Nar
Arabic, meaning Fire
They got ready to sleep. By the foot of the bed, Adrienne watched Justin come closer to her. He took her face in both of his hands.
“My sweet, beautiful Adrienne…” he whispered.
Then he kissed her gently. He wrapped his arms around her waist. She kissed him back and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He unbuttoned the shirt she was wearing. And soon, they were kissing each other passionately. She took his shirt off. He nuzzled her neck. She moaned. She felt the familiar desire creeping in her every vein, slowly consuming her, blocking her senses.
Adrienne thought she wouldn’t feel like this anymore. For days, she thought that all she could do was call Justin’s memory to her mind, just so she could feel alive again. Because she thought it was over. That she had lost him forever.
She could hardly believe that she was back in his arms. And he ignited all of her passions again, arousing her until her mind went completely blank with need and longing.
“Justin,” she whispered hoarsely. “Oh God! Justin, please…”
“I missed you so much, honey,” he whispered hoarsely. They kissed each other, feeling the effects of the time they spent apart. They held on to each other, devouring each other with their kisses. “I wanted you so badly!” he said to her.
“Then take me, Justin!” she whispered hoarsely.
They fell to the bed and barely a second after, they were one. When he looked at her, his eyes were a shade darker. They were drugged with desire and consumed by passion. She felt familiar sparks creeping in her every vein, until it took her to the brink of insanity.
“Justin!” she screamed. His lips descended on hers and he swallowed her cries. Then he moved with more urgency until she heard him scream her name, “Adrienne, honey!” Then he hugged her tightly to his body and she felt his body rock.
When it was over, he looked up and stared at her deeply. He leaned down and kissed her lips gently.
“My Adrienne. Finally… my Adrienne…” he whispered.
She smiled at him weakly. He lay on his back and gathered her gently into his arms. He tilted her chin up and she gazed into his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t quite gentle. I’ve missed you so much, I almost feared that you weren’t real.”
She smiled. “Me, too. It’s okay. I wanted you as much as you wanted me.”
“We’ve got plenty of time to catch up on the time we’ve lost,” he suggested.
She sighed. “I was stupid, Justin. I judged you. I guess, I was scared of your reputation in spite of knowing you better.”
“I know,” he responded. “But it’s okay, honey. We’re both here now.”
She took a deep breath. “And since we’re on the subject of your reputation, I need to ask you something, just to make it clear and to hear it from you directly.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“Someone said you were clubbing with Tara Lambert.”
He laughed. “I was not! I was out with my friends and she happened to know one of them. She was there at Oxygen. But no, I didn’t dance with her. I didn’t flirt with her. I didn’t even exchange three sentences with her. All right?”
“You were talking to her this morning on the phone,” she said.
He rolled his eyes. “Somehow, she got my number. I must remember to cripple whoever gave it to her.” He looked at her for a moment. “If you heard me well enough, I even asked her first who she was. It means, I didn’t have her number. And because I think you will ask anyway, I’m going to tell you now, that she was asking me how I was, blah, blah, blah. She asked me where I was, and I told her straight out that I was in the elevator with my girlfriend. But you hopped out of the lift too fast. I don’t think you heard that.” He smiled at her gently. “At that moment, I wanted to know what it felt like to call you my girlfriend.”
“And?”
He kissed her lips gently. “It felt so damn good, I realized how badly I wanted it to be true.”
“Oh, Justin. I’m sorry it took so long for us to get here.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s true now.” He smiled at her. “And trust me, hon, I haven’t been with any other woman since I met you. Before you, the last woman I’ve been with was named Jamila McBride. And I’ve been faithful ever since.”
Adrienne laughed.
Then Justin added, “How could I talk to her, when all the time, I was cursing the day Ian slept over at my apartment?”
She laughed. “Why?”
“Because I almost lost you.” He kissed her again. Then he chuckled. “I can’t believe it! You were jealous.”
“I was not!” she denied, pulling away from him.
