The next few minutes pass in a rhythm of bending, lifting, and placing—enough to fill my head so I don’t think about anything else.
Not even the man who’s taken over every previously empty space in my mind since last night.
To be honest, he’s claimed some of the full ones too.
Nero simply evicted every thought he didn’t consider important or urgent and took their place in my chaotic head.
“Excuse me—is this where I find the person responsible for my favorite show?”
The devil’s own voice reaches me just as I’m closing the register. I look up with a smile, genuinely happy about the surprise visit—even though it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since he dropped me off last night.
“Maybe I should start selling tickets,” I suggest, teasing.
He shrugs.
“As long as I’m the only one buying all of them, I don’t see a problem.”
“That was a very good answer,” I say, stepping out from behind the counter and into his arms. “Hi,” I whisper against his lips when he lowers his head to kiss me.
“Hi,Little Fae,” he replies, kissing my lips again—then my nose.
“Not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing here?”
“I didn’t want to leave you alone. If you’d told me yesterday that your mom had traveled, I would’ve come back to keep you company.”
I look at the man holding me, and it’s hard to swallow the eager sigh trying to escape my lips.
Nero always seems to know exactly what to say.
I refused to think about what the weekend meant to me until I was lying in my own bed, alone with my thoughts. When that moment came, I realized there was nothing I truly needed to think about—except Nero himself.
Virginity was never a big deal to me. I kept it because, until now, I had other priorities. Having sex with just anyone to lose a label never seemed particularly sensible.
Still, the words Nero said while looking me in the eyes two nights ago carried an impossible weight to dismiss:
“I’m just trying to make your first time special.”
It’s not about the first time.
But what woman wouldn’t want the man she chose to share her body with to care enough to want that?
I find it hard to imagine one.
“You don’t need to do this,” I finally say.
Nero smiles wickedly. He lowers his lips to my ear, and his next words are whispered—sending a shiver through me.
“I have my own interests.”
I laugh at his foolishness.
“Oh yeah? That must be the shortest sex strike in history.”
“If I remember correctly, I made you come at least four times yesterday,Little Fae. I don’t think that qualifies as a sex strike—but it’s good to know you missed my cock.”
Nero bites my lower lip and tugs it gently.
The bluntness of his words—right in the middle of my everyday life—makes my cheeks heat instantly, and he laughs.
