Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 39740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
It felt wrong somehow to get intimate with her while I was still embroiled in this drama with her sister. She, on the other hand, just laughed it off but told me there was no rush because she was sure that when we did get together, it would be spectacular.
That chance came that summer when we went to Italy to intern at her grandfather’s company. I don’t know if it was the different scenery, which made no sense because we’d been to their home there before, but this time, it was just the two of us and the staff in attendance.
Whatever it was, I felt more relaxed, and by the end of that first week, I was about to lose my mind from wanting her. She belonged there, in the cobblestone streets of the Italian beachside, surrounded by that old-world charm.
Her beauty was somehow more pronounced in the setting, and I hadn’t noticed it the last time we were here with her family, but now that it was just us, with no distractions and no having to be on my best behavior to impress anyone, all I saw was her. And the more I saw, the more I wanted.
At night, we’d sit out in the garden drinking wine, which was legal there, just gazing up at the stars and planning for our future. I’d pick a flower each morning and place it in her hair, and it would still be there when we came home in the evenings.
We touched each other more, laughed more, and, in general, were just happy. We didn’t spend any time talking or even thinking about our lives back home, and I think that’s what made the segue easier to manage.
That day, when I woke up, I didn’t expect it to end the way it did. We were still sleeping in the same bed but hadn’t gone beyond heavy petting and some very steamy make-out sessions.
I’ll never forget that it was in Italy that I learned that I liked the taste of pussy. Or the fun we had teaching her how to suck my cock. But even then, we didn’t take things to the next step, not yet. I think we both just liked teasing the hell out of each other.
The buildup was also a plus. But that day, when I woke up and went to the office with her, it was just like any other day. It was on my lunch break that it happened. She’d had to stay back to finish something she was working on and encouraged me to head out to lunch without her.
Since I wasn’t in the mood to eat alone since I’d been eating with her since before we left the States, I decided to walk around the little seaside town and pick up something for her on the way back. That’s when I saw it in the window.
It wasn’t an engagement ring, though the pink stone was big enough, but my first thought was that it would make the perfect promise ring. I found it poetic justice that the first time I spent any of the money from my own investments was on her.
So far, my parents have been footing the bill as part of our deal. My Dad, especially, was very excited about my internship with the company, though he and Sinclair would’ve preferred that I stayed back there with them.
I’d had to play it off as if it were just a fluke that I just happened to get this internship, not once letting on that I’d spoken to old man Sinclair or that Lily had any part in me getting to know them.
I was still walking that tightrope between fact and fiction, but Lily and I had planned on telling her grandparents the truth when we got back, not about Lacey and that whole mess, but about the fact that my Dad already worked for their company.
We are going to play it as a coincidence and go from there. It was going to change things a bit because that barrier would be gone, but I don’t think there should be any issues outside of Lacey’s jealousy, where her sister is concerned.
Anyway, that day, I bought the ring, but I didn’t give it to her until after dinner that night. We were sitting in the garden as usual, and I just took her hand and slid the ring in place. “This is the first promise I’m going to make to you in our lives. I promise to always cherish you.”
The words weren’t much, but they moved her to tears, and before I knew it, she left her chair and crawled into my lap to pepper my face with kisses. It wasn’t the first time she’d done this, but that night, when she slipped her tongue past my lips, it felt… different somehow.