Page 5 of The Noisemaker

“Lunchtime,” I told him. I glanced over at the time and then the instructions. “It’s nine o’clock now so… I guess… twelve.”

“Aight cool. What can I help you with so you can come lay down with me?”

My lips turned upward into a smile. “I got it. Just go upstairs and keep the bed warm for me.”

“I can do better than that,” he murmured, coming up behind me and kissing my neck.

I giggled. “Give me thirty minutes.”

I finished cleaning and preparing the ingredients for our meal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that I didn’t have anything to wear to the ball. I tried to put it out of my mind but as I thought about everything in my closet, I mentally ran through my formalwear. There was nothing that I felt like fit the occasion.

“It’s been thirty minutes. Where you at?” Desmond asked as he reentered the kitchen.

Leaning against the counter, I looked up at him. My eyes flicked over his shirtless form. The basketball shorts hung low on his hips and as a few nasty thoughts flashed into my mind, my lips curled into a smile. “I literally just finished setting the timer.”

He silently assessed me before walking closer. “What’s on your mind, baby?”

“I really don’t know what I’m going to wear tonight. I don’t know how I’m going to style my hair. I don’t—”

“We’re doing your thing during the day and I’m trusting you and taking your lead,” he interrupted, taking my hand. “And tonight, we’re doing my thing and I want you to trust that I got you.”

“I know and I do trust you. But you asked what I was thinking about and that’s what was on my mind.”

He smirked and pulled me into him. “Are you done in here?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, it sounds like maybe it’s time for me to put you at ease.”

I cocked my head to the side. “What does that mean?”

He put his arm around me and led me out of the kitchen. “It means I have something for you,” he answered. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“What are you up to?” I wondered when I saw our bedroom door was closed.

“Go inside,” he instructed.

I opened the door and froze. “What is this?”

“Open it.”

I walked closer to the white box on the bench in front of the bed. I let my fingers dance across the satiny material of the red bow before I looked up at him. “Des…”

“Open it,” he repeated.

I opened the box and I gasped. “Baby!”

The gold sequin gown looked like something from a movie set. Even before I lifted it from the box by the spaghetti straps and recognized it, I was in love with it.

“You like?” he asked, a slight nervousness in his tone.

“I love,” I confirmed. “This looks like the dress that was on the mannequin with those shoes I bought.”

“It is.”

My heart, stomach, and pussy clenched in unison. “This is the dress I said I liked.”

It wasn’t just that he’d gotten me a gorgeous, expensive gift. It wasn’t even the fact that he’d gone back to the store and found the dress months later. And it wasn’t even the fact that he had arranged for us to have a night out at the hottest event of the year since we’d been working so hard. It was the thoughtfulness of his actions, the care he provided me, and the love that he consistently showed me.

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