by Jessica Wood
“Whatever it is, thank you.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.
“Note to self: give Alex large empty boxes and cards more often,” he joked.
I giggled as I pulled away from him. I looked back down at the card and read it:
To the most amazing girl in my life (that’s you, Alexis!):
This pales in comparison to your beauty. But it’s hard to compete with perfection, so this was the closest thing I found.
Yours,
Damian
I was fighting back the tears when our eyes met. Emotions devoured my ability to speak as I looked back at the box
“Open it,” he urged. His brilliant blue eyes twinkled with excitement as he waited for me to unwrap the box.
I untied the ribbons, pushed them aside, and opened the box. There were several layers of pink tissue paper covering what appeared to be something blue.
“I’ve arranged a special date for us this weekend,” he confessed.
His words blindsided me, and I didn’t know how to respond.
I gingerly unwrapped the layers of tissue paper to reveal what they’d been hiding. My eyes widened when I saw it. Inside the delicate layers was the most elegant royal blue lace dress I’d ever seen in my life. I lifted the dress from the box and watched the length of the dress flow down to my side.
“I thought this dress was perfect for you to wear this weekend.” He gazed at me, studying my reaction.
I looked at him in awe. “This dress is gorgeous. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever touched in my life.” I laid the dress on the bed and admired it.
“Just so we’re clear,” he began. I looked up at him, wondering what condition he was going to include with his gift. “I’m not gay. I had help picking out this dress.”
I laughed. “Too bad. I love a guy with great taste.”
He put his arms around my waist and pulled me into his embrace. I felt his hardness rub against me through our clothes and I sucked in a breath, surprised by how excited he’d made me. “I know I have fantastic taste.”
I blushed and looked back at the dress. “I’ll have to look for some shoes to go with that.”
“Look inside the box again.” I could hear the satisfaction in his voice.
“You didn’t?” I shrieked in delight.
“Of course I did,” he replied, sounding as cocky as ever.
I looked back inside the box, and there they were. Sitting in the bottom of the box was a pair of rose gold Sergio Rossi stiletto-heeled sandals that were encrusted with crystals.
“Size seven. How did you know my size?” I looked from the sandals to him.
“I’ve been stalking your feet.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
“How did you get to be so amazing?”
“I’ve always been amazing. You’re just now appreciating it.”
“Uh huh. You’ve always been amazingly cocky.”
He laughed. “True story.”
“So where are we going?” I asked, knowing quite well that camping was probably not on the agenda for this weekend.
“It’s a surprise. We leave in an hour.”
“What?! But what should I pack?”
“Just bring a change of clothes, bring the dress and shoes, and wear something comfortable for now. Everything else is taken care of.”
“But—” I began to protest.
“Alex, trust me.” His expression was filled with warmth and sincerity.
I nodded.
“I have to get ready myself. So I’ll stop by to pick you up in an hour.” He pulled me in for an all-consuming goodbye kiss, and as our lips parted from each other, anticipation began to stir at the pit of my stomach.
What does he have planned for us?
***
An hour later, I rubbed my palms together and noticed my hands were shaking. I was nervous. I’d never been the type to like surprises, even though I knew that whatever Damian had planned would be a nice one.
The doorbell rang, causing me to jump in excitement.
“Hi!” I beamed at Damian, who was standing outside the door.
“Hey beautiful. Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously. I had a feeling he was taking pleasure in keeping this surprise from me. “The limo’s downstairs, so we should get going.”
“Wait—a limo?”
“Yup. Come on. Let me grab your stuff for you.”
As we got into the limo, I felt the anticipation build inside me. “So can you please tell me now where you’re taking me? I’m dying to know,” I begged.
He gave a devious smile, and I could tell he was considering my plea.
“Come on.” I nudged him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Stop trying to butter me up,” he laughed.
“Is it working?”
“The limo is taking us to a private jet,” he finally said.
“What?!” I shrieked.
His muscular frame shook with mirth as he laughed at my response.
“How did you get a private jet?”
“You’d be surprised the kind of people you befriend when you own a trendy bar. Plus, I have my way with people, not just women,” he teased.
“So can you tell me where the private jet is taking us?”
“Don’t you want to wait and see? I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you.” I knew by the tone of his voice that he was taunting me. He knew that I wanted to know, but he was enjoying himself with the carrot he was dangling in front of me.
“Please?” I begged as I playfully shook him with both of my hands. “You know I won’t stop bugging you until you tell me,” I warned.
“I love your feistiness, Alex.” He laughed as I continued pouting. “And you know how I love to please you, but this time, I need to say no.”
“You’re no fun.” I was filled with anxiety but also excitement.
“This is actually a lot of fun for me,” he laughed. “I will tell you that it’s going to be a long flight.”
He was right. I couldn’t be sure how long we were on the jet for, but it felt much longer than my flight from Iowa to California. I was still a nervous flier and ended up taking a sleeping pill and falling asleep quickly after we took off.
