Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 64617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“Oh, come on. This was enough. You didn’t have to get me something too.”
“That’s my gift.”
She cocked her head to the side. “You got yourself a present for me to open?”
I grinned. “Open the gift, Bailey.”
She eyed me skeptically then did just that. Jerking back when she realized what it was. “Aiden, why did you—”
Before the next word left her mouth, I gripped onto the back of her neck and pulled her to me.
They say the smallest decisions can change your life forever.
I would eternally remember this moment for the rest of my days. This was the instant that changed everything between us. Exactly the way I wanted it to.
Standing right then and there, under the mistletoe I wrapped for her.
I rasped, “To kiss you,” against her lips. “I don’t see myself when I’m with you because all I ever see… is you, Bay.”
Not knowing what the fuck I was doing, I kissed her with everything I had inside of me. Making her knees buckle and my heart pound. I sought out her tongue, and she moaned in my mouth as both of my hands found the sides of her face and her hands found my hair, pulling at it almost instantly.
The taste of her.
The warmth, the need, the longing to make her mine.
The sensation of her pouty lips while framing her face I adored so goddamn much. My hands found their way down her body, and I wanted nothing more than to keep going, but not here.
Not like this.
This kiss would have to be enough to hold me over until the time was right to prove she was made just for me and only me.
Our lips devoured each other, both of us making a memory to take with us, not knowing when another chance would come along again where we could feel whole in one another’s love. I wish I could describe the intensity I found myself going through with her in my arms. Only I couldn’t even do it justice. I couldn’t even put it into words what was in my heart.
What had always been there.
What would always be there.
It overpowered me.
She overpowered me.
I let it take control, and a huge part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and just go with it.
I didn’t.
Because she deserved better.
She deserved it all.
And I would be the one to give it to her.
No one else, but me.
Enjoying the sensation of her lips against mine one last time, I pulled away and she instantly whimpered at the loss.
“Bailey,” I huskily groaned inches away from her mouth. Placing my forehead on hers with my hands still holding onto the sides of her face.
She immediately opened her dark, dilated eyes. Looking so fucking beautiful, so fucking innocent, so everything I ever needed and wanted.
“Aiden,” she panted back, luring me in again.
I softly pecked her lips, rubbing mine back and forth on hers. Gazing deep into her eyes, murmuring, “I love you. I love you so much it hurts,” saying it for the first time when I’d been wanting to express it all along. “You’re mine, Bailey, and don’t you ever forget that.”
Except, I was wrong…
Her Christmas gift to me wasn’t her reaction to my surprise or this kiss, her present to me was the second…
The moment…
The instant…
She revealed,
“I love you too.”
Making this the day, we became a couple.
Chapter 13
<>Camila<>
Now
__________
Sixty days.
Eight-and-a-half weeks.
Two whole months since I started working at the Pierce residence, and despite everything Jackson was still putting me through, nothing compared to the stunt he pulled on me today.
I grabbed my phone from my purse and dialed the first person who came to mind.
“Hola, chica, que paso, mamita?”
“Danté! Oh my God, I don’t know what to do! I have no idea how to get this smell out of the house!”
“Gurl, calm down. What’s goin’ on? You’re talkin’ in circles.”
“I’m so screwed! How am I going to explain this? There’s no way she’d believe me over him. Not about this!”
“Camila, where are you?”
“The Pierces,” I muttered, feeling at a loss.
“Text me the address. I’m on my way.”
“Thank you.”
“Always, mamita. I got you, gurl.”
I hung up and texted him the address immediately and waited on pins and needles for the next two hours for him to arrive. Killing time, keeping Journey busy outside in the backyard.
Meanwhile, trying to create a plan of action and figure out what the hell I was going to do next.
Jackson really screwed me this time.
As soon as my phone pinged with a new text message from Danté saying he was at the front door, I rushed inside with Journey in my arms.
With an amused expression on his face, he jerked back when he saw us standing there.
Imploring, “Why does that baby look like she belongs to Michael Jackson hangin’ out of a window, and not a rich ass white doctor who lives in the suburbs?” he questioned, taking in the surgical mask I put on her that I found in the kitchen drawer.