Page 38 of The Heiress

I bite the edge of my pillow. My whimpers shake my whole body as Lorde comes down from her well-deserved high. Her movements soften, but they don’t stop. She stays wrapped around me, hips twitching, pussy still grinding softly into me with a deep, exhausted pleasure.

Lorde stops. I don’t move. I can’t. My woman is all over me, touching me, coming down from me, taking me over. I’m frozen. Too tired to move even as she collapses beside me and nibbles my ear.

“That was amazing,” she says, gently rubbing the back of my neck as I remain pointed away from her, catching my breath. Hers isn’t much better. “You’re…”

I use the last of my strength to look her in the cloudy eyes. “I’m the girl you tripped.”

She manages a smile and kisses me. “You’re the girl I fell in love with as soon as I laid my eyes on you.” Another kiss. “You’re the girl I see myself loving for the rest of my life.”

After all that nasty shit she said while we were having sex… I think this is my favorite.

I bring her down for a real kiss. Again. And again.

We’re not leaving this bed until I fully explore what she means to me.

Chapter 20

Lorde

The next morning is so calm that it lulls me into a false sense of security. You know the type. You know there’s a reason to be worried, but you can’t remember why. All it takes is fully waking up to remember, and you refuse.

Except I do fully wake up – and the calm remains.

Daisy sleeps beside me, her body tangled in silk sheets, her mouth half-open in the silliest way. A true fly-catching moment. Her skin is speckled with marks I don't regret leaving. She's mine. I don't care if it’s possessive or juvenile or way too much after two months. If she wanted gentle and temporary, she shouldn’t have looked at me like that in New York. She shouldn’t have kissed me like she was already mine.

But here she is.

And here I am, watching her sleep like a creep, wondering when all this is going to get ripped out from under us.

I don’t believe in peace. Not really. I believe in pauses between storms, most of which I’ve instigated. I believe in the way Daisy curls closer when I slightly move. In her body responding to mine like we were forged from the same clay before we were even born. Butpeace?

Her phone buzzes somewhere in the room, but she doesn’t wake. I slip out of bed quietly, pulling on a robe that smells like something floral. I walk across the room, find her phone, and check the screen even though I shouldn’t.

Seven missed calls from Marcello DeMonte.

Three from her mother.

One from Cristiano.

I don’t open any of the messages. I think I know what this is about.

I’m halfway to putting the phone down when it pings again with a fresh text. This one’s a preview I can’t avoid reading.

“We need to talk before this goes public. Call me. Please, Principessa.”It’s her father.

I open her messages. Yeah, I know. Bad girlfriend behavior. Bad fiancé behavior, if I let myself hope. But I need to know what I’m dealing with. For the love of God, her numerical password is her birthday. I get in on one try.

“We can spin this. But we need to be smart. Take a step back from Sheen. Let things cool off before Cristiano’s father pulls the plug.”

The air feels colder. I look back at Daisy, still sleeping like she doesn’t know she’s about to be asked to choose between her family’s empire and the woman she just screamed herself hoarse for.

I know what this is. I’ve lived through this script before. Fame doesn’t shield you from it. Money definitely doesn’t. When the world decides you’re inconvenient, when your love becomes an obstacle,theystart sharpening the knives.

I make coffee.

I drink it on her balcony in one of her oversized sweaters that fits me naturally, my bare legs freezing. I stare out at the street, the calm of it this early in the morning so complete it’s making me more jittery than this coffee. I want thunder. Fights on the sidewalk. Fuck it, I’ll take paps lining up to catch a snap of my mug on Daisy DeMonte’s balcony, wearing her clothes and with bedhead.

When Daisy finally stirs and steps out to find me, her hair is also a mess.

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