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Marcus raised his head and flashed me a smug smile.
“You don’t have to look so pleased about it,” I grumbled.
He flexed his dick inside me in response, and I groaned.
“No more. I have no orgasms left. I’m out-orgasmed if that is a thing,” I said, with a wide yawn.
He laughed and kissed me hard before he pulled out.
“You need a nap,” he said, picking me up and carrying me to my room.
“I need to finish my workout,” I mumbled, trying to keep my eyes open.
“That was your cardio for the day. Now, sleep,” he said, drawing my duvet over my shoulders, and closing the curtains.
When I woke up, it was almost lunchtime. I hurried out of bed because it wasn’t fair to make Marcus cook for me all the time. He was still on calls, and I made straight for the kitchen to cut us some Bologna sandwiches. Marcus had a working lunch because he was up to his neck in meetings, and I ate on the run because I had to do a load of laundry before I left for the club.
When I got home that night, I was in a better mood because true to his promise, Marcus had made things right with Bo, and I had cashed out almost six hundred bucks in tips. It almost made up for the fact that for the first time in years, I had felt unwilling to give a lap dance.
I didn’t know why, but it felt like cheating. I told myself I was being stupid. If I decided that only Marcus had the right to look at my body, I’d be in debt for the rest of my life because I had no other source of income.
I shook these thoughts away and spent time reading to Rose before I put her to bed after an early dinner. Marcus had cooked for us again, and we settled on the couch to watch television as we slurped down our ramen. I thought I’d have to fight him for the remote because I was sure my grumpy billionaire only wanted to watch boring news channels. But he handed the remote over willingly and even sat through one episode of The Witcher without gagging.
After dinner, I broke out the good stuff, and we got to know each other better over a tub of Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. He showed me pictures of his family, while I told him all about growing up in California.
“What about your parents?” I asked.
“They died in an air crash,” he replied, changing the subject almost immediately. I sensed that he didn’t want to talk about his parents.
“Are you still into art?” he asked, feeding me a brownie chunk.
I licked the back of my spoon as I pondered that.
“I guess I am. The love for art doesn’t leave you, does it? I try to take Rose to the museum sometimes. But that’s all the art I have time for these days.”
“Would you like to catch an exhibition at a gallery I own this weekend?”
I pointed my spoon at him.
“Only if you promise not to try and recruit me to run the gallery,” I said sternly because I wasn’t sure he had quite curbed the urge to ‘improve’ my life.
He laughed and shook his head.
“I have a very good manager, thank you very much. But be honest. Wouldn’t you rather be managing an art gallery than dancing at the club?”
“Maybe someday when I’m debt-free, Marcus. Not right now. I can’t clean up in tips at a gallery, right?”
He sighed.
“I just want you to be happy, Celine.”
“And Iamhappy. Or at least, Iwashappy until Arjun Monani blew into my life like an ill wind. But that is just a temporary blip. Look, I don’t know why you treat my job like it’s demeaning to me. It’s not. My self-worth is not tied to my job. It is tied to the fact that I do my best to provide a good life for my daughter. Maybe if I didn’t have Rose, I wouldn’t be so obsessed with paying off my debt early. But I do have her, and she’s the best thing in my life. So I’m doing my best to build a safe future for both of us,” I explained.
“Alright. I’ll accept that you know your life best, but I cannot help it if I’m not happy about the lap dances. I don’t want to pretend I am when I’m not because there’s no space for lies in this relationship.”
Oh boy! He was already calling it that. I refused to say the word even in my mind.
“Situationship, Marcus,” I said gently. “We’re in a situationship. Not a relationship. Because I’m not in the market for one of those.”
