Page 35 of Fortuity

“Yup.”

“Maybe we should do presents first. Since I’m not sure I can handle the torture of wondering what’s under this wrapping paper.” I gave the package a little shake as I walked over to the tree, but it didn’t make any rattling noises. When I turned back around, Faith was standing just inside the door, laughing her assoff. “What?”

“I’m going to have to tell Christine to change your nickname from ‘hottie’ to ‘Mr. Hypocritical’ since you get so much enjoyment out of keeping our plans a secret for most of ourdates.”

“Hottie, huh?” I flashed her a grin. “I’d hate to give up such a greatnickname.

“It would be a shame,” sheagreed.

“But it’s not just that I’m dying to know what you picked out for me. It’s also that I’d like to give you at least one of your presents now so we can use itlater.”

“Fine. Twist my arm and make me open a present,” she sighed before moving into the living room and twirling around to take in all of the decorations I’d put up. “Holy shit. Please tell me you didn’t get me anything else because this”—she did another slow circle—“is theperfectgift.”

“I hate to disappoint.” I didn’t sound even the tiniest bit sincere since I didn’t mean it. “But plenty of those presents under the tree areforyou.”

“What? No!” she gasped, going over to the tree and dropping to her knees. “You went overboard. It’s too much. Way, waytoomuch.”

“Most of them are random, small things so you have stuff to unwrap in the morning.” Since we were heading over to my parents’ for breakfast, she’d agreed to spend the night at my place. For the first time. “But your real gift is what I want you toopennow.”

“I guess we could each open one present now, and save the others fortomorrow.”

I didn’t give her the chance to second-guess her agreement and moved to her side. I pulled the biggest present out from under the tree and set it in front of her. “Openthisone.”

She ripped into the wrapping paper and gasped when she saw what was inside. “An ice creammaker?”

“Yup, I thought we could make pumpkin ice cream forlater.”

“Pumpkin, huh?” she laughed. “I guess I won’t feel bad about the extra presents in the morning since I have a couple more for you too, and it seems my big present is as much for you as it isforme.”

“I bought the ingredients for chocolate, strawberry, andvanilla,too.”

“The same flavors from our ice cream making date,” she whispered, leaning into me and sliding her hand around the base of my skull to tug my face towards hers. When she pressed her lips against mine, I forgot all about the presents until she pulled away from me and handed me the rectangular package she’d had me put underthetree.

“Shopping for the guy who has everything and is so damn thoughtful that you want to give him the perfect gift because you know that’s what he’s going to get youishard.”

I pressed a fingertip against her lips to stop her rambling. “I’m sure I’ll love it. Whatever it is. Because it’sfromyou.”

“And you clearly have excellent taste since youpickedme.”

She narrowed her pretty brown eyes at me. “Stop being so cute while I’m super nervous about how you’re going to react to what Igotyou.”

“There’s only one way to fix that.” I tore the paper off my present, revealing a piece of artwork in shades of blue. It was a bit obscure, with vertical lines that had horizontal bars in staggered spots inside them. “It’scool.”

“Remember when I asked you to do that cheek swab for my friend who was doing a research project on the efficacy of those ancestrywebsites?”

“Yeah.” It’d been an odd request, but I’d had people ask stranger things of me oncampus.

“I lied. It wasn’t for a friend’s project,” she admitted, pointing at the blue lines. “It was for this; an artistic rendering ofyourDNA.”

“MyDNA?”

“Yours.” She took a deep breath before she continued, “AndDeclan’s.”

I looked at the painting in stunned shock, reaching out to trace the lines with a trembling hand. “I didn’t know anything like this existed. I can’t believe you bought thisforme.”

“Do youlikeit?”

I set the painting to the side and pulled Faith into my arms. “I fucking loveit,baby.”

There weren’t enough words to explain to her how much her gift meant to me, so I showed her instead. I consumed her lips in a deep kiss, her soft curves molded against my chest. Her lips clung to mine, and she made a soft purring sound deep in her throat. I knew I needed to rein it in and pull away from her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not when my defenses were down because she’d blown them away withhergift.

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