“You did?” I pulled back and looked at the sack he’d left on my desk.
Kane got up and reached into the sack. “Remember when we were out walking a couple weeks ago and we stopped at that bakery? You tried a chocolate and I thought you were gonna come right there in the store.”
“Hey.” I swatted his thigh. “I wasn’t that into it.”
“You were all ooooh. Mmmmm. Yes.”
“Okay, maybe. It was really good chocolate. Anyway. . . .”
“I got you a whole box.” He pulled out a long white box with a red bow tied around it.
“Oh, Kane.” I took the box and smiled up at him. “That was so sweet. Thank you so much. I’m gonna eat the hell out of these.”
He reached into the sack again, pulling out another box. “This, too.”
“You shouldn’t have.” I shook my head. “I mean, you should have on the chocolates. I’m keeping those. But nothing else.”
“Just open it,” he growled, thrusting the box at me.
“Okay.” I pulled the gold wrapping paper from a small box and found a beautiful black and gray scarf inside. “Oh, this is gorgeous. You bought this? For me?”
He shrugged. “I know a lady who owns a boutique. She wraps Brooklyn’s presents for me. She said you’d like it.”
“I do. I love it. Thank you.”
He reached into the bag again.
“Kane, no. Seriously. I don’t want you thinking you have to spend a bunch of money to get my forgiveness. You have it, okay?”
His face fell. “Okay. That’s good, but . . . I wanted to buy you these things. I’m no fucking good at saying stuff.”
I stood and cupped both his cheeks in my hands. “Let’s work on that instead of you buying me presents.”
“You don’t want this, then?” He pulled out a small blue box.
“Tiffany?” I pressed my lips together, trying to stay strong. “Whatever’s in that box, I don’t need it. I just need you.”
“What if you can have both?”
I considered. “Well . . . maybe. I mean, if we agreed that you won’t buy me anything else for a very long time. That can be my Christmas present.”
He smiled and handed me the box. “Just open it.”
I did, relishing the moment. It had been years since I’d had a relationship so serious it involved gifts. And I’d only gotten a nice coffee bean grinder out of that one.
The necklace made my heart skip a beat. On the delicate silver chain was a pendant; a lower case letter ‘k’ with sparkling inlaid diamonds.
“The saleslady said I should get you a ‘v’, but I liked this idea better. To remind you . . . you know. And this way when some asshole strikes up a conversation by asking about your necklace, you can tell him the ‘k’ stands for me.”
“Or ‘kill’?” I smiled and ran my fingers over the pendant.
“Yeah, that’s good too, since I’ll kill ‘em if they touch you.”
“Oh, Kane.”
“You can’t say that here, Viv,” he said in a low tone. “You know what that does to me.”
“Well, you had me naked and willing this morning,” I reminded him.
“Fuck.” He rolled his eyes up at the ceiling.
“This is so beautiful. Thank you.” I leaned up and kissed him. “Will you put it on me?”
“Yeah.”
I took the necklace out and handed it to him, sweeping my hair up to make room for him to clasp it. He fumbled with it for a few seconds.
“The fuck is this thing?” he grumbled. “It’s the smallest shit I’ve ever seen. I can’t even get my thumb on it.”
“I’ll have Cara do it.”
“Okay.” He handed it back to me. “I have to go, I’ve got a meeting at the bank.”
I turned to look at him. “I’m so glad you came by. I feel so much better.”
He kissed me softly. “Me too. Can you have dinner with me at the club tonight? To celebrate?”
“Celebrate what?”
“I’m about to buy out one of the other Six investors. I’ll own a one-third stake after this meeting.”
“Kane! That’s fantastic. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I just did.”
“I mean sooner. That’s the best news.”