Page 109 of Kingmakers, Graduation

I lift my phone and snap a picture of her, though I know it could never do justice to her living, breathing beauty. Or to the way she makes me feel.

Sabrina touches the diamonds at her throat, her eyes glinting just as brilliantly.

“We’re really doing it, aren’t we?” she says.

Her face is flushed with triumph—the diamonds, the penthouse suite, the two of us here together …

“Nothing can stop us,” I say. “I’m invincible with you.”

Sabrina grins, her teeth a flash of white in the dark between fireworks. She grabs the bag of cash and takes out a stack, ripping off the band. Throwing the money up in the air, she lets it drift down around her. The bills flutter through the air, illuminated in bursts of gold and green.

Sabrina grabs another stack, and another. She’s pulling them apart, throwing them at me. The money covers the bed, the floor, the side tables. She jumps on the bed and flings cash in the air, jumping up and down, bouncing the money on the mattress, creating a blizzard of bills.

She’s laughing maniacally, making a hell of a mess. Her naked breasts bounce on her chest, her hair buoyant, the diamonds sparkling on her throat, the money floating like a thousand papery butterflies.

I gather up an armful of cash and fling it up. The money is a joke, barely real to me. It’s what it represents: ambition, success, Sabrina’s genius and mine in concert together. I kiss her as it rains down on us.

Sometimes you work and work toward a goal, but when you finally achieve it, it fails to provide the happiness you thought you would feel.

This is the opposite of that.

For all the thousands of times I imagined how it would feel to have the world at my feet, I never could have imagined it like this.

Everything is better with Sabrina by my side. She charges every moment, she bursts me open like a firework. I’m flaming with light and color, and pure, electric bliss.

We’re jumping on the bed together, naked and out of our minds. With each leap, another firework bursts, booming outside the window like a cannon blast, I’m holding her hands, looking in her face. She’s laughing wildly, her eyes brighter than stars.

This is the happiest I’ve ever been. Maybe the happiest I ever will be.

It’s because of her that success comes so early and tastes so sweet.

There’s no end of dreaming with Sabrina. No end of believing. It’s the most American thing about her—she really thinks she can do anything. And so do I, when I’m with her.

Sabrina wearsthe diamond collar all night long. She keeps it on while we fuck, and wears it with her robe while we order room service, sampling the Markovs’ burgers and fries.

Sabrina is quickly converting me to her love of cheeseburgers. She eats them at least three times a week, and I’ll admit, they’re satisfying. Especially when you’ve been exerting yourself all night long.

I pour us each a glass of Riesling.

“Not as sweet as Vietti,” I tease her. “But not bad.”

Sabrina takes a massive bite of her burger, washing it down with wine.

“It’ll do,” she says. And then, “I got something for you, too.”

“You did?”

I didn’t expect anything—it’s my job to spoil Sabrina, not the other way around.

Sabrina retrieves her coat, pulling a small, paper-wrapped package from the pocket.

“I picked it up yesterday,” she says. “I was afraid it wouldn’t come in time.”

I rip open the paper, revealing a switchblade like Sabrina’s, only more expensive-looking. The scrimshaw handle is richly oiled, the blade shimmering with waves of layered Damascus steel.

“That’s fossilized mammoth bone,” Sabrina says. “In the handle. I thought it was cool.”

I hold the knife up to the light so I can read the engraving, so small I almost missed it:

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