He laughed and pulled her to him for a tight hug. “Too bad,” he whispered. “I would have liked it if you were. Because I sure as hell wanted to punch the walls every time I think about Troy.”
She laughed. “Okay, maybe I was jealous. A little,” she admitted. “I mean when I saw Ian I was…stunned. I’m a woman… and I’m straight. But I thought, wow, she’s so gorgeous!”
Justin laughed. “She better be! She’s my flesh and blood.”
Adrienne’s eyes widened and she pretended to choke. “Help! I can’t breathe! Your inflated head is taking up all the space in the room!”
Justin laughed harder and squeezed her to him again. “Come on! Don’t I at least look a little bit cute to you?”
She rolled on top of him. “Cute is a huge understatement, actually.” She smiled at him. “You’re sinfully handsome.” Then she leaned forward and kissed him until they were lost in the heat of love once again.
They made love again when they woke up in the morning. Adrienne sighed contentedly. She was happy. It was bliss.
Then she realized that her time was up. It was time to face Jill and Yuan, and then Kim and Troy.
She felt her heartbeat double its speed.
Justin rolled on top of her and looked down at her, studying her face.
“Honey, are you okay?” he asked.
She reached up to caress his hair. “I was thinking that…it’s time to face the music.”
Justin smiled at her apologetically. “You know I’m with you on this, right?”
She nodded. He leaned forward and kissed her. “Let’s go have breakfast,” she suggested.
“All right. But promise me we will come up here around noontime just so I could make love to my sweet and lovely Adrienne again.”
She giggled. “I’m surprised you are saying that fifteen minutes after we just did.”
He grinned. “I haven’t been with you for more than a week, what do you expect? Do you think it was easy for me to run into you at Blush? To see you sulking in your office?”
“I wasn’t sulking!” she protested, laughing.
He laughed. “Really? So the puffy eyes and the bad moods weren’t because of me?”
She pinched him. “Lucky bastard!”
She wore a two-piece suit and a sarong was wrapped around her waist. They went down to the beach hand in hand.
They found Yuan and Jill already having breakfast in the restaurant. She nervously approached them.
“Hey guys,” she greeted them.
“Yuan. Jill.” Justin nodded at her friends.
Yuan and Jill smiled but didn’t say anything.
Justin looked down at her, his eyes asking her if she wanted him to stay with her while she talked to her friends.
She took a deep breath and whispered, “I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. I’ll go find Mike and James. I will be back in a while.”
She nodded. Justin leaned down to give her a smack on the lips.
“I’ll see you later guys,” he said to Yuan and Jill before he left.
She sat down on the table. Yuan and Jill were just staring at her. They didn’t speak…but if looks could kill, she’d be dead within a minute.
She took a cigarette from Jill’s pack. At that moment, she could really use nicotine to calm her nerves.
Then she said, “All right. First of all, I wanted to say, I’m sorry. There is absolutely no valid excuse for what I did. I can’t offer any specific explanations. But if you ask me your questions, I will answer them. Truthfully.”
Yuan and Jill looked at each other for a while. Then Yuan leaned back on his seat and said. “First off. Are you still a virgin like we thought you were? Yes or no?”
Adrienne bit her lip. Then she shook her head.
“Thought so,” Yuan murmured.
“Who was it?” Jill followed up.
Adrienne took a deep breath. “Justin.”
“Did you ever sleep with Troy?”
Adrienne shook her head. “You know I didn’t.”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Yuan began sarcastically. “We wouldn’t know! Because all the while, we thought Troy was the boyfriend.”
“You weren’t the two-timing type, Adrienne. Who would have guessed, right?”
Adrienne didn’t have anything to say to that. She didn’t want to aggravate them further. She figured she would accept their anger because they deserved to lash out at her for lying to them for so long.
“You wanted to break up with Troy because of Justin, didn’t you?” Jill inquired in an accusing tone.
