Page 35 of Infatuated as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #2)

When we got outside, I was met with the crisp smell of water and pine trees, and if I listened close enough, I could hear the gentle rush of waves. Holly grabbed my hand and pulled me forward, the air cold but quiet. It was nice to hear absolutely nothing after all that noise in New York City.

Holly punched in a number on the little digital lock by the door—the only real piece of modern technology that I could see on the old-fashioned house—before showing me around.

There was a lot to see. The giant kitchen and the countless bedrooms and the big ass lake right there at the back.

We finally got settled in one of the living rooms, the walls an inviting cream color and the hardwood floors looking and feeling all expensive under my feet.

Holly got settled on the light brown couch, hands tucked under her head as she rested against it.

“You tired, princess?” I asked, stroking at her hair.

Humming softly, she nodded lazily. “Long drives make me so sleepy.”

“Why don’t you sleep for a couple hours?”

“No, I have to go into town and get stuff for your birthday dinner,” she said, trying to stifle a little yawn, but she couldn’t fight it. So fucking cute. “What do you want? I’ll make you anything.”

“Why don’t we just order in? ”

“Mm, no. You deserve a nice homecooked meal for your birthday.” She yawned again. “Pretend birthday. I’ll just rest my eyes for a second.”

“You do that.” I stroked a couple fingers through her hair, watching as her eyes fluttered closed. “I’ll get the stuff out of the car.”

“M’kay.”

I let her rest, quickly grabbing the five hundred bags Holly had packed and hauling them inside. By the time I was done, Holly was fast asleep, still in that same spot on the couch.

My head tilted at her, making sure to stay quiet, taking all of her in.

At the way her dark hair sprawled out against the couch, not a strand out of place even when she was asleep, and I still had no idea how she did that.

I took in her dark lashes and pouty lips and the red on her cheeks and the way her white dress contrasted against her sun kissed skin.

My eyes landed on the art stuff Holly had brought along with us. Would it be weird to paint her? When she posed for me—and there had been a lot of times where she had done that—I always had her permission, and she’d get all shy and quiet, like she couldn’t handle me staring at her for so long.

But she just looked so damn pretty and peaceful lying on that couch…

I got everything set up: the canvas pad and the brushes and the paint, and then I got to work before she could wake up.

I started with her long hair and her perfect face, taking extra time with her closed eyes and her lashes before I got to her lips.

It was too easy to get lost in every single one of her features.

An hour had passed by before I knew it, and then I was tilting my head at my newest creation. Holly always had a way of getting me to paint my most beautiful stuff.

My eyes fell to the real thing. I didn’t have it in me to wake her up. Instead, I moved into one of the million and one bathrooms the house had, washing off the paint that had coated my hands.

There was noise behind me. I heard a yawn and then a gasp, my hands still under the water as Holly called out a loud, “Stop painting me!”

I laughed. “You’re my favorite thing to paint!”

“You’re supposed to paint trees and skies and the moon! Pretty stuff! ”

“You’re prettier than all of that!”

“I’m right here,” she said.

Turning the tap off, my eyes flickered up to the mirror to see her face. “Oh.”

“You have an awful, awful habit,” she said, shaking her head.

“Yeah?” I turned to face her. “What’s that?”

She buried her face in my chest. “You can’t stop painting me.”

“It’s kinda hard when you’re so pretty.” I circled my arms around her. “You don’t like it?”

“I didn’t say that… But you don’t wanna spend this whole time here just painting me, right?”

I stroked my fingers against her hair. “I could do that for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy, actually.”

“You’d get bored of staring at me.”

“I told you: not possible.”

She smiled and stared up at me. “So, what do you want to do? We’ll do whatever you want since it’s your birthday. Fake, pretend birthday.”

“We don’t have to do anything special.”

“Yes, we do. Do you want to go for a walk? We can go on a little tour.”

“As long as you don’t buy me anything else.”

She raised an eyebrow up at me. “Hm, I don’t agree to that rule.”

She grabbed my hand, and then we were back in the truck as we drove to the main part of town, where the streets were lined with old oak trees covered in deep orange leaves.

Holly pointed out all the places she used to go to as a kid and the ones she especially loved, like the museums and the gardens.

I liked hearing about all that stuff, and maybe if we hadn’t spent so many years fighting every time we made eye contact, I would have learned that all long, long ago. I wished I had.

We parked and walked around town with our hands stuck together, taking in all the old, expensive looking buildings and the fancy ass cafes and the gift stores that already had all their Christmas decorations up.

Then it dawned on me that me and Holly would be spending it together, and then I wondered what the hell I’d even get her. How was I gonna top a car ?

We ended up in a bakery and Holly tried to buy a cake for me, but my eyes widened when I saw how much some of them cost. After a lot of back and forth, she finally settled on buying me a cupcake that we’d just share.

The air was quickly getting colder, so we picked up some stuff for dinner and made our way back to the truck. But a thrift store on the corner of the street caught Holly’s eye.

