Page 75 of Wrecked By a Devil

“You really believe that?” My voice is quiet as I speak.

“I don’t waste my time saying things I don’t believe.” There’s no hesitation in his voice. “Now, here’s something that will get your mind off of worrying,” I watch him pull out a square white box from the bag and slide it over the table to me. “Your gift. Open it.”

I hesitate before reaching for the box, my heartbeat slightly accelerating in anticipation. “I thought the dress and the dinner are my gift.”

“You thought wrong,” he winks.

I proceed to open the white box and my breath catches the moment I see the most beautiful watch I have ever laid eyes on. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. “You remembered?”

“Of course, Riley.” He reaches out across the table and takes the watch out of the box before he puts it on my wrist. “It suits you.”

“Oh my God!” I’m fighting off the tears starting to form at the corners of my eyes. “This is too much. Are you serious?” He nodsand I can’t stop my hands from shaking. “Thank you for making this silly dream of the little Riley come true.”

I still find it hard to believe that he remembered such an insignificant detail. When I told him about drawing this same watch and pretending it was real when I was little, it was something I shared with him in the moment without thinking much about it. I never expected him to buy it for me.

Before either of us can say anything else, the sudden buzz of my phone interrupts us. A glance at the screen is enough to know that I don’t want to pick it up.

I silence it, and then my eyes meet Zeke’s. He doesn’t ask anything, but I can see that he is curious. “It’s my mother,” I admit.

“Oh.” The way he says that single word reminds me that he’s the one person that doesn’t judge and I can be honest with him.

“Once I finally moved out of that house,” I continue. “I never saw her or spoke to her again. She calls from time to time, I just… don’t want to relive any of it.”

“I understand that,” he nods and I smile, warmth spreading from my chest through the rest of my body as I watch the only man I ever trusted reach out for my phone and turning it off. He sets it back in front of me with a proud smile on his face. “No one gets to ruin tonight for you.”

The waiters arrive with our food before I can thank him properly, so instead I just mouth the words, my knees brushing against his under the table. I blush as a wildly inappropriate idea of getting under the table and taking him into my mouth crosses my mind.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Ezekiel

“Are you still not going to tell me where we’re going?” Riley raises her eyebrow as I hold the door for her and she gets out of the car.

“I told you, it’s a surprise.”

“Not even a little hint?” She insists, stepping onto the damp pavement.

I noticed how out of place she felt all evening, even though she belongs in a place like Noir as much as everyone else in there did, if only because she’s mine.

“Just five more seconds,” I say, nodding toward the looming façade of the building ahead. “Then you can complain all you want.”

She narrows her eyes at me, a flicker of defiance in her gaze, but follows anyway. The moment we stop in front of the cinema, she freezes.

“You mentioned during the dinner that you really wanted to see this movie, so we’re seeing it tonight,” I turn to face her, watching the neon lights bleed across her skin. Her eyes go wide and she covers her mouth in surprise.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes,” I nod.

“But the movie theater is closed at this hour,” she frowns as she looks at the dark ticket booth. “And the movie is not screening anymore.”

“Riley, ,” I smile, as I lift my hand to her nape, my fingers sliding into her hair and wrapping around the heat of her skin, and pulling her in for a quick, heavy kiss, before I open the door for her. “It’s open now.”

“So that’s what you were doing earlier when you went to the restroom,” her eyes light up at the realization. “You were arranging all of this.”

“I just made a phone call.”

I let go of her neck, sliding my fingers down to take her hand in mine with a strong grip. “Let’s get inside.”