Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy) - By Juliana Haygert Page 0,41
heart. Of course I wouldn’t leave him alone, but a girl needed to take a bath and change clothes, and I had nothing with me besides my purse.
“I could, but I would need to go home and grab some things and take a shower.”
“If you aren’t picky”—he glanced briefly at me—“I might have some things you could put on. And you can take a shower here.”
“You have stuff for me?” I raised my eyebrows while he nodded. “If it’s girly and it’s clean, I might not complain.”
I saw the corner of his lips threatening to smile, but it didn’t last long.
He escorted me to the guest room. It was more cozy and colorful than the rest of the apartment. The tall queen-size bed took most of the space. The comforter was blue and brown, the curtains were light blue, and the rug beside the bed was blue with light yellow details. I liked it.
From the closet, he took out a large suitcase. He dug around inside and handed me a few things: a pair of purple fluffy slippers and a pink sleep shirt.
“There’s clean underwear and socks in there.” He pointed to a pocket inside the suitcase. “Do you need anything else?”
I stared at the stuff, wide eyed. “Whose are these?”
He closed the suitcase. “Lauren’s.”
Oh, I knew who she was, but this Victor didn’t know I knew, so I asked the next obvious question. “Who is Lauren?”
“My ex-girlfriend. She died four years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay.” He ran a hand over his hair. Trying to lighten the mood, I placed the sleep shirt before me. It went down to my knees, proving too big for me. “She was a lot taller than you are.” He then led me to the only bathroom in the apartment. His scent was inebriating in here. “There is shampoo in the shower and a towel under the sink. Anything else?”
“You probably don’t have conditioner, do you?”
He bit his lip. “No, sorry.”
I pulled my mind back to the bathroom and off his gorgeous mouth. “Well, I’ll prepare myself for super untangling time afterward.” He grinned. “Are you sure you don’t mind me using her stuff?” The truth was I minded using Lauren’s stuff, but what could I do? Yell at him because of it? I could just not shower, but I totally needed to clean up.
His sea-green eyes fixed on mine, wreaking havoc within me. “I’m sure.”
“Excuse me.” I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door before I lost control.
The shower was relaxing, though his scent still played with my senses.
When I was done, I joined him in the living room, self-conscious that the sleep shirt, besides being lengthy, was somewhat scanty. Though I didn’t think he would notice me. He was sprawled over the loveseat, his legs propped up on the leather ottoman, flipping through channels. Curling my hair around my finger, I sat on the loveseat with him, making sure I was glued to the far edge.
He kept on changing channels until one of the movies caught his attention, an old classic from decades ago: Stepmom. The scene was the one where the mother was giving goodbye gifts to her children. He froze.
I reached for the remote and changed the channel. Looking for something to do, I got up and went to the kitchen. All this tension and silence was killing me, and I regretted having accepted his invitation to stay over. I should have gone home and slept in my own bed, where I would be safely in control of myself.
I rummaged through the shelves until I found something to do: a mochaccino. It was my favorite, and my dream Victor’s favorite too.
Making the drink didn’t take long, though I noticed him spying over his shoulder to check out what I was doing. I guess he was worried about the mess and the noise I was making. I cleaned up the mess and took two mugs with fuming mochaccinos back to the living room.
I handed one of the mugs to him. He closed his eyes and sniffed the sweet aroma. I smiled. Oh, if it weren’t for that messy hair over his eyes and the sweatpants, I could swear I was beside my Victor. Though, I was starting to prefer his hair this way.
After passing through each channel at least three times, he went over to the TV stand and opened one of the large drawers, revealing dozens of old-school Blu-rays. He beckoned for me to join him on the floor beside the