Commitment (28 page)

Riley turned to look at him and smiled
when
she found he was looking at
her
too. He inclined his head in the direction of the room and gently lifted
her
feet off his lap, extending a hand to her. She took it and
he
pull
ed her up, leading
her inside. Just as she was about to turn to face him, Shawn’s hand moved up her thigh and he leaned into her so
she was braced
against the wall
. Without a word, he hiked her long peasant skirt up to her waist and pulled down the bottoms of the swimsuit she was still wearing.

His hands moved over
her rear and Riley reached back to touch him but he pinned
her arms
against the wall
,
kissing
her shoulders and the
back
of her neck.
Then without warning he turned her to face him and his mouth was on hers, kissing her as though it was the first time they’d ever kissed.

Before Riley had a moment to catch her breath, Shawn had hoisted her up and pressed
himself into her and against the wall
. She gasped and wrapped her arms tightly about his neck, riding the wave of each thrust, feeling herself deliciously split apart.

“I love you,” he said, over and over again
, like a benediction
. “I love you.”

When he climaxed, he held her and
shuffled
backwards until they reached the bed where they both collapsed into a heap. It was only then that Shawn half-heartedly shoved his
shorts
the remainder of the way off, kicking them across the room.

“I’m just starting to feel like
it
’
s
real,” he said, yawning.

“Like what’s real?”

“You and me.
You being my wife.”

“Of course it’s real, baby,” she said.

Riley
rested
her head
on his ar
m and i
n a few moments, he wa
s
asleep.

Something about being married made their sex different
and
even
more intense
. Every night since they’d been here,
they
made love until they were soaking wet and Shawn fell away from her, spent
and barely able to keep his eyes open
.
Tonight though, he had
simply
claimed her
,
exorcizing
, once and for all,
Brian and anyone else who had come before him.

g

In the d
ays before
the end of their trip,
Riley realized that she wasn’t waking up
early
any longer, and had grown accustomed to sleeping intertwined with Shawn
,
no matter the heat.
And she
had come to expect that he would drop his wet towel on the bathroom floor, or forget to hang up his
jeans
.
I
f she woke before he did, it was just to watch the
sun rise across the water
or to stare down at
her husband
, finding it
scarcely
believable that
they had found each other and that
she could love someone so
hard, and so fast
.

The day before they were due back in New York
t
hey
sat
eating escovitched fish
at
a
n outdoor
restaurant on Negril beach, the taste bringing
Riley
back to the night she’d first
m
et Shawn and he took her to the
restaurant
in
m
idtown.
Had someone told her then that she would be married to the man sitting across from her with the watchful, intense eyes, she could not have conceived of it.
It felt like a lifetime ago,
but was only just over a year.
It was still so surreal.

“
So
I talked to a realtor,” Shawn said out of nowhere. 

Sitting across from her, shirtless and partially reclining on
a
wooden bench, he
had a
suntan
the color of a
burnt
honeycomb
and a scruffy three-day old goatee that scratched her face in a way that was not altogether
unpleasant when he kissed her.
And how on earth
he go
t abs like that when she had never
known him to work out
was a total mystery. Good genes, maybe
? 

“
Y
ou
in
there?” Shawn
asked,
wav
ing a hand in front of her face
.

“Yeah.
Realtor,” she repeated. “Why?”

“I w
as thinking we’d buy something.
Near the park.”

Riley
blinked.
“
What p
ark?”

“Central Park, Riley.”

“Central Park,”
she repeated trying to process for a moment.

“Yeah.
It’
s convenient
and I don’t know about you, but I need to see some damn trees
.
So Chris
gave me a name
and I cal
led her just before we left.
She’ll take you out to look at some places when we get back.”

“Take
me
out to
look at
some places
?
”

“Okay, so I’ll come too,” Shawn gave in.

Riley
thought for a moment.
A place near
Central
Park.

