8 Points>
Home
Presley entered her place in Gastown, in the city center of Vancouver and felt the tears fall down her cheeks.
Cruz immediately seeing her crying grabbed her and hugged, “what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I’m so happy to be home. I thought,” her words were clogging her throat as she tried to get them out, “I’d
never come here again. I thought I’d never see my own place again.”
“Oh Ladybird,” he sighed as he lifted her up in his arms bridal style and carried her deeper into the space and
towards a loveseat. He sat down and cuddled her against his chest.
She sniffled and reached for a throw blanket behind his shoulder, “my Nana made this for me when I was a little girl. She died when I was really young, but I still have it and I’m so happy it’s still here and I get to touch it again.” She draped it over her knees as she sat across Cruz’s lap. She gave a giggle. “You make my small
apartment look even smaller, Kong.”
“Kong with two dongs,” he amended as he recited the name Algernon gave him earlier in the day. “Apparently the hall where everything went down had a CCTV camera in it and they are going to send me the video of me dropping the door on Liborio and stomping on it. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Sick.”
“Your version of sick and mine are vastly different. I’m very much looking forward to Belkin’s report on the outcome of Liborio’s little trial. I’m really hoping they kill him.” He looked at Presley as if startled he’d voiced it aloud to her and saw her shrug carelessly. His expression urged her to explain.
“I kind of hope they do too. I can’t help but think a man with his wealth, power, and alliances, I’ll never be really safe from him unless he’s dead. Odin was controlled by a powerful puppeteer considering it was usually Odin who manipulated the people around him. If he could control Odin so easily, it means there are likely others out there who would do Liborio’s bidding. Even if he’s under surveillance or scrutiny, I’m sure there will be others like Estrella who blindly follow him because they are indebted to him or adore him.”
“I understand. She was strange to be sure. She begged Belkin to take her with Liborio to plead on his behalf.”
“I heard. Rami told me they sent her back to her family in Sicily.”
“Imagine being her husband,” Cruz shook his head. “How would you cope with knowing your wife is in love with another man and she’s only with you because she knows she can’t have the other guy?”
“It would suck.” Presley was tired of talking about the crap with Liborio and she looked away. “Want to see the rest of my place?”
“Yes. Though,” he teased her, “pretty sure there,” he pointed to a door, “is your bathroom, and there is your bedroom and,” he gestured towards a desk, “is the desk you never really use because you probably sit there,” he pointed to a window seat. “It is where you likely sit and work while looking over the street. Right?”
“All very true but do you know what you can’t see from here?”
“What?”
“My bed.”
“Presley Brookmore, are you trying to get me to come look at your bed?”
< Home
+8 Points
“Yes.” She made wide eyes at him and grinned when he threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Was I too
subtle?”
“No.” he rose effortlessly from the loveseat and carried her into the bedroom, and he gave a laugh. “Presley,
what the hell?”
“What?”
“Baby, I can’t sleep on that.”
“I’m not asking you to sleep.”
She made a pretense of not understanding his concern over the daybed as he slowly set her on her feet.
“It’s a twin sized bed with three rails around it.” He was incredulous as he looked at the room.
“Uh–huh. I live in a small apartment in downtown Vancouver. I don’t have one of those penthouse places at the top of the towers on the waterfront, Mr. Billionaire,” she mocked him but was grinning to herself.
“I know why you don’t have a cat.” He said suddenly. “It’s because you and the cat wouldn’t fit on the bed
together.”
She giggled in spite of herself. “Help me.” The sun was going down and the room was getting darker. She touched the bedside lamp to turn it on and smiled at the familiar cozy feeling.
“Help you what? I know what I can help with. How about I piggyback or carry you the twenty minute walk back to my condo where there is a much bigger bed?”
“How about,” she lifted the really long duvet cover to expose the deep frame of the bed, “you help me open it
up.”
“Open it up?” she could see his curiosity was piqued.
“Uh–huh. First, push the little table there by the door out of the room and then help me.” She tugged the handles on the top part of the trundle and storage bed which would extend the bed into a king sized. She’d bought it because more than once she and the girls went dancing or partying and then walked back to her place and crashed together in her bed. Halima still lived with her parents who gave her s**t if she drank too much and Sloane lived too far to walk. Her place, though small, was central. After too many years of them fighting over who was sleeping where, she’d bought this bed.
