Almost there . . . she was almost there.
Shannon cried out. The taste of her fueled every cell in his body.
She squirmed, pulling at his hair. “I can’t take it anymore . . .”
This was where he would have made her climax again, taking her . . .
“Good Lord,” she sighed, her body lax on the bed.
He looked up at the perfection of her body, past her thin stomach, over peaks of her nipples, and watched her smiling.
“You’re not even undressed,” she pointed out.
No. And he wasn’t going to get that way either.
“That was beautiful.” He dropped a kiss on the inside of her thigh. Told his body to behave and go back into the cave.
“You didn’t . . . I mean—”
He crawled beside her on the bed and lay on his side. Somewhere he’d managed to kick off his shoes, and his shirt was open. “Next time, I will.”
Shannon placed a lazy hand on his waist and traced the side of his rib cage. “Let me take care of you.”
He stopped her hand, cursed his resolve to let her be the one who left satisfied while he was kept wanting.
“Stopping now will probably rank up there as the most unselfish thing I’ve ever done in my life. Hopefully it will erase some of the asshole you thought I was.”
Her smile and chuckle ended with a shiver.
Victor reached over and pulled up the edge of the blanket and covered his view.
A damn shame that was.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked.
“As long as you don’t say you faked that.”
Her hand paused the soft petting thing she was doing. Shannon pinned him with a hard stare.
“You don’t really think—”
He placed a finger over her lips. “No. I don’t. Your cry made me feel like a god, so please don’t crush me now.”
There was her smile again. She relaxed and started moving her fingers. “I was going to say . . . I haven’t done this in a very long time. I thought maybe my body forgot how.”
“How to have an orgasm?”
She nodded.
“Not even with yourself?”
“Well . . .”
Victor wanted to swallow her coy smile. He propped his head on his arm. “I have something to tell you.”
“Oh?”
“Promise you won’t hold it against me?”
She sat up, her hair falling over her shoulder. “That sounds like it’s something I might hold against you.”
He closed his eyes, shrugged his shoulders. “If you don’t want to know—”
She pushed on his chest. “Victor.”
“Promise.”
“Fine.”
Fine for a woman was never fine, but he was taking all kinds of risks with her. “My room in Tulum was directly across from yours.”
He opened one eye, then the other, and saw her processing the information.
“The moon was very bright, and it seemed the stories of the sea and mermaids coming to life—”
“You watched us.” Her jaw dropped, but the amusement in her eyes let him know she wasn’t upset.
“I watched you. I’m pretty sure Avery was there, but I wasn’t interested in her.”
“You’re a voyeur.”
He touched the tip of her nose. “And you’re an exhibitionist.”
Shannon leaned back. “I guess that makes us even, then.”
“I think it’s a perfect combination.”
She sank into the crook of his shoulder, her nose to his chest. “How did we end up here?”
He shook his head, closed his eyes. “I don’t know. But I don’t want it to end.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Shannon walked the vast loft space with her mental checklist of what she wanted. Gary, the real estate agent she’d chosen for her new adventure, was highly regarded in his field, stood a half a foot shorter than she did, and used words like darling or sweetheart when he addressed her.
“I know you don’t want a dark space, but try and look past the brick walls and just take in all that natural light, darling.” Gary crossed to one of three arched windows that ran the length of the fifteen-foot ceilings. “You can cover the walls, or maybe just two of them.”
Shannon attempted to ignore the dust that had accumulated in the space since the previous tenants had been evicted.
Gary opened a set of blinds that hid some of the light and pushed open the double windows to let the air in. “And smell that fresh salt air. Isn’t it perfect? The view is to die for.”
Shannon walked to the window and smiled. This wasn’t anywhere near where she’d set roots down before. Santa Monica was a completely new and unexpected shift in her world. Just like Victor. Yet the more she considered the idea of jumping with both feet into a new direction with her photography, the clearer the thoughts became.
“All of this can go.” Gary waved his hands in the air regarding the partition walls put up by the previous tenant. “There is nineteen hundred square feet down here, and if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you the best part.”
Shannon followed Gary across the room, her sensible heels making clicking noises as she went.
He pointed out a kitchen space that needed a good update before leading her to a stairway. Up the stairs she found a bedroom, flooded with light from outside, where the view just got better.
“Seven hundred square feet of bedroom space for you, Shannon. Even if you decide to buy something somewhere else, you can always use this space to crash after you’ve had one too many or want to find a new lover in town.”
She grinned, ran her hand down the curtains that weren’t all that bad. “Do you hide your lovers from each other, Gary?”
“Men are much more jealous than women, so yes.”
She already knew about Gary’s sexual orientation but found it refreshing to have someone she barely knew talk so openly about it.
“I’m not so sure. Women can be vicious.”