She shook her head. “No. I broke up with Troy because I’m not in love with him. I haven’t been for a very long time. And I don’t even know if I really was in love with him in the first place or if I was just in love with the idea of being with a man that my mother approves of.”
“How the hell did you hook up with Justin Adams?” Jill asked. “I work with you at Blush. We were always together when we go out. When we saw him in the bars, you didn’t even stand less than five meters away from him. How could this happen?”
“He couldn’t have met you just yesterday. He calls you honey,” Yuan pointed out. “And you know what? He knows me. He hasn’t even met me. And moreover, how the hell does Justin Adams know Troy?”
“Did you see his face when he was punching the life out of Troy? He was furious! He freaked out when he saw you were hurt! If he was just rescuing us, he wouldn’t have felt so…involved with your fight with Troy! You can’t just…have met him.”
Adrienne took a deep breath. “Jill, remember you told me about some girl that Justin picked up at Gypsys?”
Jill nodded.
“That was me,” she admitted. “I went alone for Gypsys’ opening. I was drinking. I felt frustrated with Troy, my Mom. Justin approached me. Introduced himself, bought me a drink… things got out of hand…I ended up going home with him.”
“Gypsys opened more than four months ago!” Jill exclaimed.
Adrienne nodded guiltily.
“You’ve been seeing each other for more than four months now!?” Jill asked. Her voice was full of shock.
“The shades in your apartment,” Yuan interjected. “The same one he was wearing now. That was him who spent the night with you, wasn’t it? It wasn’t Troy.”
She nodded. “I went to Gypsys. I was mad at my mother and at Troy. I felt like a total failure. I felt that no matter how hard I tried, they would never look at me in a different light. I will always be the inferior one. The less pretty, less smart second daughter. The black sheep of the family. So why bother? I dressed up in this sexy outfit that Jacob had picked for me. I drank a bit and didn’t care that I was alone. He approached me. I pretended not to know him. I even gave him a fake name. Things happened fast, and I spent the night with him.”
“You lost your virginity that night? After just hours of meeting him?”
Adrienne nodded shyly. At times, that part didn’t really make her proud but she really was hopeless to resist Justin’s charms.
“I thought that’s all I’d ever have with him. One night. Make myself feel good in spite of Troy’s and my mother’s efforts to constantly shoot me down. I deserved Justin Adams. Even for just one night.
“Anyway, I was sure that he would forget about me the next day. He wouldn’t even remember the fake name I gave him. But I was wrong. He showed up on my doorstep the following morning. Turned out, he knew who I was from the beginning. He even knew where I lived.”
Jill raised a brow. “And how would he know where you live?”
She took a deep breath. “You know the guy next door to my apartment… torso god you called him. Well, that’s Justin.”
“Oh my God!” Jill sighed in frustration.
“So you went with him, and you gave him the virtue you’ve been saving up for Troy.”
Adrienne took a deep breath. “I wasn’t saving it for Troy. I was saving it for the right moment… the right guy.”
Jill raised a brow. “And Justin Adams… the City’s most wanted playboy seemed like the right guy? Well, I can’t really say I blame you!”
“It’s not just that, Jill.” Adrienne said, trying to be calm. “Justin made me feel things I never felt before.”
“I’m sure he did!” Yuan said. “He wouldn’t be a rakehell for nothing, you know.”
“Would you please just listen to me!” Adrienne finally raised her voice, which silenced her friends.
Adrienne took a deep breath. “You see… I got tired of my life. I realized I’ve been living each day for all the wrong reasons. One night. I decided to just finally live it for my own! And my paths crossed with Justin. I felt this… this sense of need that I couldn’t control…that I haven’t felt with Troy before. I actually forgot that I was a virgin, until he…until he was in me.”
She stared back at them. They listened to her quietly. Their silence encouraged her to go on.
“I wanted to feel guilty. I knew it was wrong. I had spent one night…in sin…with the City’s most notorious playboy,” she said. “But I didn’t feel guilty at all. I felt like… for once in my life, I did something right. I did something that made me happy… regardless of what others would think about me. But I never intended for it to happen again.”
