“A truly good man won’t be scared away. So, when she meets the right one, he’ll stick around.”
“Maybe.”
I adjusted the sleeves of my dress. I was wearing the dress that Dante had brought to my room, light blue with a deep plunge down the front. The neckline was so low I couldn’t wear a bra with it, so I’d taped my nipples down so they wouldn’t press through the thin fabric. “I think it’s sweet that you care about her so much. I can tell she loves you.”
“Because she has to.”
“No…definitely not.”
He looked across the fields at the land in the distance. Judging by his coldness, the subject had officially expired. “I don’t know anything about your family. What were they like?”
“My father died a really long time ago. Car accident. My mother followed him a few years later when she got sick. I have an aunt that lives in California, but I’ve never been close to her. Nathan was all I had…until I realized who he really was.”
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t have a close family the way Conway did. Even when my parents were alive, we were never close. When my brother and I lived under the same roof, we didn’t spend much time together. Maybe if we had, I would have realized what was going on. If I weren’t so focused on myself, maybe I would have been able to help him.
“You don’t like to talk about this. I’m sorry I asked.”
I hadn’t realized how well Conway could read me until then. “There’s something I’d like to know.”
“Yes?”
“When you first saw me…what were you thinking?” I knew what I was thinking when I first saw him, and I’d even shared that moment with him. Would he share that moment with me?
“I wasn’t thinking anything.”
I didn’t believe that was possible, so I stared at him and waited for more.
“I just saw you, and I finally stopping thinking.” He kept his eyes on the horizon. “In my world, my mind is always going a million miles an hour. I’m constantly wondering what I should do next, what model will complement my next piece. But when I saw you…I stopped thinking altogether. It was so quiet. You were the answer I wasn’t looking for. You were the perfect model I never thought I would find. It was so true, so real, I didn’t need to think about anything at all.”
I felt my pulse quicken in my neck, felt the vein tremble. My breathing increased slightly, remembering the sight of his silhouette in that dark auditorium. The fact that I made this brilliant man stop thinking made me understand the true impact I had on him.
“And ever since that moment…you’ve been my star.”
It made me wonder if he’d felt that way about other models before me. Did I replace Lacey Lockwood? Did she replace someone before her? “Do you feel that way about models often?”
He turned back to me, his eyes narrowed. “Never.”
“Just me…?”
He nodded. “I’ve never laid eyes on a more beautiful woman. When I told you that, I meant it.”
When he was kind like this, it was hard for me not to like him. And I didn’t just like him because he was such a beautiful man. I liked him because there was so much more to him. He could make me feel so pretty so easily. “Did you sleep with Lacey Lockwood?”
His eyes narrowed. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m just wondering if you regularly sleep with your models.”
“Who I sleep with is none of your business,” he said coldly.
I swallowed the insult and knew I’d spoiled the night by asking the question, even though that was never my intention. Since we were sleeping together, I’d thought the conversation was appropriate.
Conway closed his eyes and sighed, probably realizing his reply was ice-cold. “No, I’ve never slept with her. I don’t sleep with my models.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise at the revelation. I felt my eyebrows lift. “What?”
He did his best to fight the irritation that burned in his eyes. “You heard what I said.”
“But…I’m surprised by that.”
“I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
“You’re sleeping with me.”
“And that’s why you aren’t one of my models anymore. Now you’re just my inspiration, my private fantasy.”
“The girls seem so infatuated with you…and that lipstick on your neck…I just assumed.”
“The second I sleep with them, everything would get complicated. This way, their rank is based solely on merit. There’s no chance of jealousy when I won’t fuck any of them. I can get ass just as hot off the runway.”
I didn’t like to picture him getting ass from anyone, although I wasn’t sure why. “So that lipstick really wasn’t from sleeping with someone?”
He held my gaze and didn’t flinch. “No. Like I said, I haven’t slept with anyone.”
“But you intend to?”
He paused before he answered the question. “I already explained that to you.”