He waved her off, started toward the back of the bedroom to what she assumed was a bathroom. “Women scratch, men use their fists.” He paused. “Well, some, anyway.”
It was a bathroom, light gray slate and clean lines.
“A man must own this space.”
“Yes. But tasteful, don’t you think?”
She considered it with a tilt of her head. These kinds of decisions never came easy.
“It would take some renovations.”
Gary seemed to like her comment—his cheeky smile grew. “I know plenty of contractors.”
Shannon shook her head. She’d ask Liam for that advice. Avery’s husband was a contractor, and if he couldn’t do it, he would steer her in the direction of someone that could.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s a lease option to buy, darling. The owners moved out of California ten years ago and they’re tired of owning rental property. You try it on for size and see how it fits, or make them an offer.”
Having an out felt safe.
Did she want safe?
What was safe doing for her?
“But let me caution you. If you renovate and make it exactly as you want it, the property will be worth more, and there is no guarantee the owners will accept the offer you could give now.”
He’d already presented her with leasing and ballpark purchasing numbers. All of which were within her budget. While she wouldn’t have to sell her home, she’d already made the decision to do so. That financial move would make her cash rich and real estate poor. Not something her financial manager would approve of.
Her phone rang. Victor’s name lit up her screen. Butterflies jolted within her chest, and the memory of his scent pushed away the stale air in the room.
It rang again.
“I’m going to take this,” she told Gary.
“Of course. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
She clicked on his call. “Good morning.”
“Mmmmm,” was his greet
ing. “Say that again.”
She bit her smile. “Good morning.”
“That’s sexy. It would be better if you were in my arms and we were just waking up, but I’ll take what I can get.”
It was Tuesday. Only two days since she’d seen him after waking up in his home and discovering she had a working vagina. True to his word, he hadn’t pressured her to have intercourse. They spent an insane amount of time talking, and an even more insane amount of time kissing and touching. It was almost as if she were back in high school and more was forbidden. Victor had been right, it did somehow erase several letters from the word asshole that she’d labeled him as when they met.
“Shouldn’t you be working?” she teased.
“I am. Where are you?”
“In Santa Monica, looking at loft space.”
“That was fast.”
She’d told him about her desire to switch directions over breakfast and the possibility of selling her home. He’d listened, but she wasn’t sure how much of what she said he’d actually heard.
“I’m just looking. I’m not good at these decisions.”
“Is this business space or living space?”
“Both . . . I think. Or it could be if I wanted it.” Although it wouldn’t work for a family, it did work for a single woman.
“My office isn’t far away. Have lunch with me and tell me about it.”
Her first instinct was to tell him no. Go back to the countdown of days. Again the word safe flashed in her head.
“What’s the address?”
“Let’s meet at a restaurant.”
“You don’t want your employees to see me?”
Victor laughed. “My employees know all about you. I’ve found no less than three copies of the magazine we managed to show up in scattered all over the break room, lobby, and boardroom. My receptionist has had to ask two pop feature writers to leave today. If you come here, my guess is they’ll snag more photographs and make up more lies.”
The article had been packed with mistruths. The biggest one being that Victor and Shannon had met before the doomed wedding in Tulum. So far the paper had painted Victor the villain and Corrie and Shannon the innocent victims. Sadly, it made Shannon sound like a weak woman being taken advantage of. She was surprised to hear that the media was knocking on Victor’s door. There wasn’t a story worth telling there. Still, she knew better than to test fate.
“What restaurant?”
He picked something quiet and private. A small Italian place that smelled of garlic and carbs. Victor was waiting for her when she walked through the door. He greeted her with a kiss to the cheek and a knowing squeeze to her waist.
Itchy, burning excitement at the sight of him ignited with his touch.
“Beautiful,” he whispered in her ear before encouraging her to tuck into the booth.
“Had I known we were having lunch in such a nice place, I would have dressed differently.”
He scooted in beside her, placed his palm on her thigh under the table. “Don’t ever feel like you need to dress up for me.”
“You want me to dress up for someone else?”
He squeezed her thigh. “No!”
His single word was said a little too quickly, and with more force than she’d expected.
“I was teasing.”
He blinked at her, patted her thigh he’d just grabbed. “I knew that.”
Shannon leaned forward, tilted her lips toward his. He seemed surprised but didn’t disappoint her. The kiss was brief, like that of a kiss on a scratch in an effort to mend.
That seemed to do the trick.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he told her. “I’m hoping the promise of more lunches, and maybe a few hours this weekend, will give my mind time to get back to work.”
“What happened to waiting three months?”
“Screw that. We’re renegotiating that deal.”
“Oh, are we?”
“My business won’t survive two more months.”
“But—”
He lifted two fingers to her lips, silencing her. “Tell me about this loft you were looking at.”
