Since when did necks turn him on?
She was laughing at something someone next to her was saying when her animated features slowly turned his way.
Her playful grin faded and surprise took over.
Voices in the room faded with her smile. They didn’t really, but Victor tuned out whatever Lori was saying and just stared.
Good Lord, she was stunning. Poised and elegant.
She said something briefly to whomever it was she was talking to and started walking his way.
“. . . my husband, Reed.”
Victor heard part of what Lori said as the man at her side reached out to shake Victor’s hand.
“I’m sorry . . . what was your name again?”
“Reed,” he said, a slight laugh on his lips.
Victor gripped the man’s palm. “Right.”
Shannon stepped up beside them, the scent of her perfume made sweeter by the woman wearing it. “Victor. What a surprise.”
He turned to her, wanted to kiss her hello, and settled with leaning in and placing his lips on the side of her face. “You’re gorgeous,” he whispered in her ear.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered in his.
“Victor! You came.” Avery swept in, dressed in hot pink with a skirt that didn’t reach her knees. It matched her blonde hair and bubbly personality.
Shannon stepped back. “I see.”
He greeted Avery much the same way he did Shannon. “You look much better than the last time we saw each other.”
“Don’t remind me.” She turned to the man standing next to her. He had to be twice her size, bulky, but not from too many burgers, probably hard work or maybe a few too many hours at the gym. Hard to tell with the dress coat he wore. “This is my husband, Liam.”
They shook hands. “You’re the one who called me.” Victor made sure he said it loud enough for Shannon to catch.
“I am. So glad you could make it.”
Avery flashed her teeth with a cheeky grin. “Look who’s here, Shannon.”
“I can see that. You should have told me you invited him.”
Avery squished her smile. “Oh, hell, no. It’s much more fun this way.”
Those who stood close enough to hear her words started to laugh.
Shannon turned to him. “Then you should have told me.”
Victor shrugged. “It’s only day fifty-six, and you gave me direct instructions to avoid calling you. I’m doing my best to stay within the parameters of our agreement.”
Shannon narrowed her smiling eyes.
“You’re counting the days?” Avery asked, laughing.
Victor pointed at Shannon. “She started it.”
“Oh, God, that’s rich.”
Reed caught his attention. “What are you drinking, Victor?”
He cleaned up really well.
And what was he wearing? Every time Victor was close by, the scent of the man lingered in her brain like a fog over the shoreline. She couldn’t get enough.
Avery pulled Victor away from Shannon and walked him over to Trina and Wade for introductions.
Lori fell back. “You didn’t tell me how good-looking he was.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Are you really counting the days?”
“He just had a huge breakup. We agreed on three months to give him time to process.” But apparently those three months were going to include phone calls, texting, and cocktail parties. And visits from his ex future mother-in-law. She’d forgotten about that until that moment.
Was Victor speaking with Corrie?
She supposed that was normal, but how much talking, and what was being said?
He was there, so that spoke for something . . . right? Or Victor could be a complete player like her ex-husband and keep his cards close to his chest.
The doorbell rang, and Lori left her side to answer it.
Voices had her turning around.
Shannon greeted the couple with kisses and hugs. “I didn’t realize you were coming.”
Sam and Blake Harrison had become her friends when Shannon signed the contract to marry Paul. Petite with red, curly long hair and a low, raspy voice that men loved, Sam hugged her hard. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
Shannon questioned her with a look, then words. “You knew Victor was coming.”
Sam didn’t pretend to deny it. “Where is he?”
“You know everyone else in the room, so I doubt I have to point him out.”
Sam did the once-over, found him, and said, “Very cute.”
Shannon rolled her eyes and hugged Sam’s husband. “Hello, Blake.”
“Hey, Shannon. It’s been a long time.” He kissed her cheek. “And I didn’t know about any man. I was told to get dressed and drive.”
“This is all a bit premature. We’re not even dating.”
“Yet,” Lori said. “Fifty-six days, according to Victor.”
Sam tossed all that hair back with a laugh. “I like the man already.” She grabbed Shannon’s arm and pulled her toward Victor. “Introduce me.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“. . . she hopped up from my lap and then proceeded to blame me.”
