Eamon twisted an invisible key at his mouth and then tossed it over his shoulder.
“You’re enjoying this way too much,” she said. “Let’s just suffice it to say that I know that I’m not perfect. And… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said or implied that your friends and employees were hookers.”
“Oh. I have a few friends that are hookers. They just don’t work for me.” Victoria gasped.
“I’m just kidding.” He threw his head back and laughed while she started punching him playfully on the chest.
After that morning, Victoria found it a whole lot easier sharing things with him, a lot of it she had never shared with anyone, not even the twins. Whenever she tried to figure out why that was, she could only guess that it was because Eamon didn’t judge her. Would he tease her over silly things? Yes. But it wasn’t like the withering, snarky comments and salacious gossip that circulated around New York society and Page Six when you wore something two seasons in a row or snubbed the right people at the wrong time or the wrong people at the right time. Friendships were as solid as haystack houses during hurricane season.
Life in Las Vegas was remarkably simple compared to the big city, so much so that she couldn’t remember when she gave serious thought to returning to New York. Now that she was experiencing what real happiness felt like, she didn’t want to let it go.
“I just want to know when you’re coming home,” her father barked over her cell phone. “Two months is a long time for Las Vegas. Your mother and I are really starting to worry.”
Victoria scrambled out of Eamon’s bed and grabbed one of his T-shirts that was tossed on the floor. She didn’t know what possessed her to answer her phone. “Daddy, there’s no reason to worry.”
“Really? Then why are you whispering?”
Victoria glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Eamon was still fast asleep while she tiptoed to the master bathroom. “I’m not whispering,” she said in an even lower whisper. Once she made it into the bathroom and closed the door, she cleared her throat and spoke a little louder. “I…I was just waking up. That’s all.”
“Just waking up?” her father’s voice rose. “Isn’t it noon there?”
“Yes. It’s…well, I’ve been keeping different hours.”
“I’d say. You’ve always been an early riser now you’re telling me that you just slept the whole morning away?”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, Dad. Vegas is all about the night life. You go to bed early in the morning and you get up late in the afternoon. It’s no big deal.”
Mondell Gregory fell silent.
“Really, Daddy. Everything is fine,” she assured. “I’m having a good time.”
“Apparently. This new lifestyle of yours wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with Eamon King, would it?”
Victory’s spine stiffened as she gripped her cell phone tighter. “How do you know about Eamon?”
“Is that a real question?” he asked, chuckling.
“You’ve been spying on me?”
“I’ve been acting like I always have—like a protective father,” Mondell stated flatly. “I had every right to be concerned when shortly after you were left standing at the altar, you fly down to Vegas and get yourself involved with some pimp that owns a chain of strip clubs.”
“He’s not a pimp, Daddy. You shouldn’t be so judgmental and closed-minded about people. If memory serves me correctly, I believe that you spend quite a bit of time in gentlemen’s clubs, too.”
“Only to conduct business with investors,” her father defended.
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Yeah right, Dad. I’m not five.”
Her father’s voice continued to rise. “I don’t care if you’re five or thirty-five. You’re still my daughter, who is with a man I don’t know from Adam and I doubt that you do, either.”
“You had him investigated, didn’t you?” she accused.
“And you didn’t?” he shot back. “That doesn’t sound like the logical, pragmatic daughter I raised.”
The accusation stung, mainly because it was the truth.
“Look, Victoria. I completely understand that you went through something very traumatic. I couldn’t believe that Marcus would do something like that, either. We were both taken by surprise. On paper I saw what you saw—a nice stable man with great financial potential. I was all set to move him up in the company, bump in salary—the works. What can I say? He pulled one over on us.”
“Us?” She started pacing the floor. “It wasn’t us. It was me! I was humiliated. My name was dragged through those stupid tabloids. And you want to know what? I’m glad.”
“What?”
“Yes. I’m thrilled,” Victoria shouted and then jumped when her voice echoed back. But damn if that didn’t feel good to say. “Marcus did me a huge favor by not showing up that day. I know now that I would’ve just been miserable being married to him. There wouldn’t have been any passion or excitement. He wouldn’t have challenged me to do things that I’ve never done before.”
The line went quiet again.
“If you don’t understand what I mean, then…” She sighed. “Then I just don’t know what else I can tell you. Other than I’m fine and you can call off your spies.”
Silence.
“Daddy? Are you still there?”
“I’m here, sweetheart,” he said, evenly. “I just don’t know what to say.”
It was hard to tell whether he was mad or not and she wasn’t even sure that she cared. She just wanted him to hear her and back off.
“I hope that you don’t think that I’m the bad guy in this,” he began. “I was just trying to do what I thought was best. On your wedding day, I thought that I was the one who had dropped the ball, that I should have been the one to have prevented you from getting your heart broken.”
Victoria walked over to the sauna tub and sat down on the edge. “It wasn’t your fault, Dad. And my heart was just fine. It was my pride that took a few blows.” She exhaled as if the weight of the world had finally lifted. “I don’t think one can truly protect themselves from getting hurt,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how many walls we put up or how carefully we step. I’m starting to believe that you just have to take the risk. You know? If it happens, it happens.”
