Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 146: Dance

Chapter 146: Dance

[Music Recommendation: Burning by Lewis Capaldi.]

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Neil noticed Mia’s shoulders stiffen the moment he walked up behind her at the glass wall, and her reactions to him began to genuinely confused him. Rather than turning her into his arms and kissing her, which was what he would have done if she were any other woman he had payed to pleasure him, he decided on a more subtle method of getting her where he wanted her to be without making her uneasy.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he met her gaze in the glass wall, tipped his head toward the house speaker where the song was still playing in the background, and said with a teasing formality, "May I have the next dance, Miss Harrison?"

She turned around, her enchanting smile aglow with surprise, and Neil’s spirits soared crazily simply because she was pleased. He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets to keep himself from touching her and said with a wry small grin, "The last time I asked a woman to dance with me, I was more properly dressed for the occasion in a white shirt, black tie, and my favorite black suit. But too bad...she turned me down and embarrassed me in front of my peers."

"Really? Why did she do that?" She asked, curious to know what sort of a woman would turn down such a man.

Neil smiled, "She turned me down because she probably thought I was too short for her liking."

Mia raised a confused eyebrow because Neil Wayner was 6’3 tall, and she couldn’t help but think he was either joking or else the woman had been a giant. "Were you really shorter than she was?" She asked to confirm her thoughts.

He nodded. "I was barely above her stomach. But I didn’t regard that as a serious obstacle at the time because I had a wild crush on her." He laughed.

Realization dawned on her then and her small smile faded completely. "How old were you?"

"Five." He answered.

She looked at him as if she thought the rejection had hurt him, which, now that he thought about it, it didn’t, because it was just his childhood nonsense of having a crush on a woman older than he was at his late father’s birthday party. And that had happened before he’d met the little girl who’d become his little Mimi then.

"If I were there, iy would never have turned you down, Neil." She whispered softly.

The little catch in her voice and the soft look in her eyes were almost Neil’s undoing. Mesmerized by the foreign feelings unfolding inside him, he pulled his hands out of his pockets and silently held his left palm out to her, his gaze locked to hers. She laid her smaller hand in his, and he slid his arm around her narrow waist, drawing her close against him, while Lewis Capaldi’s song ’Burning’ filled the room with his incredible voice stirring unknown emotions into Neil.

’Well, maybe I’m a fool for falling in love with you when I had nothing left to lose

And nothing more I could give, went down with your sinking ship

Now I don’t think I’ll make it through

Now it’s only the beat of my heart

That reminds me not to stare at the sparks

Can’t set fire to my soul just to keep you...’

The song’s lyrics swirled around in the background.

A jolt suddenly shook Neil when he felt her legs and thighs coming into intimate contact with his own as she matched his steps with effortless grace, and when she laid her cheek lightly against his chest, his heart began to beat much too fast than it had ever before. He hadn’t even kissed her yet, and desire was already pounding through every nerve ending in his body. To distract himself from his feelings, he tried to think of an appropriate topic of conversation that would further his ultimate goal without immediately arousing him more than he already was.

Recalling that it had felt good to joke about the tire he’d spoiled, he decided that it would benefit both of them if they could laugh about other events that hadn’t been one bit funny at the time. Furthermore, he liked the feeling of laughing with her, he wanted to laugh more and forget about his problems for as long as they were here, for now.

Linking his fingers through hers, he brought her hand against his chest and said lightly against her hair, "By the way, Miss Harrison, about your unscheduled flights over the mountains on that snowbike today..."

Mia caught his wry tone immediately, she tilted her head back, and showed her expression of wide-eyed innocence that Neil had to fight back the urge not to kiss that innocence off her face.

"Yes, what about it?" she said.

"Where the hell did you go when you shot over the edge of the mountain like a rocket and vanished?" He frowned down at her.

Mia’s shoulders shook with laughter as she noticed his frown. "I landed in the embrace of a large pine tree."

"That was very clever of you," he teased. "You stayed nice and dry and tricked me into acting like an insane person in that freezing river."

Instead of taking his words as the joke he’d intended it to be, Mia’s expression turned serious. "That part wasn’t funny. What you did was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do."

Neil felt the hardness in his heart melt away, It wasn’t the words she said that melted him, it was the way she was looking at him, the admiration in her eyes, the awed wonder in her voice. After the humiliation of his trial and the dehumanizing effects of his time in prison, it was heartwarming to be looked at like a man, not an animal.

Moreover, to have her look at him as if he were brave and normal and decent was a gift more precious to him than anything he had ever been given, she didn’t look at him like his uncle did. He wanted to crush her in his arms, to lose himself in her sweetness, to wrap her around him like a blanket and bury himself in her, he wanted to be the best lover she’d ever had and to make this night as memorable for her as it was going to be for him.

