Chapter Six
CHAPTER SIX
Katerina was stirring from her nap just as Addie came into the room.
Vic had mumbled something about an important call he had to make and left her as soon as they got back to the villa.
He had seemed preoccupied on the walk back, a brooding frown appearing on his forehead, and he had seemed disinclined to talk.
Had she embarrassed him by offering herself to him?
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted him to be her first lover.
It would be so much less threatening to sleep with him rather than a stranger.
How did people do that these days? She couldn’t imagine hooking up with someone for sex.
She needed to know the person, to like and admire them at the very least. She needed to be attracted to them both physically and emotionally.
She needed to trust them, to feel confident they wouldn’t exploit her or use her.
That’s why Vic was a perfect candidate. He ticked all the boxes.
He would treat her with the utmost respect and while he might not promise anything long-term, she knew she could rely on him to make her first sexual experience a wonderful one.
The chemistry between them was unmistakable—her skin tingled when he touched her, his eyes meeting hers sent a thrill through her entire body.
No one had ever made her feel that way before.
Addie scooped Katerina up out of her cot and held her against her chest, her little chubby arms snaking their way around her neck.
‘Want Mummy.’ The hint of a wobble in the toddler’s voice plucked at her heartstrings, making them vibrate with a melancholic melody that reverberated all the way back to her lonely childhood.
‘I know, poppet,’ she said in a soothing tone, stroking the back of Katerina’s silky head of sweaty curls.
‘But she and Daddy will be back as soon as they can get here. And I’m sure they’ll video call you as soon as they can.
That would make you feel better, wouldn’t it?
To see their faces and to talk to them?’ She had already witnessed on many occasions Katerina’s adeptness at using her mother’s or father’s phone.
Katerina had actually called her on a couple of occasions, much to her parents’ delight and immense pride.
Katerina had probably only stumbled across her number in the call history by accident, but Isabella insisted her brilliant little daughter had not only recognised the number but Addie’s name, as well.
Addie wondered if her own mother had ever been proud of her.
Had there ever been a time or instance where she had done or said something that had made her mother swell with pride?
Katerina pulled away from cuddling into her neck to look at her with big woebegone chocolate-brown eyes.
Her lashes were as long as spider legs and her bottom lip was pushed out in a little pout.
Addie had never considered herself a particularly maternal person.
Animals were her thing—puppies and kittens were her kryptonite but looking into Katerina’s eyes and holding her soft little body against her sent a ripple of maternal longing through her that took her completely and utterly by surprise.
But then doubts trickled into her head, doubts that she would measure up.
What sort of mother would she be? She hadn’t had the best role model.
Solange wasn’t interested in being a grandmother to Marcus’s child, why would she be any different if Addie were to have a baby?
And who on earth would she get to father her child?
Vic was dead set against having children of his own.
Vic? The father of her imagined child? Who was she kidding? Her outrageously out of character suggestion of having a fling with him had hardly been met with enthusiasm, how enthusiastically would he embrace the suggestion of shared parenthood?
There was a sound behind her, and she turned with Katerina still in her arms to see Vic coming in.
He smiled at the toddler and her heart did a flip-turn in her chest. She held her breath as he came closer and held out his arms to the toddler.
Katerina buried her head into her neck and gripped Addie all the tighter, but not before a cheeky giggle escaped from her rosebud mouth.
Addie was going to faint from lack of oxygen if she didn’t take a breath soon or Katerina didn’t ease up her stranglehold.
Or maybe her lack of oxygen was more to do with how devastatingly attractive Vic was when he smiled.
‘Ah, I see how it goes,’ Vic said in a lighthearted tone. ‘But I thought we agreed on a swim this afternoon, sì ?’
Katerina lifted her head up and beamed at him. ‘Simming!’
Even though Addie had a brand-new, designer no less, swimsuit upstairs, she was not so enthusiastic about the upcoming swimming session.
It was one thing changing into a swimsuit behind the privacy of the change room curtains, quite another thing wearing said swimsuit when a tall, dark and deliciously handsome man was present.
