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He pressed his lips together. “What have you done today?”
“Some shopping,” I offered. It had been a completely lazy and unproductive day, but I needed it. “But not these boots.” I pointed toward my feet. “These are from your delivery this morning. I love them.”
“I love them on you.” He tugged my thigh, yanking my leg around his waist.
I gasped.
His fingers massaged my flesh through the dress.
“We have dinner reservations,” I reminded him. “At a very expensive, over-the-top restaurant.”
“I know.” He returned my leg to the floor. “Let me change and we can go.” He moved toward the closet.
I sat on the bed, watching him toss his shirt into the laundry. I crossed one leg over the other.
“If you’re too tired, we don’t have to go,” I suggested. “We could order room service instead. We could open a bottle of wine and watch crazy French TV.” I had no idea what his day had been like. It took everything in me not to pounce on him for answers. I had a thousand questions. More than I’d ever had for a witness I deposed.
He fastened the buttons on his crisp white shirt. Damn, he looked delicious. I didn’t blame the waitress this morning, or the maid last night. I couldn’t necessarily blame any of the women who gawked at him. He was a complicated work of art.
“We’re going to dinner. This is your night in Paris. I promised you we were going to celebrate. Plus, it’s Saturday. Everyone goes out this late. We can sleep in tomorrow.” He winked.
“If you’re sure.” As much as I wanted to go out, I would have been happy ordering in again. I still hadn’t adjusted to the time difference. It was going to take a few days.
“I am.”
Before he unfastened his pants to change, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a box. My stomach lurched into my throat. The room spun and everything crawled into slow motion. It was a velvet box. Black velvet. The kind that extremely expensive jewelry came in.
He tossed it and I caught it in the air between my palms. I wasn’t good at catching anything, and now I was holding a ring box in my hands.
“Before I forget. I need you to wear this whenever we’re out,” he said in the same tone he would have used to tell me to open a bottle of wine. He was too casual. Too detached.
I stared at it. I looked at Vaughn.
“What is this?” My voice was shaky. I knew exactly what it was.
“Will you wear it for me?”
I cracked the lid on the case. It creaked as the spring released.
Vaughn plucked the box from me. “It’s for my work.”
My stomach flipped again. My mouth was dry.
“It’s not…you’re not asking…” I didn’t know how to respond. What to say. How to react to the fact that there was a diamond ring in front of me nestled on top of a solid band of smaller diamonds.
“Vaughn?”
He held the set at the tip of my ring finger. “It’s a wedding band and an engagement ring together. This is part of the assignment I picked up today. I’m married. We’re married while we’re in Pairs,” he explained. “It’s the cover for the mark. In case our paths cross the mark as a couple, you need to have a wedding band.”
I blinked at the center stone. It was so wide I thought it had to be two carats. But
I wasn’t one of those girls who had studied engagement rings. I didn’t idly float past the glass displays in jewelry store windows, imagining my own engagement. If a friend told me she was engaged, I never asked to see the ring first. Rings had never meant so much or so little to me until this moment.
“Married?”
He kissed my cheek and turned back to the mirror, continuing to dress for our dinner out on the town.
“For the job. Look. I have one too.” He held up his left hand, revealing a solid band on his ring finger. I hadn’t noticed it until now. How could I not have seen that band of gold? “You don’t have to do anything. Only wear it. And if anyone asks, we’re married. It’s simple. That’s all you have to say.”