“What’s
the budget for this place?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

“
Four
,
five
million?
Something like that.
”

She swallowed.
That’s right. Shawn was rich.
Four
or
five
million was perfectly reasonable
for him.
He’d
told her he
sold his townhous
e in DC for
just under a half a million.
That had to be a pretty decent down
-
payment.
Not that he would need one.
For Shawn
money was no object.
For regular folks like her, the difference between
four
million and
five
, was
the
still
substantial
one million dollars
and couldn’t be so casually dismissed.

“Which?” she asked.

“Which
. .
?” Shawn looked confused.

“
Four
million
or
five
million?
”

“
I don’t care.
If it’s the right place
.
”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Yeah, but
no way
we’re
getting
something on Central Park for less.”

“Well, do we have to be on Central Park?”

“Where do you want to be?”

He asked the question slowly, so Riley knew she was being humored.

“I don’t know.
It’s just
,
those numbers are insane.”

“
Riley
,
” he reached out
and grabbed her hand. “Relax.
We’re
rich.”

“Shawn,
you’re
rich.
I make sixty-five thousand dollars a year.
And
up till now,
that’s
been
quite adequate.
”

“
It’s not like I’m going to ask you to pay half the mortgag
e, Riley.
And anyway,
I wanted to talk to you about that.”

“About what?”

“Money.”

Riley
froze.
This couldn’t be good.
Wha
tever he was about to say could not
be good.

“There’s this account I set up.
In your name.
And every yea
r or so, there’ll be a
deposit. The
first deposit was last week after we got married.”

Riley
put down
her fork
and gently pulled her hand free of Shawn’s.

“Why would you do that?”

“So yo
u have something for yourself.
I don’t want you to f
eel like you have to ask me
. . .
”

“Why would I ask you for anything?” she demanded
, her voice rising
.

“I don’t know.
For whatever.
To shop
or
. . .
”

“I already shop w
hen I need to.
I buy what I can afford
.
And you’re going to
deposit more money every year? What’s that?
My
salary
?”

“
Riley
,
chill
.
Would you prefer it if I gave you a pre
-
nup?
Because that’s what I was advised to do and I told them I didn’t need one.”

“Yes!
I would have preferred a pre
-
nup.
Because then I get to reassure you that I don’t
want your money.
And this set-
up with you depositing money makes m
e think you don’t believe that.
You
think I need
compensation
, Shawn?
”

Shawn became very still and she could see the confusion in his eyes, as he tried to figure out whether she was serious, and if so, what she could possibly mean.

“
Setting up an account, you giving me money for nothing more than becoming your wife feels demeaning.
It feels like y
ou’re paying me for something,”
she said lowering her voice
, trying to be patient
. “It feels like I’m becoming your employee.
Or something worse.
”

“Worse? Like
. . .
what?”

She tilted her head to one side and waited for him to answer his own question.

“Like a
prostitute
?” he asked,
surprised.

Riley said nothing.

“Then fuck it,” he said after a moment. “Don’t spend it. Give it all to charity. Do whatever you want with the
money
, Riley.”

He pushed himself up off the bench and started off down the beach, leaving her sitting there. He hadn’t even raised his voice, so it took her a moment to realize that she had hurt his feelings.
Riley shut her eyes and shook her head,
feeling foolish all of a sudden
.
What the hell had she been thinking anyway? She knew Shawn didn’t see her as a
prostitute
, for heaven’s sake.
But as her mother’s daughter, she couldn’t help her internal monologue about money and power and how that played out in relationships.

She sighed and got up, running down the beach to catch up with him. He kept walking until she grabbed a loop on his cargos and yanked him back toward her. He stopped walking but his hands remained stuffed stubbornly in his pockets and he refused to look at her, so Riley leaned into his chest, pressing her face against him.

“You
should have talked to me first,” she
said, keeping her voice quiet.
“
You can’t just decide
huge
things
like this
on your own
, Shawn.
As though I’m not entitled to have a say.”

For a moment he said nothing then Riley felt his hands come out of his pockets and his arms wrap about her. She relaxed into the hug.