“Except this Clarissa must have been the one to sign off on it. Your parents didn’t marry until years later.”
“Suppose so.” Danica furrowed her brows. “Why does it matter? Filling in the blanks?”
Alicia glanced at one of her desk drawers. “There are a lot of blanks that need filling around here.”
“Precious.” Danica leaned across her desk, hand taking hers. Her thumb grazed Alicia’s wedding ring. “You’re uptight. Relax. Don’t get overwhelmed with unnecessary details.” Her devilish grin was the only thing Alicia needed to start relaxing. “Do you need me to assist? We haven’t done it in your office yet.”
“Only yours.”
“There’s a couch over there with our names on it.”
Alicia took her hand back. “Maybe later. I’m too jittery.”
“You’re not drinking caffeine, are you?”
No, Dr. Moreau.She liked to think she was Alicia’s obstetrician now. “Work stuff.”
“Like I said, you need to calm down. How about I get you an in-office massage?” Her fingers drummed on the desk. “Starting with my healing hands.” Before Alicia could protest, Danica stood and rounded her desk, hands shooting for her shoulders.Fuck, man.She hated to admit how badly she needed this massage right now. Groaning, Alicia leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. The tense feelings in her neck and upper back began easing out of her body. It helped that her wife had a skillful pair of hands that she knew how to use. How many times had she used them to make Alicia come so far? It felt like hundreds of times. “How’s that? Better?”
Alicia laughed. “Don’t you have your own work to get back to? I know I do. Got some blanks I need to fill here.”
“Speaking of arranged marriages.” Danica was a master at avoiding questions, wasn’t she? “I had a business lunch with Helen Warner today. She had a few jokes about us joining familial forces in thirty years. What in the world did you tell her wife last week?”
“It wasn’t me. Candice was cracking wise that I’m already staring at their baby like she’s my possible daughter-in-law. Everyone knows our reputation precedes us.”
“Hm. That could be problematic.” The massage stopped. “Once we formally announce your pregnancy, I wouldn’t be surprised if some more traditional families around the world start approaching us. Of course, I’ll turn them down.”
Every time this whole arranged marriage thing came up, Alicia thought of her in-laws. A couple so unhappy that the one took it out on the other.I could never do that to my daughter… or my son.What if they ended up in a situation like Julia's?I would never be able to live with myself.
Danica made several attempts to get beneath her wife’s skirt, even going so far as to say, “Damnit, Alicia, I am so aroused right now that if you won’t make love to me, I’ll have to lock myself up in your bathroom. And it won’t be to cry. Maybe I should tell you it’s an order?” Too bad for her, Alicia was not in the mood. Her mind was working a mile a minute, and quite frankly, her body was too tender even for the most languid lovemaking.Almost feels like PMS.Alicia tried not to think about it.
“You don’t get to come into my office and make those sorts of demands, Danica. Not unless I summoned you first.”
“Summoned… sheesh. I see who’s cracking the whip now. I’ll get you back later.”
Her wife did not go into her bathroom. She did, however, pout her way out of her office, passing Abby on her way in.
“Do me a favor?” Alicia said the moment her assistant was within hearing range. “If you get some time soon, I want you to look up everything you can about Clarissa Livingston. She used to be a Moreau.”
Abby’s expression barely changed. “Sounds familiar.”
“Apparently not familiar enough. Can you do it?”
“Absolutely, ma’am.”
“Good.” Alicia continued to ignore the envelope in her desk drawer. Whoever this Clarissa was, she had something to do with Alicia’s current situation.Call it a hunch.If being a Moreau for a few weeks had taught her anything, it was that hunches and gut feelings were the ruling class around there.
Chapter 15
Alicia and Danica’s first formal appearance as a married couple was the small talk of a smaller town, leading up to a fundraising dinner on Wednesday night. Alicia, dressed in a black Chanel dress and her hair up with her diamond clasp, was the object of more pap photos than her wife.Great. I’m a style icon.Unlike the first time she faced the paps, however, she walked with her chin up and a gait as commanding as her wife’s. The captions would later say“Mrs. Alicia Moreau catches everyone’s attention at Wednesday’s Pray for Peace Fundraiser.”Candice called her late Thursday night to give her shit for the resting bitch face.That’s not resting. That’s active.Alicia learned that if she looked like a hardened bitch, people left her alone. Almost like walking down a dark street at night.
That wasn’t her only chance to show off how she had changed in such little time. When Russell tried intimidating her again on Thursday morning, Alicia walked right past him, rolling her eyes and asking Dee if she had heard a fly buzzing in the room. Russell was not impressed.
Her mother called, asking if she would be around for her father’s birthday. Alicia didn’t even want to think about that scheduling nightmare. She was due to go over details regarding Midnight with Sid at some point… as soon as he got back to her… good God, had Abby figured that out yet?
If Alicia ever needed help understanding why her wife was into the things she was, she definitely got it now. She was not the only one surprised when she snapped at the receptionist to hold all her wife’s calls and meetings for half an hour so she could march into her office, lock the door, and demand that she fuck her. Danica barely had time to reschedule a phone call when her wife had ripped off her undies and hopped onto her lap, eager for sex. Not that Danica complained.
“I’m like three paces away from needing a real vacation already,” Alicia said to Candice during their Thursday night phone conversation. She was still stuck in her office, Danica at a business dinner that didn’t need to include her. More time for her to stay behind until seven and clean up some of her own loose ends.I’ve bought so many shares of my wife’s company today that I have a million-dollar whiplash.“This shit can’t be over soon enough so I can go on my honeymoon and spend my days working on my tan and getting fucked into oblivion.”
