She smiled brightly then and the next thing I know she was throwing her arms around my neck. I had to drop the picnic basket and blanket I held onto in order to wrap her up in mine. “It’s okay,” she said. She looked up at me with her pretty face and I brought my lips down to meet hers. She was so responsive, I loved kissing her. This kiss started out sweet, but the feel of her in my arms was too comfortable and the tickle in my core too powerful. I pressed my tongue into hers and she tangled hers up with mine. Her hands went up and her fingers tangled in my hair as my hands found the bottom of her blouse and ran up underneath her shirt and across her silky soft skin. I wondered if she could feel the evidence of my desire against her hip. When we broke the kiss, we were both breathless and a light sheen of sweat had gathered between us.
“I want you, Vicki.”
She smiled, “I could feel that,” she said, with a blush. “I want you too.”
“Will you stay with me, in the master suite tonight?”
“Any night that you’ll have me,” she said. I kissed her again.
“When we get back to the house, I’ll move your things in there. I’d like to have you there every night.”
She laid her head i
nto my chest and we just stood there for a long time in the midst of the beautiful, fragrant flowers. Vicki finally pulled back first and said, “Since we have to wait until tonight, maybe we should finish our walk and have our picnic. Breastfeeding makes me hungry.”
I laughed. “Okay, then we better feed you. I fed the little man the bottle earlier. He’s a glutton. You’ll need your nourishment.”
We walked until we came to the clearing by the pond. Vicki gasped again. “Oh Alex! It’s so beautiful!”
“It is,” I agreed with her. “But you know what?”
“What?” she asked, looking at me with those clear blue eyes and her blonde hair blowing back gently in the breeze.
“It pales in comparison to you.” Although it wasn’t my intent the compliment netted me another embrace and another long, deep kiss. After we tore ourselves apart again I laid the blanket out and sat down. Vicki was still transfixed by the pond and the brilliant colors that surrounded us. The sun reflected off of the water and back into her eyes. They were filled with wonder and I suddenly realized that I wanted to do something every day for the rest of her life that brought that look into her eyes.
I sat out the food that Cook packed for us and said, “Would you like to join me or should I just fix you a plate and hand it on up?”
She grinned and sat down. “I’m sorry, it’s just so gorgeous.”
I looked at her smiling face and said, “That’s okay, I know the feeling.”
She looked down at what I sat out and said, “Wow! Cook outdid himself.”
Laughing I said, “He usually does.” He hadn’t packed anything paper. There were real china plates and linen napkins and glass champagne flutes. He remembered about Vicki breastfeeding and he’d packed apple cider instead of champagne. There was a tray of exotic cheese and hard salami and another of prosciutto. He’d packed a baguette and even some beautiful French pastries. While we ate, I took the opportunity to ask her something that I’ve been thinking about. “Have you ever been out of the country?”
She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “I’ve barely been out of Los Angeles.”
“I was thinking that maybe you and I could take a weekend and go somewhere… anywhere you’d like to go… somewhere you’ve always wanted to go…”
“Oh, I think it’s a little too soon for that, don’t you?”
I raised an eyebrow and smiled at her. “You just agreed to move into my room.”
She laughed. “I guess that did sound a little backwards, didn’t it? I meant that it’s too soon to leave Michael.”
“Then we won’t leave him. We’ll hire a nanny this week and we’ll plan the trip for next weekend. Michael and the nanny can go too.”
“Well…” My phone rang before she was able to finish.
“Hold that thought… as long as it was a yes,” I told her with a wink. “Hello?”
“Alex, it’s Amanda.” Amanda is my personal assistant. I could tell just by the sound of her voice that something was very wrong.
“Hey Amanda, what’s up?”
“It’s not good, boss.”
“Okay… what is it?”
“Variety has a two-page spread about your “love child.” It names his mother and it also says that she was in a relationship at the time and working as your maid. They of course failed to mention that you and Cassandra were in the middle of a divorce at the time.”
“Damn it! Where did they get their information?”
“I don’t know, but it’s pretty accurate.”