Page 142 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

“Go put on what you want.”

He slipped away from me into the bedroom. I went into the living room and stopped dead.

What the…

Aiden had seriously gone all out. Those presents had not been there yesterday when I went to bed. When did he have time to do all this and why?

I walked over to the tree and knelt down, checking one of the labels.

For the light in my darkness. Aiden.

His handwriting was a little messy, but it made me smile.

“I thought we agreed to do those after dinner.”

I glanced up at him.

“That was before you decided to go all Christmas crazy on me.”

“I told you, I wanted it to be as normal as possible. Besides, some of those are from James, not me.”

I stood up before throwing myself into the sofa and grabbing the remote. Aiden sat next to me.

“Are you mad?” he asked.

“No. When did he drop those off?”

“You were asleep very early last night, remember? I wore you out.”

I felt my face burning. He really had. We barely left the bedroom yesterday.

“Shh you.”

I picked a film and we settled in to watch. He groaned most of the way at how ridiculously over the top cheesy it was and kept leaving to check on dinner. It was almost ready by the time we were done.

We ate so much, both of us could barely move from the kitchen to the living room. I lay on the sofa grumbling with my head in his lap.

“Presents?” he asked.

“Too much effort.”

“I’m not a patient man.”

And didn’t I know it. I dragged myself up and we sat next to each other by the tree. He made me open mine first.

Various art supplies, new trainers and several sets of barely-there underwear which I raised an eyebrow at.

“Is this even considered clothing?” I asked, holding up a very low cut, lacy see-through bra.

“You’re going to look sexy in it regardless.”

“I see. These are really for your benefit, aren’t they?”

He kissed the top of my head.

“Caught red-handed.”

James gave me some clothes from his father’s new collection, which admittedly I’d been eying up before the shit with my parents had happened. I fired him off a quick text to say thank you.

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