Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 90540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Now I breathlessly asked him, “How could you have an appointment for whales? How’d you know when they would show?” Benji would have given anything to be able to take pictures.
“There’s an app for that. My phone sounded an alert when this pod started moving down the coast.”
“Amazing. You keep boggling my mind. And all I’ve done today is shake my tits a little.”
His grin widened. “I made the better bargain. Tell me, do you like our home?”
“Eh, s’okay, I guess.” I shrugged. “Of course I freaking do! There are whales in the backyard!”
Another one surfaced even closer, and it had a baby! I gazed back at Dmitri, wanting him to see how thrilled I was.
“You know, they mate for life,” he said, his expression telling me, As have I.
Whoa.
Once the pod moved on, Dmitri smoothly steered us farther along the coast. We rounded a headland into the next cove, and I caught sight of several bungalows dotting the hills. Their modern design and expanses of glass called to mind the main house. “What are those?”
“Guest residences.” Each one would have a picture-postcard view of the ocean. “For family to visit.”
My family consisted of approximately thirty Valentines and company. Hey, maybe we could hide from the cartel here.
Except then Dmitri would definitely figure out what we were. What I am.
Worry tempered my happiness. I gazed down at my ring wistfully. How would I smuggle it to Karin? I didn’t want anyone to make an official visit, and the security cameras would prevent a drive-by on the sly. Maybe I could hide the ring out in the woods and leave my phone for her to track. I could tell Dmitri it must’ve slipped off in the ocean, so no one would get blamed for a theft. Yet another lie . . .
The diamond caught a ray of sun, aggressive pinpricks of light stinging my eyes—as if it knew we coldly planned to fence it.
Yes, I was as superstitious as the next grifter, and I believed wedding rings were symbols.
By sacrificing the ring Dmitri had given me, would I jinx his feelings toward me?
Hell, would that even matter? I’d already stacked the cards against us.
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“While we were out, I had some things delivered,” Dmitri said over dinner.
We were enjoying apricot-basil chicken salad and heated croissants out on the pool deck. He’d opened a bottle of yummy wine, mainly for my consumption.
The sea breezes were easy and warm, that saltwater scent getting into my blood. “What things?” He was getting into my blood. I sighed when the wind ruffled his hair and his unbuttoned white linen shirt. He wore broken-in jeans and was barefooted. I loved this casual side to him.
“Some wedding gifts.”
“From you?” I gazed around at the house he wanted to call ours. “You haven’t done enough?”
“Not until I’ve given you the entire world, as promised.” In a teasing tone, he said, “I warned you I would spoil you to an embarrassing degree, yet you decided to be my bride anyway? Take your medicine, Vika.”
I grinned. “Dmitri, I hadn’t expected you to be this fun.”
He blinked at me. “I hadn’t expected anyone to consider me so. I have little experience with it.”
Money truly couldn’t buy happiness. “Today you had fun, right?”
After kayaking, we’d swum laps—or tried to—but we’d gravitated to each other in the water. I’d given him a slow hand job while he’d done more mind-blowing things with his fingers. Then we’d snacked and lazed naked in the late-afternoon sun.
Once we’d returned inside, we’d christened our large shower. I could swear the bench in the enclosure had been designed just for me to sit and suckle him. Not to be outdone, he’d lifted me to a high marble shelf, one seemingly made for me to relax back and spread for his kiss.
Fresh from coming in my mouth, he’d devoured me—and shown me a trick I could barely believe. . . .
“This has been the best day of my life,” he said. “Each day with you easily trumps all others.”
They had been great, but surely he’d had others make the podium. “No wonderful days from your childhood?”
Looking away, he said, “Not one that stands out.”
“What was growing up in Siberia like?”
That muscle in his jaw ticked. “Cold, brutal, miserable.”
Okay . . . “The weather? Or growing up?”
“Take your pick,” he bit out, his demeanor telling me to back off.
I would. I could give him time, because his wounds were still healing—as part of the process. Besides, the less I dug into his past, the less he’d dig into mine. I changed the subject. “What do you usually do in your free time?”
“I haven’t had any,” he said, his tone softer, as if he appreciated the reprieve. “I’ve worked diligently on self-improvement.”
I cast him a smile. “You and your changes.”
“I needed to be ready when my dream woman came into my life.”
Smile never faltering, I said, “Can you really call me your dream woman when you hardly know me?”
“I know plenty, Victoria.”
I raised my brows. “Like what?”
“I have to pace you during oral sex, or else you come too fast. When you truly open your heart to another, you do so for life, and you’re loyal to a fault. You’re patient. You’re protective. You’re secretive. But I know you’ll share all your secrets if I share mine. Your zest for life is boundless. And when your blue eyes brighten with happiness, I feel as if I’ve been drugged. To a man like me, you are a drug.”
My lips parted.
Then I gazed away, thinking about my past. I could see now I hadn’t truly opened myself up to Brett. If I had, I wouldn’t be this over him. I knew I’d never receive another e-mail from him, and the only emotion I felt was regret that he’d been hurt.
Nothing more.
Maybe I’d tried to force that relationship because I’d been so enamored with normal. Maybe I’d held back my heart because deep down I’d known I was meant for a grifter.
So where did that leave me now? I was married to a gull, living the most abnormal existence I could imagine. “Wouldn’t your dream woman be heavy into BDSM?” I asked. “To match you?”