Authors: Delilah Fawkes
I nodded, butterflies still flapping uncomfortably in my stomach. Mr. Alastair put his fingers softly on my chin, tilting it up until my eyes met his. His touch was electric, despite my worry, and smiled back.
“I hope you know that.”
He stroked my cheek, just once, his eyes crinkling as he smiled at me, his handsome face lighting up as he looked at me like I was the most beautiful girl in the world.
I nodded again, at a loss for words, feeling like I was on some kind of emotional rollercoaster—breathless and exhilarated, but also a little dazed and confused.
“Now, I think I’d like to see you with some new jewelry, Lucy. You are woefully under-accessorized, I’m afraid. A beautiful girl needs beautiful things, don’t you agree?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it again, not sure what to say. Jewelry? Like… jewels?
Back in my old life, bartending for old Buck, the most I’d ever worn were a couple of bangles from the mall—certainly nothing of real value. Was he saying what I thought he was saying?
“I want you to take my corporate card today, and go get yourself the gamut of ladies accessories. Rings, both for work and cocktail parties, tennis bracelets, a few different necklaces, a wristwatch… You are representing me, after all. I wouldn’t want people to think I was being stingy with my lovely assistant.”
He beamed at me, and handed me a shining gold card. I took it, surprised by the heft of it. This was no ordinary American Express.
“I want you to take all day to get what you need, understood? I’ll call ahead to Tiffany’s and let them know you’re coming.”
“Y-yes, Sir,” I sputtered. “Understood.”
“I’ll expect you at home by six sharp to show me what you bought.”
He smiled again in that seductive way of his, his cool eyes flashing.
I moved out of the office, almost in a daze, wondering if I heard him correctly, or if I was having some sort of crazy ass fever dream.
Tiffany’s?? As in, Breakfast At? Ho-lee Shit!
When I reached Mr. Alastair’s driver, the man tipped his hat to me, and told me he’d been given instructions on where to drive, and wouldn’t I please make myself comfortable?
I sat down on the cool, leather seat, and looked down at the card clutched in my hands once more.
Maybe this Mr. Alastair wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
***
I’d spent two hours wandering through the store that morning, too nervous to ask to look at anything, much less to ask a sales clerk for the prices. Even after all the time I spent with Max, living in luxury with him, I still felt like a total fish out of water in a place like this—lost and gasping for air.
I took some time to steel my nerves at a café across the street, picking at a sandwich and drinking coffee until I felt myself vibrating in my chair.
What’s the big deal, Lucy? So your boss wants you to buy yourself more expensive jewelry than you’ve ever even seen in person. So what?
I lay my forehead down on the cool café table and sighed. Just the thought of fully accessorizing at Tiffany’s, of all places, was enough to put my stomach in knots. It made sense that he wanted to maintain a certain image, but the reality of it—me, here in this opulent place, surrounded by wealthy, perfectly groomed women with perfectly slicked back blonde hair—was enough to make me want to sink into the ground.
How did a person even go about picking out beautiful things in a place full of beauty and splendor like that? Hell, was it even kosher to ask to see the price tag, or would that make me look like an idiot?
I didn’t want to misstep here, where Mr. Alastair was obviously known and highly regarded as a Very Important Client. I ran my hand over my face, then tried to smooth down my unwieldy curls, using my spoon as a mirror.
I sighed. I might as well go back. I had to get this done sooner or later, or I would have one displeased billionaire boss. Something told me he wasn’t as forgiving of my stubbornness as my previous one had been, too.
Max
.
He’d loved the way I stood up to him, the way I’d pushed him, the way I’d stayed true to myself, even when he was trying to “upgrade me” with clothes and shoes. The way he did it, though, was like he was trying to coax out the real me—the person I’d be if I had all the confidence in the world. He saw the beauty in me and worked to get me to see it, too…
God, I missed him.
But, after everything that happened, I supposed I’d never see him again. Never see his stupid blue eyes that made me melt each time he looked at me, or see that horrible black curl fall over his forehead that made me want to touch him and kiss him and—
Enough! I had to get it together and stop thinking about what I couldn’t have. I had a job to do, after all, as crazy as it was.
I tipped at the counter and left, trying to calm down before walking in those big, gilded doors.
I was just making my way over to the case holding women’s watches when I caught a glimpse of someone tall, dark and handsome across the aisle. For a moment, I thought I was seeing things: I had just been thinking about him, after all. But then, that familiar deep voice met my ears, and I clapped my hands over my mouth, ducking low behind the counter.
“It can’t just be any ring,” he said to the clerk, leaning over the display case with him. “It has to be unique—bold, but delicate, and as stunning as she is.”
He was wearing a long, dark coat over a silver-grey suit that made his eyes glint like sapphires. His face looked more drawn than I remember, like he hadn’t been sleeping well, but to me, he was still as handsome as ever. Maybe even more so.
And here he was, buying a ring for some other girl.
God, I was an idiot to think he ever loved me.
Tears threatened to spill, but I took a deep, shuddering breath, willing my over-caffeinated self to keep it together. If I waited him out, maybe he’d leave without seeing me.
“Very good, Sir,” the slender man helping him said. “She sounds like someone truly special. I can tell from the way you speak of her, that you love her very much.”
He smiled, and my heart did a painful little flip in my chest.
“It’s impossible not to,” he said. “Everyone who meets Lucy Willcox is changed for the better.”
I gasped, then cursed myself as his head swung my way. Before I could move, his long legs had carried him around the counter I crouched behind, and I looked up to see my Max looking down at me.
