Page 125 of Heart of Stone

“What if I don’t want to accept?”

I pursed my lips in annoyance, trying not to feel insulted over her rejection. I took a deep breath, reminding myself that Krystina responded best to brutal honesty.

“You’re not getting it, Krystina. I want to buy you things. I want to take care of you. It’s a need that I can’t explain,” I told her, trying to sound as earnest as possible. “It makes me happy to do so, as I so discovered today. This is just something that you’ll have to get used to.”

“Look, I appreciate it, but it’s you that isn’t getting it. A week ago we were both saying no strings attached. All of this is a whole lot of strings,” she said, motioning to the clothes with her hand.

I chuckled at her unintentional pun, trying to keep the mood light. I was just grateful that she was talking again.

“Angel, it’s only clothes.”

“It’s more than clothes to me. It’s what it symbolizes.”

“I understand your hesitation. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t know what possessed me to do it. I’ve never personally gone shopping for a woman before, not even for my sister. It was just…” I struggled trying to find the right words to explain my compulsion. “It was just something that I wanted to do. Accepting would make me very happy.”

Her face looked pained, as if she were suffering from some sort of internal battle. She looked at me, eyes full of uncertainty, before walking into the closet and running her hand up and down the sleeves of the hanging blouses.

“You shopped for all of this by yourself?”

“Sort of. Hale may have had a thing or two to say about some of the stuff I bought.”

Her head snapped around so fast that it threatened whiplash. Her eyes were round with apparent disbelief, but then she let out a loud and genuine laugh. The sound was infectious and music to my ears.

“You two must have been such a sight!”

I crossed my arms and smirked at her.

“Are you laughing at me, Miss Cole?”

“I would never dare,” she retorted.

Her eyes twinkled, a sure sign that I was on my way to securing the win.

“Does this mean that you’ll accept my gift?”

“I suppose I could,” she mused the consent.

I hesitated before dropping the next bomb on her.

“I hope so, because this isn’t all of it.”

Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head back and forth.

“No more gifts, Alex,” she implored.

“You said you’d accept. What’s next is just part of the package.”

“Please. No,” she tried to deny, but I ignored her pleads.

I went over to the dresser and picked up the small gift-wrapped box that I had left sitting there. When I turned back to face her, there was no describing the look of horror that spread across her face. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the package that was in my hand.

I looked from her to the box, then back up at her. And then it dawned on me.

“Chill out, baby. If I was going to propose, I’d do it better than this,” I said dryly. “Just open it.”

I thrust the cube shaped box into her hand, annoyed that this was going so badly.

A blush crept over Krystina’s cheeks. I was fairly certain that her embarrassment over jumping the gun was the only thing that kept her mouth shut while she went to work on opening the package.

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