Queen in Lingerie Read online

  And now I would finally have her.

  I pressed the head of my cock inside her and slowly slid through her slickness. She was exceptionally tight, like I was breaking her in again. She hadn’t been fucked in months, and now she was tight like a virgin.

  She was mine to claim all over again.

  I moved until I was completely inside, my entire body shaking because she felt so good. She bit her bottom lip as she stared up at me, her face flushing from the pleasure.

  She widened her legs farther and then yanked on my hips, pulling me deeper inside her. “Conway…”

  I pressed my forehead to hers and breathed with her, treasuring the way our bodies fit together so well. My cock had made a home between her legs—and he never wanted to leave. It was so good, so tight.

  I already wanted to come. “I’m not gonna last…”

  “Neither am I.” She gripped my shoulders. “I miss feeling your come inside me.”

  I groaned in her face, my cock twitching in reaction. “Muse…”

  She tugged on my hips, getting me to thrust.

  I rocked into her slowly, moving at the slowest speed I ever had. After three months of abstinence, just a little bit of friction with her was more than enough. She felt like a virgin, but so did I.

  She gripped my ass and pulled me into her, showing the same enthusiasm. She kept biting her bottom lip and moaning, like she was crumbling apart just the way I was. She breathed in my face, sexy whimpers escaping her throat. “Tell me you love me.”

  It had been hard to say it the first time, but it wasn’t hard to say it the second time. “I love you.”

  Her nails dug into my back as she exploded, coming all around me in a violent orgasm. She whimpered in my face, her slickness coating my cock all the way to the hilt. We barely moved for a minute, and we were coming apart like teenagers.

  I came immediately afterward, and I was grateful she went first. If she hadn’t, I would have left her unsatisfied. I shoved my dick as far as I could go and released, dumping all of my come inside that tight little cunt.

  My cunt.

  She moaned with me even though she’d finished her climax. “I love you…”

  The words only made my orgasm better, stronger.

  I filled her with all my come and felt my cock soften afterward. I released more than I ever had before, and the sensation was so strong, I felt all the muscles in my shoulders tense. I used to have this every single night of my life, but then I turned my back and let it slip away.

  I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  When I woke up the next day, Muse was already wide awake. She’d already showered, had breakfast, and now she was reading beside me, scrolling through a novel on her tablet. She was in black leggings and a long-sleeved shirt, dressed for fall.

  I squinted my eyes and stared at her alarm clock.

  It was three in the afternoon.

  Jesus.

  I was always up by seven. With the time change, the lack of sleep, jet lag, and a night catching up on good sex, I was knocked out.

  I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and groaned. “Shit…it’s late.”

  She set down her tablet and turned over to face me. “It’s okay to sleep in once in a while. Or, for the first time ever, in your case.”

  Even when we were in Greece, I was up early in the morning. I took care of emails and did my daily sit-ups and push-ups before I watched the sun rise. I propped myself on my elbow and looked down at Muse. I missed waking up to her face first thing in the morning. I preferred to see her when her face was free of makeup, and her skin was beautiful from resting all night. But she was still absolutely stunning. “This feels like a dream.”

  “But better, because it’s real.” She leaned down to kiss me on the mouth.

  My lips moved with hers, and the tightness in my chest slipped away. My hand slid into her hair, and I smelled her perfume. I’d fantasized about the smell, treasured it as it remained glued to my sheets. Once that smell had faded away, I’d felt like I lost her all over again.

  “Want some breakfast?” she asked.

  “You cook?”

  “Yes.” She gave me a playful slap on the arm. “You would know that if Dante let me do something once in a while.”

  “You know how he is. The proudest man I know.”

  She released a loud scoff. “Maybe one of them. But definitely not the proudest.”

  I followed her out of the bedroom, dressed in my boxers and the t-shirt I wore yesterday. She had two large couches and one armchair on a colorful rug. A large TV was on the wall. There were paintings hanging, all of them images of Italy.

  I knew that wasn’t a coincidence.

  She grabbed her ingredients out of the fridge and the pantry and started to cook at the counter.

  “Need help?”

  “Nope.” She poured me a fresh mug of coffee.

  I sipped it as I watched her move in the kitchen. She made pancakes on the stove, baked the bacon in the oven, and whipped up scrambled eggs. Within ten minutes, she served me a meal full of carbs, fat, and sugar.

  I hadn’t had a breakfast like this in years. “I’m surprised you had all this around the house.”

  “I went to the store when you were asleep.” She sat in the seat perpendicular to me, her hair curled and earrings in her lobes. She was thinner since the last time I saw her. Andrew must have asked her to drop a few extra pounds. Unless she was just depressed and didn’t eat.

  I ate everything on my plate, loving the fluffy cakes and even the syrup. The bacon was crispy, just the way I liked it. When it came to Muse, I always felt the urge to take care of her, to make sure my chef made the food she liked and picked out the clothes she wanted. I’d never had a woman take care of me before. I was perfectly capable of making my own food, but it was entertaining to watch her do it.

