I licked up the drop of come, inwardly smiling when his pupils dilated.
“Next time, you’ll drink it all down. Every last bit of it.”
After using a wet cloth to clean me up—he insisted on doing it himself—he urged me to get under the bedcovers and then slid in beside me.
“You’re staying?” I asked in an unintentionally shy whisper.
He shrugged one shoulder and drew me to his side. “I sleep better in this bed. As a bonus, you’ll be right there when I want to fuck you in the morning.”
Yeah, that was a definite bonus. So I snuggled into him and closed my eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Returning from an internal meeting with Dane to find Melinda sat in the reception area near my desk, I smiled. Her answering smile was so shaky and strained it made my own dim. “Hi, Melinda.”
“Hi,” she said, rising from her seat. Her gaze danced from me to Dane, who she couldn’t seem to look in the eye. “I hope you both managed to find time to have fun in New York.”
“We did, thank you,” said Dane. “What can we do for you?”
“I was hoping to talk to Vienna for a few minutes. About some reception-related things,” she hurried to add.
His steely eyes scrutinized her, and I could sense he wasn’t buying it. “All right.” He cut his gaze to me. “Join me in my office once you’re done.”
“Will do,” I said.
He nodded at her. “Take care, Melinda.”
Wearing yet another strained smile, she gave him a little wave. Once he’d disappeared into his office, she bit down on her lip and looked at me. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk in private?”
“You’re really starting to worry me now.” I glanced around and shrugged. “We can use the bathroom.”
We headed inside the restroom. After I’d checked that it was empty of people, I locked the main door and turned to Melinda. “Go on.”
She nervously rubbed her hands together. “I’m sorry in advance if any of this hurts you, but you have a right to know.”
“Okay.”
“Dane’s brother, Travis, came to see me. He was very nice, very polite. And very concerned for you.”
Oh, Lord. “Melinda—”
“He told me something. Something that has me very worried. He wanted to come to you about it, but he thought it might be less hard on you if you heard it from someone you love. Dane has a trust fund, Vienna. Hugh left it to him. But there are conditions. He has to be married before he can access it, and he has to be married before he’s thirty-eight or he can never touch it. Dane’s thirty-seven now.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “And?”
She looked at me, bewildered. “In light of that, don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that Dane pushed you to marry him so soon? I’m not saying he doesn’t care for you. I believe he does. But I also believe there’s a good chance that he only wanted to marry you so fast because he wanted to get his hands on the trust fund.”
God, Travis was such a bastard. “Have you told my father?” Because Simon might very well lose his shit.
“No. I haven’t even told Wyatt yet. I wanted to tell you first.” She touched my arm. “I’m sorry to be the person who gives you this news. I know that it must hurt.”
“I already knew about the trust fund.”
She gaped. “You knew?”
I nodded. “I’ve known about it since before Dane and I started dating. He told me himself.”
“And it didn’t ring any alarm bells when he proposed so soon? You didn’t think to ask him to wait a while just to see what he’d say?”
Ugh, now I was going to have to tell even more freaking lies than I already had. “He didn’t push me into marrying him in Vegas, Melinda. He said he’d like me to, but that he’d give me a fairytale wedding back at home if that was really what I wanted.”
“Then why didn’t you wait?”
“Because it wasn’t really the dress and reception and flowers that I wanted. I just wanted him. I’ve always wanted him. Travis isn’t the nice man he pretended to be. He neglected to tell you a few things. Like that he’s well aware I know about all this. Like that he’s been trying to cause trouble between me and Dane for a while. Like that Dane’s trust fund would be divided between his brothers if he didn’t meet the conditions to access it. Travis just wants his share. He isn’t concerned about me. He wants me out of the way, even if it means ruining my and Dane’s marriage.”
Melinda’s expression softened slightly. “Poor Dane. To have his own brother working against him like that …” She exhaled heavily. “I can’t say I’m totally convinced that Dane’s rush to marry you wasn’t prompted by the conditions of the trust fund. It just seems too … iffy for me. And I’m shocked that you’re so wrapped up in him you don’t even care if he proposed so soon for the right reason.”
“And if it had been you and Wyatt? Would you have asked him to wait just to prove to you that what he felt was real?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“I like that I can help him access the trust fund. Dane’s a man who has pretty much everything. But this is something that I can do for him that he wouldn’t have been able to do himself. And if we later divorce at some point, I won’t regret that I helped him.”
“Vienna …”
“You said you believe he cares for me.”
“I do.”
“Then can’t that be enough?”
She turned away and thrust a hand through her hair. Seconds ticked by as she said nothing. Finally, she faced me again. “It won’t be enough for Wyatt. He’s a suspicious creature. He’s going to want to talk to Dane about this.”
And that “talk” would no doubt get heated fast. “I’d imagine that’s what Travis hoped for.”
“What?”
“That you, Wyatt, and Simon would all turn on Dane. Just bear that in mind when you tell Wyatt what Travis told you, and ask Wyatt to bear it in mind, too.” I escorted Melinda to the elevator. I waited until it began to descend before heading to Dane’s office.
I knocked on the door, and he quickly bid me to enter. I walked in, closed the door behind me, and leaned back against it with a heavy sigh.
His brow quirked. “Problem?”
“Travis has been up to his old tricks again.” I pushed away from the door, took the seat opposite him, and brought him up to speed. “Melinda doesn’t suspect that the marriage is fake. She believes you ‘care’ for me; she’s just not so sure that you married me so soon purely because you care for me.”
His expression hard, Dane drummed his fingers on the desk. “I suppose I should have seen this coming.”
“At least Travis never went to Simon. We’d have found ourselves facing Deacon for sure. He likes to settle things with his fists.”
Leaning back in his chair, Dane rubbed at his jaw … just as he’d rubbed my pussy that morning to get me wet before he took me hard in my bed. I shook off the memory fast, set on keeping work and play completely separate—something which wasn’t proving to be easy for me, but Dane seemed to find it simple enough. Then again, he’d never struggled with our attraction. It was a wonder my ego was intact.