Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 156: Aftermath of playing outside

Chapter 156: Aftermath of playing outside

"Good girl. Now close your eyes and give me a kiss."

Mia’s shoulders were shaking with laughter as she obediently closed her eyes and childishly pucked out her lips for a kiss. But instead of Neil’s lips, a cold, wet snow kissed her back—a face full of it. He deliberately smashed it all over her cheeks while she sputtered and laughed harder, then he got up. "Now," he said, grinning like a satisfied sultan as he held a hand out to help her up, "you’re sure you’ve had enough of the play?"

"I’ve had more than enough," Mia laughed, finally noticing how boyishly happy and relaxed he looked after what had been nothing more meaningful than frolicking in the snow. The last traces of tension were gone from his handsome face, and she felt a mixture of tenderness and happiness that something as ordinary as a snow fight evidently gave him so much pleasure than anything. She’d never seen him laugh nor smile this hard, to the extent he was wiping off tears of laughter from the corner of his eyes.

His happiness, for some reason, made her even more happier than she’d ever been for the past five years. She’d also never laughed this much after her mother’s passing, nor had she played in the snow like this as an adult.

Either way, she realized one thing: Neil had been exactly right when he said to concentrate only on enjoying the present and creating memories for the future. It was clearly what he needed at this point of his life, and she vowed to give him just that until he would be unable to take all the happiness.

Neil stepped through the deep snow holding her arm for support, his mind completely on the project of building the snowman ahead of him that he didn’t notice Mia’s mischievous grinning face.

"I assume we can now get down to serious snowman business," he announced, standing in front of the formless lump of snow that had been her original snowman and studying it with his hands on his waist and his back to her, "now that you understand the supreme consequences of provoking someone so much larger, stronger, and wiser than your little self. And since I’ve finally gotten your proper respect, I have some very specific ideas about this deformed snow—" before he could complete his words, a huge snowball hit him disrespectfully on the back of his head.

"I see you haven’t learned to respect me yet," he laughed as he swirled around and saw that she was about to hit him with another snowball. He didn’t let her throw the snowball before he ran after her.

"I’ve learnt my lesson, I won’t do it again, Neil!" She giggled as he chased after her.

"Oh, let me be the one to decide. Stop right there!"

Their laughter rang out in the winter afternoon, startling the squirrels who watched from the trees while the two humans shattered the peace of the atmosphere, playing like children in the snow, chasing each other around trees, flinging snowballs, and then got down to the business of completing a snowman that, when finished, resembled no other snowman in the recorded history.

****

After playing in the snow for hours, Mia and Neil sat together on the sofa beside the fireplace, with their legs stretched out, their feet propped side by side on the coffee table with a blanket stretched over them. Mia gazed out the glass walls of the living room with a faint smile, she was deliciously exhausted from their day outside, and a hearty meal, and Neil’s intense lovemaking on the sofa the moment they’d returned.

He hadn’t even given her a moment of rest, he’d just locked eyes with her, then everything was a blur when their lips locked together, he’d kissed her like it was their first time, like he was a starving man and she was his water. Before she’d known anything, they were both naked and he was inside her within seconds, thrusting hard and fast like he wanted to be one with her. She’d shamelessly moaned for him to go faster when he’d slowed down to make sure she was fine, she’d been too driven by her desires to feel embarrassed at that moment when she was on the verge of an orgasm; she’d moaned and cried his name so hard her voice had turned hoarse when he’d collapsed onto her after they’d both exhausted their strength.

Even now, when the intense lovemaking was long over and he was lost in thought, gazing into the fireplace, she noticed he kept his arm around her, holding her close to his side, her head on his shoulder, as if he very much enjoyed having her close and touching her. Occasionally his fingers played with her disheveled hair and she liked that, but at the moment her mind was on the so called "snowman" he’d built just beyond the glass wall.

With the living room lights dimmed to a mellow glow and the fire in the fireplace reduced to orange cinders, she could just make out the looming, shadowy form of the snowman outside the glass wall. Neil was incredibly creative and imaginative, she thought with a smile, which shouldn’t have been surprising, given his career as a man who’d lived his entire life taking different identities, not to mention the fact that he’d taught himself how to make weapons at a very young age. But even so, a snowman ought to look like a snowman, not a huge abnormal dinosaur.