As Cruz easily lifted the small table and carried it out of the room and then came back to lift the drawer with her into place, he was shaking his head. “I wondered whether you were going to make me sleep with my feet hanging over the ends of those rails,” he pointed to the wooden sides of the daybed. “This is the kind of prank I can get behind.” He kissed the top of her head as she stretched the blankets into place. “Do you think it’ll hold my weight?”
“It holds three people easily.”
“What three people have you slept with in this bed?” he folded his arms over his chest.
“Down boy,” she patted his arm placatingly. His jealousy was something else, “Sloane and Halima.”
“Ah. Makes sense. Have you ever brought a guy back here?”
“Cruz. Don’t.”
“I’m only curious.” He looked around the room.
Home
“Have you brought any women back to your condo?”
“Nope. I just moved there. It still smells of fresh paint not sweaty sex.”
“Unbelievable.” She watched him sit tentatively on the edge. “You’re not going to break it.”
“I saw those little wooden slats. I’m not convinced.”
“They are fine. It’s the best in Swedish design.”
He rolled his eyes and patted the space beside him. “Come here.”
She sat beside him and leaned her head against his bicep staring at the wall opposite them as if it held something fascinating.
“You’re nervous,” he said suddenly. “Why?”
“This, um,” she cleared her throat, “it’s not a vacation fling anymore if we have s*x here.”
49 Points ?
“Ladybird, look at me.” When she met his eyes, her breathing shallow, he cupped her cheek. “First, we’re not going to simply have s*x. I’m going to make love to you for hours because baby I really missed you and I need to connect with you in a way which makes both of us feel loved and secure.”
She blinked at the tender tone of his voice.
“Second, us, you, and me, was never a vacation fling. I think, somewhere in the back of your mind, you still hear Odin and Liborio telling you this is all an elaborate prank. It isn’t. It never was. Yes, the very first time we went to brunch I did very stupidly tell Odin before we went inside I should probably make you fall in love with me and break your cold bitter heart,” at her stunned expression, he grinned, “but then let’s be real. You had me in your palm before you even sat down at the table. You walked in like a bursting ray of sunshine, and I realized as I sat there, at your parent’s table, how much being away from you did not help quell my feelings, even a single iota. I was still obsessed about you. It didn’t matter how much I kept trying to tell myself it was simply anger over you ruining my deal, I wanted you. I chased you up the stairs to your bedroom. I couldn’t wait to get you alone in your father’s office. The minute I was given a chance to come find you on vacation, I was hopping all over the opportunity. I am probably worse than Liborio when it comes to being obsessed with you because when you are out of my sight, I feel I’m holding my breath until you’re back in it.”
She whispered his name as her fingers clutched his shirt nervously. “Really?”
“Yes. Ladybird, I cannot emphasize enough how much I love you. You are my first thought when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I consider as I fall asleep. From the minute you reappeared into my life, you’ve torn through it like an F5 tornado and it’s the best f*****g thing to ever happen to me. I need you so I can breathe. You’ve been part of my life for so long, when you’re not part of it, I feel empty. I am going to spend the rest of my life, every single moment of it, making sure you know this,” he took her palm and flattened it over where his heart thumped steadily behind his pecs, “is real, and true, and honest. I love you more than I love anything or anyone. I would die a million deaths for you. I think, we must have been together in past lives, because I feel such a deep connection to you and I know, even after I die, my soul is going to come searching for yours.”
She smacked him then when he grinned, “that’s a line out of my book.”
“It is. Rami read it to me before we left. He said he was going to try it out on Mina.”
“You ruined a perfect moment.”
< Home
* Points
“I tend to do that,” he was laughing as he fell backwards on the bed and lifted her to straddle him. “What do you say Ladybird? Do you trust me this isn’t a prank? Do you want to, now we are home, in Vancouver, make new memories, forge a new path, and take our vacation fling as you called it, to the next level and make it
forever?”
She nodded nervously. “I do.”
“Those words are going to be uttered in front of a minister in a church, I promise you this. I’ll give you all the time you need to settle in but I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours baby. Until the end of time, I am yours. No joke. No prank. No mischief.”
“Maybe a little mischief?” she questioned as she toyed with the buttons of his shirt? “I like a little mischief. It keeps me creative.”
“I think we can swing it. No more cutouts of me though, especially in b**m gear.”
“You make such a good model for my book covers though!”
“Stop writing about men who fit my physical description.”
“Have you seen you naked? It’s inspiring.” She wriggled on him. “Let’s take a look again. I need more inspiration.”
His grunted “yes” made her grin wider than it had been since before she went on vacation.
7
H
1.2K
Comments
Watch videos get points (0/10) >
Vote
