Page 156 of The Encore’s Crown

“You’ve never had it?”

“No.”

“Try it.”

She puts the smallest amount possible onto a cracker and takes a bite. Her face changes instantly. I start laughing before she even swallows.

“It tastes like judging people in a lower tax bracket.”

I nearly choke on my drink. She reaches for another cracker to scrape the rest from her tongue.

“People pay for this?”

“A lot.”

“That makes it taste even worse.”

She pushes the jar toward me like I have the power to erase if from existence for upsetting her. I kind of like that. We lie there in our robes with the city spread beneath us, eating whatever Stefan sent up as apology, hush money, or both. For a while, it feels almost normal. Then Natalia crawls across the blanket for the chocolate. Her robe slips off one shoulder. I forget what normal is.

The picnic ends exactly the way everything else does today. On the floor first, then the couch. Then halfway to the kitchen because she says she needs water and I follow her like I haven’t seen her naked in at least twelve minutes. She reaches the island right as I reach her.

We decide, with very little discussion and no useful judgment, that the kitchen island is the best place in the entire penthouse. We test the theory more than once.

By evening, every room looks slightly lived through. Sheets twisted and robes eventually completely abandoned. Glasses left wherever we stopped caring.A throw blanket ruined beneath the remains of our picnic. The penthouse no longer looks like some immaculate luxury suite designed for people with assistants and private jets.

It looks like us.

Messy, excessive and completely out of control.

When we finally collapse into the last clean bed, both of us are wrecked.

Sore. Marked. Scratched. Bitten.

Natalia left lines across my back and crescents along my shoulders. I left evidence of my mouth against her skin in places she’ll have to cover tomorrow.

Tomorrow. The word feels different now. She leaves tomorrow. I have to be back in the studio here in Los Angeles. Seattle is at least a month away. The whole day has felt suspended outside reality, but lying here with her asleep against me, there’s nowhere left for the truth to hide. Her breathing has gone slow and even, one hand resting over my waist. Her hair spills across my chest, catching gold in the faint light coming through the curtains.

I run my fingers through it.

The fire inside me still hasn’t gone out. It's only changed shape. Still hungry but now there's more ache, more fear. I look down at her and hate the thought of waking up tomorrow without her here.

Hate the airport. The distance. The month waiting between this and whatever comes next.

She moves in her sleep and my arm draws her closer. The words leave me so quietly I’m not sure I even mean to say them aloud.

“You could just stay here.” I press my mouth to her hair. “With me.”

Chapter 54

We Were Here

Kiri

Natalia stands beside the bed wrapped in a sheet while I sit on the edge in my boxers, trying to convince myself to get dressed.

Kasia is already on her way. That should be enough to make us move faster. It isn't.

Somehow, every attempt to get dressed turns into another kiss. She laughs against my mouth when I pin her against the mattress again.