At one point he leaned towards me while Sal and Giorgia were distracted and whispered to me, “You think you’re messing with me with this delay? This only gives me two hours to prepare and plan how to punish you for this whole birthday stunt.”
I gulp, feeling my face blush.
Hehides the smirk on his face as he jumps back into the conversation with Sal. I continue eating my appetizer that I ordered a moment ago and share some with Giorgia.
Alessandro’s phone buzzes in his pocket again.
“Hello?” he answers in English, his accent thick and adorable. A language that sounds almost foreign to me now that I rarely speak it. “Perfect, thank you.”
Sal raises his eyebrows. “Bedtime?”
“Yes,” Alessandro answers and then gives me another one of those looks that makes my core flutter.
I enjoy our last walk through the island. The way everything is lit up and how everyone around me has the same tired, relaxed look of contentment on their face. At least, the people that aren’t too drunk, anyway. We walk arm and arm; he walks slowly so we fall to the back of the line so that he can freely grab my ass whenever he wants to.
“What did you do?” he asks, referring to the birthday plans.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” I give him an evil smile.
“Can you at least tell me if it involves the rest of these people?” He nods his head towards our group.
“Hmm. I don’t know.”
“You brat.” He hisses in my ear and pulls me closer to him, squeezing my side. “Maybe you didn’t do a damn thing except for delaying our trip back to the boat, and you’re only messing with my head.”
Now that would have been a great idea.
I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling so much and shrug my shoulders.
“Have your laugh now. The more you frustrate me, the more I’ll take it out of you later in the night.”
“You don’t scare me,” I tease. “Isn’t it three hours past your bedtime, old man?”
“Oh, you should not have said that.” He laughs and pulls me so that my backside is plastered to the front of his body. No doubt so that I can feel how hard he is from this amount of teasing and anticipation I’ve forced us both into. “You will not get a minute of sleep tonight for that comment, Sofia.”
I grind my hips against him as subtly as I can because we’re in a crowd of people, and I’m sure we’re being obvious if anyone is paying attention to us, but most are too self-absorbed. He hisses in my ear. “This walk is fucking unbearable. I want to be on that boat now. And you will strip that pretty dress of yours off the moment our cabin door closes and spread yourself out for me on the bed.”
“Mmm. Maybe I will, or maybe you’ll have to force me to do it.”
He makes a noise that sounds tortured behind me, then we hurry to catch up with the group, nearly at the cable cars to take us back down to shore.
We’re mostly silent for the rest of the journey: both tense until we finally step off the tender and onto the yacht. Then we hurry off towards the cabins. Anna winks at me as we speed-walk down the hallway. The anticipation of whatever she and the crew pulled off is killing me.
My hand hovers on the doorknob to our room, then I turn to him, stepping aside. “You should be the one to open it.”
“What? Did you create some sort of trap?” He laughs and opens the door.
The crew delivered.
Gold streamers hang from the wall, giving the room a classier feel than the classic rainbow streamers would have given. The bed covered in roses. A large chocolate cake with a four and a zero candle placed on top sits on the table along with a bucket containing one bottle of champagne and one bottle of sparkling grape juice. A few wrapped presents sit on the chair next to the table.
I was expecting him to ignore his birthday gifts and decorations and strip my clothes off immediately. But he looks around the room in awe. The fact that the crew got these things together so quickly is impressive, but part of me wishes I could have done more. If only I had more time, I could have thought of some more personalized gift ideas, hell, even asked what his favorite type of cake is instead of assuming chocolate.
A huge smile is on his face, and his eyes even look a little glassy as he reaches for the presents on the chair. He shakes the first one, a small box, near his ear as if he’s a little kid on Christmas morning. How excited and appreciative of all of this makes me ask a question that I won’t say out loud because it makes me so sad.
Has he ever opened up a present before in his entire life?
Then he tears the wrapping off like an animal, letting the small bits of paper fall to the floor. He reveals a box that contains a gold watch. Judging from the label, he’s going to get a large bill for this room service. I wish I had my own money to pay for this stuff, but I guess he’s so stupidly rich now that it doesn’t matter.
