FIFTEEN
LYING ON THE SUITE floor by the bar was just fine, so long as she could hear his heartbeat everything was good.
“Marrying you was the best day of my life,” she said, still blindfolded, which wasn’t as odd as it probably should’ve been.
“You were arrested for B&E that day.”
“I choose not to focus on that part, Skippy.”
“I’ve got to admit, you floored me with how quickly you agreed. Where the hell was that woman in Rome?” His fingertips ran over her hair and the blindfold. So soothing, familiar, missed… Shit, if they stayed there much longer, she’d fall asleep. “You keep me guessing, Roxanna.”
“You wanted to take me to Paris.”
“Offer still stands.”
Guys didn’t think about these things as often as women. She didn’t think anyway.
“Don’t you have highlights?” she asked. “After a year and a half with me, you have no favorite moments?”
“Rome.”
“The closet or the storm out?”
“The closet.”
“Sex on the brain, boy.”
“You were the sex initiator,” he said. “Fuck, I was so grateful you broke the seal and made the move.”
Not something she shied from doing, then and now.
“Would you have done it?” she asked. “Ever? Made a move? Because you had time, a lot of time… and opportunity. And you’re not shy, why wouldn’t you—”
“I thought you needed time. And I was right. You weren’t ready then.”
“How do you know I wasn’t ready?”
“Because you blew me off the next day.”
“Ah, yes, see I have a new insight on that.”
She propped her chin on him. No idea why, because it wasn’t like she could see him. Habit, perhaps?
His fingers dug into her scalp in a gentle squeeze. “Didn’t know you were seeing a therapist.”
“I am my own therapist.”
“You should pay yourself more.”
Rolling over to straddle him, she guided his hands by his wrists to stroke up over her breasts and down to her navel over and over.
“What if you didn’t fall in love with me? I didn’t know you felt anything for me then.”
“You’re so switched on—”
“And tone deaf to this, you told me. I like to think I notice now.”
“I like to think that too. What with the wedding and all.”
Her hips undulated, completely of their own volition. “In Rome, I didn’t know. There’s nothing wrong with just sex, keeping it casual. I couldn’t get all clingy and needy if you were just being a player.”
“You’re not the clingy, needy type, babe.”
“You love that about me.”
That was one of the things she adored about their relationship.
Even when they were independent, living their own lives, doing their own thing, separated from each other, their love, their need for each other didn’t dwindle.
No one got insecure or jealous, theirs was a relationship that epitomized mature and secure. Who’d have thunk it? About her? No one.
“Is that what you were worried about? In Rome?” he asked. “That I would dump you?”
“It wasn’t until…It wasn’t in my frame of reference for us to be anything other than casual. You spend your life jetting around the world and—maybe it was subconscious. My brain just decided to play it cool.”
“You were playing it more than cool, Lo. It wasn’t all your fault though. I didn’t tell you what you meant to me.”
“If you’d laid it on thick, I would’ve run.”
“You did run.”
His laugh triggered her groan. “Okay, okay.”
Now he was just repeating himself. She bowed to plant her mouth on his, though it didn’t completely silence his amusement.
“I’ve got to ask, Paris? Rome? Are you suggesting we do another tour?”
That wasn’t exactly what she’d meant, but, hey…
“Why not?” she asked. “We’ve talked about it before. I want to be with you everywhere. London. Why have we never screwed in London? You have an apartment there for crying out loud!”
“We have an apartment there.”
“So why can’t we have sex there? Do I need some secret password to screw my husband in the UK? Is there a specific visa I should apply for?”
He hummed, a sure sign of his approval. “We can screw anywhere you want, Lola.”
“We should screw in all the places we visited before, only now we’re forever. Now we know we’re forever. No one will run. No one will storm out. I mean we’ll fight because, yeah, but the real stuff… We’ll be on the same page next time around.”
“If we do it soon, we’ll have Hatfield on our ass.”
“Again,” she said on a whisper of amusement. “We don’t have to go tomorrow. Just say we’ll do it someday.”
