AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Pearl gives me a shy smile. “You’re awfully cocky.”
“I only boast about things that I can follow through on.” I wink at her, just to make her blush. “Have I mentioned today how fucking beautiful you are? My cock’s been hard for days, thinking of when I’m finally going to strip you naked and run my tongue over every inch of you.”
“River!” she protests. But even as the words leave her lips, she grins.
Fuck, she really is gorgeous. I make teasing eye contact with her for a few more seconds and then jerk my head toward my bedroom. “Ready for today’s last surprise?”
Pearl wets her lips and dashes a glance at the hallway. Toward where I assume she thinks my bedroom is located. “Can I keep my clothes on?” she asks cautiously.
I roll my eyes. “Relax, darlin’. You can keep your panties on.”
Steering her by touching her shoulders, I walk her ahead of me into the bright, airy kitchen. This room is in pretty much the same condition as the living room was this morning. Several piles of blue plastic crates are stacked high where a dining room table should be. There is a high-end coffee pot and a bean grinder on the white marble counter to my left. To my right is a wide, white marble island with a single gray steel bar stool.
And right in front of the stool is a folded piece of black velvet measuring six inches by twelve inches.
Ushering Pearl to the seat, I pull it out. She sits down, her eyes roving around the kitchen. “God, this room is insane. I can’t believe that you still have boxes piled everywhere. Such a waste.”
“Shh,” I tell her, pointing to the velvet. “I’m trying to propose to you, Pearl.”
She looks down and points to the fabric. “You want me to look here?” She picks it up carelessly, as if there weren’t millions of dollars of jewels just below her fingertips.
“Easy!” I say, clamping my hands over hers. I stand right behind her and pull back the top layer of black velvet to reveal ten glittering, gleaming engagement rings. The metals vary, the gemstones differ slightly, and of course the styles do too. There is everything from a huge, square cut diamond with two dozen pave diamonds fanning out both sides, to a circular cut yellow diamond in an ornate gold setting.
Pearl’s mouth drops open.
Something about her total shock makes me grin. It’s nice to get a rise out of her.
“Oh my god,” she whispers. She looks at me with wide eyes. “These aren't real, are they?”
“Very real. All worth at least thirty thousand dollars. I had our very discreet family jeweler stop by and leave you a selection. I’ll let you choose.”
Her brows furrow. “Oh, River. You can’t leave me in charge of a ring like this. What if I lose it?”
Smiling playfully, I pluck one of the rings up and offer it to her. “Don’t worry. It’ll be insured.”
Making firm eye contact with me, Pearl says, “Are you sure?”
Taking her left hand, I slide the ring onto her fourth finger. She watches, her facial expression completely unreadable. Her other hand clutching the marble countertop tells me more than I can read in her face.
I hold her hand up, admiring it in the light. The ring is on the gaudy end, a big diamond surrounded by pearls. Not to my taste at all. Then again, what does my taste matter here?
“It’s sparkly,” Pearl murmurs. But she’s soon slipping it off.
Whew. That’s a relief.
She skips over the huge diamond solitaire, and the biggest yellow diamond set in white gold. Instead, she traces her fingers over a ring that I had to look at twice because it was so unusual. A large, round salt-and-pepper diamond set in a frame on a delicate, rose-gold band decorated with leaves.
She doesn’t quite pick it up, merely running her finger around the inside. “This one is so beautiful.”
I hold it up. “Let’s see how it looks on your finger.”
Her head dips and I’m certain she’s flushed. “Okay.”
I slide the ring on her finger. It’s a little snug, but the diamond rests against her hand. The rose gold looks good with her skin color. And when I check her face for a reaction, I see it in her eyes. She’s totally taken with it. Not because it’s the largest or most expensive one. But just because it suits her best.
Pearl doesn’t operate by the same rules as other women I’ve known. She’s playing a different game. What the rules of it are, I don’t yet know.
Ten
