Chapter 23-Ono
I wet my lips with my tongue as I waited for Michelle to come out of the bedroom and onto the attached terrace on this beachfront property.
It was a nice place. I bought it a few years ago and visited infrequently. But right now, it was my favorite place. Because of her.
We were having dinner al fresco tonight, outside overlooking the water. The temperature was a little chilly, but I had two outdoor fireplaces going and it was pleasant enough.
After four days of just being alone together, she’d started getting a little antsy today. I understood.
Michelle was a professional woman with a budding career. She had obligations and wasn’t content to idle around.
That was one of the things I admired about her. One of the reasons we were such a good fit.
We were both goal oriented people. I’d ignored business a little too long, and I had things to see to.
Poor Gio had been fielding calls left and right from her entire adoptive family.
Those Volkovs could be real motherfuckers.
But I had reasons for delaying our going back. I wanted to make sure all the i’s had been dotted and t’s crossed on our marriage license before she could change her mind.
We hadn’t talked about it. Not since that first day here. And even then, it wasn’t much of a conversation.
Tonight was our last night on the island and before we left, I thought it might be nice to dress up a little and enjoy the atmosphere.
I’d had her suitcase packed with dozens of options for her to pick from and was champing at the bit to see what she would pick.
We hadn’t bothered with clothes the last few days. Hell, we hadn’t even gone outside.
Looking down at my suit, I wondered if she’d like the bright white linen shirt paired with gray slacks.
Funny, I never wondered that before. Never hoped my appearance would please anyone else.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
I blew out a quick breath.
Hell, if I knew.
No, that wasn’t true. I did know. I wanted Michelle to like how I looked. Wanted her to be as attracted to me as I was to her.
Because I was in fucking love with her and no, I did not care if that meant I was a sucker. I grinned at the image.
Me? A sucker for a woman.
Stranger things had happened, I supposed. The sound of the sliding doors reached my ears, and I spun to face her.
Goddamn.
She wore the gold silk.
“Is it alright?” she asked, biting her lower lip nervously.
“Alright? It’s fucking perfect,” I said, but what I meant was she was perfect.
Still, she smiled at me and that was all the encouragement I needed. I took her hand and led her to the table my staff had set up for us earlier in the evening.
There were candles and flowers, a chilled seafood tower, bowls of thick crab and shrimp stew, and a dry white wine.
I felt like a fumbling oaf. She was just so, so mine . And just like that, my nerves settled.
“You eat seafood, right?” I asked, wanting to slap myself for sounding like a moron.
“It’s my favorite,” she said, smiling even brighter.
So gorgeous.
The delicate fabric clung to her satiny skin, and I wondered which lotion she’d used to make it glitter like that beneath the stars and beside the firelight.
I served her first, stilling her hands when she moved to do so herself.
“I got it,” I whispered.
I felt this need, this compulsion to provide for her. It was so strong and sudden. So deeply ingrained in me, it was like an ancient tattoo pounding a rhythm inside my heart.
“This is so good. I mean it, Ono. Fantastic.”
“Glad you like dinner,” I said, pleased.
“No, I mean, yeah, I like dinner. But I was talking about this whole thing. Marrying you. Coming here. Spending days in bed and now dressing up. This is like a dream, but I don’t understand how it happened or why you are doing all this,” she said, laughing lightly as she wiped her hands on a linen napkin.
We’d been eating for a while, talking about everything and nothing. It was just so easy to be with her.
It felt so right, but I’d been lying about the reason behind my manipulations, and that didn’t sit well with me.
The threats to her safety were real. But she didn’t know that.
Because I never told her about the attacks on my business, the threats that had been made, the retaliations on my part, or that all this shit had touched her now, too.
Whoever was after me had looked into my personal life. Somehow, they found my connection to Michelle.
Now she was a target. And that really made me fucking mad.
Anger filled me. Pure rage at the thought of anything happening to her.
They’d already vandalized her apartment, her Land Rover, and for all I knew, they’d been trying to find her person.
Yeah, I had to tell her for her own safety. I knew that.
But did it have to be now?
Oh, I would be a warrior for her.
I would put myself in harm’s way. Stop a bullet with my own body for her. There was nothing I wouldn’t do, or give, or sacrifice to keep her whole.
Just let me have tonight first .
I whispered that thought on repeat inside my mind like a secret prayer. A desperate plea to whatever deity might be listening in.
“Because you deserve it, Michelle. You deserve everything good.”
“Ha. That's not an answer. Besides, how do you know what I deserve? I could be a really bad person, Ono. You don’t really know me.”
“That’s not true. I don’t think anybody knows you like I do, Wife,” I growled.
I licked my lips, following the pulse beating at the base of her neck. She was turned on, my sweet little wife.
My gaze returned to hers, and I didn’t hide the emotions running through me, the things I was feeling.
Nope.
Not this time.
I let all those dark, covetous inclinations I had inside me rise to the top. I needed her to see them, plain as that big moon hanging in the sky above us.
“We have some things to talk about.”
“Like what?”
“Like what happens when we go back?” she asked, dark eyes welling with unshed tears.
I understood her upset and felt her reticence to my marrow.
The real world could be a mean motherfucker.
But what she didn’t know was she had me now in her corner.
God, did she have me.
“Michelle, it’s all going to be okay.”
“I want to believe you, but after the threat is gone and you decide you were crazy to do all this, well, what about the hospital?”
“The donation to the hospital and your position with the new pediatric medical engineering wing have nothing to do with this. But just so you know, the documents you signed on the plane included a document that ensured all my promises will hold up should something happen,” I said, motioning between us.
Her brows furrowed, and I wanted to explain it was part of my living will not a prenup, but I held my tongue.
Nothing was going to happen to me or my feelings, but I wasn’t telling her that right now.
I could hardly think for the pounding inside my head. This woman took up every available inch of space inside my brain.
Every thought.
Every action.
They were all for her. Couldn’t she see that?
“You knew I wouldn’t be able to turn that down, didn’t you? Is that why you did it? Because you knew I'd never say no to something that could help people,” she asked, like she just started putting it together.
“You got a big heart, Doc.”
She did. It was the kind of thing that got most people in trouble. But not her. Michelle used her heart to help people.
She’d turned it into an asset. It was a strength. Not a weakness.
“Yeah, right,” she murmured self-deprecatingly.
“You do.”
I frowned. What did she think I was lying?
Her heart was big. And perfect. I hoped like fuck there was room for me in it me with all my imperfections, with the mess I brought with me.
I didn’t want it to taint her. I mean, I would still do anything to make sure she was safe and protected even if she told me to get lost.
I just hoped like hell she wouldn’t do that.
“Just promise me, Ono. Promise me you’ll tell me yourself if you change your mind. Promise I won’t read about it somewhere in a tabloid or something,” she whispered.
“That will never happen. But I promise, Michelle. I will always make sure you’re taken care of first.”
“I might be crazy, but I believe you,” she said.
The woman was a sorceress, intoxicating me with her blunt honesty. Mesmerizing me with those damn dark eyes.
I stood up, dropping my napkin on the table as the surf crashed against the shore twenty feet away from us.
I knew we had to talk, but stopping now was beyond my control.
“We go back to the real world tomorrow, Doc. Let me have you tonight. Please,” I begged, leaving my pride to blow away like dust in the wind.