  Watch her do something for me.

  The second I was reunited with her, I felt better. Like I’d been in a desert for three months, I was dehydrated, sick, and losing my mind. But now I was refreshed, getting everything I needed to nurse me back to health.

  Her plate was mediocre, a single pancake, half a slice of bacon, and scrambled egg whites. I preferred to see her eat a real meal. Andrew wanted her to be as slim as possible, but thinner wasn’t necessarily better. I liked seeing a little stomach on her, more meat on her thighs. I wanted her to come home with me so she could eat all she wanted.

  Like a real woman.

  I pushed my plate away and adjusted my position in my chair so I could face her better, so I could watch her put the small bites into her mouth. This was one of the things I missed most, having the privilege of staring at her during all my meals. She was far more entertaining than a TV program or a piece of art.

  She smiled slightly when she became aware of my stare. “Some things never change, huh?”

  “No.” I propped my elbow on the table and rested my chin against my fingertips. “We’ll return home tomorrow. That should give you the afternoon to tell Andrew you’re leaving.”

  She stopped chewing, her mouth still full. She paused as she stared at me, and she quickly finished chewing before she forced the food down her throat. “What?”

  “Do you need a few more days?” I could have someone handle selling her place while we were away. There was nothing she couldn’t take with her. All the furniture in her apartment could go on my plane.

  “No…I just…wasn’t expecting you to say that.”

  “Say what, exactly?”

  She set down her silverware. “Well, I can’t leave, Conway.”

  My eyes narrowed, immediately annoyed by that disgusting sentence. “What does that mean?”

  “I work here. I live here. I can’t just drop everything and leave.”

  “I know you can’t do that immediately. That’s why I recommended you take a few days.”

  “You don’t get it,” she whispered. “I signed a contract with Andrew for ten years. I can’t just walk away.”r />
  “You can always walk away. Contracts are broken all the time.”

  “Well, I can’t break this one.”

  My body automatically went rigid, the mere suggestion that some man had a stronger claim over her than I did was insulting. “Why not?”

  “I have to pay back what I owe. I already bought this place and all the furniture.”

  “Don’t worry about that, Muse. I’ll take care of it.”

  When her eyes narrowed, she showed her displeasure. “I don’t need you to pay my debts, Conway.”

  I forgot how proud she was. “Then what do you suggest?”

  She fell quiet, knowing there was no other option. She would have to get a job doing something else if she ever wanted to pay back every cent she’d received.

  “Then let me take care of it,” I said gently. “The contract will be over, and you can come back with me.”

  When she avoided my gaze, I knew there was something wrong.

  “What is it, Muse?”

  “I…I don’t want to go back to what we were.”

  My fingertips moved over my lips.

  “I don’t want to be so dependent on you. When you were pissed off, you threw me out on the street.”

  I cringed, hating myself for that stupid impulse.

  “Fortunately, Andrew had already offered me that deal. If I hadn’t had that on the table, I have no idea what I would have done.”

  “That suitcase had three hundred thousand dollars in it. The Ferrari is worth over two fifty.”

  “But I’ve never wanted your money, Conway. How many times do I have to say it?”

  I felt her emotional stare burrow right under my skin.

  “Unless I have something more secure, I need my own income. I need my own independence. So I need to keep this job and my apartment.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am serious, Con.”

  Just when I thought everything was perfect, it went to shit. “We can’t have a long-distance relationship.”

  “Well…”

  “I’m not doing that.” I tried to keep my temper under control, but it was already rising. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I wouldn’t settle for less. I told this woman I loved her. It was the first time I’d said it to anyone. I wasn’t going to live on the other side of the world away from her. “You’re sleeping in my bed every night. You’re living under my roof.”

  “We can still do that, but here. You work remotely most of the time anyway.”

  I was tempted to slam my fist against her dining table. “Muse, you know how much my family means to me. I can’t live that far away from them. It doesn’t make any sense for us to live here just for you to have a job.”

  “The only way around it is if I have a job there.”

  “Fine,” I said. “You can work for me. Problem solved.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t work for you, Conway.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because all you have to do is get pissed off and I’m out of a job.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Muse, a night like that isn’t going to happen ever again. I came all the way here to tell you I love you and to bring you back home with me. It’s different now. Let’s go back to Verona and live in that beautiful mansion you love so much that’s way too big for a single person, alright?”

  Her eyes drifted toward the table. “I’m sorry…but no. I need more than that.”

  “More than that?” I asked incredulously.

  “It would be different if we were married. But for right now, this is how it has to be. We’ve never had a real relationship. It’s always been in a situation where you have power over me. I want my own place—”

  “I’m not letting you live alone. Nonnegotiable. I need you in a place where I know you’re safe, and there’s no place in the world safer than beside me. As for marriage…don’t push me. It was hard enough for me to come all the way here and put my heart on the line. It was hard enough to admit how much I need you. Let’s start there and see where it goes…”

  “So marriage is on the table?”