“We’re not talking about Marcus anymore, are we?”
She shook her head against the phone. “No.”
“So you’re really falling for this Eamon King?” he inquired softly.
That was a huge question. The proverbial elephant in her heart. “Let’s just say that it’s a strong possibility,” she admitted.
“And how does he feel about you?”
The other elephant. “I don’t know, Daddy. I’m just flying with my eyes closed.”
Chapter 16
Eamon swam toward Victoria in his outdoor pool. “You’ve never been to Disney World?”
“No.” Victoria had stopped to rest against the edge of the pool, and to steal a few minutes just to drink in his heavenly form. There was nothing like the sight of Eamon in the afternoon, the sunlight making the water glisten off his chocolate skin like white diamonds. She could watch him all day and never get tired.
“Disneyland?”
She shook her head. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
He grabbed her legs and lifted them up in the water. “The big deal is that it’s Disney!”
“Big deal,” she said, still holding on to the ledge behind her.
Eamon took a step back, threatening to pull her away from the ledge and dunk her upper body into the water.
“Don’t you do it,” she warned.
“Or what?” He laughed and took another step back. “What are you going to do? File another lawsuit?”
“Ha. Ha.” Victoria rolled her eyes. Now that sufficient time had passed, she could see the humor in her ridiculous idea to file that lawsuit. “Laugh it up, Joke Boy. But this time it’s going to be a hundred million dollars.”
“A hu
ndred?” he gasped with feigned dismay. “I guess I should really be scared, huh?”
He took another step back, causing Victoria to just barely hold on. “Stop it!” Her protests probably would have had more power if she wasn’t laughing. She tried to kick her legs free from his iron grip, but it was no use. “You play too much.”
“Nooooo. You don’t play enough,” he corrected her. “I’m going to remedy that, especially now that I know that you’ve never ever been to the happiest place on earth. I don’t even know how that’s possible, Ms. I’ve-Been-Around-The-World.”
“Whatever.”
“My brother and I used to be obsessed with that place when we were little. I think it took my parents, like, two years to save up enough money to take us. Epcot, Sea World. You just don’t know what you’ve been missing.” He gave her legs a final tug and laughed when she came away from the ledge screaming. It was quickly silenced when her head hit the water and she was dunked about a foot deep.
Not waiting around for revenge, Eamon turned and took off, hoping that he had been quick enough to have a jump start on her by the time she sputtered back to the surface, but he was wrong. One of Victoria’s talents seemed to be that she could swim like a fish. In fact, she was so fast he checked her feet a couple of times to make sure that they weren’t webbed. This time when she caught him, she leaped onto his back and shoulders and successfully dunked him a couple of feet.
She tried to hold him down, but when it came to the strength department, he still reigned supreme.
“Now what are you trying to do?” he asked, lifting her clear out of the pool and then tossing her in the air.
Victoria screamed and kicked in the air for a full two seconds before landing back in the pool with an enormous splash. The resulting wave almost drowned him. It was worth it though just to get his revenge.
An hour later, they finally dragged themselves out of the pool and played one last game of tag as they raced toward the back of the house.
Eamon was impressed by the fact that she was just as fast out of the water as she was in. “Maybe I need to do a Google search on you,” he said. “I’m starting to suspect that I’ve been duped and you’re secretly some gold-medal Olympian who gets her kicks beating mere mortals in sports.”
“Please. You just need to face the fact that you’re just slow as hell, that’s all.” She followed him through the sliding glass door and then squealed when he suddenly whipped around and grabbed her by the waist.
“Who are you calling slow?”
“You, slowpoke.” She tried to push herself away from his chest, but as she had discovered on many occasions, he didn’t let her get her way.
“Now, what are you going to do if this slowpoke decides not to make lunch?”
Victoria twisted her face in mock confusion. “Why would you stop doing the one thing that you’re good at?”
“Ooooh. You got jokes today?” He released her but gave her a good smack on the ass.
“Hey!”
“Hey, yourself. Watch that mouth, missy.”
She laughed and strolled away. There was no need to look back because she knew that he was checking her out in her nude bikini. She washed her hands at the sink and then took a seat at the marble-topped island counter.
“So what do you say to fennel-and-onion risotto?” he asked.
“Sounds delish.”
“Then risotto it is.” He walked over to the sink and washed his hands.
“You never did tell me how you learned to cook so well,” she said, reaching into the fruit bowl and grabbing a banana.
“Ah. That would be my mother.”
“She’s a good cook?”
“The best. In fact, it’s the reason my father claims he married her.”
“Really?”
Eamon shrugged. “Either that or because she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. It depends on what day you ask him as to what he’ll say.”
Victoria chuckled while she peeled the banana. “Are they still together?”
“Yep. Forty-five years this Christmas.”
“Wow. Impressive. They have my parents by ten years. At least you have siblings. You’re lucky in that way.”
“Oh?” Eamon started taking out the ingredients.
