The woman standing before me is one thousand kinds of wonderful. She’s beautiful, generous, and trusts me more than she ought. It makes me feel awful about the way I’ve held back the truth from her, but it was for her own good. It is for her own good. But seeing her here in the dark hallway, her brown eyes so sad, seeking mine for understanding, I know the secrets can’t go on.

They were only in place to help her anyway, but right now they’re not helping her at all. They are pushing us apart, and that’s the last damn thing I want.

“Why did you come here?” I ask as I guide her by her elbow down the hallway.

She shakes her head, hard.

“Did something happen?”

She shakes her head, harder, and I remember the way she acted back in the kitchen at the farmhouse, how even though she was angry at her father, she wasn’t a fighter, not like that. She wasn’t the kind of woman who would throw words in my face, even if the words were ones I deserved.

So she shakes her head again, not wanting to tell me what’s really wrong, not wanting to tell me why she really came.

“Is someone hurting you? Because I swear to God if the press is after you—”

She pulls her arm for me. Pushes me against the wall, a fire in her eyes I’ve never seen before. “No press is after me. There’s no sex scandal I just discovered. The problem is you, Cal. You.”

I nod as her finger presses against my chest, not wanting to piss her off anymore. I know she’s angry. God knows she deserves to be. The last three days I’ve been working so hard with Jordan and the bouncers and then coming up with a plan with my attorney so that everything could be out in the open after we bust the mob for leaking those images.

The whole thing is hella complicated. There are lots of moving pieces. Once we figured out what we wanted to do to lure them here on the next night we’re open, I had met with my attorney for a fuck ton of billable hours, figuring out how to get out of the Fuck Club altogether.

“Look, there’s a lot I want to tell you,” I say, taking her by the hips and drawing her to me. “There’s a lot I want you to understand. But before I say anything I want you to know I haven’t been distant because I didn’t want you. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to be with you or see you spend time with you the last three days. I’ve just had a lot of shit—”

She cuts me off. Her eyes no longer angry, suddenly that sadness from before has returned.

“I know,” she says softly. “I know you’ve been having such a hard time. With Sawyer and—”

Now it’s my turn to cut her off. “It wasn’t about that.” I shake my head.

But she’s already unbuckled her coat and held it open.

“You asked why I came?” Jules asks. “I came to give you this. Now please, Callahan. Please take it. Afterward, we can sort the rest of this mess out.”

Holy fucking hell, standing before me is my Jules wearing nothing at all. I take in her long legs and narrow waist, her bare breasts. Holy fuck my cock is hard as steel just looking at her. Still, I don’t want her to think sex can fix everything.

Though right about now, I have a feeling it might fix an awful lot.

“You don’t have to do this,” I tell her.

She looks at me. “I know I don’t need to do this. I want to do this. For you. With you. The person who is supposed to be my boyfriend. Is that still who you are Callahan? Or is there someone else that I don’t know about?”

“Baby,” I whisper, pulling her to my chest. “Baby, there’s no one else. Just you.”

My words seem to soothe her because she sinks against my chest, my arms holding her tight.

Then she steps back and I tie up her coat, taking her hand.

I lead her down the hall, going the opposite direction of where we came.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“You came to the Fuck Club wearing nothing but your birthday suit and you wonder where I’m gonna take you?”

She smiles and her smile manages to light up the dark and dank club. I don’t know how I got so goddamned lucky, but I did. And after I fuck this woman silly, I will tell her the truth.

About me; my past. And what I want my future to become.

Hers.

* * *

Once in the fuck room, I turn on the lights. Hundreds of electric candles turn on, casting a sensual glow to the room.

Jules looks around, then pointing, asks, “Is that a...”

“A throne?” I grin. “Yes, my lady, this is our Royal Room. I thought you’d like it. It’s fit for a queen.”

Jules laughs. “You and your cheesy lines.”

“I mean it.”

She shakes her head, hands on her hips. “No way. I’m not sitting in that throne today. You are. I came here to make my man feel better and I intend on doing that.”

