And I Don't Know What I'm Doing``Ade;;INACTIVE

[mabs]

Reed raised a brow as she coaxed his head into her lap, but it did soothe a little of his anxiousness about their situation. She was a tender thing, deep, deep down, which was different for Reed. Reed's own mother had died before he knew her, and his father had been distant at best. Reed's babysitters saw him as a menace and rarely handled him with care. He could probably have counted on one hand the times that he had been tended to by anyone. He just wasn't that sort.

Reed laughed at her comment and looked up at her lazily. "What? Can't a man be in touch with his inner child ever once in a while?" And it was a rare once in a while to be sure. Reed couldn't rememeber the last time he'd had such a carefree day at Coney Island with anyone. And he certainly had never taken a girl there.

"You're the first woman I've taken here though," he commented nonchalantly. "And the first one I've won a panda the size of a small child for too." Reed chuckled and closed his eyes, settling a little. He almost forgot that were suspended two hundred feet in the air.

Reed's mind took off with him, and there wasn't a real conscious thought pattern that he was directing along. His mind was getting away from him, on a thought pattern that was too soon for a woman he'd fucked twice and won a panda for. But there was something tugged at him. To clear any...misgivings they had.

"Heart, tell me what you want from me," he asked quietly. honestly. As honest as he'd ever been.

[rocky]

"The panda. I want the panda. There's going to be a bitter custody battle for him."

She was joking, again, but it was the only way she knew how to answer him. She shook her head.

"I don't want anything. What do you think I want? What do they usually want?" She was fundamentally incapable of understanding where he was coming from. She had never really been in the position he was in. He was desirable, in terms of status and wealth. He was the sort of man women did want things from. They wanted diamonds and to be seen out with him in conspicuous places for political reasons.

"And I thought you'd already gotten what you were after," she said, a little distantly.

[mabs]

"Everyone has an angle, Adri," Reed spoke softly again.

Reed didn't talk about Franny, because that gave her some sort of power over him, even in memory. Seeing her at the same social functions as him was enough to make him vomit in a decorative vase. And they all wanted what Franny had wanted. Even Vivien had. Vivien had come to Reed as a lonely, shy college student, and he'd given her a job and confidence as well as a killer recommendation if she ever decided to leave his firm. But he spent a lot of his time making sure she, and other handpicked members of his staff, never wanted to.

Reed was selfish, but he did his selfish things well to benefit everyone else. In truth, he was no more selfish than the next man. He wanted what he wanted, and he would do anything to get it. And that was simple. And for then, he wanted Adrienne. How long that would last though, he didn't know.

"Money. Power. Fame. A good name. Good sex. Trinkets. Baubles. Name it baby, they all want it," he mused in a bitter tone. "Women are all angles underneath. Just like men are. You all just hide it better." Reed sighed and looked up at her, raising a brow. "I want something simple. Uncomplicated." Though a simple relationship in and of itself was complicated by nature. Sex could complicate things, just by nature.

[rocky]

"And what makes it complicated?" Adrienne frowned. She honestly didn't know what she wanted. To be somebody else, at the times when she was most honest with herself. To shrivel up and be reborn as someone better. Or maybe just anyone. There were days when she would settle for the ability to just stop existing. Not forever. Just for long enough to make it fun again. She had brilliant days, days when she was so glad to be herself it was almost disgusting, but the high was always followed by a miserable low, and she didn't know how to explain to him that sex, for her, was both a celebration and a commiseration; if she was happy, she wanted it.

If she was unhappy, she needed it.

"I definitely don't want your name. God!" she snorted. "Or money. Or fame. And you have my permission to never buy me anything again, my office stinks."

She scratched the back of her head, then adjusted her hat a little, thinking about it.

"I don't like your car," she told him matter-of-factly. "I don't like the way you wear a suit, as if you fell off a factory production line. I don't like your job, either, and when I met you, I thought you were an arsehole."

The jury was still out, on the last, at that. She didn't really know what had made her take those tickets. She knew he would be there whether she invited him or not. Perhaps there was something comforting in the honesty of his behaviour. He wasn't sly about it. He didn't pretend he was sensitive and listening to her and then later reveal himself as an absolute git.

"So -- what did I want? To satisfy my curiosity, I suppose. I couldn't -- and I still can't -- work out what you want with me, Reed. But you can sleep easily at night knowing I'm not sizing myself up for a spot in the Armstrong family crypt, okay?"

