HIS CLAIM

73

Elsa

Nicholas told me to get ready. I didn’t know what I was getting ready for, but I assumed it was something important as I noticed he had taken out some of his finer suits.

I was in the bathroom in my robe, finishing my makeup, and trying to decide how to style my hair. I pulled my hair up to see if I should do an updo.

“Leave your hair down.” I looked to the doorway, seeing Nicholas leaning against the door frame.

“Are you sure?” He stepped closer to me and took a strand between his fingers.

“Yes. I love it when you leave it down. I also love it when I can wrap my hand around it like this.” He wrapped his arm around my hair, gently tugging it to make me look up at him. He placed a small, sweet kiss on my lips that had tingles erupt inside of me.

“Okay. So, where are we going?” I asked.

“Not a place you know of.” I rolled my eyes at his answer.

“Well, what are we doing then?” Nicholas shrugged, looking  amused as I tried to make him tell me.

“You will see when we get there.” He retorted. I gave him a blank look because he knew curiosity was dying to know.

“I brought you your dress.” I followed him into the walk-in closet, seeing a gown bag already hanging.

“Oh, is that the dress that was kept a secret?”

“It is. I picked it for you.” Nicholas smiled.

“Really?” Excited that he picked it out, I unzipped the bag and was immediately stunned by the dress.

“It’s gorgeous…” I touched the soft fabric as I admired it.

“Of course, it’s red.” I chuckled.

“It’s my favorite color on you.” He took the dress out from its bag while I dropped my robe. Nicholas helped me get dressed, and while he did so, I noticed his eyes were lingering on my stomach. My food baby was gone, but it had him act so differently when he saw what it could look like. And I loved every single moment of it, hoping we would experience the real thing soon.

I looked in the mirror, admiring the amazing dress he picked out for the occasion. A stunningly one-armed off-shoulder dress, a deep sweetheart neckline with a silver beaded band following the neckline, and stopped down to the side of my waist. It had a split to the side with a long trail behind me.

“You look gorgeous, Mrs. Donavan.” Nicholas kissed my bare shoulder. It never failed to make me shiver in delight when he called me by my new name. I turned around, checking him out  as he was dressed in a fitted burgundy velvet blazer with a black dress shirt that hugged his frame so perfectly.

“And you look delicious, Mr. Donavan.” I bit down on my lip as I took absolutely no shame in checking him out. He was my husband, after all. I could ogle as much as I wanted to.

“Come, it’s time to go, my love.”

We had been driving for a while, and I looked out of the window to see if I could hint where we were going. But since I wasn’t familiar with Italy, I had no idea where anything led to.

Soon, we came to a stop and we were high up, overlooking the ocean and a mountain that curved around. The sunset glistening on the water had the view look even more magical.

“This way.” Nicholas took me down a stone staircase with lights on either side of the stairwell. As we went down the steps, I noticed more light. Then, all of a sudden, loud and joyous noises erupted, and I let out a small gasp.