AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I set my box down on the floor and sighed softly, sad that he wouldn’t be stuck with me twenty-four hours a day. I wished that I could be with him all day, every day. Hell, I had barely left his side since he’d rescued me from the mob.
Thatwas a whole other thing,but I was working through it with Blaise and a therapist that Blaise paid for.
“Stay with me,” he said, catching me off guard. He walked into the apartment beside me, carrying another box as his biceps flexed. He set the box down on his granite countertop and smiled. “Please.”
“You know my mom would never let me.”
“She will if I ask.”
Playfully, I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, but I don’t want to leave them—”
“No way,” Mateo—who had come with Mom to help Blaise move in—shouted, stepping into one of the spare bedrooms. He stuck his head out into the hallway, eyes bugging out of their sockets. “You have a gaming room with two computers and a large flat screen?! All those games too!”
Blaise chuckled. “You know Vera isn’t going to be gaming with me anytime soon. I guess I have an extra computer. Hmm … I wonder who’d be interested in—”
“No way,” Mateo said, grinning like a maniac. “No fucking way you got that for me.”
Smiling to myself, I watched Blaise and Mateo interact.
These past few weeks, they’d gotten even closer somehow. I had caught them way too many times, playing video games and talking until three in the morning.
Mom stepped out of Blaise’s bathroom and smiled. “I finished setting you all up, honey.” She moved closer to us and frowned up at Blaise. “You know that you don’t have to leave us. You’re welcome to stay.”
“I know,” Blaise said, glancing down at me and taking my hand. “I want to do this.”
After Mom gave him a hug, she nodded to Mateo. “You have a doctor’s appointment in an hour,” she said. “We have to get going. Say goodbye to Blaise and Vera for now. We can come back later.”
When Mom turned her back to head to the door, Mateo rolled his eyes, but he retrieved his coat from Blaise’s couch. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and widened his eyes. “Oh, Blaise, I wanted to know if, uh …” Mateo pulled out a white envelope from his pocket. “You left this for me?”
Blaise shook his head. “Nah, kid. I didn’t. What’s in it?”
Mateo reached inside the envelope and pulled out a check for twenty-thousand dollars from Harleen Inc. My eyes widened as I stared at the thin sheet of paper that was worth more money than I had ever seen before.
“Where the hell did you get that?” I asked.
“It came in the mail for me yesterday. I didn’t tell Mom yet because I didn’t think it was real.” He peered over at Blaise. “I know it’s your family’s company, so I wanted to ask. What do you think it’s for?”
Blaise looked at the check, then peered down at his feet and smiled softly, as if he knew exactly what it was for. “You should deposit the check into a bank account and use it for college or, uh … something.”
“You think it’s real?” Mateo asked.
Blaise shrugged. “Not going to find out until you deposit it.”
Mateo stuffed the check back into the envelope and grinned. “Okay, I’ll do that today.”
Once Mateo finally departed, Blaise shut and locked the door behind him. I lingered in the foyer and picked up my backpack from the barstool at the kitchen counter.
Blaise snatched it from me. “You’re not leaving yet.”
“No,” I said, taking my backpack back and unzipping it. “I wanted to, um …”
My cheeks flushed at the thought of what I was about to do. I thrust my hand into my backpack and gripped a stack of what must’ve been three hundred double-spaced and double-sided papers.
I pulled them out and handed them to him. “To give this to you, as a … housewarming gift.”
Blaise arched a brow and slid onto one of the stools beside me. “What is it?”
I glanced down at my feet, heart pounding inside my chest. “It’s the story that I’ve been writing … about us. It’s our story. It’s not finished yet. I still have to write the last chapter, but I wanted you to read it.”
With brown eyes so big, Blaise peered over at me. “You wrote a story about us?”
Somehow, my cheeks burned even hotter. “Yeah, I did. And I plan on publishing it one day because I love us so fucking much.” I moved closer to him, so I stood between his legs, and then I grabbed his face. “And I love you more than I ever thought I could. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Blaise Harleen.”
After setting the manuscript on the counter, Blaise seized my hips and drew me closer to him. He kissed me softly, his mouth moving with mine, like it was meant to. I closed my eyes and enjoyed every moment with him.
When I broke our kiss, Blaise cupped my chin and gently glided his thumb across my lower lip. We stared at each other for a few moments, and then Blaise pulled his hand away to reach into my backpack. He pulled out a pen and slid the manuscript toward me.
“Title our story, Vera,” he whispered.
