Page 136 of When She Falls (The Fallen)
I stop walking and point at the storefront right in front of us.
Gemma gasps.
It’s an art supplies shop.
I insist we go in, and despite hesitating at first, Gemma quickly warms up to the idea. We walk out of there fifteen minutes later with a bag of paint, brushes, and some canvases.
I grin to myself. In our future house, I’ll build her an art studio, and we’ll decorate the walls with her paintings.
Our next stop is a clothing shop. While Gemma tries on little linen dresses, all I can think about it is getting her out of them. She brings me a few things she thinks would look good on me, and I buy them without even checking the sizes. I’m too eager to get her back to the house.
I feel high. Around her, I’m incapable of thinking straight. I hate shopping, and yet somehow doing it with her feels like this special fucking treat.
We leave the shop with four big bags, and I’m about to start heading to the taxi stand when she stops by another store display.
It’s a jewelry store.
She starts walking away, but I pull her back. “What were you looking at?”
“Nothing,” she says, waving me off. When she realizes I’m not going to move until she tells me, she sighs and points at a pendant.
“Come on.” I tug her inside the store.
The jewelry store is small and quaint, and chimes ring above us as we step inside. Glass cases line the walls ,and the miniature gray-haired shopkeeper comes over to ask if there’s anything in particular we’d like to see.
“That black pendant in the display,” I tell her.
“The onyx piece.” She smiles knowingly. “It’s one of my favorites.”
Gemma follows her to take a closer look, but not before giving me a light smack on the butt.
A rush travels up my spine. I fucking love how comfortable she’s getting with my body.
She talks to the shopkeeper, completely oblivious to how my obsession with her is growing with every hour we spend together. I don’t think I realized how much I was restraining myself around her while we were in New York. Everything was forbidden. Every wrong move could’ve gotten us in trouble. But now, the shackles are off, and I’m not sure she’s ready for what’s coming next.
The shopkeeper steps away from Gemma, and I quickly take her place, looking at Gemma’s reflection in the mirror. “What do you think?”
The pendant is a smooth black stone nestled in an intricate gold frame on a delicate chain. It catches the light just so, and there’s wonder in Gemma’s eyes as she looks at it.
“It’s beautiful. But I don’t have any money,” she adds sheepishly.
“I do.” I hand her my card. One of my accounts is at a secure offshore bank that not even Napoletano can trace.
“Are you sure? You’ve already bought me a lot of things.” She drags her finger over the pendant.
I snake my arms around her waist. “If you knew how much pleasure I get from spending money on you, you’d realize you’re doingmea favor by getting that necklace.”
Her cheeks turn pink. “That sentence just did something to my insides.”
I let out a low chuckle and press my lips to her ear. “Wait until tonight, Peaches. There are plenty of other things I can do to your insides.”
Her breath hitches, and she gives me a heated look while the shopkeeper carefully wraps the pendant in a small box.
We walk out of the shop, and I can’t resist the urge to press her against a wall and kiss her. Her lips are soft and pliant, and she moans into my mouth as I deepen the kiss. People walk past us, probably staring, but I don’t give a fuck.
Let them see us.
Let them know she’smine.
