He finally laughed. “Fine. Aren’t you gonna open the box?”
Goosebumps spread on my arms as he grabbed the velvet thing and held it to my face. I opened it, and my brows shot up as I took in the blinding sparkle inside. “Dusty… This’s… I’m speechless.”
“You like them?”
“Like them?” I couldn’t take my eyes off the necklace with the heart pendant rimmed with bling and little rubies or the set of matching earrings. “Are these…silver?” I couldn’t say what I really suspected. These were definitely not silver.
“Uh…no. They’re white gold, but the little diamonds and rubies are real.”
My head jerked up. “This is way too much. How can you affor—” I chopped off my question. “Never mind. I can’t accept them.”
“What? No, sweetheart. You never let me buy you anything ‘cause you’re iffy about Skulls’ money, I get that. But I swear to you I bought those with clean money.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes, baby.”
A smile triumphed on my face. Discovering he was making the effort to make me happy, to reassure me all the time, made me feel so lucky. No guy did that for me before that I started to think men didn’t do that at all.
I was wrong. Dusty did. My Dusty.
“I love you,” I murmured, reflexively.
He stilled for a moment, and I didn’t dare lift my gaze to him. “What did you just say?”
I said. I finally said it. It was real and raw and spontaneous, but it scared the fuck out of me.
He lifted my chin with his finger and made me look at him. “I’ve been waiting to hear it from you for months. When you finally say it, it won’t be shy, reluctant or hushed. You have to look me in the eye and say it with the confidence of that strong girl you are, the one that defied danger to avenge her sister and brought me to my knees with her kindness before power.”
His words touched me so beautifully my eyes threatened to ruin my makeup. I gazed at him, drawing in on that confidence I discovered because of him, for him, and smiled. “I love you, Dusty.”
He pulled me in a tight embrace, and then he rested his forehead on mine while our lips caressed. “I love you, too. Always.”
My smile grew bigger, and he unhooked the chain lock and went behind me to put the necklace on me. Then the earrings. We both looked in the dresser mirror, and I thought we looked amazing together.
“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful than you.” He offered me his arm. “Shall we?”
CHAPTER 36
Dusty
The limo was waiting outside the hotel entrance as we exited. Riding the bike with Cammie dressed like that was fucking impossible. Everybody was looking at her. Even the driver stole a few glances at her curves as he opened the door for us.
My blood simmered in my veins. It wasn’t like me to get jealous. I grew up in a place where every pussy was for everybody to share. But with Cammie, everything was different. I was different.
She was my girl, my ol’lady. If we were in Rosewood, no one would dare look at her. Here…I had to be adecentguy and play by the rules. Fancy fucking college town rules. Soon, it was gonna be my town, too. I had to get used to it.
“Wow. It’s like we’re going to Prom.” She giggled, climbing into the limo.
I swallowed my anger as I saw how happy she was. “Did you like going to yours?”
“Uh, I’ve never gone to mine. Have you?”
“Hell no. Not my thing.” I settled next to her as the driver shut the door. “Why did you miss yours?”
She frowned, her eyes dark abruptly. “I… Sylvia, you know mymotherhad just left us then, and…my fucking boyfriend at the time was… He tried to… You know what? This is not the right time for this story.” Her fingers twined with mine, squeezing.
Murderous thoughts banged my skull at the idea of some douche hurting Cammie in any way, and the way she was talking made me think of the worst. Fury raptured inside me and forced me to not let the conversation slide. “Give me a name.”