She sighed a little, feeling defensive suddenly, as she had little intention of explaining the degrees of mild psychosis that had led to her wanting to sleep with him at all -- it would have meant giving a little more of herself away than she was at all comfortable with.

She looked down at him archly.

"And you can start bringing the good sex any time it's convenient for you," she said teasingly, and jabbed at him with her finger.

[mabs]

Reed listened to her list of complaints, and all he could do was laugh. He sighed and rubbed his face as he sat up and he pulled her into a kiss. He kissed her softly, with that soothing passion that threaded through them in the elevator the night before, and he couldn't stand it. He pulled her closer, sighing against her lips as he pulled back, but not so much as to put much space between their faces.

"You hate me," he teased at her. "I've never been hated by someone I have sex with before." He kissed her again, pulling her closer as he did before pulling back and speaking against her lips again. "You don't want to marry me..." He kissed her again, breathing against her lips once more. "And you don't want my money. Or my fame. Or even my gifts... Reed kissed at her again, pulling her towards him and into his lap, but not as heatedly as earlier. In fact, he was thoroughly pleased to just kiss her senseless.

"You really do hate me, Heart. And I love it," he confessed with a laugh against her lips. He kissed at her again before pulling back fully, quirking a brow to her. "Besides. My father would hardly let you in the crypt. He probably won't let me in there either." Reed reached up to her face and cradled it, studying her face slightly. All of the nuances of her pretty, sultry face were coming out, like the slight curves of her lips and the flecks of light in her eyes. He paid more attention to her face now...

"What I want from you, is an honest-to-God, unadulterated, passionate, blatant....affair." Reed wouldn't--couldn't--say relationship. He didn't want to tie himself to anyone or anything. But the thought of having a good run with Adrienne Heart tingled his sensations and made his itch for her itch more. "I like you hating me, Heart. It's a lot more fun than I gave you credit for. And you're a...lot more pleasing than I gave you credit for." Reed squeezed her thighs and looked at her before kissing her again, running his hands up her back.

"I'm a total asshole," he told her honestly, "And I came off the handpicked Armstrong production line, babe. That's never gonna change. But I like you. Hell, I don't know why. Fact is, I want to have a lot of crazy sex with you. And take you out every once in a while. Provided that from now on, we keep both feet firmly on the ground." Reed couldn't help the teasing smile.

"What do you say, Heart?" He wasn't sure what she'd think. It wasn't a typically accepted response, not by any woman he'd been with. But Adrienne wasn't like any other woman he'd been with. If anything, he figured she would understand.

[rocky]

"You can't tell me how I feel about you," Adrienne said obstinately, kissing him back anyway -- and she didn't know how better to express it. She hated the idea of him. The reality of him was something else that was impossible to quantify; something she found it impossible to hate.

She liked that he was scared enough to put his head down. Not in a sadistic way, not in the least -- she didn't take any enjoyment from his discomfort, it was his unexpected streak of humanity that she liked almost in spite of her better judgement.

Oh, what was she thinking -- all of this was in spite of her better judgement. She tried not to consider what an absolute disaster her last honest to goodness affair had been. Frank had hurt her badly -- so badly she was still checking his goddamn emails.

"An affair? So if I asked you to meet me in six months on top of the Empire State Building, that'd be a no go, right?" she was teasing him, but revealing her eclectic taste in films -- her apartment was full of splatter movies, but her guilty pleasure was old romantic movies, like An Affair to Remember.

She touched his cheek with the back of her fingers, looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. She wasn't a very robust person, she thought vaguely. She hated to be alone -- she thought that a night spent alone was a night lost, almost. She started to get introspective and morose when she was alone, and she was practically addicted to affection. His sweet kisses and his arms around her did far more to convince her than she cared to admit. When she spoke again she was a little abrasive, but in the sort of defensive way that indicated she was unhappy with herself, not him.

"I don't want an affair," she said at last. "Not the way you normally have them. You'll have to keep me on my toes, Armstrong. I want you to surprise me again, and I don't mean with jewellery."

She smirked.

