When he'd asked if she wanted to make the plans for their honeymoon together, she'd told him no. She wanted to be surprised. Like she was intent on erasing the past with new memories.
He was happy to oblige, though she might think he'd taken it too far. "The Dalmatian Coast."
A near identical trip to their aborted honeymoon. However, rather than two months, they had two weeks.
He would have preferred longer, but after everything he had to get back to the office. He would make a concentrated effort in the year to come to build up his own executive team so he could work shorter hours and take more time off.
"In Croatia?" she asked, her tone laced with surprise.
"Sì."She had always wanted to go to Croatia, and particularly the Dalmatian Coast because of the heavy influence from the ancient cultures of Italy and Greece that could be found there. Did she think he had forgotten that?
"I was half afraid you'd never want to vacation in Croatia, or Greece because of the honeymoon that didn't happen."
"That was not going to happen." He'd bought a house there, hadn't he?
Not that he'd stayed in it in the past five years, but he hadn't taken a real vacation in that time either. Which brought up something he wanted to say to her. "You are right. I never considered my father's hours at work, or weeks away from home a problem, and yet I begrudged my mother her work in a very childlike fashion, even into my adulthood."
It shamed him to realize the double standard he had entertained for his parents. He was not a product of the last century, but a man of today.
"That's an amazing breakthrough in self-realization," she said with some awe.
Which both irked and pleased him. He liked when she looked at him like that, when her voice took that tone. But she should not be so surprised he could make such strides. "I'm no throwback."
"Are you sure about that?" The obviously teasing glint in her eyes took any sting the words might have had.
"If I am a throwback, you are too." He was thinking of the near primal possessiveness they felt toward each other.
"You might be right. In some ways, anyway." She yawned and then blushed. "Sorry. I don't know why I'm tired. I slept well last night."
"While I barely slept."
"Why?"
"I'll tell you all about it when we reach the Dalmatian Coast house."
"If this jet is anything like the one you had five years ago, it has a bedroom." She gave a near comical waggle of her brows, but then yawned again.
He laughed. "It does and I expect you to use it, but we will not have our first night making love as a married couple in bed on an airplane."
"Why not?"
"Because you, my dear,pregnantbride, need your sleep."
He could see she was gearing up to argue, but the third yawn in as many minutes made even his stubborn bride realize she needed rest.
Carlo spent most of the hours of the flight working while his wife slumbered alone in the plane's bedroom.
Carlo roused Annette to prepare for landing and she followed him blearily back into the main cabin, taking her seat and buckling in as the plane began its descent.
They'd arrived in Croatia in the middle of the night, and everything was cast in shadows of darkness as they disembarked the private jet and transferred to a luxury SUV. One bodyguard rode up front with the driver and the rest of the team followed in a second SUV.
Annette had slept on the plane, but she was still tired. She didn't even try to see the countryside out the window in the darkness, but as exhausted as she felt, Annette was also too wired to fall asleep.
Carlo put his phone away after checking something and then tugged, so Annette rested against his chest. Suddenly, that nervous energy keeping her awake just disappeared and she slumped into him, her body going boneless for sleep.
It took only about twenty minutes to reach the house from the private airstrip, but Annette was already dozing against his chest when the SUV pulled to a stop.
Carlo caressed her beautiful, silky blonde hair tenderly. She was exhausted and needed her sleep.