Once Upon A Time(61)

“You talk like you’ve had some experience.”

“Once upon a time,” he admitted solemnly, managing to shock me momentarily.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, then decided to change the direction of the question. “What are we doing?”

“Like I said, I want you.” He smirked, leaning in closer, his lips so close to mine. He rested his forehead against mine and I had to fight the urge to close my eyes. “You look stunning.”

“I feel like a walking advertisement for money,” I admitted, more to myself than him.

“You could wear anything and you’d still look a million dollars.”

“We can’t do this,” I whispered, closing my eyes as if the words pained me in a way I wasn’t ready to admit.

“You say that but do you really believe it? Because right now I think your body’s having different ideas.” I opened my eyes and my gaze met his, a smile gracing his lips. “I can smell how much you want me, how much you want this to happen.”

“It doesn’t matter how much I want this to happen, all you need to know is that it can’t.”

He stared into my eyes for a long moment before nodding his head. Releasing me, he moved towards the door.

“Wear the dress, I wasn’t kidding when I said you look stunning,” he said before walking out of the room, leaving me with far more questions than answers.





THE MOMENT GABRIEL LEFT, in walked in my best friends, both wearing a nervous expression. With a sigh, I forwent my modesty and stepped out of the dress without a word. I dressed in silence as Kylie hung the dress back up on the hanger and walked it out of the room as I stepped into my shoes.

I tried to block out the thoughts taking over my damn mind as I stepped out the room but they came rushing back the moment I saw the look on Quinn’s face. I’d made it clear I wasn’t wearing the dress; if not with words but body language. It wasn’t me and I didn’t want it.

“Honey, don’t freak out,” Quinn said calmly.

Don’t freak out? The minute anyone says that, of course, you’re going to freak the hell out.

“Oh shit, what now?” I sighed. I just wanted to get out of here.

Kylie quickly came into my line of vision as she walked towards me with a very large box in her hands.

“So, Gabriel may have given you his Am-Ex but he already paid for the dress. You now own a one of a kind Vera Wang.” He cringed, noticing the look on my face.

He did what?!

My eyes widened as Kylie stopped in front of me, smiling awkwardly as she handed me the box.

“Meshia said if you plan to wear it and it needs altering, just to come back here and she’ll deal with it. But I told her you probably won’t be here again, not because you won’t wear the dress but because it doesn’t actually need any alterations,” Kylie explained.

“I’m so pissed right now, there’s actually no words to describe just how much I want to cut Gabriel a new one for this.” Shaking my head, I walked past my friends and out of the building without a backward glance.

The moment I exited the building, I rolled my damn eyes. Standing next to the black town car was Leo, Gabriel’s driver. He gave me a sad smile before taking the box from my hands and placing it in the trunk then opened the door for me.

I heard Kylie and Quinn squeal from behind me. We all climbed into the back of the car before heading back to our apartment.

Stepping into our building, Quinn huffed as he carried the box up to our floor and into our apartment.

“I’ve done makeup for Beyonce and Pink and I’m carrying a box for you. There’s something very wrong with this picture.” Quinn sighed, placing the box down gently on the dining table.

“Stop being so dramatic!” Kylie laughed, pulling out three wine glasses and grabbing a bottle of red.

She’d read my mind.

“Vo—”

“Vogue should hire you. Yes, we know,” I interrupted, shaking my head as we took a seat at the dining table, the box very much the elephant in the room.

“You know he isn’t going to take that back, right?” Kylie gestured with her now half-full glass of wine at the offending box.

“I know,” I said simply. “That’s why I’m going to wear it.”

Quinn’s head whipped around, shock written all over his face.

“Sorry, I think we’ve just entered the twilight zone. Can you please repeat that?” Quinn coughed, seemingly choking on wine.

I took a big swallow from my glass, smirking as I did.

“Look, two can play his game. He knows my hatred for all things love, romance and fairy tales yet, he’s been pushing them on me since we met. Now I’m going to shock the shit out of him and wear the dress.” Kylie squealed, a little too high-pitched for my liking. “What?”