Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Ridge
“ D o you know what I love?” I said to Addison as I walked with her on the beach in Malibu. The sun was just starting to dip as the ocean lapped our feet, the sound of the waves and birds a harmony that I would have paid top dollar for if the water wasn’t so close to LA.
As she looked at me, the wind was blowing her auburn hair into her face, and she did nothing to move it away. It was almost as though she enjoyed it. “Tell me.”
“That no matter how many times I bring you here, you look at the beach like you’ve never seen it before.”
Her smile tonight was warmer than normal. Enticing. And addictive as hell.
I swore her eyes were lighter brown than they typically were, and they almost matched the beige sweater that hung low on her shoulders, baring most of her upper back, which wasn’t covered by her dress.
“This is going to sound funny,” she said, “but in a way, every time I come here, I see it so differently. That’s because of you, Ridge.”
“What do you mean?”
With our fingers linked, she swung our arms. “My emotions affect the way I see things. The sky, for example. In the past, when I was having a hell of a day, I’d see the clouds that were about to turn into a storm. But given that I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, I only notice the big, billowy white ones or the thin, wispy streaks of fluff. And every time we’re here, I see something new that I’ve never seen before, and it shocks me—in a breathless kind of way.” She pointed toward the water. “Like that break over there, about a football field away, where the waves move in opposite directions as if the tides are changing in that exact spot. Do you see it?”
I’d stopped listening after she admitted her feelings. I could focus on nothing else, not even what she was referencing with her finger.
So, I pulled her hand up to my lips and got back to the main point by saying, “You’re the happiest you’ve ever been …”
“Yes.” Her smile softened in a way where it was still there, but she was hiding her beautiful teeth. “Now that we’re together , together, so much has changed. Ridge, I’ve never felt like this in my whole life.”
Since that together , together moment had happened, the night of the incident at the club, I’d been bringing her here every Saturday. This was our fourth one in a row. And each date was nothing like the one prior. I’d rented us a boat with a captain for the first Saturday, a catered picnic on the sand for the second, and some paddleboarding for the third. As for tonight, Addison had no idea what I’d planned.
Surprising her was something I loved more than anything.
And because my staff needed some time to set up, I’d walked with her about a half a mile in the opposite direction of the hotel, waiting for the text from my team that told me to head back.
Once I felt the vibration in my pocket, assuming it was them, I turned us around and asked, “What do you see when you look at the sky tonight?”
“Is that a trick question?”
I laughed at her grin and the cuteness of her question. “Not at all.” I nodded toward the water. “The sun is getting ready to set, so I imagine billowy and wispy aren’t the way you’d describe it.”
“You’re right.” She was on the inside, closest to the ocean, her bare feet kicking up drips of the salty water every time she took a step. With her face pointed at the horizon, she said, “Gold and orange. Those are the colors filling my vision. I don’t even notice the clouds.”
“Why?”
“Because the sun is dominating my line of sight.” She turned her head toward me. “Just like you do whenever I’m around you. All I see is you.” Her eyes narrowed while she took me in, but her smile didn’t dim at all. If anything, it grew. “I think that makes you my sun, Ridge.”
“I’ll take that title.” I winked.
“What do you see when you look at the sky?”
I released her hand and threw my arm around her shoulders, bringing her even closer. “I don’t even see a sky.”
“You’re kidding, it’s over there?—”
“That would mean I’d have to take my eyes off you. I can’t do that, nor do I want to.”
She held my hand that hung near her tit. “How do you do that?” When I didn’t immediately reply, she continued, “How do you make me feel like I’m the most important woman in the world and the only one you’ve ever wanted?” She raised her other hand in the air between us. “And I don’t say that to take away your love of Daisy or Jana—I don’t mean it that way at all. I just mean that when you look at me, when you say those kinds of things to me, I feel”—her eyes closed as though she were searching for the right word—“like you’ve placed a spotlight above me and you’re the only person in the audience.”
