“That was amazing,” he praised.
Victoria smiled and climbed up to snuggle next to him. “I’m glad that you enjoyed it, but I’m holding you to our deal.”
“What deal was that?” he asked, faking amnesia.
That just got him a hard slap on the chest. “Play if you wanna, but that will be the last blow job you get from me.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” She reached over for a pillow and then smacked him dead in the face.
“All right, now. Go ahead with that.”
Pow!
“Say something else slick,” she dared, smiling.
“Please. I know you can’t resist all this sexy chocolate.” He stretched his chest and tried to flex his muscles.
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Oh, brother, please.”
Eamon curled toward her and peppered kisses along her neck. “All I have to say is Princess, baby. Can Daddy come play in your funhouse?”
She giggled, mainly because he was being silly and his lips tickled.
“You know what you’re going to say?” he asked and then started mimicking a female voice. “Oh, sure, Big Daddy. You can come play.”
Victoria howled. “Please. I don’t talk like that.”
“Go ahead and say it. “‘Oh, sure, Big Daddy.’”
Still laughing, she weakly pushed him away.
Eamon remained persistent. “C’mon. Say it.”
“No. Stop.”
“I’m not going to leave you alone until you say it.” Then he got her with a sneak attack by tickling her sides.
Victoria screamed and lost her grip on her pillow. After that, Eamon was straddling her again while he tickled her mercilessly.
“I’m waiting. Say it.”
She held out for as long as she could, but it came down to making a decision between being able to breathe or winning this silly standoff. “All right! Oh, Big Daddy.”
“No. No. Say it right.”
“Oh, sure, Big Daddy—Oh. I can’t breathe.”
“Oh, sure, Big Daddy what?” he asked, refusing to give an inch.
“Y-you can come play in my funhouse.”
Finally he stopped tickling her sides and pumped his fist into the air. “Now who’s the King?”
Victoria pulled in a deep breath, grabbed a pillow and then swung it so hard, it knocked him back over to his side. “Big jerk.”
He laughed and pulled her back up against him. “Yeah, but you love this big jerk, don’t you?”
It wasn’t a question that he’d meant to ask, but there it was—hanging in the air between them. For a few seconds, though, it felt like a lifetime as they stared and searched into each other’s eyes. He didn’t even realize that he was holding his breath while he waited for an answer.
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”
Chapter 19
She loves me.
Eamon really knew that he was in trouble. The only thing was he couldn’t figure out whether it was the good kind of trouble or the bad. He had focused his entire adult life trying to succeed in businesses that, at times, even he thought were impossible. During those years, he believed that the kind of love he had experienced with Karen so many years ago was something that could only happen maybe once in a lifetime—and that was if you were lucky. Most of the evidence around him supported that theory. There were some exceptions. For example: his parents. Even then it was easy to ascribe their marital bliss to their being part of a different generation.
It had taken so long for him to recover from that devastating heartbreak over Karen that he just couldn’t ever see it happening again. Just like Quentin. Eamon dragged in a deep breath and shook his head. Maybe it was time to admit that he had been wrong about his cousin, as well. Yes, he was a spoiled rich kid, but there was definitely more to him than met the eye.
Just like Victoria.
It was time to stop trying to rationalize, dismiss or shrug off what was clearly happening to him all over again. What was the point? According to Q and Hayley, he wasn’t fooling anyone. Somehow, somewhere and some way he had gone from being a man who couldn’t be dragged away from work to being a man who dreaded going to work. He dreaded leaving Victoria’s side for fear he’d miss a joke or a smile or a laugh.
His once-treasured bachelor pad had been invaded with more and more of her stuff. Half of his wardrobe had been relocated to another closet. His bathroom counter was littered with what looked like a mini-mall of makeup and perfume bottles. He even noticed her adding little decorating touches around the place to give it more of a feminine feel. Before she arrived, he would’ve thought that would’ve freaked him out or, at the very least, pushed all his panic buttons. Instead, he liked that she was making herself at home.
Eamon loved waking up next to her as well as teasing her about her need to compulsively organize everything. Plus, she had a fierce competitive side. Really. Would it really hurt her to let him win a swimming race every now and then? Then there were her lousy attempts to learn how to cook. A couple of nights ago, she insisted on cooking a meal by herself. It was generous to say that it was edible—but he ate it, smiling the whole time and wondering if he’d paid that month’s healthcare premium just in case he would be needing to see the doctor that night. Then this morning, she was so proud of sewing a line of buttons on one of his shirts—all crooked, but at least they were on there.
“That’s wonderful, Princess.” The lie was worth the beautiful smile she gave him.
It was time to face it—everything was better when Victoria was around. It wasn’t one-sided, either. He was convinced that he was good for her, as well. Gone was that huge chip on her shoulder. She smiled easier, laughed harder and every time they made love…made love. There was that word again. When had sex with no strings attached become making love?
Searching his mind, he struggled to think of any one particular moment. It was more like a slow, steady progression, if he had to guess.
When they were together, he was certain that he had discovered all her secret G-spots. He sensed when she wanted to be dominated and when she craved a more cherished, intimate connection or she simply wanted to play.
