Page 24 of His Perfect Woman

He rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. “Listen, Vic. On the note of where we wind up at the end of our evenings...I’ve been meaning to talk to you. There’s another big thing the press is going to expect from all of this.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve covered all of our bases on that front, but what’s on your mind?”

“Living together.”

My heart sank. Or did it leap? I couldn’t tell. My insides definitely turned flips. He said it so casually, like it was running an errand. Going to the bank or stopping off at the grocery store. Just another item to cross off the list. Though I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since his cavalier attitude towards all of this was what had led us here in the first place.

“That’s a big step, Lucas. Maybe we should talk about this some other time.”

“Now seems like as good of a time as any. And I wanted to bring it up before you had a chance to start working on that nursery.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I tossed back the rest of my glass and grabbed another. All this talk of moving in together was making me anxious.

“My place is bigger. I assumed you’d move in with me.”

“Your assumptions about what I want and am okay with have already gotten us into enough of a mess, Meadows. Quit while you’re ahead.”

He laughed it off and pressed on anyway. “I’m surprised I’ve thought about all of this more than you have. But okay...if not my place, then why don’t we look for somewhere else? Something big enough to accommodate both of our needs.”

The tone of his voice had me reeling. Needs? Did he mean, like...sexual needs? Surely we wouldn’t be living under the same roof and inviting random lovers over to flaunt in front of each other like it was no big deal. But if we didn’t sleep with other people...that would mean only sleeping with each other. Potentially...forever.

Thinking back on our sexual exploits so far, it wasn’t even that the prospect seemed like such a bad deal. But the line between our fake arrangement and a real marriage was starting to blur more and more.

“We’ll talk about it later,” I insisted more sternly.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” he offered, noticing how tense I was getting.

“I like my space, Lucas. And my privacy and freedom. It’s part of the reason I’m not diving into a real marriage. I thought we were on the same page about these things.”

“Right.” He grunted, looking slightly wounded. “A real marriage. Well...listen. Maybe this wasn’t the best time to bring it up. Why don’t we forget about it for now and dance instead?”

The whole talk hardly put me in the mood for dancing, but with that charming look on his face while he stood there in his dashing tux, his hand held out for mine...How could I say no?

I laughed a little and slipped my hand into his, adoring how he engulfed it in his big, manly grip. Everyone cleared a path for us as he led me out into the middle of the dance floor. The band spotted us and faded into a special song for our dance. I hadn’t even told them to do that; that’s how you knew you had the real pros.

It was even more like a fairy tale than I’d imagined it could be as he twirled me around the dance floor, my gown flying out around us. It was like we were floating on a cloud, and everyone watched us in envy.

With more champagne, delicious food, and dancing, I forgot all about the uncomfortable talk with Lucas about moving in together. By the end of the night, I couldn’t even remember what I was so worried about.

It was a wonderful evening, and I kept finding myself forgetting that the whole thing was a sham. Everything flowed so easily between us. We cared about each other and respected one another. The attraction was definitely there, even if it had taken an unplanned tumble into bed to really bring that to my attention.

My head was spinning with all sorts of dangerous thoughts while everyone gave us a big send-off to our limo at the end of the party. What if all of this was real? Would that really be so bad?

We were sleepy but cheerful on the ride back to his place. He stopped outside of his penthouse door and pulled me in close.

“You were unbelievably stunning tonight,” he said in his deep sexy voice as he pushed me against the door.

“Your performance was stellar as well.” I grinned, tilting up to his lips.

But he stopped. His expression turned frighteningly serious. “I wasn’t performing.”

Before I could wrap my head around what that meant, he pressed his mouth to mine. It was slow and tender at first with soft, exploring sweeps of his hands across my body to match. But even without a carnal passion, his touch still sent tingles of awareness and need through me, just as intensely as ever.

The warm buzz of drinks from the evening coupled with the heat between us sucked me in, making me forget I had a single care in the world. I melted into him and let him sneak his hands under my dress. He was taking in a big handful of my breasts with one hand and fumbling with the key to get the door open with the other.

We went crashing inside, tumbling seamlessly to the bed, where we couldn’t wait to rip each other’s clothes off. Any tiredness we’d felt before was replaced with an invigorating need to be tangled up together—to feel all the exquisite pleasure I was growing so used to him feeding into me, and me into him in return.

He stripped me down and sucked my aching folds into his mouth, making me cum twice before he even dared slide inside of me. For as stubborn and selfish as he could be everywhere else—he was beyond generous in the bedroom. I didn’t have a complaint in the world. Maybe he really was the only lover I would need for the rest of my life. For whatever that meant.

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