Ivan sat behind the wheel and listened to Nicole talk. The moment she'd seen him arrive at her place, she slid from the driver's seat and with a big grin hurried to the other side of the car. Ivan joked that becoming her chauffeur on this trip had been Nicole's purpose all along. 'Among other things,' she'd retorted.
He'd first met Nicole when he delivered a floor-length mink coat to one of Broadway's hottest newcomers. The unknown young beauty starred in a show about a couple who argues about putting butter on a single slice of toast. It was an inexplicable success, and the show's producers looked to compensate the actress' meager salary with a surprise presentation of one of the world's most sought after furs - the Novikoff Mink. While delivering the producers' gift, Ivan had purposely draped the fur about Nicole's shoulders, then faked surprise to discover she was not the Broadway star but, in fact, her hairdresser. Nicole downplayed the incident but it didn't matter. Ivan Novikoff was now firmly in her thoughts.
Ivan had provided his father with a hearty laugh when he questioned the older man just how it was that Nicole could capture his attention so completely after just one meeting. Bogdan Novikoff simply reminded his son of the story of how he and Ivan's mother had met. For Ivan, that often heard story suddenly had new meaning. He'd always thought it was one of his father's colorful exaggerations. Now he knew better.
When Ivan pictured his life going forward, he always imagined it with Nicole by his side. They would have the kind of marriage his parents had... a strong, passionate union. Apparently, so had Nicole's parents. One evening after dinner with Bogdan and Vanessa, she'd told Ivan how her mother had fallen in love at first sight as well. Ivan took her story as a sign that they were meant to be.
Now, after six months or so, he was traveling to New Jersey to meet Nicole's family. He hadn't wanted to push her, but Ivan was ready to take move their relationship into a level more permanent. It was a big step, true, but Ivan was not phased by it all. He had already chosen a ring to present to her at Christmas.
Expertly he wove in and out of city traffic until there was a loosening of congestion. He was comfortable with the ebb and flow of the vehicles around him; almost since he could walk he'd helped deliver his father's furs all throughout New York. "I'm making this trip as much for my Aunt Cheryl as I am for my mother," Nicole absently explained. She sat in the passenger seat, one leg drawn comfortably beneath her. Much of the trip had been taken in comfortable silence. Neither she nor Ivan felt the need to fill the quiet with small talk or banter. They were content to be in each other 's presence. Their relationship had been that way from the start. 'When things got...complicated, my Aunt Cheryl was the one who always cleaned off the plate glass between me and my mother and let us really see each other."
"You did not get along with your mother?" Ivan thought about his own relationship with his mother. She was a warm, loving person who was not ashamed to show the depths of her feelings for her husband and son. But despite Vanessa's gentleness, there was a will of iron beneath it all. She'd had to be strong, his father's world already held one strike against her.
Nicole laughed shortly. "I realize now that it was mostly typical mother and daughter issues. But back then, dealing with a mother who was a star wasn't an easy path to navigate. Oh, I don't mean star as in celebrity," Nicole clarified. "I mean star, like up in the sky. When Evelyn Jones walked into a room all attention turned her way. Even to this day there is just something about her that still causes that reaction." The words were spoken so neutrally that Ivan knew, despite Nicole's protest otherwise, that she had not fully resolved her issues with her mother. "Being a teenage girl is hard enough by itself. Having a mother who attracts so much male attention doesn't help a girl's self-confidence. Not when even the boys your age would rather spend time with your mother."
"Where does your Aunt Cheryl come in? What did she do?"
Nicole smiled, lost in some pleasant memory of childhood. "It wasn't what she did. It was who she was. All her life Aunt Cheryl has been shy and reserved. Doctors today would probably diagnose her with some type of Aspergers Syndrome or something... she was that shy. But watching my mother interact with her stripped away all the other stuff and reminded me that at her very core my mother is a loving, caring person."
Ivan glanced over at Nicole. He flashed that grin that never failed to give her butterflies. "Wait. You are saying my prospective mother-in-law is a hottie?" he teased. "I am one lucky guy."
"And that remark," Nicole rolled her eyes, "is why you will be heading to a hotel right after you meet my mother." She did not comment on the fact that Ivan put the matter of marriage between them out in the open, but the young Russian watched her eyes widen all the same.
"I was just kidding, Nic."
Nicole nodded. "I know. But I am not taking any chances. You have no willpower."
"What?"
"You heard me, Ivan Bogdanovich! You have no willpower!"
Ivan bit back a smile at Nicole's traditional use of his name. At that moment she sounded so much like his mother. "Oh, yes? Give me one example," he insisted.
"Hmm... How many times have you started painting my toenails and never made it past the second toe?"
"That is hardly a fair example," Ivan protested. "You keep tempting me!"
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that."
Nicole's smug expression spurred Ivan's competitive nature. "How about tonight," he growled, "I show you my staying power?" His Russian accent, barely detectable at all other times, made its usual appearance when he was aroused.
"I think you mean willpower."
Ivan gave her a look filled with promise. "Da. I mean that too."
