Chapter 22. Parisian Picnic

BELLE

I turned to face him and wrapped my arms around his neck, smiling. He looked surprised by my display of affection.

“It took you a while to catch up,” I said.

He tightened his arms around me. “I wanted to see where you would go.”

“You weren’t afraid that I would run off and spend all your money?” I said, waving his credit card in his face.

“What’s mine is yours. You will never want for anything ever again. You can spend as much of my money as you want.”

I stared at him for a moment. I’d never had enough money to spend on anything other than the necessities. Sometimes I didn’t even have enough to buy food.

I couldn’t count the number of times I’d gone to bed hungry after my dad had gotten sick.

Back home, I was just starting to be able to provide for myself. I’d rented a small one-bedroom apartment and was paying for it with a crappy waitress job.

It wasn’t the most luxurious life, but it was enough for me.

And I took g