Page 33 of She's Mine

Finally, a grin covered David’s face. “These are stunning, Alyssa. You have some real talent. You’ve got a great eye for color and shape, and I know if you studied fashion design at college, you’d be top of the class.”

I bit my lower lip, feeling the heat blaze across my cheeks. “And you’re not just saying that?”

“I’m not just saying that” David reaffirmed. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Alyssa. Your work is outstanding. This is your calling.”

I let out a little squeal and jumped up and down in the air. I’d never felt so excited and passionate about something before. And hearing that David loved my designs made me even more certain I was pursuing the right thing. My mind was overflowing with ideas of all the things I could do once the Bloodline gang members were caught.

“Thank you all for indulging me,” I said, taking the sketches back from David.

“It was our pleasure,” Mavis replied.

“Thank you for sharing this with us,” David said.

“When you’re rich and famous, I’ll boast to all my friends that I was at your first show,” Lawrence added.

Lawrence and Mavis left David and I alone in the living room, while they went off to the kitchen to finish the dinner preparations.

“Do you want any help putting all this away?” David asked, pulling me into his arms, and pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“You can put the living room to rights, while I take everything back upstairs,” I said, lingering in his arms. I knew we had to tidy up eventually, and that dinner would be ready soon, but right now I was enjoying this quiet moment alone together.

I’d been so focused on my sketches and fashion show that I hadn’t spent that much time with David, and compared to spending the whole day together like we normally did, I was feeling a little distant from him.

“I have a special surprise just for you later,” I said, standing on my tiptoes to press my lips to his. “You’ve been so supportive of my dream that I wanted to thank you.”

David cupped my face and said, “You don’t need to thank me. I support you because I care about you and believe in you. But I won’t say no to a little surprise later.”

His hands moved down from my face to skim across my breasts, and I felt my core kindling into life.

“Come on, let’s clear up before dinner is ready,” I said, stepping out of David’s embrace. I knew if I didn’t get moving soon, we’d never get the living room put right, and would instead get distracted in each other’s arms.

David reluctantly let me go and started moving the various lamps back to their original positions, while I took my outfits back upstairs and hung them in the closet.

We’d just finished tidying everything up and had settled on the couch to relax, when Mavis called out, “Dinner is ready.”

We headed through to the kitchen, and then out onto the deck -- where we all preferred to eat when the weather was nice -- to see the spread Lawrence had prepared for us laid out on the table.

He’d made a combination of a Greek mezze and Spanish tapas, with numerous smaller, appetizer-sized dishes that we could all help ourselves to.

There were olives, and cheeses, cured meats, flatbreads and different salads, as well as cooked foods like shrimp, and calamari, and of course lots of fresh bread and crunchy crackers.

We all loaded our plates with delicious food, as Mavis poured a glass of wine for everyone, and the sun set on the horizon.

“To Alyssa, and what is sure to be a prolific design career,” David said, raising his glass in toast.

“To Alyssa,” Mavis and Lawrence said, clinking their glasses against David’s.

“To making new friends, and rediscovering old passions,” I said, joining in on the toast.

Dessert was a similar style mezzes-slash-tapas spread with a variety of fruits and tiny pastries, which we all leisurely picked at, as we finished the bottle of wine, then opened a second one, and chatted well into the night.

It was past midnight when Lawrence and Mavis finally retired to bed, and, after packing all the dirty plates into the dishwasher, David and I decided to call it a night too.

“I hope you’re not too tired,” I whispered huskily into David’s ear as we made our way upstairs. “I still have a surprise for you.”

15

DAVID

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