Page 16 of The Cost of a Bride
“I used to love these when I was a kid,” he says as he takes his first spoonful. “Used to make my mom get them for me whenever we came here.”
“Must be nice having parents who actually care about you,” I reply, but when I see the look on his face, I instantly regret it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring the mood down.”
“No, that’s fine. That’s not your job.”
As our feet hit the sand, Russell wraps a comforting arm around me and kisses me on the top of the head. It’s incredible how safe and protected I feel when I’m with him. It’s as though my life has completely shifted in an entire new direction now, and it’s all thanks to him.
We find an open patch of sand and lie down. I strip down to my bikini, and Russell takes off his shirt, and we continue to munch on the remainder of our Italian ices as they rapidly melt in the warm summer sun.
“What a day,” I say as I lean over and kiss him gently on the shoulder.
“Enjoying yourself?” He smiles.
“You know I am.”
Russell kisses me back in the same spot, then gently runs his hand up my back, tracing the lines of my body like a sculptor memorizing them for a later project. “Can I ask you something, baby?”
“Of course,” I reply. Russell locks his eyes on mine like he has something very important to say.
“I know this is probably a very stupid thing to say, but…you aren’t going to be going back to the mansion, right? To work?”
I can’t help it, but a smile comes over my lips. I kind of want to screw with him – tease him a little – but I can see just how protective of me he is right now, and I just can’t bring myself to do it.
“How could you ask me that, baby?” I reply, pulling myself up against him so our bodies are touching. I wrap my arm around him and lean close, telling him everything I can with my eyes. “You never have to pay me another dollar, and I belongto younow.”
Russell’s eyes light up, and without warning, he snatches me by the waist, rolls onto his back, and pulls me on top of him.
There I go again, feeling shy with all these people watching, but I also feel something deeper pushing that shyness away – a feeling deep in my chest blossoming with an incredible intensity that it’s almost like the rest of the world simply melts away, leaving just Russell and me alone with each other.
“You belong to me.” He smiles. “And I belong to you.”
“I like that,” I whisper.
“So what do you want to do?” he asks me. “Now that you won’t be going back to the mansion?”
I sigh and lay my head on his chest. “Well, I always thought being a hairdresser would be fun. But you have to go to hairdresser school, and that’s kind of expensive.”
“Well, I’m sure we can make it happen,” Russell replies, placing a comforting hand on my back. “That’s my job now, baby. To make whatever you want happen.”
9
Nikki
I’ve never felt happierin my life. It’s like the entire world has gone and flipped upside down on me. I wake up in the morning in Russell’s bed, and while he may be at work, I feel blissful and free, knowing I don’t have to spend the rest of the day thinking about going to work at the mansion tonight and performing in front of a bunch of disgusting, horny old men.
I stretch lazily and take my time getting up, then go and take a nice long bath and think about our day yesterday.
The trip to the beach was nothing short of amazing. We let our Italian ices melt until there was nothing but slush and syrup at the bottom of the cups, and then finished them off while lying in the sun. Then we lay out until we just started to get pink, and then we came back to Russell’s.
We showered together and ended going at it again in the shower. And after that, we ordered Thai food and watchedSpirited Awayin bed. Russell had never seen it before, and I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about it, but he actually really liked it, which made me super happy.
I just can’t wait to get to explore my life more and more with him, share all of my interests with him, and fully grow to understand every single thing about him. Placing my trust in a man like this is new to me. It’s exciting, and I can feel myself falling for him every moment as the clock continues to tick by.
He just can’t get home soon enough.
I throw on my clothes and head downstairs to make myself some breakfast, but just as I’m stepping into the kitchen, I hear the front door open.
My heart leaps, and the rest of my body comes alive. Has he come back early for some reason?