The air filled with the scent of animals, wood shavings, and feed. Several feet down, like a lost relic in a tomb, was a huge rabbit cage. Movement caught her eye. It was the twitch of long white ears.
She hurried her pace and hooked a finger through the cage’s bars. “Oh, there he is.”
Pierre froze in place, staring back at her with beady, red eyes. He’d been well taken care of in here, that was clear. His cage looked clean, his water tube filled, and plenty of food filled a dish linked onto the cage’s side.
“He’s so cute,” she said.
“I knew it would be you, you know.” Maddox spoke in that strange way of not sticking to the topic, or of leaping from one topic to the next.
Adelie straightened and faced him. “What?”
He sauntered closer, resting a hand on top of the cage. The lines of muscle on his arm became that much more evident. “The moment I saw you sitting there, looking totally content as the only guest at a mad tea party, I thought, wouldn’t it be awesome if she was the one to find him? And you did.”
“I—” Words failed her, stolen by the admiration gleaming in his gaze. No man had ever looked at her like that. Like she was special. Like she’d humored him, and he wanted her to keep doing it.
He shifted. “Did you figure it out yet?”
Her mouth was dry. So dry. She swallowed. “Figure what out?”
“Why a raven is like a writing desk?”
Adelie’s heart was the rabbit in a cage. It pounded, trapped but not against its will. This was a willing entrapment, and it pulsed with the desire to remain a prisoner.
“That might be you,” she said.
“Me?”
“The answer. To the riddle.”
The corner of his lips quirked up. “Explain?”
She stepped away, needing distance. She couldn’t handle a third almost-kiss moment today, not unless he was going to actually kiss her.
“You’re this billionaire, with a massive house. But that has nothing to do with who you really are. While anyone might think you started your livelihood as a ploy to get money, you did it for exactly the opposite.
“It’s in honor of your mother and it just ended up being amazing because you deserve for it to be that way. Like the raven is nothing like a writing desk. You’re nothing like what you make people think you are.”
She wasn’t sure if that made any sense.
“Adelie,” he said, ending there as if saying her name was enough of a response. “How can you think I’m like the writing desk?”
She laughed and punched his shoulder.
He captured her hand and stared at it, rubbing his thumb across her skin. “You’re wrong, you know. I am doing this for money.”
The admission was a bee sting. Small, but sharp. She pulled her hand away. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well, maybe Wonderland wasn’t about money to begin with, but it is now. I’m greedy. I’m not as wonderful as you seem to think.”
“What if you’re just as wonderful as I think?”
His gaze trailed from her hairline to her mouth, stopping when it met her eyes. “You’ve had a long day. Come on, I’ll walk you back to the house.”
He didn’t deny his greed, and she couldn’t help wondering the entire way back to his house what he’d possibly meant by admitting as much. Had their marriage been as she’d thought after all? He’d only done this for his own benefit?
She didn’t want to believe it, but what else could she think?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Adelie rose from the bed and carefully arranged the blankets the best she could. She’d never been one to make her bed religiously, the way her grandma had, but she felt the responsibility now, in this house that was more like a palace. A place of luxury that demanded to be treated differently. She cared about the home she’d grown up in, but it was different from this somehow.
How would it be if she left the blankets disheveled? If she scattered her clothes across the floor? It didn’t fit the space. She knew Martha would probably be along to make the bed or put up her clothes for her regardless, but Adelie didn’t want to do that either. She had too much respect for herself, she supposed, especially after Maddox’s comment to the maid the day before.
She crept toward the closet with its double-doored entrance and used two hands to throw them both open. The amount of space within the white closet took her breath away.
“This is bigger than my room.”
She stepped in and swept an inquisitive gaze across the shelves. Some were thin and closer together—for shoes, Adelie suspected. Some were wide and tall, perfect for boxes or crates. There were pegs to hang purses, beams for hanging shirts, and it was all vacant, all waiting to be filled.
Adelie hugged herself and plunked onto the rotund stool within the center of the closet. “I don’t think I even have enough to fill a quarter of this.”
She supposed she could bring her suitcases in here and begin to test her theory, but she dressed quickly in a simple pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt and then returned her pajamas to the suitcase. She brushed her teeth and hair, and stood, a stranger in a decadent room.
Logically, she knew this was now her home, for as long as she wanted it to be. Maddox had promised. But she couldn’t trust the situation enough to settle in fully just yet. After the confusing end to their conversation the night before, she still worried he would pull the proverbial rug from beneath her.
This couldn’t really be her home. She was a project to him, nothing more. He would grow tired of her. He’d back out on his promise. It was what her parents had done when they’d abandoned her. The only people she’d been able to rely on were her grandparents and Suzie. She had to remember that.
Sunlight splashed through the windows that made a hexagon shape around her. It was almost like an embrace, with the light pooling around her, the way the windows seemed to envelop her. Adelie wanted to allow it to sink in, to make her feel warmer in the space that was supposedly hers.
