Page 7 of Anyone But You

After a moment of fighting, Victoria snapped the suitcase upright and continued her wrathful march towards my SUV. She hoisted herself on the running boards and rapped her knuckles against the window.

“Come outside, Knox. I just wanna talk,” she said softly. Too softly if you asked me. A chuckle spilled from my lips.

I rolled the window down a fraction, but kept it high enough that she couldn’t fit her fist through.

“I’m not falling for that one.”

Victoria smiled tightly and leaned into the window. “Do you know what I want right now?”

“A donut?” I offered.

“To crush your old ass balls into dust,” she answered.

I shuddered but kept my composure. “If you wanted to touch my balls, we could arrange—”

“Go to Hell!” she spat.

Such venom…I love it.

“Victoria, there’s no point in stalling. We have a flight to catch. Get in the truck,” I demanded, nodding at the available seat beside me. I cleared my throat, trying to ignore how her intoxicating and deliriously sweet perfume seeped into the car.

“What part of ‘go to Hell’ don’t you understand?”

“All of it,” I replied.

She grinned, and her fingers clung tightly to the window. “Go to Hell with gasoline drawers on. If you think, for one minute,that I’m gonna get in this truck, then you’ve lost your ever-loving—”

“One hundred thousand,” I interjected, cutting off her well-wishes for my soul.

Victoria blinked rapidly. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll give you a $100,000.00 bonus once we return to New York. Get in,” I remarked, unlocking the door.

She hopped down and created some distance between my idling truck and herself. She paced in a circle and spoke to herself erratically. The words tumbled from her luscious lips like rapid fire. I could barely keep up. I did catch her saying, “Do it for Mom.”

Do it for Mom? Is her mother in financial straits?

Eventually, Victoria’s shoulders slumped in resignation. She opened the passenger door, slipped inside, and filled the SUV with the scent that was uniquely hers. I nodded at my driver through the rear-view mirror, and he fetched Victoria’s massive suitcase and hauled it into the trunk.

“I want you to know that I despise you with every fiber of my being.”

I rolled my eyes. “Tell me something new, Tori Montana.”

“Stop calling me that. It’s Ms. Caldwell.”

I sighed. “Ms. Caldwell is so boring,” I taunted. I was waiting for a snarky comeback, but Victoria’s buzzing phone had stolen her attention. Her nose did that twitchy thing it did when she was pissed off. “Are you messaging your friends?”

“Yep. Just telling them how my sadistichusbandcanceled my flight and bribed me with an obscene amount of money to accompany him on the business trip I had no plans of attending.”

I smiled softly, finding an opening to tease her more.

“I just had a thought. Mrs. Victoria Ramsey has a lovely ring to it. Don’t you think?”

“Only if you drop dead as soon as we say ‘I do.’”

I chuckled. “Now, where’s the fun in that? I’d at least like to make it through our wedding night.”

“What’s the point?” she mumbled as her fingers flew furiously across the screen. I peeked over, and she was typing in all caps and exclamation marks. I could barely contain my smile when she inserted several knife emojis. “You’d never live long enough to get the kitty.”