretching out his legs, idly watching her graceful long fingers on the steering wheel; she had beautiful nails, he noted for the very first time while fighting back the strong urge to hold her slender hands and soothe the red marks around her wrist from his grips on her earlier. He hadn’t intended to hurt her but she had pushed him beyond his limit by trying to get him captured.

He had almost fooled himself into believing that his little Mimi, who has now grown into a woman, would understand him out of everyone. He’d almost believed that she believed him, but she was only fooling him just so she could get away.

He had spoken to Liam and he had assured him that his decoy, who looked so much like him was now on the run, heading to the airport. The man would make enough of a nervous spectacle of himself to cause the securities there to remember him.

When Neil would still be in the country, those securities should remember his decoy and notify the military that their escaped convict had probably left the country. Within a week, the hunt for Neil Wayner should be mostly centered in other countries, leaving Neil much more freedom to continue with the rest of his plans.

For now, for the next weeks, it rather looked as if he had nothing whatsoever to do except relax and revel in his freedom at the mountains. It seemed like a delightful notion and it would have put him rather in peace with the world if it weren’t for the troublesome woman beside him. She was the only problem in his relaxation. A very big problem, since she apparently wasn’t half so easily subdued as he’d thought she would be.

At the moment, she was driving unnecessarily slow and casting angry looks at him and glaring daggers at him; no doubt she wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he were to give her the gun in his hand.

"What’s the problem?" he asked, gentling his voice to make amends for hurting her earlier.

But she snapped at him, "The problem is that I need to use a restroom!"

"Not now!" He snapped back at her with the same tone she used on him.

"You can’t__" she began to argue but he glared at her then and Mia realized it was useless to argue with a temperamental psychopath like him. If there was one thing she was grateful for, it was for the fact that he looked different from the man she’d liked five years ago. This psychopath beside her had grown a light stubble from not having the time to shave, and those stubbles made it easier for her to view him as another person without meeting his gray eyes.

An hour later, they crossed the Avalora state line, with only a few miles to the mountains. And he spoke for the first time.

"There’s a truck stop up ahead. Slow down at the place and if it looks all right, we’ll stop there and you can do your business."

However, the truck stop turned out to be too busy to suit him, and it was another half an hour later before he found a filling station that was empty and laid out to please him with no attendants positioned in the pumps. He could pay for the gas without meeting anyone and with rest rooms on the outside of the building,

"You can go to the restroom now," he said as the car stopped in the filling station. "Slow down," he warned as she got out of the car and started to run toward the restroom door. But he grasped her elbow as if to help her walk through the snow, his feet crunching the crusty powder in perfect rhythm with hers as he matched her stride for stride.

When they reached the restroom, instead of letting go of her arm, he reached out and opened the door for her, and Mia’s suppressed anger exploded. "You dirty pervert! Do you intend to come in here with me and watch me do my business?" she burst out in furious disbelief.

"Yes, I will if it’s the only thing I have to do to keep you from escaping me." He smirked down at her and she glared up at him. Ignoring her glares, he looked around the tiny restroom, checking for windows, she supposed, and finding none, he let go of her arm.

"Make it quick. And, Mia, don’t do anything stupid in there."

"Like what?" she demanded. "Hang myself on the ceiling with toilet paper? Unbelievable! Go to hell." Yanking her arm free, she dashed inside, and when she was about to close the door, an idea suddenly flashed into her mind. She could lock the door from the inside and stay there until someone else comes around!

With a small triumphant grin, she turned the lock with her fingertips and slammed the door at the same time, throwing her shoulder against it. The door slammed into the jamb with a satisfying thud, but the lock didn’t seem to catch, and she had a sudden feeling he was holding the doorknob on the other side to prevent it from locking.

From the other side of the door, he twisted the knob and it turned in her hand at the same time his tone of amusement told her she was right. "You have a minute and a half before I open this door, senorita. Make it quick." Then he smirked, immensely enjoying himself.