Like clockwork, Shannon jumped in to clarify and embellish the story of their meeting the second he finished his sentence.
“I’ve known you all of a month, and that is the second time I’ve heard you tell that story. Each time it gets a little worse.” Shannon glanced at her gathering of friends, some sitting, some standing, all of them glued to what she had to say. “He stretched out and I couldn’t get to my seat.”
“You could have just woken him up,” Reed suggested.
“I would have stepped over, too,” Trina said.
Victor watched Shannon’s expressions as her friends weighed in on the conversation.
“Before Liam, I would have purposely fallen in your lap.” Avery’s confession had everyone laughing.
“When I asked Shannon her name, she addressed herself as annoyed. So every time I saw her in the next couple of days, I thought of her as Miss Annoyed.”
“I can beat that. I called you Mr. Phone and Mr. Clueless.”
Wade patted Victor on the back, lifted his drink toward his wife, Trina. “Don’t feel so bad, Victor. Trina flat-out turned me away the first time we met. She took one look at me and was like, ‘Oh, no, Cowboy. This is not gonna happen.’”
“I did not say that.”
“No, you said, ‘Wade Thomas who?’”
Trina turned to Victor. “I didn’t listen to country music. I didn’t know who he was.”
Wade and Trina were undoubtedly the most famous couple in the room. Multiplatinum country western singer Wade Thomas was one of the biggest in the industry. And Trina . . . well, she owned an exceptionally large part of an oil company inherited from her late husband’s estate.
“Sam turned me down,” Blake chimed in.
“True story. But I wised up,” Sam told the room. “Who doesn’t want to be royalty?”
While everyone laughed, Victor shook his head.
Lori helped out his confusion. “Blake is an actual titled British duke.”
“What?”
“I’m not responsible for my parents,” Blake told him. “But the title does come with a few perks, so I’ve kept it.”
“I thought you said you were in shipping,” Victor said.
“I am. And a few other things I’ve added on over the years. The dukedom was something I was born in. That is nothing more than a title and land in England. The actual business part of being a duke went away a long time ago.”
“Owning retail property in England is a business, hon,” Sam corrected her husband.
He waved her off. “It doesn’t count if you have someone else managing it.”
“It counts,” Trina chimed in. “I get calls every week about the property Alice left me—”
Victor tuned out of what everyone was saying to watch Shannon.
Her long legs were crossed at the ankles, a glass of white wine dangled from her fingertips. Surrounded by her friends and watching her watch everyone else had him thinking about something Avery had said back in Tulum.
Something about Shannon being the quiet, reserved one. Up until now, Victor thought that was a joke. Shannon had been anything but silent since they met.
Yet here she was, listening to everyone tell their stories with very little to say about herself. He wanted to know more . . . How did she meet all the personalities in the room? And there were some pretty big personalities there. Money . . . lots of it. More than he had, that was for sure. Victor had met people through the years whose income dwarfed his, but seldom was it at an intimate gathering of friends. Then again, he wasn’t sure the last time he’d gathered with friends like this. The wedding, he supposed. But his buddies from school didn’t measure up financially, which always meant that Victor was paying the bill. He’d gotten tired of it and slowly pushed people aside. Which meant he spent a lot of time working and not a lot of time living.
Shannon must have felt his stare. Her eyes lifted to meet his.
His gut warmed with her soft smile.
“. . . you’ll have to come, Victor.”
His attention was pulled back into the conversation by Trina addressing him.
“Of course.” He had no idea what he’d just agreed to.
Someone on his left laughed.
Shannon snickered and sipped her wine.
“Okay, Trina, Wade. You gathered us all together tonight for a reason.” Lori shifted the conversation, which forced Victor into paying attention.
“We wanted to congratulate Avery and Liam.” Trina smiled.
Liam put his arm over his wife’s shoulders.
“And meet Victor.”
Yeah, he’d sensed that the second he walked through the door.
Wade walked behind his wife, a silly smile on his face, wrapped her in his arms, and rested his chin on her shoulder. He placed one open palm on her belly. “And one other little, tiny thing,” he said.