Devil’s in the Details (47 page)

"It's 8:30 and you're awake. I better document this moment." Victoria's soft morning voice fell to my ears, carried on the ripples of steam from the coffee cups in her hand.

I turned to her, unable to hold back the goofy grin as I looked at the blonde. She was still wearing the loose tank top and a pair of shorts that were cut away from a longer pair of her academy sweatpants, her hair was loose and looked as if she had just brushed it. Victoria was stunning, glowing and made me shake my head again at how bewitched I was by her. "You probably should." I swiped the shorts up and pulled them on, moving to sit cross legged in the bed. "What day is it?" I furrowed my brow when it struck me that I really had no idea what day it was. All of them blurred together in a haze of Chinese takeout, cold French toast leftovers and being naked.

Victoria handed me the battleship coffee mug, scrunching up her face in thought, "I do believe it is Sunday morning." She then moved to the bedside table, setting her angry goat mug down before moving to her closet that sat off to the side of the bathroom. "I had to take a look at the newspapers and mail pile growing at my front door."

I took a sip of the coffee, watching as she disappeared into the closet and I could hear a safe door being opened, the distinctive heavy creak all safe doors made, no matter how big or small, was muffled through the closet wall. "Sunday morning. That means we successfully spent almost two days trapped in bed."

I laughed, "I do believe that is another first for me."

I heard the clang of the safe door being closed and secured, followed by Victoria stepping out with a thin manila envelope tucked under her arm with a couple of the blue envelopes from the underwear company I had picked up the other day with her other mail. She raised her eyebrows, setting the envelope on the dresser, dropping the blue ones in it. "A first?"

I nodded, "I have never spent more than a couple hours in bed with someone, let alone a whole day or two." I scooted back, "I never wanted to, always thought it was wasteful to spend days doing nothing." I shrugged, "Well, doing other things besides nothing." I felt my face turn beet red. How is it that I could spend endless amounts of time with Victoria naked, and yet I couldn't speak it out loud?

Victoria grinned, walking over to the bed with a small rectangular envelope in her hand, "If it makes you feel better, you are the only one I’ve wanted to spend more than ten minutes in bed together, not sleeping." She sat facing me, "Your mother called your phone an hour ago, and sent a text reminding you about dinner tonight. I thought it was time to get up and take care of a few things that were ignored while we were doing other things besides nothing."

I playfully frowned and poked her, "Don't make fun of me."

She bent forward, kissing me, "Never happen." As she leaned back, Victoria held out the white rectangle envelope, "I know you go back to work on Wednesday, but I was wondering if you could maybe sneak in a sick day the following Saturday."

I set the coffee mug to rest between my legs, taking the envelope from her, "Depends on what for." I glanced at the thick textured envelope that had Victoria's title and rank in black calligraphy on the front. Flipping it over, I lifted the opened flap and tugged out a fancy card that had all of the characteristics of an invitation.

Victoria moved closer to me, looking down at the invitation with me. "The Academy does an end of the year formal ball for faculty, alumni and a handful of others in the military. It's their prom of sorts, but for adults." She glanced up at me, "Will you be my date?"

I bit my bottom lip, reading over the pomp and circumstance of Victoria and a guest being cordially invited to the alumni formal held at the grand ballroom of the Naval Academy. I looked up at her, "Will you be wearing a dress?"

Victoria tilted her head, "Actually, I’ll be wearing my full dress white uniform." Looking directly in my eyes, she added in a low sensual voice, "And my white dress hat."

I bit my lip harder, catching the edge of the white dress hat sitting on top of the one chair. Still sitting as it landed when I ripped it off Victoria's head so I could tangle my fingers in her hair as we set upon another lesson of lovemaking.

I looked back at Victoria, handing her my coffee mug and pointing to my cell phone that set on her side of the bed, "Hand me my phone?"

Victoria nodded, confused as to the strange request instead of answering to her asking me out, "I can wear a dress if you want me to? It's just faculty usually always pull out the full peacock show. It's the only time some of the old men can show off their tarnished medals and talk about the old days."