“Yeah. I always wanted a brother or sister. I think it would have been nice—at least less lonely.”
He looked over at her and she flashed him a small smile. She didn’t know why that had popped out.
“I guess growing up I didn’t think of my brothers as a blessing. Trust me. It’s not until after you’re older, and if you’re lucky, that you really appreciate them. Back then I just wished they would leave my stuff alone and stop tattle-telling.”
“Which was which?”
“Xavier was always borrowing my stuff and Jeremy thought that he was a cub reporter.”
Victoria laughed.
“All in all, I love those knuckleheads, even though they talk me into things I don’t want to do—but don’t tell them that.”
“My lips are sealed. But tell me more about them.”
“Well there’s not that much to tell really. Xavier is a former heavyweight fighter. Growing up, I always knew it was only a matter of time before he would climb into the ring.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he was always trying to fight somebody, Jeremy in particular, since he never knew how to keep his mouth shut. Plus, he was a big Mike Tyson fan back in the day. Frankly, I thought he had a real chance to go all the way. But he shocked the hell out of us when one day he just up and said he was tired of getting hit in the head.” Eamon shrugged. “It’s probably best, since he never really had that much in it.”
Victoria chuckled. “Yeah. I’m really feeling the love.”
Eamon laughed. “We tease each other all the time, but we don’t mean anything by it. All in all, he’s a really good guy—smart and a bit of a rascal. I think you’d like him.”
“You think so?”
Eamon nodded.
“What about your younger brother, Jeremy?”
“Uh…Jeremy is a little more complicated.” He pulled out an onion from the refrigerator, found a chopping board and a knife and brought them over to her. “Here, make yourself useful.” He set them down in front of her.
Victoria looked down at the items. “Uhhh.”
“Don’t tell me that you don’t know how to chop onions.”
“Don’t be silly,” she said, frowning. “I mean, how hard could it be?”
He laughed. “A woman who can’t cook. We’re going to have to fix that if you’re ever going to meet my mother.”
Her eyes jumped up at the comment, but Eamon had walked away to resume prepping the meal, leaving her to wonder what he’d meant by that. Had he even realized what he had said?
“Like I was saying,” Eamon continued. “Jeremy is another good guy. A little short though.”
His mouth curled up and she suspected that she wasn’t in on the joke. Under normal circumstances, she probably would’ve asked him to explain, but she was still wondering what he’d meant about meeting his mother. Could it be that he also thought they were moving in a new direction in their relationship? And why was she feeling hopeful?
“I still think you’re lucky to have brothers.” Victoria peeled the crinkly yellow skin away from the onion and then took two minutes trying to decide which way to make the initial cut. It really came down to an eeny-meeny situation.
Finally with more gusto than was probably necessary, she sliced the knife downward like a karate chop. When the onion split open, she smiled proudly.
“I need it diced,” Eamon said.
“Oh.” She looked at her magnificent work and then made another dramatic chop into one of the halves.
Eamon folded his arms and just watched her.
By the third round her eyes started burning and tears rolled down her face. “Oh, God. I don’t know if I can finish this. Ah. It’s normally this strong?
” She tried to slice again, but then just put the knife down and backed away so she could rinse her eyes out.
“If I didn’t see that for myself, I don’t think I would have believed it.” He walked over to the island and in less than a minute, he had the whole onion chopped and diced.
Victoria already knew that he had quick fingers, but it was like lightning. Did the man’s talents never cease? “Is your mother also why you got into the restaurant business, as well?”
“Yep.” He started chopping the fennel. “She used to say that her mission in life was to make sure that her boys knew how to take care of themselves just in case we couldn’t convince a girl to feel sorry enough for us to marry us.”
Smiling, Victoria returned to the island now that her eyes were clear.
Eamon sighed. “So I cook. I clean. I even know how to sew and…”
“You know how to sew?”
His glanced back at her quizzically. “Don’t you?”
The question caught her off guard. “I—I have a pretty good tailor?” The minute she said it, she realized how silly she sounded. Why didn’t she know any basic household skills? Hell, maybe because she’d never needed to. She had a chef, a maid and a tailor. Instead of housework, she was a member of MENSA, and at the top of her class at Harvard Business School. She could understand complicated algorithms and could even recite eighteenth-century poetry at the drop of a dime. Why did that make her feel silly?
Shaking off her insecurity, she stood up and joined him at the kitchen counter.
“Show me how to cook.”
Surprised, Eamon glanced over at her and noticed the firm tilt of her chin. “Are you sure, Princess?”
It was the first time that the nickname bothered her. “I’m not a Princess.”
He hitched one side of his mouth. “I don’t know about that. I kind of like thinking of you as my princess.”
A princess and a King. Victoria smiled.
“All right,” he announced. “You want to learn how to cook? Then let’s get started.”
For the next forty minutes, Eamon walked Victoria through the simple recipe. Victoria was impressed by the way that he could gauge measurements just by looking. But since she was new to the whole process, he used measuring cups. Her favorite part was when Eamon stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her so he could show her how to properly chop and dice. It was really kind of a turn-on.
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