Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 138: Treacherous heart

Chapter 138: Treacherous heart

Fixing a polite expression on her face, Mia pulled the bottom of her own sweater and jacket over her hips, hoping Neil wouldn’t notice that her legs looked and moved like a pair of stiff, overstuffed sausages, then she opened the door and walked downstairs into the cozy living room.

Mia’s eyes went automatically to the sofa by the fire where she expected to see him. Instead he was across the room, staring out the glass wall at the falling snow, his imposing back turned to her, his hands shoved deep into his trouser pockets.

Delaying the moment when she would have to face him for the first time since last night, Mia watched him lift his hand. As he absently rubbed the muscles at the back of his neck, her treacherous mind suddenly recalled how skillfully those long fingers had caressed her breasts and the sweet pleasure he had made her feel for the moments they had kissed. It occurred to her at that moment that he actually deserved some credit for showing a certain amount of restraint and decency last night.

He had been as physically aroused as she was last night, she remembered, feeling her face grow warm at the vivid memory of his rigid groin pressing against her.

She had aroused him and then unintentionally insulted and angered him, and yet he hadn’t tried to resort to rape. He was a murderer after all, a criminal, and resorting to force her into being sexual with him wouldn’t be surprising, but he hadn’t done such thing.

As she stood there looking at his imposing back, he turned his head slightly to the side and she saw the stern pride stamped on that handsome profile, the firm mouth that had kissed her with such soul-destroying passion. Surely a man who was capable of so much tenderness and restraint even in the throes of passion, and when he hadn’t been near a woman in years, couldn’t really be a murderer...

Mia quickly gave herself an angry mental shake. She was being an utter fool again, standing here feeling sorry for the villain, romanticizing him, simply because he was tall, handsome, and incredibly sexy and because she was an idiot, a spineless idiot who was disgustingly and helplessly in love with him in the past!

"Ahem, Excuse me," she said animatedly, raising her voice to be heard above the loud television sound in the background.

He twisted around, his gaze immediately narrowing on her outdoor clothing. "Where do you think you’re going all dressed up?"

"You said," Mia replied, matching his cold tone perfectly, "that I could have the run of the house and grounds. I’m going crazy being stuck indoors. I want to go outside for some fresh air."

"Fresh air? It’s freezing out there." He pointed out with a frowned brow.

Realizing he was on the verge of refusing her, Mia switched quickly to a calm, logical approach. "As you pointed out, I’d freeze to death if I tried to escape on foot. I just need some physical exercise and fresh air. All I want to do is explore the yard a little and..." she faltered, then an idea struck her and she tried to inject a childlike eagerness in her voice as she continued to say, "I want to build a snowman! Please don’t say I can’t," she pouted childishly, "I haven’t seen this much snow since i moved to Whispering way as a little girl, I’ve always loved to play in the snow."

He wasn’t impressed and he wasn’t friendly as he said. "Do whatever you want, but stay where I can see you from these glass wall."

"Yes, sir!" Mia forced a tight smile, but deep down, she was angered by his high-handedness and aloofness towards her. "But may I be allowed to vanish from view now and then, just to gather up branches and the other things I’d need?" She asked.

Instead of answering, he lifted his brows and regarded her in cold silence.

Mia decided to take his silence for a yes, even though she knew it wasn’t intended as anything of the sort. She had made up her mind to get away from him, and to accomplish that urgent goal, she was prepared to stoop to almost anything, including acting cute to calm his aloofness.

"When I was a little girl, i used to give my snowmen carrot or cucumber noses," she told him happily, and with her small ability at acting, she smiled a little as she added, "I’ll look in the refrigerator to see what we have so I can use them on my snowman." She headed towards the kitchen.

The refrigerator was beside the kitchen cabinets, which she had noticed last night contained some oddly shaped keys to unknown locks. With her left hand, Mia opened the refrigerator, and with her right, she silently pulled the cabinet drawer open, her fingers groping for the keys she had seen the other day.

"Hmm, no carrots no cucumbers," she said over her shoulder, glancing up at Neil with another fake, innocent smile, then she sneaked a quick look in the cabinet drawer. She saw one of the keys and picked it up, but she knew there had been more than just this one yesterday. As she was about to close the drawer, her eyes fell on the other keys—three other keys peeking out from under some mixing spoons.

