It had been late when Gideon had finally made his way to their bed, and he hadn't stirred as he usually did when Vivienne slid from his warmth to shower and change. She was eager to get on with her day. She had a project to start, and as at the beginning of any new challenge, she was keen to get going.
Once she was ready, she went into the kitchen and made coffee while defrosting a few of the pastries Gideon liked. She took the time to decorate a tray with a brightly coloured mat, plate and napkin and a small flower from the arrangement that decorated the kitchen bench. She smiled as she caught herself in the act of doing something like this for the man who had changed her world so much for the better. It was hard to believe that only six months she was resigned to the fact that she would never find a man who would love her the way Gideon did.
She loved her husband more than she would have ever thought possible and while she believed she knew the most important things about him, their courtship had been such a whirlwind amidst so much family drama that she didn't know so many of the little details about him and his life or the people most important to him outside of his brothers, not that she had any intention of cosying up to his mother but Madrina, that was a woman she could love wholeheartedly.
Walking carefully with the tray she had prepared Vivienne went in to wake up her gorgeous husband and fend off his attempts to lure her back into bed with him. She grinned at that thought. Who knew that she could become as insatiable as he was that even just thinking about it tempted her to put her plans for this morning on hold and do just that?
Placing the tray quietly on his bedside table planning to back away and shake his foot to wake him, so she was firmly out of his reach, she gasped as his arms snaked around her and dragged her onto the bed as soon as she had placed the tray securely.
"Gideon!" she cried before he muffled anything else she could say with his mouth. The kiss was long, slow and deliberate, and she melted in his arms, any thoughts of struggling against him melting from her mind.
"Good morning, wife," Gideon grinned when he finally let her up for air. "And where would you be trying to sneak off to this fine morning?"
"I am not sneaking anywhere," she laughed. "I was about to wake you up and tell you that I was going to visit Madrina today. It's been too long since we visited her and I like her company."
"Any particular reason you thought to seek out her company today?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. He knew his wife well enough to know everything she did had a purpose.
"I love Olivia, and the women of your family that I have met are lovely, but I miss Marcella," she admitted. "I need someone I can just talk to normally, and usually I would seek out my brother or Lydia, but I didn't think you would want me taking a trip home just because I am feeling a bit lost without my closest friend here. Madrina is, well she tells it like it is much like Marcie does. She doesn't put up with anyone's bullshit and says what needs to be said no matter the topic of conversation. Besides, I'd like to get to know what my husband was like as a boy," she said and cupped the side of his face with one hand.
"You feel lonely here?" he frowned, trying to get to the crux of what she had said.
"It's not that I'm lonely per se, it just that our courtship was a bit of a whirlwind and we got married without all the usual getting to know each other's stuff. I'm just catching up and trying to discover where I fit into this family of yours," she sighed.
"The Halloween festival is coming up. That's when we gather as a family, and you will get to meet them all. If this plan of Marcie's works out the way we think, she will be there with Noah. So you can get to know the rest of the family while having your friend beside you to pour her own brand of irreverent humour over everything," he chuckled.
"Do you really think he can convince her to come back?" she asked quietly.
"I have learned not to underestimate either of my little brothers," he chuckled. "When Noah sets his mind on something you can guarantee, he will succeed or die trying. Literally, in some cases, I can't even begin to count the number of times he had to be rescued as a kid. Dad constantly had to pick him up from the authorities or the hospital because he built his own hang glider or climbed a mountain he couldn't get off once he was at the top. The army had to rescue him after the hang glider stunt," he chuckled at the memory.
"Noah? The suit-wearing, risk-is bad, lawyer? That Noah?" Vivienne asked sure that Gideon was teasing her.
"That Noah. He owns an adrenaline-fuelled adventure company and jumps out of perfectly good planes at least once a week before donning the suit and tie and heading into work," he chuckled. "His company's safety record is the best, though, because he learned his lessons the hard way."
"You're serious, aren't you?" she asked incredulously.
"Scout's honour," he held up three fingers.
"And what's hiding behind Genesis's uber uptight exterior?" she asked enjoying talking about his brothers and the affection in Gideon's voice and expression when he thought of them both.
"He's an award-winning investigative journalist. Honestly, if all of his attention weren't on Olivia, he would probably be out there doing exactly what Marcella is now. He won't admit it, but she is doing things his way, and getting results. Gen loves all that cloak and dagger shit. Clandestine meetings with sources that he will never reveal and I am still not sure who gave him the heads up that the girl brought into the hospital as Serena Seabrook was, in fact, the assumed dead Olivia Gambaro," he told her thinking about how much it must be costing Genesis not to be out in the field solving this puzzle for himself as he cared for Olivia.
"Wow, that's so not what I expected you to say," Vivienne shook her head in wonder.
"Yeah well we have one watchman, but we are all a bit cloak and dagger in this family. We have one of the best information networks around, but still, Marcella has done what neither the AFP nor we could do," he gave her credit even though he wasn't sure he agreed with the way she went about it. "We all feel bad about the way she left and that she didn't trust any of us with her investigations, but I promise we will make it up to her once she is back," Gideon assured her.
