Page 36 of The Arrangement

Apparently Ivan felt the need to speak up, too. “It’s about time you show your face, Vine. And what a way to do it, huh?”

“Show my face?”

“Yes. Don’t you think it’s important for them to know you’re not afraid, you’re not hiding, and you’re planning your future?” Anton asked with a wink. “Like I said, Sonny might very well be a lot less brazen if we’re right out in the open, not to mention this place is on total lockdown at night. You trust me, right?”

She looked exasperated. “You know I damn well do.”

“Well, then show it.”

“A Bentley, really?” she asked. “Could you give me a little more to go on?”

“Continental GT Speed. Automatic. Five-hundred horse power. Zero to sixty before you could blink. What else do you want to know?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Anton. That car is nearly a quarter of a million dollars!”

Closer to three hundred grand once he was done with it. How in the hell did she even know the price of it, anyway? “What’d I say about the cost?”

Her pretty lips drew a thin, mulish line. “That’s not fair.”

“Consider it an early birthday gift, then.”

“A Bentley,” she repeated.

“Yes, and I quite liked it when I test drove one a few months back. It should be in the driveway before you wake up in the morning. I thought it’d be your kind of car.”

“Bentleys are my favorite cars.”

Ivan snorted. “Figures.”

Anton flipped him off with a middle finger behind his back. “So, you’re not all that mad about the price, really, huh?”

“Maybe … no. Ugh, you’re horrible.”

The smile that curved his lips was wicked. Breaking her down about the car and price hadn’t been so hard after all. Now, he just had to get her to his nightclub one afternoon so she could pick out her engagement ring. Maybe he should have picked it out himself, but Anton assumed having her there while his personal jeweler made a special trip into his office would work all the same.

That and he wanted to get her into one of his workplaces just to gauge her reaction.

“I knew you were starting to get cabin fever, that’s all. This might fix that right up.”

“It might,” Viviana echoed.

“And next week …”

Her head jerked up, eyes meeting his immediately. “What about it?”

“My birthday. The men had some nonsense planned at the club, so they expect me to bring you there as well.”

“Which club?”

Ouch. He didn’t miss the warning in her tone for a second. “Not either of those clubs, Vine. Seven Lights, actually. Dance, drink, smoke, and eat. They just want a night off, I bet. But, I wanted you there earlier for a little surprise, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“A surprise like this?”

“Nah, a better one.”

With a heavy sigh, Viviana rolled her eyes dramatically and said, “I suppose.”

Dropping a kiss down to her forehead, Anton smiled once more. Again, it almost seemed too easy between them. He wasn’t about to complain.