Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(43)

He put a palm on my side, and it slid around to the small of my back. “I think we’ll figure it out better doing it rather than trying to guess. Forget all of that for now. You need a place to stay. Where do you want to be?”

I shook my head slow. “I don’t mind where.”

He smiled and leaned in a bit, his face close to mine. “Downtown? A house like my parents?”

A house like his would have ample room, but there was also the attention factor. That house was meant to be looked at and admired by people on that street. It was a statement house. That wasn’t really me. “Oh. Not...really. No offense.”

“It’s not for me, either,” he said. His fingers caressed my spine. When his fingers got caught in the shirt I was wearing, he tugged up until his fingers could slide across bare skin.

My heart raced and my focus shifted from what we were talking about to what he was doing with his hands. My hand tightened at his side, lightly gripping through his shirt.

His fingers traced around the bones of my spine. He leaned in, kissing my nose once.

He whispered. “I’d live here with you, if that’s what we had to do.”

“You’d give up a big house?”

“I’d give it all up.”

I didn’t want him to have to, but I realized we used quite a bit of his parents’ money. “We’d have to find another way...to you know...”

“Money isn’t a problem,” he said. “But you’re right. I stopped using my parents’ cards a while ago. I didn’t need them knowing what I spent, like for you.”

My eyes widened at this information, and I backed my head up an inch. “What? What about the...” I thought of the closet with so many clothes, the bath bombs... “How?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I’d put together my own investment algorithm a couple of years ago. Mr. Blackbourne showed me how, and I put some of my savings aside. It’s not a ton of money yet, but it’s working. In the meantime, Mr. Blackbourne had me take one of his cards.”

“You have his card?”

“Gabriel has one, too. And maybe Kota. I’m not sure exactly.” His hand drifted to my side to pull me back into him. He leaned against me, his head lowering to my face. “Does it matter?”

I hadn’t realized Mr. Blackbourne would issue out cards like that. It shouldn’t have surprised me. It just wasn’t expected.

Not to mention Victor was already ahead of his exit plan, with his own investment portfolio. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I barely had time off to work at the diner when I could.

“Do I need an investment portfolio?” I asked.

He chuckled, kissing at my lips close to my cheek. “If you want to learn, I’ll show you.”

I’d no idea if I wanted to learn, but it felt important. I needed to contribute something.

While I was thinking of where to start, Victor’s hand traced up my body until his fingers were tracing my rib bones.

“I don’t care where we are,” he whispered. “I don’t need the portfolio. I’d work the diner with you all. If I could just be with you, like this, when we have time, that’s what I want. I don’t need the rest.”

I smiled at what he was saying, tilting my head down. “I don’t need a big house, either...But...It’ll probably be a big house. With rooms for everyone.”

He chuckled and nodded. He whispered close to my lips, “Whatever you want.”

He kissed me. It was slow, holding his lips still.

He was waiting for me.

I responded, parting my lips.

After a moment, he responded. He moved when I did. He did what I did. With every touch and kiss that followed, he was there, following along. His fingers traced over my ribs like keys on his piano, and his warm breath passed through his lips between kisses. First slow, and then faster the deeper the kiss became.

There was a very slight sound across the room, the sound of a car coming into the parking lot outside, but it was louder than other sounds from outside moments ago. The air pressure changed, getting colder.

I pulled back from Victor, finding Luke tiptoeing his way to a table up against the far wall, but his face toward us. He’d opened the door and slipped in.

Victor backed up from me, sitting up when he realized what was going on. “Luke!” he said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Luke continued to tiptoe but chuckled. “Don’t mind me,” he said in a loud stage whisper. “I just came in to get the tablet thingy.”

Victor groaned and picked up his cell phone that fell below him. “Are you supposed to be here?”

Luke made it to the table, picked up the tablet and stopped his tiptoeing and whispering. “I have to wait for Nathan. I wanted a bigger screen to watch a movie.” He grinned and then looked at us. “But if you two don’t mind...”

Victor sighed and rolled his head back. “You want to stay?”

“If you insist.” Luke hurried over, wedged himself between the two of us, nearly knocking me off of the beanbag chair. He faced Victor, put his arm around him holding the tablet. “Is it my turn now?” He puckered his lips, hovering over his face.

“Ugh,” Victor said, shoving his hand at Luke’s mouth and pushing him away.