“It was supposed to be just a one-night stand?” Jill asked.
She nodded. “It started out to be a one night thing. And yet, he showed up in my apartment the next day. And then again the following day. Until…we just saw more and more of each other. I couldn’t believe that I lost my virginity to Justin Adams. And I had planned to stop. I knew that after a day, he would forget about me but he didn’t. He was persistent. He…pursued me. Until I got more and more attached to him.”
She looked at her friends. “Guys…the real Justin Adams is far… from the playboy we all thought he was. He is sweet. And caring. He brought out the best in me. He made me feel cared for. He appreciated me for who I was… the way Troy never did. Not even once. He taught me how to trade stocks. He spent almost every night in my apartment. I couldn’t seem to get rid of him.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Yuan asked.
She shrugged. “There could be absolutely no excuse for what I did and didn’t do.”
“He didn’t want it to go public,” Yuan said. “He was the one who didn’t want people to know. That would make sense. Justin Adams wanted to keep his reputation of being a bachelor.”
Adrienne shook her head. “No. It was me. And it annoyed him so much. Once when you went to my place, we had an argument. Because he didn’t want to hide anymore. He was getting tired of being kept a secret. He felt insulted every time I wondered if he would stick around for a long time.
“I tried telling you, too. But you laughed at me. You thought it was the biggest joke on earth. And then you told me, Jill, that if you were to find out, it would ruin our friendship. I got so scared of losing you guys.
“I just didn’t know what to do. I never expected Justin Adams to be…a relationship type of guy. But that’s what we had for months. Troy may have been the official boyfriend. But Justin was…the real one. He was the one I spent my nights with and told my dreams and frustrations to. I never expected him to be so much different from what we know about him.”
“Justin mentioned about the best date he ever had. Northern Lights in Alaska?” Yuan asked.
Adrienne slowly nodded. “Yes. That weekend I told you I was going to Boston, Justin actually took me to Alaska. He wanted to be with me without my fear of being named or being seen with him.”
“Oh God!” Yuan breathed. “How many lies did you tell us, Adrienne? We were your best friends!”
“I know. And I’m really sorry.”
“That day you crashed over my apartment, you weren’t fighting with Troy either, were you?”
Adrienne shook her head. “When Kim spent the night at my place, the next morning, I went to Justin’s apartment and some blonde opened the door and I thought, he was with another girl…”
“But it was his cousin,” Jill finished for her.
Adrienne nodded. “Yeah. He called me, sent me messages, even talked to me at Blush. He wanted to explain. I didn’t want to listen. I realized that I still believed his notorious reputation in spite of knowing him better. I was so stupid.”
“That’s why he told me the reason why he broke up with the girl he was seeing. But he told me not to print it. He knew I might talk about it with you or you might see the video. That was his way of letting you know what really happened that night,” Jill realized, thoughtfully.
“Now, that makes sense! How else would he be confiding in you like you were BFFs?” Yuan said to Jill and Jill actually glared at him.
“His car plate. I-E-N-N-E. It was short for Adrienne, after all,” Jill mused.
Adrienne nodded. “Before we fought, he said he had a surprise for me. But we never got to that part. I even thought that the car belonged to the girl I found in his apartment that morning. But then, I think I’ve always known what he meant when he got that plate. I just stubbornly refused to believe it. I didn’t think that he would do that for me. That I was worth it.”
Adrienne stared at her friends ruefully. “Guys, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to deal with it. It was something that I didn’t expect to last. I thought it was nothing serious. Because Justin Adams wasn’t known to be serious. But now…I know this is real. For the last four months we’ve been together, I can say that I couldn’t ask for anything more from a man. He is everything I want, everything I was asking for in my prayers. If you thought the Justin Adams you knew was drool and swoon-worthy…well the real Justin Adams happens to be much more than that. He’s worth falling head over heels in love with… over and over again.”
