Page 75 of Poinsettia Lane

“Look what you’ve done," he says, angling her toward the prize table. “This is you.”

She looks up at him, and he decides she needs to hear it one more time.

“You did this, Ever.” He puts all the strength and conviction he has into the words, and she shudders against him. Asim swipes her hair off her neck and kisses her, trailing his lips down to her shoulder lightly before backing off. “I will never stop being impressed by you.” He says, and he sees his words resonate through her.

After Addison announces the winners and the final tally comes through, they’ve raised thousands of dollars. Asim feels his chest puffing out and his muscles are practically bursting the seams of his suit as he holds himself back from Everly. There is nothing on this earth that could make him more proud of her than he is right now.

This is her moment, and although she didn’t want to be in the spotlight, everyone still recognizes the work she put into it. He stands slightly behind her, one hand resting on her back tracing soothing circles, alternating with trailing up and down the back of her arm as everyone bustles about at the end of the evening. Everly reminds everyone to take a poinsettia as they leave, and many do so, their faces lit up with delight. People exchange hugs and handshakes, and nearly everyone thanks or congratulates her as they trickle out of the ballroom, wandering to the elevator and their respective rooms, or out the door to their homes.

“Thank you so much for coming,” Everly says, greeting his parents and sister.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” his mom replies, pulling Everly in for a hug. “What an amazing night, so impressive.”

“Oh, thank you,” Everly stammers, turning to Asim for help, still not comfortable with compliments, though he’s working hard on normalizing it for her.

Asim sweeps an arm around her, tugging her into his side.

“I couldn’t be more proud.” He drops a kiss to the top of her head and his sister takes pity on her, rescuing Everly so she doesn’t suffocate from praise.

“Alright, alright.” Farah links her arms through their parents, shooting him a wink. “We’ll let you two celebrate in private, we’re still on for brunch tomorrow, right?”

“Of course!” Everly’s voice is about an octave higher than usual, and Asim has to hold in a laugh.

“Great! Have a good night!” Farah tugs their parents along with her as she turns and sweeps out of the ballroom. The three of them have a set of rooms reserved for the night, and they’ll all spend some time together tomorrow.

“You’re adorable.” Asim drops his mouth to Everly’s ear, grazing his nose along it and smiling at the shiver that courses down her back. “And very impressive.” He kisses her neck, a light peck, but it’s enough to have her melting into him.

Finally, the last of the guests leaves and the staff begins to clean up. Asim tightens his hold on his futurewife and looks down at her.

“Ready to head home, darling?”

“Yeah," she sighs, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “Let’s go.”

They walk out to the car and Asim reinforces how proud he is of her going out on a limb and giving this a try. Every word is true, and he wishes he had more of them to fully express the depth of his feelings.

An unexpected chuckle slips from his lips as an image of her a year ago pops into his head. Everly looks at him quizzically as he starts up the car.

“Remember how flustered you were before last year’s party?” he asks.

“You mean when you showed up at the crack of dawn and I was in my robe?” she deadpans, unimpressed. “Yes, how could I ever forget.”

He does his best to hold in the grin, but his memories have taken hold and it’s such a sweet picture, he doesn’t want to let it go.

“Why do you look like that?” Everly’s eyes narrow at him, and he tries to adopt an innocent expression. “What’s your face doing? What are you thinking about?”

Asim doesn’t want to keep anything from her, so he shrugs and decides to share.

“I was remembering how you kept reaching up to smooth your hair back.” He looks at her out of the corner of his eye as he drives, easing around a corner. “I don’t think you realized that every time you reached up, your already short robe inched up your legs a little bit more. It was tantalizing and torturous.”

“What?!” She shrieks at him and he laughs. “You… you," she splutters for a moment, then shrieks again. “Tantalizing andtorturous?!”

“Well, I was trying to be a gentleman but you were really doing your best at making it nearly impossible.”

“And I suppose that’s why you kept making me stay.” She huffs out a breath and crosses her arms, not realizing all she’s doing is accentuating her perfect breasts. This woman has no idea the hold she has over him. He catches her shooting a glare at him, but he can tell she’s trying her best not to laugh.

“Why would I want you to leave or put more clotheson? You were intriguing and gorgeous. Youaregorgeous. I wanted every single second I could get with you," he says, and it’s the truth.

At first he just thought it was cute, the way she was embarrassed to be in her robe. Asim grew up with sisters; he didn’t care that she wasn’t all done up. He knew he should have let her get dressed, but he didn’t want her to go. Once they started talking though, his world tilted on its axis and everything changed. He liked seeing the real her, he could tell the person she was used to hiding came out in those moments. Plus, well, he can admit to his baser urges too—each extra inch of enticing skin he saw made his blood hum. He wanted to cover her up and protect her and strip her naked all at the same time.

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