Drowning in Love Chapter 12

Drowning in Love Chapter 12

When Travis realized I was serious, he immediately switched into apology mode.

I couldn’t deal with him, so I grabbed his collar and yanked him close.

“Sorry won’t cut it. Tell me. How many other secrets have you been keeping from me?”

Travis flushed and stammered, “Um… the missing lingerie. Yeah. I took it. I did some pretty undignified things. I’m sorry.”

“Keep going.”

“Your sister suddenly deciding to go to Paris to pursue art… that was me too.”

“What?” I gasped.

I remembered my gentle sister leaving in tears, saying she had to go to the Paris to find an artist who could touch her soul, or she’d regret it forever. I’d wondered even back then. She hardly ever left the house. Where did that sudden wanderlust come from?

Travis explained, “I did someone a favor. I helped fund her so-called dream. To be exact, I paid that painter ten million dollars so they’d settle there. It was a mutually beneficial deal.”

A deal for them. But for me, it had been a plan years in the making.

Travis seemed to realize that too. Guilt shadowed his eyes. “That’s the ugly part of me. I’ve always known my methods weren’t honorable. That’s why I didn’t dare touch you. I was afraid you’d find out I’d been scheming to keep you here and take everything from you, and you’d hate me for it.”

For people in our world, marriage was basically a bargaining chip.

To be fair, before I married Travis, I didn’t hate the idea. I’d even felt secretly pleased. Compared to other spoiled rich heirs, Travis was undeniably easy on the eyes.

But hearing him confess it out loud filled me with a warmth I’d never felt before.

“I’ve never hated you, Travis. If anything, these past six months have shown me there’s a more interesting, even a little goofy, side under all that control. I don’t know if it’s ‘deep love’ yet, but I’m never bored with you.”

“That’s enough,” he said quietly.

Travis could be ruthless in business, but when it came to feelings, he was humble. Easily satisfied. He murmured, “As long as you’re happy, that’s enough.”

He made me laugh. I rose onto my tiptoes and kissed him.

That night, we didn’t do anything else. We curled up on the sofa in the private screening room and put on a movie for no reason at all.

When the big screen cut to the male lead’s close-up confession, I turned to Travis. “Seriously. When did you start noticing me?”

“At senior prom,” he said. “You offered me a martini and took my hand.”

I stared at him. “Just because of that drink?”

“Yeah,” he said, like it was obvious. “It was that drink.”

I laughed and climbed into his lap. “So much for that brilliant brain of yours. You’re basically a terminal case of Anna syndrome.”

Travis pulled me in and kissed me hard, taking control like it was instinct. When he finally let me breathe, he said, completely serious, “Yeah. And I’m never getting over it.”