“This space is the start of your dream . . . my dream . . . our dream.”

  She stares at me vacantly, blinking slowly until she echoes, “Our dream?”

  “From here, you can show the world your creative genius. You’re going to help women feel beautiful—no matter their size, shape, or abilities. We can be all-inclusive. And we’re going to do it right by being a hand up for small manufacturers who are paying a living wage, supporting their workers’ health, maybe even giving people a second chance at a job. With your design skills, my business skills, and the connections we already have, we can make it. We’re going to be the good in a difficult, dirty industry.”

  “Really?”

  It’s sinking in, and hope is starting to fill her eyes. There’s one more thing, though . . .

  “Really. There’s just one catch.” I grin teasingly so she knows it’s not anything bad. In fact, I hope she thinks it’s a great condition of this whole deal.

  “And what’s that?” Autumn answers as she runs a finger over the buttons of my shirt.

  “You never leave me again.” I’m serious, and my tone reflects that. “I don’t think I could handle being hurt like that again. I’ve been a complete mess since you left.”

  The confession is ripped from my heart and laid bare at her feet.

  “I didn’t . . .” She starts to argue, but stops herself as she sees the pain plainly exposed on my face. “You thought I left like . . . your mom?”

  My eyes drop to the floor, but I nod silently.

  “I thought I wasn’t good enough for you. I left because I couldn’t stand the idea of sharing you. I don’t share well,” she tells me forcefully.

  “Me neither.” I step in closer to cup her jaw in my hands, lifting her face until she looks at me. “That’s why I don’t want that to ever happen again. You’re mine, and I’m yours.”

  Her smile is soft and sweet, and I trace her bottom lip with my thumb, wanting to feel her happiness. She puckers her lips to place a gentle kiss to the pad of my thumb. “Always.”

  Her Harry Potter reference makes me stupidly happy.

  “I’m glad you feel that way because . . .” I drop to one knee before her and take her hand. “Autumn Fisher, I love you with all my heart and want nothing more than the honor of loving you, making you happy, and building a life with you as long as we both shall live. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  “Oh, my God! Are you serious?” she shouts, and I can feel her hand shaking in mine. “We’ve only known each other for a month!”

  She’s right, but I don’t care. I have never known love until Autumn, and I will do anything to keep it now that I have her here with me. “I love you. And you love me. That’s all that matters.”

  There’s a tiny moment that I’m filled with doubt when she doesn’t answer immediately, and then she throws her arms around my neck, tackling me. Lying on top of me on the concrete floor, she kisses me over and over, saying, “Yes, yes, yes.”

  I grip the globes of her ass tightly, pressing her core against me to feel her heat. I want to feel every inch of her so I know this is real and not another one of the dreams that have plagued me since she walked out of the last fashion show. Those always end with my startling awake when Autumn says no to my proposal.

  But she didn’t say no. She said yes, and this is real.

  I kiss her passionately as I reach into my pocket to pull out the box that holds the ring I chose especially for Autumn.

  I slip the ring onto her finger, and she breaks our kiss to look at our entwined hands and her new engagement ring. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers.

  “Yes, you are,” I agree. She glances up to me, happy sparkles dancing in her eyes. Lowering my voice, I tell her, “I want to make love to you wearing only this” —I touch her ring, and then her necklace— “and this. It’s been too long since I’ve been inside you. Did you touch yourself when we were apart?”

  She bites her lip and shakes her head. “I was too sad.”

  “Then we need to make up for lost time. I want to mark you, mark every corner of this studio, make it ours, inspired by our love and our lovemaking. You’re going to do great things. We’re going to do great things together.”

  I lift her and guide her to stand. Following her up, I take Autumn’s hand and pull her toward the stairs in the corner. “Starting with upstairs.”

  “What’s up there?” Despite asking, she’s following me eagerly.

  “On-site apartment,” I explain as I lead her to what I’ve already been calling our bedroom. “Our new place, and our bed with fluffy, soft bedding that I want to claim you in.”

