Page 123 of Perfect
She’s fucking manipulating me.
She’s using sex and my affection for her tomanipulateme. She’s being so obvious about it, too, and I’m just letting her get away with it. I shake my head up at the ceiling, hurt and frustration building the longer I think about it. All I do is try to take care of her and make her happy, and she’s treating me like a pathetic fucking doormat. I didn’t think she was like that.
This isbullshit, and I’m not putting up with it.
“Alexandria, what thefu-” I storm out into the living room and freeze when I see her crouched by the tree, slipping a few perfectly wrapped presents underneath. All the anger dissipates from my body as I look around the living room. There are empty shopping bags, a roll of wrapping paper, and some scissors and tape discarded near her.
Alex seems exasperated when she looks up at me.
“I didn’t say you could leave the kitchen yet, Theodore.” Her voice is chastising and sexy at the same time, and I want to melt. “I was going to reward you for being good, too,” she pouts.
I blink at her, my mind emptying.
“Reward?” She smirks and I shake my head quickly, trying to focus. “Uh, weneedto come back to that later. What are you doing?” Alex suddenly goes from sexy to shy, taking a deepbreath as she stands up and crosses her arms, looking out the windows behind me.
“Um, I, uh…I already ruined your Thanksgiving, and since it’s your first Christmas out of prison and my first since Danny, I thought we could do…something?” She looks embarrassed but still won’t look at me. “Nothing big. Not whatever crazy, over-the-top bullshit you had planned, but something. A few presents. Holiday movies. Your precious ham, obviously,” she says, rolling her eyes and smiling, finally making eye contact with me, her face nervous and hopeful.
She’s maybe the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen her, and my heart skips a beat.
Oh.She was manipulating me so she couldsurpriseme. That was my cute, sweet, exceptionally sexy girlfriend manipulating me with sex because she knew it would work, and she apparently knows what works better than I do, because sheknowsme. She was manipulating me because she knows she can, because she knows I’m wrapped around her finger, because she knows I’ll do anything for her.
This is all sonew.
She’s taking photos of me, calling me by a nickname, buying me gifts, trying to surprise me, trying to take care of me. I don’t think there are any more barriers or trust issues between us anymore. I think she can feel our connection now, because she’sfinallydoing this with me.
I need to tell her I love her.
“There’s a panettone in the oven.” She closes her eyes and laughs, and I can tell she’s trying not to cry as she walks towards me and wraps her arms around me.
“You’re kind of the best, you know that?”
37
ALEX
MONDAY, DECEMBER 25
I wake up on Christmas morning wrapped around Theo’s back, my arm tight around his waist. I press a series of soft, open-mouth kisses to his broad shoulders as I slip my arm out from under his pillow and prop myself on my elbow, looking down at him. I take in his straight brows, the sweep of his eyelashes and the long lines of his cheekbones, the stubble on his jaw, his slightly aquiline nose, and his soft lips, affection and attraction welling up in my chest.
He’s so handsome, but he looks different right now. He’s usually so intense and so frenetic, wound so tightly that he never fully relaxes, even when he’s asleep, but he seems so calmright now. I like Theo normally, but Ireallylike him calm and vulnerable like this, even though that’s a big fucking problem.
He’s only like this when he’s happy.
I’msofucked, but I’m not thinking about that. I’m choosing to be happy today. I reach my hand down to grip his half-hard cock, stroking him slowly. He makes a slight noise and shifts in my arms, turning his hips slightly toward me, but he doesn’t wake up. I stroke him a little harder, and his lips part, his brows twitching together. I roll him gently to his back and slip him into my mouth, sucking him slowly until he’s fully hard, enjoying the deep, breathy sounds he makes. I wonder if I can get him to come before he wakes up – he’s definitely gotten me to do it before. I take him deeper into my mouth and he moans a little, his hips thrusting up slightly and his chest starting to flush. I can tell he’s close, so I add in both hands, watching his face closely.
He starts to wake up, his hands coming to my head and his eyes snapping open and rolling back as he starts to come, his hips jerking up slightly as my mouth floods with his cum. He swears softly and looks down at me with wide eyes, his face flushed and surprised. I smile up at him, watching him process waking up in the middle of an orgasm.
“That’s your first present,” I say, and he stares at me for a long moment before he sits up, reaching for me and pulling me close.
“You’re the fucking gift,” he says before he pushes me to my back and takes a long time giving me my first several presents.
***
Theo makes us coffee while I stare at the tree, frowning. I got him three gifts, and I told him he could choose three gifts out of the pile of bags he brought, but there are five gifts for me under the tree. I look up at him as he brings us slices of panettone andcoffee, his hair sticking up weirdly in the back, his face soft and relaxed.
Fuck it, if I get to be happy, he gets to be happy.
“Teddy?”
