Adeline Carter's POV

Lunchtime!

My favourite part of any school day!

And the end of the day of course.

I skip out of the lecture hall happily and smack straight into a body of muscle.

I stagger back, dazed and look up to see Matéo grinning at me.

I scowl.

"I'm hungry Matéo, so fuck with me at your own risk." I say trying to sidestep him.

He blocked my path by sticking his arm out and wrapping it around me.

"You gotta say the password first" he says, leaning into me. I roll my eyes and step back.

"What are you, 12?" I ask him.

He nods. "Yes... A 12 out of 10" he continues.

I groan and try to push past my arrogant fiancé.

He snatches me up, kissing me all over my face, making me giggle at him to stop!

He refuses, nuzzling into my cheek and kissing me more.

"What, did you miss me?" I ask.

"Yes ma'am." He says, putting me down.

He refuses to let go of my hand, pulling me towards the campus's cafe

Pulls a chair for me to sit at a table with my friends, who giggle and tease me.

I scowl at them, watching as Matéo walks off towards the shutters.

Belle and James chose to live on campus, but I thought it not worth the money and decided to commute.

My parents are hardly home and my brother is mostly on business trips anyway.

A few minutes later, Matéo re-appears with an arm full of food.

I try to grab some of his food but he blocks my arm.

"Password" he says, picking up a fry and chucking it in his mouth.

I blink at him.

"Please?" I try.

He shakes his head.

"Try again" he says.

I sigh.

"You want another kiss?" I ask.

He nods.

"Yes ma'am"

I grab his face and I pull him towards me.

I look at his lips and he bites his bottom lip, waiting on me to move.

I kiss him, biting his lip a little, sucking gently.

His body relaxes and he kisses me back.

I try not to let my whole body react to him.

I pull away suddenly and grin at him.

He smirks back.

He turns to the food and pushes the tray towards me.

"It's all yours" he says.

I grin happily and dig in.

"Aw, you two are so cute!" James exclaims, his hands rest in his palms as he watches us.

I chuckle but say nothing.

"So when do we get to come over?" Belle asks.

I look at Matéo.

"Please, can they come over?" I ask.

He shrugs.

"It's your house too, amoré, as long as they don't get in anyone's way, they can come over." He tells me.

"Thank you, sweetheart" I say, teasing a little.

He smirks.

"No problem" he replies.

For the rest of the lunch break, we eat and chat and afterwards, Matéo insists yet again on walking me to my lesson.

We are halfway there, when a girl, Lilly, stops us in our tracks.

She doesn't look like it, but she is a bitch.

Despite the fact that this is a university, she loves making a misery out of people's lives, and I don't think she even remembered that I existed.

That is, until now.

"Hey Ade!" She says, dragging out the simple hey, longer than needs be.

She stares at Matéo.

She's practically drooling over him.

She better step back.

"You should come to my party next week!" She says excitedly, more to him than me.

She hands me a pink sheet of paper with her details on it.

"Bring your friend too. If he gets bored I can entertain him" she says, flashing a white smile.

Entertain who?!

Is this how she wants to die?!

I start to step forward ready to make her head roll, but Matéo's grip on my hand tightens.

"By the way what's your name?" She asks him holding out her hand.

"Matéo" he says, putting his arm around my waist, looking at her hand, then back at her face.

"I take it you and my girlfriend are good friends?" He asks.

He clearly knows that we are obviously not friends, what is he doing?!

I don't hate anyone, but I can certainly make an exception.

"Oh, your girlfriend!" She says, acting all surprised.

"Don't make him repeat himself" I say coldly.

She ignores me.

"Oh, I never thought that someone as gorgeous as you would ever go out with someone like... Adeline" she says.

My heart stops.

"Oops" she gasps, covering her mouth.

"Did I let that slip out of my mouth?" She asks.

I look away, too hurt to speak, all of my insecurities rising in my chest all at once.

I see Matéo going slightly red and I know he's about to explode.

But he calms down.

"Yeah I can't believe it either" he says.

The fuck?!

My mouth drops open and I take step away from him, but he grips my waist tightly.

He looks down at me and stares me in a way that I'm any other setting would make me want to drag him into a corner and let him take me there and then.

But now...

"She is way too good for me. I don't know how I got so lucky." he says, his voice soft, creating a heartbeat in more places than one, as he looks down at me.

