A shudder racked her small frame, and I could no more stop myself from reaching out and curving my arm over her shoulders and hauling her into me than I could stop the tide from turning.
“You don’t need to wait. I have the money to get a retainer.”
She stared up at me. “You worked hard for that.”
“So? You worked hard for your money too.”
A wince had her mouth twisting. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve earned millions. I mean, I deserve a good salary, but millions seem excessive.”
I snorted. “You going to turn the money down? I can’t see my dad letting you.”
“No, I can’t see him doing that either,” she said wryly, “and I’ll give some away. Why do I need all that cash?”
“Just to have it? For a rainy day? For savings? When you’re old and gray?”
“With careful investment, I can make sure I’m set for life, but after that...it’s not like I can’t get a job.”
I stared at her for a second, and while I’d been raised with a mom who’d dragged herself out of the gutter, who was a politician to her core, and who worked more hours than she probably should, I wasn’t used to that type of woman.
My mom was one of a kind. In my experience, mothers were like the rich housewives on TV. They didn’t do shit with their days except for spend their husband’s money and do lunch to alleviate the boredom.
And Maria and her mother? They were some of the worst. Jose worked pretty much all the time while they just figured out ways to waste the money he earned. Even my wealth didn’t equate with Jose’s, so, ironically enough, when taking her allowance into consideration, I’d probably be the one getting alimony—not her.
Still, Thea’s mindset, her views, they were like a breath of fresh air in a polluted world.
I sucked it in, sucked in her genuine confusion at my question while I reveled in her answer and, tucking her tighter into me, I kissed her temple. “Thea?”
“Yes?” she murmured, her voice low and hoarse.
“I love you.”
She burrowed her face into me. “I love you too.”
“We can work through anything—even a curse.”
“How can we?” she rasped. “It’s a curse. And better women than me in my family haven’t figured out a way to stop it.”
I wasn’t going to argue. Not here, standing outside a coffee shop in downtown Tokyo. Nor was I going to try to convince her when I didn’t know what I was up against, so I just kissed her temple once more and muttered, “We’ll talk about that later.”
She sighed. “I-I just want this one vacation.”
I got it.
I did.
But if she thought that was going to be enough, a vacation, her reward after years of training and hard work and dedication, then she was crazy.
A lifetime wouldn’t be enough for Theodosia Kinkade and me. I knew that like I knew she was mine and I was hers.
Now, I just had to prove that to her.
THEA
I stared at him as he slept.
The light crept through the shades, peeking in only slightly over our seats thanks to the way the pilot controlled our waking hours, and though Adam had slept through a good few hours of the flight because of that level of control, I hadn’t.
I couldn’t.
But I was going to be weak, again. I was going to take this time and own it, embrace it, and indulge myself in him like he was a treat I was forbidden.
He was sugar, and I was a diabetic.
Junk food to my heart disease.
He was the death of me, when, every time I was with him, he felt like the life of me.
Torment.
Bittersweet.
It was why I watched him.
Tucked inside the business class cabin, I sat at an angle, curled so I could watch him rest, absorbing every part of him like I was a camel stocking up on water for the future drought.
He was beautiful.
Even more than he’d been as a kid, and just looking at him, being in his proximity, made my heart start to pound.
But I controlled it, like I’d been doing for the past few hours.
Seeing him so vulnerable in sleep did things to me, because he was beyond strong. Such a powerful man in his own right. Self-made now, with connections forged on his name and not his father’s, he wasn’t what I’d expected.
The guys in my year at school were still big kids. Still dicking around, doing insane stuff for shits and giggles.