Mia watched his gaze drop to her lips, and in a state of anticipation that had mounted to dizzying excitement in the last hour, she waited for him to kiss her.

When it became obvious he wasn’t going to do it, she covered her disappointment with her best, brightest smile and tried to be amusing, "If you ever meet Owen again, please don’t tell him I danced with you tonight."

"Why not?" He asked calmly, but deep down, there was nothing calm about his feelings.

"Because he picked a fight with the last person I danced with at an event."

Despite the absurdity of it, Neil felt a sharp twinge of jealousy in his heart, and before he could control himself, he remarked, "You seemed to love Owner more than I thought you do then, no doubt you wish you were with him rather than I." He began to release her waist with a dark scowl on his face.

But Mia chuckled at his dark scowl and hastily spoke before he’d release her. "No, I’d rather be with you than with him, you__"

"Damn you!" he chided her, then catching her by surprise, he pulled her tightly against his length while ’All Of Me’ by John Legend began to play on the house device in the background. No matter how hard Neil tried to think it through, he couldn’t tell what was wrong with his emotions.

"I know exactly how your poor fiance must have felt when he saw you dancing with another man." If he were the one, he’d have beaten the man to near death.

Mia rolled her eyes. "You don’t really expect me to believe that you were jealous just now, do you?"

Neil’s eyes fixed greedily on her full lips. "Four minutes ago," he murmured, "I would have said I was incapable of feeling such a lowering emotion."

"Yeah. Right," she said with amusement in her voice, not taking his words of feeling jealous seriously. If there was something she was hundred percent certain of, it was that Neil Wayner didn’t love her. She then added, "You are overacting, General Wayner."

Neil went still at that. If he had to make a choice between having Mia imagine him as an escaped convict when he took her to bed tonight or as the General he once was, he’d have chosen the former without hesitation. At least the former was better at this moment. As a General, he’d spent more than a decade of his life living with an image of the world’s hero. He’d had his privacy and his life invaded by unknown heiresses who wanted to sleep with the infamous General Wayner. Not the man. The image. In fact, this evening had been the first time he had ever been absolutely certain a woman wanted him simply for himself and not because he was the infamous General Wayner, and it made him angry to think that he had been wrong.

"Why," Mia said cautiously, "are you looking at me like that?"

"Why did you have to bring up ’General Wayner’ at this particular moment, and why would you think I’m overreacting?" He raised a demanding brow.

"I don’t think you’ll like the answer." She said, avoiding his gaze.

"Try me, senorita," he clipped.

Her eyes narrowed at his tone but she said. "All right. I said it because I hate insincerity."

Neil’s brows snapped together. "Do you think you could possibly be a little more specific here?"

"Definitely," Mia replied, then continued to explain with an uncharacteristic bluntness, "I said it because you pretended that you were jealous. And I thought it was not only unlike you but insincere, particularly because I know, and you know, that I have to be the least attractive woman you would bother to have feelings for in your entire arrogant life! Furthermore, after you were sent to prison, I learned from your so called ’soon to be wife,’ Davina that you only got yourself into my life because you wanted to get some information from me. She told me everything I didn’t know about your mission. So, since I’m not treating you like a murderer anymore, I’d also appreciate it if you’d at least be sincere with me and not act like I meant something more than the desire we both have for each other."

So that she wouldn’t give her heart the hope that there was a chance of being loved by him, she’d rather prefer he be sincere with his feelings rather than pretend. Mia thought. Finally registering the thunderous expression on his face, she jerked her gaze from his and stared at his shoulder, embarrassed and ashamed for letting her hurt feelings drive her to such an outburst. She braced herself for his explosion, but after a moment of ominous silence she said in a small voice, "I suppose I probably didn’t need to be that specific. I’m sorry. Now it’s your turn..."

"My turn to do what?" he retorted calmly.

"I imagine you’d tell me that I was rude and obnoxious just now..." She muttered softly while avoiding his gaze.

"If that’s what you want to hear, then fine. You were."

He had stopped dancing a moment ago, and Mia drew a long breath before she raised her gaze to his impassive face. "You’re angry, aren’t you?" She asked in a small voice.

"I’m not certain."

"What do you mean, you aren’t certain?"

"I mean that, where you’re concerned, I haven’t been certain of anything since the day I met you, and the uncertainty is getting worse by the moment we are staying together."

He sounded so strange, so...off balance... that Mia felt a gentle smile touch her lips. She doubted very much if any other woman, no matter how beautiful, could have put him in exactly this state she’d put him in now. She didn’t know how it had happened, but she felt rather proud of it. "I think," she said happily, "I like that."

He wasn’t amused. "Unfortunately, I don’t." He didn’t like the feeling he was having nor did he like the wild beating of his heart whenever he looked into her eyes.