“Dee!” Alicia dropped her shopping bags and jumped into the woman’s arms. “I was hoping it would be you!”
“Ah, shucks. When Ms. Moreau calls me to come back to work for you, I ain’t gonna say no. You’re fun, ma’am.”
“Please. Alicia.”
They parted. Dee was back in her bodyguard uniform, and all felt right in Alicia’s world. Well, minus the part where she now needed a bodyguard more than ever. “You’re back at work on time. Tomorrow’s the big day.” Every time Alicia thought about it, her heart fluttered and her stomach exploded in anxiety. That was normal, right? Everyone got cold feet.
Under Danica’s watchful eye, Alicia rearranged her paperwork she kept in a safe in the hotel room.
“As soon as your name is attached to that account, it will be all yours,” she said, stroking Alicia’s long hair. The leash coiled from Alicia’s collar to Danica’s other hand. A kiss touched the top of her head. “All the money I put into it will be rerouted through five different countries. I’m not saying it’s totally untraceable, but it won’t be easy even if someone is looking for it.”
“You take such good care of me.”
The leash tugged at her throat. Alicia wasn’t done with her reorganizing, however. “I’ll start putting money into it as soon as the paperwork goes through. It’s all yours, my love. Pay your bills, invest, do whatever you want.”
“I will, ma’am.”
She stopped her chore long enough to tip her head back and kiss her Mistress. Alicia almost fell beneath her spell for the second time that day – but there was work to do! So much to do. Tomorrow was a big day.
“You sure you don’t want to invite your friend or even your mother?”
“No,” Alicia said after endless consideration. “They wouldn’t understand. Let’s save it for the real thing.”
Danica agreed. The fewer people who knew, the better.
“You’re sure you want to use that ring?” Danica meant her mother’s wedding ring.
“What better trinket to send a message to your father?” Alicia had few pleasures to indulge in. Her fiancée and the look on Russell’s face when his whole world crumbled were two of them.
“You’re more sadistic than I ever gave you credit for, my love.”
“Takes a sadist to know one.”
“Touché.”
The judge stepped out of his chambers and shook Danica’s hand. “Look at you! Thought for sure you were bullshitting me when you called me last week.” He shook Alicia’s hand, too.
Danica kept a protective arm around Alicia’s midsection. The Dior dress kept riding up her thighs, damnit. “I trust that your reelection campaign is going well?”
“With your donation? Of course.” The judge gestured to the podium at the front of the room. Julia and Dee already stood there, dressed in Sunday best. Julia pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed her one good eye. It was that sort of thing that gave Alicia strength today. “Shall we?” The judge’s voice was as ominous as the seven trumpets heralding the Apocalypse.
“You’re beautiful,” Julia said to Alicia.
Dee blushed when asked if she was Alicia’s witness. “Guess so,” she said.
This wasn’t how Alicia imagined this day when she was a little girl. But, she reassured herself, Danica had promised a proper ceremony as soon as her father was taken care of.
“Alicia,” Danica whispered, clasping her hands and gazing into her eyes. She was liable to drown in that amber. Not a bad way to go.Suck me into your gravity again, my love.“Promise me that this is what you want.”
She nodded. “I want to be with you forever, Danica. I don’t care how we achieve that.”
This monumental moment should’ve been given more care, but they didn’t have time for ostentatiousness or full-page spreads in the papers.One day.When this was all over and they could be normal again.
Well, as normal as a couple with billions of dollars at their disposal could be, anyway.
Alicia smoothed her skirt as she followed Danica down the hallway. Her pulse kept time with every step, even though she had known about this appointment. Knowing didn’t make her any less anxious.
The room was sterile. Alicia perched on the padded bench, the paper beneath her crinkling, and folded her hands in her lap. “This couldn’t be any less romantic,” she admitted. “Can’t wait to tell my future grandchildren about their origins in a doctor's exam room."