And just like that, their negotiations were over. By the time lunch ended, she’d agreed to go to dinner with him on the weekend, a place where she could dress up and he could practice his charming swagger . . . his words. He promised to pick her up and have her home by a reasonable hour unless she insisted otherwise or had an allergic reaction to her clothing and needed his assistance in getting out of it. To tide him over until Saturday, he told her he wanted to see the loft she was considering, so they made another midweek lunch date.
They ended their impulsive date with a kiss by her car and a promise for more.
As she drove home, her heart was doing somersaults. She cautioned herself, reminded her heart that Victor might be rebounding, even if he continually told her he wasn’t.
Timing was everything, and in his case, it was off by a few months. Shannon couldn’t bring herself to stop.
Even if that was the smart thing to do.
“What did I do to deserve this unexpected happy hour visit?” Victor asked his brother the following evening.
Justin had called earlier in the day and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He wouldn’t elaborate as to why either.
“Can’t I ask to go out for drinks with my little brother on occasion?”
“You can, but you never do.”
Justin picked up his beer. “Correction, I don’t any longer. I used to all the time, but you continually turned me down.”
“I usually work late.”
Justin took a drink. “But you said yes today.”
Victor leaned one elbow on the bar he’d picked, not far from his office but closer to the neighborhood his brother called home. “I’ve been working on finding more time for my personal relationships.”
Justin smiled. “Mom told me you were coming over a week from Sunday for a family dinner. Is that part of your soul searching?”
“You could say that.”
His brother drank from his beer. “Does this have anything to do with Shannon?”
Victor hesitated. “How do you know about Shannon?”
Instead of answering, Justin said, “I’m shocked at how many people I know read gossip magazines.”
He should have known. “Don’t believe everything you read.”
“So there isn’t anything between you two?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then there is.”
Victor took a drink, set his beer down. “Shannon and I are dating.”
Justin shook his head. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”
“It just happened. We were trying to wait a respectable amount of time—”
“That sounds like something a woman would come up with,” Justin interrupted.
Victor considered the couple they’d met in Tulum and Avery’s take on the time frame of rebound relationships. “Shannon needed assurance that I wasn’t using her to get over Corrie.”
“Are you?”
Okay, that hurt. “No. Why would you think—”
“Because it’s only been eight weeks.”
“Seven.”
“You’re counting?” Justin asked.
“No. Shannon is. I don’t care if it was yesterday or last year. Corrie was a mistake. Any feelings I had for her are long gone, if they were ever there at all.”
Justin set his beer aside and fixed his eyes on Victor’s. “Then I need to tell you something.”
“I’m listening.”
“The day I left Tulum I told Shannon that if I wasn’t dating Deirdre, I would have asked her out.”
Victor’s forearms tensed. “What did Shannon say?”
“That I was the man of her dreams and she wished she could change my mind,” Justin said, deadpan.
Victor’s jaw started to ache.
“Damn, you’re easy.” Justin broke into a grin. “Stand down, Vic. She polite
ly told me she wasn’t interested.”
Victor released the breath he was holding. “Asshole.”
Justin started to laugh.
Victor slapped his brother’s back a little too hard. “Payback’s a bitch.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I need to change our plans for Saturday,” Victor told her as they walked around the loft.
They’d only been there five minutes, and her excitement over meeting Victor was swept away by his words. “Oh.”
“I said change, not cancel,” he clarified as he dropped an arm on her shoulder as if it belonged there.
“Clarify, please.”
He walked her past Gary, who stood in the middle of the room watching them, and over to one of the three massive windows.
“I completely forgot about a charity fundraiser that I sponsor every year. I’d like you to come with me. It’s a dinner thing, kinda fancy. I’d skip out of it if I hadn’t purchased a table and already seated it with some of my biggest clients and their spouses. Not going would be—”
Shannon stopped him. “I get it. You don’t have to explain. But are you sure you want to bring me? People will talk.”
“I absolutely want you to go so people do talk.”
“Great comeback,” Gary said from where he stood several feet away.
Victor looked up, smiled at the agent.
“Sorry. Eavesdropping. It’s a weakness.”
“Say you’ll go,” Victor said. “Get dressed up for me.”
His words reminded her of the conversation they’d had earlier in the week. “What time?”
Once they’d ironed out the plan, Gary drew their attention back to the room.
Victor walked around the space, asking questions and pointing out options. “You could drywall over the brick, but that might feel too modern. Or how about one of those plaster jobs with texture and color, maybe even leave some of the brick exposed like you’d see in Italy on a three-hundred-year-old building.”
Shannon stared up at the wall in question and the shape of it started to come into focus. “That’s a really good idea.”
“Brilliant,” Gary added.
She nodded several times. “What about the bedroom space upstairs?”
“You said you didn’t like modern.”
“Not particularly.”
Faking Forever (First Wives Book 4) Page 21