Madison was Viktor’s match in every way. They were not just sexually compatible, they were combustible. Just as he’d known they would be.
But equally important, they were friends with compatible, if very different, goals for the future.
Viktor felt an unfamiliar sense of having dodged a bullet with Maxwell Black’s presence in the conference room that morning. Jeremy bringing in Maxwell—of all men—had precipitated actions on Viktor’s part he hadn’t intended to take until later.
But he couldn’t complain about the outcome.
He in no way regretted making love to Madison and had every intention of showing her that no other man would be her match as Viktor was.
He wasn’t just the perfect successor for AIH, he was perfect for Madison.
With that thought, he brushed his hand down her flank, leaning over to kiss the side of her neck and bring her to wakefulness for another example of how very well they meshed in bed.
* * *
For the first time in her life, Maddie had woken in another person’s arms.
She lay, warm and secure as half of Vik’s body covered hers, his breath still even and slow in sleep.
And she thought of babies and the possibility of family. Had he done it on purpose? Or had he been as lost to the final satiation of years’ worth of unfulfilled desire that the idea of birth control hadn’t even entered the picture?
Before she’d been made love to by a man who never seemed to get enough, she would have written the latter off as a complete improbability.
But Vik had woken her several times in the night and pushed the boundaries of pleasure and her body on each occasion, his hunger for her something she would never again be able to doubt. There’d been no question when they were sleeping that they would do so skin-to-skin.
The one time she’d tried donning her sleep pants and tank top, he’d gotten this look in his eyes. Really intense, feral and determined. Her pajamas had been in a puddle on the floor moments later and her body humming the music of the Viktor Beck pleasure symphony.
Even now, his oversized sex...
No, she didn’t believe him that he was no bigger than most men. She’d heard on one of those talk shows hosted by a group of interesting and mostly famous women that the average length was just about five inches erect. Well, she knew from five inches and his was nearly twice that. Average? She did not think so.
Right now, that not-at-all-average hardness was pressing against her hip, telling her that when he woke he’d be ready for more physical intimacy. Despite the twinges of soreness making her aware of muscles she hadn’t known she had, nipples that ached from all the stimulation they’d enjoyed and a tender feeling in the flesh between her legs, she knew she wouldn’t hesitate to respond.
Except...they hadn’t used any form of birth control in the long night of passion. Not once.
“I can hear you thinking.” Vik’s early morning voice rumbled above her head.
“You said we would make any decision about children together.”
Tension seeped into his big body, but he did not move away. “Yes?”
“We did not use birth control last night.”
Oddly, he relaxed. “No, we did not.”
“Vik,” she said in warning.
He sat up, somehow getting pillows propped against the headboard behind him and her sideways in his lap with a minimum of movement. It was a position he apparently enjoyed.
He tilted her chin up, bringing their gazes into alignment. “We made that decision together.”
“I didn’t make a decision at all. I didn’t even think of it.”
His eyebrows rose. “Neither did I.”
She narrowed her eyes, trying to gauge the truth of his statement. She might be blind, but Maddie couldn’t see the smallest flicker of deceit in the espresso orbs.
“It never once occurred to you that a condom might be a good idea?” she asked.
It was his turn for his eyes to narrow, but they glittered with anger not concentration. “You believe I would lie to you?”
“No, but you’re ruthless enough to take advantage of an expedient situation.”
He agreed, no sign of embarrassment at the truth. “Yes, but to what end would I ignore birth control?”
“You get five percent of the company when I give birth to our first child.” Did she really have to remind him of that fact?
“Did you plan to wait to start a family?”
“No.” She couldn’t even claim not to have thought of it.
Dreams were something even a woman who didn’t believe in fairy tales could indulge in. And Maddie’s dreams included building the kind of family she’d always wanted to have.
“I did not think you did.” Therefore, he had no need to take advantage of circumstance.
“Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“I believe you.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “As you should.”