“And have you fallen in love with him?” Jill asked.
Adrienne took a deep breath and nodded. “Hopelessly.”
“Does he love you back?” Yuan asked.
She shrugged. “I know that we want to be with each other. I never asked him to be with me, to stay with me, but somehow at the end of each day, I wind up in his arms. I know that I’m important to him. When I got mad, I saw the efforts he made to get me back. Last night, when Troy hit me, I saw the rage on his face. I know he cares about me. He said he’s crazy about me. He didn’t say the ‘L’ word. But for now, that’s good enough.”
Yuan and Jill stared at her for a moment and then Jill said, “You let us talk about him and Tara Lambert! How could you have endured that?”
Adrienne giggled humorlessly. “That wasn’t fun. I wanted to cry, but I had to keep a straight face. That was tough.”
“But just so you know, my friends, who write gossip columns, did confirm that Justin Adams was ignoring Tara Lambert. She chased him. But he seemed to her a slippery fish to catch.”
“And now, we know why,” Yuan said. “At first, we thought that Justin just wasn’t interested in a relationship because he’s just a big-time player who couldn’t be tied down. But now…we know why he was single. He was waiting for the one. And it’s you.”
“He wants me, I know. I don’t know for how long, though. But I don’t care. For once in my life, a guy wants me with every fiber of his soul. And he happens to be a god! And I feel good about myself. All my life, I believed I wasn’t worthy… that I wouldn’t attract a man who’s more than good enough for me.”
“That was your mother talking,” Yuan began. “But you are pretty and smart. You’ve got this appeal that draws men to your feet. But you were raised believing that Kimberly defined beauty. Yet, she won’t even hold a candle to you, Adrienne. You overlooked the fact that you have your own charm.”
“And you wasted years trying to make the Troy thing work,” Jill added. “We never believed it would. You needed a guy who could challenge your spirit to come out. Not clip your wings and make you stiffer than you already were.”
“So now…you and Justin?” Yuan finally asked. His voice lacked the trace of anger now.
Adrienne smiled. “Yes. He said he didn’t want to be the sideline guy anymore. And he doesn’t deserve to be.” She took a deep breath. “I love him, guys. There’s just no…turning back for me anymore. I don’t care about what my Mom will think. I don’t care if she curses me all my life. For once…I just feel like I’m fighting for what I want… what I believe in.”
Adrienne looked at her friends again. “I’m really sorry. I hope you will be able to forgive me.”
Jill and Yuan looked at each other. Then they looked at Adrienne soberly.
“Well, I guess it’s not entirely your fault,” Yuan said. “If we didn’t gossip about Justin a lot or if we didn’t laugh at you the first time you attempted to tell us, then you would have the guts to come clean.”
Jill had tears in her eyes. “You know that I was only kidding when I said that hooking up with Justin and not telling us would be a friendship ender, right?”
Tears welled up in Adrienne’s eyes. “Oh, guys! I’m really sorry!”
Jill and Yuan stood up from their seats and gave Adrienne a hug.
“Oh, honey, if you’re happy, we’re happy,” Jill said. “Just don’t get hurt, okay? And we’re here for you. I mean, Justin is known to be a playboy, yes. But he never seemed committed to anyone. Never been seen with one woman exclusively. And look at what he was doing here with you, Yen? It’s like telling the world that what we know about him were all lies. That he’s human after all. And to tell you the truth, we knew it was serious when we saw his face last night, when he saw that you were hurt.”
“And if he ever hurt you, I will be the first one to kick his ass! Or at least…I would try,” Yuan said. He was tearful, too.
“So, I’m guessing, murder plans are off the table now?” They heard Justin ask behind them.
Jill and Yuan both stared at him for a second and then they smiled.
“Well, if you hurt her, it will come back faster than you can blink,” Yuan said.