[mabs]

"Cary Grant?" he mused with a raised brow, pulling back to look at her. "So the lady likes romance, and wants to be romanced." Reed laughed slightly. She had never said it, but it was obvious she wanted it. Every woman did, in some way for another. Reed was a pro at romance, in reality he was a pro at anything womanly related. At least he seemed to think so.

"You are constantly underestimating me, doll," Reed said with a groan. He patted her bottom and gave her a healthy grin, leaning in to kiss her teasingly slow. "But if the lady wants romance, romance she'll get." Romance wasn't always a candlelit dinner by the water as a violinist played. Though Reed was guilty of such foolish things when he'd been younger. Romance was telling a woman just what she wanted to her, giving her just what she wanted until she returned the favor.

Reed felt the jolt and jerk of the ride and he clenched onto Adrienne again. He boyishly clung to her and buried his face against her neck, tensed and taut as a rubber band pulled too tight. God. Feet would be firmly on the ground for whatever else he planned for them in the future. No more of this height shit.

"God...just no more heights," he groaned against her skin. A verbal confirmation of his fear, or as close to one as she'd ever get. He gently pushed her off his lap when it was their turn to get out of the box, and he grabbed the panda and nearly bolted from the box, thankful for the solid ground under his feet again. But he threw a look back at her with a charming, boyish, carefree grin. She was gorgeous, and fucking him, as well as abating his curiosities. Life couldn't be better.

[rocky]

Adrienne was almost amused at the frequency of his kisses -- he seemed unable to detach himself from her. Between his rushing to thrash her tonsils with his tongue and the trip to Coney Island she was beginning to wonder if he had ever stopped being a teenager. She shuddered to imagine what his notion of romance was, but she was game to let him try -- so long as he was content to cuddle her and never say anything.

She was going to regret this.

The carriage jolted and Adrienne started, too, though only because Reed clutched at her unexpectedly. She slipped an arm around him, resting her chin on top of his head.

"God...just no more heights."

His stubble tickled her neck as he spoke, and she smiled. She supposed she could afford him that -- he had indulged her when it obviously affected him badly to do so.

"Are you telling me you didn't enjoy at least part of it?" Adrienne said, and raised an eyebrow, as he dislodged her from his lap and shot out of the carriage -- he all but kissed the ground, and when he tried to play it off as casual, afterwards, she couldn't help it. She dissolved into a fit of giggles, stepping out after him with the back of her hand pressed over her smile.

"You're ridiculous," she told him.

[mabs]

Reed laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he led her out of the amusement park, the panda in tow as well. She had her merits, of course. Adrienne was a lot kinder than she'd have anyone believe, and she was a lot more complex than anyone would think. Though why Reed noticed that, he couldn't be sure.

He smiled arrogantly in his normal manner and laughed when she teased him, bringing her in closer to his side. "Well, there was this one part, up at the very top..." he teased lightly in her ear. Reed guided them towards his car and he enjoyed the closeness of them, a little more than he probably should have. Although Reed held a warlike, tough exterior, he was hardly impervious to fear and damage. Like his irrational fear of heights.

Reed couldn't help himself and pushed Adrienne teasingly up against the car, setting the panda on the hood. He quirked a brow high. "Roxie is upset that you don't like her though," Reed told her boyishly. "Of all the redeeming things about me, I would have assumed the car would have been a pro." Reed was smiling that unaffected, half bored, half aloof smile. Though his eyes almost twinkled.

[rocky]

"It's horrendous."

The words might have been more cutting, had Adrienne not slung her arms around his neck at the same time. She was enjoying this absolute, brutal honesty aspect of things -- she was yet to see his ego take a proper dent. At least, not since her first article on the subject of his divorce, which she had since been selectively avoiding. She was acting like an idiot.

She could feel it. Hanging off him, having sex with him in public? Was she really going to pretend she hadn't turned thirty this year?

Yes. The answer to that question was yes. Given the opportunity to behave as though she was still nineteen years old and backpacking around Europe without so much as a single thought for anybody else, she would seize it instantly. He was much more attractive when he was a little undone and ruffled from a good sex session.

She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. It was almost affectionate in how lazy it was, a smudge of lips against lips rather than anything passionate or sexual. She was tired, and a little cold, and struggling with an overwhelming urge to drag him home just so she'd have someone to curl up with and sleep next to.

"So. You don't do heights," she said, musing. "I had you pegged as a penthouse boy."