  “Whoa,” Autumn murmurs at my words, or maybe it’s as she sees our apartment. It also might be the combination of both.

  It’s not fancy, or even finished. The property needs a total gut job, actually, but the contrast between the luxurious bedding and the peeling walls is beautiful in a strange way.

  But nothing is as interesting as the woman in front of me.

  I trace down her side to the tie at her waist, and with one flick, the entire dress opens, revealing her sumptuous cleavage and curves. “Oh, I’ve missed you, Princesse,” I murmur darkly as I cup her breasts. I rub my thumbs over her already hard nipples, and she arches into my touch with a hiss. Needing more, I reach behind her to undo the clasp, and her lacy bra drops to the floor.

  “Suck them,” Autumn orders.

  I don’t need to be told twice. I bend down to take her nipple into my mouth, drawing her in deeply. When I nip her with my teeth, she cries out and holds my head to her. I work one nipple and then the other, back and forth repeatedly, until she’s going wild for me. She’s squirming as her hands scrape through my hair and over my shoulders.

  I want her nails on my skin, so I undo a few buttons and pull my shirt over my head, forgetting it as it hits the floor. She takes the time to let her dress fall to the floor too, standing before me in her panties and heels. And an evil grin.

  “I have an idea. Lie down,” she says. When I move to the bed unquestioningly, she remembers and orders, “Oh, pants off.”

  There’s a thread of steel in her voice, and her confidence with ordering me where and how she wants me is sexy as fuck.

  A shudder works through me, and I undo my belt, stripping to nothing as quickly as possible while she watches me. I can feel her eyes on my skin and run a palm down my chest to my abs and then take myself in hand. A tight squeeze at the base makes my already hard cock leak pre-cum at the tip.

  “Don’t even think about it,” she warns. I let my hand fall, more curious about what she’s intending than I’d care to admit.

  I lie on the bed, hands cradling my head as I await her next command. She turns, giving me her back but peeking over her shoulder as she lowers her panties, making a show of them going over the curve of her ass and then bending forward to step out of them to give me a peek of her glistening sex.

  Leaving her heels on, she kneels on the bed beside my head and then swings her leg over to straddle me. Instinctively, I adjust my arms to put them beneath her, wrapping them up and around her ass.

  “Ah, Princesse . . . do you wish to be a queen tonight?” I inhale her sweet musk, looking up her sexy body to meet her heat-filled eyes. “May I worship you, Your Highness?” I tease, but it comes out too low and rumbled to be humorous.

  Autumn bites her lip and nods.

  I grip the firm globes of her ass, dimpling them with my fingertips as I guide her pussy to my mouth. One long lick along her seam has her thighs clenching my head, so I do it again, lapping at her juices. “Mmm, delicious.”

  I trace my tongue through her lips, exploring everywhere I can reach, and then use it to spear into her, fucking her with my tongue. Autumn bucks her hips shallowly, barely moving but using my tongue for her own pleasure while she cups her own breasts and plucks at her nipples.

  “Suck me,” she demands, using one hand to spread her lips and give me full access to her hidden clit.

  Ravenous for her, I latch on and suck as hard as I can. “Oh! Yes, like that!” she cries out.

  Using my lips to create a vacuum, I flick her clit with my tongue and dip one finger into her opening to lubricate it. I tease it between her cheeks, finding the tight knot of nerves of her asshole and circle it with my finger. She arches back and forth, fighting her need for both my tongue and my finger, so I make the decision easier and gently slip the tip of my finger inside her.

  “Fuck,” she moans. Her juices are coating me, from my mouth, down my chin, and even on my chest where she sat for a quick moment, and the scent of her arousal fills my nostrils to the point that it becomes the only oxygen I need.

  I work her clit and her ass, using her grunts as guidance for when she can take more, until I’m finger fucking her and sucking her hard. She throws her head back, and I carefully nip her clit between my teeth, moving my head back and forth in the small space I have between her thighs. I growl animalistically.