Justin sat on the chair beside Adrienne and put an arm around her. “I will remember that,” he said to Yuan in a serious tone and then he kissed Adrienne’s forehead. “I’m starving. Why don’t we order? Do you mind if I join you guys?”
“Go ahead,” Yuan said.
Justin ordered breakfast for all of them.
“Thank you for coming to our rescue last night, Justin,” Yuan stated. “I realized then that I couldn’t stand up to that lunatic.”
Justin shrugged. “Thank you for trying to protect Adrienne, in every possible way you could.”
Yuan laughed. “You are welcome. She’s our best friend. I will rise up to the occasion, when needed. But still, that guy was a psycho, and the fact that he was drunk made him bolder and stronger than me.”
“I thought the fact that he was drunk made it easier for me to put him down,” Justin said.
“No, I don’t think that is true—you have martial arts training in your profile,” Jill pointed out.
“But I wasn’t supposed to use that to assault raging, drunk lunatics.”
“He deserved it.”
“Although, I’ve been wanting to do that to him for a while now,” Justin admitted, looking at Adrienne.
“Oooh, Justin Adams is a jealous guy,” Jill said, with a teasing grin.
“Speaking of which, who was that moron you had a meeting with at Lever du Soleil?” Justin asked Adrienne.
“Who? Jin Starck?”
Justin nodded. His face tightened a bit.
“He’s a client, Justin.”
Yuan and Jill looked at Adrienne for a moment and she knew exactly what they were thinking. Adrienne felt guilty. In truth, Jin Starck is a really nice guy but she never felt that he had become interested in her romantically. But still…she started this relationship with Justin with lies. She wanted none of that in the future.
“After we fought in my office, I got drunk at a bar. He ran into me there.”
Justin stared at her for a moment. He didn’t say anything. He waited for her to continue.
“Justin… he’s not interested in me. In fact, he gave me good advice. He made me realize that that I was wrong about you. That I should have trusted you.”
Justin raised a brow. “Hmmm… interesting,” he murmured. “I’ll send him my compliments in the future then.”
“You have martial arts training?” Yuan asked, changing the topic.
He nodded. “Since I was young. Either I mastered some arts and appear capable enough to defend myself or my grandfather will stuff me with bodyguards. And I didn’t want to look like a wimp.”
“It was quite handy that you happened to be here,” Jill noted. “You didn’t tell me that you were coming here when I ran into you yesterday.”
Justin smiled sheepishly. “Actually, I didn’t plan to come until then.”
Adrienne blushed and hid her face partly in Justin’s shoulder. Justin gave her a squeeze.
“I have been wanting to meet you guys, for months now. Did Adrienne tell you that?” he asked Yuan and Jill.
They nodded.
“We were shocked, actually. We never had a clue.”
“And you forgave her too easily?” he questioned, teasingly.
He received a playful pinch on his side.
“Ouch!” He laughed.
“She’s still going to pay for it,” Yuan said brightly. “This will not go without punishment.”
“I’m sure,” Justin responded. “I’m just glad that the secret is out in the open now. Honestly, I don’t want to cross that platform between our bedrooms anymore when I could conveniently use the door.”
Adrienne couldn’t help laughing at that. He smiled at her and leaned down to give her a quick kiss on the lips.
“Where are your friends?” Jill asked.
“On the beach. Busy scouting some chicks, I think.”
“Has Adrienne met them?” Yuan asked.
He shook his head. “No. They’ve been dying to, though. But Adrienne was ashamed of her association with me.”
Adrienne pinched his side. “I’m not! How long before that gets old?”
Justin laughed. “Probably a long time, honey.”
Yuan and Jill smiled at Adrienne happily. And Adrienne couldn’t help smiling back at them. She knew that they’re truly happy for her. And at that same time, she felt that Jin Starck just might be right. From now on, she had a better life to look forward to. With these three people on her side, fighting with her, she doesn’t have to feel scared and defeated.
She stared up at Justin. His eyes were dancing. Then he leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “You’re a fox!”