[mabs]

Reed only laughed at her assertions about his car as she threw her arms around his neck and pulled up against him. Her soft kiss was sweet, he decided. Though the way her hips rubbed against his as they stood there was hardly innocent, like a teenager. Reed set his hands on her waist, lazily looking down at her, as she spoke to him.

"I am a penthouse boy,"[/b[ he countered with a grin. He loomed close to her face, teasing his lips against hers. "Wanna see it? I give nice tours." Reed had chosen the location of his apartment based on the fact that the penthouse gave him status. And a certain reputation. He wanted the best, nothing but the best, and would sacrifice nearly anything to have it. And it wasn't so bad, from afar. Reed could handle firm footing and a view, just so long as he didn't step too close to the ledge of the balcony.

Reed kissed her again, his suggestion hanging in the air. Take her back to his place. How conventional.

[rocky]

Adrienne was on the verge of saying yes when she stopped herself. She didn't want to give him too much confidence in their new found relationship, did she? Frank had total autonomy on their affair and he had driven her mad, and made her feel like little more than a call-girl. No. Reed Armstrong was there because she wanted him there, and she wasn't going to let him claim any sort of power over her if she could help it.

"Mm. Not today," she said sweetly, and shook her head. "You'll have to entice me up there with a trail of breadcrumbs."

[mabs]

"Oh, come now, Red," Reed teased, running his hands up to rub her arms at were still latched around his neck.

Reed had completely done away with the pretentious suit and tie of the lawyer in him, but he still had that bite and edge underneath it all, always, all the time. He nuzzled her affectionately, playing up his boyish side as his tactic now. The tools of war, which was all that love and sex was anyhow.

"I have the second best view in all of New York up there," he mused against her lips. "Good wine and a good bar. And a nice, big, soft bed. The only reasonable ending to a day like today would be to give you a tour of the place, doll. What a cad I would be if I did not!" He was being theatrical and he chuckled and kissed at her lips.

"Besides, after the trauma you put me through on that wretched Ferris wheel, would you really make me go home all alone?" His voice was drawn out and playful, and he grinned against her cheek before kissing it. "Come home with me, Red."

[rocky]

Mmmph.

This was an unfair assault of the senses, Adrienne thought, but shook her head again despite the temptation to cave and go with him. She was already beginning to feel the stir of something in her chest that she was working hard to beat back down -- Adrienne was so very easily smitten with people that she had developed a number of defences against her own nature.

They were each beginning to fail her, one by one.

"I can't," she said honestly. "I have to take the dog out."

But you could come with me, she thought, and then forced herself not to say it. He was messing her up entirely. She knew she was sending him the world's most mixed signals -- who dressed themselves in clothes that covered them so completely they may as well be Amish, and then had sex in the middle of the date? Who had sex in the middle of a date and then refused to go home with the guy afterwards?

I'm terrified of what this will do to me when it's over was what she should have been saying, because no matter how much her brain rebelled against the thought of him, and no matter how hard he worked to ruin her opinion of him, she knew she had already formed an attachment to him. She knew she was jealous of his damn secretary. And desperately curious about his ex-wife.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck.

[mabs]

Reed frowned slightly, leaning back and giving her his best puppy face and pout. He wasn't sure why he was so insistent, other than he was fast becoming addicted to the way her body felt, but he tilted his head down and looked up through his lashes at her, giving it one last try.

"The bear will be okay until morning, darling," Reed drawled out softly. "And that's the weakest excuse I have ever heard. Come on, Red. Live a little." Live with him. Well not Live with him. God, that would have been disastrous. But live a little with him, that would have bene jut fine.

Her mixed signals weren't that ridiculous actually, and they added to her enigmatic appeal. Who dressed like a grandma and then fucked like crazy on a Ferris wheel? Nobody Reed had ever know. Franny had dressed like a grandma, but she wasn't a good fuck in bed, let alone anywhere else. She had reminded Reed much of a fish, flopping about all over the place at first, and then laying there during. If Franny had given him halfway decent sex he may have been inclined to spend at least a little more time with his wife, and less banging the sexy divorcee down the road.

"Please," Reed added, giving it his best last go. He pressed his hips to hers a little more, rubbing against her both inadverdently and on purpose. He ran his hands back down her arms and settled them behind her, on her rump. She was alll curves (and angles) to him. Gorgeous, hypnotic curves.