CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BYTHETIMEthey landed in New York, it felt as if the entire Internet had exploded.
Rumors about their affair and how long it had been going on, about the wedding, and who would be on the guest list.
And she realized, she would have to put that together, and quickly, so that it all looked a bit more thought out than it was.
But they should have no issues getting a raft of celebrities to attend. It was exactly the sort of thing that they loved to be seen at. Something that made them look smart and tied into a world that had nothing to do with the entertainment industry.
And something that would make her and Gunnar look even more like the illuminati. Which kind of amused her.
She was looking forward to going back to her apartment, but they didn’t go there. In fact, they didn’t even go into the city. Instead, she found herself in the back of a limousine, on a winding road that led... She didn’t know where.
It became clear, when a large home came into view. “You have a house?”
She hadn’t known that he had a place other than his New York penthouse in the States.
“I bought a house,” he said.
“You... You just bought this?”
“Yes. I thought that it would make a wonderful wedding present to you, and we could set up a nursery here. You must admit, right in the heart of downtown hardly feels the appropriate place to have a baby.”
“As if you have any idea of what to do with the baby,” she said.
“I didn’t say that I did. However, I do feel that I can confidently say that this is a better place to raise a child.”
“Well. Your cliffside home is definitely not the most child friendly. Can you imagine if a baby got outside there?”
“This is silly. In Iceland, we simply teach children...”
“Whatever. In America we put leashes on them. Anyway. You probably should’ve talked to me about buying a house that we’re going to live in.”
“Why? I wish for you to get used to exactly how this relationship is going to work.”
“You think you’re in charge?”
She looked at him, and she didn’t feel... Trapped. She didn’t even feel particularly angry. But she was... Still puzzling over the things that she had figured out about him over the last little bit. The way that he talked about emotion. The way that he talked about his father.
That he had actually hated his father. She wanted to know what happened. She wanted to understand.
She really didn’t know anything about his life. She felt like she did, because she saw him in a certain setting over a number of years, but a great amount of that was witnessed with a child’s understanding of things, and the rest... It was just so specific to the situation they had been in.
And she had filled in a whole lot of details about him using her own life as a guide, and that was not necessarily the most honest way to do it.
She had been certain that she knew Gunnar, and now she realized that she really didn’t.
“But you need to be in charge of this,” she said. “Because it needs to be a decisive victory for you? Because this is how you prove you’re better than me?”
“You make me sound like a petty child. As I said, I did not need to prove that I was better than you, I would simply not be able to rest knowing that I had not been the best, if that was my goal. I was happy always when you had the better product and won. It was fair. But if we are to have harmony in our home, then certain things must be understood. Certain things must be clear. That is the making of a good company, is it not?”
“But families aren’t companies,” she said. “And when you marry me, Gunnar, you are going to be my family.”
He looked over at her, his blue eyes sharp. “I do not think that is a very fair characterization.”
“It’s just true. We are going to be a family. And I think we need to... We need to not look at it like a business.”
The car pulled up to the front of the house, and Gunnar got out, rounding to her side of the vehicle and opening the door for her.