When I looked up, Constantijin deliberately licked his lips, his eyes gleaming with laughter.
I blushed. “Constantijin!”
He said innocently, “What?”
“You---”
“Tasted so good, schat.”
I moaned, covering my face, even more embarrassed.
He pulled my hands away. “I loved the way you made me eat you more and more---”
“Can we please not talk about it?” I pleaded.
He kissed me, and suddenly I was tasting myself. It was unexpected, and I thought I would have gagged but all it made me think was how next time I could be tasting him.
He pulled away, his hand suddenly curling around my breast and cupping it possessively. “You are mine now, are you not?”
The words reminded me of something I was hoping I wouldn’t remember, making me bite my lip.
His fingers tightened around my breast. “Yanna, answer me.”
“But are you mine, too?”
“Of course I am.”
“Then…why did you go out with another woman again?” I didn’t even have to close my eyes to imagine Constantijin with the woman I had seen on TV at his side, another blond beauty who shot my confidence to pieces. She looked so right next to him, the way I knew I never could be.
Cute, fun, perky – people used those words over and over to describe me, but Constantijin didn’t deserve a woman who sounded like a hyperactive poodle. He needed someone sophisticated and glamorous as he was, and I was still scared that there’d be a day he’d realize that, too.
Constantijin took my hands and placed them on his chest, allowing me to feel his heartbeat. It remained calm and steadfast, like an inevitable truth, as Constantijin answered, “I wanted to hurt you for choosing him over me.” His head lowered, his lips touching the upper slope of my breast, leaving a kiss that felt like a promise. “I won’t do it again, Yanna. But you must promise me the same. You must not choose anyone else over me.”
For one infinite-like second, I was terrified of what was happening. I was falling too hard and too fast for this man, and he was asking so much of me without really offering anything in return.
He wanted me, but for how long?
He said he was mine, but until when?
Yet in the end, the lack of answers was something I could only close my eyes to – something I had to pretend didn’t exist. It was too late. I was already unquestioningly his, even if there came a time that he wouldn’t want me anymore.
“Yanna?
My arms around him tightened. “I’m yours, Constantijin. Only yours.”
Then the doors in the distance swooshed open, followed by drunken voices, as another man asked, “I swear, I saw Kastein come in here.”
Lesson #2
Let your billionaire think all you want is his money.
He will hurt you less when you do.
Constantijin had me dressed in seconds, so quickly I could only blink as he helped me put on my underwear and pulled my gown back down. “Hide,” he said grimly.
I blinked in confusion. “But I’m already dressed---”
He shook his head. “I know those men. They’d talk about you the moment they’re done being hung over. I do not want the first thing that people will say about you when they find out about us to be an ugly thing.” He kissed my fingers. “I want it to be perfect between us.”
A lot of butterfly wings fluttered inside my stomach when I heard those words.
He caressed my cheek. “When I leave, wait for five more minutes before going out. I will be waiting for you then.” And then he was gone, calling out something in Dutch to the pair of intoxicated men, whose footsteps already sounded awfully near.
Five minutes, huh?
I knew exactly what I could do with that. Closing my eyes, a smile already touching my lips, I let myself imagine the pleasure I had experienced in Constantijin’s arms. In an instant, I was aroused again, my body yearning already for his touch. It made me blush, but the wanton feelings also made my smile widen. I wanted him madly, but he wanted me just as madly, too.
Reluctantly opening my eyes when I felt that five minutes had already passed, I slowly retraced my path out of the forest. Here and there I’d let my fingers graze the bark of a tree, a flower’s tender soft petals, their textures a way of cementing the fact that this was all real.
Constantijin might never admit it, but something had changed between us tonight – and it was a step closer to him loving me back someday.
A swooshing sound took me out of my thoughts, and I saw two women almost stalking their way into the conservatory, the doors swinging heavily shut behind them. My eyes widened when I realized that the younger woman was the same one I had seen with Constantijin on TV last night.
Why was she here?
“Oh, did you see how he snubbed me, Mother?” Constantijin’s date screeched.
“Calm down, Brittany. You won’t win him back with your temper.” The older woman opened her purse, taking out a lighter and a cigarette. Blowing out a circle of smoke, she continued, “But honestly, darling, I don’t care if you don’t get back together with him. His bloodline is…as you know...dirty.”
“Honestly, Mother, I don’t give a damn even if his mother had f**ked every guy in the city---”
“Oh, darling, I think she truly did back then.”
“---but what I do care about is being his wife and getting access to his billions.”
Maybe this seemed like exaggerating, but even this far I could practically see the dollar signs shining in Brittany’s eyes as she hissed, “Billions, Mother. Don’t you think that’s worth ignoring he’s got a hooker for a mother?”
The words took me so much by surprise I accidentally knocked the electrically lit pillar next to me.
Shit.
“Who’s there?” Brittany asked shrilly.
I was so busted.
Or maybe I wasn’t. Maybe I could hide---
A blazing light suddenly went my way, blinding me. I blinked, automatically trying to shield my gaze from the glare of the other woman’s Blackberry torch-like lighting.
When I looked up, Brittany and Brittany Sr. were right in front of me.
“Eavesdropping cheap bitch!”
And there went the first missile, from the older woman no less.
But because I preferred Switzerland’s neutral role in wars, I pretended the words didn’t rankle and said evenly, “I understand why you think that, but---”
“Oh my God, Mother, I know who this bitch is! She’s that woman Constantijin couldn’t stop staring at a while ago.” Brittany gave me a look from head to toe. I’d be lying if I didn’t feel smaller as she did – and it didn’t even have anything to do with the fact that she towered over me by at least half a foot.