Chapter 4 Constantine
Constantine
When I stepped out of the shower, she was still in bed where I’d left her, her thong on the floor where it had landed after I tossed it aside. Her eyes were closed, and my shirt was like a comfortable dress.
I pulled on a clean pair of boxers. “Hungry, sweetheart?”
She opened her tired eyes and looked at me. Then she gave a slight nod.
“Dinner is in the dining room.”
“It is?”
“Elio uses a different door to get to it.”
“Oh . . .” She pulled on a clean thong, then joined me in the dining room, a ten-seater table with a table runner and low centerpieces.
We sat across from each other, and when I removed the silver lids, I revealed a meal of steak, greens, and potatoes for me, while she had a piece of salmon with rice and white asparagus.
For the first few minutes, we ate in silence. I could tell she was tired because she wasn’t normally up this late. But for me, I was wired. “Where were your shoots?” I asked.
“I had an engagement shoot in the afternoon and then a kid’s birthday party in the evening.”
“Fun.”
She shrugged. “I don’t care for the birthday ones, but they pay the bills.”
“Have you worked on your art photography?”
She sliced into her salmon and took a few bites.
I could tell she liked it when it was on our salad the other day.
She preferred seafood to steak, that was for sure.
“Honestly, haven’t really had time. Haven’t been inspired either.
So many changes in such a short amount of time. I’m still getting settled.”
“Have you spoken to Enzo?”
“No,” she said. “I highly doubt I’ll ever hear from him again.”
Not unless he wanted a broken nose.
“You think he and Luna will make it?”
She released a quiet laugh. “I doubt it. He might stick it out for a while because he sacrificed everything to have her, but who knows. Truthfully, I don’t care. I don’t think about him anymore. I’m either too busy with work or too busy thinking about you.”
I grinned before I took a bite. “Yeah?”
“Come on,” she said with a laugh. “Don’t play dumb.”
“What do you think about exactly?”
“I don’t know . . . stuff.”
“Ooh . . . I like stuff.”
Her cheeks started to flush, so I knew exactly what kind of stuff was on her mind.
“You think about me when you touch yourself, sweetheart?”
She stiffened at the question like she couldn’t believe I asked. “What about you?”
“I don’t jerk off.”
“Right. Sure, you don’t.”
“I don’t,” I said seriously. “That’s why I pay for sex sometimes. I prefer the flesh of a woman instead of my own. I grew out of that in my early twenties and never went back.”
She seemed to believe me, seemed to remember that I was always honest with her because I didn’t care enough to lie about anything. “So, when we weren’t together . . . were you with other women?”
“No.” The thought didn’t cross my mind. I’d been too pissed off to get hard. “Were you?”
The relief that spread into all the delicate features of her face was so distinct, it was obvious it’d been on her mind but she was too scared to ask—or too scared to hear the answer. “No.”
“So then let’s circle back to my previous question. Do you think of me when you touch yourself?”
She was flustered all over again, beet red.
“Come on, tell me.” I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it anyway.
“You’re such an ass.”
“You were the one talking about that OnlyFans of yours.”
She released a self-conscious laugh.
I cut her some slack because she truly seemed embarrassed by it—for a reason I didn’t understand. “Record yourself and send it to me.”
“Oh wow . . .”
“Come on, I’ll be your number one subscriber. A top-paying customer.”
“Like I’d ever take your money.”
“Then do it for free.” I grinned.
The flush in her cheeks was so intense she looked the same as she did in bed, like she was about to come. She sliced her fork through her salmon and focused on her dish like that was whom she had a conversation with. “What’s been going on at work?”
“Do you actually want to know, or are you just trying to change the subject?”
“You really are an ass, you know that?” she said with an uncontrollable smile on her lips.
“Yes, I’m aware.” I smiled back.
“And yes, I do want to know.”
“I spoke with Luca Fornier, the new First French Emperor of the Fifth Republic, and he said he’ll find Vladimir for me and extradite him to Rome.
There’ve been whispers of an upcoming terrorist attack on the EU, and unfortunately, arms moving to the east are coming from Florence—and most likely the Skull King.
And then I had a couple turf disputes I had to handle today, and some asshole was boosting his profits by cutting fentanyl into his product.
