Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lily
? “Bring Me to Life” - Evanescence ?
I finally agreed to meet with Mateo for dinner.
I couldn’t hide out any longer and needed to get this over with.
My palms are clammy as I hold the expensive leather menu in my hands, pretending to understand any of these words on the paper.
I mean, seriously? Do they add gold flakes to the food? Why is everything so expensive?
The waiter asks if we are ready to order—which I am not—but Mateo decides to take it into his own hands and order for both of us. If he was going to do that, he could have warned me, so I didn’t spend twenty minutes trying to figure out how to pronounce bouillabaisse.
I grab the wine glass, holding it to my lips before taking one large gulp.
I sit through our appetizer, which consists of three cherry tomatoes cut in half with mozzarella and a leaf in the middle.
Then for our entrees, Mateo gets some type of protein while I sit here and stare at my rabbit food—a piece of lettuce with a stick and a side of lemon wedge.
I can’t wait to go home and order take-out.
Then comes dessert. I stare at my chocolate fondue cake that holds a ring right in the middle.
I stare at it, unable to process. I knew this was coming, yet I'm still in shock.
I turn to my left to see him on one knee, and look around the dimly lit restaurant to see people staring and holding out their phones.
“Lily, I know this is fast, but I have loved you—”
I pinch the skin on the back of my thighs. This is the only thing I can think of to make this seem real. Tears start to prick at the corners of my eyes.
Jace and Rowan owe me big fucking time. This is so embarrassing.
“—since the day I first saw you at the club. Will you marry me?”
Not only is this embarrassing, but it is also the lamest proposal I have ever heard.
But me, being the good actress I am, nod animatedly, letting the tears roll down my face.
People start clapping around us and Mateo stands off the floor, hugging me, and somehow, I slip up and miss that his face has moved, and he kisses me on the lips.
Note to self: bleach my mouth when I get home.
He finally sits down, taking a big inhale like it was the hardest thing he has ever had to do in his life. His smile reaches for the stars, and it’s just as terrifying as Art the Clown.
He pulls the slice of cake toward him, pulling out the ring and wiping the chocolate off before he puts the big rock on my finger.
It barely fits, leaning to the side. It’s truly sad to think how other woman have fallen for this.
But that is the goal here. To find out where these women are going and how we can stop it.
I have to keep that in mind when I am being thrown in a rapist’s van at some point in the next couple of weeks.
Take me to the Bat Cave, I am now a vigilante.
Thankfully, after dinner, Mateo drops me off at my house without protesting to take me to his place, or him inviting himself into mine to celebrate.
His excuse is he has to go into the office to get some work done.
When I get in, I see Jace sitting on my couch, watching True Blood from the first season while eating popcorn.
His dark blue jeans and tight white T-shirt fit his skin like everything was made specifically for him.
His head turns when he hears the clack of my heels against the hardwood floor. “You did so good.” He leaves the couch, walking to me.
“You saw?” I reach down, taking off my kitten heels.
“Of course I did. The tears really sold it. I didn’t know you knew how to cry on command.”
I turn my body away from him, looking over my shoulder and pointing to the back of my thigh just beneath the hem of my dress to where a big red mark stains my skin. “I was pinching myself the whole time.”
Jace gets on his knees, kissing the welts. His hands grab both of my thighs to force my whole body closer to him. “Maybe you should be an actress instead of a lawyer.” His kisses roam higher up my thigh, and he pulls my dress up, leaving more kisses on my ass.
“I would choose to be anything besides a lawyer.”
He turns me around and stands up to his full height. I lean up to look at his scrunched, confused face. “You don’t want to be a lawyer?”
I walk away to set my purse down on the coffee table before swinging my body onto the couch. “Nope,” I say, extenuating the P with a popping sound.
Jace kneels besides me, his hand finding all my nerve endings again. “Then why are you going to school for it?”
My hands slap against my face before I run them down over my eyes, probably smearing my makeup.
“Fuck. Jace. I am so sorry. I forgot you paid for my semester. I still promise to pay you back, it’s just that—” I stop and sit up from the couch.
My knees hit his chest since he’s still on the floor.
“Actually, no. Me marrying Mateo is the payback. I no longer owe you.”
Jace stands from the floor, pushing my body back into the couch and bending closer to me.
“I never expected nor want you to pay me back for anything. In fact, I owe you for doing this for us. Which I plan to make up to you for the rest of your life.” His lips find the center of my neck, leaving kisses along the sensitive area.
“But first.” His hands wrap underneath me, pulling me up and flipping me around so I sit on top of him. “Why don’t you want to be a lawyer?”
I lay my head on his shoulder. He smells like fresh wood, mixed with an amber or dark cherry. I close my eyes inhaling it. “I couldn’t disappoint my parents.”
He is quiet for a moment before he asks, “So, what would Miss Ballis like to do with her life instead?” His fingers roam along my back, soothing me. My eyes close, savoring the feeling. “I want to design fashion. Be a fashion designer.”
“My wife is a fashion designer. I like the sound of
that.”
I lift my head off his shoulder. “Excuse me, sir. Wife?I am currently engaged, if you have forgotten. Who said there was going to be an us?” I tease about being engaged, but I can feel my heart pounding at the fact that he called me his wife.
“You’re mine, Lily Ballis. From the very beginning you have been mine.
Always will be mine. I don’t care if you hate me, I don’t care if you’re engaged or married.
If we were not in the situation we are in right now, and you got married to someone else, some low-life cunt, I would make you a widow.
From the first time you bumped into me at the club and stared at me with your beautiful, big green eyes, you have been mine. ”
Tears bundle in my eyes, and this time they are real.
I don’t know how we ended up here. I don’t know how or when Jace cracked open my heart and stole it for himself.
I can’t keep pretending that this man hasn’t been in the back of my mind for months.
He can still be annoying, he can still infuriate me, but he truly is the kindest man I have ever encountered.
I think about all the times I have been mean to him, yet all he has ever done is stare at me with hope and fondness in his clear blue eyes.
All he has ever done is show me my worth. And now, I never want to let him go.