“We can do it today,” he said. “Got nowhere else to be. Nothing important on the agenda springs to mind…”
Laugh it up, Skippy. Except…
“I was going to make a jibe about not showing up, but… Thinking about it, I’m supposed to be late, right? I’m in the building. How can I—Toria. Yes. Excellent! She’ll take care of that tradition. We’re late everywhere when she’s in the crowd.”
“She’s the only one of the three of you not getting married today.”
“Meaning… she won’t need more time than Jane and me? You’ve met her, right? Plenty of times you’ve been waiting for me, you didn’t know you were actually waiting for her.”
“All the—”
“How is Kesley?”
Many others fell into the not getting married bracket too, hence the jump to Zairn’s ex.
“Kes?” he asked. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her. Wasn’t she at your thing?”
“Yeah, though I’m not sure inviting her was a good idea.”
“Did she embarrass herself? She’s not a big drinker but usually holds her liquor.”
“It wasn’t that, it was…” Slithering lower again, she tucked her face against his throat. “The girls were talking about love and sex and… She thought she’d get this with you. Once upon a time, you know? You broke her heart then hooked up with me.”
“Later, way later. I’d been with other women in the interim.” Dayah Lynn came to mind though this wasn’t the night to dredge all that up. “She’s not hung up on me. Not like you think.”
“Men don’t always notice these things.” Relaxing her head in a roll, her lips just touched his Adam’s apple. “Maybe she’s not in love with you like when you were together. But when the girls are talking about you finding the right woman before settling down… I don’t know it had to occur to her.”
“What?”
“That she wasn’t your right girl.” Tipping higher, she lifted her head enough to rasp her mouth across his jaw. “Why didn’t you marry her?”
“You asked me that before.”
“She’s beautiful.” She kissed his chin. “Smart…” Another kiss. “Engaging…”
The next kiss went to the corner of his mouth and he turned his head fast, surprising her with a much deeper, definitely delicious, full French kiss.
His fingers dived into her hair, snagging her blindfold. Grabbing for it fast, she levered up a little to fix it.
“Maybe you should propose to her,” he teased.
Blindfold secure again, they were pushing their luck with the novelty and would get in deep trouble if she messed this up.
“I proposed to you,” she said, “isn’t that enough?”
She sensed his smile. “You didn’t propose to me.”
“What was Talk at Sunset ?” Though he wasn’t totally wrong. The question never actually passed her lips… or his. Huh. “Are we the only two people in history who got married without ever discussing it? Where no one asked no one?”
“I like that about us. We’re on the same wavelength.”
Now they were, hadn’t always been that way. This was luck. Her falling into this life, it was sheer unadulterated providence. And she wouldn’t take it for granted.
“I want to go to Vegas.”
“Could’ve saved us a fortune if you took me up on that offer the first time it came around.”
“If we gallivant around the world again, we need to put Tokyo and Sydney on the list. Next time, Party Boy, we’ll spend nine days in that bed the right way.” Playing with him was so much fun. “You never did make-out with me that day. Broke my heart.”
“Won’t happen again. I like making out now I know it leads to other things. Someone taught me that.”
“Smart woman.” Mm, he tasted good. The texture of his skin enlivened her.
“One thing we never got clear, Skippy. Just because you’re a one bunny duck doesn’t mean the seduction stops.
No, you just redirect your compulsion to fornicate onto me.
You’re still expected to lead me astray on a regular basis. ”
Even without her eyes, she could feel his energy, his edge. They belonged. In that moment, and every other, together.
“You not getting enough?”
“Sex? No, definitely not, Smirky Pants.” No, boy, she didn’t need eyes to know.
“Shall we go over your record from the last two weeks? Won’t be so funny then, huh?
Do you know how many times these fingers…
” She skimmed them down his shoulder, his bicep.
Mmm. His hot, hard—okay, not the point. “Have done your work for you? As much as I love your sexy words, they’re even better paired with your touch. ”
His laugh rumbled through her whole body. “Even better when I can look at you too. How about I make you a deal?”
“Hit me with your best shot, Whizz Negotiator. I’m no easy mark, I’ll have you know.
I have a lawyer, yep, that’s me, I’m a bigshot now.
” Stroking up and down his arms, her body rubbed on his in instinct.
“He’s my boyfriend’s lawyer too, but I’m sure we have confidentiality…
” Huh, actually… rising, she landed both hands on his chest. “Do we have confidentiality?”
