Chapter 33
Vanessa
This is all too much.
The weekend away.
The necklace that isn’t just beautiful, but meaningful.
The sweet words from Lorenzo, telling me he’ll always care.
It’s not fair.
I stayed away from love, wanting to stand on my own two feet. Yet, when I least expected it, Lorenzo swept me off the ground and made me fall in love with him.
And because of him, I’ll never be the same.
I take a deep breath and will my tears not to fall. Then I plaster a smile on my face, refusing to ruin this weekend. If this is the only weekend we get together, I want to make it memorable, and I don’t want it tainted with the outside world.
Of course, just as I think those thoughts, my phone rings with a call from Kora. Apparently, her hiring me started today even though I don’t return until after Christmas.
When I don’t answer it, she calls again.
“Do you need to get that?” Lorenzo asks, glancing down at the vibrating phone.
“It will probably be easier if I do,” I admit. “Kora can be insistent.”
“I thought she hired someone else,” he says, his brow quirking in question.
“Hold that thought.” I press Accept. “Kora, everything okay?”
“No, the spring line is fucked because this idiot messed up the schedule for the photo shoot and double-booked it, and now I’m going to have a team of people and no location.”
“Kora, breathe,” I say when it’s clear she’s two seconds from having a panic attack—something I’m all too familiar with.
“Instead of doing the shoot on location in Seattle since it’s been double-booked, move it to LA since we’re going there anyway.
You have that entire location that rarely gets used, so I doubt it’s double-booked. ”
“Right,” she says. “You’re right. I knew that. I was just freaking out, and … Thank God you’re coming back, Vanessa.”
“You’re good,” I tell her, my eyes meeting Lorenzo’s confused ones. “I have to go.”
I hang up, and Lorenzo stares at me for several seconds before he addresses the elephant in the room.
“LA?”
“She saw my online boutique and wants to discuss a collaboration. We’re flying to LA before I go back to school for a photoshoot and she’s scheduled a business meeting to discuss the specifics while we’re there.”
A small smile spreads across Lorenzo’s face.
“Of course she does,” he says, resting his hands on my hips.
The moment he touches me, it’s like everything and everyone else disappears, and it’s only Lorenzo and me in our own little bubble.
“Because your designs are damn good. But before you make any deals, promise me something …”
I nod.
“I want you to sit down with my legal team—”
“I can’t afford that—”
“I have them on retainer. And if you don’t like it being on my dime, consider it a Christmas gift. I want you to talk to them and make sure you have all your bases covered. You need to trademark your name and start a corporation. You want to do it all right so that you’re protected.”
“But I’m just—”
“You’re not just anything,” he says. “You’re Vanessa Baker, an extremely talented designer who’s going to go all the fucking way.
Even Kora sees it, which is why she wants to partner with you.
But as a businessman, who’s done my fair share of deals, I want to make sure that nobody can take advantage of you.
So, please, don’t argue. Talk to my legal team so you do this properly. ”
“Okay,” I breathe, wondering how I got so damn lucky to have someone as good as Lorenzo in my corner. “I’ll meet with them.” I lift slightly and kiss the corner of his mouth. “Thank you.”
“You never have to thank me,” he says. “I meant it, Vanessa. I care about you. And I’ll always be there for you, no matter where you are or what dreams you’re chasing. Leo and I will be here, rooting for you.”
His words are meant to be supportive, but they’re also a reminder that for me to follow my dreams, it means giving up two of the most important people in my life.
“C’mon,” he says, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me into his side. “Let’s enjoy our weekend. And now, with your news, we have something to celebrate.”
“Do you know how hot it is to watch you, in that sexy dress, beat all of these assholes?” Lorenzo whispers, making me laugh.
After dinner, we went to the casino, where he insisted that he pay for us to have a little fun. And since I’d never legally gambled, I let him because I’d always wanted to know what it would be like to play poker and blackjack at a casino.
And maybe it’s because I’m winning, but, damn, it’s fun. Especially when all the older gentlemen look at me like I’m nothing more than Lorenzo’s arm candy and then realize that I’m more than that when I take their money.
“I think we should stop,” I tell him as we walk away from the blackjack table that I just won two thousand dollars at. “The odds are against us, and I don’t want to lose your money.”