  The vibration is too much for her, and she bucks, riding my mouth into her release. I feel the bloom of her ass before she clenches down tight on my finger, keeping me locked inside where I stroke her smooth walls.

  Her screams of pleasure are enough to excite my over-stimulated and lonely cock, and I jet pulses of cum along my belly but never stop my ministrations to Autumn’s body.

  Exhausted, her legs getting tired, her pussy gets lower and heavier on my face. “Sorry, didn’t mean to suffocate you,” she says dreamily as I lap at her slowly, letting her come back to Earth from her explosion.

  But when she tries to move off my head, I use both hands to lock her thighs down hard over my shoulders. “Stay,” I mumble against her flesh. “I want more.”

  “Simon, I’m too heavy like this and I can’t hold myself up anymore,” she confesses, working hard to put a little space between her lips and my mouth.

  When I look up at her, her eyes are filled with doubt, and I won’t have that. Autumn won’t doubt anything about us ever again.

  “Love your holding me down, making me suck you, and coming without my cock even getting to touch you. If I need to breathe, I’ll tap out, but right now, I want you to sit down fully and let me worship you until you drown me in your pleasure.”

  Her eyes flare with desire, and then she lowers herself, truly sitting as my queen. She weaves her hands into my hair and pulls me to her pussy. “Lick me again.”

  She understands the game we’re playing, the gift of power and pleasure and how they can be interchanged.

  And I do what she’s commanded me to do—I lick her, suck her, suffocate myself in her cleft as she grinds her pussy to my mouth, using me for her pleasure. Her thighs begin quivering next to my head, occasionally squeezing me and blotting out the sound of her panting breaths, but as her keening wails get louder, there’s no blocking them out.

  Nor is there any stopping my reaction to her. I reach for my cock, jerking myself roughly because I’m already on the edge of another orgasm.

  “Don’t come until you’re inside me, Simon. I want that cum. It’s mine . . . you’re mine.” Autumn pulls my hair a bit with the warning, and I have to squeeze my balls to keep them from spilling immediately with her claiming.

  I keep loving her with my mouth, tongue, and teeth . . . and my heart and soul. How could either of us have considered living without the other? We’re two parts of the same whole, and one without the other would be forever incomplete.

  And then she explodes once again for me. Her sharp heels dig into my sides, her hands rip at my hair, her body spasms, and her pussy gushes for me.

  I don’t wait for her to ride it out. I flip her over in one quick move so that she’s on her back and I’m between her legs. I slam into her, bottoming out in her still-fluttering pussy in one stroke, and we both cry out at the incredible sensation.

  I grab her hands, lifting them over her head and pinning them to the bed. I can feel her ring against my own finger, the reminder of how everything has changed tonight. Using my legs to spread hers wide, I hold her open, digging my toes into the bed for leverage. The power has changed, but the goal is the same . . . pleasure. Mine and Autumn’s.

  “I love you,” I say forcefully, the words as powerful as my hard thrusts.

  Autumn’s eyes go shiny with unshed tears, and for a moment, I think I’ve been too rough, but no . . . she’s filled with emotion the same as I am.

  We might be fucking hard, but this is lovemaking all the same. This is an expression of how intensely and passionately we love one another.

  “I love you too,” she chokes out.

  “Good girl,” I praise her. “Now squeeze me with this sexy pussy. You want my cum? Take it. Everything I am, everything I have, it’s all yours, Princesse.”

  I feel her pulsing her inner muscles, working me as I thrust into her. It only takes a moment before I’m on edge again. “What do you want?” I ask, expecting her to say she wants my cum again.

  “You, forever,” she gasps.

  And that hits deeper than any dirty words she could’ve moaned. We’ve used blindfolds and masks, been to the Dungeon, and had phone sex—all of them great adventures. But nothing compares to the bare-faced love I see shining back at me as I pour myself into Autumn. I come harder than I ever have, forcing my eyes to stay open and locked onto Autumn’s as I roar out her name.

  Her body takes all of me, and when I see her eyes start to flutter, I can’t help but grin. “You coming again? What do you need?”