“You and me? A hundred percent.”
And that was a deliberate misinterpretation. “With Dunlap.”
Still hadn’t decided if she liked the lawyer. Could go either way on any given day, usually depended on the topic.
“Why? What do you need him lying to me about?”
“Uh…” Her fingernails found their way to his stubble. Yum! “Not me. I’m not lying. You’re lying.”
“What am I lying about?”
“I don’t know, if I knew it wouldn’t be confidentiality, would it? I want to know if Dunlap keeps things from me, things you tell him.”
“If he does, we’ll just fire him.”
She tsked. “You’d fire a lawyer for not divulging your personal business to your wife?”
“I’d fire a lawyer if you snapped your fingers and told me to make it happen. There’s nothing that I can give that you wouldn’t get. It’s all you, Lola Bunny.”
“Okay, Dunlap can stay.”
“There’s nothing I’d hide from you. You don’t have to ask any lawyer, whatever it is, I’ll tell you myself.
I run everything by you first. You organize my thoughts in a way no one else ever did or could.
Your perspective always helps.” Because it was rarely the same as his.
Impulse took his thoughts to business and strategy, she saw things from a more personal, intimate, side.
“Something comes up and my first thought is—”
“What would Roxie do?” she asked. “My girls do that too. Could be an insult, that’s never really been made clear.”
“The equivalent of, ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’”
“Me or you?” she asked. “Either way that doesn’t leave much.”
He was so relaxed, even in his snicker. “As long as I’m doing it with you, what is there to worry about?”
“You’re doing it again,” she murmured.
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like I’m crazy. Geez, man, after a year and a half, I’d think you’d be used to me by now.”
“What happened to your blindfold?”
Her lips grazed his. “I don’t need to see you to know what’s in your eyes.”
“That look doesn’t mean you’re crazy,” he said. “It’s me astounded that you exist. That your unique, incredible, sexy as hell self chooses to be with me. It’s my determination to have you and never let you go.”
Always with the lines. Yes, she swooned, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Cad,” she accused in jest.
His palm slithered up her back to bunch her hair in a fist. Just like that, he flipped her over onto her back. That move. He still got her with it, no matter how many times he pulled it.
“Know how much I love you, Mrs. Lomond?”
“Okay, that’s a little hot.”
The press of his mouth demanded so much more that her legs parted as her knees rose to his waist. Just as her frisky thoughts swirled their way into carnal, his kiss slowed to a stop.
“I’m going to make you happy.”
“You do make me happy.” Though she was beginning to resent the satin. “Was this a bad idea? The blindfolds and sex?”
“This was an epic idea. Shit, Roxanna…”
“I needed to be with you too.”
“Your happiness is all that matters to me. I promise you, Lo, I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you.”
“You are with me, and the mushy stuff isn’t supposed to come until later.”
“The last three days, all I could think is how I’m over it.”
“Over what?” The back of her fingers drifted down his cheek. “Baby?”
“The trimmings mean nothing anymore. Every second, always, every moment would be better with you in it. The way you see the world… The way your hand fits so perfectly in mine… Everything is better with you.”
“You know what I love?” she asked, still caressing. “The way your arm always stays around me when we’re together. How you hold me against you. How you can’t help but touch me.”
“That’s the curse of getting with a playboy, my appetite belongs to you.”
“It’s not about sex,” she said, recognizing his swagger with equal joy. “Though there’s nowhere I wouldn’t throw down with you, whether we can see or others be watching.”
“You’re good for the brand.”
“Am I good for you, Scroogey? ‘Cause that’s all I care about.”
“Without you, I wouldn’t be sane.”
“And I wouldn’t be happy.” Coiling her arms tighter, her shoulders left the floor. “Now kiss me again. If I don’t get out of here soon, we might get caught.”
“Least I’d die a happy man.”
In a few short hours, they’d stand up and declare their love to the world—like it didn’t know already.
Beyond that, after the food was gone and the music silenced, they’d be there again, in each other’s arms. Hopefully without the blindfolds.
Already she coveted that moment. Their last moments apart made her ache for when they’d next be together. Man, was her heart in trouble.