“It does,” I agree, tilting my chin to glance at him. “But so does your current place.”
“You mean, our current place.”
“Yes,” I correct. “Our current place. Slip of the tongue.”
“Hmm,” he says, his eyes filling with mischief. “Seems worthy of punishment later.”
“Oh no,” I say. “Enough of that today.”
His lips curve. “We’ll see.”
“The apartment,” I say. “I’m going to look around.” I twist away from him and start walking.
A low sexy rumble of masculine laughter escapes his chest and does funny things to my belly. “I’ll go with you,” he says, catching up to me, and then we’re holding hands, talking about every feature of the apartment.
The entire place is stunning with an open concept kitchen, a gym, and to my shock, an indoor pool, as well as an outrageously large outdoor space. We end our viewing at the island in the kitchen, side by side, facing each other. “What do you think?” he asks.
“It’s gorgeous, and honestly, Kace, looking at a place like this to call home is a pretty amazing feeling, but so is living where we live now. Where would you put your vault? And where would you rehearse?”
“We’ll custom build. Honestly, I’d probably just gut it all and start over.”
“But it’s a beautiful place,” I argue.
“It needs to be our place. The location is perfect. The view is stunning.”
“Yes. I agree. But how much would that cost?”
“I don’t really care,” he says. “We both need and want to move. I’d like us to hire a contractor and do this our way.”
“How much does a place like this cost?”
“It’s a wash once I sell the old place.”
“How much, Kace?” I press.
“Baby,” he catches my hip and steps into me, “you aren’t ready for those kinds of numbers and you know it.”
“I suppose not,” I say, giving him a little smile, “but I want to do my part, and I need to figure how big a success I need to be. You know, set big goals. How many Stradivariuses do I need to sell?”
His mood sobers instantly. “Aria—”
I press my hand to his mouth. “I’m not riding your wallet. Ever. So, don’t say what you’re going to say. And you know my wings were clipped for my entire life. I need to see how high I can fly.”
He captures my hand at his mouth and settles it on his arm. “I know. You know I know.”
There is something in the way he says those few, simple words that, paired with the flicker of a shadow in his eyes, leads me to one place. “Because of your father.”
“Yes. He wanted me to be one thing. I wanted to be another. In a strange way, that’s not so unlike you and your mother, she just had better reasons for holding you back than my father did me.”
“Your father did a horrible job of holding you back.”
“And thank God for it because had he succeeded, I might not have met your father, and you.” He shifts back to a broader topic, softening his tone, his knuckles brushing my cheek. “Just be with me, baby. Live life with me. See the world with me.”
A world that would have remained a tiny corner of Manhattan until I met him, I think. “I am,” I say. “I am seeing more of the world every day since I met you.”
“And we’ve only begun. On a somewhat different note, there was something I noticed tonight when we were with Jenny and Jerry.”
My brows furrow. “What was that?”
“You downright panicked when Jenny was going to bring up marriage.”
My heart explodes in my chest while my hand flattens on his. “I know you’re not a forever guy, Kace. I mean, I know we talked about forever, but I just thought it was awkward.”
“Aria, baby, I have broken every rule I wrote with you.”
“I’m not sure what that means,” I say cautiously.
His hands settle on my lower back, molding us intimately close, our legs entwined. “It means that I’m in this for keeps.” He strokes my hair from my face and tilts my gaze to his. “I know we need to let everything shake out. I know you need to get to the other side of this secret you’ve been hiding. And I know you need to see where you land afterward, but just know this. I want it to be with me. And then we’ll talk about what forever means for us. I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too. And I want to land right next to you.”
“Remember that. Okay?”
“Why are you saying that?”
“We’re about to shake up your world, Aria. We’re about to open doors that have been closed. We don’t know what is on the other side.”
“But we are,” I say, needing to hang onto him and us, trying not to think about how easily Gio might be lost. “We are.”
“That’s right, baby. We are.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
With time to kill before my meeting with Nancy, Kace and I decide to check out the other two properties on our own. We can’t visit the apartments, but we can view the locations. For the small price of the cookies I’ve packaged up at the bakery, we score a ride with Savage and Adrian. And, of course, in between cookies, they entertain us in the process. “The sugar’s the best,” Savage says, licking icing from his fingers.
“I vote chocolate and peanut butter,” Adrian chimes in.
“Of course he does,” Savage replies, eyeing us around his seat. “He lives on peanut butter cups.”
“Only on weekdays,” Adrian says. “On the weekend I eat junk food.”
I laugh and nudge Kace. “I think I need to live like him.”
“You will in Europe, I promise you,” he says, motioning to a building and Savage has Adrian pull over. “We’re going to get out and get a good look at the area,” Kace says, opening his door and exiting to offer me his hand.
I join him on the street, the night air brisk, but the snow is now long gone, and hand and hand Kace and I walk toward the towering steel building. The area is nice, though the restaurant and shopping, we decide, is limited. With Kace’s finesse, we are actually able to walk inside the building and talk to the staff, all pleasant, but in the end, we both agree. It’s just not up to the standards of the first building.
A few minutes later, we do the same at the second building, with about the same outcome. We’re just headed back to the SUV where Adrian and Savage lean on the vehicle, waiting for us, when an odd tingling slides down my neck. My hand goes to that newly formed hotspot under my hair and I cannot resist looking over my shoulder, scanning to find no one is there.
Kace’s arm slides around me and he angles us together, scanning behind us as well. “What’s up, baby?”
“I don’t know. I just had this odd sensation of being watched.” I glance at Savage and Adrian, who seem unaffected, and back to Kace. “But they would know, right?”