“I knew that would be your answer but I thought that I would give it a try.” He laughs.
“You two need to get a room,” Sean says with a grin.
“We have a room around the corner,” Scott says to him with a bigger grin.
“On that note, I’m going to take off.”
“Say hi to Erika for me,” I tell him. He nods and drives away. We talk to Maggie and Alex for a few more minutes and then escape to Scott’s place.
We order in pizza and play video games. Or I should say, he plays video games and I try to play along with him. We have fun, though. I love being with him like this. With no expectations and no pressure. Just having fun and making out on the couch in between games. Eventually, our making out gets hotter and I’m straddling him. Scott stands up, taking me with him and I wrap my legs around him as he carries me upstairs and makes love to me all night again.
Chapter 28
Scott
It’s the day of the ball. Yas and I went to see Zane and Quinn yesterday. We all went out to eat and then hung out at their place. At one point, Zane and Yas exchanged a glance and then went into the kitchen together. I tried to follow but Quinn started asking me questions about my new program, looking nervously at the kitchen every few minutes. I was worried for a minute and then realized that they must be planning something for me. Maybe Yas is going to get a tattoo. That would be hot. I would love to see a tattoo on her awesome body.
We’re staying at my apartment this time and we didn’t get much sleep last night. If Owen knew that I took Yas from behind as she held on to one of his sculptures, he would never let me live it down. It was pretty damn erotic though, having her naked, pressed up against the metal with her hands above her head, holding on. Thank God and Owen that he insisted on me having his sculptures attached to the floor so that they wouldn’t tip. That one would have definitely tipped last night. That was just the beginning of our night. Shit. I need to get a grip or I’m going to have to take a cold shower and I don’t have time for that.
I’m in the guest room getting ready while Yas is upstairs in my room. She was nervous all day, waiting for her dress to arrive. When it did, she immediately ran upstairs with it. I can’t wait to see her. It still sucks that I have to cover up and I’m not happy as I remove all of my piercings, but I get to have my girl with me so that makes up for it. I get the text that I have been waiting for.
Yas: Are you ready?
Me: Yep. I am walking out to the living room now.
I walk out and stand at the bottom of the steps waiting. When Yas walks out, I can’t believe what I am seeing at first. Her dress…her dress is like nothing I have ever seen before. It almost brings me to my knees as she walks down the stairs and stops a few steps from the bottom. The top is flesh colored and covered in my tattoos. Where they are on my body underneath my clothes. But being shown on her body, on the fabric of her dress, over her curves. The bottom of the dress is stiff black material, a little shorter in front then the back and showing off her shoes which have blue and green leaves twisting around them. She has emerald earrings in her ears but no other jewelry. There’s no need for any. The dress is a work of art. My work of art. And Zane’s. I realize now what they were talking about. He had to have helped with this. I can’t say anything. I don’t know the words.
Yas misinterprets my silence. “I-I can change, Scott. I have a backup dress.” She turns and I reach out and pull her to me.
“Don’t you dare fucking change. I love this dress. I more than love it. I just couldn’t find my words for a minute. How did you do this?”
She takes a breath, relaxing. “When you invited me to the ball and told me how you couldn’t show your tattoos or piercings, I thought that maybe I could show them for you. I called Zane to see if he could help and then tracked down a guy I saw on Project Runway who had a fabric printer. Are you sure that you like it?”
“Yes, baby. It’s amazing and you are amazing for thinking of this and doing it for me. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too. Oh, and I’m sorry about the piercings. I thought about them, but I just couldn’t do it.” She looks sheepish.
“This is enough, Yas. It’s more than enough. You have no idea what it feels like to see my ink on you.”
“Ohh, are you feeling all alpha?”
“Yeah, I am. And if we didn’t need to get to the party, I would show you just how much.” I growl and then kiss her hard. I make myself pull away after a minute and lead her from the apartment and into the elevator.
We exit into the lobby and Bobby is there. “Wow, you two look amazing.” We thank him and then head out to the limo.
* * *
Yasmin
When we arrive at the ball, I’m not ready for the photographers who are waiting for us. I didn’t realize how famous the Griffins are in Chicago. I recover as quickly as possibly as Scott leads me onto the red carpet. We pose for pictures and even kiss. Reporters ask me about my dress and I tell them the name of designer and also give them Zane’s name and tell them about his shop. We make it inside and find his family.
“Whoa, Yasmin. That dress is sick,” Luke tells me. Owen and Ryan nod their agreement.
“Thanks, Luke.”
“You look beautiful, Yasmin,” Gary tells me, kissing my cheek. “Thank you for doing this for my boy.”
“It’s my pleasure.”
We head to our table and have a nice dinner, laughing and talking. It’s nice to see John again and I tell him that. I notice that both Ryan and he keep glancing to a gorgeous blonde across the room. She has a smile on that doesn’t reach her eyes. A handsome guy who obviously thinks he’s God’s gift to us all keeps trying to kiss her, but she is expertly dodging him. He’s holding her hand, though. Ryan looks like he wants to punch something…or cry. John just looks resigned. I will have to ask Scott about it later.
