King's Passion (21 page)

N
o way was Victoria going to last an entire weekend away from Eamon. After just one afternoon, she was literally starting to feel sick. The rest of the evening with her parents went well, especially after she got her father off the topic of discussing her and Eamon's relationship. A few more family members had stopped by, Aunt Brenda and even Aunt Fiona.

Victoria could tell by the way Fiona's mouth was pinched that she must've talked with her daughter Lolita. But she really didn't give a damn, and after exchanging a few withering glances, she was sure that her jealous aunt got the picture. At least when the women started pressing her about Eamon, her father had her back in changing the subject. True, she didn't really care about what other people thought and said anymore, but it didn't mean that she was going to just supply material or give oxygen to the gossip. Aunt Fiona was as big a gossiper as they come. In
fact, she wouldn't be surprised if she learned that Fiona had the editors for Page Six on speed dial.

By the end of the evening, Victoria knew that she was heading back to Las Vegas. Not Sunday, but now.

“Are you?” her mother said after she told them what she was going to do. “You just got here.”

“I know, but—”

“My, my, my. You really are in love.” Her eyes glistened. “I can't tell you how happy that makes me.”

“I'll be back—and the next time, I'll even bring Eamon.”

“Now, that better be a promise, too,” her father said, coming in on the tail end of their conversation.

“It is.” She turned to her father and exchanged hugs and kisses.

But her mother was already starting to fret. “Are you sure that you're going to be able to get a flight this late? Maybe you should wait until the morning.”

Victoria recognized the stalling tactic for what it was. If her mother could get her to wait until tomorrow morning, then she would try and press for tomorrow night. “I'm sure it's fine. I'll just fly on standby.” She smiled sweetly at her and then went in for another hug. “Don't worry. You'll see me soon.”

Their goodbyes were drawn out, but finally Victoria left her parents' estate with their driver. Even then they continued to wave to each other as the car pulled off. They made a quick stop at her place back in the city so that the driver could get her bags.

As luck would have it she got there in time to take the last flight out. It would be a little over a five-hour flight, but given the three-hour time difference, she would be there about two hours later Vegas time, she reasoned. Her stomach twisted with excitement. After rushing through
the security check-point, she heard her cell phone ringing. Quickly, she dug it out of her purse and saw Eamon's name on the screen.

She was just about to answer the call when a better idea hit her.
Maybe I should just surprise him?
Victoria bit her bottom lip to tamp down the excitement at pulling off a good surprise. If she answered the call now, he would definitely know she was at the airport.

“I'll just see you in a few minutes, baby,” she said under her breath and then returned the phone to her purse.

 

Eamon heaved out a disappointed breath and snapped the phone shut. It was hard to stop his mind from racing with a thousand possibilities for why Victoria hadn't answered her phone. He'd narrowed it down to either her being kidnapped to her being with another man. Anything was possible. It wasn't like they had had that monogamy talk. And right now he was kicking himself for it.

“Have you made a decision, sir?” the blue-suited salesman smiled kindly from behind a jewelry counter.

“Yes. I'd like to see that one,” Eamon said, pointing to a three-carat emerald-cut diamond that was sparkling at him in the center of the glass case.

“Ah. You have an excellent eye, sir,” the salesman praised before opening the cabinet with his gold key.

When he set the diamond on top of the glass, Eamon's lips were already starting to curl. He lifted it by the platinum band and accepted the loupe that was handed to him in order to check the cut, color and clarity. Once he was satisfied, he started to feel a familiar anxiousness twisting around in his gut. It was the kind that scared him, just the one letting him know that he was really about to make a big move.

“I'll take it,” he announced.

“Excellent, sir.”

On the drive home, Eamon turned on the radio and surfed through the channels to find a station that was playing some old-school jams. Once he found Patti LaBelle belting out an old favorite, “If Only You Knew,” he stopped right there and sang along. Soon enough, he was feeling real good—a positive sign that he was definitely doing the right thing. Now all he had to do was decide how he wanted to pop the question.

The romantic in him wanted to do something big and over-the-top. But when he started thinking about how his and Victoria's relationship wasn't really about the big things. In fact, Victoria really responded to smaller, intimate settings. Maybe he should go with a classic ring-in-the-champagne sort of thing. Or since she loved bubble baths so much, he could set the ring on like a floating rubber ducky. Did she like ducks?

His mind continued to spin and whirl with possibilities. The more scenarios he thought up, the more excited he became.
Maybe you should go to New York and surprise her.

The moment that idea raced through his mind, his foot eased off the accelerator and it seemed like his heart started bouncing around in his chest. Why not? It would give him the opportunity to talk to her father first. It was the proper thing to do.

Inspired, Eamon slammed his foot down on the accelerator and he zoomed out to his house. He was almost tempted to keep the car running while he raced into the house and packed an overnight bag. But he thought better of it. Still, he nearly hopped out of the car before shifting it into Park.

Once inside he whirled around the place like a Tasmanian devil. He grabbed a bag and proceeded to shove
things in at random. But when he remembered that he was going to have to fly commercial, he went back through it to make sure that he could get through security.

Bag reasonably packed, Eamon flew back down the stairs and went into Victoria's study. There, he found a birthday card her parents had sent her and smiled at the return address written in the corner.

“Jackpot.” He turned and rushed toward the door, but when he opened it, he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of Xavier standing on the other side.

“Damn,” Xavier gasped, after springing back from the door. “You really know how to scare a brother.”

“What are you doing here?” Eamon asked, grabbing the bag he'd dropped. “You damn near gave me a heart attack.”

“Figured I'd come and crash with you for the night and make sure that you call your girl.”

Eamon's face lit up. “I'm going to do one better than that. I'm headed out there to surprise her in New York right now.”

