What pissed me off was the way Vivian rearranged everything while I was gone. The towels and flowers were just the tip of the iceberg. There was new art on the walls, aromatherapy piping through hidden diffusers, and a massage room where the gift-wrapping room used to be.
I left for a month and came back to find my home transformed into a fucking Club Med.
“You had a good time while I was gone, did you?” A dangerous current twined around my words.
“I had a wonderful time.” Vivian threaded her fingers through my hair and tugged hard enough to hurt. She smiled. “The house has been so pleasant without all the scowls and grunts.”
“Here I thought you’d miss me.” I tsked. “I’m hurt.”
“I would apologize, but catering to your feelings isn’t part of our arrangement. It’s just a business deal. Remember?”
A reluctant smile touched my mouth.
Touché.
“Look at you two. So sweet.” Winona sighed. “Dante, why don’t you give her a kiss on the lips? It’ll be the perfect photo to wrap up the shoot.”
My smile disappeared.
Vivian went stiff in my arms. “That’s not necessary,” she said quickly. “We don’t…we don’t like PDA.”
“There’s no one here except us,” Winona pointed out.
I’d pulled some strings and reserved swaths of the park for the photoshoot. I hated public crowds. Too loud, too unpredictable, too there.
“Yes, but…” Vivian faltered. She looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.
Annoyance flared at her horrified expression. I didn’t want to kiss her, but I didn’t appreciate how she acted like kissing me was the equivalent of getting bitten by a poisonous snake.
“We really don’t feel comfortable kissing in front of any third party,” Vivian finally finished.
She tried to step back, but my hold on her hips prevented her from doing so.
My annoyance deepened. We’d agreed to play the part of a loving couple in public, but she wasn’t acting particularly loving.
“If you don’t want to, that’s fine, but it’s not an engagement shoot without a kiss.” Winona looked puzzled by our hesitation. “I promise I won’t be scandalized.”
“Right.” Vivian scraped her teeth across her bottom lip.
Christ. If she waffled any harder, she’d have a prime spot on Sarabeth’s brunch menu, syrup and all.
Instead of waiting for her to make a decision sometime in the next century, I dipped my head and brushed my mouth over hers. Softly, just long enough to hear the camera shutter click again.
Vivian’s body morphed from stiff to rigid. Her lips parted on a sharp inhale, and I tasted something sweet flavored with a hint of spices.
My blood thrummed.
It was just supposed to be a quick kiss for the camera. I should pull back, but her mouth was so warm and soft I couldn’t resist another taste.
And another.
Before I knew it, my hand slid up of its own accord. My fingers sank into her hair and evoked an overwhelming urge to deepen the kiss. To wrap my fist around all that silk and tug until her mouth opened fully for me, letting me explore and plunder at my will.
My blood thrummed louder.
I blamed my senseless actions on the month apart. Absence made the heart grow fonder and all that crap.
It was the only plausible reason why kissing Francis Lau’s daughter didn’t make me want to scrub bleach all over myself.
Vivian tilted her chin up a fraction, giving me better access. My—
“We got the shot!” Winona’s voice yanked us apart as suddenly and violently as if someone had fired a gun.
One second, we were kissing. The next, my hands were gone from Vivian’s hip and hair, her arms had dropped from around my neck, and my heart was racing like I’d just completed an Ironman Triathlon.
Vivian and I stared at each other for a frozen second before quickly looking away.
The kiss had lasted less than a minute, but my mouth turned with the imprint of her lips. Heaviness settled on my skin like a cashmere blanket as Winona rose from her crouching position.
“You two might be the most photogenic couple I’ve ever worked with.” She grinned. “I can’t wait for you to see the final photos.”
“Thank you,” Vivian said, her face pink. “I’m sure they’ll be great.”
“Are we done?” I removed my jacket and ignored her reproving look. We’d done the damn shoot. What more did she want?
And why was it so fucking hot in the middle of October?
“Yes, I’ll email you a link to the gallery in two weeks,” Winona said, unfazed by my curt reply. “Congratulations again on your engagement.”
Vivian thanked her again while I brushed past her toward the stairs leading away from Bethesda Terrace. I needed to put more distance between us immediately.
Unfortunately, Vivian soon fell into step with me again, and we walked in silence toward one of the park exits while I cursed myself for my lapse of judgment.
Not just the kiss, but the photoshoot altogether. I should’ve hired someone to Photoshop us into the park. That way, I wouldn’t have to deal with…this.
The restless buzz beneath my skin. The tightening of my muscles when her scent wafted into my nose. The memory of her mouth on mine.