“Ooh, let’s see what they have,” Holly said.

Holly took off into the back to check out the clothes and my own eyes found all the little knick knacks in the corner.

Old plates, teapots, vases, jewelry, figurines.

There was a white stone that had been painted with two little hearts wearing hats on the front that got my attention.

They had little smiling faces and tiny legs and arms, their hands connected and their fingers all tangled together.

I checked out the sign attached to the edge of the shelf. Three dollars. Not even close to what Holly had spent on the truck, but it kept calling to me. I bought it without Holly noticing, tucking it into my pocket just before she came back with some long pink dress in her hands.

“It’s vintage Prada,” she said.

We left the thrift store behind with her fancy dress and my cheap rock and drove back up to the house, my hand on Holly’s thigh the whole time. When we got back inside, Holly shoved me into the living room so she could make dinner for me, but cooking with her was one of my favorite things to do.

“Let’s both do it,” I said as I followed her into the kitchen.

“No, it’s your birthday,” she called out over her shoulder, grocery bags in hand. “Go sit down and paint! Ooh, you could paint the lake! The sun’s setting right now. It looks so beautiful.”

My eyes moved to the big windows to my left, and Holly was right about it being beautiful, but it had nothing on her. “It’ll be there tomorrow. I’ll paint it then,” I said, leaning up against the kitchen counter. “You can sit outside with me if you want.”

Her eyes brightened as she took the groceries out of the bag. “I can’t wait. ”

I didn’t even know what Holly was making, but I saw her put some onions on the counter and stole them from her so I could cut them. We stood there in the kitchen while the sun kept on setting to our side, the lake all orange and glowing and our arms brushing together as we sliced up vegetables.

“I’m so glad we finally get to have some time together.” She sighed. “Isn’t this nice?”

“It is, princess. I really missed spending my days with you,” I said. “I know I haven’t been around as much. I wanna do this with you every day.”

She shot me a smile. “I feel the exact same way. You know, Christmas is coming up. I totally forgot about it until I saw all those decorations in town. What do you wanna do for it?”

“What do you wanna do for it?”

She shrugged. “I mean, I was planning on spending maybe a week or so back in Dallas. My mom won’t stop messaging me about it. Do you want to come back with me? I’d really love to spend Christmas with you.”

I clicked my tongue. “I don’t think he’ll be happy about that.”

“I don’t care. It’ll be our first Christmas together, so we’ll be celebrating it whether my dad’s happy about it or not. And you can stay at my place if that’s not too weird for you.”

“Yeah, he’s really not gonna be happy about that.”

“So? Let him be mad. You’re part of my life now and he needs to understand that you’re gonna be there for all the big, important things. But if staying there will make you feel uncomfortable—and I know he’s good at making you feel that way—then we can do something else. We can stay in New York.”

“No, no, no. I know how much you miss your parents. I’m not gonna keep you from them just ‘cause one of them hates me.”

She leaned in close and pecked my lips. “He can hate you all he wants. That just makes me love you more.”

I smiled at that, washing my hands and shoving one into my jeans pocket. “I got ya something at that thrift store. It’s kinda silly.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

“I just wanted to get you something while we were here. Since you’re spoiling me and all.”

“It’s your birthday—your pretend birthday—and you’re still buying me stuff!”

“Let go of the knife.”

“You’re so—”

I took the rock out, letting it rest at the center of my palm as I moved it Holly’s way, her eyes softening immediately.

“What is that?” she asked with a little laugh.

“Thought you’d like it.”

“It’s so cute.” She gently took it from my hand and let it rest in her palm. “Why are they wearing hats?”

“Why not? I just saw it and thought it’d be something you might wanna keep for a while,” I said. “And hopefully it won’t end up back at a thrift store.”

Eyes locking on to mine, she held the rock to her chest like it cost a million bucks and didn’t want anyone to get near it. “Nuh-uh. This is the sort of thing you keep forever. You give me a lot of things I want to keep forever.”

I pushed my lips to hers, my hands rising to grasp the sides of her face to give her a long, slow kiss that I wanted to last for the next seven days.

We finished up cooking together and then ate in the fancy ass dining room that had a table for what seemed like thirty people, and then Holly dragged me into the living room so we could have that cupcake—birthday candle and all.

“Make a wish,” Holly whispered to me, cupcake in hand.

I hummed. “Do I have to? I don’t think I want anything else but this.”

“You must want something .”

“Nope.”

“There must be one thing that you really, really want.”

“I think I’ve got everything I could ever want right here,” I said, stroking a thumb against one of Holly’s soft cheeks. “This is it. This is all I need.”

I kissed at her long and deep, only pulling away from her so I could blow out the candle and avoid starting a fire. My hands found her hips and I tugged her into my lap, her own hands all tangled in my hair as my tongue moved against hers.

What else was I supposed to wish for but her?