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“It’s a limited-edition piece that hasn’t hit the market yet,” Christian said as casually as if it were a plastic toy he’d picked up from the mall. “There are only five in the world. One of them now belongs to you.”
“I’m giving it back. It’s too much,” I said firmly. “This is a diamond watch, Christian. It must be worth tens of thousands of dollars.” “Ninety-two thousand, six hundred.”
“It’s only money. I have plenty of it.”
He took a step toward me. I took an instinctive step back, and another and another, until my lower back hit the couch and my heart beat hard enough to bruise. “Is that what we are, Stella? Housemates who are seeing each other for mutually beneficial reasons?”
Christian’s palms sank into the cushions on either side of me, effectively caging me in.
“You want to know why, Stella? Why I gave you the watch, why I moved you into my house, my sanctuary, when I’ve lived alone for over a decade and had planned to do so for the rest of my life?”
“It’s because you haven’t looked me in the eye since New York. Because you’re all I can fucking think about no matter where I am or who I’m with, and the thought of you hurt or upset makes me want to raze this city to the ground.”
“Ask me what you really want to know, Stella.”
“Who were you with?”
“Three women.”
“They were at the same bar as me,”
“I could’ve fucked any of them. Made them do every filthy, debauched thing I could think of. Their mouth on my cock, my hands in their hair…”
“Yet I didn’t touch them. I didn’t want to. Not one tiny fucking bit.”
“Perhaps I should’ve. Perhaps then, you’d understand how I feel.”
“I’m not a jealous man, Stella. I have never envied someone for what they have or who they’re with, and yet…”
“I’m jealous of every person you smile at.” A brush over her fingers. “Eve...
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My touch dipped to her knee and made a slow, languorous journey up her thigh. “Every breeze that touches your skin and every sound that pours...
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“Go to your room, Stella.” My harsh command shattered the raw intimacy of the moment. “And lock your door.”
Stella had seared so deep into my consciousness that she was all I could smell. All I could feel. And even when I closed my eyes, all I could see.
Because when I claimed Stella as mine, I would do it so fucking thoroughly there wouldn’t be a shred of doubt in either of our minds as to who she belonged to…or who I belonged to in return.
She lived for presents. She once told me it was a shame Santa wasn’t real because, as old as he was, she’d fuck him if it meant she’d wake up to a different gift every morning.
I’d waited a long time. Eventually, I would catch her, and once I did, I was never letting her go.
“Actually, I’m feeling much better.”
“So, Stella, darling, I’ll be able to accompany you to dinner after all.”
“I suggest you don’t finish that sentence.” Christian’s quiet voice sliced through the toxic fumes of my father’s anger like they didn’t exist.
“If you’re wondering why your daughter would keep things from you, look in the mirror,” I said. “Look at how you reacted. Instead of supporting her, you attacked her. Instead of being proud of her drive and passion, you force her into a box she doesn’t belong in. Stella is one of the most selfless, creative, and brilliant people I know, yet you belittle her for not conforming to your limited definitions of success. Why? Because you’re embarrassed to have a child who dared stray from the rigid path you yourself took? Your pride matters more to you than her happiness, yet you’re surprised that
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He was working from home today, but he was still dressed in a suit and tie.
Who could hate baklava, cheesecake, and ice cream? The devil, that was who.
But if there was one thing both sides agreed on, it was that she was mine. And now that she was in my life, there was no letting her go.
Half-naked models were de rigueur in the fashion world, but that didn’t stop me from suddenly wanting to gouge out the eyes of the only male member of the crew—one
I’d done my research after the first photo shoot.
She glowed in a way that had nothing to do with her outer beauty. Darkness was always drawn to light, but I wasn’t just drawn to her; I was fucking obsessed. I would throw myself into her flame and let it burn me alive if it meant her warmth was the last thing I felt before I died.
“Leave.”
“You and your crew have five minutes to vacate this beach. I’ll take Stella back in my boat.” I’d chartered a private boat from the hotel and anchored it farther down the beach, not far from Delamonte’s own charter.
It’d been forty-eight hours since our last real interaction, and I already craved her closeness like an addict hungering for his next hit.
I brushed my fingers over the sun-warmed jewels draped around her neck. Seventy thousand dollars for one moment alone with her. It was worth it.
“But if you want to know the truth…” My hand skimmed from her necklace onto the delicate slope of her shoulder. “I didn’t come to watch the photo shoot.”
“Then why did you come?”
“For you.”
“Drop your arms for me, sweetheart. I want to see you.” It was the closest I ever came to begging.
My cock turned to stone while a beast stirred in my chest, snarling at me to take her and mark her until it was clear to every single person who she belonged to. Me.
Of course, I knew she must’ve been naked in front of other men before—just as I knew I wanted to peel the skin off said men’s flesh and leave them to rot beneath the hot sun for daring to lay their eyes on her. No one would ever be worthy of her.
The beast in my chest was fully awake now, and it wanted to press further. Demand the name of every fucking man who’d touched her so I could pay them a nice follow-up visit.
“And when was the last time someone touched you like this, Stella?”
More than that, I wanted to bury myself inside her, paint her with my cum, and ruin her so thoroughly it made the fall of the angels look like child’s play. I would never make it to heaven, but that didn’t matter as long as she ruled beside me in hell.
Stella was made to be my queen.
Jewels encircled her neck where I wished my hands were, adorning her, caressing her, owning her.
I wanted to fall to my knees and worship her with my mouth. To touch her, taste her, fucking drown in her.
“You’re fucking drenched, Butterfly.”
“Do you like this, hmm? Being spread wide and finger fucked where anyone can see you?” No one would. And if they did, I would kill them before they could leave with memories of her naked form embedded in their brain. Stella was mine and mine alone.