“Lucy!”
“M-Max… How ya been?”
How ya been?
God, I sounded like an idiot!
He reached down and pulled me up onto my feet, then clasped my hands in his. He was warm, his touch as electric as ever as he held me, surrounding me. I could smell a hint of his cologne, and beneath it, that heavenly scent that was just…
him
.
“Lucy, how much did you hear?”
His blue eyes searched mine, vulnerable and worried. I’d only seen him like this one other time: when he asked me to stay with him, that night under the stars. When he asked me to be mine, and waited, heart-in-hand, for my answer.
“I heard enough to think this Lucy gal is pretty lucky,” I said, meeting his gaze steadily.
“Oh, yeah?”
He cracked a sideways grin at me and kept holding me close.
“Definitely.”
“And if I told her that I can’t stop thinking about her… that my life is in shambles without her… that I love her more than anything in this world… do you think she’d still feel lucky?”
I ran my thumb over his, and smiled back, warmth filling me from head to toe at his words.
“She’d feel like the luckiest girl in the world,” I said. “She’d be a fool, too, if she didn’t tell you that she loves you right back. More than she can possibly say…”
Tears stung my eyes now, the words catching in my throat, but I didn’t need to say anything more. Not then, at least.
In that moment, looking at one another, right there, in the middle of Tiffany & Co, everything we wanted to say was there in the silence. We loved one another. We needed to be together. We were fools for letting such a stupid thing ever tear us apart.
Max swept me into his arms and into a kiss that I felt all the way down to my toes. I stood on tiptoe, wrapped up in him, our tongues dancing as we tasted one another, melting together in that moment, until I wasn’t sure where I ended and he began.
The clerk behind us cleared his throat, and we finally broke apart, Max still holding me tightly.
“The ring, Sir?”
“I’ll come back for it,” he said, and scooped me off my feet and into his arms.
I screeched and threw my arms around his neck, letting him carry me through the store, like something out of an old movie.
I was Max’s, and he was mine.
All the rest was just details…
***
Max
It was like something out of a dream.
Lucy was here—my love, my beautiful girl—and she was all mine once more. I’d thought about this moment for so long, and now that it was here, and she was in my bed, her hands tied to the posts, her eyes covered by my silk tie, submitting to me once more, it was more incredible than I ever could have imagined.
She whimpered prettily as I checked the ties, making sure she was comfortable, but secure, then ran my fingertips slowly over her wrists, then arms, and then down to the gorgeous swells of her breasts. I kneaded them, loving the way her pink little nipples hardened beneath my touch.
My cock stiffened almost painfully as I took my time, savoring her body like a fine wine. I leaned down and tasted her, drawing on each nipple until I felt her shiver beneath me, heard her moan above me with her soft, red lips.
I kissed my way down her body, slowly, achingly slowly, the strength of my need for her making me want to plunge inside of her and fuck her raw right then and there, but the rest of me wanting to draw the moment out as long as possible… to make Lucy beg for me inside of her.
By the time I was between her legs, lapping and suckling, drinking her delicious nectar as she writhed beneath me, she pulled on her restraints, her thighs tensing.
“Please!”
I ignored her, tongue-fucking her sweet little hole again and again, loving the way she coated my mouth with her sweetness.
“Master… please….”
“Please, what?”
I looked up at her and grinned, watching her bite her lip in a way that made my cock twitch against the duvet.
“Please… fuck me…”
“I’m sorry,” I said, licking along her slit until she trembled in my arms. “I didn’t quite hear you.”
“Please! Fuck me, Master!
Please fuck me
!”
“Ohhh,” I said, smiling from ear to ear. “You want me to fuck you?”
Lucy pulled at her restraints again, practically growling in frustration.
“Yes! Please! Please…”
I couldn’t restrain myself any longer—couldn’t deny us what we both so desperately needed. I sat up, lining my rock-hard cock up against her, then slammed inside her up to the hilt in one, rough thrust.
She moaned like a wild thing, opening wide for me as I filled her up, my eyes rolling back as I felt that tight, beautiful pussy gripping me like a vice.
“Fuck yes,” I groaned. “Oh, God, Lucy, you feel amazing…”
She mewled beneath me as I began to fuck her hard, unwilling to hold back, even for one second, everything I had to give to this incredible woman. I pumped her hard, pounding her as I pressed her knees back wide, grinding my pubic bone against her clit with each thrust. She shivered beneath me, moaning wildly as we fucked, our rhythm frantic, the lust in the air a palpable thing.
“I need you,” I gasped as I thrust again and again into that perfect little body of hers. “God, I need you, little girl.”
“I need you, too,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks beneath her blindfold. “I need you, Max.”
I kissed her hard, claiming her, even as I felt her coming apart beneath me, her pussy squeezing me again and again as she came. I let go, filling her with my own hot cum, my cock tensing as I pulsed inside of her, making her mine with everything I had, entwined with the woman I loved.
***
We lay there, wrapped in one another’s arms for a long while, Lucy tucked into the crook of my shoulder, her arm thrown across my chest. It was like we didn’t want to let one another go. Like we were afraid if we did, we’d lose one another again.
“Will you stay with me?”
“Mmm?”
Lucy lifted her head to look at me, her curls more tangle than hair. I smiled and brushed a piece out of her face.
“Will you come back to me, Lucy? Be my partner again? Live with me?”
She smiled, looking almost shy for a minute, before nodding.