Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 134: Unexpected report

Chapter 134: Unexpected report

Neil was so lost in his thoughts that he jumped slightly when Mia spoke with a hesitant smile, "You don’t look like you’re enjoying your evening very much."

"I was thinking about watching the news on Tv," he said vaguely.

Mia, who had been uneasily aware of his frowning silence, leapt at the opportunity to occupy herself with something other than wondering if he was truly innocent of murdering her mother... and if he was going to try to kiss her again before the evening was over. Though she had appeared like she was eating the whole time, her mind had been going back to the feel of his lips against hers.

"That’s a good idea," she said, getting up quickly and reaching for her plate on the table. "Why don’t you watch the news and I’ll wash off the dishes?"

He glanced up at her with a frown as he replied, "So you can accuse me of breaking our deal? No way. I’ll clear and wash the dishes."

Mia watched in astonishment as he stood up and gathered up the plates and flatware then headed for the kitchen in long strides. For a moment she could hardly believe this man was the same man who, in the past, would dispose plates Instead of washing them. Though they had agreed that he’d do the cooking and washing, she hadn’t thought he meant it, but...

He was actually doing it.

For the whole time when they were talking over dinner, and when she wasn’t answering his questions, doubts about his guilt had continued to plague her. She remembered the furious way he’d spoken about his subordinate, who did nothing to stand for him in court. She remembered the terrible despair in his voice when he’d pleaded with her in the snow to kiss him in order to mislead the truck driver,

’Please! I didn’t kill anyone, I swear to everything and anything that’s holy.’

At that moment, he had planted a seed of doubt in her mind about his guilt; now, eighteen hours later, that seed was taking root deep within her, nourished by her horror at the possibility that an innocent man had spent five long years in a prison where he’d been fed pills and treatment for insane people. And that alone would make him insane if he turned out to be innocent.

And now, Other things that were equally beyond her control were combining to make her feel helplessly drawn to him, things like the memory of his hungry kiss, the shudder that had run through his body when she finally yielded, the restraint he showed when she did yield. In fact, he had treated her with restraint and even courtesy during most of the time they’d been together. Apart from forcing her to drive him here, he hadn’t forced himself on her...

For the dozenth time in the last hour, she decided a true murderer surely wouldn’t bother to be gentle when he kissed a woman nor would he treat her with the kindness and humor that Neil had generally shown her.

Her mind argued that she was being a fool to decide that a whole bunch of investigating teams and judges were wrong; but tonight, whenever she looked at him, every instinct she possessed shouted that he was innocent. And if he was, then she could hardly bear the thought of what he had been put through in that prison.

Neil walked back into the living room after washing the dishes, turned on the flat screen television, and sat down across from her, stretching his long legs out and crossing them at the ankles.

"We’ll watch whatever you like after the news," he said, his attention already on the television’s huge screen.

"Alright," Mia nodded her head, secretly studying him from across the length of the coffee table. There was a clear pride chiseled into his handsome face, determination in the jut of his chin, arrogance in his jaw, intelligence and hard-bitten strength etched into every feature of his face.

In the past, when she didn’t know who Neil Wayner was, and also had no idea the man she called Mr. Ice Cube was the infamous Neil Wayner, she’d read and done dozens of research about him written by gushing reporters. Often, they tried to define him as a man with the brain of a machine. They praised him for the lives he had saved in the country, but after what happened years ago, his name alone had become something every young lady, who’d gush at the mere mention of his name before, frown upon.

Now, after spending almost two days with the Neil Wayner himself, Mia decided that none of the articles she’d read had actually done him justice, and she vaguely understood why: the real Neil_ who’s not under any disguise_ had an aloof strength, a powerful charisma about him that had nothing whatsoever to do with his tall, broad-shouldered physique or that heartwarming mocking smile of his.

There was something else...a feeling Mia got whenever she looked at him that, without his imprisonment, Neil Wayner had already done and experienced things in life that all those experiences were permanently locked away behind the walls of his lazy charm, and piercing silver eyes. Beyond any woman’s reach.

And behind those walls, lay the real him, Mia thought. Despite everything he’d done to her in the last two days, Neil made her want to get past those walls he’d put up in his heart. To discover what was underneath, to soften it, to find the boy he must have been, to make the man he had become laugh genuinely and grow tender with love.

Mia gave herself a stern shake so she would step out of her delusional mind. None of that mattered! All that mattered was whether he was guilty of the crime or innocent. She stole another look at his profile and felt her heart turn over, an unexplainable tenderness surged through her as she suddenly had the urge to lay her hand on his stubborn jaw and soften them.

