Kiona's POV
+ not edited
"Baby I don't want to go." I say pouting still putting on the dress anyway. He comes behind my in the mirror buttoning his suit and damn. He was attractive as hell.
"Babydoll, too late." He laughs leaning his chin on my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my waist. I roll my eyes again sighing fixing the belt that wrapped around under my boobs.
He just watches me through the mirror—admires me through the mirror.
"Babydoll, is it bad that I can't wait for the night to end already, because I can't wait to rip this off of you tonight," he says chuckling making me shiver. Bitch I just put the shit on, but I mean, we can skip the fundraiser.
"Take it off then," I bite my lip, challenging him through the mirror. He takes a deep breath closing his eyes.
"Don't tempt me." He says so I move back on him and I hear him take a sharp intake of breath. I smirk to myself feeling him grab my hips, but to stop me.
"Babydoll, I really don't want to rip you out of that dress right now, because we have a event to get to." He says smiling really big changing the subject.
"Oh no!" I say dramatically. "I thought you were gonna take me right there," I say. He glares at me to stop testing him.
***
I tug on Jackson's hand as we walked through the front doors. I was basically blinded with the lights of the ballroom and the lights from the cameras. Jackson smiled at everyone he greeted while I stood there probably looking like an irritating kid. I was just so intrigued by the scenery and the people. It was overwhelming.
"Babydoll you okay?" He asks moving his arm to around my waist. I nod quietly. He looks at me a little longer continuing to lead me to the ballroom.
I've said hello and introduced myself to a whole lot of people. Some of them even knew me from the shocking position I got at Apple right out of college. I was asked to do interviews left and right, for newspapers and news channels. One interaction left me irritated but I had to stay composed.
"Oh nice to see you again Jackson," A tall blonde girl comes up and hugs him, subtly elbowing me out the way. Jackson nods shaking this older guy's hand that approached us alongside the blonde.
"Oh sorry didn't see you there," She says looking down at me. I glance at Jackson but he doesn't make eye contact. Instead, he slides his hand down to my ass giving it a squeeze.
"So who is this Jackson? You seem awfully close." She chuckles but no one else does.
"This is my girlfriend Kiona, Kiona meet Mr.Stanton, Mrs. Stanton and Elizabeth Stanton. I wave smiling at them only getting a smile back from Mr. Stanton.
Ok then...
"Your dress is beautiful, but I mean it'd look better on a fairer skinned person." Elizabeth says, scrunching her nose.
"And maybe a skinnier person," the mother jumps in. Oh ok. These people are something different aren't they.
"Yea anything else? Because I will not hesitate to beat your ass and ya momma's-" I start out but Jackson cuts me off.
"That's pretty fucking ignorant if you both to say, she looks better than y'all ever could. At least her personality is genuine and not fake like your whole body is Liz. It'd be a shame if I cut off business with you huh because you wouldn't be able to afford anymore plastic in you. Sad." Jackson rants.
"Matter of fact, get the fuck out." He says to them in an authoritative voice. That was sweet, I didn't expect him to go off like that but period! And with that, they left. Jackson made sure to let every security outside know that they weren't allowed inside.
"You know, I love you so much Jackson." I say genuinely and he chuckles.
"I'm not going to let anyone talk to you like that they must be fucking crazy. I love you," he says stopping to kiss me.
"Who was that anyway?"
"That's my aunt and uncle, and cousin. Sadly," He says and I scrunch my nose keeping quiet. Interesting.
We again, were stopped at the end of the steps that led downstairs to the main gathering area.
"Mane, your ex is here and she is fucking mad. I tried." Liam said quickly stepping out of our way. He was gone quicker than he came.
A woman stepped up, and you could just tell that she was with Jackson before.
"Nice to see you again, Jack." She smiled kindly. "I'm Camila." She said sticking out her hand. I shook it back.
"Kiona."
She smiled sweetly. It's a lot easier to dislike someone if they were a bitch, but she wasn't...so far at least. She nodded at us before leaving. That's weird cuz she ain't say anything really. But I'm overthinking, she just came to say hi. I guess.
I shrugged it off, following Jackson as he made sure I didn't trip down the stairs. He knows if I fell, then I'm not getting back up.
Finally we sat down at a table reserved for us and a few other people. It was close to the front and close to the food.
I forgot that he like absolutely had to speak and I'd be by myself. It might just be me, but I felt awkward in a large crowd by myself while everyone had someone to talk to. And I was too awkward to start conversations.