I head to the restroom before dessert. I walk out of the bathroom and start to head back to the table when two women step into my path. They are both dressed in similar bubble gum pink dresses and look like they haven’t eaten in a year.
“I don’t know what Scott sees in you, but he’ll toss you aside soon. I mean look at that trashy dress you are wearing,” Thing One says to me.
“Seriously, are you that desperate that you would need to put his last name on the front of your dress and his mom’s name on the back?” Thing Two chimes in, then adds, “You don’t know him like we do.”
I paste a sweet smile on my face as I stare them down. “Oh, you mean like you know him from when he fucked you in the closet?” Their eyes nearly pop out of their faces and I continue. “And I think that if you really knew him, you would know that these are his tattoos and that he loves my dress. In fact he loves it so much, that when we get back to his apartment, he is going to make love to me all night in his bed. Just like he did last night.”
“Who do you think you are, you bitch?” One sneers at me, seeming shocked that I would stand up to her.
“She’s my girlfriend.” Scott comes up behind me and puts his arm around my waist. “And if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll have you thrown out.” They looked dumbstruck that he is defending me. “Oh, and for the record, I am going to take her back to our apartment and make love to her all night. And then, we are going to go back to Vegas and pick out furniture for our house there. Because anything that is mine is hers, too.”
They stand there with their mouths open as we walk away laughing. “I’m sorry that I didn’t get there faster, but you were holding your own.”
“It’s okay. I was holding my own. And you know what? I didn’t feel self-conscious when they were insulting me, especially because they didn’t even know that these were your tattoos. How is that possible?”
“I never took my shirt off when I went in the closet,” he tells me with a laugh.
* * *
Scott
It’s almost time for our speeches. I had mine written already but I would like to add somet
hing. I ask my dad and Ryan if it is okay because it might affect their deal, but they tell me that I’m more important than any deal. I thank them and look over what I wrote, deciding on where to add this in. I read what I had written to Mike at our last session and he said it was great. Yas had gone with me to meet him a couple of weeks ago and it was really good. He told me the next time I saw him that he liked her. My parents and Ryan speak about Erin and Dave and how we want to keep helping and then it’s my turn.
I take a deep breath as I step up to the podium. “I want to thank you for this award and for honoring my sister and brother in law’s memory. Many of you know the circumstances of their deaths and you probably wouldn’t be surprised to know that I blamed myself for a long time. I don’t blame myself any longer because I realize that I was a victim too. I wanted to get that out of the way but that is all I am going to say about it publicly. I would rather talk about the people who I care about, who love me and have helped me become the man that I am today.
“Dave was a great guy. He was a wonderful husband to my sister and a wonderful father to my niece, Alex. I will always be thankful to him for that. I will also be thankful to him for being like a big brother to me. When he married my sister, he took us all in as his family. His advice and love helped me though high school. I love him and I miss him.
“My good friends John and Zane helped me through some rough times, too. They were always there for me and listened when I had a problem. To this day I know that I can call them up and they will drop whatever they are doing to talk to me. They mean more to me than they will ever know.
“My dad has always supported me and let me find my own path. He didn’t think that it would lead me to his company, but we have been pretty successful with my work. I will always appreciate the love that he has shown me, especially in my darker times.
“Ryan, Owen and Luke, you are the best brothers that a guy could hope to have. You have kicked my ass when I needed it and called me on my shit more than once. You’ve also always been there through everything and helped me with my plans, even if they were a little crazy sometimes.
“All of those guys helped me and shaped me, but it is the women in my life who have shown me how to love and be loved.
“My sister Erin was always like a second mom to me. She held me when I cried in elementary school because no one wanted to play with the nerdy kid. She taught me about girls and how to treat them, telling me that if I was a jerk, I would never get a girl who was worth it. I didn’t listen to her for a long time, but now I know that she was right. I love my sister and miss her every day. I carry her love with me and I know that she is watching over me.
“There is nothing that I can say about my mom that will be enough. She is the mom that every kid hopes for. She makes the best mac and cheese and can scare us all with one look. She also let my brothers and I find our own way even when she knew we were making a wrong choice. She wanted us to learn from our mistakes. She also made sure that we stayed humble despite our wealth. My mother taught me about unconditional love and I love her unconditionally back.
“When my niece, Alex, was born and I held her in my arms, I knew what love at first sight was. I could not be any prouder of this beautiful girl who is smart, funny and honest. She told me off a few weeks ago when I was being an ass and I will be thankful to her for that for the rest of my life. She is a ray of light to everyone who meets her and I am honored to have the love that she gives me.”
I pause to think of the other woman in the room who I should be talking about next. After what she did to Ryan, I can’t do that, even though she did so much for me when we were younger. I take a deep breath before moving on to tell them about the most important woman of all.
