Page 37 of The Vow

Lena’s eyes went wide. She smoothed down the dress, thinking what to say.

“I… no,” she replied, simply and truthfully, turning back around to sit on the bed again with her sister.

“He’s not bad looking. Older, maybe-” Pina shrugged.

“Too old for you, yes, most definitely,” Lena scoffed. “And yes, he’s… quite good looking, in a cute kind of way.”

“He’s a bit chubby-”

“Pina! No he isn’t! He’s not lean and skinny but he’s not overweight-”

Pina cocked her head to one side. “So you’ve seen him topless then? Has he got a good body?”

Lena felt the flush seep over her skin. “I… I mean…”

Pina’s eye’s lit up. “You have? Lena! You carry on like ‘oh I don’t want to marry him’ but then-”

Lena attempted a one-eighty turnaround. “No! We haven’t, okay? I don’t want him, I haven’t slept with him, or seen him topless, or anything like that.” She tried to sound authoritative.

Pina harrumphed and blew out a breath. “I bet he’d be good,” Pina muttered under her breath.

Lena’s hands flew to her sister’s shoulders. “Pina! Don’t think dirty thoughts about that poor cop-”

“Why, ‘cause he’s my soon to be brother-in-law?” she replied snidely, and stuck her tongue out.

Lena pursed her lips. “No, because it’s not fair, or nice to objectify-”

“But he gives off a vibe, doesn’t he? A kind of cheeky, playful, good-in-bed vibe-”

Lena’s breath caught in her throat. He did. He was. She bet he was even better in bed than her sister could ever imagine. Than she, herself, could ever imagine. Maybe tonight… she bit her lip while her sister continued to talk. Maybe tonight she could convince Carmelo back into her room. Maybe tonight would bethenight. She could lose her virginity, gain some useful life experience, so that when she did find a guy she wanted to be with, she wouldn’t be completely clueless. She’d know what to do, how to do it. She thought she could convince Carmelo to come up. He clearly liked her physically. Maybe she should play nice tonight, and she’d be rewarded. She wasn’t going to marry him, she most definitely wasn’t going to marry him, but she almost groaned out loud remembering earlier. When he’d been in this very room. She flashed a glance towards the door, where she had grabbed him, dragged him in, but seconds later he’d had her legs around his waist and she’d felt his hard cock brush past her core and…

She cleared her throat, trying not to gasp out loud.

“Did you bring the Charlotte Tilbury lipstick, that matte all-night coverage expensive stuff?” Pina’s question cut through her thoughts.

“Huh?”

“The lipstick?” Her sister prompted like she was talking to a three-year-old.

Lena rummaged through the make up bag on her bed. “I thought you had it.”

Pina tilted her head. “I thought I’d given it back.”

The two sisters looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Pina then snatched another lipstick out of the make up bag. “Then I’ll have to borrow… this one!”

“No way am I ever lending anything to you again!” Lena snorted and dived for it, bunting into her sister as she did so. Pina howled, faking pain, and mock-fell down onto the bed, and Lena grabbed her wrist for the lipstick. But Pina then twisted away and tried to knee Lena in the stomach, both girls laughing and screeching as they play-fought on the bed like kids.

Lena sat applying that exact lipstick they had been looking for a few hours previously, at the dressing table in her bedroom. Pina went back to her room and it turned out she did have it after all. So Lena had claimed it and was now carefully applying the dark red lipstick, her mouth open, pouting slightly. Her hand steady.

And she would stay steady, she decided. She was psyching herself up for this. Go out, have a nice evening. Circulate and network, work the room, see the MC, see Carmelo, and then leave. Remember, business first. Then, maybe, maybe if she had the nerve, she’d try to invite Carmelo back to her room. Again. She hoped maybe he’d drink tonight and his inhibitions would slip a bit. He’d lose his caution and just follow her back to her room. That was probably wrong to try to hope for or plan. She knew it. She felt such a burning want in her body, though. A want for physical pleasure and release, yes, but a want for the power, too. The strength of the universe, she wanted to feel that, harness that, yield it. It would be a useful, powerful tool in her arsenal. Sexual allure. Desire. She wanted everyone in the room to desire her, as a mafia princess, soon-to-be queen, she needed to be respected, yes, feared, yes, but she wanted that all wrapped up in an enigmatic cloak of desire. She was a woman, she wanted to be recognized as a woman, a woman that they all couldn’t have. And thus that elevated her further.

She tilted her head in the mirror, inspecting her makeup, fingering her jewelry for a moment just to check it was secured correctly. Bracelet, necklace, earrings. She bent over to put on her shoes, slipping her feet into some stiletto heels, stooping lower to do up the clasp at her ankle. Yes, she felt ready.

She stood, picking up her clutch bag, and slunk through the room. Was she forgetting something? She had a funny feeling she was, but this always happened in hotels, she rationalized with herself. She had her room key, some makeup, her phone… what else could she need?

Her hand hesitated on the door handle. Ah yes. Carmelo’s gift. She looked back over her shoulder, at the dressing table, at the little box. She bit her lip and turned away. She didn’t have a vibrator, she’d never used a vibrator, she had no idea what to do with it or what type it was or how to use it. She almost dismissed the idea, she flung the door open with a whoosh of air that caught her hair.

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