I grinned. “Now, now.” I gently sank onto his lap, settling in to get comfortable as his arms encircled my waist, and he kissed my cheek. “Just don’t take good health for granted.”

“I don’t,” he murmured. He didn’t have to say the rest. After what we’d been through the year before, it didn’t need to be spoken between us. We’d learned the hard way that good health wasn’t something that anyone should assume they had until it was too late.

“Let’s go to bed.” I kissed him. “I’ll give you a massage or we can sit in the hot tub if you want. Nice and relaxing. You need a good night’s sleep for once.”

He smiled. “The hot tub sounds good. I think I can be persuaded if you promise to wear that black and white bikini.”

I winked at him. “Maybe I’ll go commando.”

He bit his lip. “Even better.”

Minutes later, we were in the hot tub off the main deck of our house. We kept the lights off, since that deck looked out on the back bay. In the dark, it was sufficiently private, and we enjoyed the silence, watching the lights on the water while the hot water bubbled around us.

He scooted me next to him and put an arm around my waist, relaxing with a satisfied sigh as my bare skin pressed against his.

“So…was it supposed to be a surprise?” I finally asked one of my burning questions.

“What?”

“The new quest.”

He was quiet for a moment, resting his head against a cushion on the deck behind him. “There are new quests with every game update. You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“Lord Sisyphus’s Wedding Quest.”

He laughed. “That’s actually a good idea.”

“So was it yours?”

“Was?” He lifted his head toward me, brow furrowing. “I’m confused.”

“The quest is in the game already. Heath found it and showed it to me.”

He frowned. “Huh. Maybe I missed that memo.”

“You mean you’re not the one to okay every single new quest that’s implemented?” I teased.

“And you think I’m busy now?” He laughed.

“Did someone sneak it in as a surprise, then?” I leaned my cheek against his warm shoulder.

“I have no idea. Honest to God. Someone must be playing a joke.”

“Well, the wording of the quest describes the imminent marriage of Lord Sisyphus and ‘Princess Emma.’”

He turned to me and grinned, his head sinking back onto the pillow, his arm tightening around my waist. “Lord Sisyphus is a lucky sonuvabitch. Princess Emma is hot, but she’s sassy and smart, too. With a heavy dose of sarcasm. And did I mention she’s hot? Especially when she’s sitting next to me, naked.”

But even with that come-on, I wasn’t about to let this go. It wasn’t every day I could get him talking about in-game quests. “So what do you think the quest is about?”

He shrugged. “How he hires a wedding planner? How his fiancée is apathetic to all his grand schemes and plans to write her name in the sky?

“Pfft,” I said. “Very funny. I’m not apathetic just because I don’t quite share your enthusiasm.”

He paused for a long moment, appearing to be thinking. “I’ll see what I can find out by asking around at the office tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’m very excited. Can’t you tell?” I turned and nibbled on his collarbone.

He smiled, kissing my forehead.

I was suddenly reminded of my earlier conversation with April. “So…”

He turned to me when I hesitated. Should I ask him about Jordan and work right now when he seemed to finally be relaxing? I blinked. If I wanted him to unwind enough to get a good night’s sleep, bringing it up now seemed counterproductive.

I made a note to ask him tomorrow instead.

“So?” he repeated, as if prompting me to continue.

“So, uh, is this helping you relax?” I adlibbed.

“Yeah…it is.” He took a deep breath and then let it go as if to convince me that he was successfully unwinding.

“Good. I thought it might. Maybe all we need is to get you on a relaxing routine at night.”

“You know what else would be super helpful to get me to fall asleep, though?”

I raised my brows. “A massage?”

“An orgasm.”

I laughed. “You are so fucking predictable.”

He tugged on me, pulling me into his lap so that I was straddling him. “You like it that way.”

I kissed him again. “I do.”

And I did…that stability, the predictability, was my home. Adam was my constant, my lodestar. He was the solid rock beneath my ever-shifting sea. And he wasn’t quite himself these days. I knew that. He’d taken too much on himself, and I could tell that we needed to have that conversation, too. But not tonight.

Not tonight.

 

 

Chapter 7

Adam

With the weekend finally here, I was stuck at home as a promise to Emilia that I’d at least take one day—twenty-four whole hours, as she put it—away from work. Which meant no phone calls, no texts, no emails, no laptop.

In keeping with the spirit of that promise, I set aside the day for wedding plans instead. She’d try to talk me out of it and divert to some idea of having fun. I’d satisfy her with a trip to the beach or a nice dinner out, later.

But the morning would be all wedding, all the time, whether she protested or not.

Ironically, it was me who caught her working when I popped my head into her study after I was done with my morning workout. “Is that a textbook I see?”

She slammed it shut, lowering her legs from where they rested on her desk. “Pleasure reading. Purely for my own enjoyment, I assure you.”

I padded across the floor, bare toes crushing the soft, loopy carpeting beneath my feet. Snatching up the book she’d been reading, I peered at her. “And how are you enjoying Rapid Interpretation of EKGs?”

She grimaced at me—like she normally did when I called her on her antics. “Uhh. It’s fascinating. Can’t put it down. Can’t wait to see how it ends.”

I raised a skeptical brow, and she began to laugh.

“Know what else is fascinating?” I said with a meaningful grin. “Our wedding plans.”