Chapter 50 #4
I laugh at the notion of bedazzling. I got a bedazzling gun for my tenth birthday and bedazzled the heck out of my room, clothes, shoes, and even my backpack. Jase gave me so much shit for it back then.
When the machine stops buzzing, I say, “That’s an awful lot of work.”
“Not if it’s something that’ll make you happy. That makes it my honor.”
I know I’m now wearing a goofy smile, but with the way he’s looking at me, I don’t even care. I can be my goofy, dorky self all the time with him. I can be entirely just me with him. What a feeling.
“This is a big job. You should call some of the council guys. Save some time.”
“Nope,” he denies. “These shelves are one of my mating gifts to you. They’re being done entirely by me. I’ll have it all together as fast as I can while making sure I don’t half-ass it.”
“You don’t half-ass anything, Jase,” I tell him with honesty.
And the burning look in his eyes has me thinking he’s fighting the urge to abandon the project and show me just how thorough he can be.
He let the delivery guys carry my chair upstairs but trucked the wood up the stairs himself.
He made way too many trips and didn’t even get winded.
Of course I told him to call Grey or one of the other guys for help, but he refused.
He also flatly refused to let me carry a single thing up the stairs.
He wants this project to be 100% all him for me and it’s so flippin’ sweet I could just melt.
“You don’t have to rush,” I tell him.
“I want this done for you,” he says in a serious tone. “Pick the stain you want. If you want it changed later, I’ll change it. And don’t just pick whatever matches that banister. If you don’t like the banister stain, I can sand it and redo it to match whatever you pick for the shelves.”
“Um…I was thinking of the dark walnut, but now I think maybe the amber. Then if I change my mind and want to change it and go darker it might be easier on you for redoing them doing light to dark instead of dark to light.”
“Don’t worry about what’s easier. Worry about telling me what you want.”
“Okay, but still… I think this one.” I point to one called amber.
“Done.”
“You said gifts. Plural.”
He smiles. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“What do you want as my mating gift to you?” I ask.
He looks off, deep in thought for a second before he says, “Can’t think of a single thing I want for myself that I don’t have now that I’ve got you.”
My chin quivers and tears fill my eyes. “You don’t have to keep trying so hard.”
Though I do love the effort he’s putting in.
“This isn’t me trying to impress you. This is me showing you I’m fucking happy that you’re mine. Besides, you’ll be giving me gifts soon enough. And though I’m not in a big hurry for them, I’ll be thrilled whenever they come, be it this year, next year, or five years out.”
His eyes devour me from head to toe, then they’re on my face again before he unnecessarily explains. “Babies.”
I smile wide.
I’ve spent most of my life doing whatever I could do to get close to him at every available opportunity, daydreaming he’d some day accept my love. And here we are now. He sees me. He wants me. And I can get as close to him as I want for the rest of my days. So, I do.
As I’m moving his way, my intent clear, he spins his baseball cap backwards, ready for a smooch, but the motion of him doing that is so fucking hot, I trip over my feet and over his tool bag, which makes him cuss as he catches me.
“I love you,” I tell him. “And I don’t need more gifts.”
He kisses the top of my head and runs his palms up and down my back, stopping on my backside and squeezing. “Well, you’re getting more surprises whether you want them or not. And I love you, too.”
He slaps my butt before he moves in and gives me a hot and heavy kiss.
***
Jase insisted after he heated up a casserole for us, that I go to my parents’ place to pack up some clothes while he goes for a run.
I still have two changes of clothes in my overnight bag, and he has a washer and dryer that he must have added recently because the last time I looked, the machines were older than I am and now they’re fancy candy-apple red ones.
But he probably really needs to run and perhaps he feels safest to do that with me at my folks’ place.
I still pout as he drops me off, complaining that I want to run, too. The bookshelves plan has taken up the whole day and he’s not nearly close to done, so I haven’t been able to shift yet.
“And we’ll do plenty of that together when your wolf is no longer a pup. I need to run some energy off. Then I’ve got a little surprise for you.”
“How do you have excess energy?” I ask. “You’ve been expending a whole lot of energy between building things, carrying all that wood, and … you know… giving me all sorts of wood.” I wink exaggeratedly.
He laughs and shrugs. “What can I say? I’m energetic.”
I sigh dramatically. “Well, all right. But I want to shift after you pick me up. Even if it’s just for a half an hour.”
“Not a problem. We’ll come back and get whatever you’ve packed up and then we’ll go out back and give your little wolf a run.”