"I'll see you at the party... or not. We might be busy" He tells her, pulling me towards him and not even looking at her, his eyes on my lips, making me gulp.

He's acting.

He's acting.

He's acting! I tell myself.

Her jaw drops.

"I- I'll see you there" she stutters.

"Mhm. Whatever" he responds dreamily looking down at me with a grin on his face.

She leaves.

I stare at him in awe.

"Were you acting or did you mean that?" I ask in a small voice.

She's a bitch.

And none of what she said is true.

But I was always an overweight kid.

I got called fat and ugly a lot, which is never good for a kid's self esteem.

But then middle school came along and things changed.

There was a long break and I pretty much just stopped eating.

I starved myself.

My brother was distraught and often tried to get me to eat but it was no use.

As a result, I lost a lot of weight and then I started working out, for the sake of the gang.

When I finally got into shape, things changed at school.

I started getting noticed.

But it was never good enough.

My friendships nearly suffered because I refused to eat with them and never gave them a good reason why.

They just thought I was ignoring them.

And I just stopped caring whether they were on my side or not.

James' parents and subsequently Belle's parents were on my ass after that.

Belle noticed that an eating disorder was rearing its ugly head and told her parents immediately.

They put me into therapy twice a week, which my brother happily drove me to and I was at their houses almost every night for dinner.

Belle's mother would pack me lunch and make sure I'd eaten it.

James' mother would call me on weekends to try her food.

They saved me.

So I know Lily's stupidity shouldn't matter to me.

But insecurities don't just disappear because you want them too.

Matéo gives me a slight shake, pulling me back to reality.

"What do you think?" He asks, pulling me with him towards the car, referring to my question on his acting skills.

I walk past Matéo and to my car. He stops me by grabbing my arm.

"Here, I'll drive" he says.

I shrug nonchalantly and hand him the keys.

I sit in the car and stare out of the window, thinking about what just happened.

He stood up for me.

Unprovoked.

What does he want?!

After driving around for a good half an hour and collecting food from a drive through, Matéo stops the car, noticing that I haven't touched my food once.

It's the early evening already.

But I don't feel like eating right now.

His behaviour will make me fall for him.

I don't think I'm strong enough to fight it.

"Amoré tell me what's wrong" he says.

He takes my hand and looks into my eyes, worriedly.

I turn away not wanting to talk.

"Ade, please don't shut down on me. We promised" He reminds me.

His willingness to talk reminds me that he is in fact 4 years older than me.

Not that being older makes you more mature.

But it's nice that he cares.

He pouts, his brown doe-eyes wide, and I sigh, unable to resist.

You would hardly think the man was a cold blooded killer.

I roll my eyes and tell him about my problems with my weight.

He listens patiently but I can almost feel his anger boiling up in him.

When I finish the story, he says nothing.

Instead, he gets out of the car and tells me to follow him.

I have to jog to keep up, as his tall strides are much longer than mine.

Once we are in the house, he grabs my hand and drags me up the stairs and to my room.

I avoid the suspicious looks on some of his auntie's faces and continue.

He leads me to the bathroom, where a full length mirror stands on the wall at the side.

He grabs my waist and pulls me in front of the mirror.

I stare at our reflections.

His taller bigger body towers over me a little.

"You're so beautiful." he says, smoothing his hands down my body.

My stomach flips at his blatant affection for me.

He leans down and trails kisses on my neck.

Why is he so touchy-feely today?

I'm definitely not complaining.

He gives my neck a gentle bite and I gasp sharply.

The vibration of his deep laughter, rumbles through my body.

I sigh and he kisses my ear again.

I turn to face him.

"So, you don't care that I'm a little fat?" I ask.

He shakes his head and chuckles softly.

"Firstly you ain't fat, you're thick and I like it" he states.

I grin a little.

"And secondly..." He starts, grabbing my ass to my surprise and squeezing.

"I could get used to watching your ass every day. It's healthy weight. I like it." he says, giving my ass a light slap.

"Matéo!" I choke.

He chuckles and kisses my lips softly.

"Your friends will be here soon so and I hope that you have a great time tonight" he says.

"I've got a bit of work to do so I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

"Good night, amoré" he says.

"Good night Matéo" I tell him.

When he leaves, I send a text to both Belle and James to confirm the address.

Tonight will be interesting...

And I hate to admit it.

But I'm warming up to Matéo.

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~ xo.