"Jackson yo ass gon have me looking like a pig!" I whisper shout at him as he takes the whole cheese tray and brings it over to our table. He shrugs sitting down next to me popping a cheese cube into his mouth.
"It's my event babydoll," he winks cheesily. "I have to speak very soon, but I promise I'll be right back after I promise." He says kissing my knuckles. I pout seeing some people walk over.
"Look I'll introduce you and then you'll be fine. This is Kenyon and his wife Vanessa. Guys, this is my girlfriend Kiona." He says and we all wave. He kisses my cheek catching me off guard before running off.
The girl turns to me as her husband gets caught up in talking.
"Hey I'm Vanessa, and I really only come to these things for the food." She says truthfully and I laugh. "Well my husband wants me too but I cannot handle all these boujee as people!" She exclaims and I agree.
"I don't think I've ever seen this many people in one room." I say looking around.
"Is this your first one? Like your first big event I guess," she asks trying to explain.
"Yea and I'm honestly overwhelmed."
"After a few more, you'll get used to it trust me, I hated these at first and getting dressed up, but now I'm used to it and learned how to sneak food out." She says showing me her purse.
"Wait oh my gosh, I should really do that!" I say grinning with her.
"Oh my hello Vanessa! Mwah!" This girl with curly blonde and pink hair exclaims, catching me off guard.
Vanessa looks irritated and not bothered by her. She looks disgusted.
"Oh and who are you, beautiful thing!" She turns her attention to me. "Your dress is gorgeous, where'd you get it?"
"Uh I-"
"Anyways, what's your name?" She says cutting me off.
"I'm Kiona..." I say slowly reading Vanessa facial expressions. She moves a chair in between the middle of us both and starts talking. Who in the hell?
"I see that you're new here! Love the dress, but who are you here with?" She asks.
"Jackson Taylors."
"Oh wow! You got the good one, how often do you sleep with him, and how much of his money do you spend, oh my god is he like your sugar daddy? Because I have 3 and I'm loving it, that's why I'm here!" She exclaims snd I immediately got a headache. If that gets you your coin sis, go ahead.
Oh my god. This girl just put herself on blast like that?
"He's my boyfriend." I say crossing my legs. She furrows her eyebrows in disbelief getting ready to say something but someone taps the microphone getting everyone's attention.
"Well bye girlies, I'll see y'all later." She blows us kisses and my attention goes back to Vanessa.
"What the fuck?" I say to her, wide eyes. She just shakes her head.
"Gold digging whore, if that's what makes her happy." Vanessa shrugs.
"Good evening everyone, it's nice to see everyone's face tonight. I'd like to express my gratefulness and thankfulness to everyone here." Jackson starts to speak and him in the light was gorgeous.
Baby boy was so fucking sexy. He was in a black suit with a white dress shirt under it and a black tie. He was wearing a Rolex and I don't know why that was so sexy. Maybe it was just because his hands were so sexy. I was thinking about him so much that I zoned out his entire speech. Oops.
Some applause brought me back to reality. He glances at me for a second and I feel like he was going to pull some dumb shit. "I'd also like to thank my beautiful girlfriend, Kiona, for helping me plan all of this and keeping me sane throughout all of this." He says winking at me and that gets applause too. He pointed to me and everyone's eyes turned to me. I smiled but in reality, I wanted to slit his throat.
Just being called his made my stomach go up in butterflies making me smile to myself. I admired him talk some more and he finally let someone else take over the microphone. He comes down the steps and straight to me. He sits next to me, smiling at me making me scrunch my nose.
"Oh my god, stop hiding your smile." He says taking my hands. "Stop," He urges and I pout. "I love you." He says softly kissing my lips. I was glad that nobody was paying close attention to us at the moment because I felt like I had fell in love all over again.
"You had to put me on blast like that?" I pout jokingly.
"I had to let everyone know that you're mine. Cuz I will kill anyone who looks at you some type of way." He said seriously making me roll my eyes.
"Mmhm." I mumble back. He was just so charming and fuck I was in deep. He kisses me again to silence me.
I break the kiss with my grin, playfully rolling my eyes at him to which he just smirks at me. I don't know why but his smirk was so fucking sexy too!
"I love you." I say back turning my attention back to whoever was speaking. He holds my hand kissing it again, making me feel good. An hour and a half went by and the amount of money was said that had been raised for the fires making everyone cheer. 100 million dollars had been raised and I was fucking shocked. Well shit why wasn't this done earlier!
My mouth was wide and Jackson just looked at me chuckling.
"The power of money is fucking crazy isn't it babydoll?"