“Before I get my surprise or after?” I ask.
“Thought you didn’t need more surprises,” he teases.
And he’s got mischief all over his face.
“What are you up to?”
“Don’t spoil the surprise, Bay.” He pokes me in the nose. “Now go on in.”
“Mom and Dad aren’t even home,” I mutter.
He stares at me without answering.
“Besides, I’d rather come back when I can introduce them to my wolf.”
“They’ll meet your wolf soon enough, I’m sure. Throw some of your stuff together. I won’t be long.”
“Okay.” I pout.
“I’ll see you in a little bit.”
“All right,” I mutter, feeling annoyed that I’m here for what feels like no good reason.
“Kiss me,” he orders.
And after I do, he drives off.
Nostalgia swims through my veins as I trudge up the stairs. Because it’s hitting me that I don’t live here anymore. I’ve lived in this house my whole life.
I get to the top of the stairs and caress the banister. I’ve had a great life here. My parents are awesome. I have an incredibly thoughtful, supportive, and fun older brother.
But on the plus side, I don’t have to be sad because I’ll be living down the street.
I can still hang out whenever I want. And my parents are back to their old selves, thanks to Aunt Mimi, so I get to start this next chapter of my life knowing they’re about to embark on a fun and exciting journey for themselves as fresh empty nesters.
They probably thought they’d be stuck with me forever.
And to their credit, my parents never, ever made me feel like they were in a hurry for me to grow up and move out.
I get into my closet and open my big suitcase. I figure I’ll grab a week’s worth of clothes to get me through to whenever we decide to come get the rest.
I grab the framed photo of me and Jase that I threw out the window. The frame needs new glass. I’m taking it with me and immediately putting it on the mantle over the fireplace in the bedroom.
My carry-on still hasn’t been unpacked from Rome, but there’s some jewelry and makeup in it that I want, and I also want to show Jase those knitted booties, so I’ll take it with me tonight.
Noise startles me. I spin to assess it and see my curtains moving.
Moving, followed by parting. Thankfully, I know by my nose who it is, so I don’t have to freak out and scream my head off.
My handsome mate is in a squat on my windowsill. He sets his phone down beside himself and touches the screen.
“Well, hello…” I greet. “What’s this?”
Music. It’s Miley Cyrus’s Adore You.
And despite the lyrical opening of the song suggesting one mood, it looks like my mate is in a different mood. A predatory one. He prowls to me, taking my face into his palms and pressing his lips to mine to lay a movie-worthy kiss on me.
“Dance with me, Bailey,” he says and starts moving to the music with me pressed close to him. Or maybe it’d be more accurate to say I’m melted into him.
My eyes drift shut as we move, as his scent fills all my senses. The sensation of our bond is a living, breathing presence right here with us. I love it so much.
He sings some of the chorus into my ear, changing boy to babe.
Tears stream down my face. Happy ones.
He got my first dance. He gets this dance. Every last slow dance. All for him. It’s all I’ve ever wanted and it’s really mine.
This song played for our first dance about a decade ago.
Ahead of it, I stared at him the entire night, daydreaming he’d come over and ask me to dance.
And then Sherry pranked me with the beet juice and he tied his flannel shirt around my waist, leaving him in a muscle shirt as he danced with me.
Just like right now. My hands were on his bare shoulders.
And now I can touch him wherever I want.
And he’s just made one of my fantasies come true – climbing the trellis at night to come to me.
“After all this time, a fantasy come true. In my fantasies, I was always in bed. You’d come in and ravish me.”
“That’s gonna happen as soon as this song is over.”
“You remembered that it was this song?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Sadly, no. I asked Cicely.”
“That was really sweet of you,” I say and lean my cheek against his chest, sighing happily.
He is a dream come true.
“How am I at romance so far, Bay?”
“Amazing,” I say dreamily. “If you lay it on any thicker, I fear I’ll swoon.”
“Is that a challenge?”
I giggle.
He continues moving with me and puts his nose to my ear.
“Your scent? It’s my oxygen. When you whimper my name? That’s my favorite song. When you point a smile at me? Each one feels like a trophy I’ve earned. And Bailey? I’m gonna spend my life competing for as many of them as I can get.”
“Swooning is in progress,” I say dramatically, but happiness is swirling through me. “If this is a dream, nobody wake me.”
When the song is nearly over, he speaks, jerking his chin up and looking at my bed.