Page 94 of Why Not Forever?

“But I—”

“Quit a job you hate. Yes, I know. Now we can both do something we love. If you want any help in figuring out what that’s going to be, well, I’m your wife, aren’t I? Your problems are my problems.”

I blink, not entirely sure I’m hearing what I think I am.

“You’re not mad?”

“No, Tanner. I’m not mad. I was a little frustrated that I came home to tell you I turned my dad down and you weren’t here.”

I blink a few times, my brow drawing down. “Turned him down?”

She smiles now, stepping a little closer, holding onto my tie. “Yes. He called in a rage when you left the office. He said I needed to divorce you, and if I did, he’d give me Sterling.”

My breath turns to lead in my lungs at this. But only for a second as she follows up the statement with another.

“I said no. I figured out a few months ago that I don’t want Sterling. I want Blue Vista, and if I owned my father’s company, I’d have to give up my position at my own. I like it better there. I like the people. I like the business model. I like that it’smine. That I built it. And even if I did want Sterling still, I want you more. Because I love you, Tanner.”

“You do?”

She nods. “It wasn’t gradual for me. Both times I fell in love with you, it kind of hit me all at once, kind of like a freight train. So, that was fun.”

“Both times?”

She nods, sliding her hands over my shoulders and around my neck, pulling me a little closer. “The first time was when our MBA finished, and I realized I was going to see you less often, and I didn’t want that. This time was on Thanksgiving. We were at your parents’ place, and I’d just told off Keith. I realized how much I wanted to be part of your family. And I realized it was because I’m in love with you.”

She pulls my head down for a kiss and I feel like I could fly to the moon and back, wrestle a giant, and conquer the world. Vic is kissing me. Vic loves me. I deepen the kiss, my tongue claiming hers as mine. She undoes my tie, throwing it aside before starting on the top button of my shirt. I know where she’s going, and I want to go there, too. But there’s one more thing I need to do first.

I break the kiss.

“Hold that thought. I want to show you something.”

I let her go and retreat to my bedroom, where I pull the laptop out and set it on the dining table.

She looks confused for a moment, then her eyebrows raise. “Are you going to show me the project you’ve been working on?”

I nod, booting up the laptop and opening the file. “It’s a business plan. A company I want to build with Wyatt.”

She sits in the chair in front of the computer, scrolling through the document. “You want to visit businesses and see if you can come up with new tech to help them lower costs.”

I sit next to her. “Working for Sterling, I got to see a lot of businesses that were failing. We would swoop in and buy them out. I could see how so many were running their business inefficiently. With a few minor tweaks, they would have been fine. It’s a consulting business on one end, a tech business on the other.”

“This is comprehensive.” She’s reading through the abstract, but the document is over fifty pages long. “I like this idea.” She turns to me. “This will make you happy?”

“I think so. I like the idea of helping people. And working with my brother. And working for myself.”

“Good.” She closes the laptop. “I’m going to look at that in depth later. Right now, I want you to take off all your clothes, Mr. Marcus.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. Then I want you to fuck me hard against this table.”

I’m already undoing the buttons on my shirt.

“You like tables, do you?”

She gives me that playful smile as she watches me undress. “It’s an excellent place for negotiations.” She picks up the laptop, setting it on a chair.

“If I’m undressing, Mrs. Marcus, so should you be.”

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