She wrinkled her nose. “It might be old-fashioned, but I would still like to wait until we are married to conceive our first child.” Though if she was pregnant, she would accept that as the gift she believed it to be.
“Agreed.”
“So, from now on, birth control,” she insisted.
“Agreed.”
“You’re being awfully compliant.”
“The truth? I would prefer to wait a couple of years before having children.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t considered he wasn’t keen on starting a family right away.
“But my grandparents are in their seventies,” Vik continued. “If my children are to have the benefit of Deda and Babulya’s presence in their lives, we cannot indulge me.”
“I see.” Wow.
Once again, she was reminded that while she and Vik might be motivated by different hopes for the future, they both had them. And lucky for her, they dovetailed, as surprising as that might be.
“I hesitate to point this out,” Vik said. “Because I do want to gift my grandparents with the next generation of our family.”
“What?” Maddie couldn’t believe how comfortable she was having this discussion naked and sitting in his lap on the bed.
“Won’t it be difficult to start your school if we have a baby right away?” he asked.
She gave him a self-deprecating grimace. “I say all the time that money doesn’t matter to me, but the truth is, I’m counting on it to be able to ‘have it all,’ as they say.”
“You plan to have a nanny?” He sounded almost shocked.
And she loved him all the more for it. “Probably, but not to raise our children. However, if we are ever going to be able to leave the house, we have to have someone besides your grandparents we can trust to care for our children.”
“Yes.”
“So, we’ll have a nanny, someone who fits into our family, preferably matronly in both appearance and age.” So, sue her if Maddie didn’t want a beautiful young woman living under Vik’s nose in their house.
“What do you mean about the money then?”
“I have every intention of hiring qualified staff who share mine and Romi’s vision to run the school.”
Vik’s dark brow furrowed. “But you will both still give a great deal of time to the school. You will have to.”
“Yes, but we’ll make it work. Romi and I already discussed what would happen in the event one or both of us had a family.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“My father would be.” He’d always assumed she had no business sense if she didn’t want to be part of his bus
iness.
“Jeremy only sees part of the picture when he looks at you,” Vik agreed pragmatically.
“That’s all he’s interested in.” Jeremy Archer had never wanted to give the time necessary to get to know who Maddie was, not before Helene’s death and definitely not after.
“He can break out of his tunnel vision.”
“So you say. I’ve witnessed no evidence.”
Vik shook his head, clearly done with the topic. “You’ll need an efficient and knowledgeable personal assistant.”
“Exactly.” A nanny for convenience, not necessity, but a PA? That Maddie would need to make sure things got done.
Vik’s phone rang before they could continue their discussion. It was Conrad, excited about the opportunity for a live interview with the newly engaged couple on an evening celebrity-news show.
And so it began.
* * *
The next weeks passed in a whirl of activity. Interviews as a couple, interviews by herself. The media furor around Maddie and Vik’s engagement was even bigger than the initial craziness Perrygate had spawned.
Vik slept at her apartment every night while decorators and contractors worked overtime getting Parean Hall habitable for them. Maddie interviewed domestic staff while overseeing the changes to the main rooms and the master suite. She did her best to make sure both her and Vik’s design aesthetic was incorporated in their new home.
And could hear his voice saying “I told you so” when she realized she knew enough about his preferences to do that.
Maddie went back to her secret volunteering in her brown wig and contacts, dressed in clothes from the local superstore. Every minute spent with the children cemented her determination to do more.
She also scheduled a visit with the therapist she’d seen in the immediate months after her skydiving accident, when Maddie had realized the time had come to break away from her past. Dr. MacKenzie was vocal in her praise for how far Maddie had come in dealing with both her mom’s death and her father’s emotional neglect.
However the therapist evinced some concern about the marriage that Vik said he intended to be real and yet was connected to a very lucrative contract for him. Dr. MacKenzie asked Maddie to consider carefully her reasons for agreeing to the engagement.