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“I was a bullheaded idiot.”
“Yes,” Tielle confirmed, smiling when she heard his chuckle.
“There’re things you need to hear me say, Tel. Things you deserve to hear.”
“I’m ready to listen.” She studied her hands clasped in her lap. “I was always ready to hear it. I was an idiot, too. I should’ve never walked away before I made you tell me everything you wouldn’t—everything I knew you needed to.”
Grae took her hand from her lap. He toyed with her fingers before he kissed them. “That’ll be difficult here,” he said.
It was true. They’d made love all over the place and in places that they were surely not allowed to. All Grae wanted was to revisit those places, to improve on those vivid memories if that were at all possible.
“I’m gonna have to count on you to be the cooler head,” he told her.
She laughed. “What good will that do against you and your plans to improve our memories of this place?”
Her tease didn’t have the intended effect, and Grae’s expression was a stony one. “I know I bullied you throughout a lot of our marriage. The fact that you were always so hell-bent on pleasing me was why I thought you were lying to me about not hurting you the other night.”
She gave a slight wince. “My grandmothers always said, ‘If you treat your husband like a king, he’ll treat you like a queen.’”
Grae smirked. “Your grannies were lucky to find men deserving of the crown. Thinking like that has gotten a lot of women in trouble. I think it got you in more than your fair share with me.”
“Grae—”
“Just let me say this, Tel, please.” He squeezed her hand, keeping it trapped on a denim-clad thigh. “I pressed my advantage. A lot. Wore you down when you leaned toward doing things I wasn’t in favor of.”
She turned on the suede seating to face him fully. “I never had brothers or sisters. I thought you needed to get along with yours.”
“Tel, I’m not talking about Faro. I’m talking about you wanting to come back here to Vancouver long before we divorced. You wanted to run the place for your family. Do you remember what I did when you told me that?”
She tried to tug her hand free of his. Grae wouldn’t let her. She raised a narrowed gaze to his face. “You didn’t bully me.”
“I kept you in bed two days. Convincing you how much I needed you to be there for me.”
“It wasn’t unreasonable for you to want that.” She smiled sadly. “Vancouver isn’t a place I’d want to commute to and from Portland every day. Not the best move for a married couple who like each other.” She put her hand over his. “And I can think of a lot more unpleasant ways to be bullied.”
“Then let’s talk about how I bullied you with Faro.”
“Let’s not. I can think of so many other things I’d prefer to do.”
“Such as?”
“Such as…” She settled her head to the rest and sighed. “Improving our memories. I think you said something about having whatever you wanted. Anything you wanted…”
“I remember.”
“And?”
The word had barely passed her lips when Grae reached for her, tugging her unceremoniously across the gear changer. They launched a kiss that deepened quickly, tumbling into a realm that was equal parts lust and desperation. Tielle was practically straddling his lap seconds into the X-rated kiss that had her chanting his name without shame.
“We need to get out of this car…”
Tielle smiled through the throaty kiss. “Finally…something we agree on…”
* * *
“What’d you do?” Tielle blurted upon realizing the bellman was bypassing the short stairway to the inn’s suites.
“Anything I want, remember?”
“Within reason,” she grated.
Grae gave her a sidelong glance. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“Will you at least tell me where we’re going?” she whispered.
“We’re going to improve on a memory,” he whispered back.
Immediately, Tielle began to file through the numerous and naughty acts she and her new husband had indulged in at Brunch and Memories so long ago. It seemed like another lifetime.
