“What are you talking about?” she asked as he pushed open the door. Then her eyes went wide, like his had when he first saw it.
“Oh, hells yes, it’s not pink.” She squeed, gripped his arm.
“Do you smell that?” he asked, making an exaggerated sniff sound.
“Smell what?” She sniffed, rather daintily.
“That’s what I’m talking about.” He clapped his hands like he was giving the room a standing ovation. “It doesn’t stink anymore in here.”
Yeah, everything was coming up Knox.
“This is so great.” Irina did a twirl in the living room. “You must be so freaking excited.”
Something sat funny with the way she saidyouand notwe.
“One more thing.” He reached for her hand and pulled her with him through the house to the primary suite. The room he’d changed course on in the past few weeks. Once the carpet came in, he’d made some changes. Hired a decorator to put things together. Given direction while she was at work, approved sketches, and appreciated the finished product.
They got to the door and his heart beat a little faster than it should’ve, since this was sort of for her. He wanted her to like it.
“Close your eyes,” he said.
She did.
He pushed open the door.
“Open them,” he said, a little frog lodging in his larynx.
She opened and gasped. “Holy crap, this looks amazing.”
Early on when she’d been helping him pick out fixtures and carpet, they’d had a bit of a tiff over the color of bedroom carpet. She’d insisted on neutral gray. He preferred bachelor black.
However, since they’d be spending lots of time in the space—preferably naked time—he took her suggestion.
He also had the whole thing decorated with remote opening curtains, a big-ass bed with high-thread count sheets, solid-wood dressers, and two giant closets. He hadn’t filled them with clothes for her, but only because Irina had her own style, and he had a hunch she’d want to do it herself and not use a personal shopper.
She let out a huge breath. “This is amazing. It turned out fabulous.” She gave him a knowing grin. “Aren’t you glad you went with gray? I told you it’d look amazing.”
“My closet is over here. Your closet is over there.” He gestured to her side. “Two en suite baths means twice the fun.” Especially the shower in her bathroom with the four shower heads? Oh, yeah, he had plans for those.
“My closet?” she asked, moving toward the little room that wasn’t so little.
He’d had the decorator add lots of space for Irina’s shoe collection and extra shelving for handbags he’d realized she had a bit of a crush on.
“Yeah, I figured you’d want a place to put your clothes.” Made sense to him.
He rocked back and forth, toe to heel. Toe to heel. This wasn’t quite the reaction he’d expected. The whole frowny thing going on with her.
“Knox.” She pulled her lips together in a way he hadn’t ever seen her do before. “I…uh…do you want me to move in?”
Uh…yes?
“Well, seeing as we are married and you and I sleep in the same bed every night, I figured…” Where had he missed the cues that she wouldn’t expect to be sharing his space?
“Oh.” That’s all she said. Just, oh.
He had a pretty tough skin, but that one stung.
“Irina, I think I may have read things wrong. You don’t want to move in?” he asked. “I got your color for carpet.” That sounded slightly pathetic, didn’t it?