I laughed, taking the phone from her, grabbing her hand before she went too far. I winked at her, kissing her to shut her up. Three rings and I heard the tired and semi-grumpy voice of my boss. "Edie Rivers, Head Nurse, how can I help you?"

"Edie? Hi, this is Alex Ivers." I wound my fingers into Victoria's, squeezing her hand, "I know my vacation ends this Tuesday, but I was wondering if I could extend that another week?"

I heard Edie shuffle some papers around. "Alex! Are you finally using up your four hundred plus hours of vacation and sick time accrued?" I could almost hear the elation in her voice. I knew if I didn't take a decent amount of my sick time or vacation time every year, the hospital would have to cut a huge check to pay me out.

"I am yes. I haven't taken a decent vacation in a year and I was just asked to attend some fancy ball this weekend." I smiled as I saw Victoria's eyes light up, "I finally have a reason to avoid work, Edie."

Edie laughed, "I would ask if the Poconos were a success, but I saw that Doctor Dean moping around up in ortho yesterday." I rolled my eyes, good lord was gossip the main topic in that hospital. Everyone knew everyone's business.

I heard a few more papers shuffle, "Your request has been granted. I have two new nurses starting this week and it would be good for Stacy and Deb to brush up on their training." Edie laughed almost maniacally, she knew how much Stacy hated training, "Enjoy your extra week off, and whoever he is, he's one lucky son of a bitch."

My face broke out into a massive grin, "She is definitely one lucky son of a bitch, Edie." Victoria gave me a strange look as I hung up before Edie could prod further into my private business that I knew Stacy was probably already spreading about, or would be, when she went in and saw that I was off for one more week and she was stuck with training new nurses.

I dropped the cell phone on the bed, "I’m all yours, Commander Bancroft, to wine, dine, and dance the night away in a sea of sailors."

Victoria chuckled, raising her eyebrow, "A sea of sailors? Should I be worried about one stealing you away?"

I shook my head, pulling her closer so I could wrap my arms around her, "Never happen, because you are the lucky son of a bitch that is stuck with me forever." I kissed the side of her neck, murmuring under her ear, "I’ll find a dress that will keep your eyes only on me." I felt her squeeze me tighter, her hands drifting to the edge of the waistband on my shorts.

"What time is dinner at your moms?" Victoria's voice was heavy with desire, making my body shiver.

I swallowed hard, feeling her slender fingers move lower, "We should leave around two. Bill and mom like to eat early."

I closed my eyes when I heard her whisper, "Plenty of time." Her hands gripping my hips as she lifted me up and laid me down on the bed.

The second her lips met mine, I knew we were going to be late to dinner.

"We should only be a half hour late, mom. The mini wouldn't start." I glared at Victoria as she smirked getting into the driver's seat of her BMW. "Yes, we can stop and grab dessert on the way. I know, Bill likes apple pie." I rolled my eyes at how excited my mother was on the others side of the phone. Rattling on about how she hoped Victoria would like her meatloaf and if there were any special dietary restrictions she needed to pay attention to. I shook my head as Victoria leaned over brushing my thigh when she opened the glove compartment to pull out a phone charger. I gave her another dirty look, knowing what she was up to, "We’re hitting the road now, mom. I’ll see you when we get there."

I mumbled a few more words of acknowledgment of whatever it was my mother was stuck on, before hanging up and dumping my phone in the cup holder. Leaning back in the seat, I rubbed my temples, "It's your fault we’re late, therefore it's your fault my mom is running around like the president is coming for dinner." I rolled my head to look over at Victoria, sunglasses on as she backed the BMW out of the driveway and onto the street.

She shrugged, smirking, "I actually think it was your fault. I vaguely recall you being the one who was adamant on picking out which shirt I was going to wear tonight, then getting handsy after I took one off."