Today, he played hooky from The Dollhouse again to take Victoria on a romantic gondola ride on the canal, snaking through the Venetian Hotel. It was like taking a trip through Venice, floating under bridges and balconies while a singing gondolier paddled behind them.
“Tell me more about your brother Jeremy. Was he ever into sports like Xavier?”
“And risk messing up his pretty-boy face?” Eamon laughed. “Hardly.”
“Oh? Is he that good-looking?”
Eamon’s face twisted. For a split second Quentin and Sterling’s spat over a woman rushed to the forefront of his mind. “No. He’s butt-ugly. We kept him hidden in the basement so that he wouldn’t scare everyone in the neighborhood.”
Victoria slapped him on the chest. “Be serious.”
“What makes you think I’m not?”
“Because I already saw a picture of him in the house. You and your brothers look a lot alike. I was just teasing you.”
“Yeah…well, don’t be getting any funny ideas about trading me in for a younger version. I don’t think that I can handle that.”
She thrust up her chin and cut her eyes away. “I’ll make no such promises.”
“All right, now. Don’t get tossed into this canal for getting sassy.” He pulled her up against his chest.
Victoria snuggled close. “But seriously. Tell me something about him.”
“Here’s a little story about my little brother Jeremy. Once when he was about six, he’d found this box of puppies out in the woods. Anyway, he brought the puppies home. But our dad said that we couldn’t afford to keep them and that we would have to either take them to the pound or maybe try and find someone who would adopt them.
“Jeremy didn’t like that so he decided to run away with the puppies. It sent the entire family into an uproar. My parents went
on the local media and pleaded to the community to help find him. I remembered being terrified that they would never find him. After all, he was so small and so trusting. He was gone for, like, two days before his best friend, Roy, dropped dime on him and confessed that he was living in his backyard in his tree house.”
“You’re kidding me,” Victoria interrupted.
Eamon shook his head. “When he came home, all the adults showered him with tears and kisses. Me and Xavier had different reactions. Once we got him alone we tackled him to the floor. Xavier beat him up a little bit for scaring him so bad and I think I went the whole summer refusing to talk to him for the same reason.” That was Eamon’s earliest memory of experiencing the loss of a loved one. He hated that overwhelming sense of helplessness. It paralyzed him.
“Like I said before, he’s a good guy. He and Xavier have sworn to be lifelong bachelors. ‘Too many women and not enough time’ is one of his favorite sayings.”
Victoria hitched up a dubious brow. “Only Jeremy and Xavier took this vow of singlehood? What about you?”
“Me?” he stalled.
“Yeah, you.” She poked a finger in his chest. “Is that the real reason you’re not married? You’ve taken a vow?”
Eamon shook his head. “Naw. You got me all wrong.” He paused and then confessed, “I wanted to get married once.”
“Oh?” Surprise lit her eyes. “When was this?”
For a moment, Eamon regretted that he’d turned down this road. “It was a while back. Right after college.” Maybe he should’ve left it at that, but Victoria’s patient silence had the truth spilling out of him. “She was, uh, my high-school sweetheart. We bonded over music. She wanted to be a rapper and I thought that I was going to be a songwriter or a producer or something.”
Victoria nodded.
“Anyway. We dated all through high school and then split up when she went to college in Chicago and I stayed in Georgia. After we got through our freshman year, when everyone thought that we’d break up, we realized that there was a real possibility that we could make it work. So that’s what we did. We took turns visiting one another, which was very hard since we were broke as a joke. By the time graduation day neared, I knew that I wanted to make her my wife.” A lump started growing in his throat.
“So what happened?” Victoria asked.
“I, uh, took out a loan. Bought this beautiful engagement ring that if you got up real close and squinted your eyes just right, you could see the diamond chip in it.” Victoria laughed.
“Hey. It was all I could afford at the time,” he joked.
She smiled. “Sorry. Go ahead.”
A couple of seconds later, Eamon’s smile faded. “Then…came graduation. Since both of our schools were doing their ceremonies on the same day, we were going to miss seeing each other’s commencement ceremonies. But the good news was that she was going to be driving down right afterward. So we were going to see each other soon. No big deal. I got up, packed up a picnic basket, put the ring in my pocket and went over to Karen’s parents’ house to pick her up.”
He fell silent again.
Victoria tried to wait him out, but he was silent for so long, she thought he wasn’t going to finish the story. Yet it was too big a cliffhanger for her to just let it go. “She turned you down?”
He released a cynical chuckle. “That would’ve been easier to deal with.”
Confusion blanketed her face.
“I would’ve even preferred it if she had just decided not to show up but…” He sucked in a deep breath. “Anything would’ve been better than to have her father tell me that his daughter didn’t make it home because she was killed by a drunk driver.”
Victoria gasped. “Nooo.”
A tear skipped down Eamon’s face, but he quickly chased after it and wiped it away. “I stood out on that stoop with that diamond ring in my pocket for I don’t know how long. Hell, to this day I don’t even remember how I got home. I just knew that…she was gone.”
