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Now my heart was racing in my chest. I feared for this woman’s life when I hardly knew her. She’d become the key to my recent inspiration. She lit me on fire in a way no other woman had. Now my fingers ached to sketch, my mind burned to produce even more. None of that would have been possible without her. I couldn’t afford to lose her. “I can’t help you if you don’t trust me.”
“And I don’t trust you—no offense.”
I held her gaze and felt my anger burn in my veins. I recognized a woman in trouble, but if she refused to share even her first name with me, how would I be able to protect her? Maybe she thought I was just a lingerie designer, but I had more ties to the underworld than she realized. I knew more people than she realized. I had the money and resources to make anything happen.
And I would make something happen.
* * *
“Where were you?” Carter asked over the phone.
“Got held up.”
“Fell into some pussy, then.”
“You could say that.” I vowed never to fuck my models, but One was making it difficult to keep my promise.
“What do you want?”
“One of my models won’t give me her real name. She’s got a dark past, and she’s running from something. I’ve given her plenty of opportunities to confide in me, but she’s more stubborn than I am.”
“Annoying, isn’t it?”
I ignored the comment. “I need you to figure out who she is.”
“What do you know about her?”
“What she looks like. And that she’s from America.” I sat on the edge of my bed, pissed off One refused to cooperate with me and hot and bothered that she was so stubborn. I liked the fight inside her. I couldn’t explain why.
“Got a picture?”
“No. Come by my studio tomorrow. She’ll be there preparing for the show. You can get a picture then.”
“Alright. You think she’s running from the feds?”
“I’m not sure. The way she describes it makes it sound like she’s running for her life.”
“Hmm…there’re a lot of crazy people out there.”
“So, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I’ll be there.”
“Alright. Bye.”
“Con.”
“What?”
“Vanessa wanted me to tell you she’s pissed at you.”
I spied on her dinner and even followed her home. It was the wrong thing to do, but I’d done it so many times now that I thought I could keep getting away with—unless she caught me. “I know.”
* * *
The girls weren’t happy about my decision to put One in the lead.
And they didn’t hide their distaste.
We were done with the full show run-through already, going through the first nine acts with the music. The girls knew the ropes, so they always hit their marks perfectly. I incorporated Anastasia in the first act, and I put her in the back. No one would even notice her, but she had enough presence to fulfill my backstory.
When we reached the last act, One emerged on her own. The entire stage was hers, and she held herself exactly the way I taught her. That fire I adored wasn’t quite there because she seemed nervous. The other girls probably intimidated her, talking shit about her once they were backstage.
One didn’t seem like a woman who would care, but a person could only take so much.
She did her walk, her pose, and then walked the rest of the runway. She wore shoes that were worth a hundred grand, and her lingerie was worth twice that much. It was my final piece, the one that only the wealthiest men in the world would buy for their mistresses. The acts increased in price, the beginning being the cheapest ensembles and the end being the most expensive. Usually, the best model ended the show.
And One was the best model.
She posed at the end, doing her very best to incorporate everything I asked.
But it wasn’t quite perfect.
Carter came to my side and whistled under his breath. “Jesus Fucking Christ.” He held up his phone and snapped a few photos of her. “With legs like that, she could run forever.”
“I’ll dump your body in the river if you keep talking like that.”
He snapped another picture then chuckled. “Hit a nerve?”
I ignored him, watching One turn around and walk back.
Her ass was exposed, and it was the nicest ass in the world.
Carter held up his phone again.
I snatched it away. “Don’t fuck with me today.”
He rolled his eyes and extended his hand. “If you can’t handle me looking at this woman, how are you going to handle the entire world looking at her?”
It was a thought I’d never considered because I’d never had an attachment to one of my models. Men talked about fucking Lacey Lockwood right in front of me, and I never gave a damn. I’d had men jerk off to the women in my lineup. Didn’t think twice about it. But the second Carter tried to take a picture of her ass, I wasn’t having it. “Just get me that information as soon as possible.”