  She thrashes her head, unable to speak, so I keep pumping into her as I murmur sweet words in French. I tell her how I’m going to marry her, make her the happiest woman in the whole world, and worship her every night. I promise to put a baby in her belly as soon as she’s ready and tell her that I hope our children have her red hair and spirit that goes soft sometimes and fiery at others. I tell her that she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and that her ass will be the death of me because I would do ridiculous things to hold it, smack it, and maybe someday, fuck it.

  “Va te faire foutre dans le cul,” I whisper.

  “You can fuck me in the ass anytime you want,” she answers with a smile.

  “You understood that?”

  “Oui. My French is getting better, at least curse words.”

  “Alors, viens pour moi,” I tell her, translating in case she doesn’t understand. “Then come for me. Now.”

  I kiss her, claiming her mouth as I claim her body, and claiming her heart as she’s done mine. She comes once more, though it’s smaller than the previous ones, a ripple working though her before she relaxes in a puddle of satisfaction.

  I release her hands and let her move her legs as I press tiny kisses over her salty skin, along her jaw, on her freckled cheeks, and at the tip of her nose. She’s still for a bit, letting me love her and luxuriating in the attention, until she suddenly goes rigid.

  “Where’s Xerxes? This is the point where he’s scratching on the door or trying to jump in the bed,” she says, stressed about my crazy jealous dog.

  I chuckle. “He’s with Tobias, still in Paris. But he’ll be coming over soon. This trip was a bit last-minute, and I hoped to be busy with getting everything ready.” I look around the room that is not particularly impressive. It needs paint, new flooring, and more furniture. And a really deep clean. “How’d I do?”

  Autumn doesn’t look at the apartment or talk about the studio downstairs. She doesn’t look at the rock of a ring I slipped on her finger or the expensive chain on her neck. Her eyes never leave mine. “You’re amazing,” she sighs. “I mean, you did amazingly.” The correction is unneeded because I’m quite sure she said what she meant the first time.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty good like that,” I tease.

  CHAPTER 29

  AUTUMN

  I’ve never been particularly handy with a sander, drill, or paintbrush, and redoing the studio is hard work. But I keep telling myself that this will be worth it very soon. And I am getting better at working with the noise of the people actually doing the renovations who are good with power tools.

  We’re only a couple of weeks into overhauling the studio—thankfully, with Nora’s full and complete support and guidance—and working upstairs where it’s a bit cleaner, I already have a whole slew of designs tacked to the wall, fabric on the single folding table in the middle of the room, and a rack filled with completed pieces.

  I’m hoping to have a true collection release by the spring Fashion Week in NYC, even if it’s a small one. We’ll need it to drive business to the storefront we’ll have open soon.

  It’s a bit like learning to swim in the middle of the ocean with sharks nipping at your toes and twenty-foot waves washing over your head, but so far, I’m treading water and still breathing. Because Simon’s at my side.

  The bell by the front door of the building rings, and I look at Simon in confusion. The workers come in the back door, and other than Simon and me, no one else comes in or out. He starts to get up from his own folding table-slash-desk, but I know he’s buried in numbers and the budget, so I wave him off. “I’ve got it.”

  I go downstairs to answer the door, and my breath is stolen by the people standing there—Jacqueline, Albert, and Tobias.

  “What are you—”

  “May I come in,” Jacqueline says—not a question, but rather a statement—and interrupting the mental battle I’m already plotting out that includes a pretty exciting possibility of my throwing her out by her hair with a bonus kick to her bony ass.

  I don’t get a chance to say yes or no, so I’m not sure what my answer would’ve been because she waltzes in while I’m still deciding.

  “How . . . quaint.” Her eyes scan the space as her lip curls in distaste.

  “We think so,” I snip. “As I was saying, what are you doing here?” I make zero effort to hide the fact that she is unwelcome, having made my decision when she insulted the building Simon has been calling his wedding present to me.

  “Is Simon here? Perhaps there’s someplace we can talk?”