I tried not to laugh, looking out the windshield, "Maybe." I sighed, reaching over to rest my hand on her forearm as she drove. I had been handsy after our morning session and couldn't resist running my hands over Victoria's skin as I chose the loose blue linen tunic shirt she was now wearing. It seemed Victoria did have an expansive wardrobe outside of navy shirts, but they were hidden in the back of her closet hanging over the floor safe. The same floor safe I’d seen her remove the blue envelopes from earlier.

Squeezing her arm, I asked, "I didn't think you to be a Voltaire Lingerie fan. Their underwear is a bit risqué and see through for a proper boring history Professor like you." I turned to Victoria in time to see her smile flicker for a split second, making me wonder why asking about her underwear would bother her, considering I had seen more than just her underwear over the last few days. "I saw the blue envelope when I picked up the mail the other day, and this morning you had a few more with the piles of mail." I studied her face, picking up the tiny inflections in her smile and the way her jaw twitched, something was off. I went for a joke to break up the strange tension creeping into the car, "I used to save their catalogs and mailers to use as fire starters in the fireplace of my old place in Brooklyn. That's all they, and their bras, were good for." I pointed at my chest, "They certainly didn't do these girls any justice, just felt like I was wearing see through gauze under my scrubs."

Victoria's jaw relaxed as she dropped her hand from the steering wheel to lay it on my thigh, "I don't think there is a bra in the world that could do your chest justice." She grinned at me, "You're quite literally perfect in my eyes, Alex. All of you." My cheeks started to burn as I looked back out the window.

When Victoria did compliment me it was incredibly sweet and romantic. In a way that it made me feel embarrassed anyone was looking at me that closely. I covered her hand on my thigh, linking our fingers together as she continued, "I kind of have a secret. I’m a stock holder in Voltaire. Bought a ton of stocks when they went public near the end of my time with the navy. All those envelopes you saw are checks from the company." She shrugged, "I don't exactly know what for, I have a stock broker in the city that manages all of that nonsense for me. I get those gaudy blue envelopes in the mail, collect them, wait a month and then make a massive deposit." Victoria looked over at me pushing her sunglasses up so I could see her bright grey eyes, "Truth be told, Voltaire Lingerie has paid for this car, my house and the worry free retirement I will hopefully have in five years. I'll be a giddy retired forty something year old all because I invested in fancy ladies underwear."

I cleared my throat free of the lingering traces of embarrassment, "At seventy five bucks a pop per bra, I can see it." I paused as she turned back to the road, the tension completely gone from when I initially asked about the stacks of fancy envelopes. Smiling when I saw her easy smile return with every little squeeze of my hand. Letting out a slow breath, I half whispered, "You're perfect too, Victoria."

I frowned and rolled my eyes at how cheesy I sounded in this moment, like a kid with their first elementary school crush. I held her hand, focusing on the way her fingers fit in mine when I heard, "I'm not perfect Alex, but you make me want to be a better woman. You make me want to pick a life and stick with it. Forget the past and only look to the future." Looking up I saw Victoria's eyes, still straight ahead on the road, welling up, "A future where all I have to worry about is pizza stains, stolen clothes and quiet Saturday night movie marathons." She glanced at me for a second, smiling an almost painful smile, "A future where my past and my present can be forgotten."

I wanted to say something, feeling my stomach wobble at the way she looked at me and the tone of her voice. As if in her head she really saw no future until now, but even as she now saw one, it scared her. I wanted to dig deeper when the clouds met the edge of the tears in her eyes as the strange mysterious air moved in between us. The same one that radiated from her in the first few months we had been friends, and recently, when she struggled hiding her scars. I knew Victoria's scars ran deep and thick, but there was more to what she was saying than old buried scars.

Those thoughts never made it to spoken words, remaining in my head just as curious and concerning thoughts. Victoria distracted me by picking up my hand and kissing the top of it, pulling it over to rest in her lap as she asked about what kind of meatloaf recipe my mother used and that she knew of a small farmer's market near the house where we could stop and get a really nice apple pie.

Even as I held her hand and fell further in love with her, my gut was giving me a dirty look.