by Lucy Monroe
His jaw firm, his lips set in a determined line, Vik moved toward her with intent. “I was not ready for marriage and you were not ready for me.”
“I—”
His finger pressing against her lips stopped the argument. “We both had living to do.”
“You were really thinking about this then?” she asked with surprise she couldn’t hide.
“Yes.”
“But you weren’t happy about it.” Wasn’t happy about the memory if his current expression was anything to go by.
“You were eighteen. I was still used to thinking of you as a child. It felt wrong.”
“I was an adult, a grown woman.” But even as she made the claim, she knew that compared to Vik she had been a child.
“You could vote, join the armed forces and take on your own debt. That didn’t mean you were ready for a relationship with a man like me.”
“A relationship, or sex?”
“Same thing when it comes to you and me.”
“Is it?”
“It has always been marriage or nothing between us, Madison.” Vik reached out and traced the line of her bodice, his fingertip never straying from the sapphire-blue taffeta of her dress to the skin of her bosom.
Her breath hitched, but she didn’t move away. “Because of AIH.”
“Because my grandfather raised me to be a man with a sense of honor.” The “unlike Frank Beck” went unsaid, but she heard it anyway.
Vik would never be like the father that had caused both him and his grandparents so much grief and disappointment.
“You may be a shark, Vik, but you’re an honest one.”
He smiled wryly, his fingertip resting on the point of the V dipping between her breasts. “And I don’t eat guppies for breakfast.”
“Am I a guppy?” she asked breathlessly.
“No.” Satisfaction burned in his dark gaze. “You are a twenty-four-year-old woman.”
The emphasis he placed on the word woman was a conversation all in itself.
“You planned to marry me before Perrygate ever happened.”
“I did.” Vik looked with significance down at the custom ring on her finger and she caught on.
There was no denying the truth in front of her eyes. “You really did have the rings made for me.”
“I do not lie.”
“No, but...” The scope of what he was saying left her grasping for words that would not come.
“Timwater forced me to move my plans forward, but only by a couple of weeks.”
“You were going to ask me to marry you?”
“I planned to date you first,” he said with some wry humor, almost self-deprecatingly. “We needed to rebuild the rapport we once had.”
His thinking made him a different man than her father in ways she didn’t feel like enumerating, but wouldn’t deny. “You recognized before Jeremy did that the only way my father would have an heir to leave in charge of the business is if I married him.”
“Yes.”
“So, you made plans to play on my father’s desire to leave his legacy to family.” It was brilliant. And manipulative.
But he’d already shown that as important as his own plans for AIH were to Vik, he would not ignore Maddie’s happiness. He’d offered to buy her a building for her dream as a wedding gift.
Calculated? Maybe, but for her benefit, not to her detriment.
Vik’s silence was answer enough. Not only had he strategized, but he’d also started working on her father already. Jeremy had come to the whole “his daughter must marry to save herself and the company’s reputation” pretty darn quickly otherwise.
“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” she admitted.
She understood. To an extent.
But it still felt like she’d been maneuvered.
Vik’s touch finally strayed entirely from her dress to the upper swell of her breasts, tracing the same path as before, only along her skin this time. “While you are deciding, take into account that if you had been a different woman, my plans would have taken a different direction.”
She shivered, her breath quavering in her chest until another thought came to her. “You would have taken AIH out from under my father?”
Horrified because as much as she didn’t get her father, she loved him, and she was certain Vik would have done exactly that. Rather than allow a stranger to come in and take over what he considered to be his.
Vik shrugged, neither confirming, nor denying. “It was not necessary.”
“You said Jeremy is your friend.”
“He is.”
“But you would still take his company.”
“I would not have betrayed him.”
No. That wasn’t Vik’s style. “You still would have figured out a way.”
“Does that upset you?”
“I said before that you’re ruthless.”
“This is not news.”
No, it really wasn’t. “My mind doesn’t work like yours.”
“Make no mistake, you have your own brand of ruthlessness, but if you were too much like me, we would not fit so well together.” Both his hands moved to settle on her waist.
She was distracted by the sensation of his thumbs brushing up and down against her lower ribs. “You think we fit?”
“I know we do.”
“So, you’re saying you don’t just want the company. You want me, too.” Not just sex with her, but Maddie as a complete person.
At least the Madison Archer he knew about. What would Vik think of Maddie Grace?
“You will support my dreams in a way a woman of less strength could not do.”
“Your plans would have been really messed up if I’d picked one of the other candidates Jeremy put forward.” She gave in to the irresistible urge to poke at the bear.
Vik’s gorgeous mouth twisted in disdain. “You were never going to choose another man.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I know.”
“Another word for excessive confidence is arrogance.”
“I prefer honest.”
She laughed softly and then had a revelation. “You manipulated the choice of candidates.”