I must have slept for a long time, because when Damian gently nudged me awake, I felt rested and refreshed.
“Where are we?”
“Hey there, sleepyhead.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I will in a few hours after you get dressed.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s five p.m. local time.” He smirked at me, knowing that this would confuse me further.
“But we left SF around eight p.m…” My voice trailed off as I tried to think through my sleepy fog.
“Come on. Put this on. You’ll know where we are soon enough.”
I looked down at the black handkerchief in his hand. “You’re going to blindfold me?” I looked down at it with unease.
“Yup. I want to tell you after you’ve changed into your dress. Now, come on. We have to be ready in two hours.” Damian blindfolded me and led me out of the jet.
***
Two hours later, I was completely dressed in the stunning blue laced dress. I was standing in the bathroom of a luxurious hotel suite that was larger than my entire studio. I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror and felt more glamorous and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Who knew that a small-town orphan girl like me would ever be standing here in this lavish dress, waiting for her gorgeous boyfriend to sweep her off her feet and take her on a surprise fairytale date?
“Are you ready?” I heard Damian’s muffled voice say from the other side of the bathroom door.
“Almost!” I screamed toward the door. “Just one second!” I slipped on my stilettos and took one last look at myself in the mirror. I’d never considered myself stunning, but at that mo
ment, I wasn’t sure how else to describe the person staring back at me. I hardly recognized her.
“Alex, I’m sure you look smokin’. Now let me in.”
“Okay, I’m coming.” I opened the door and my jaw dropped when I saw him. He was beyond handsome in a dapper peak-lapel charcoal tuxedo with a bow tie.
“Wow!” he exclaimed as he looked me up and down.
“I was about to say the same thing.” A part of me wanted to ask if we still had a few more minutes to spare for a quickie because he looked painfully irresistible.
“I know you want to jump my bones—and normally, I’d let you—but we have to get downstairs now.”
I laughed at how in sync we were in our thoughts. “So can you finally tell me where we’re going?” I looked at him hopefully.
“As much as I’ve loved watching you squirm, I don’t think I can keep our plans a secret for very much longer.”
I hit him on the shoulder. “You tease! Spill it already!”
He laughed. “So my friend Emma is getting married today, and you’re going to be my plus-one.”
“So we’re going to a wedding right now?” I kept a smile on my face, but I felt conflicting feelings course through me. I knew that, for Damian, taking me as his plus-one to a wedding was a big deal, and it was certainly something people did in a real relationship. But a surprise with a private jet and a one-of-a-kind dress seemed a bit extravagant for just a wedding. And for some reason, I thought that there would be something more to this, something a little more special.
“Yup.” He seemed to be oblivious to my disappointment. “Just a simple wedding at a simple villa in Florence.”
“A simple wedding’s nice,” I said halfheartedly as I tried to mask my disappointment. Then something he’d said finally registered in my consciousness. “Wait, what? A villa? Florence? Where are we?”
I turned to Damian, trying to make sense of everything. I saw a wide smile spread across his lips. “We’re in Florence,” he said matter-of-factly.
“As in Florence, Italy?” I asked in disbelief.
“Is there another Florence?” He looked at me innocently.
“Oh my God! We’re in Italy?!” I shrieked in delight. That just can’t be right!
Damian simply laughed at my excitement and nodded.
I wanted to jump up and down, but I was scared I’d rip my dress. Thoughts swirled around me as I tried to make sense of everything. “But how? I’m not prepared. But don’t I need a passport? What about my job?” A million questions raced through my mind.
“Baby,” he said softly as he held my hands to calm me down. “One thing at a time. I’ll explain everything. You said when we first met that you wanted to travel, and that one of the things on your bucket list was to visit all the continents by the time you’re thirty. So when Emma invited me to her wedding and told me she was going to have it at Villa La Vedette in Florence, Italy, I knew I wanted you to come with me. And you said that you already had your passport like you had those travel books, so I sneaked into your place to get your passport information for our travel plans.”
“You’re such a sweet man, Damian,” I whispered as tears welled up in my eyes.
“Only to you.” He held my face with his hands and gently brushed a tear from my cheek with his thumb. “Oh, one more thing. I also called your boss and told him about the surprise and asked if you could have next week off. He thought it was a great surprise. So you’re stuck with me for the next nine days.” There was a twinkle in his rich blue eyes as he looked down at me.
I met his gaze, and for the first time in my life, I was speechless.
“Say something.” He studied me, trying to figure out what I was thinking.
“I can’t believe you planned all this,” I finally said. I flung my arms around him and kissed him with desperate abandonment.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Damian
A CRISP EVENING BREEZE BLEW through the reception area, causing the loose strands of Alexis’s hair to dance in the wind as Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E” resonated through the speakers. There was a sense of magic in the air as we sat under a sky of string lights covering every inch of the large canopy tent ceiling. I watched as the soft lights illuminated Alexis’s face, making her look so unbelievably beautiful that it took my breath away.
