Luxury shakes her head, airy laughter seeping past her lips. “I knew you were the same old Vic.” She gasps. “I feel like me again, too.”
I capture her gorgeous face in my hands and stroke her mouth with the padding of my thumbs. “I’m fucking elated, Luxury. You’re back.”
“I am.” Glittering sparkles light in her gaze.
I kiss her forehead. “Now get up. We’re late as it is.”
“Oooooh! Take me to the ocean, Vic,” Luxury murmurs, sliding into a slip dress. She seemed to understand my urgency until that statement.
I pull into a turtleneck, then pop a brow at her. “The ocean? Which one and when would you like to leave?”
“Now.”
I groan. “I just arrived, Lux. Notnow.At least a night’s rest, and we can coast the Mediterranean if you wish.”
Well, Victor, clearly, you hadn’t thought out the next set of events.Get Luxury downstairs, outside, into a helicopter overlooking New York while the bloody nightlife still pulsed below.
I had a declaration to make, but my woman prefers the beach. And literallyright now.
She steps up to me, boldly retorting, “No,now. And just a walk along the beach. If you’re up to it?”
I have myself a laugh. “You really have gone mad.”
“No. You have. You said get up, then you’re begging for a night’s sleep. Which is—”
“Me, beg?” I snort.
“Which is it?”
“I’m up, aren’t I? So, this beach you’re referring to?”
“Thanks,” she smiles, plopping down to place on tennis shoes. “A walk along the beach, behind our home. Or have you been gone so long you’ve forgotten what awaits in the darkness?” She cocks her head to the balcony.
I place my hand in my trouser pocket, squeezing the velvet box inside. The last time I bloody proposed, I’d no ring.
This time, the thought hit me like a thirty-caliber bullet.
Granted, I did think about it during a morbid time. I was in the company of maggot food, listening to their cries die down. All I could think of was . . .
Get back to Lux.
By the time I secured a flight to New York, I’d also communicated with the best jeweler in the city and had an entire store to preview upon arrival. I stepped inside the jewelry store and instantly was taken by a ring perfect for my Little One. Since I haven’t conceded, Luxury cuts into my thoughts with another attempt.
“I’ll bring a blanket. C’mon, pleaseeee, Vicky.” She smirks, using the name Grandmother Sarah gave me.
“Alright, Luxury.”I suppose I’ll propose later.
* * *
With the cable-knit blanket draped over my shoulders, and Luxury in my arms, we start along the coast. As she trembles, I growl, “You’re cold.”
“I don’t care.”
I turn her around, and she’s complaining for us to keep going.
“No, Little One.”
“Please. One day I looked up and realized just where we lived. I know that seems like an asinine statement. But I told myself I wouldn’t walk the shore . . .” A gaze brimming in tears looks up at me. “Without you.”