Free Making Love (Destiny Book 1) by Catherine Winchester Page B

and I mostly forgot to feel self-conscious. The restaurant itself was amazing; we sat outside on the terrace and everything about the place, from the food to the ‘floating fireplace’ (no, it didn’t actually float) was wonderful.
    Of course, so were the prices, but Will insisted on paying, even although he’d bought breakfast this morning and it was my turn. My look said we’d be having a discussion about this when we got home. His answering expression said much the same.
    When we left, again we had to do so separately, taking different cabs back to the same house. Weird.
    As I let myself into the house I was considering saying ‘ fuck it, let’s go public ’ but then I remembered what Lee had said and shown me. I simply wasn’t ready for that.
    Will got there about ten minutes later and I was ready for the argument, which I think he could see the moment he came in. He held his hand up.              
    “Please, just hear me out first, okay?” Will implored.

Chapter Six
    I nodded for him to continue and he came to sit next to me on the sofa, taking my hand and turning me so we were facing each other.
    “The way I see things, is that my job is causing you to spend more money than you would normally. If you were dating a London banker, for example, you wouldn’t have needed to buy plane tickets just to see him, or to go to expensive restaurants, or to buy fancy dresses to go to those restaurants.”
    Clearly he had noticed my discomfort with my dress tonight. It was lovely, but it was evidently not Hollywood lovely.
    “We didn’t have to in London.”
    “But I’ve lived in London for years and I have a… network of sorts, I’ve built up a lot of goodwill. Here I haven’t got that, no restaurant owners are going to go out of their way for me, so if we want any kind of normal life, we have to go to the celebrity places that make allowances for that. Places you wouldn’t be going if not for me. And you wouldn’t need your own taxi if not for me. My job pays me very well and it seems unfair for the limits my job imposes on us, to cost you money, so I simply want to pay for the costs that you wouldn’t incur if you were dating a regular person. Is that really too much to ask?”
    “When you put it like that, it sounds really logical and makes me feel like a shrew.”
    “You’re not a shrew and I understand completely that you don’t like taking money you haven’t earned. But I like having you here; I’ve been so looking forward to your arrival, ask anyone, I’ve hardly shut up about you. Whenever possible, I want you to continue to come and see me when I’m working away, and I want you with me at award shows and on dates to stupidly expensive restaurants, but I don’t want our relationship to hurt your bank balance and maybe make you say ‘no’ sometimes, when it’s just money keeping us apart. Please, darling, let me do what I can to take that burden off you.”
    “I want that too,” I assured him. “I’ll try not to make such a fuss in the future.”
    “That’s all I ask,” he smiled that big, goofy smile at me and I melted.
    It wasn’t going to be easy, I hate borrowing money, even from the bank, I have no credit or store cards and no overdrafts. Getting a mortgage was hell because apparently if you don’t have any debts, you have no record of your ability to pay off said debts, but my mortgage and student loans were the only credit I deemed worthy of accepting. Taking a hand-out is even worse than borrowing, but I supposed I could keep my mouth shut.
    ***
    The next three days were all busy and I quickly got used to not showing affection in public. We weren’t usually huge party animals, so being out so often wasn’t going to become the norm and things were fine once Will got back to work. I could go out on my own without Will and not have to worry about who might see me, and we spent every evening in, usually with me cooking since he had such long days.
    The night