It wasn’t about the kiss, which we’d had to do if we didn’t want to arouse Winona’s suspicion.
It was about the fact I’d lingered.
Vivian finally spoke when we passed through the exit onto 79th and Fifth. “About the kiss back there—”
“It was for the photo.” I didn’t look at her.
“I know, but—”
“Are you hungry?” I nodded at the food cart on the corner of the street. I would rather bathe in acid than discuss what happened.
Vivian sighed but dropped the subject. “I could use some food,” she admitted. Her eyebrows winged up when I stopped in front of the food cart. “What are you doing?”
“Buying breakfast.” I pulled a crisp twenty out of my wallet. “Two coffees and signature bagels. Keep the change. Thanks, Omar.”
While I wanted to get away from Vivian as soon as possible, I was damn hungry. We’d woken up too early for breakfast, and I couldn’t buy food without getting some for her too.
I was an asshole, not a boor.
I turned to find her staring at me like I’d sprouted horns and feathers in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
“What?”
“You’re on a first-name basis with the owner.”
“Obviously.” I slid my wallet back into my pocket. “I run here in the mornings when I have time, and I’ve tried all the breakfast carts around the park. Omar’s the best.”
“Here I thought you only ate caviar and human hearts.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Caviar tastes awful with human hearts.”
Vivian’s laugh evoked a strange sensation in my chest. Heartburn?Investigate later.
I took the food and handed one of the paper cups and wrapped bagels to her. “I pay for quality, not price. Expensive doesn’t always equal good, especially when it comes to food.”
“For once, we agree.” She followed me to a nearby bench and tucked her dress beneath her thighs before sitting. “We should check the temperature in hell.”
The corner of my mouth kicked up, but I flattened it before she noticed.
“One of my favorite restaurants before it closed was this tiny little place in Boston’s Chinatown,” Vivian said hesitantly, like she was deciding whether or not to share the information with me even as the words left her mouth. “If you weren’t looking for it, you’d miss it. The decor looked like something out of the early nineties and the floors were suspiciously sticky, but they had the best dumplings I’d ever tasted.”
Curiosity got the better of me. “Why did it close?”
“The owner died, and his son didn’t want to take it over. He sold it to someone who turned it into an electronics repair shop.” A wistful note entered her voice. “My family and I ate there every week, but I guess we would’ve stopped going even if it’d stayed open. They only go to Michelin-starred places now. If they saw me eating from a food truck, they’d have a coronary.”
I took a slow sip of coffee as I processed what she said.
I’d assumed Vivian was fully under her parents’ thumb, but judging by her tone, all was not perfect in the Lau family.
“My brother and I used to go to this place in midtown when we were kids,” I said. “Moondust Diner. The neighborhood was a tourist trap, but the diner had the best milkshakes in the city. Two dollars, glasses almost as big as our heads. We went there every week after school until our grandfather found out. He was furious. Said Russos don’t frequent cheap diners and assigned someone to walk us home straight after school. We never went back after that.”
I’d never told anyone about the diner, but since she shared about the dumpling shop, I felt compelled to reciprocate.
The kiss really had fucked with my head.
“Two-dollar milkshakes? I would’ve been a dentist’s nightmare,” Vivian joked.
“Mine wasn’t my biggest fan either.”
The Moondust Diner still existed, but I wasn’t a kid anymore. My sweet tooth had faded, and I didn’t have time for trips down nostalgia lane.
We ate quietly for another minute before I said, “Things must have changed quite a bit after your father’s business took off.”
I could always use more intel on the Laus, and if anyone knew Francis well, it was his daughter.
At least, that was the reason I gave myself for not leaving even though I’d finished my food.
“That’s an understatement.” Vivian traced the rim of her coffee cup with her finger. “When I was fourteen, my mother sat me down for the talk. It wasn’t about sex; it was about expectations for who I should and could date. I was free to be with anyone I wanted as long as they met certain criteria. That was also the day I found out I was expected to have an arranged marriage if I didn’t find anyone ‘suitable’ within a certain time.”
I’d suspected as much. New money families like the Laus typically tried to enhance their social status through marriage. Old money families did it too, but they were more subtle about it.
“I take it your parents weren’t fans of your exes.” If they were, Vivian and I wouldn’t be engaged.
“No.” A shadow passed over her face. “What about you? Any exes you thought about marrying?”
“I wasn’t interested in marriage.”
“Hmm. I’m not surprised.”
I slanted a glance at her. “Meaning?”