King's Passion (19 page)

May, New York

“I
do have to admit that you seem much happier,” Grace said, staring at Victoria over lunch at The Garden.

Beside her, Iris studied Victoria with the same intensity. “Yes. There does seem to be a bit of a glow about you. Las Vegas agrees with you.” She lifted her champagne glass. “To finally getting your pipes clean.”

Laughing, Grace and Victoria raised their glasses, as well.

“I'll drink to that.” Victoria tapped their glasses, but she only managed a small sip before they dove straight in for the dirt.

“So does this mean you're finally returning to New York, or is this a temporary thing?” Grace asked. “I have to tell you that things haven't been the same here without you. It's wedding season and we have received a slew of—”

Iris gave Grace a quick elbow-jab.

“What? Oh.” Grace lowered her gaze to her food. “I'm sorry. I forgot.”

Victoria waved off their concerns. “Please. I'm hardly sensitive about the idea of people getting married. You can say Marcus's name around me, too, if you want. I'm so over that period in my life.”

The twins glanced at each other, undoubtedly to exchange another round of telepathic messages.

“Forget about it. It's a long story. All you need to know is that I'm happy now—truly happy.” Victoria couldn't stop smiling. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell them that sometimes happy didn't really seem like a strong enough word. Hell, at any given moment she wanted to break out singing old love songs.

“To answer your question, I'm just visiting for the weekend. I figured that should be long enough to assure my father that I'm fine and I'm not being held hostage in Vegas.”

“He's just concerned,” Grace said. “Hell, we all have been to tell you the truth. You just up and left. That was sooo not like you.”

Victoria smiled. “Maybe it is the new me.”

The twins' brows leaped in curiosity at the same time.

“What was it that you called me again?” Victoria lifted her head and tapped a finger against her chin until suddenly snapping her fingers as if she'd recalled the term. “An anal control freak. That was it.”

Grace's face reddened. “I guess that was a bit harsh.”

“A little bit,” Victoria agreed. “But you were right. And I'm not saying that I've changed
completely
but I think I've changed a few things that matter.”

The twins continued to smile at her, but Victoria could
see that they were anxious. She sighed and leaned back in her chair waiting for the next round of attack. She didn't have a long wait.

Grace leaned in first. “I'm just concerned about whether any of this is…
rational.
”

“Rational?”

“Yes. I mean…to just up and move in with a man that you hardly know.”

“I know him now. I've been living with him for the last six months.”

“And that's another thing,” Grace continued. “I never pegged you for the type to move in with a man. I know we're modern women and all, but like my grandmother out in the country says, ‘Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?'”

“Women aren't cows.”

“But you understand the metaphor, don't you?”

“Look. I really appreciate everyone's concern, but I know what I'm doing. Eamon and I are very happy. Isn't that enough?”

“So you guys are officially an item? Boyfriend and girlfriend?” Iris asked.

“Well, we're not putting any labels on it.”

The twins looked at each other.

“We are in an exclusive relationship.”

“Mainly because you just moved into his house,” Iris said.

“Because I just know. He's not seeing anyone and I'm not—”

“Why not?” Grace interrupted. “With all the men roaming around in Las Vegas, why Eamon King? You just dropped everything in your life to go chase after a man who runs a chain of strip clubs? He's not seeing anyone? There's like twenty to thirty women who work for him
that run around naked every day. That's way too much temptation.”

“Eamon is not like that.”

“He's a man, isn't he?”

Victoria clenched her teeth and shifted around in her seat. The pessimism of New Yorkers. How could she forget? She just tossed up her hands. “You know, let's just drop the subject.”

Grace ignored her. “All I'm saying is that I was all for you loosening up and letting your hair down every
once
in a while. I didn't mean for you to totally lose your grip on reality.”

“Wow. Okay. Clearly you two can't handle the fact that I have moved on and have found someone who completes me. I'm sorry about that, but it's your problem, not mine. I don't have to justify
anything
to you.”

“Victoria, I didn't mean—”

“Yes, you did.” Victoria struggled to remain cordial. “I really,
really
want to believe that your concerns are coming from a good place. That is the only reason that I'm not cussing you out right now. That, plus that would have been the old me. Now I just want to sit here and enjoy my lunch with my favorite cousins and hear about what's going on with you two lately.”

Before either of them had a chance to respond, a familiar voice spoke from behind her.

“Well, I'll be damned. Look who has decided to return to New York.”

Victoria didn't bother to turn around. She just rolled her eyes and mentally counted to ten. “Hello, Lolita. Fancy meeting you here today.”

Lolita reached the table and smiled snidely at her. “Well, they say it's a small world, after all.” She circled the table
with her fake green-contact-lens eyes, and gave Grace and Iris the same wintry smile. “Hello, ladies.”

The twins just nodded and folded their arms.

“My, my, my. Clearly money can't buy you class—or manners.”

“But you keep trying, don't you?” Victoria asked.

The twins snickered.

Lolita's jaw twitched as her evil gaze focused on Victoria. “Cute. I'm just glad that your pimp in Las Vegas finally gave you time off to come and visit your family and friends. Clearly he's quite the slave-driver since it's been six months since anyone has seen hide nor hair of you in polite society.”

“How would you know? Have you been listening under the bathroom stalls again when you should've been cleaning the toilets?”

“Damn,” Grace said. “It looks like the old Victoria is still in there after all.”

Lolita opened her mouth to unleash another attack, but Victoria held up a single finger to cut her off.

“Let me stop you right now before you write a check your ass can't cash. Don't think that just because we're up in the Four Seasons that I won't snatch that horsehair off your head. I will. And you might as well stop rocking your neck at me because you're looking like a bobble-head to me right now.