A man she was ridiculously attracted to.
‘I can see I’m going to be outnumbered here,’ she said.
Vic arched one of his eyebrows. ‘Not having second thoughts, are you?’
‘And third and fourth and fifth.’ She chewed at the inside of her mouth for a moment. ‘But I don’t want to spoil it for Katerina.’
‘There’s my girl,’ Vic said with a slanted smile that sent a shower of sparks through her blood.
But she wasn’t his girl, was she? Nor did he want her to be. And she had better not forget it anytime soon.
Addie changed Katerina into a waterproof nappy and cute little lemon and white frilled swimsuit, and lathered her with sunscreen, even though that was the hardest part of the process but somehow, she got through it without tears.
Katerina was clearly no fan of the sun-smart standards Addie adhered to, but no way was she going to allow her little goddaughter to get horribly sunburned on her watch.
She had too many agonising memories of blisters and peeling skin and then more freckles than she wanted.
She then took Katerina to Vic who was waiting down by the pool.
Her eyes drank in the sight of him standing waist deep in the clear blue water.
His skin was tanned, his body toned with muscles in all the right places.
Places she could only dream about touching—the sculptured perfection of his chest, the masculine bulge of beautifully toned biceps, the ridged washboard of his abdomen…
She tried not to stare, but her eyes seemed to have their own agenda and drifted down below the waterline to study him.
He was wearing black swimming trunks that clung unapologetically to his male form.
A trail of black hair arrowed from the whorl of his bellybutton to disappear below his swimwear.
It sent her imagination into overdrive, her wayward mind conjuring up images of what he looked like without the barrier of his trunks.
She disguised a gulp as she handed Katerina down to his outstretched arms.
‘Careful, she’s slippery as an eel,’ she said, trying not to touch him in the handover. ‘She wasn’t keen on wearing sunscreen, but we came to an agreement of sorts.’
‘I heard the protest from down here.’ His lazy smile sent her heart rate off the charts, so too the gentle way he held the small child, tucking her on his lean hip.
Katerina was keen to show off her swimming prowess, but Vic was wise enough to not let her go.
The child kicked and splashed and giggled with glee and Addie watched in vicarious enjoyment.
And, truth be told, a bit of envy. A lot of envy.
But wasn’t that the story of her life? Sitting on the sidelines watching as everyone else had a good time.
Vic looked up at her at one point, Katerina now perched up on his broad shoulders. ‘Aren’t you coming in?’
She took a step back from the inviting pool and shrugged in a dismissive manner. ‘Maybe I’ll try it another day.’
His eyebrow quirked again. ‘When was the last time you got in a pool?’
She compressed her lips for a moment, not sure her memory went back that far. Or even wanted to. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘No excuses, Addie, you have a swimsuit, now go and put it on so you can join us.’ There was a commanding quality to his voice that would have annoyed her under a different set of circumstances, but she knew she needed a little push to get herself in that pool.
Okay, maybe even a big push. It wasn’t the temperature of the water; it wasn’t the exposure to the sun because she had industrial-strength sunscreen.
It wasn’t the thought of sharing the pool with Vic because that was the part she was secretly longing to do.
It was the thought of baring her body to his appraisal.
What if he didn’t like what he saw? What if he compared her to every woman he had slept with?
He had been involved with some of the most beautiful women in the world.
She had seen photos of him with them. Not one of them looked anything like her.
‘You don’t have to be shy around me.’ His tone was deep and gravelly and it made her blood heat hot enough to put the sun out of a job.
‘This isn’t easy for me…’
‘Not much is the first time you do it.’ His eyes held hers in a funny little lock. A connection that felt almost audible like the click of a camera shutter.
Snap. Got you .
She swallowed and a flutter of something went through the network of her veins as quickly as lightning. ‘Okay… I’ll do it if you promise not to stare.’
‘I can’t promise that, cara .’ The deep, dark velvet quality to his voice made her heart pick up its pace.