Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 237: "Take off your dress."

Chapter 237: "Take off your dress."

At the Galverra estate, countless soldiers could be seen around the premises with guns, while outside the gates, reporters swarmed the grounds, hoping to catch a glimpse of Neil Wayner and interview him about his wife’s sudden kidnapping.

Word had already spread around the country about Mia Galverra’s disappearance and how her husband had turned the city upside down to find her. But none of the media people had gotten the opportunity to see him or get him on their cameras; he had been all over the place for the past three days his wife had been missing.

His residence was a no-entry zone with so many soldiers surrounding it, and so the reporters stood outside waiting, with some of them standing at the gate and others sitting around eating their breakfast as they hadn’t left the premises for long.

Inside the house was as quiet as a mourning house. The soldiers weren’t allowed inside, only Liam, who’d been trying to get his friend to eat even a bite of food. For the past three days Mia had been missing, Neil hadn’t sat down in one place for more than twenty seconds, nor had he slept or eaten anything. He hadn’t even stepped into his house as he swore to only get inside after he’d found his wife. But somehow this morning, Liam had persuaded him into coming back home.

"Neil, you can’t continue like this. Can you even see yourself? You look terrible," remarked Liam, who sat before a table filled with the food he’d ordered for Neil. But his friend didn’t even spare the food a glance; his head was bent down over his palms. He’d remained like that for two hours since he’d been forced back home by Liam.

"Neil," Liam called his name again to gain his attention. "I can understand your feelings but..."

Neil snapped out, "You have no idea what it feels like to be in my shoes! How could I eat when my wife is somewhere suffering or even being tortured?" He stood up, running his fingers through his hair in frustration as he paced. "Do you know how it feels to hear her voice calling out to me every time I sit down? She’s pregnant, for goodness’ sake! She suffers from occasional pain in the stomach. How could I relax knowing she’s in the hands of some bastard suffering?"

His voice softened to a bitter note as he looked at the food Liam had ordered. "I can’t eat. By God, if I ate that food knowing she’s probably starving, I might choke to my death." He swallowed convulsively to hold back his emotions, then, looking at Liam, and seeing the remorse in his eyes, he muttered softly, "I’m sorry." Then he walked up the stairs to a room that reminded him of his wife.

Entering the room, he banged the door and fell to his knees. He didn’t cry, but he could feel his eyes burning with the tears he hadn’t allowed himself to shed for over twenty years. Not once had he ever cried since he’d lost his family; it was like he’d lost the ability to shed tears, but now he could feel it burning his eyes. He clenched his fists as he recalled how he’d gone barging into Kelvin Rodrigo’s hospital room two days ago.

Kelvin had been admitted to the hospital from a sudden heart attack after his company and empire began to fall because of Xavier Galverra, and since Neil knew the man would want some sort of revenge on him for taking away the wealth he’d worked his life to gain, he’d first gone to confront him with his men. Neil could still remember how the bastard had laughed in his face when he heard Mia had gone missing.

Kelvin’s laughter echoed in his memory. "So, you knew about my relation with that thing and still chose to be with her? I thought you were smart, but it turns out you’re as foolish and stupid as your father. It’s true what they say: stupidity runs in the blood."

Neil had gotten so angry he reached the bed in two strides and grabbed Kelvin’s neck, hurling him up from his sick bed. "Say another word about my family, and watch me rip off your fucking head! Where are you keeping Mia?" Neil demanded through clenched teeth. "I know what you did to Mia and my family twenty years ago, and you should be damned grateful I haven’t skinned you alive for it yet. But if you dare hurt my wife, I won’t hesitate to finish you before your illness does."

Kelvin’s mocking smile fell as Neil’s hand tightened around his neck. His eyes reddened and he fought to take a breath, but he didn’t plead for Neil to let him go. He would never plead for his life. He smirked smugly at the fact that the boy knew everything. "...so you’re not killing me for what I did to your family, but instead you’re taking away my life, my empire. That makes sense." He tried to laugh, but the hand around his neck tightened even more, as if it would knock the soul out of him.