He was innocent. She knew it. She could feel it. And the thought of all his male beauty and intelligence being caged up for five long years made her throat clench with emotions. A vision of a prison cellblock flashed through her mind, the sound of cell doors clanging shut, of prison guards shouting, of men working restlessly in the prison yards, deprived of all their freedom and privacy. All their dignity and...

The familar reporter’s voice on the television snapped Mia’s wandering attention to the television screen, where she saw that the woman reporting the news today was none other than Sally Benton, who had made Mia’s life miserable in the University after Diane Foster’s death. Not in the mood to hear anything the woman was reporting, Mia stood up.

"I’m going to get a glass of water," she told Neil, already heading for the kitchen, but something Sally said stopped her in her tracks.

"...days ago, Neil Wayner, who was once regarded as one of the most intelligent soldiers in our country, escaped from prison in Novaria, where he was serving a 55 years in prison sentence for killing three innocent souls and bombing the mall years ago..."

Mia swung around in time to see a picture of Neil wearing a prison uniform with numbers across his chest filling up the screen, and she walked into the living room as if mesmerized by the ugliness of what she saw and heard and felt while Sally continued,

"Neil Wayner is believed to be traveling with a woman, who everyone knows as a presenter in the movie industry, here is a picture of her..." A gasp escaped Mia’s mouth as her own picture, which was taken last year with two other celebrities, flashed on the screen. She was wearing a red dress that had been too tight for her to breathe then.

"Authorities reported that Mia Harrison was last seen in Novaria days ago where a man fitting Neil Wayner’s description was seen getting into a red BMW 7 with her. At first, authorities believed that Ms. Harrison had been taken as a hostage against her will..."

"At first?" Mia burst out, looking at Neil who was slowly standing up. "What does she mean at first?" She asked, confused. She was taken against her will so what was this woman saying?

The answer to her question was immediate and horrifying as Sally said, "The hostage theory was exploded late this afternoon when a truck driver reported that he saw a couple matching Wayner’s and Harrison’s descriptions at a rest stop near dawn this morning..."

The truck driver’s cheerful face filled the screen next, only it was on videotape and what he was saying made Mia feel sick with anger and shame.

"The two of them were having a snowball fight like kids. Then the woman, who I’m sure as fu_ I mean heck was Mia Harrison! Anyway, she tripped and fell, and Wayner landed on top of her and pinned her wrist above her head with him smiling down at her face, and the next thing I knew they was necking and Kissing. If she’s a hostage, she sure wasn’t acting like one, because I could swear on the holy book she look to be enjoying whatever he was doing to her."

"Oh my God!" Mia said, wrapping her arms around her stomach, swallowing the bile rising in her throat. In just a few moments, the ugly reality of her situation had destroyed the falsely cozy atmosphere of the mountain cabin, and she turned on the man who had taken her there, and to her own horror, she didn’t see him as the innocent man she’d thought he was earlier but as he’d been on the television and what he truly was...

He was a convict wearing a prison uniform with numbers across his chest. Before she could react, another more tormenting scene lit up the screen and Sally continued to say, "We have come to the conclusion that Ms. Harrison has been in contact with Wayner for the past five years, it’s didn’t come as a surprise to many as we all know she was the reason he’d committed the crimes years ago, their love story hadn’t ended in the University and now, she has gone all out to help him escape..."

Mia watched in disbelief as random people who claimed to know her were being videotaped and being reported on the news. To make matters worst, the video that had been recorded five years ago in Ivy Grove’s live event, where she was kissing Neil Wayner in the dressing room, was being played on the screen.

Sally then continued to say, "Our reporter is in Mirage Mesa, where Ms. Harrison’s fiance lives. He was able to get a brief interview with Mr. Owen Sullivan and her best friend, Rayne Wallace..."

A tear of shame rolled down her eyes as Owen’s haggard, handsome face seemed like he was looking back at her on the screen as he said,"If my Mia is with Wayner, then she’s with him against her will. That truck driver must be mistaken about who he saw or what he saw happening. And one more thing, Neil Wayner if you are watching this, know that I will hunt you down if you don’t release my woman." he finished with a stern, disapproving look at the reporters who started throwing questions at him.

"Is it true that Mia Harrison was once a whore in the town you grow up in?"

"We heard that she climbed up the social ladder by giving herself to countless men in the industry, we also heard that you are just marrying her to save her reputation. Can you tell us more about her?"

Owen’s glare was palpable as he replied to the reporters through clenched teeth, "I am marrying Mia Harrison because I love her, she had never been a whore. Now if you’d please excuse me, I have my fiance to worry about."