“I’m just telling you exactly how I feel. They’re words that come from the sincerest place in me.” I pointed at my chest. “Right here. My heart.”
“I can tell.”
I kissed the side of her head, breathing in her vanilla-latte scent. “I have one request though.” I noticed we were getting closer to the hotel, and I could see all the preparation that I’d organized.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s no longer use any references that involve a stage unless we’re talking about a concert— that I can handle. The thought of you back at the club, I cannot.”
“Deal.” She laughed as she leaned back to look at me. “Those days are long over, thanks to you.” She let out a long, deep sigh. “I know I already told you this a few weeks ago, but I can’t express enough how good it felt to send the remaining balance to my sister and to pay off a massive chunk of my student loans. The weight on my chest is finally starting to lift, and I feel like I can breathe again.”
What she didn’t know was that the weight wasn’t just lifting; it was disappearing. But she wouldn’t know that until she received her next student loan statement, which would show a zero balance. It had taken a little maneuvering to make that happen and a lot of help from her best friend, Leah, who I’d met when I stayed the night at Addison’s last week.
I couldn’t live with the idea that she was going to make payments for the next twenty years, working multiple jobs to make that happen. That shit hadn’t sat well with me at all— because I didn’t want her to have to work multiple jobs, not when I could do this for her, and I wanted to do it for her, even though I knew it was important for her to work off that debt.
She could fight me all she wanted, and I suspected she would, given how prideful she was, but I also knew she was worth far more than what she was paid.
Hell, I would give her a million, and she would be worth every goddamn cent.
“But what made carrying all that weight worth it,” she continued, “was seeing my parents’ faces when Morgan and I gave them the gift. You know, they’re still texting me every day, telling me it was too much and they’re having a hard time accepting it, but they’ve already packed their suitcases even though they don’t leave for months.” Her smile was achingly beautiful as she spoke. “God, they’re adorable.”
“You did it right, baby.”
She nodded. “I know.”
And because she knew that feeling, the pleasure that came when you gave something to someone so fucking deserving, she would understand how I’d felt when I paid off her student loans.
I held my lips against the side of her head. “Hungry?”
“Why? Did you just hear my stomach growl?”
I chuckled. “No, but mine is doing the same.”
We were about twenty yards from the hotel, and I turned her toward the water, standing behind her with my arms crossed over her chest. The sun was lowering fast, and I wanted to make sure she saw the descent. But while she was focused on the beauty in the sky, I was gazing at the hints of her face that I could see from above.
The length of her eyelashes, the arch of her nose, the sides of her thick lips. The creaminess of her freckled skin, the gorgeous red hair that surrounded both sides.
“Stunning,” I whispered.
“Isn’t it?”
“Remember, if I was looking at the sky, that would mean I’d have to take my eyes off you. I can’t do that, nor do I want to.”
“Your compliments will forever make me swoon.” She turned around and threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.
I gave her a quick flick of my tongue and pulled away, holding her face with both hands. “I know you think we’re spending the night at my place tonight, but we’re not.”
Her brows rose, a sly grin reaching all the way to her eyes. “We’re not?”
“I reserved us the penthouse suite at the hotel.”
“The Malibu hotel I haven’t yet seen?” She kissed me. “That I’ve been nonstop asking you for a tour of?”
“Yes, that one. And that”—I nodded toward the beachline, where a small tent had been set up, strung with twinkling lights, a table and two chairs beneath it, surrounded by candles that had been sunk into the sand—“is where we’re having dinner.”
Her mouth opened several seconds before she said, “You’re kidding me.”
“I would never do that.”
When she looked at me again, there was so much emotion in her eyes. “Thank you—those words aren’t strong enough, so I need to say them again and again and again.”
I held her chin, rubbing the silky skin around it. “Before you thank me, you might want to have dinner first. Hell, you might hate it.”
She let out a small giggle. “Impossible.”
“I know. Because we’re having ramen. Your favorite.”