“Baby, I’m so sorry.” She leaned up and planted a kiss against his face. “I can only imagine how hard that must have been.”
It was horrible and though he’d healed considerably since that time, he knew that Karen would always have a place in his heart.
Victoria squeezed his hand.
Eamon glanced down and stared at it for a long time. There was a certain kind of magic in her touch that truly made him feel that everything really was going to be all right—and that there was a possibility that there was room in his heart for two women.
His gaze roamed from her hand and climbed up to her beautiful face only to see her eyes glisten with tears. “Hey, there’s no need for these.”
“It’s just that I didn’t have any idea.”
“Of course you didn’t. You couldn’t have.” He wrapped his arm back around her and then tucked her in the crook of his arm, the place where she belonged.
Chapter 20
May, New York
“I do have to admit that you seem much happier,” Grace said, staring at Victoria over lunch at The Garden.
Beside her, Iris studied Victoria with the same intensity. “Yes. There does seem to be a bit of a glow about you. Las Vegas agrees with you.” She lifted her champagne glass. “To finally getting your pipes clean.”
Laughing, Grace and Victoria raised their glasses, as well.
“I’ll drink to that.” Victoria tapped their glasses, but she only managed a small sip before they dove straight in for the dirt.
“So does this mean you’re finally returning to New York, or is this a temporary thing?” Grace asked. “I have to tell you that things haven’t been the same here without you. It’s wedding season and we have received a slew of—”
Iris gave Grace a quick elbow-jab.
“What? Oh.” Grace lowered her gaze to her food. “I’m sorry. I forgot.”
Victoria waved off their concerns. “Please. I’m hardly sensitive about the idea of people getting married. You can say Marcus’s name around me, too, if you want. I’m so over that period in my life.”
The twins glanced at each other, undoubtedly to exchange another round of telepathic messages.
“Forget about it. It’s a long story. All you need to know is that I’m happy now—truly happy.” Victoria couldn’t stop smiling. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell them that sometimes happy didn’t really seem like a strong enough word. Hell, at any given moment she wanted to break out singing old love songs.
“To answer your question, I’m just visiting for the weekend. I figured that should be long enough to assure my father that I’m fine and I’m not being held hostage in Vegas.”
“He’s just concerned,” Grace said. “Hell, we all have been to tell you the truth. You just up and left. That was sooo not like you.”
Victoria smiled. “Maybe it is the new me.”
The twins’ brows leaped in curiosity at the same time.
“What was it that you called me again?” Victoria lifted her head and tapped a finger against her chin until suddenly snapping her fingers as if she’d recalled the term. “An anal control freak. That was it.”
Grace’s face reddened. “I guess that was a bit harsh.”
“A little bit,” Victoria agreed. “But you were right. And I’m not saying that I’ve changed completely but I think I’ve changed a few things that matter.”
The twins continued to smile at her, but Victoria could see that they were anxious. She sighed and leaned back in her chair waiting for the next round of attack. She didn’t have a long wait.
Grace leaned in first. “I’m just concerned about whether any of this is…rational.”
“Rational?”
“Yes. I mean…to just up and move in with a man that you hardly know.”
“I know him now. I’ve been living with him for the last six months.”
“And that’s another thing,” Grace continued. “I never pegged you for the type to move in with a man. I know we’re m
odern women and all, but like my grandmother out in the country says, ‘Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?’”
“Women aren’t cows.”
“But you understand the metaphor, don’t you?”
“Look. I really appreciate everyone’s concern, but I know what I’m doing. Eamon and I are very happy. Isn’t that enough?”
“So you guys are officially an item? Boyfriend and girlfriend?” Iris asked.
“Well, we’re not putting any labels on it.”
The twins looked at each other.
“We are in an exclusive relationship.”
“Mainly because you just moved into his house,” Iris said.
“Because I just know. He’s not seeing anyone and I’m not—”
“Why not?” Grace interrupted. “With all the men roaming around in Las Vegas, why Eamon King? You just dropped everything in your life to go chase after a man who runs a chain of strip clubs? He’s not seeing anyone? There’s like twenty to thirty women who work for him that run around naked every day. That’s way too much temptation.”
“Eamon is not like that.”
“He’s a man, isn’t he?”
Victoria clenched her teeth and shifted around in her seat. The pessimism of New Yorkers. How could she forget? She just tossed up her hands. “You know, let’s just drop the subject.”
Grace ignored her. “All I’m saying is that I was all for you loosening up and letting your hair down every once in a while. I didn’t mean for you to totally lose your grip on reality.”
“Wow. Okay. Clearly you two can’t handle the fact that I have moved on and have found someone who completes me. I’m sorry about that, but it’s your problem, not mine. I don’t have to justify anything to you.”
“Victoria, I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.” Victoria struggled to remain cordial. “I really, really want to believe that your concerns are coming from a good place. That is the only reason that I’m not cussing you out right now. That, plus that would have been the old me. Now I just want to sit here and enjoy my lunch with my favorite cousins and hear about what’s going on with you two lately.”
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