No one died from the contamination, so he really worked his magic to make it safe. But that’s not the point.”
She stopped eating and stared as she listened to all of that. “I’m sorry . . . French Emperor? Skull King? Who are all these people?”
I chuckled because I forgot she wasn’t fully a part of my world—yet. “The French Emperor is the French equivalent of what I am here in Rome. Bastien used to be in charge, but he’s retired and now Luca has taken his position.”
“Oh . . .”
“Yeah,” I said, moving on. “And the Skull King is a crime boss in Florence—and we don’t get along. Italy is divided into two halves. I have the north, and he has the south. We’ve agreed to a truce, but the tension continues to simmer beneath the surface.”
She stopped asking questions, but absolute confusion was written on her face.
“It’s a lot,” I said. “Don’t worry, you’ll catch on.”
“Um . . . the way you talk. It’s like we’re living in the fifteen hundreds.”
Because regular people who aren’t tied to power by connections or inheritance didn’t have a clue what went on behind the scenes.
They were glued to their screens and their apps, too busy trying to get by to care about archaic institutions and battles for power.
“It may seem like the world has evolved and modernized, but some things never change.”
When I woke up, I hit my private gym, showered, and because Aurelia was still asleep, I worked in my office.
When she woke up, she texted me. Where are you guys?
Medusa was asleep on one of the couches in front of my desk, where she liked to hang out when I was in there. But I loved the fact that Aurelia included Medusa in us, because she was more than just my dog.
She was family to me.
In my office across the hall.
A couple minutes later, she stepped through the open door and immediately looked up at the ceiling, seeing the painted frescoes there in the same style as the Sistine Chapel.
She stared at it for several seconds before she looked at me and the rest of the room.
My desk was the size of a king-size bed, but it was still a thumbtack in comparison to the enormousness of the room, the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with old tomes I hadn’t touched.
There was another side table that had a couple books on it and a large seating area that could easily accommodate twelve people comfortably.
Like always, she was humbled in every room she entered. With other women I slept with, they looked at what I had with the gleam of greed and a hint of resentful envy. They tried hard to make something serious happen with me, but I could see right through their motivations.
But Aurelia simply felt unworthy.
I came around the desk and kissed her. “How’d you sleep, sweetheart?”
“Good. Until I noticed you were gone.”
My arms hooked across her lower back above her ass, and I squeezed her to me.
I loved her height, but I loved her petiteness too, the deep curve in her lower back, the muscles in her ass, the little divot over her spine.
I kissed her, lowering my head to meet her lips when she was barefoot. “Hungry?”
“Always.”
I gave her ass a playful smack. “Attagirl.” I turned back to the desk. “I’ve got to take care of some things. It’ll be a few hours.” I wanted to blow off everything for her, but unfortunately, I didn’t have that luxury.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I have, like, a million edits to do. Can I bring my computer in here?”
She didn’t skirt away. Didn’t assume I didn’t want her around. And that made my chest feel warm. “Of course, sweetheart.”
She retrieved her bag and sat on the edge of the couch. Then she pulled out her laptop and her cameras and got to work.
Medusa opened her eyes from the other couch and decided to join Aurelia instead. She curled up next to Aurelia on the couch, her chin almost on her thigh.
Aurelia smiled and petted Medusa on the back of the neck, that affectionate warmth in her eyes. She grabbed her camera and then changed the lens before she pointed it down at Medusa. “Look at me, honey.”
Medusa tilted her head back and looked right into the lens.
The camera clicked when she got the shot. “Wow, you’re a natural.” She smiled, then gave Medusa another rubdown before she set the camera aside.
I should be focused on my laptop, but all I could do was stare at the two of them.
My girls.
We worked together in comfortable silence for hours. When Elio brought breakfast, we worked while we ate. I usually had an egg-white omelet with my coffee, and all she had was coffee and a side of fruit.
Elio returned to retrieve Medusa for her afternoon walk, and then it was just the two of us in my study.
I closed my laptop and joined her on the couch. “Show me what you’ve been working on.”
“Oh, I don’t think my kids’ birthday party is that interesting,” she said with a chuckle. “No French emperors or Skull Kongs there.”
“Skull King,” I said with a smile. “But I think I like Kong better.” I patted her thigh. “Show me some of your recent favorites.”