“Listen up because I'm going to say this
one
time. We are family, but we sure as hell are
not
friends. So I'm about to make you a deal. You stay the hell out of my life and I'll stay out of yours. I don't care if you see me walking down the street, walk on by and keep my name out of your mouth. Anything other than that, then we are going to have a problem. You got that?” Victoria's heated gaze melted Lolita's frosty one. “Good. Have a nice life.”

Lolita stood there for a half a second, looking like she wanted to say something, but clearly wasn't sure whether Victoria would make good on her threat.

“Don't make me count to two,” Victoria said.

“Whatever.” Lolita tossed her head back and stormed away.

“Well,” Iris said, reaching for her champagne again, “You still got it.”

Victoria shrugged the incident off. “Only for special cases, and Lolita is definitely a special head case.”

“Still,” Grace hedged. “She's not the only one who's been talking.”

“Please. And I don't care what people are saying anymore. I truly don't. I've made the decision to live my life the way I want to live it. I can't begin to tell you how liberating it is to finally not care about what other people think.” She stopped for a brief moment to draw in a deep breath while she searched for the right words. “You know, I never told you girls this before, but do you remember my ninth birthday party? My mother put together this huge, over-the-top circus.”

Iris nodded. “Yeah. I believe so.”

“Remember around about halfway through it I went to my room and refused to come back out?”

Grace nodded. “Yes. It was a real diva moment. You wouldn't even come out to open up your presents.”

“I wasn't being a diva,” Victoria said. “I was upstairs in my room crying my eyes out.”

“Why?”

Victoria sucked in another breath. “I'd gone to use the bathroom, but I stumbled on Tracy Hickman and her mother having a little argument. Tracy was whining and complaining that she wanted to go home because she didn't want to be there and she didn't like me.”

“I never really liked Tracy Hickman,” Iris said. “She is really a bitch.”

“Amen,” Grace agreed. “Not to mention that she's been married four times already. I mean, damn. I'm starting to think that she just does it just to have a wedding.”

Victoria had thought the same thing. “Anyway, I would have been fine with it being just her. But it was her mother's response that really shook me to the core.”

“What did she say?” Iris asked.

“She knelt down to Tracy's eye level and told her firmly that
nobody
liked me and that the only reason everyone came was because my father had a lot of money.”

The twins gasped. “That bitch!”

Victoria nodded. “I was crushed. There I was thinking that all these kids came because they were my friends and it turned out that it was all a lie. It didn't help that I was a chubby kid and already had a complex because Tracy was calling me fat all the time. And then there was David Benson.”

“Humph!” Iris frowned. “Never liked him, either.”

“My first boyfriend in high school. We got into some silly argument that I don't even remember what it was about, and in a fit of rage, he shouted that if it wasn't for my father that nobody would even have anything to do with me. It hurt like hell mainly because for a long time I thought it was true. It was the confirmation that I needed to build up my defenses, protect myself—and my heart the best way I could. I started keeping people at a distance. I became very good at deciphering who was around me because they were truly my friend or who was there because they were trying to climb New York's social ladder. I'd rather have no friends than fake friends. I went overboard trying to control everything, including who
on paper
would make a good husband. Marcus didn't turn
too many heads in the looks department, which I foolishly thought meant there was little chance of him running off with another woman.” She rolled her eyes. “But we were never in love. At least, I wasn't.”

The twins reached across the table and covered her hand with theirs.

“We are your friends…as well as your family.”

“Yes. You are. And I cherish you more than you'll ever know. Look, I realize that I have been fortunate to be born into a lifestyle of privilege. I'm just saying that money doesn't buy you friends, and it certainly doesn't buy you love.”

“And that's what you have with Eamon?” Grace asked.

A smile finally returned to Victoria's face. “Yes. I believe so. You told me that I should let loose and take chances. For the first time in my life I've done just that. I've jumped off a cliff with my eyes closed. And for the moment, it just feels like I'm flying. It's not just because he's handsome, or that he's financially secure in his own right or even that he really knows how to turn me on in bed.”

The twins squealed with delight and Victoria jumped out of her seat to slap a hand over their mouths. Nevertheless, that didn't stop them from clapping their hands and stomping their feet under the table. When they finally calmed down, she removed her hand.

“I swear I can't tell you two anything.” But she tossed them a wink while her face heated with embarrassment.

“Please, please say you're going to kiss and tell,” Iris said breathlessly.

Victoria glanced around. “Now, you know I don't normally do this,” she whispered. “But let's just say that
he really knows how to get my body to feel things that it has never ever felt before.”

The twins started to squeal again, but at Victoria's narrowed gaze they slapped a hand over their own mouths.

When Grace removed her hand, she pointed. “Are you blushing?” Then her eyes lit up. “Oh, my God, you are! What on earth has this man done to you?”

“Let's just say that he has made me a woman,” Victoria confessed. “Totally and completely, in every way that a man can.”

“Geez. We just thought that he would make a good booty call.”

Victoria shook her head because she thought that she wasn't getting through to them. “It's not just the sex. We laugh together. I mean I
really
laugh. And he's smart… and romantic. He's teaching me how to cook. I've learned how to sew.”

“Oh, my God. He has turned you into his maid,” Grace gasped.

“Don't be silly.” Victoria waved her off. “I
wanted
to learn how to do these things. In fact, I was a little embarrassed that I didn't know how already. It's really sweet to see him eat my food even though I know it tastes awful and he praises me when I sew buttons on his shirt and they're far from being straight. But the most important part is that I don't think he gives a damn about my money or who my parents are. He just loves me.”