Anna sighs and gives her daughter a pointed look as if to say she wasn’t born yesterday. “Oh, come on. Do I look like a relic from the last century? Even your grandma wouldn’t bat an eye at you two sleeping together.”
From across the room, Naomi nods her approval. “I couldn’t agree more. Have fun while you’re young, just trust me on that.”
Victoria throws a hand over her reddening face while I stifle my urge to laugh.
Anna doesn’t wait for further discussion. She simply ushers us down the hallway and pushes open the door to a dimly lit bedroom.
As in dimly lit with flickering, battery-lit candles.
Rose petals are scattered across the floor and arranged on the bed in the shape of a giant heart. Soft music plays from an unseen speaker. Talk about romantic overkill, the room’s been transformed into a honeymoon suite.
While Anna had said as much, I assumed she was kidding.
She shoves us inside, along with our bags, then flashes a mischievous grin. “Enjoy your night!”
Victoria’s hands are over her face again as her mom closes us inside. She spreads her fingers and peeks at me, uttering an embarrassed, “I’m so sorry. My mom isn’t usually like this. Give me a minute to get this room back to normal.”
Before I can tell her I don’t mind it in the least, she dives onto the bed, frantically raking the rose petals into a pile with her fingers.
I’m about to offer to help, but she’s so cute when her feathers are ruffled. Her heart-shaped ass bobs up and down, causing me to have to readjust myself as I enjoy the show for a moment.
The bedsprings creak lightly with her movements, and then I’m having dirty thoughts about putting them through all sorts of tests.
Taking Victoria on the bed, her soft moans in my ear.
Capturing her mouth with mine and using my tongue to wrestle her into submission.
Through the lust-filled haze washing over me, I finally manage to murmur, “Actually, I think it’s kind of nice.”
She flips around, pedals clutched to her chest and raining down on her lap. “What was that?”
Who can remember? Not me anymore. Red’s definitely her color-she’s an absolute vision. Seeing her on her knees on the bed ignites a fire deep within my belly.
Dazedly, I shake my head, at a loss for words for the second time today. “Nothing.”
Tossing the pedals in a trashcan and ringing the room to flick off the battery-operated candles, Victoria tosses out a flustered,
“We have a big week ahead of us. I think we should get some sleep.”
Sleep, right.
My entire body revolts at the idea, but her comfort is more important than my tawdry imagination. Dousing my imagination with a bucket of ice water, I nod, assessing the tiny space.
“I’ll sleep on the floor, you take the bed.”
Victoria snags one of the pillows resting against the headboard, along with the blanket draped across the foot of it.
“Thanks,” I say, clasping the pillow where her hand is curled around it and giving her wrist a quick, affectionate squeeze. Those blue eyes of hers lock onto me like I’m a lighthouse in a storm, and I’d gladly guide her home, which for the record, is into my arms.
With a reluctant sigh, I force myself to release her and lie on my makeshift bed. It’s been ages since I slept in an actual bed with a mattress, but the cushy carpet feels downright luxurious after sidewalks and packed, frozen ground.
We’ve just settled in, nothing but the occasional sound of rustling bedsheets, when a knock at the door startles us both.
“Hey, you two, it’s Grandma. I’ve bought you an extra blanket in case it gets cold,” Naomi calls from the other side.
Both Victoria and I sit up and peer at each other through the dark, wide-eyed enough the whites of our eyes practically glow.
“Quick, get up here,” Victoria whisper-yells through the dark.
Good thing I’m quick on my feet. I scramble from the floor to the bed, tossing the pillow toward the top as I go to climb in and?-
Thud!
Our heads slam together, hard enough to make us both wince.
I groan, shaking off the stars that’ve overtaken my vision, blindly reaching for her. “I’m sorry, are you okay? Let me see?-“
The covers slip and slide beneath me; my foot’s caught in the bedspread. In my attempt to check on her, I’ve lost my footing. In a slow-motion disaster I’m helpless to prevent, I end up comically falling right on top of her.
Victoria
For a moment, all I can hear is Simon’s and my ragged breaths, and the rapid pounding of my heart.
It’s throwing itself against the walls of my rib cage as though ready to surrender the both of us to the man pinning me so deliciously to the mattress.
We stare at each other in the darkness, vague outlines, all shadows as we remain frozen in place, mere inches apart.
Simon’s hand, which had previously been reaching for my forehead, now rests against my cheek. His calloused fingertips create a tingly drag of heat, releasing a drunken swarm of internal butterflies.
Energy crackles through the air, charged and magnetic, and the way he’s admiring me makes my already fluttering stomach do a full somersault.
I should move, say something- anything
-but I’m rooted in place by this moment and this man.
The door creaks open, popping our intimate bubble. Turns out I can move if the situation calls for it, and getting caught lusting after your fiancé by your grandma very much counts for me.
We spring apart just as Grandma Naomi wheels into the room, a pleased, knowing smile stretched wide across her face.
“Grandma, what’s up?” While I’ve attempted to force a bright, casual tone, the thundering of my heart is anything but. I don’t think she’s buying the innocent act anyway.
“I brought you the
Lucky Blanket. It’s an old family heirloom.” She lifts the old blanket draped over her lap, too much glee in her eyes for me to hope she didn’t see anything.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.