She’d accepted the money he’d offered for the photo shoot. She could accept her new position. But being his wife? Adelie didn’t have any idea how to handle that, especially since he’d made it clear their relationship wasn’t going to have any more closeness than what they already had.
It was okay with her. She just had no clue how to behave, if she were being honest with herself.
Adelie decided to act the way she would if she were at her own house, and that meant opening her laptop and getting caught up on the schoolwork she’d missed the past few days.
Settling in at the desk near the window, she pulled up her online medical terminology course. Her teacher had posted an updated list of prefixes and suffixes which she needed to apply to memory if she had any chance at passing the next test.
It wasn’t only that, though. She wanted to learn these terms. She wanted to be as fluent in the medical lingo as she could be in order to do her best during surgeries or whatever else she would help with during her nursing career. It wasn’t like she could stop mid-surgery to consult her medical dictionary.
She hadn’t checked the site since before her wedding and regretted it. So many terms waited for her to master them. It was so like learning a foreign language, it wasn’t funny.
Adelie thought of her multiple attempts to learn French. Each time had failed, but this, she wanted to get this right. It would do her no good being a nurse if she didn’t have a full grasp of the terms others around her would use.
Kicking back in her chair, she dove in. Catching up would be easy in a cozy corner like this. She wrote each component multiple times on a piece of paper. She took the preparatory quizzes online; she tested her own knowledge in as many ways as she could think of when a knock came on her door.
The cast of sunlight was in a different position, nearing closer to her pillow rather than at the foot of the bed where it’d been before. Stomach grumbling, she saved her progress, closed the lid on her laptop, and rose to answer it.
Maddox stood in the hallway, wearing a t-shirt that broadcasted a small Vermont town, and jeans. The casual look was good on him. His hair was swept from his forehead in an untroubled sort of way. He rested a hand on the doorframe.
“Hey, stranger,” he said.
She slumped against the door’s edge. “Hey.”
They were married now. This man standing at her doorway? He was her husband. Adelie still couldn’t quite believe it.
“I haven’t seen you all day,” he said. “Did you come out for breakfast?”
She rested a hand on her stomach while a pang of guilt struck her. Had he been waiting for her? Maybe they should clarify expectations.
“I—no, I didn’t. I’ve been studying.”
He nodded his understanding. Martha passed behind him in the hall, raising a single brow, her arms full of folded sheets. Maddox inclined his head in her direction.
Adelie fought an embarrassed smile. She wasn’t sure why the maid seeing them in the doorway would bring heat to her cheeks, but she lowered her chin.
Adelie wondered if Martha was wondering why they weren’t sharing a room. How much of their situation had Maddox told his staff?
He rubbed a hand behind his neck. “Mind if I come in?”
Her stomach sizzled at the thought. For all intents and purposes, this was her room. He would be entering her space, a place where they could shut the door and have complete and total privacy.
“Sure.” She stepped aside and sank onto the bed, tucking a foot beneath her. Play it casual. “What have you been up to?”
“Working,” he said. “Duncan is managing his new investments in Wonderland and he’s been reaching out to several other investors as well. Things are looking to spike, thanks to you.”
Adelie tucked a hair behind her ear. “It wasn’t only me.”
“I disagree, but that’s beside the point.” He gestured to the desk before padding toward it and running a finger along her laptop. “How’s your studying going? What are you studying, anyway?”
“Nursing,” Adelie said. “I want to be like the nurses my grandma had. They were living, breathing angels for her while she was spending so much time in the hospital.”
“Your grandma was in the hospital?”
“Yeah, she had a stroke. It incapacitated her entire left side, and she kind of went downhill from there.” Her throat closed. She wasn’t used to talking about Grandma Carroll’s last days with people who hadn’t already been there to experience them with her.
“How long ago did she pass away?” Maddox’s tone was sympathetic and kind. He had told her about his mom, after all. She appreciated his attentiveness about this.
“Six years ago. I’d recently graduated from high school. It took me a while to decide to continue my education, but I knew right away what I wanted to study. It was difficult to get accepted into the nursing program, but Suzie helped me prepare, and I made it.”
“Congratulations,” he said without any hint of insincerity. He meant the word, and his direct gaze told her as much. In fact, it was too direct. She looked away.
“How far into the program are you?” he asked, sinking onto the edge of the desk.
“I’ve got about six months left before I start my clinicals. I’m really looking forward to that. I know it sounds strange, because I’m shy in crowds and other situations, but one-on-one with a patient? Helping a doctor? That’s a venue I can manage.”
“Impressive,” he said. “Sounds like it’s where you thrive. One-on-one.”
“I do,” she admitted, still feeling his direct gaze without allowing herself to meet it. “I’ve always done better with the individual rather than the crowd.”
“I like that,” Maddox said. “A lot of times, that’s how many problems are solved. Working with individuals. My line of work isn’t much different.”
Adelie almost laughed at this. His line of work was totally different.
“You appeal to crowds,” she argued.
