Page 39 of Captivating

Guess we’ve all been wrapped around her little finger most of her life.

Case in point, I slide my wallet in my jeans and grab the small pink box wrapped in the red heart ribbon from the dresser. This present might just be one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever had, but it’s time.

She’s the only person I’ve ever played nice for, and I’m about done playing.

I step out of my room, surprised to see Lilah’s door open. She’s spent the past two days avoiding me. Guess things got a little too real the other night, so she went back into hiding like the groundhog who saw his shadow. She’d knee me in the balls ifshe heard me compare her to a fucking groundhog, and that puts an extra swagger in my step.

She’s either gonna love this and maybe cry or she’s gonna hate it and throw it at me...again.

I knock on the open door and look around her empty room.

This door is never open.

Never.

“Birthday girl... you in here?” I don’t step inside her space. Not uninvited.

Yeah . . . nice is getting old.

“I’m coming,” she calls out in a breathy voice, and I’d like her to be saying those words, just like that, for a very different reason. My cock jumps, and I adjust myself before she walks out of her bathroom, barefoot, in the sexiest goddamned dress I’ve ever seen. It’s sheer and covered in tiny shimmery threads covering a nude slip that hugs every fucking curve. The sheer fabric barely covers her ass, and I’m thinking I’m going to be kicking more than one guy’s ass for looking at her tonight. At least it covers her up above her collarbone. If I’m going to be picturing her naked all fucking night, she’s doing me a solid and not teasing me with what I’m going to bet are the most perfect tits I’ve ever seen.

“Hey, St. James.” She snaps her fingers, then points from me to her eyes. “My eyes are up here.”

“Fucking princess,” I growl.

“I hate that nickname,” she murmurs but smiles the tiniest bit.

“No, you don’t,” I tell her and step into her space, holding the pink gift box out for her. “Happy birthday, Lilah.”

She wrinkles her brow as she stares at the box in my hand. “What’s that?”

“A birthday gift, Lilah. Want to take it from me?” Sarcasm flows right under my words, and her bright blue eyes stare, focused on my hand.

“I’m not sure,” she finally answers, and fuck, that hurts.

I take her hand in mine and gently turn it over, palm up, then place the small box on her open palm. “It’s not going to bite, princess.”

She opens her mouth to argue but stops and drags her teeth over her pouty bottom lip instead. “I guess it’s too small to be a snake.”

“Yeah. Little bit,” I laugh. “You don’t have to open it now.”

That seems to settle her as she studies it some more.

One perfectly painted white nail traces the ribbon. “Did you wrap this?”

“Brynn helped with the bow,” I admit. I don’t tell her my sister cornered me the other day and asked what I was getting Lilah for her birthday.

“It’s pretty.” She finally looks up, and damn... this woman. When she lets those defenses down, she takes incredible to a whole new level. “Thank you.”

“You going to open it?” I push, and her perfectly white teeth press into that lip again as she shakes her head.

Fuck me.

“Okay,” I lower my voice and lay off the teasing for once. “When you’re ready.”

Lilah places it gently on her vanity and turns to slip her feet into red-soled, sparkly shoes, giving me my first taste of the back of that damn dress. And ho-ly shit. There is no back. A single sparkly strand ties between her shoulders with the ends of the ribbon trailing down her bare spine. Her completely bare spine. All the way down to the dimples right above her heart-shaped ass where the fabric gathers and pools. Visions of snapping thestring with my fucking teeth play out behind my eyes, followed by every filthy thing I want to do to her after.

Lilah turns back to me in a flourish, and my heart gets stuck in my throat. “You are so pretty, it hurts, princess.”

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