Xavier folded his arms and bounced his head. “Well, all right. I must've really put a fire under your butt.”

“I'm going to ask her to marry me.” He shuffled the bag on his arm and then dug out the jewelry box and handed it over to his brother. “Tell me what you think about that.”

Xavier opened the box and then emitted a low whistle. “Now, that's a ring!”

“Think she'll like it?”

His brother closed the box and handed it over. “If she's the kind of girl you described then I think that she'll like it because it's coming from you.”

“Good answer.” Eamon smacked his brother on the shoulder and headed out the door. “Make yourself at home. I'm going out to get you a sister-in-law.”

 

Victoria was exhausted. After a twenty-four-hour turnaround, flying to New York, a full day with family and friends only to cap it off with a return trip to Las Vegas. But when the captain told everyone to prepare for landing, she was suddenly hit with a jolt of energy. Just to be back in Las Vegas closed that gulf she felt being so far away. After years of being so independent, it was strange for her to have these kinds of feelings. It wasn't that she needed to be with Eamon every minute of the day. She just wanted to be around.

Going through this, she couldn't help but have great sympathy for the women whose lovers went off to war for months or even years at a time—even women whose significant others had equally dangerous jobs like being a police officer or a fireman. It must take a certain amount of strength to endure that.

The truth was, for her right now, she didn't know where she stood in her relationship with Eamon. But she did intend to talk to him about it as soon as they finished making love when he came home in the morning. Not only that, she was going to make him breakfast. This time, hopefully, there will be no eggshells in his omelet or any coffee grinds in his cup.

Hopefully.

In less than thirty minutes after de-boarding the plane, she hopped into a cab and was on her way toward the suburbs of Las Vegas. It was nearly dawn and there was still a good chance Eamon might not be home from work just yet or he could already be in bed. Only time would tell. Restless, she kept glancing at the time and the meter in the cab. Her driver was clearly in no hurry to get anywhere—definitely not like the cab drivers in New York.

Victoria scooted up to the edge of her seat and tapped
the driver on the shoulder. “Excuse me. But is there any way you can go a little faster?” she asked with a smile.

The bored driver immediately started shaking his salt-and-pepper head. “Sorry, ma'am. I have to go the speed limit.”

Still holding her attitude in check, she tried again. “What if I said that there's an extra twenty dollars in it for you?”

“I'd say that it would hardly make a dent in the speeding ticket I'll get.”

“A hundred dollars?”

“Pfft.” He shook his head.

“Fine. Two hundred.”

He started to hedge.

“Three hundred, and that's my final offer.”

Finally a smile ballooned across the man's face. “Buckle up.” He slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and they had liftoff. It was more like one of those rides in Disneyland. He darted in and out of cars as if he drove in the Indy 500 part-time. In the end, she got what she wanted. They arrived at Eamon's place in a little more than fifteen minutes.

Climbing out of the cab, she was confused by Eamon's missing Porsche and the rental car in the driveway. Was his car in the shop or something? She paid the driver and then carried her purse and bag into the house.

Eamon was cooking or rather had cooked. The scent of banana-nut pancakes and link sausages wafted in the air. Victoria inhaled deeply as she crept toward the kitchen. But she was disappointed that it was empty.

Turning around, she grabbed her bags and elected to take the stairs up since, honestly, it was much faster. Halfway, up she could hear singing and the shower running.

This was going to be even better,
she snickered to herself.

She pushed open the bedroom door and saw the bathroom door was closed.

She quickly put down her bags and started stripping out of her clothes. This would be a nice little payback for him interrupting her bubble baths. She grabbed one of her extra robes and then headed into the bedroom.

“‘Ooh, baby, hot just like an oven I need some lovin'…'”

Was he singing “Sexual Healing”? Victoria chuckled as she tiptoed past the large tub and headed to the stand-alone shower. She smiled though she could barely make out his entire frame in the frosty glass door.

“‘Whenever blue teardrops are fallin'…'” he wailed.

Victoria was slightly surprised that he was off-key, but she reached for the door and pulled it open. “Missed me?”

The man in the shower jumped and spun around. Their eyes connected a half a second before Victoria peeled open her robe and exposed herself to a complete stranger.

However, he wasn't so lucky!

Their screams tore from their throats about the same time. Just then she quickly slammed the door back and ran out of the bathroom slamming that door behind her, as well. Suddenly it seemed like she couldn't run fast enough. She gathered her clothes from the floor and tried to hurry and put them back on. She got the pants back on, but then the bathroom door flew open. Victoria clenched the robe tight across her bosom.

“Who are you?” she shouted.

The man stepped out with a towel, wrapped snuggly around his hips. “Whoa. Calm down,” he said, holding
his hands up. “There seems to be some type of misunderstanding. I'm Xavier King. Eamon's brother.”

That answer managed to take a little of the edge off her panic.

“Xavier?”

He smiled. “Hello. It's, uh, nice to meet you.” He cocked his head and looked at her. “You must be, uh…uh—”

“Victoria,” she answered, a little annoyed that he didn't know that she lived here.

“Yes. I'm sorry. My brother told me about you.” He cocked his head again like something was wrong. “He also said that you were in New York.”

“I came back early,” she answered, feeling her relief slowly trickle over her. “I thought that I would come back and surprise him.”

“Well, I guess it's a good sign that you both think alike.” At her obvious confusion, he added. “He flew out to see you.”

“What?”

“Surprise.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh. Well.” Victoria smiled and tugged a deep breath. “I guess then that it's nice to finally meet you,” she said awkwardly. She didn't feel entirely comfortable walking back over to shake his hand, especially since she'd just seen him in his birthday suit. “I guess that's what I get for not answering your brother's calls.”

“Yeah.” He looked around. “Sorry about using your shower. There's seems to be something wrong with the one in the bedroom that I'm in.”