Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,61

best thing, “Tad.”

He looked suspiciously between Adley and I, and I willed her to look pleased standing at my side. Even I knew that was a long shot. She spent ninety percent of her time looking displeased, but thankfully the rejected applicant had no choice but to accept it. He didn’t miss another opportunity to touch me though, with a farewell handshake. Adley and I were silent until the click of the door echoed from the foyer to our ears. Quick to put distance between us, she went to the sofa, lifting the next folder with nonchalance as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

“If you ever call me sweetheart again, I’ll cut off your balls.” Her eyes never left the papers she scanned.

She didn’t deserve the satisfaction of my wince.

“Don’t worry; I only have pet names for girls I actually like.”

A small twitch pulled up the left side of her upper lip in the utterance of a smile, pleased with my cutting comment. It was official. I’d never known a single creature as magnificently backwards as Adley Adair.

“You were late,” I told her, not ready to play nice.

“I was sunbathing and fell asleep,” she admitted, explaining the slightest sunburn kissing her cheeks, nose, and forehead. “And I’m doing you a favor, remember? You’re lucky I’m here at all…Although from the looks Tad was giving you, I’d say I just interrupted you from getting real lucky.”

“Jealous?”

She scoffed. “Even if I was the type of girl who got jealous, I can assure you that you will never be the boy who pushes me to it.”

There was too much conviction in her words. They begged me to prove her wrong. She felt something for me. The kind of sex we had didn’t exist in a world of indifference. Whether it be lust, love, or hate; Adley felt something. If I was willing to admit it, then why couldn’t she?

The doorbell chimed, and she shuffled the papers of the next folder into a neat stack again.

“That must be Ms. Candace Harris.”

I greeted the next candidate at the door alone. She was blond, dyed to an icy white sheen, with big Bambi eyes and even bigger boobs. I thought she looked like a Barbie doll.

“Hi, I’m Candace!” She bypassed the handshake that Tad had offered and went right for a hug, her feminine curves pushing up against me in all the right places. I’d always gone for more exotic looking girls, but I wasn’t one to turn down a free pet either.

“Call me Declan.” I let her pass me and my eyes settled on the heavily tanned skin just below the end of her frayed jean skirt.

Nope, she wasn’t my type at all. But Adley didn’t know that. I smirked.

Alright, Adley Adair, let’s see just how much of the not-jealous-type you really are.

Game on.

Chapter Eleven

Adley

“Looking good, Alfred,” I complimented the Hawaiian bodyguard as I approached his post Monday morning. We were shooting outside and on-location at a farmer’s market, and he wore a pair of sunglasses where he sat with his arms crossed tightly over his barrel-like chest.

I’d never seen him sit down before, and from his stiff back and tense posture, it was safe to say there was a good reason that I hadn’t. Both he and the chair looked uncomfortable as his bulging body tested the plastic’s boundaries of the four legs beneath him.

“This weather is pretty extreme, huh? I don’t think they’d mind if we moved under the wardrobe tent,” I continued conversationally, with no expectation of him joining in on my small talk. He never did, and even if he had, I could easily predict what he would’ve said (or at least what the general message would’ve been). He would tell me that the hot sun could burn blisters directly onto his skin and he still wouldn’t have moved from his designated spot.

His eyewear prevented me from seeing the focus of his gaze, but his head was pointed predictably towards the action in front of the camera, where Georgia was taking twice as long to set up the shot, as she directed all the extras circulating around Madeline and Declan. If all bodyguards were as dedicated as Alfred, it was a miracle that anyone got stalked anymore.

I wasn’t nearly as devoted to Madeline’s wellbeing as he was, but I settled in the chair beside him anyways. I hadn’t made much leeway in my mission to win his approval. My attempts at bribes went unrewarded (apparently he didn’t eat sweets,