Adam set her down slowly, then braced his hands against the wall as if to maintain his balance, their bodies still connected.

He rested his forehead against the wall beside her head, his ragged breaths fanning her face as Eva tried to even her own breathing.

Finally, he pulled out of her, causing her to whimper at the loss.

“That was great.” She said huskily, expecting him to respond in kind.

Instead, he looked at her with a perplexed expression, as if he couldn't quite understand her. “Hey, what's wrong?”

Pulling his boxer and pants up, he began to buckle up his belt. “Why did this just happen?”

“Because we both wanted it.” She replied and chuckled nervously, wondering why he sounded upset.

“Because we both wanted it?” He huffed and stepped in front of her again, crowding her personal space as his searching eyes bored into hers. “At least the last time, you'd sort of called off the wedding. Now you're actually cheating on Brandon."

“Adam, it's not it. I...” She placed his hand on her cheek, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled it away.

“What? You think I'm just some sort of rebound whom you can have a good fuck with every time lover boy pisses you off.”

His accusatory eyes stabbed at her, along with the bite in his tone. “I called off the wedding Adam.” She grounded out.

“Huh?” He stepped away from her, eyes looking at her as if trying to ascertain that she was being honest.

“Yes, Adam.”

Closing the distance between them, she wrapped her arm around his neck and pecked him on the lips. “Ever since I met you, it's been only you on my mind. Always you. I can't be with Brandon because I want to be with you.”

“Does your mother know that you called off the engagement?”

“What?” She blinked in surprise that he'd asked her that. “What has my mother got to do with this?”

“The last time I heard, she was the reason you so adamantly wanted to marry Brandon. What changed so suddenly? Mum doesn't want you to get married anymore?”

“Who told you all that?”

She had a very good idea who could've done it, judging from how guiltily she'd been behaving, Victoria was certainly going to hear from her.

“Does that even matter?” Adam took her hand and pulled her arm from around his shoulder, putting some distance between them. “Just answer the goddamn question. Have you and Brandon made it official yet? Does your mum know?”

Eva looked down at her ruffled dress as guilt scraped through her once again. This afternoon she'd gone to her mother's office with every intention of telling her.

Then one look into the woman's excited eyes as she'd talked about her plans for the wedding, and all her determination had fizzled out.

Adam snorted, seemingly derisively. “Of course, you haven't. I probably shouldn't have expected anything else.”

“But I don't get it. What does my mum have to so with us being together? I'm sure when I tell her, everything is going to be fine. She loves me and she wants what's best for me.”

Adam stared at her longingly without a word, eyes unreadable. Just when he opened his mouth to speak, the door to the room burst open and light footsteps sounded inside.

“Damn, he's not here either.” She recognized the voice as belonging to one of Adam's friends. “Fuck Adam. Where are you?”

Slanting her a look she could barely decipher, Adam rounded the large picture that hid them from view, disappearing from her sight without a word more.

“I'm right here.” He told whoever had come to look for him.

“What the fuck man, what were you doing there? We were supposed to start twelve minutes ago. It's been twenty two minutes since you disappeared.”

“Dude, you found me. Stop grouching and let's go.” Adam grunted. Their footsteps faded, and then the door clicked shut.

Eva straightened her messy hair, still stunned. This was definitely not how she'd expected Adam to react to the fact that she'd called off her engagement and wanted to be with him.

Or had he just lied when he'd said that he wanted to try something new with her? She stepped out of the room and headed for the exhibition hall, where she found Adam speaking.

“...and thirty percent of every sale I make tonight will go a long way to help those children.” His eyes trailed towards her for a split second before he looked away. “Thank every one of you for coming tonight.”

The many people around applauded Adam after his speech, and the sales and auctions began. Eva was impressed by how much people were willing to pay for photographs of nature, and flattered that they paid more for the photos she was featured in.

“Oh my God, it's you! You're the girl in the pictures!” A young woman appeared behind her, looking between her and one photo on the wall, eyes shimmering admiringly. “You're even more beautiful in real life. Gosh, I wish I meant that much to Adam Garcia.”

That made Eva raise her eyebrows as she smiled politely at the woman, but inside, she found herself wishing that were true.

Alas, Adam proved the girl wrong by ignoring her throughout the exhibition, not even sparing her a look any time he passed by her, as if they hadn't made love minutes ago in the storage room. Eva was sure she was the first person to leave the exhibition.

As much as Adam's actions irked her, she knew to some extent that he was right. Besides, Brandon must've told his parents about their break up, and news spread fast in the circle of the affluent.

God, she hoped she got to her mum before someone else did.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“What is it that I'm hearing, Eva West?" Her mother's voice bellowed as soon as she stepped inside the house.

Oh shit.

Eva paused and took in her mother's furious expression. “What exactly have you been hearing, mum?”

“That you and Brandon have called off the engagement. Tell me this is a joke or that Silvia is mistaken about what her son told her.”

Eva took in a deep breath. Better to get this over and done with once and for all. “It's true mum.”

The anger on her mother's face transformed to disbelief. “No," She whispered, stumbling a little on her heels. “Why? Why would you do that?”

“Because I don't feel the same about him anymore, mum.” She approached her mum, hoping the woman would understand her reasons. “I'm not even sure that I've ever felt anything for him.”

“And here I was, thinking that perhaps Brandon was the one who called off the wedding and lied about it being on mutual terms. But you...”.

“Mum, understand me, please. I don't love Brandon, and getting married to him would've been a mistake.”

“Sweetheart,” Her mother stepped closer and took Eva's face in her palms, gazing into her eyes pleadingly. “What about your father's wish?”

Eva placed her hand on her mothers. “Mum, maybe dad did wish that I get married to Brandon. But do you think that right now, wherever he is, he would love for me to make a decision that would make me unhappy, possibly for life?”

Her mother pulled her hand back, stepping away from her. The gesture of withdrawal made her chest constrict.

“Even after all the reports I showed you? Eva, we've lost a lot of money. We need the Lancaster's to bring us back on our feet.”

“Look mother, I know that the merger which would happened if I married Brandon would place us right back on the billionaire list. But we're not bankrupt mother. We're still multimillionaires.” She tried to reason. “We still have enough money to recuperate the ones we've lost. All we have to do is bring out a new strategy, set a new business plan.”

She waited for her mother to say something, but after about a minute of tortorous silence, she sighed and pursed her lips.

“Mum, does the merger and the money mean more than my happiness?”

Her mother's eyes shot up and met hers. For a moment, there was something like guilt, just before it transformed to anger and the woman stormed off without a single word more.

Eva decided to give her some space. Things would definitely be fine by tomorrow, she mused.

But as she went up to her room and begun stripping for a shower, she couldn't help but wonder whether she'd done the right thing by cancelling the wedding.