Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“No.” The thought didn’t cross my mind. I’d been too pissed off to get hard. “Were you?”
The relief that spread into all the delicate features of her face was so distinct, it was obvious it’d been on her mind but she was too scared to ask—or too scared to hear the answer. “No.”
“So then let’s circle back to my previous question. Do you think of me when you touch yourself?”
She was flustered all over again, beet red.
“Come on, tell me.” I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it anyway.
“You’re such an ass.”
“You were the one talking about that OnlyFans of yours.”
She released a self-conscious laugh.
I cut her some slack because she truly seemed embarrassed by it—for a reason I didn’t understand. “Record yourself and send it to me.”
“Oh wow . . .”
“Come on, I’ll be your number one subscriber. A top-paying customer.”
“Like I’d ever take your money.”
“Then do it for free.” I grinned.
The flush in her cheeks was so intense she looked the same as she did in bed, like she was about to come. She sliced her fork through her salmon and focused on her dish like that was whom she had a conversation with. “What’s been going on at work?”
“Do you actually want to know, or are you just trying to change the subject?”
“You really are an ass, you know that?” she said with an uncontrollable smile on her lips.
“Yes, I’m aware.” I smiled back.
“And yes, I do want to know.”
“I spoke with Luca Fornier, the new First French Emperor of the Fifth Republic, and he said he’ll find Vladimir for me and extradite him to Rome. There’ve been whispers of an upcoming terrorist attack on the EU, and unfortunately, arms moving to the east are coming from Florence—and most likely the Skull King. And then I had a couple turf disputes I had to handle today, and some asshole was boosting his profits by cutting fentanyl into his product. No one died from the contamination, so he really worked his magic to make it safe. But that’s not the point.”
She stopped eating and stared as she listened to all of that. “I’m sorry . . . French Emperor? Skull King? Who are all these people?”
I chuckled because I forgot she wasn’t fully a part of my world—yet. “The French Emperor is the French equivalent of what I am here in Rome. Bastien used to be in charge, but he’s retired and now Luca has taken his position.”
“Oh . . .”
“Yeah,” I said, moving on. “And the Skull King is a crime boss in Florence—and we don’t get along. Italy is divided into two halves. I have the north, and he has the south. We’ve agreed to a truce, but the tension continues to simmer beneath the surface.”
She stopped asking questions, but absolute confusion was written on her face.
“It’s a lot,” I said. “Don’t worry, you’ll catch on.”
“Um . . . the way you talk. It’s like we’re living in the fifteen hundreds.”
Because regular people who aren’t tied to power by connections or inheritance didn’t have a clue what went on behind the scenes. They were glued to their screens and their apps, too busy trying to get by to care about archaic institutions and battles for power. “It may seem like the world has evolved and modernized, but some things never change.”
When I woke up, I hit my private gym, showered, and because Aurelia was still asleep, I worked in my office.
When she woke up, she texted me. Where are you guys?
Medusa was asleep on one of the couches in front of my desk, where she liked to hang out when I was in there. But I loved the fact that Aurelia included Medusa in us, because she was more than just my dog.
She was family to me.
In my office across the hall.
A couple minutes later, she stepped through the open door and immediately looked up at the ceiling, seeing the painted frescoes there in the same style as the Sistine Chapel. She stared at it for several seconds before she looked at me and the rest of the room. My desk was the size of a king-size bed, but it was still a thumbtack in comparison to the enormousness of the room, the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with old tomes I hadn’t touched. There was another side table that had a couple books on it and a large seating area that could easily accommodate twelve people comfortably.
Like always, she was humbled in every room she entered. With other women I slept with, they looked at what I had with the gleam of greed and a hint of resentful envy. They tried hard to make something serious happen with me, but I could see right through their motivations.
But Aurelia simply felt unworthy.
I came around the desk and kissed her. “How’d you sleep, sweetheart?”