Page 39 of His Perfect Woman

“Actually, believe it or not, it wasn’t Lucas’s fault this time,” he explained, pulling out his phone to press several buttons. “I’ve just sent each of you the latest reviews and reports on what appears to be our latest scandal.”

We each paused for a moment to review the link that had popped up in our inboxes. Camille skimmed it the fastest and was the first to comment.

“A troll?” She laughed. “Surely an internet troll can’t be that big of a deal. Should be an easy fix. How does the competition handle this sort of thing?”

“This isn’t your average internet troll,” he argued. “He seems to be hellbent on bringing Heartstring down, whoever he is. He’s luring women onto dates only to make them totally horrible and awful. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working because it’s causing customers to file bad reviews left and right. We’re estimating that the number of paid memberships we’ve lost over this guy alone is upwards of three percent.”

“Three percent doesn’t seem so bad,” Victoria suggested.

Camille’s face turned pale. “That’s ninety thousand customers.”

“Oh.” She blushed. “Okay, so that is pretty bad.”

“Ninety thousand customers and over three hundred thousand dollars lost...monthly,” I clarified, swallowing hard.

“But wait.” Vic’s face wrinkled. “How could one guy going on physical dates manage to sway that many people? It seems physically impossible.”

“I don’t know, but we need to find out. Can you help on the press side of things while we get to the bottom of this?” Jack asked her.

“Sure, I’ll think of something.”

“I’ll look into the troll and see what can be done to stop him,” Camille offered.

Jack, the master of crisis control, nodded in agreement. “Great. That’s settled for now, then. It needs to be our top priority until it’s ironed out.”

“I’ll take care of it,” she affirmed.

“With that out of the way, let’s eat.” Jack sat back down and started buttering his toast.

I reached under the table for Victoria’s hand and squeezed, flashing her a smile. I was right. Having her by my side made me so happy that not even some internet troll, even though he was draining hundreds of thousands of dollars from our profits, could bring me down. I felt more certain than ever that whatever came our way, we’d get through it.

“Maybe we should invite the troll to our wedding,” I joked. “Think that’d calm him down?”

“We’ve had enough drama in the media around our relationship. Let’s not give this weirdo a chance to ruin our wedding in addition to our bank accounts.”

The rest of breakfast was nice and calm. We chatted about regular things going on outside of work—a luxury that we had only recently been able to afford, now that our finances were back on solid ground. It was official, more so than ever before—I had rebuilt a huge chunk of the empire that was ripped away from us after Dad died. And I had the love of my life to boot.

After eating, everyone parted ways to enjoy the rest of their weekend, and Victoria and I took the car back to our apartment. It was a penthouse, similar to the one I owned before, but this one had a cozier, homier feel thanks to Victoria’s decorating.

We walked inside, tossed down our things, and floated over to the nursery door—as we had been making a habit of doing lately. We’d just put the finishing touches on the room. Everything Vic had been saving up in that trunk of hers was now hung up on display on the yellow and light gray walls.

“You still sure about the whole letting the gender be a surprise thing?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She nodded confidently. “I just want to focus on thinking happy thoughts about the baby’s health. The rest doesn’t matter, and it will be an awfully fun surprise when it comes time for the delivery.”

“Okay.” I smirked, shaking my head.

“What? What’s that look for?”

I smoothed my hand down her back. “You hate surprises. And you’re normally not so calm about letting go of control.”

She flashed a breezy smile and shrugged. “I guess that’s something I’m getting better at. Thanks to you. If I tried to cling to control with you around, I’d drive myself crazy.”

I turned towards her and pressed my lips to hers. I only meant for it to be a quick one, but we both sank into it, not wanting it to end. My hand trailed down her chest, over the curve of her breast and then her hip.

“Aren’t you glad we didn’t let this baby stop us from...you know?”

“Making love?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “So very glad. In fact, we should take advantage of that right now.”

I smirked, sliding my tongue between her lips. “My pleasure.”

She opened her mouth wider, deepening our kiss as we tumbled towards the bedroom. She spun me around and shoved me back onto the bed before starting to shed her clothes, one piece at a time.

After hours of spontaneous sex, I was amazed that she was still wide awake, sitting on the edge of the bed in nothing but a silk robe, eating ice cream. I kissed up her back to her neck and nibbled on her ear. She looked over her shoulder at me with a smile, and from the look in her eyes...it was hard to believe I’d ever doubted how she felt about me. It had been right under our noses all those years and we were just too blind to see it.

But I didn’t bring those things up anymore. Victoria said we had run until we were out of places to hide, and the only place left to go was into each other's arms. End of story. What more needed to be said about it? Other than that I loved her and she loved me.

That was good enough for me, and there was no doubt that it would be for the rest of our lives. Everything I had wanted since high school had finally come true. The picture the press tried to paint of me turned out to be the kick I needed to transform into the total opposite—a happily soon-to-be married man with a fiancé I didn’t even have to bribe and a baby on the way. There would be no guest houses or second apartments for other lovers. Just us—always. Best friends, and so much more.

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