“What? Eat half of this baked camembert? Bitch you can, and you mother fucking will,” Wren claimed after she swallowed a mouthful.
I rolled my eyes and dutifully dipped a slice of bread into the cheesy goodness.
Wren nodded in approval.
“I don’t know if I can be her.”
“Her?” she repeated, cocking her head as she scrutinized me. “Okay, let’s pretend that we live in a world where you should ever try to be anyone but your own damn self. Who is she?”
“She’s me,” I replied. “Or who I figure I have to be in order to be with Jay. In order to be his wife.”
I dipped more bread into the cheese because I really needed melted camembert and carbs with this conversation.
“He’s some kind of organized crime lord,” I added once I’d swallowed. “Yes, he wears a nice suit, goes to nice charity dinners and lives in a very nice house, but I’m aware that there are parts of his business that are...” I trailed off, unsure of what Karson had told Wren about the nature of Jay’s business, unwillingly to betray Jay’s secrets to Wren, even though she was one of my closest friends, and I trusted her with my life.
I didn’t want to accidently spill something that would put her life in danger.
“Not so nice,” I finished lamely. “Parts of his business require me to be strong, to be somewhat of a badass myself.” My mind wandered. “To not blink when I’m woken up in the middle of the night to...” I trailed off again, not wanting to say something I was sure I shouldn’t talk to Wren about. More secrets.
“Jay did not put that ring on your finger because you are some cold, hard, badass woman who can handle all that kind of shit and not even blink,” Wren reassured me before I could figure out what I was going to say.
“Now, those women are most definitely awesome, but they are an acquired taste. Just like men like Jay are. He does not need or want a woman hardened to the ugliness of his world.”
She reached out and squeezed my hand. The one that wasn’t shoving cheese in my face like a wild animal.
“He needs you,” she continued with a smile. “Someone kind. Someone who loves openly, unconditionally. Someone the total opposite of everything that he breathes every single day.” She took her drink and sipped it. “This isn’t a fairy tale. Not a fucking Disney movie. We are not riding off into the sunset with some handsome, two dimensional princes. We’re with the villains, honey. And they’re much better in bed. You think Prince Charming gave Cinderella multiple orgasms?” She shook her head. “Nuh uh, baby. We made the right choice.”
I clinked my drink with hers. Yeah, we had made the right choice.
And this was confirmed when I got home and was given multiple orgasms which Cinderella definitely didn’t get.
I quickly got used to doing my job with someone following me. With Jay checking in with me multiple times a day. I actually loved that, hearing his husky voice on the other end of the phone. Sometimes he was just asking me what I was doing, if I was good. Other times, he ordered me into the bathroom of whatever location I was working on, making me touch myself while he listened. So what if his potential beef with the Russian Mafia was the reason for the calls?
When he called earlier, I’d told him I had a celebrity job, that was in a gated community and there wouldn’t be a way for a man in a dark sedan to follow me inside without raising a lot of questions.
“I don’t give a fuck about questions,” Jay retorted in a clipped tone.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, expecting such a reaction. “Well, I do because this is my job. These are my clients.”
“Your job isn’t important right now, Stella,” Jay replied. “Your safety is what matters.”
I gritted my teeth. “My job is important, Jay,” I told him slowly.
“You don’t need it,” he said. “I can take care of you.”
I took a deep breath, then another. “I’m going to ignore that statement because I know you’re stressed out over everything going on. But you need to remember that you fell in love with me because I’m not some doormat whose only goal in life is to be taken care of by a man. I’m keeping my job. I let you put a fucking bodyguard on me without an argument.”
I looked out my car window, waving at Eric with my fingers.
He nodded back once, far too badass and serious about his job to do the finger wave. But not too badass and serious to say no to me setting him up with a good friend of mine who would be perfect for him. Kieran liked bad boys, but not the good kind of bad boy.