Jules pushes me until the back of my knees hit the throne. Red velvet curtains hang around the room and a thick, plush carpet covers the floor. The chandelier above us is encrusted with jewels, and she finds the scepter leaning against the throne. Picking it up, she twirls it like a baton.

“I think this is yours, Your Majesty,” she tells me. She offers me the scepter and I take it. With it in hand, I press it toward her, lifting her chin with the golden tip.

“Would you like your king to tell his loyal subject how to behave?” I ask, playing along. The last thing I want to do right now is to tell Jules that I don’t want to play these games, that I don’t need to sleep with her in order to make our relationship work.

Not all the time at least, God knows I want her now. I want her so fucking badly. But I also want her to know that this relationship is about so much more than sex to me. I can’t even believe I’m thinking these words, but I mean it. I mean it with all that I am.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Jules says coyly. “I want you to tell me how you’d like me to honor my king.”

She reaches for the belt on her jacket, loosening it, and then lets the coat fall to the floor. Then she stands before me in nothing at all, her long hair loose around her shoulders, covering her tits. She pulls her hair back, pushing back her shoulders, offering me all that she is. And when she licks her red lips, my cock is ready for everything that is going to come next.

“Take off my pants,” I tell her.

She nods, dropping down to her knees, and she reaches up and unhooks my belt, sliding it through the loops and then dropping to the floor. She unbuttons my jeans, tugging them past my hips, easing them off and she does the same thing with my boxers.

I look down at her, her angelic, heart-shaped face so pure as she looks up at me with her big brown eyes.

“And what would you like me to do now, my king?” She wears a smile, a wicked little smile, knowing exactly what comes next. “I am your loyal servant.”

“Now I’m going to sit down on my throne and you’re going to take care of the crown jewels.”

She presses her hand to her mouth poorly concealing a laugh. “You’re so damn cheesy, Cal,” she says shaking her head.

I love this about her, I love it.

I love her.

I love that we can be role-playing in such a kinky, sexual way, without either of us being degraded or anxious or any of it feeling forced. Everything about this moment just feels good. Right.

I sit down, thinking how I’m going to tell her the truth about who I am when this is over. I’ll tell her that I’m the owner of this club as soon as we play this game.

Damn, I can’t wait to come clean, my shoulders are going to feel so light.

I’m thinking about this—but only for a moment, because Jules opens her mouth and puts my long, hard cock in her mouth. Groaning, my head falls back, the stress of the last few weeks falling away as she takes me, her hands rubbing over my thighs, reaching for my hands and setting them on her big, bouncy tits. Fuck me, I really do feel like a king.

I sit on the throne, my knees spread apart with my baby between them. She runs a hand over my balls, cupping them and squeezing them gently as her mouth wraps around my length, suctioning it off, making me harder than hell. Her fingers stroke my shaft, as she bobs her head up and down like a good member of the royal court.

She moves faster and faster, my cock deep in her mouth, and there’s something about watching your woman go down on you, head moving, tits bouncing, her body vulnerable before you—that makes you feel like a goddamn ruler.

And right now that’s exactly how I feel. I press my hand on the back of Jules’ head, wanting her to take more of me, all of me. Take me until she gags because that’s exactly what she wants to have happen.

She wants to feel everything in the deepest and highest way possible. She wants to feel it all and I let her. I will guide my baby, and I will take her to places she has never dreamt of going.

She keeps sucking me, sucking me until I’m about to explode. She moans as she tastes me and licks me, pulling me from her mouth, and twirling her tongue over my tip, rubbing her tits against my shaft as I get ready to explode.

She dips her head back down and sucks me again, harder and harder. Her tongue runs over my velvety ridges and I know it’s about to happen.

“I’m so fucking close,” I tell her.

“Come all over me,” she begs, pulling me from her mouth. “Come all over me, my king. Please. I want you to come on my face, I want you to blow all over me. Give it to me, Cal,” she moans. “Give it to me now.” She starts stroking me again, then she takes her hand and licks her palm, lubricating my shaft as she strokes me again. Jerking me off like a fucking royal courtesan.

