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“If I want you to,” I murmur. “Well, how about we have dinner together on Saturday night? That gives me Friday to… explain things to her.”
“Sure. I’ll clear my schedule.”
“Oh. Are you busy that night?”
He shakes his head. “A function I’ve been trying to get out of.”
“Thank you. I know you don’t really do things like this.”
Victor raises an eyebrow. “Meet people’s mothers?”
“Well, yes. It wasn’t part of our contract.”
“We’ve done a lot of things that weren’t a part of the contract.”
My cheeks heat up, but I don’t look away from his gaze. On my left hand, my rings feel warm. “I don’t think either of us could have anticipated this.”
“No,” he says. “I certainly didn’t. I didn’t know I was attracted to you when I suggested marriage.”
“Ouch.”
He chuckles, light dancing in his eyes. “I was blind back then. But trust me, that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t have made the suggestion if I had been.”
“Because it complicates things.”
“Because it might, yes.”
We look at each other for a long moment. Questions rise in my throat, but I swallow them down. Not yet. Not now.
Victor cuts into his salmon. “How do you think she’ll react?”
“Impossible to predict. I know she’ll be mad I didn’t tell her about it sooner. We’ve been married four months now.”
“Four months next Tuesday,” he says. “I’ll play along with whatever scenario you want, Cecilia. Just let me know.”
I clear my throat. “I think I’ll go with the truth.”
“Noted,” he says, jaw working. “I can’t imagine your hippie mom will like that very much. Nor me, for having coerced you into this arrangement.”
“You didn’t coerce me. If I remember correctly, I negotiated pretty fiercely for myself.”
A smile ghosts past his lips. “You did. So well, actually, that I had an oh shit moment afterwards.”
“What?”
“You were hot when you negotiated,” he says. “I stopped being blind.”
“Oh, really? That’s good to know.”
“Are you going to argue with me at every turn now?”
I grin. “I just might, if you enjoy it.”
His lips tug, but only briefly, features returning to seriousness. I’ve seen him focused and intense many times before. Negotiating business deals, dealing with lawyers, facing opponents across a table, on stage at conferences.
But being the subject of it takes my breath away.
“You’ll tell her the truth, then. That means I’ll have some things to answer for on Saturday.”