“I was not expecting Maxwell Black.”
“Neither was I.” And she still wanted to know what the man had done to Romi. “He’s intense.”
“He’s a good businessman.”
“Is he honorable?”
“Yes.”
“As honorable as you?”
Vik considered his answer for a second. “I would do business with him on a handshake.”
“Good to know.”
“Why? Considering your options?” He didn’t sound too worried by the prospect.
“According to you, there are no other options.”
“True.” Vik looked like he was considering what he was going to say next. “We grew up together.”
“What? Like in the same neighborhood?”
“Same Russian-American-dominated street, same school, same afternoons spent in activities sponsored by the Russian cultural center.”
“Were you friends?”
“We still are...of a sort.”
“You’re too alike to be really close.”
“We jockeyed for the top place in class until we went to different universities.”
“No one else had a chance.”
“No.”
Maddie bit her lip, but finally decided she would be honest about her concerns. “Romi dated him.”
Vik’s gaze flared. “I see.”
“He’s intense,” Maddie repeated.
“Are they still dating?”
“No.”
“Then...”
“I don’t need to be worried?”
“He is a good man.”
When it was Viktor Beck making the claim, Maddie believed him.
“Are you really spending the night?” she asked, focusing on what mattered most in the present moment.
“Yes.”
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“After a single day.” One day in which they had decided to get married, made that decision public and negotiated a future they could both live with.
“In one respect, but between us?” He pulled her body close so they shared heat. “Tonight is the culmination of ten years.”
“We’ve barely spoken in six.”
“When was the last time Frank was in town?” Vik asked her, like she’d know.
And she did. “Three months ago. He was in San Francisco for Christmas.” Vik’s father had attended Jeremy’s holiday party along with Misha and Ana.
Vik nodded, his expression dour. “Babulya was pleased.”
“But you couldn’t wait for him to leave.”
“You are the only person who knew that.”
She found that hard to believe, but then...maybe not. Vik didn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve.
But that wasn’t the point, was it? “Just because I saw your father at my father’s home and knew he was in town doesn’t mean you and I communicated in any meaningful way.”
“Didn’t we?”
Okay, so in the past two years, they’d had increasing numbers and depths of conversations. And it struck her. She’d thought she was just being grown-up about the past, but he’d been working on rebuilding that rapport he had mentioned earlier.
The man made Machiavelli look like a preschooler in the art of the deep play.
“Still.” Not a brilliant comeback, but what she had.
Vik smiled that shark’s smile. “When was the last time I took a date to an event?”
So, she knew the answer. She’d revealed earlier in the car with Conrad how closely she watched Vik without meaning to watch him at all. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“Vik...”
“I believe both the fact that I have not had another woman on my arm in over a year and the fact you know that is significant.”
“Really?” she drawled sarcastically even as she couldn’t help wondering if he was right.
“I know that you haven’t dated, either. I wasn’t entirely sure about Timwater, but the way you two are together doesn’t imply sexual intimacy.”
“I should hope not.”
“Besides, he was sleeping with other women.”
She’d suspected, though Perry had always tried to play it like he didn’t sleep around. She wasn’t sure why. It wouldn’t have mattered to her either way.
Vik knowing however, meant he’d been paying attention. “You have a file on him, don’t you?”
“Naturally.”
“And Romi?”
“Romi has been your friend for longer than me.”
“You’re saying you don’t have a file.”
Vik leaned down and spoke softly, right into Maddie’s ear. “I’m saying I don’t need one.”
It wasn’t exactly sweet nothings, but she still shivered from the sensation of his breath gently blowing across her ear.
“You know her well, too,” Maddie said, not even sure why she was trying to keep the conversation going.
“Yes.”
Curiosity and concern prompted her to ask, “Did you know she’d dated Maxwell?”
“No.”
“Good. I don’t feel like I was so oblivious.”
Vik straightened, but didn’t move back. “I’m sure if you did not know, they both took pains to keep it private.”
“You’re right.” While Maddie was still worried, she didn’t feel like a bad friend anymore.
She let herself fall into his deep coffee gaze, even as she relaxed more completely into his body. “I want to kiss you.”
Bad friend, or good one, Maddie didn’t want to think about anyone except her and Vik right now.
“What is stopping you?” He leaned down so their lips were a fraction of an inch apart, taking away the only barrier that mattered.
She moved toward him, speaking in a breath against his lips. “Nothing.”
The first brush of her lips against his electrified her. It was the barest of caresses, but near unbearable in its intimacy. She was staking a claim with the featherlight touch and he was accepting that claim as surely as she’d accepted his promises earlier.
They were distinctly different, one set of lips masculine, the other feminine, and yet they fit with the perfection of molds aligned and cast simultaneously.
Vik’s response was full-on alpha man, accepting her mouth with his and then turning it around and moving his lips against hers, driving the kiss to greater sensation and closeness.
