“An added perk,” he agreed. “But I want to see you get ready as fast as you claim you can. This will be a first.”
Victoria eyed her selection. If they were riding a bike, she would need pants, so she grabbed her favorite pair of designer jeans. Her eyes roamed up to the top rack of clothes where she’d hung her shirts. A little sleeveless emerald-green wrap shirt caught her eye—perfect. Sexy, cool and comfortable. She glanced to the shoe rack at the end of the closet and grabbed her gold strappy sandals. Not bike material, but perfect for the picnic and beach.
“Voilà,” she announced, holding her items up in the air as she came from the closet, then stopped.
The man was lying across the bed wearing nothing but tattoos and a grin. He’d taken off his hat, too, leaving his hair messy and those cobalt eyes, beneath heavy lids, staring across the room at her.
“You don’t fight fair,” she told him, trying to remain in place and not attack her husband like some overeager teenager.
“Fighting wasn’t on my mind at all.” He laced his hands behind his head, forcing his muscles to flex beautifully beneath his tats. “Looks like you still need to undress.”
Check and mate. And by the smirk on his face, he knew he had her. He’d played this scene perfectly.
How could she turn down such a blatant invitation? Even with their short time frame looming in her mind, she couldn’t deny herself giving and receiving his pleasure.
She tossed her items to the floor, not caring where they landed. In a slow, what she hoped was sexy, striptease, she loosened the ties on her shirt and flung it off to the side, as well.
“Since I’m being rushed, I may need some help,” she told him, sliding her thumbs into her jeans and sending them to puddle at her feet. She stepped out and smiled when his eyes roamed over her body...twice. “You want the job?”
“Sure, I’ll help by getting you out of these.”
He came to stand, all six-foot-plus glorious inches of him. He was beautifully tanned, magnificent and, for now, he was hers.
“Being with you like this should be awkward.” She reached out, tracing his family’s crest he had tattooed over his heart. “But it’s not. I’m amazed how comfortable I’ve been being intimate with you.”
“You’re not going to want to leave me at the end of this six months,” he joked, sliding the strap of her bra down one arm.
She reached around, unhooking the unwanted garment, and smiled. “Maybe not. We may just like being married to each other. This is the best relationship I’ve ever been in.”
“You’re just saying that to get me into bed,” he told her, his hands coming up to cup her breasts.
“Yes, because it is so hard to get you naked and horny.” She laughed.
The corners of his mouth kicked up at the same time he scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed. She bounced once before he was on her, pinning her hands above her head.
“I don’t know why, but that smart mouth of yours has always been one of the things I love most about you.”
She knew he loved her the way best friends loved each other, but when he said it like that, especially now that they were practically naked, the words sounded a bit more intimate and almost...awkward. She so did not want awkwardness to enter into this marriage or friendship. She enjoyed this friends-with-benefits arrangement they had. Her heart couldn’t handle any more.
“You’re thinking,” he murmured, looking down. “None of that here. Work and everything else stays out of this bed.”
She smiled, knowing he was the proverbial “fun guy,” but he also knew when to be serious and when to work. The media had just caught him mostly in those “fun guy” moments.
But she knew the man beneath the playboy persona.
“Not thinking right now is perfect,” she told him, looping her arms around his neck. “Marrying you was good for my creative mind.”
He laughed. “Let me show you how creative I can be.”
Six
Stefan’s cell went off again. And again, he ignored it.
“Whoever is calling you must want you pretty bad,” Victoria told him. “Why don’t you just answer it?”
Because he wanted to ignore the fact that certain people did not believe this marriage was real and that he was officially off the market.
“Could be important,” she went on as she slid her dainty feet back into her sandals and strapped them around her ankles.