cut it a little close.” But she didn’t hesitate to let him help her into the fitted wool trench coat the same crimson red as her lips.
He saw no reason to hide the truth. “Protecting us both from how much I want you.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused as she did up the oversized black buttons and tied the belt on her coat.
“You must realize the prospect of having you in my bed has my libido in overdrive.” The truth of that was never more blatant to him than in how hard he found it to lead her out of the apartment without once mussing the color of her lipstick.
However, nothing said he had to curb his desire to touch her completely. They made their way to the elevators with his arm around her waist.
“But why would it?” Could she sound more innocent?
He didn’t think so.
“You are an incredibly beautiful woman.” But more importantly, she was the one woman who sparked desire hot enough to do his ancestors proud.
“You didn’t want me before.”
“We discussed this. You were barely more than a child.” And he had wanted her.
“You’re right,” she said distractedly. “But—”
“Nothing. Trust me. I want you. Six years ago, the timing was wrong, but I will gladly offer you all the proof you desire later tonight, after dinner with our respective families.”
“You want to come back to my apartment tonight?” she squeaked, charming him.
The elevator doors closed, giving a false sense of privacy he had to once again fight taking advantage of.
“You have no reason to be nervous,” he assured her. “I am not an animal in the bedroom.”
Even if he wanted her with heretofore untapped primal mating instincts.
“Vik...” She blinked up at him, her lips parted slightly. “I told you, I’m a virgin.”
“What?” The elevator doors opened but he didn’t step out, his brain short-circuiting.
“I told you—”
“That you hadn’t been in a serious relationship.” But that didn’t mean she hadn’t had sex. Things happened. She was twenty-four. This was not possible.
“No random hookups.”
“Ever?” he asked in disbelief.
“I told you I had no experience.”
“In BDSM.”
“In anything.”
“That will change.” Viktor was not above using whatever means necessary to ensure the future he planned. Including being Madison’s first lover.
The fact he wanted her more than any woman he had ever known was beside the point.
She stepped off the elevator into the parking garage. “I don’t think being engaged to you is going to be anything like I was imagining.”
“If you thought it was going to be without sexual intimacy, I’d have to say you are right,” he said as he helped her buckle into the passenger seat of his car.
He gave in to the urge that had been riding him since the moment she’d opened her door and kissed her. He reined in his desire. Barely. And stepped back.
He closed her door and took several deep breaths before moving around the car to slide into the driver’s seat.
Her eyes glowing with blue fire, she asked, “No pretense of waiting for our wedding night?”
“We made our vows at the overlook this afternoon. Nothing said later between us will be any more profound.” He started the engine, but didn’t back out of the parking spot, waiting with an odd feeling in his chest for her reply.
“I thought it felt that way...like it was profound.”
“It was.” He put the car in gear.
“So what? You consider us married now?” She sounded like she didn’t believe her own words and yet he knew she had felt the weight of the promises they’d made earlier.
“As good as, yes.”
“You make your own rules, don’t you?”
“You are just now figuring this out?”
THE ENGAGEMENT DINNER was a lot more enjoyable than Maddie had expected it to be.
Especially considering the fact the guest list had grown to include some Archer second cousins, a Madison great-aunt, one of Misha’s nephews and his wife, who just happened to be visiting friends who owned a vineyard outside of Napa, and Romi.
Maddie’s father was all smiles, though underlying his bonhomie was an unfamiliar reticence with her that gave Maddie a certain level of comfort. He had not escaped this morning’s debacle in the conference room unscathed.
Small winces indicated he did not like her new habit of calling him by his first name, either, but if he wanted her to stop, he’d have to ask. Nicely. And behave like a father. Somehow.
She hadn’t started calling him Jeremy to hurt him, but because it simply hurt her too much to refer to a man who treated her like a stranger more often than not as Father.
Vik acted as a buffer between them, not exactly a new role for him, but one he hadn’t played with any consistency in six years.
Taking it a step further than he used to, Vik actually physically stood between her and others in unconscious protection whenever she felt herself growing uneasy. While no one had the bad taste to actually mention the articles spawned by Perry’s lies, family could manage intrusiveness in subtle ways strangers never could.
Thankfully, Vik seemed to recognize her moods—sometimes even before she did—and took steps to make sure the questions didn’t get a chance to edge into being blatantly intrusive.
Tellingly, no one seemed to find it hard to believe they’d been carrying on a relationship outside the media’s radar for months now. Not even Misha’s nephew evinced surprise at the engagement.
Everyone was happy to congratulate Maddie and Vik, making her feel like maybe this thing could really work.
Regardless of what had precipitated the engagement, their friends and family considered them a good match. A big part of her agreed.
She only hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake...that Vik was the man she was discovering. More the white knight in Armani than the heartless tycoon following in her father’s footsteps that she’d seen him as for the past six years.
Vik’s