Lorenzo chuckles. “I know we don’t discuss money, but you have to know I’m worth billions. A few grand isn’t going to set me back.”
“I know,” I say, my shoulders tensing, “but I’m not comfortable spending your money.”
Before I get the last word out, Lorenzo moves me into the corner against the wall.
“You are not your mother,” he says, caging me in with his arms. “I want to have fun with you, and if that means I spend a little bit of money on you, then so be it. What we have is nothing like how it was with my ex, and I would never think for a second that you’re using me for my money.
You’ve repeatedly proven that’s not who you are. Understand?”
“Yes,” I breathe, turned on by his words. “But honestly, I’ve had enough gambling. I really want to go back to our room and have you fuck me in that big bed.”
I hook my leg around his hip, and he groans in response.
“You got it, baby.”
The moment we get back to the room and the door closes, Lorenzo is on me. We’re all hands and mouths and tongues as we tear each other’s clothes off, desperate for the connection that being together intimately brings.
He lays me out on the bed and situates himself between my legs, ready to devour me, but when I think about how limited our time together is, I stop him.
“I want to try something else,” I say, ignoring the heat that spreads across my neck and face, knowing I’m going to have to say what exactly it is I want to try.
“Anything,” he tells me, so quick to give me whatever I want.
“I was thinking we could pleasure each other at the same time. And …” I breathe out a harsh breath, trying to get the courage to say what else I want. “I want you to do it in my ass.”
Lorenzo’s blue eyes darken with a mixture of lust and want. “You sure?”
We might not be each other’s lasts, but I want to give him all my firsts. He’s messed around with my butt a few times, but we’ve never taken it any further. But I want to give him this.
“Yes,” I tell him. “I want you to be my first.”
As if he’s thinking the same thing I just was, his jaw tics, and I hold my breath, waiting to see if he’ll correct me, but when he simply nods once, even though it breaks my heart, I know we’re on the same page.
Lorenzo lies next to me on the bed, and I take a moment to memorize every inch of his body, including the tattoos that I now know are meaningful.
One night, when I couldn’t sleep, he told me about several of them.
The flames licking up his forearm are so he never forgets how his parents died. The barbed wire that wraps around his biceps, entwined with beautiful flowers, represents the hard times, but also the beauty that comes from them.
His left pec has a quote that he said he got after he found out about Leo—Nothing about you is a mistake.
Even though Hillary had trapped him by lying about her birth control and, at times, he wished he’d never let her in after she showed up on his doorstep with his son in tow, he needed Leo to know that he never considered him a mistake.
My gaze descends to the ridges that make up his six-pack abs and then stops on his cock. It’s hard and thick, and I know now that the slight curve is capable of bringing me to heights of pleasure I never knew existed.
“C’mere,” he says, reaching over and tugging me toward him. “I’m gonna need you to sit on my face so I can eat your pussy and ass.”
His dirty talk has me flinging my leg over his body so I’m straddling his chest. Gripping my thighs, he pulls me onto his face as I wrap my hand around his shaft and lean over, taking it into my mouth.
As we pleasure each other, no words are spoken, our bodies doing all the talking.
And maybe it’s because we know our time is limited, but neither of us wastes a moment.
Within minutes, we’re both filling the air with our moans.
And for the first time, rather than spitting, I swallow, wanting every bit of Lorenzo.
He flips me onto all fours and gives my ass a playful smack before he disappears into the bathroom. He returns with a bottle of lube that has me quirking a brow.
“A wise man is always prepared,” he says, making me laugh.
He spreads my cheeks and squirts the liquid onto my crack. And then, slowly, he guides himself inside me. Once he’s completely in, he reaches out and takes my hair into his hand, gently pulling back so I’m forced to lift.
“I know I have to let you go,” he says as he fucks me unhurriedly.
“But let me make myself clear.” He thrusts in deep.
“This pussy …” He glides his hand down my side and cups the area between my legs.
“This ass.” Another thrust that has me moaning in pleasure.
“This heart.” His hand moves from my pussy to my breast and pinches my nipple. “This body … was mine first.”
His mouth goes to the sensitive spot just below my ear, and as he fucks me into another mind-blowing orgasm, he repeats one word over and over again—mine—as if my body and heart need any reminders of who they belong to.