“But this is too much,” I replied carefully.

“When a gift is given, isn’t that for the person who’s giving it to say?”

Damn, he had a point.

“I –”

He interrupted me again to rap out, “You happy?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“In a way you know it’s gonna last?”

He asked that because he was happy in a way he knew it was going to last.

My heart turned over and I stared at him. Then I looked over my shoulder at his window, not able to see my party but knowing it was there.

A party he gave to me.

Mr. Sebring.

I looked back at him.

“I’m in love with you, so yes.”

He closed his eyes and he did it slowly, dropping his head.

That meant something to him.

I stared at him. Tall, broad, strong, scary, dude you don’t mess with Knight Sebring, head bowed, overcome.

No, I was wrong.

It meant everything to him.

My nose began to sting.

He opened his eyes and looked up, catching mine.

“Come here, baby.”

I moved back into his arms.

“Please let me give this to you,” he whispered.

“I can’t now nor will I ever be in the position to give you –”

He squeezed me quiet and his face dipped close. “Toasted almond pancakes. Sweet soft ‘okays’. Makin’ me laugh more in a few weeks than I have in decades. ‘Yes, Daddys’ I feel in my dick. The first voicemail you left me, babe, I saved it and I listen to it once a day. If I lose focus, I see you on your back, knees high, legs wide, offering your sweet, wet pu**y to me. You smile at me in bed every time you wander outta my bedroom in my shirts, my tees or your work clothes and honest to Christ, it sets me up for the day. And no matter what shit goes down, I get through it knowin’ whichever bed I climb into at night, you’re in it ready to snuggle into me or give me what I wanna take. Your girl, a headache. You, never. And in a life that’s been full of headaches, babe, having that, there is no price tag. You gotta get it and do it right f**kin’ now that there’s a lotta different kinds of give and take. And you give as good as you get, baby, trust me.”

“We haven’t been together very long,” I reminded him.

“You love me and I love you. How long does that need to be?”

Another excellent point.

“I don’t want you ever to think I’m using you,” I whispered.

“You ask for a Maserati?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“You ask for anything?”

“No. But –”

“You start takin’ what I don’t offer, babe, or askin’ for the moon, we got a problem. But I’m tellin’ you right now, and mark it, Anya, I’m f**kin’ thankful your cell phone was jacked. Because if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have wandered into my bedroom that night and I wouldn’t go to bed at night with the scent of your hair all I can smell and the taste of your pu**y still in my mouth and your sweet body close to me and know I’ll sleep easy and wake up happy. And I wake up happy, baby, because I possess beauty and I own that beauty in all the forms it can take and the least important of those are physical.”

Oh God.

“Knight –”

His arms gave me a squeeze. “Let me give this to you.”

I fell silent, not that I was saying much of anything.

His face got closer. “Let… me… give this to you.”

I held his vivid blue eyes.

Then I whispered, “Okay.”

It was then his vivid blue eyes held mine.

Then he whispered back, “Okay.”

I closed my eyes tight then opened them and asked softly, “You love me?”

“Baby, you were made for me.”

Oh God.

My face started scrunching up again and his hand wrapped around the back of my head and shoved it in his neck.

I held on but muttered a broken, “Thank you.”

“Fuck, you’re the hardest bitch I’ve ever met to give shit to,” he grumbled.

My emotions careening all over the place, I pulled back and narrowed my eyes on him.

“Oh, so, you were also generous with your smorgasbord of pu**y?”

He grinned. “Baby, don’t ask me that but I will say I never gave any of them a spa.”

“Good,” I snapped.

“Or a phone that cost a G,” he went on.

“Excellent,” I snapped again.

“Maybe a dress or shoes but not both and definitely not three,” he muttered then finished musingly, “Or even two.”

“It might be a good idea to shut up now, Knight,” I suggested.

He grinned again.

Then he noted, “Now who’s bossy?”

“I’m allowed to be bossy. I’m about to be the owner of Denver’s most kickass spa.”

Knight’s arms got tight around me and he burst out laughing.

I watched.

I did it smiling.

And I did it in love with Mr. Sebring.

Chapter Thirteen

My World

On Knight’s black, marble counter my phone rang while I was at the stove, boiling water for spaghetti and browning hamburger for sauce. I left the meat, grabbed the phone and saw on the display the call was from Viv. I took it while wandering back to the stove and put it to my ear.

“Hey, honey,” I greeted.

“I was a bad girl.”

I blinked at the hamburger.

Then I burst out laughing.

Through my giggles, I asked, “Were you now?”

“Very,” she said through her own giggles. “Have I told you today I love Knight Sebring?”

I pushed the meat around, smiling at it and said, “Not today. Yesterday you did. Not today.”

“Well I do.”

“I take it things with Rhashan are going good?” I asked softly.

It had been just over a month since my party. I was no longer a file clerk. All my nail clients, and I lost only one, were able to move to days. But losing the one was okay because two of my clients took on six-weekly facials, Kathleen added a monthly facial, so did Sandrine and Viv and Kathleen got her girlfriend Louise to bring her acrylics business to me. So I was actually ahead.

I spent part of my days talking to Mahleena, the bossy bitch who liked to spend money who actually didn’t seem bossy to me but she definitely liked to spend money. We were now implementing the plans to deal with my gonna-be kickass spa. I was also taking an online course in small business management that Knight suggested.