26. Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Tanner
W hen I wake up, she’s still there, deeply asleep. She’s laying on her side, facing me, one hand tucked under her head, the other holding my hand under the covers.
We’d gotten cleaned up and laid down together, laughing and talking for a long time before Vic dozed off. I fell asleep after her, not quite allowing myself to believe that we got here again. I still don’t. But I’m going to go with it.
I carefully get out of bed, pull on some sweatpants, and grab my bag. Inside is my personal laptop and a folder with a few pieces of origami paper. I’d packed these items for two specific reasons. The paper because I know it’ll make Vic laugh that I’ve made her something else while we’re away from home. One of the easiest things I’ve learned to make is a crane, so I make that now, setting it on the edge of the table before putting away the paper and pens I’d taken out. Then I set up the laptop.
I’d brought this because I wake up before Vic and I wanted something I could do that would be quiet so she can sleep as long as she wants. Plus, it gives me the chance to move this special project forward. I lose track of time working, researching, noting questions I need to answer, until I’m brought back to the room when Vic says, “I would ask if you’re working on your day off, but that’s not your Sterling computer.”
I close the laptop much quicker than I mean to. She arches a brow and I know she’s noticed. She’s still lying in bed, but she’s turned to her other side so she can look at me from her cozy spot.
“You startled me,” I explain.
She waits for me to say more because, obviously, I’m hiding something. But I’m also not ready to tell her what.
“It isn’t my Sterling computer. This one is mine. Wyatt built it for me.”
She sits up and I’m momentarily distracted by the fact that she slept as naked as I had, and now I have a perfect view of her breasts. She’s completely unselfconscious as she raises her hands to undo her braid. “I haven’t ever seen you using it before.”
“I never really had a reason to,” I say, distracted by her tight nipples that seem to be begging for my mouth. “I wanted to do something that I didn’t want on my Sterling laptop.”
Her braid is undone, and she runs her fingers through her hair before catching it and pulling it all back into a new ponytail. “Is it something that could be bad for Sterling?”
“No. But it is something Richard probably wouldn’t like.”
She smirks. “That could be a lot of things. And you don’t want to show me?”
“Not yet. It’s not ready.”
Which is true. It isn’t ready. But the real truth is I’m not ready. Because, if I tell her what I’m working on, it’ll open up a whole round of questions I’m not prepared to answer, like why I’m doing this, what it means for my plans, why they’ve changed. And it’ll likely have to end with what I really want now, which isn’t what I told her I wanted in the beginning.
She finishes organizing her hair and drops her hands to her lap. “You’ll show me when it is?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. What’s that?”
She points to the paper crane I made for her.
“What, this?” I shift it on the table, turning it so it’s in profile. “Just something I made for you.”
“You brought origami paper on our honeymoon?”
I stand, moving toward her. “I like to be prepared.”
“A regular boy scout.” She leans back as I get closer, and I follow her movement like a magnet. The bed dips beneath the weight of my knee as I climb over her, kissing her lips, followed by the tip of one breast.
“Have I mentioned to you how exquisitely beautiful your tits are?” I ask before licking her nipple.
Her fingers thread into my hair. “Really?” she asks, her voice a little breathy. “You didn’t seem to notice them a few days ago.”
I meet her eyes. “When you were sick? Oh, I noticed, baby. But you were sick, and I had to take care of you. Now, I need to take care of you in another way.”
I lower my mouth to her nipple once more and spend the next hour doing just that.
After we’ve showered and dressed, I take Vic out for breakfast, then to our massage appointments. I scheduled a couple’s massage and manicures and pedicures while she was asleep this morning. She laughs when I tell her I’m going with her for all of it, asking if I’ve ever had a manicure or pedicure before.
“Not professional ones,” I tell her. “But as I mentioned last night, my sisters liked to torture me. I’ve also never had a massage before, actually.”
With her arm linked through mine like it is, the way she smiles up at me, and the way I can finally give in to the urge to drop a quick kiss to her waiting lips, it feels like the best day of my life. At the same time, there’s a part of me that’s anticipating an inevitable crash.
After we’re done—and I’ve convinced Vic to get a muted iridescent colour for her fingers and a vibrant purple for her toes—I offer to take her out for lunch, but she gives me a mischievous smile and suggests we get lunch to go.
Much later, I take her to dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant where we sit side-by-side with her hand in mine.
“This is a very pretty colour,” I tell her, admiring the nails.
“I don’t usually get much colour on my fingernails,” she admits, taking a sip of her green tea.
I can guess why. It’s the same reason she’s always so neat, wearing business casual almost all the time, her hair always styled, even when she’s not working. She doesn’t want to show anything that could be construed as unprofessional.
I run my thumb over her nails. “But your nails are always done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without nail polish.”
She nods. “I had a really bad habit growing up. I bit my nails all the time. But I couldn’t run a million-dollar business with nails chewed to the quick. No one would take me seriously. When I started university, I started buying really expensive nail polish and getting manicures. I grew up with money, so the expense didn’t really deter me, but having them look pretty did.”
“I didn’t know that about you.”
She shrugs. “No one does. Except Spencer. My parents didn’t really pay attention to little things like that. Liam was too young to really notice. I’d mostly broken the habit by the time I met Adalie and Derek. Every now and then, when I’m really stressed, I’ll still do it. Spencer catches me sometimes and tells me to stop, but usually I stop myself.”
I bring her hand to my lips, kissing the backs of her fingers. “If I catch you biting your nails, do you want me to tell you to stop?”
She shrugs. “I guess. If you notice.”
“I notice everything about you, Vic.”
She flushes and I want to kiss her properly, but our food arrives and we eat. We discuss what we’ll do tomorrow, since it’s our last day. When we’re finished and I’ve paid, as we’re walking back to the hotel, she seems like she’s considering something.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” I ask.
She glances at me. “I was just thinking about last night when you called me Victoria Marcus. You never call me Victoria.”
I arch a brow. “That’s because you don’t like to be called Victoria.”
“My ex-girlfriend, Emily, used to call me that. She thought it was cute that she had a pet name for me.”
“Did you think it was cute?” I ask, incredulous.
She tilts her head to the side. “Not really. It made her happy to be different from my friends. Though I don’t think she considered the fact that it made her the same as my parents.”
“Obviously not. I won’t call you Victoria again if you hate it, Vic.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I kind of liked it actually.”
I blink, confused. “You did?”
She nods, pulling me to a stop beneath a street light. “I think I just really like being Victoria Marcus .”
I trail a finger down the side of her face. “Are you saying you don’t regret marrying me, Mrs. Marcus?”
She lifts her chin to give me a haughty look. “I do not, Mr. Marcus. In fact, I’m beginning to think it might have been one of my best ideas.”
My mouth crashes against hers because I need to feel her. Now. I need her to know how much I have ached to hear her say that. I want to tell her that I’m in love with her, but it’s still too soon. So I vow to show her instead.