Page 87 of The Spare
“I love you.” I cupped his face in my hands and enjoyed the feeling of being wholly secured in his arms.
“Never stop saying that.”
“You’re going to have to get this wall repainted.” I laughed into his shoulder as he carried me to the couch that we collapsed onto. “And the couch cleaned.”
Laying a soft kiss on my lips, he glanced at the now colorful wall in the entryway. “I should have it framed.”
We lay there, tangled in each other’s arms. "You taste like jalebi." Marcus broke away from a lazy kiss and smiled against my mouth.
"I don't think I ate anything else today. I'm pretty sure jalebi is why I had so many cavities as a kid."
My grandmother made them for me anytime we visited, and I made sure to eat all that was available to me. Thinking about her always brought up a wave of disappointment, mostly in myself. I wished I spent more time loving the parts of myself I tried so hard to hide as a kid.
I sighed deeply.
"You okay?"
"Mmmm." My nose nuzzled into the hollow of his neck. “I wonder if I'd feel less like an imposter at these things if I had stayed Saanvi."
"A rose by any other name." He ran his fingers through my hair. They gently brushed against my scalp. I loved that he caught onto my little game of scavenger hunt.
"Maybe when I have kids, I can give them more traditional names.” I was thinking out loud, not really considering how that might sound until after I said it. Having known him for so long, I often forgot that we'd only been in a relationship for a couple of months. I winced at the inevitable assumption that we were moving too fast.
"Pick whichever first names you like." Marcus laid a kiss on my forehead. “Our kids will be Suttons regardless."
Our kids.
I'd have fallen into a full-on swoon if I wasn't already lying down.
CHAPTER44
Sloan
Ipeeled off my coat and walked into the kitchen.
“How’s Penelope?” Marcus looked up from his laptop. He stood, leaning forward against the kitchen counter, looking at the laptop in front of him.
Penelope and I had brunch that morning. She and her ex had an awkward reunion over the weekend and she needed to rant about it. I’d only met her ex once when she first started at the firm. He was handsome and charming, and Penelope had a hard time getting over him for good.
“Good…well, she will be.” I walked behind him to get a cup of coffee and he, seemingly acting on instinct, closed what looked like a set of bylaws he was looking at on his laptop screen.
I tried to ignore it, pressed a kiss on his cheek, and walked to the fridge.
It was probably work.
Marcus was always a very private person. He only said about a tenth of what he was thinking. Anyone close to him would eventually get used to deciphering what those few words meant.
It wasn’t my business, whatever he was reading. If itwaswork, it was probably highly confidential, given the nature of his company.
I knew that.
It made sense.
It still made my stomach turn. Insecurity made me mistrustful. The last few weeks had been heavenly. We were in love, and everything between us felt strong and stable, like nothing could tear us apart.
That one stroke of the trackpad brought back all the insecurity that the Zurich argument unearthed.
“Worried about corporate espionage?” I asked as mildly as I could. I walked over to the other side of the counter and put the cup down. Technically, I was the competition. I owned stake in Amari Global and would eventually have a board seat, but it all seemed distant to me now.