He looked up at Neil’s enraged gray eyes and choked out, "As much as I’d love to do harm to that girl and you for being the cause of Ella’s death, you’d only be wasting your time on me, boy. I have more important things to do than take your useless wife. She’s probably tired of you and your anger issues and ran off with some other guy."

Neil had sent a bone-crushing punch to his face despite the fact that Kelvin was on an IV drip and in a hospital. Kelvin fell back, but Neil grabbed his neck again. He could tell when people were lying because he’d investigated a lot of criminals when he was still in the military. As much as he hated Kelvin and wanted to blame him for Mia’s kidnapping so he could have another solid reason to kill him instead of allowing him to suffer, he had known immediately that the man hadn’t kidnapped her.

He jerked his hand away from Kelvin’s neck as if he’d been burned. He watched in satisfaction as Kelvin coughed and struggled to catch his breath, his nose oozing with blood.

Neil had already sworn not to kill Kelvin and to allow him to experience hell on Earth until he begged to be dead or ended his own life. Neil wasn’t going to let his rage lead him to take Kelvin’s life right there. Thus he decided to leave. When he began to turn to leave, Kelvin laughed at him and mocked him for being a coward, saying he hoped Neil would never find his wife.

Remembering that now, Neil stood up and began angrily scattering everything in sight. He had been the one to arrange this room for Mia to use for pregnancy exercises, but he was too angry and out of his senses to stop what he was doing. Perhaps his sleep deprivation was adding to everything, and the fact that he’d looked everywhere in Mirage Mesa and couldn’t find her. He began to scatter everything: the bouncing balls, the light dumbbells, the foam roller. The wall mirrors reflected his fatigued appearance, making him even angrier, until his eyes fell on an electric rocking chair, and he stopped dead in his tracks, about to shatter the wall mirrors.

The electric rocking chair wasn’t just Mia’s favorite but his as well. He recalled what they’d both done to make the chair their favorite spot the first day he’d brought her into the room to take a look. He’d arranged the room three days after their marriage certificate was signed, and he could still vividly remember what had happened between them.

The sight of it brought a sudden wave of emotion crashing over him, nearly knocking the breath out of his lungs. He staggered forward, reaching out a trembling hand to touch the soft armrest, his fingers brushing against the soft fabric as the memories of that memorable day flooded his mind.

"What is this?" she’d asked, walking around the weird looking electric chair that vibrated under her touch, and Neil laughed at her reaction of jolting back at the sudden vibration.

"I saw it on an ad, it’s an electric rocking chair for pregnant women."

"What will I be needing it for?"

"Exercise. It says on the manual that it helps relax the tense muscles and helps with blood flow. If you’re feeling tired, you can always rely on it to help you relax."

She regarded him skeptically. "And you believed what the manual and the ad says? How can a weird looking chair like this help me relax? I don’t think I’d be needing it."

"You will, my love." He grinned boyishly. "Let me show you how it works." Using his hand, he pushed on the seat, which had been upholstered with at least one and a half feet of soft cushioning.

"Once you sit down, you press the button here and the chair would turn on. You can charge your phone on it. You can also choose to make it rock or bounce depending on your mood with the remote control."

Neil sat on the chair experimentally, relaxing on it and resting his feet on the stepping board in front. He pressed the remote and made the chair bounce, and the seat moved up and down slowly.

"You look ridiculous," Mia said, giggling at the sight of her husband on the odd looking chair. "Alright, I like all the other equipments and I will be glad to use them all when the time comes, but only if you promise to return that thing to where you bought it from."

His smiling gray eyes stared into hers, and he regarded her thoughtfully. When he spoke, his tone had lowered just a notch. "Don’t be so hasty, my love. You might enjoy using it when the time comes."

"I don’t think so," she said, her eyes sparkling. "If I want exercise, I will take a walk rather than sit on that thing."

"Do you want to try to sit on it now?"

"No," she waved her hands shaking her head.

"I will make you want to sit on it everyday from now, querida." His gaze traveled from her head to her toes in a single hot sweep. And then he astonished her by murmuring,

"Take off your dress."