I come on her, just like she asks. Ribbons of my come shoot across her tits, and she moves her face closer to my cock so my come can fall on her lips, on her cheeks, on her neck. She licks her lips, tasting me. The smile on her face tells me everything I need to know. She loves this. She fucking loves me.

I’m still so hard for her. I pump my shaft a few times, watching her pleasure at being covered in my release. Then I pull her onto the throne, in my lap so that she straddles me.

“I want to come in your pussy, baby,” I tell her. “I want to come in you so hard. I want to fill you with my royal heir.”

She pulls back then as my cock sinks deep inside of her. “To clarify, do you want to put a baby in me or is this just a role-playing line?”

“Fuck, I don’t know. I want everything with you, Jules. I fucking love you,” I tell her as she starts grinding against me.

Her hands reach to the back of the throne holding on tightly, her tits right up in my face where they belong, bouncing up and down against me. I grab her ass, squeezing tight, but not as tight as her perfect cunt riding me.

“Fuck, Cal,” she moans. “I love you, too.”

Her words are everything I never knew I needed to hear. When she says them, it’s like she’s given me all the power in the world. I fuck my girl as she sits on top of me, on the throne of my own making. Our words a confession that surges between us, our bodies melting into a pool of water, a fucking oasis of our devotion.

Then the door swings open and Jordan is in the throne room.

Jules’ eyes go wide as her bare ass gets slapped by my palm, her big tits right in my face, her pussy full of my cock. Our words of love still hanging in the air.

“Boss, we have a big fucking problem,” Jordan says. He’s holding out his tablet, not even commenting on the fact that Jules is here, naked, on top of me. “Look,” he says. “More photos were leaked.”

“Goddammit, can you give us a minute,” I yell, reaching for Jules’ coat so she is covered. She reaches for it, pressing it against her chest. I grab my pants to cover myself, not exactly happy about Jordan seeing my woman and me fucking.

“There’s no time, Boss. The plan is ruined. I don’t think it’s the mob who’s fucking with us,” Jordan says not seeming to care what I’ve told him.

“Why the hell not?”

“Because these photos are of the mob, with Danny’s new girls.” It’s only then that Jordan realizes that Jules is here.

And I realize that she is staring at me in confusion.

“Why did Jordan call you boss?” she asks.

Jordan looks at me, raises his hands in apology.

“Sorry, man,” he starts. “I was just so fucking shocked—”

I cut them both off. “Give us a sec,” I tell him.

Jordan steps away, nodding, realizing his mistake.

I want him to understand it’s okay, that I was about to tell Jules the whole truth and nothing but the truth in a few minutes. But before I can even speak, Jules has gotten off me, and pulled on her coat, cinching it tight.

“You’re his boss? What does that even mean, Cal?”

“I wanted to tell you. I was going to tell you but I—”

“But you what, Cal? Thought that lying to me was a better plan for you than being honest with me?” Jules’ voice still doesn’t rise to a yell but in this moment I want it to.

I want her to scream at me, shout at me, tell me I’m a fucking asshole.

But she doesn’t.

She just looks at me with those big brown eyes as if she has no idea who I am. As if she’s seeing me for the first time in her life.

“I wanted to tell you who I really am.”

“If you’re the boss of Jordan, and Jordan’s the manager of the club, what does that make you, Callahan? Who are you?” Her eyes fill with tears and the words she said to me, the night we met, ring in my ears.

She liked me because I wasn’t like the liars and the cheats in this town. The men making money off the pretty women and lonely men. She thought I was more. Bigger. Better. She thought I was a salt of the earth guy who happened to come from money. She believed I wasn’t like everyone else.

But she was wrong and I let her believe I was someone I’m not.

Maybe, someone, I’ll never be.

But I love her. And she loves me.

We just fucking admitted it.

But right now she just stares at me, broken over the lies I didn’t have to tell, by secrets I chose to keep.

“Tell me, Cal.” She swallows, as if not really wanting to know because once I answer it will change everything between us forever. She’ll never see me the same way again. “Who are you?” Jules asks one more time.

Sitting on a throne like a king who knows he just lost everything valuable in the world, I answer, “I’m the owner of the A-List Fuck Club.”