“There is one more woman that I need to tell you about. She is the woman who owns my heart. I belong to her mind, body, soul and everything in between. She belongs to me, too, and I am the luckiest man in the world. From the day we met, she challenged me and didn’t let me get away with anything. She loves me honestly and, although we have had some bumps along our path and will probably have more in the future, I know that I will be spending the rest of my life with her. She’s horrible at video games and will never be able to code a website but she loves me and puts up with the nerd in me. She is also incredibly sexy, sarcastic, fiercely independent and smarter than me in so many ways. Tonight, she managed to do something even more amazing than I could have thought possible. When we were first told about this party, the PR people at our company told me that I would have to take out my piercings and cover my tattoos. I’ve done that for other events, but it didn’t feel right to cover up for this. My sister loved me just the way I am and I wanted to be myself. My parents agreed with me but I ultimately decided to listen to the PR people and covered everything up. Then, my girl walked down the stairs to me wearing my tattoos on her dress. She had it made by someone from Project Runway and my tattoo artist and friend, Zane, helped them get it right. She said that she wanted to show off my tattoos for me since I couldn’t do it myself. I can’t imagine anyone doing anything for me that would mean more. I love you, Yas, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
I jump off the stage and pull her into my arms, kissing her passionately. The crowd claps and then I hear Owen’s voice from the podium. “You all need to hide your game controllers now.” Yas laughs against my lips and I flip him off behind her back. My life is perfect now.
Epilogue
Yas
Six months later
We’re in Paris for the wedding. Not our wedding, Erika and Sean’s. Scott’s new program did extremely well and as a bonus, he insisted on paying for this wedding for them and flying all of us out here. They are getting married in Monet’s gardens at Giverny with just their families, Scott’s family, Sam, Danny, Candi and me. Scott and I will be staying a few days after the ceremony to explore Paris. I closed the store for a week so that we could all be gone. I can afford it now.
The gardens are magnificent and Erika looks beautiful in her lacy Elie Saab gown. Sam, Alex and I are in short gold Elie Saab dresses as her bridesmaids. The guys are in black suits. There are the natural flowers growing around us and Erika brought in gorgeous white flowers, offset by gold ribbons. Her cake is a masterpiece of white and gold layers. We all eat, dance and drink into the night. Sam catches the bouquet, which is fitting since she and Danny are already engaged and will be getting married at Disney World next year. Scott is paying for that, too. He has no reason to, but he says that he loves my friends and wants to do this for them. We head back to the little inn where we are staying and fall into bed so that we can get up early for the train into Paris.
In Paris, we are staying at the George V. I would have picked a small hotel, but Scott likes to stay at luxurious hotels with me. Yesterday we explored Montmarte and went to the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay. I loved it all, especially the museums. I let Scott buy me a bunch of stuff from the museum shops, because I knew he would just watch me again if I didn’t tell him what I wanted. I felt a little weird at first, being here with him, when I know that he once wanted to make a trip to Paris with Amber. Scott assured me that what we are experiencing is nothing like what he would have been doing with her. She would have just taken him to all of the most expensive boutiques and expected him to buy them out for her. I prefer the fun, little French shops although I did pick up a few designer things. I paid for them myself, though.
We kissed on the top of the Eiffel Tower last night. This morning, we went to the Lover’s Bridge and left a lock. I know that they take them down to make room for more but I really wanted to do it and Scott thought it was cool, too. We ate at a café and looked at a flea market for things for our house.
Scott moved in with me last month. It was time. Well, actually it was past time, but, he has been patient with me as I fully learned to trust him again. He’s still been having sessions with Mike, but they’re now only meeting once a week. I am proud of him for getting help and wo
rking on his issues. I decided that going to school full-time wasn’t good choice right now, but Scott convinced me to take a few online classes. I’ve enjoyed them and it’s nice to do the work when it’s convenient for me.
We just went to Laduree for macaroons and saw Notre Dame, standing on the spot marking the center of Paris. Now, we are headed into Shakespeare and Company, a famous bookstore that I really want to see. I want to buy a copy of Much Ado About Nothing, my favorite Shakespeare play.
“Why don’t we just ask the guy at the counter? They probably keep all of the Shakespeare plays up there,” Scott says as we try to navigate around other shoppers.
“Umm, OK,” I tell him, wondering why he is in a rush. He knows that I wanted to come here and he’s been acting weird today.
I ask the guy at the counter and he does have a copy behind the register. He smiles brightly at us as he rings it up. I pay for it and Scott hurries me out of the store. He finds an empty bench and pulls me down next to him.
“Is everything okay, Scott?” I ask him nervously.
“Everything is perfect, Yas. Open up the bag and look at your book, please.”
“I can wait until later.”
“No, baby, I need you to look at it now.”
“Okay.” I pull the book out and see the ring tied to a ribbon like a bookmark. It is a princess cut diamond surrounded by square purple sapphires around it and more diamonds on the band. It is big, but not huge. “Scott?” I look up as he slides off the bench and gets on one knee in front of me.
“Yasmin, I know that I should write you a big speech, but I’ve already done that, so I am going to keep this simple. I love you and I want you to be my wife. Will you please marry me?”
“Yes, oh my God, yes Scott!” I pull him to me and kiss him as I hear clapping around us. We pull apart and receive congratulations from the crowd.
“Do you like it?” he asks slipping it on my finger.
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