I observed her as her eyes were glued on Brandon and Emma as they danced their first dance as husband and wife. I saw the twinkle in her eyes, the same spark I had become so addicted to—the look of amazement, love, and warmth I had come to live for. It was the same look she gave me, like I was some amazing person she could depend on, like I was someone she would never let go of, like I was the one she had been waiting for all her life.
I put my arms around her and pulled her closer toward me. She turned to look up at me and grinned widely. There were tears in her eyes.
“Hi,” she whispered softly as she gently rubbed her hand across my back.
“Hey, why are you crying?” I whispered back.
“No, they’re just happy tears,” she reassured. “I always cry at weddings. I just can’t help it.”
“Really? Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess because it’s such a special moment between two people at one of the most important occasions in their lives. And this is when we get to celebrate their love and the fact that they were able to find each other.”
God, she’s so beautiful—inside and out.
“You’re amazing, Alex. I never thought I could ever feel this way—I never thought such a feeling existed until now.”
“What feeling is that?”
“It can’t be described by words—but it’s a warm feeling that fills my entire body and my entire being. It’s like this flood of ecstasy that I’ve never felt before. And I can’t believe I’m going to say this—because I never thought I’d say such a thing—but this feeling is better than sex. The way you make me feel by being with me feels better than sex.”
I was surprised by my own admission because I knew it was true and I knew that I had meant every word of it.
I pulled her face towards me and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “What did I do to deserve you?” I whispered.
“You taught me how to eat sushi.” She giggled through her tears.
I chuckled. “You’re now a chopstick-using, sushi-eating pro.”
“Watch out, Japan. I’m visiting you next,” she teased.
“I hope you’ll decide to bring your ridiculously handsome boyfriend along with you to Japan,” I said.
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “You know what your middle name is?"
“Fun?” I asked as I thought back to the conversation we had on our first sushi night.
“Nope.”
“Perfect?”
“Wrong!” She laughed.
“Hey! Easy there. You’re hurting my ego,” I joked. “So I give up. What is it?”
“Cocky. Cocky is your middle name,” she said, barely holding back her laughter.
“God, you’re so fucking feisty! I love that about you.”
“I know,” she said with a smile.
“Now who’s cocky now?”
“Well, I learn from the best,” she shot back.
I laughed. I looked into her beautiful hazel eyes and realized that I hadn’t been this deliriously happy about life before I met this girl.
I pulled her hands into mine and smiled at her. “I love you, Alex. You feel inevitable to me.” It wasn’t a line; it wasn’t a lie. I’d meant every word of it. And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t scared.
Her eyes glittered with intense emotion as she looked up at me. Her hands were warm and soft between my hands.
“Really?” She looked at me, surprised by my declaration.
I was also surprised by my own admission. “Yeah, I know. News to me too.”
“Since when?”
“Hmm, you know what? Truth is, I think from the first time I saw you on the staircase that day
when you moved in. Somehow you were different, and a part of me just knew I would never be the same again.”
“I love you too, Damian.” Her words radiated through me like a warm ray of sunshine and I was unable to stop smiling. I loved the way I looked through her eyes, because she saw me in a way no one else did, like I was someone special, like I was someone worth investing time into.
Alexis rubbed the back of my neck with her hands and I felt my body respond to her touch. When the song ended, Alexis got up from her seat and leaned down toward me to whisper, “Hey, I’m going to the restroom. Keep my seat warm for me, okay?”
“You got it, babe,” I whispered back. She kissed me gently and beamed at me when she pulled away. The sparkle in her eyes as she looked at me made my knees weak.
As I watched her walk out of the tent-covered reception area and disappear into the villa, the father of the groom got up to make a toast. Before he began talking, a cell phone close by started to ring. The ringtone sounded familiar and I realized the sound was coming out of Alexis’s bag. I grabbed her bag and dug through it to find her phone. Right when I grabbed it, the call went to voicemail. But before the caller ID disappeared, I thought the name that popped up on the screen sounded familiar. Who’s Chris?
As I was about to drop her phone back into her bag, an incoming text message from the same Chris came in. My whole body froze and I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me when I read what the text said.
Hey hun. Did you get the results yet? You know I’ll support you no matter what.
Author’s Note
The exciting conclusion to Damian’s story, Taming Damian, can be found here. Damian’s backstory before he met Alexis can be found in the prequel novella, The Heartbreaker here.
If you would like to stay informed of the release date, as well as other releases, teasers, and news on my upcoming books, please sign up for Jessica Wood’s mailing list.
The Professor’s Student
Helen Cooper
Chapter One
It was the weekend before they were going back to University and Abby and Essie were going to make sure that they made the most of it.
“Do you think we’re going to be the oldest one’s in the class again?” Essie questioned Abby as they picked out outfits to wear for their night out.