Chapter 6: New Wife
As we drove towards The restaurant , I got a call again from Nicole telling me that the story still stayed up. The rankings held. And Liam’s counter narrative slowly began to lose ground against the weight of Nicole’s evidence.
She did not understand how smoothly everything had moved. She had expected the whole thing to take several more days, maybe longer. "Valerie," she said over the phone, her voice dropping into that particular tone she used when she was fishing for information, "tell me the truth. Are you being backed by another company?"
"No," I said, glancing sideways at Caspian as we sat down to dinner. "But there is someone helping me behind the scenes. I cannot say who just yet."
"Hahaha, that is fine, we can talk later! I just want to sit here and enjoy the mental image of Liam’s face right now. That is satisfaction enough for me tonight."
She assumed it was someone from my family. She had absolutely no idea I had become the wife of the most powerful man in the entire industry.
The restaurant was quiet and well lit and Caspian sat across from me looking entirely unbothered by the fact that we had just dismantled Liam’s PR operation from the back seat of a car. He picked up his knife and fork and cut into the steak in front of him. "Are you planning to use all of this to leave Xova?" he asked.
"No," I said. "Leaving would let them off too easily. I am going to pull them down from that perch entirely." I looked at him steadily. "And I am returning to modeling under my own name. My popularity is nowhere near what it once was, which is why staying at Xova still makes sense for now. I need the access."
"You are saying all of this out of anger," he said calmly, without judgment.
"What I have decided on, I will not regret and I will not walk back." I heard the certainty in my own voice and I believed every word of it.
Caspian went quiet, but I could feel him watching me with a different kind of attention than before, something more considered and more careful.
"I have asked my assistant to reserve a room for us tonight," he said after a moment. "We will stay at the hotel. My home can feel quite cold and I did not want that for tonight."
My ears went warm. I nodded and looked down at my plate. "Whatever you think is best."
After dinner, Caspian led me up to the presidential suite and when he opened the door I stopped in the doorway. It was not a standard room. It was a wedding suite, roses and soft warm lighting and every small detail quietly considered. He could not have had much notice to arrange any of it. He had done it anyway.
Caspian noticed me looking. He removed his jacket and turned to face me. " Last night was different from tonight, so I will go in there, shower first and I will give you some time to think. If you are still uncertain about any of this, we can delay indefinitely. There is no pressure."
I watched him disappear into the bathroom and stood there thinking about everything. We were already married. He had already been kinder and more considerate to me in one day than Liam had managed in five years.
I had already made my decision. I pushed open the bathroom door and stepped inside. Caspian looked up in surprise. I crossed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him without a word. "I do not regret this," I said quietly. "Not a single thing."
"Are you certain?" His voice dropped low. "Once you are mine, there is no changing your mind."
"I am already yours."
He let go of something he had been holding back. His arm came around my waist and drew me close and his lips came down to mine. He kissed my lips hungrily. I pushed myself up and wrapped my legs around him. He slowly walked towards the bedroom
As he laid me down on the rose scattered bed, his body warm above mine, I looked up at him and thought that I could become completely undone by this man.
Caspian took my hand and led me to the bed. He walked over to the nightstand and came back with two ribbons, thin and silky and the deep red of something deliberate. I looked at them and then looked at him.
He raised an eyebrow. A question, not a demand.
I held out my wrists.
He tied them carefully to the headboard, not too tight, not too loose. When he was done he stepped back and looked at me hungrily.
He reached down and undid his belt. I watched every movement and felt my mouth go dry. The man was unfairly built, broad shoulders tapering down. He was incredibly handsome, stroking himself slowly as he walked toward me and I genuinely forgot how to form a complete thought.
He looked at me with hooded eyes. "Tell me how much you want me Valerie."
"I want you," I said, and my voice came out rough and honest. "Please do not make me beg."
I gripped the ribbons and moved against the headboard, he smiled and brought his lips down to mine. The kiss was nothing like the controlled deliberate ones from before.
He moved his hands to my breasts and my back came off the bed before I could stop it.
With every kiss I made sounds I did not recognize as myself. He worked his way back up to my neck and whispered something against my ear that made me laugh despite everything, surprised and warm and completely undone. I looked at him and he looked at me and no words passed between us because none were needed.
He untied the ribbons from the headboard and pressed his lips to each of my wrists where the fabric had left faint pink marks. I wrapped my arms around his neck immediately and pulled him back to my mouth and he kissed me like he had been waiting to and rolled me over without breaking the kiss so that I was now on top of him.
I reached for the condom on the nightstand and tore the wrapper open with my teeth. He watched me with those forest green eyes and said nothing.
"How do you want it?" I asked.
"With your mouth," he said.
I turned and faced him. I placed the condom carefully and worked my way down slowly, feeling his hands find my hips and then move lower, his fingers entering me from behind while I worked. I moaned against him at the sensation, my concentration fracturing completely, and he worked his fingers in and out of until my arms were shaking.
He eased up and turned me to the side of the bed. I moved forward onto my hands and knees and he ran his palm over me slowly before bringing it down in a sharp warm slap. I gasped. He rubbed the pink warmth that bloomed there and did it again and I buried my face into the sheets and stretched my arms out in front of me and completely stopped thinking about anything at all.
He kissed his way back up from the base of my spine to my shoulder blades, slow and deliberate, every press of his lips intentional. Then he raised up and entered me from behind and I went completely still as he filled me inch by inch. I lifted my face from the sheets and moaned, long and unguarded, and he wrapped my hair around his wrist and pulled gently, using it to angle me exactly where he wanted me.
He worked in and out of me and reached around with his free hand to cup my breast, his thumb working my nipple until I was pushing back against him desperate for more. His thrusts built steadily, deeper and harder, and I cried out into the empty room without caring even slightly.
His thrusts became urgent, his breath hot against the back of my neck, his control finally and completely gone, and I felt him everywhere, his chest against my back, his mouth at my shoulder, his hands on every part of me at once. When the wave finally broke it took everything with it. I cried out and felt him groan against my skin as he followed right behind me, holding me hard against him until we were both still.
He held me there for a long moment, his breathing evening out slowly against my hair.
Slowly I drifted off with a smile on my face
...
In the morning I woke to sunlight flooding the room and an empty space beside me. I assumed Caspian had already left for the day but when I padded into the living room he was there, sitting comfortably with a stack of documents in his lap, waiting for me without making a production of it.
"I put new clothes in the bathroom," he said, without looking up. "We will leave after you are ready."
I smiled at his back and turned toward the bathroom. Then my phone rang.
Liam.
I looked at Caspian with an expression I could not quite keep neutral. He raised one eyebrow and asked, with complete calm, "Would you like me to answer it?"