He rested his hands on the desk’s edge on either side of him. “I do, but if the individuals in those crowds aren’t enjoying themselves, then I haven’t done my job. Everything in Wonderland was designed to appeal to the individual’s experience. And considering that expression about how no two people have ever read the same book…”
“Edmund Wilson,” Adelie said. “Nice.” She’d heard the adage before. People were so different, even reading the same words, their experience in a story would vary based on their own personal experiences and tastes. It meant her experience reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland would never be the same as anyone else’s, because there was no one else like her.
“The individual,” Maddox said pointedly with a smile.
Her unease lifted just enough.
Silence basked in the sunlight between them. Adelie chewed her lip, trying to think of something to say, a new topic they could pass back and forth that would keep him here.
“I’ve been having a thought,” Maddox said, saving her the trouble.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
He rested his weight on the desk and crossed his ankles on the carpet. “How would you feel about a honeymoon?”
Okay, not what she’d expected him to say. “A honeymoon?”
“Sure, why not?” he said. “We could get out of Vermont. Go somewhere exotic, where you won’t have to worry about being recognized. At least for a few days. We could get to know one another better. What do you think?”
Adelie waited for the joke to follow, but Maddox’s gaze was focused and serious, and if she didn’t know any better, hopeful. He wanted her to say yes.
She scooted to the edge of the bed. “Where would we go?”
“Wherever you want.”
“You mean—?”
Inhaling, Maddox rose, crossed the room, and settled onto the edge of the bed beside her. Adelie’s insides went into instant alert. She couldn’t think with him this close to her, not when they were talking about something like this.
Either Maddox was unaffected, or he handled their proximity better than she did.
“Where have you always dreamed of going?”
Adelie didn’t have to think. “Paris. I’ve always wanted to go to France.”
His brow lifted. “You got it,” he said. “Paris, it is.”
“Just like that? You can snap your fingers and we’ll head out?” She had schoolwork to keep up with, but they had computers and internet in Europe, didn’t they? How long were they going to be gone?
“Do you have a passport?” Maddox asked.
“I—I do,” she said. “Suzie got one for a school trip and talked me into getting mine at the same time.” Though she had yet to stamp anything into it.
“And your classes?” he asked. “Do you need to attend anything in person?”
She swallowed, attempting to rein in the giddiness sweltering in her chest. “It’s all online. I’ll be able to manage.”
Maddox’s smile shot heat through her. He pulled his phone from his pocket and began typing. “I’ll have Duncan’s assistant set everything up. She helps me out sometimes when stuff like this comes up.”
Adelie grew fidgety. She glanced at her suitcase, still trying to come to grips with the fact that Maddox could call someone else’s assistant to help him. Why didn’t he have one of his own? Maybe he and Duncan were better friends than she’d originally thought.
“Good thing I haven’t unpacked yet,” she said.
Maddox rested his hands on his thighs. “You’ll be all set. Although, I hope you know you can make this space yours. I want you to be comfortable here.”
Adelie cleared her throat and stood. She wasn’t sure how to explain her feelings to him. With time, she was sure he might be right. She could be settled here, but she wasn’t to that point yet. And until she was, her clothes would remain in the suitcase.
/> He was preoccupied with his phone for several more moments before lowering it again.
“Looks like we can leave tomorrow. How does that sound?
She exhaled through a small part in her lips. Tomorrow.
“Sounds unbelievable,” she said.
Maddox stood, lingering near her for several more ticks of the clock. “Okay, then.”
She clasped her hands in front of her. “Okay.”
It was all she could do to remain standing until he turned and strolled from the room. The moment he closed the door behind him, her knees buckled. She crumpled onto the bed behind her. How could this be happening? She was married to a billionaire, and now he was taking her on a honeymoon. To Paris.
It wasn’t only the total recognizability of the Eiffel Tower, or the fact that the city was some sort of central hub for fashion, food, music, and art. It was the romance of the place, the architecture, the language she loved and had tried learning more than once but always ended up forgetting because she had no one around to speak it with.
Paris. The corner cafes she’d yearned to sit at, the bridges, the token walk down the Champs Elysée.
Adelie wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but then again, her entire relationship with Maddox had been that way. Unpredictable twists and turns at every corner. Not to mention theirs was a marriage in name only. He hadn’t even kissed her for goodness’ sake. This wasn’t going to be a honeymoon the way others celebrated them.
Still, he’d said he wanted to get to know her. Would a kiss be part of that?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Maddox tapped his hands on his knees in a quiet rhythm, uncertain of what to say. Adelie sat on the backseat across from him as Kirk neared his private airfield, but she hadn’t uttered a single word to him since they’d left home.
She’d been so reticent about this entire trip, from the minute he presented it to her yesterday. Did she really want this, or was she just going along because he’d suggested it?
He got the feeling this was typical of her. To sacrifice her own needs in order to please others. What could he do to help her relax around him? To show him who she really was?
Alice And The Billionaire's Wonderland (Once Upon A Billionaire Book 3) Page 12