With her eyes on the contents of the refrigerator, Mia managed to pick up another one of them, but her shaking hand and long fingernails made it impossibly awkward to pick up the other two, particularly without looking. Just when she nearly had one of them, she heard him move, and when she looked up, he was walking straight toward her.

Mia quickly yanked her hand out of the drawer and closed it, with two keys pressed in her palm, her voice shaking with anxiousness as she asked. "Wh-what do you want in the kitchen?"

He glared at her."Something to eat, why?"

"Nothing, just wondering." She scooted past him as he walked towards the counter. "Help yourself." She said.

He paused, his gaze following her as she walked stiffly over to the kitchen exit, "Why are you walking like that? Is something wrong with your legs?" He asked, his cold voice betraying a hit of concern.

Mia’s mouth went dry. "Nothing. I mean...I found a thermal underwear in a drawer and wore them under my clothes, so I could stay warmer when I’m outside building my snowman."

He gazed at her face as if searching for something, then he spoke to her with a stern voice as if she were a child, "Stay close to the house where I’d be able to see you," he warned. "Don’t make me come looking for you."

"I will," she lied with a smile, already opening the door of the store closet where she had seen some winter helmet and thick gloves stored in there yesterday.

"What do you think I should use for its eyes and nose?" she asked, deciding to blabber about the details of her snowman in hopes of boring him into letting his guard down.

"I don’t know and, to be perfectly honest, I don’t give a damn, Harrison. Go do your thing and leave me alone." He said, pulling out something from the cabinet.

Putting on a look of guileless enthusiasm, Mia looked over her shoulder as she looked through the new winter boots in the store closet while ignoring his warning to be left alone. "When I was a little girl, I used to wish my snowman would come to life just like the one in Frozen." she told him, unconsciously using a girlish tone. "Have you watched Frozen?"

"No."

"Hmm, I’m not surprised. I bet you don’t even watch movies." She said ingenuously.

Instead of replying, he studied her in speculative silence for a moment then he rudely turned his back on her and returned his attention to what he was mixing in a bowl.

Mia would have dropped all further attempts at conversation, but she had just thought of a way to make him so bored he wouldn’t care to find her later on when she disappeared from his view. "Since you haven’t watched Frozen, I’ll gladly tell you the story and what I like about the movie. Elsa is my favorite of all, and there are times I wish I had her magic. I mean, she could build a castle made of ice, and a living snowman, Olaf, who happened to also be my favorite. Can you imagine having a company like a cute talking snowman," she laughed, pulling on a pair of waterproof gloves she found inside the store closet. Glancing over her shoulder with a bright smile as she stood up and closed the store door, she added, "Isn’t that interesting?"

He took a knife out of the cutlery drawer and opened a cabinet. "Fascinating," he mocked in a flat tone.

"You don’t sound very fascinated," Mia complained, determined to annoy him into telling her to go outside and leave him alone, which was exactly what she wanted to do. "I mean, the least you could do is try to concentrate on my story and ask me questions. You should ask me what Olaf sounds like and what Elsa’s magic is like. If you even want, I can tell you the story scene by scene. Alright, I will tell you—"

He slammed the cabinet door with a loud crash that made Mia swirl around, and her gaze immediately fell on the knife in his fist. "Mia," he warned, "shut that little hole on your face!"

His sudden mood swing would have been enough to remind her that Neil Wayner was a dangerously unpredictable foe, but with a knife blade flashing in his hand and his eyes glittering with menace, he looked fully capable of committing cold-blooded murder. And at that moment, Mia felt all blood drain out of her face. The scene of walking into a room and finding her mother’s dead body, flashed into her mind.

Neil saw the color drain from her face, he saw the way she was staring at the knife in his hand, and he knew exactly what she was thinking about him. His simmering anger built to a fury. "That’s right," he taunted. "I’m a murderer. A cold-blooded murderer."

"B-but you said you didn’t do it," she reminded him, trying very unsuccessfully to sound calm and convinced.

"I said that," he jeered in a silken voice that sent chills down her spine, "but you know better, don’t you, little one?"

She swallowed repeatedly and started backing away from him. "Can I go outside now?" Without waiting for him to answer, she grabbed blindly for the door of the kitchen and opened it, and without waiting for a second, she rushed out.

Behind her, Neil stood perfectly still, fighting to calm himself and to block out the horror he’d seen in her face. He told himself it didn’t matter what she thought or that she had looked adorable chattering about a talking snowman or that she was sweet and good and clean and that, compared to her, he felt inhuman and filthy.