Page 84 of Cruel Fate

I laugh. “What are we eating?”

“Beef. Potatoes. Nothing too exciting.”

“Everyone will be more interested in the open bar, I think. You’re right. Everyone is on a liquid diet.”

We go into the kitchen where Lucille is still puttering around despite the late hour—I think she doesn’t want to leave me alone. Her eyes light up when she sees Stella, and she serves us a late dinner and then leaves to go to her suite for the night.

The penthouse is lonely and empty without Lucille and Zarah. I want to ask Stella to move into the penthouse, but I already know she’ll say no. She doesn’t know me, has suspicions and reservations about the kind of life I live, and she’s too independent to give up her apartment.

While we eat, she tells me about the Lyndhurst and how beautiful it is. She doesn’t bring up Zarah very often, and I hope they didn’t have a disagreement. If they did, I bet I know what it was about, and Stella’s right not to mention it to me. I don’t want to fight about Ash any more than she does.

She insists we wash the dishes so a mess doesn’t greet Lucille in the morning. Her thoughtfulness goes beyond manners, and she does more than talk. My mother taught me the value in that. She would say, “Love is a verb, Zane. When you love someone, you have to show them,” and she would. She loved me, Zarah, and Dad, and she was always there for us no matter what. Stella is the same. When she tells me she loves me, I can believe it.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” I ask, drying the last plate and storing it in the cabinet.

“Maybe half of one. It’s late, and we have work tomorrow.”

I don’t want her to leave, and it’s better than nothing.

It doesn’t matter what we watch, and on one of the streaming services, I stop at a chick flick. I sit on the sofa, and Stella lays across my legs, using the armrest as a pillow. She cuddles into me, and for the first time since I left her apartment this morning, the anxiety in my chest loosens. I hate I’m so tense when she’s not around.

At work, we’re both too busy to see each other. I haven’t had time to fuck her in my office and bury some of my fear because I’m always dealing with bullshit I shouldn’t have to be dealing with. She’s my stress relief, my hiding place. She’s where I go when I need comfort, security.

I trail my hand up her leg. She’s wearing a garter belt, and my fingers skim the edge of the hose meeting bare skin.

She shivers but doesn’t move her gaze from the TV screen.

I’m getting hard, thinking about touching her, how wet she is, how engorged her clit is when she’s excited. My fingers brush the sensitive area between her legs, the heat and damp permeating from beneath the scant piece of silk.

She shifts, giving me more room, and I slip my fingers under her panties, finding her slick with need.

Stella moans, and my cock surges at the sound.

I push my fingers inside her. She’s swollen and ready, and she turns onto her back and meets my eyes. “Zane.”

“I know, baby. I feel the same way.”

She widens her legs and reaches up to kiss me.

I do, long, slow licks that mimic my fingers moving in and out of her, her hips gently meeting my delicate thrusts.

She twists my tie around her hand and tugs me closer. I’ve never been so turned on.

“Zane,” she cries under my mouth, and I move my fingertips to caress her clit. She lifts her hips, pushing into my hand to increase the pressure.

Devouring my mouth, she tells me how desperate she is to come. She’s close, and I rub furiously, wanting her to explode in my arms. The orgasm rushes through her, and her heels dig into the sofa. She presses her lips so hard to mine, our teeth gnash together.

I swallow her cries as her clit trembles under my fingers.

Panting, she quiets, lowering her hips to the cushion. “That was so good.”

I rub her nose with mine. “I’m glad. You’re so beautiful, Stella. All I want to do is please you.”

“You don’t have to do anything more than what you’re doing.”

She doesn’t know what a gift that is. Everyone wants a piece of me. Denton and Cramer, Ash. The paparazzi. I give and give and all they want is to take until I’m hollow inside, and a cavity fills my chest where my heart should be.

Stella has started to fill that space, and I’m indebted to her.

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