Nipping oh-so-gently with his teeth on her lower lip, he demanded entrance. With no thought but to give it, she let her lips fall open.
His tongue swept into her mouth and just that fast Maddie was drowning in a sexual response only this man had ever brought out in her, thoughts and emotions overwhelmed by the onslaught of devastating sensuality.
Vik’s hold on her tightened as he pulled her body completely flush with his, his big hands roving over her back and up to knead her scalp.
Her own hands slid of their own volition up his pecs, over his shoulders and to the back of his neck, pulling her body around so her breasts were crushed against his chest. Sparks of delicious sensation pricked her nipples nearly to the point of pain in their intensity.
It felt so incredible still dressed, she could not fathom what it would be like once they were naked skin pressed to naked skin.
Vik made a rumbling sound of approval in his throat before his body shifted and then she was being lifted into his arms as he stood.
The man was strong. Following on that thought came another.
They were really going to do this.
For the first time, Maddie was glad she was a twenty-four-year-old virgin.
She wanted no past experiences shadowing this moment with him. No memories of hands on her flesh but his.
Vik carried her unerringly into to her bedroom, lowering her back to her feet and pulling his mouth from hers. She didn’t want to stop and used her hold on his neck to lift herself back up so the kiss could continue.
It was only natural to swing her legs up and around his waist, locking her ankles behind his back.
Something about her actions flipped a switch in Vik and the kiss went nuclear. His mouth devoured hers as he cupped her bottom through the rustling silk of her dress’s full skirt.
Overwhelmed by sensation, Maddie lost her connection to anything but the kiss. She did not know how long their mouths ate at each other. Nothing registered but the sparks of pleasure he ignited in her rapidly fanning into a conflagration that consumed.
She wasn’t even aware he’d moved them to the bed until he broke away from her and she didn’t fall to the floor.
She mewled with her need to reconnect to his lips, a sound that would have mortified her if she was not too lost to desire to care.
“Vik!” she demanded, no other word coming to the forefront of her mind.
His smile was feral and hot. But the wink that came with it was hotter. “Clothes.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
ONE WORD BUT IT was all Maddie needed.
She sat up and reached back to unzip her dress. It was tricky at the best of times, the top of the zipper hitting her in the center of her back.
With her hands trembling from need, it was impossible. So frustrated she could almost cry, she struggled to unzip it.
All the while, she couldn’t pull her eyes from Vik. He’d ripped his Armani sweater off and tossed it on the floor, the black T-shirt he wore under it joining the pile of cashmere a second later.
His belt made a whoosh as he pulled it out of his trousers and the buckle clunked against the wall when he tossed it. His tailored slacks were next, dropping to reveal a straining bulge behind dark designer briefs.
“Your body is beautiful,” she breathed in awe.
Every muscle of his six-foot-four-inch frame was honed. Dark hair covered his chest, narrowing to a trail that disappeared in
to the waistband of his briefs.
She didn’t know if it was the dark, clingy fabric or reality, or even her oversensitized emotions, but Vik looked huge.
Maddie’s thighs clenched even as her fingers itched to touch. And she hadn’t seen the actual package yet.
Vik looked back, his own expression filled with desire. “You’re still dressed,” he accused.
“I know,” she said with pure frustration.
He winked again, the expression just as mind-bogglingly sexy this time as the first. “Need some help there?”
“Yes.”
He stalked toward the bed like a big sleek cat, climbing on with the same grace. He reached around her and let his fingers trail down the shallow V of her dress to the top of the zipper. “Is this your problem?”
“I can’t reach it.”
“How did you get dressed then?”
“I wasn’t hampered then.”
“By what?”
“What do you think?” she asked, wanting to sound annoyed and only succeeding in revealing the need inside her.
“Me?”
“Desire,” she clarified.
“Desire for me.”
“Yes,” she admitted, no real reason to pretend otherwise, but annoyed all the same at having to say it out loud.
“Good.” He lowered the zipper inch by inch. “I like this dress.”
“I’m never wearing it again.”
“Please do.”
“Why?”
“I have always enjoyed unwrapping my gifts. Just ask my grandparents.”
“I’m not a Christmas package.”
“No, you are something far more valuable.” He kissed the corner of her mouth and then brushed her lips with his lightly. “You are the woman who will share my life.”
“You’re awfully good at romance for a corporate shark.”
He wasn’t kidding about enjoying the process of unwrapping. Time moved by in increments measured by her rising passion as he took off first her dress, removing it to reveal her body one slow inch at a time. His desire-filled gaze burned her with sensual appreciation.
The silk foundations she wore under the dress came next, but he took even more time with those than the blue taffeta, kissing bits of her flesh as it was revealed, sensitizing her body in ways she’d no idea he could do.