Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 280 - 18

Chapter 280: Chapter 18

As the morning sun rose from the horizon, its golden rays touched the white, huge mansion on the small island bathing it in a gentle, warm light that made it shine like a jewel in the quiet dawn.

Seated on the terrace of the mansion which originally belonged to Neil Wayner with a cup of morning coffee and a laptop and a few documents on his desk, Liam looked toward the railing as the mansion’s caretaker swore under his breath and glared at an approaching group of reporters.

The caretaker was a middle-aged man with gray hair and aging blue eyes. He looked down at the reporters and turned to Liam, "They never listen, they’re back again. You might want to go back inside." He warned Liam as they began to set up their cameras upon spotting Liam on the terrace.

"He’s up there! Mr. Wayner, we’ve come a long way to have a word with you!" yelled one of the reporters with an accent in his English.

Liam swore under his breath and raised the documents, concealing his face. He enjoyed his time on the terrace and liked working there, but ever since the reporters of this country had discovered that someone was staying in the mansion, they believed it was Neil and his family and kept coming back to have a word with him.

"I don’t know how Neil puts up with this. I’d start waving a shotgun at them if I had to endure all this invasion all the time. No wonder he’s hiding his children from the media."

Until yesterday, the mansion had been peacefully secluded, but some eager fans of Neil’s had seen the mansion and realized to whom it belonged. The word had spread like wildfire across the island.

Within hours, the mansion became a tourist attraction of its own, with reporters and paparazzi milling around the property hoping to capture a picture of Neil or his family and making a damned nuisance of themselves. The more Neil and Mia hid their children from the media, the more curious and persistent the reporters became in trying to know them.

Now, Liam, who had come to this island to get some work done, was regretting it. He hadn’t had a moment of peace ever since word spread that Neil was the one staying there, which was why he’d ended up going to the Island Club restaurant yesterday.

Some of them were still hanging around last night when he returned from his evening with Rayne, and to give Liam some peace, Neil’s caretaker had moved the mansion’s barriers back as soon as Liam was inside.

Now the mansion was surrounded by a perimeter fence, which isolated them from annoying pedestrians but gave them no protection from persistent reporters and paparazzi.

"I’m checking with the other properties to see if they have a more secluded area that’s isolated enough to keep you away from the media," the caretaker said in the resigned tone of a man who’d been through this drill many times in the past.

"Unfortunately, for now, you’ll have to use the back entrance to get in and out of the mansion," the caretaker added. He had been at the mansion long enough to know how Neil had escaped the annoying reporters the last time he came with his family on a short vacation.

"That’s fine," Liam said. "I have some errands to do in town this morning."

"I’ll tell your driver to have the car ready to leave in—?" He paused, waiting for Liam’s answer.

Liam glanced at his watch. It was 10:15. "In half an hour."

"Alright. I’ll try my best to make sure the reporters are out of here before you return," the caretaker said, but Liam waved his hand dismissively.

"I won’t be coming back here tonight. I’d rather stay in a hotel," he said, remembering his arrangements with Rayne tonight. At first, he’d wanted to bring her here and let them have all the fun they could in the world, but looking down at the reporters he realized it was a terrible idea.

"You’ll probably get more peace and quiet that way," the caretaker said with an apologetic sigh. He started to leave; then he turned and said with a slight smile, "Mr. Galverra phoned from New York earlier. I told him about the reporters. He said to tell you everything is delightfully quiet and pleasant where he is."

Liam acknowledged Neil’s joke with a brief smile. Neil and his family were staying at Liam’s apartment in New York while he finished attending some important meetings with some investors there, while Mia went there for a tour with her children.

Neil must be having the best time of his life with no reporters on his trail while Liam suffered to get them of off him here.

When the caretaker left, Liam leaned back in his chair, his coffee and work momentarily forgotten as his thoughts drifted to his extraordinary behavior with Rayne Wallace the night before.

This morning, in the bright light of day, he was amused and a little embarrassed by the lengths he’d gone to please her. He’d acted completely unlike himself last night, and everything surprised him now that he thought about it.

When she’d asked him to help a stray dog, he’d promptly summoned an ambulance and physician and then volunteered to help take the dog to a vet like some eager errand boy. Later, when she refused to sleep with him or see him again unless he told her about himself, she’d been giving him an ultimatum, and he’d known it at the time.

He’d known it, he’d refused to be manipulated, and he’d left—exactly as he should have done. But then, driven by the severest case of brain-numbing lust in his recollection, he gave in and went back to answer her questions like a fool.

And if that weren’t odd enough, he then had a funny sense of chivalry and decided not to sleep with her in her boyfriend’s hotel room. Instead, he chose to wait until today and take her to his own place instead.

That particular decision to wait was doubly bizarre in view of the fact that he’d been needlessly and outrageously blunt with her all evening about his intentions to sleep with her. In hindsight, most of his behavior the night before was baffling and yet, not entirely.

Minutes after he’d arrived at her hotel last night, everything about her started to resonate with him.

At least, that’s how he’d felt then. But today, without the moonlight and music, and without the special circumstances that had made the night before feel important, the ’magic’ might be gone. At this moment, Liam wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Ever since his family had turned their backs on him and accused him of his stepbrother’s death, believing he was the only one with a strong motive to kill Alvin, and his sister had taken Lilly back from him, Liam had felt himself becoming more hardened and detached from many things he used to enjoy, especially women.

They no longer amused him or gave him the pleasure of just being in their presence as they used to in the past. He had become a man who did nothing but spend his days buried in his work. He had become cold, almost numb, to everything that once brought him joy. Now, a beautiful young redhead with eyes like the greenest grass in the world was getting to him in a way no other woman had.

What surprised him the most was the fact that the thought of her had kept him awake, wondering what it would have felt like if he’d taken her to bed last night.

In the midst of that thought, Liam noticed another bus headed straight toward the mansion, and he cursed for the hundredth times under his breath, knowing more reporters had come to ruin his mood and disrupt his work.

He glanced at his watch and pushed his chair back. He still had to pack an overnight case because he would be damned if he came back here for any reason at all. However, as he strolled away from the terrace, he couldn’t help but wonder if Rayne still wanted to go through with the plan or if the magic from last night had faded and she had changed her mind.