"What are you thinking about?" Neil asked, his lips brushing a soft kiss on the top of her hair.

Mia tipped her chin up to see his face and grinned. "Your snowman. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that a snowman is supposed to be merry?"

"That," he corrected, looking proud and boyish as he studied the snowman through the glass, "is not a snowman but a snow monster."

"If Olaf were to ever set eyes on that snow monster, he’d run until he lost his stubby legs." She laughed, imagining her favorite cartoon character seeing Neil’s snowman.

"Olaf?" He asked, curious, "Who is that?"

She smiled. "Olaf, in Frozen, the movie I told you about yesterday." Seeing his expression, she guessed he had no idea what movie she was talking about, and that realization made her curious about something she’d been dying to know.

"What kind of depraved childhood did you have not to know of Frozen?" she teased. "Tell me about it."

"Depraved..." Neil muttered, smiling faintly and tightening his arm around her. He could not seem to get enough of her, in bed or out of it, and that was an unprecedented experience for him. She fit the curve of his arm as if she were made for him; in bed, she was a temptress, an angel, and a courtesan. She could drive him to an Incomparable heights of passion with just a sound, a look, or a touch. Out of bed, she was funny, fascinating, stubborn, witty and intelligent.

She could anger him with a word and then melt away his anger with a smile. She was naturally sophisticated, devoid of pretension, and filled with so much life and love that she mesmerized him at times, like when she talked about children and all her experience in the entertainment industry. He had kidnapped her, and in return, she had saved his life. He was supposed to be the cunning, hardened convict, and yet she had been clever enough and brave enough to escape right out from under his nose. Then she had turned around and willingly surrendered her virginity to him with a pure sweetness that made him ache whenever he thought about it.

Apart from the fact that he’d known her as a boy, he could melt in the face of her courage, gentleness, and generosity. He was six years older and a thousand times harder than she, and yet something about her softened him and made him like being soft, both of which were new experiences for him. Before he went to prison, he’d been accused by women_most especially Davina_ of being everything from distant and unapproachable to cold and ruthless. Several unnameable women in his past had told him he was like a machine, and one of them had dared to say he turned on for sex and then turned off for everything else except his work.

During one of his frequent arguments with Davina, she had told him he could charm a snake and he was just as cold as one.

On the other hand, he had never known a woman in his adult life, including Davina, whose primary interest wasn’t in forcing him to do things he didn’t like, and making his uncle get him to do it when he’d refuse her. Not to mention all the other phonies he’d had to endure in the military and in the hands of David Wayner, it wasn’t particularly surprising that he’d become distrustful, disheartened, and callous.

No, Neil thought, that wasn’t true. The truth was he had already been that way before he joined the military—callous and cold enough to be able to turn his back on a normal life of carrying on his father’s name, and even his own real name when he was only twelve. Enough to banish it all from his mind and never, ever look back or discuss it with anyone—not even Davina or Liam, nor the media who would do anything to know his background when he’d first made his name known to the country as Neil Wayner.

His former name, the Galverra relatives, who’d do anything to have him back into the family, and his past were dead facts that he’d tried to bury after his parents death, and he’d managed to do that permanently and irrevocably after he was sent to prison; and nothing on this Earth would ever make him speak about his childhood and his past ever again. Nothing.

"Neil?" She called, and the simple sound of her voice saying his name had a magical effect on him; his name sounded special, different in her mouth, "Hmm?"

"Do you realize I don’t know very much about you, even though we’re now ... er, we’ve been..." Mia stopped, not certain if it was assuming too much to use the word lovers now that they’d been intimate with each other. In the past, she had no name for their short time relationship, and now five years later, she still had no name for it even though they’d had sex more than once and they’d both enjoyed it.

Neil heard the embarrassed uncertainty in her voice and smiled because he assumed she was probably searching for some prim and proper word to use to describe the unbridled passion they’d shared or else a word to use for what they were to each other, now that they’d shared it.

He smiled into her hair and whispered softly, "Which would you prefer, one word or a phrase?"