?WINGLESS AND BEAUTIFUL?
?EPISODE 49?
I thought he would go, but without warning, he bent
down and scooped me up into his arms.
I shrieked. “What the hell do you think you’re doing,
Hunter Vaughn?”
He started carrying me towards the gift shop. “You need
to get a new pair of slippers, otherwise, you will burn the
soles of your feet.
I’m taking you to the shop, whether you like it or not.”
“Put me down!” I protested and started struggling in his
arms.
“Sssshhhh!” He tightened his grip on me. “Hush, Allison!
I don’t want to drop you.”
“Just put me down!”
“I will. When we reach the shop—where the floor is
cold.”
Hopeless, I crossed my arms over my bare tummy and
allowed him to carry me.
The blood beneath my skin began
to heat up and I’m sure that it wasn’t from the sun. I felt
particularly self-conscious because of what I was wearing.
I looked away from him, afraid that he might see the violent
blush on my face.
I thought the gift shop was near but it felt like we were
taking forever to get there.
If I didn’t know any better, I
would think that Hunter was walking especially slow to
prolong this awkward moment.
“Can’t you walk faster?” I asked him.
“Why? Are you scared that people would see you with
me?” he asked, raising a challenging brow at me.
“No. But you might be embarrassed to be seen with
me.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Now, why would I be
embarrassed to be seen with you?”
“You’re joking, right?”
He raised a brow at me. “Do you think I am?”
“Yeah, I do!”
“Then you do not know me at all,” he said. And I
thought the annoyance in his voice was laced with a bit of
sadness.
We were a few feet away from the gift shop, much to my
relief. But instead of going inside, Hunter took a turn and
continued walking.
“Wait! What are you doing?”
“The next gift shop is bigger and has better choices.”
“What? No!” I wailed. “Hunter Vaughn, put me down!”
He shook his head. “Nope. I want to prove to you that
I’m not embarrassed to be seen with you at all.”
We passed by a group of kids who stayed out of our way
as soon as they saw us coming.
Some of them were from
our school and some were from Jacksonville. They were all
looking at us with shock and curiosity.
I stared back at Hunter and he looked like he wanted to
laugh or smile like he was enjoying spiting me.
I felt his arms around me tighten, pulling me closer to
his body.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked in a low, sober voice.
“Because you told me to,” he replied curtly.
“What? When?”
He raised a brow at me for a moment but didn’t answer.
When have I ever asked him to help me? For the life of
me, I couldn’t remember.
I noticed the white gold chain necklace on his neck,
which he’d been wearing since he came back.
It was only now that I saw the two rings, which served as the pendant.
The bigger ring had a thicker band that had a pattern on it
that looked like a handle and a diamond in the end of the
design.
I couldn’t make out the rest of its design. The
smaller one looked feminine.
It had a diamond on the center
and intricate carvings and smaller diamonds on both sides
of the bigger stone.
The design of the carvings looked familiar and I resisted the urge to reach out for it and inspect it further.
I couldn’t make out the designs fully, but I knew that it was a matching his and hers pair.
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