He calls my name, and I answer him in a sleepy tone almost. “I’m so glad the store is yours,” he says.
“Me too,” I answer. “Ours,” I say with a smile.
“I love you,” he whispers in my ear.
“I love you, too.” The sparkle in his eyes make him look so sexy to me. I throw my arms around his neck, kissing him. This man, oh my god, this man he is so incredible he has been my protector, my champion. He made himself an open book even when it might have meant that we could possibly be over. Not only is he gorgeous, but he has heart of gold.
The store is my love and in turn, it has become a passion of Eric’s. He is wonderful, and the feelings I have turning inside me are too many to count right now. We stay locked in our embrace. I am fully awake now. We fall to the bed lying on our sides and slowly open our eyes. We hold each other's gaze for what feels like forever. Eric pulls me into him, and I throw my leg over him and there we lay together. Bliss, complete happiness, doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel right now.
Elia
“Come on, get up.”
My eyes open to the voice, and I groan and roll onto my stomach.
“Just a little longer…”
There’s a chuckle, a thick sound that never fails to make my body shiver, even in my half asleep state. I shudder as soft, wet kisses are pressed from the nape of my neck, going down my spine. Eric’s lips linger a little longer at the base of my spine, and I arch for him, wanting him to continue. But there’s another chuckle, and he pulls away.
“Breakfast in twenty minutes, or I’m leaving without you!”
He pauses as if he’s going to say something else.
“Or have you forgotten what day it is today?”
My eyes flutter open as I hum. Then I move so I’m sitting up and facing him. “No, I remember. What time is it?”
“Time for you to get up or we’re going to be late for our grand opening. I’m serious about leaving you behind.”
I roll my eyes behind his back as he leaves the room. I know he doesn’t actually mean it. After all, he’s letting me host the whole thing, even if I felt that it was too much responsibility at the time.
We’ve waited for this day. All the renovations took over six weeks, and as much as I loved all the relaxation and spending time with the girls, really getting to know the women that I work with, while Eric’s at work and even going to some business seminars, I’m ready to put what I’ve learned into action.
I shower quickly then join him in the kitchen for a quick breakfast. I’m the one rushing him to get out of the door, now.
“Come on,” I whine, tugging on his arm.
“Let me put on my tie,” he says, laughingly in protest.
I growl, “I can’t eat, I’m too nervous. I thought that this day would never come.”
I’m dressed in a long, dark red dress that would probably be more appropriate for a luxury evening out than an opening of a bookstore. I don’t care, because it’s a big day to me, and I wanted to go all out and dress up for a change.
“Go out to the car, and I’ll come right after you. I forgot something in the bedroom.”
I sigh and turn to leave. I don’t ask what he could possibly have forgotten. I have my clutch purse in hand with my iPhone, and that’s all I need for now. I slowly head to the car and hope that he’s not long and this isn’t one of his little surprises. We don’t have time for that. It took me a lot longer to get ready than I thought that it would, because I was half awake. Now, I’m fully awake, and all I want to do is get going.
“Here we go,” he says as he gets in on his side, and I roll my eyes at him. I know by his resulting chuckle that he noticed.
“Would you just drive?”
“Of course!” he says, reaching across to take my hand. He kisses it and then starts the engine, and we’re on our way. There’s hardly any traffic, which is another good reason we decided on doing this at ten rather than nine in the morning.
The drive doesn’t seem to take that long especially because I’m too nervous to chitchat. If we talk about the opening, I’ll start thinking of something and decide that I must have forgotten to do it and start to panic.
Eric parks the car against the curb, and we step out not too far from the corner of the store. Outside on the curb are the girls and the one guy who’s now going to be working for me. I still can’t get over the fact that I’m going to have staff and people will be working for me.
I can’t believe that for the first time in a long time, we have potential customers lining up, something that the marketing team have been working hard on achieving over the last few weeks.