Page 16 of Mine for a Moment

“Please.”

She sits down at my kitchen counter, and I push a glass toward her before pouring myself one. “Tell me exactly what you want, Serenity.Do you just want to lose your virginity and sleep with someone once? What exactly did you envision when you created that list?”

She throws me a shy look and hides her face behind her glass for a moment. “I want to experience a bit more than that, with someone I trust. I don’t want to have to date and wait for the right person, and then worry that I’m just not…good at it. I want to lose my virginity on my own terms, and I want to find out what I enjoy, how to bring someone else pleasure.”

I nod, my cock fucking throbbing at the thought of having the honor of making her come. It’s been so long since I’ve wanted someone this badly, and I forgot how thrilling it is.

“So more than once,” I murmur as I reach for the notepad I keep in the kitchen. “Write down for me what you’d like to experience, Serenity. Tell me everything you’ve fantasized about, everything you want me to do to you.”

“Are you serious?”

I nod. “Dead serious. If we’re going to do this, I need to know what you hope to accomplish and what you absolutely don’t want. Do you want me to eat you out and make you beg for my cock? Do you want something more clinical? Would you like me to call you my dirty little slut, or do you prefer to be praised? If it’s something you’ve thought about, something you know deep down you want, tell me, and I’ll do my best to provide it. You love making lists, don’t you? So make me one.”

She holds my gaze, not at all thrown off by my words. “I have one.”

Serenity chuckles at my expression and reaches for the notebook she carries with her everywhere. “Tell me what you want in return before I show you my list.”

I lean forward, my elbows on the breakfast bar. “I want you to paint me something.”

Her eyes widen, a hint of panic flashing through them. Interesting. “W-what?”

“You loved painting more than anything when you were younger, and I never understood why you suddenly stopped. It wasn’t until recently that I was reminded of your work, when Ezra hung one of your old paintings in his office.”

She stares at me like she’s trying to figure me out, something akin to fear in her eyes, and my heart begins to beat a little faster.

“What do you want me to paint you?” she asks, her voice soft, vulnerability shining through.

I look down for a moment, a thrill running down my spine. “There’s a famous piece by The Muse that I’d like you to replicate for me. It’s a ballerina standing on a stage, doing a pirouette in the role of Odette fromSwan Lake.”

Her breath hitches, and she wraps her arms around herself as she averts her face, her long lashes fluttering. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” she whispers, her voice breaking. “I…I didn’t think this through, and I don’t want to dishonor—”

“That’s not what we’re doing,” I interrupt. “And it’s one of the reasons why I agreed. I need this too, Serenity. I’d like to be with someone on my own terms, without guilt eating at me.” I run a hand through my hair and sigh. “I haven’t been with a woman since her, and I think this might just be what I need to move on.”

I watch her as she clutches her notebook, my gaze roaming over her wild curls and her sexy full lips. It’s odd, but somehow, guilt doesn’t eat at me when I imagine her in my bed, her hair spread all over my pillows. The same guilt that kept me from dating anyone else is absent when it comes to her.

“No one can know about us,” she whispers. “Ezra can never find out, and we’ll need proper rules. I don’t want this to turn intosomething it isn’t meant to be. We can’t…we can’t do anything that’d hurt those we both love.”

I nod in agreement. “How about we end our arrangement when you complete the painting? I think we’d both benefit from a time limit.”

Serenity nods, her eyes filled with trust as she opens her notebook to the right page and pushes it toward me. I glance over it, a thrill running down my spine when I realize her fantasies and needs perfectly align with mine.

“Do you understand that if we do this, you’ll bemine?” I ask, my tone harsher than I’d intended. “I don’t want anyone else touching you.”

“You’re asking for fidelity?” she asks.

I nod, and she raises a brow.

“Are you willing to give me the same in return?”

“You won’t have to worry about that, darling. I’m yours.”

Fifteen

Archer

“See, Ezra?” Mom says over video call as I separate egg yolks and whites absent-mindedly. “He was like that during our last video call too, and there was something off about him at Celeste’s wedding.”

Ezra glances up at me and raises a brow in question, having gotten used to my family and the madness that is our Sunday cooking class. He joins me most weeks, and over the years, he’s pretty much become one of us. Sometimes he even dials in from overseas, just to catch up with my family. He hasn’t said much, but I know he’s been as worried about Celeste as I’ve been.

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