“You’re not omniscient, Vik.”
“If I’d been paying better attention, I could have headed you off gently.”
She wasn’t sure that was true. Vik was right that she and her father shared a stubbornness that resulted in a tenacity of purpose almost impossible to derail.
“If we’d remained friends, Perry would never have gotten the hold on you he did.”
“You think you would have stopped us becoming friends.”
“I would have prevented him from using you as his personal bank and he would have known that you had people looking out for you.”
“People scary enough to abandon his plans for the phony exposé before he ever put feelers out for the first reporter?” she asked with a smile.
“You think I’m scary.”
“To men like Perry? Oh, yes, definitely.”
“But not to you.”
“No, Vik, you don’t scare me.”
“Good.”
He frowned. “Perhaps you would not have taken the chances you have in the past years if you’d had the stability of my presence in your life.”
“You’re pretty arrogant.”
“Do you deny it?”
“Actually yes,” she said firmly. “My actions are not your fault, or your responsibility.”
He shrugged, clearly disagreeing.
“You really have a God complex.”
“No, but I know my responsibilities.”
“And I’m one of them?” she demanded, frustrated more with herself for seeing that as romantic than Vik for his arrogance.
His smile sent heat through her, reminding her of that lack-of-celibacy thing he’d taken pains to make clear. “I hope more than that.”
“Friends again?”
“Yes, definitely.”
“But you want more.” Maybe not passionately and personally, though she was beginning to see that Vik did desire her, but to make his dreams come true, Vik was going to marry her.
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
“To?”
“Everything.”
His expression turned even more heated and predatory. “Be careful what you promise.”
“This is a special place. Promises made here stick, right?”
“Yes.” No doubts.
“Then I promise to do my best to make both our dreams come true.”
“I make this promise as well.”
That was way better than him promising to build AIH into some world superpower, in her opinion. “Thank you.”
His kiss took her by surprise. It shouldn’t have. Wasn’t it natural to kiss to seal an engagement?
But the kiss did surprise her. And then it overwhelmed her, his lips coaxing a response that radiated throughout her body. They took possession of hers, no longer coaxing, but insisting on the two things she’d said only that morning she wasn’t capable of.
Submission and trust.
But then, like with so many other things in her life, the rules did not apply to Viktor Beck.
She found herself melting into him, no thoughts for self-preservation or holding anything back.
And he accepted her surrender with a forceful masculine desire that belied any claim for a lack of passion between them.
He devoured her mouth, his arms coming around her, his hands pressing her body against his, one thigh pressing between her legs as far as her skirt would allow.
Maddie’s knees would have given out, but Vik’s hold on her was too tight.
She’d thought the kiss this morning had been hot, but it was nothing like Viktor Beck staking claim to the woman who promised to marry him and give him his dreams.
* * *
Viktor knocked impatiently on Madison’s door thirty minutes before they needed to be at Jeremy’s ostentatious home in Presidio Heights.
Viktor had not given himself time for a drink or idle chitchat on purpose. After the kiss at the overlook, he did not want to risk his self-control before the dinner.
If his grandparents weren’t going to be there, as well as the photographer from the magazine, he would never have left Madison that afternoon. But she deserved to show up to her engagement dinner on time and not looking like she’d spent the hours before in bed.
He’d told her the truth earlier. Six years ago he’d seen her as barely a woman when she’d kissed him.
He’d been shocked by his own body’s response to her overtures, realizing for the first time that she was an adult and not a child. Not that he’d given that revelation much credence.
Not at first, but after a year of avoiding her and indulging in more liaisons than his workaholic regime usually allowed for, two things had become obvious.
He missed Madison and she was the only woman he wanted sharing his bed. She was still too young and Viktor’s plans didn’t include marriage for at least a few more years.