  It was a step I’d never thought I would take, but I’d also thought I would never love someone the way I loved her. Like my father said, this kind of commitment had already happened—whether I chose to acknowledge it or not. “All I know is…I can’t live without you. So yes, it’s on the table.”

  “And children?” she whispered. “You know I have to have a family…since I don’t have one of my own.”

  I could barely grasp the idea of being a husband. A father was even more terrifying. “I’m not ready for that right now. But…it’s on the table.”

  She released a quiet sigh. “That’s enough for me.”

  It was all of me, so it better be enough for her. “So you’ll live with me?”

  “I guess. But I still need a job.”

  I growled under my breath. “I’ll just give you—”

  “I don’t want your money.”

  I loved this woman, but damn, she was infuriating. “Look, I’m pretty fucking helpless without you. I haven’t made a single sketch since you walked out on me. I’m behind schedule, and I’m drowning. People are waiting for me to reveal something new, but I can’t even produce a single concept. So I need you. Being my muse is a job. It’s a damn important one. I’m willing to pay you what Andrew is paying you—because my entire career depends on you.”

  “Like I said, I don’t want—”

  “I know. But if you were someone else, I’d be paying you. If you think about it like that, it’s a job. So you’re helping me, and I’m helping you.”

  “I still owe you a hundred million.”

  “You don’t owe me anything, Muse.”

  “No. If you really want to do it this way, I want to pay you back for what you spent on me.”

  It wasn’t ideal, but we were moving in the right direction. “So if I offered to match what Andrew is paying you—”

  “You would deduct the hundred million you paid, plus the cost to break me out of the contract.”

  “That’s about one hundred and forty million…”

  “Yes.”

  I felt like an ass taking anything from her.

  “That would leave the rest for me to keep. I would hold on to it, and if we do get married someday, I can give it back to you…since there’s no point in me keeping it anymore.”

  It was the best scenario we were going to compromise on. She earned her own money that she could rely on, and in the event that she didn’t need it, which she wouldn’t, she would just give it back to me. It would allow her to work with me every day without being a public figure, and she could be with me at all times.

  Win-win.

  “I think we have a deal,” I said.

  “Yeah. I think we do.”

  Hand in hand, we walked into the studio where Muse spent her afternoons working with Andrew. They had a photo set on one floor, the fabrics on a different level, and they had a special gym where the models could work out if they wanted to.

  We took the elevator to one of the upper floors, where Andrew had his office.

  His secretary told us to have a seat, so we waited together in the lobby.

  I sat beside her in my black suit, my legs apart and my eyes fierce. Andrew wouldn’t let her go without a fight. His standing in the market had exploded since Muse started working for him. The sales started to pour in, and once she was gone, they would plummet all over again.

  He would be pissed.

  My phone started to ring, and if my father’s name hadn’t been on the screen, I wouldn’t have answered it. “I’ll be right back.” My hand slid from Muse’s thigh as I stood up and approached the double glass doors. I passed through then took the call. “Hey, everything alright?”

  My father spoke with a calm and cool voice. “I have the same question for you. I stopped by the house, but Dante said you left for the airport a few days ago. Said you were headed to New Y
ork…”

  “Yeah. I’m still here.”

  “May I ask what you’re doing? Keep in mind, there’s only one answer I’m looking for.”

  I grinned then walked back into the waiting room. “Hold on.” I sat beside Muse and handed her the phone. “Say hello to my father.”

  She smiled before she took the phone. “Mr. Barsetti, how are you?”

  I could hear his voice over the line. He instantly seemed to be in a much better mood talking to her instead of me. “Sapphire, I’m doing great…really great. It’s nice to hear your voice again.”

  “It’s nice to hear yours too.”

  “I’m glad my son manned up.”

  “Yeah,” she said with a chuckle. “Me too.”

  “When you guys get back to town, Pearl and I would love to see you. We were disappointed when we heard the two of you were no longer seeing each other. Vanessa took it the hardest.”

  “I would love that. Maybe we can do dinner…”

  “Definitely,” he said. “Well, I’ll let you go.”

  “Do you want to talk to Con again?”

  I held out my hand to take the phone.

  “Nope.” He hung up.

  She couldn’t hide her grin as she dropped the phone into my hand. “Must be busy…”

  I stuffed the phone into my pocket, knowing my father was just resentful toward me after our last conversation. “I told him the truth about us.”

  “The truth?” She raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

  “The whole truth. He knows how we met. He knows I bought you from the Underground. He knows everything.”

  “Oh…it seems like he took it well.”

  “He didn’t give me too much shit about it. I thought he was going to smash the bottle of scotch over my head and knock me out, but he didn’t. He probably thought it was pointless since I was already so miserable. Not much he could do to make me feel worse.”

  She moved her hand to my thigh.

  “But the truth is out.”

  “I guess it’s nice we don’t have to pretend anymore. It’s easy to live under the light of the truth instead of the shadow of a lie.”