“And what’s that?”
He laid his fork down beside his plate to gesture with an empty hand as he spoke. He reminded me of a commentator on an infomercial, blithely trying to sell me something. “That signing a prenup is like planning on getting divorced—planning for the worst. But here’s a different way to spin it—”
“Why am I spinning it?”
He waved me off. “Down, boy. I’m just saying it’s an insurance policy. No one plans on getting divorced when they are young and in love and newly married. I know you’re not planning on it. She’d know that, too. But you also don’t buy home insurance expecting to lose your house in a fire or an 8.0 earthquake, either. You don’t buy car insurance expecting a semi to—”
I held up a hand to stave off the litany. “All right, all right. I get it.” Maybe he had a point, but this was different. This was us, Emilia and me—our relationship, our trust, our future laid bare to be examined, defined, and documented by lawyers. What would she think if I were to plunk a contract down in front of her and ask her to sign it? She’d be insulted as hell.
And I wouldn’t blame her.
While I could tell her that the board was forcing me to do it, why would I? It was worth fighting for. I was going to be her husband, after all. Standing up for her was my job. Protecting her was my job. So, like with any job placed before me, I’d do it—to two hundred percent of my ability.
The trip home was long, and exhausting. I spent the majority of the flight working, handling the pile of work stacked on my plate. But distraction gnawed at me every time I thought of home.
An even bigger pile of work surely waited for me there, but Emilia was the one filling my thoughts. I hadn’t spent this much time away from her since we’d gotten engaged. And I missed her, goddamn it. The smell of her hair. The feel of her skin. The sound of her voice—even when she was teasing me about whatever latest joke was going back and forth between us.
After ten days of staring at Jordan’s mug, I was done. I wanted Emilia.
Due to a cold he’d caught during our trip, he was now snoring in the pod next to me on the plane. I prayed I hadn’t caught his germs. Great souvenir for him to take back to April. She’d be thrilled about that.
We touched down at five a.m. A little after six, my driver dropped me at my front door. Hopefully, Emilia would be sleeping. She was on summer break now, but still working hard in the lab with research and study as she prepared for the start of her second year at medical school. Despite that, she remained a devoted night owl, and it was Saturday morning.
Envisioning her asleep in bed was enough to make me rush upstairs, anxious to catch a catnap to stave off my gnawing fatigue. Fortunately, she wasn’t a light sleeper, so she didn’t wake up when I entered our room, shedding my clothes as I went. By the time I reached the foot of the bed, I was in my underwear and ready to dive into the sheets.
But I had to pause to take her in…at the sight of her, my chest tightened, and my lungs couldn’t draw enough air. Her lithe form curled in on itself. And though she was tall, she appeared small in our huge bed, her long, dark hair splayed across the white pillow. She lay on her side, her back to my side of the bed. Perfect.
I slid into bed next to her and curved my body around hers, pulling her flush to me so that we were spooning. With a sigh, she settled against me, and that warm feeling flared in my chest. I buried my nose in her silky hair, and my entire body stirred. If I weren’t so exhausted, I would have tried something then. But the pull of twenty hours without sleep was strong. I nodded off instead.
When I woke up hours later, she tiptoed through the room, obviously trying her best to not wake me. Her hair was still messy, her eyes sleepy. The clock read ten minutes after eight. She must have just gotten out of bed.
In that short t-shirt that showed off her stunning legs, she appeared nothing less than delectable. Good enough to eat, and given my raging hard-on, my body agreed. I rolled onto my back and heaved a sigh as she dug out some items from her nightstand drawer.
“Come here,” I mumbled.
She jerked her head in my direction, eyes wide. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?”
“No. Come here.”
“Well, good morning to you, too.” She slowly approached the bed. “I was going to hop in the shower and then make a bunch of noise to wake you up so I could attack you. When did you get in?”
“Two hours ago. I got no sleep on the flight.” I stretched my arms above my head, yawning.
“Crap, you must be exhausted.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, beyond my reach, and grabbed my hand, lacing her fingers with mine. “You should go back to sleep.” My fingers closed around hers, trapping them.
“Hell no.” I tugged on her hand to pull her toward me. As I did, my arm nudged a hard lump in the bedsheets. I craned my head for a closer look. It was a balled-up shirt nestled among the pillows on her side of the bed.
“What’s that?”
She reached for it, blushing, but I was quicker, snatching it up. It was one of my shirts that she’d tucked up into a ball. In fact, it was the shirt I’d worn the day before I left for China.
“This is my shirt…” I shot her a questioning look. She tried to snatch it from me, but I pulled it away. “Were you sleeping with my shirt?”
She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes, laughing. “No…sheesh. Why would I do that? You just leave your laundry lying around.” But she didn’t meet my gaze, trying to pull her hand out of my grip. I held on for dear life.
“I threw that in my laundry hamper two weeks ago.” I fought a shit-eating grin that I knew would only annoy her more. “How did it get here?”
She turned back to me. “Maybe I liked cuddling with the shirt because it smells like you while not being annoying, like its owner.”
The grin could no longer be contained. It was unleashed, full force. In response, her mouth twisted, and she narrowed her eyes at me. I feigned innocence. “Wait, what? How am I annoying?”
“Because you’re trying to embarrass me for sleeping with your damn shirt.”
“I think I have a right to be upset.”
She frowned. “Upset? Why? I didn’t ruin it.”
“No…but I get back from a long trip only to catch you in bed cheating on me with my dirty laundry.”