Maybe she used French because she didn’t think June would understand. How woefully shortsighted of her.I’ve heard so much French in my life that I know how to play this game. June tried to swallow the words, but she couldn’t. They flowed from her lips to Miquela’s ear. She was vulnerable, after all. As vulnerable as June was, and that was a dangerous combination.
“Moi aussi,” she confessed. “See? I can speak some French, too.”
She didn’t have time to think about what she had done. Miquela kissed her with that same candid passion as always, and June departed to another realm for the next five minutes.
They didn’t discuss what they had said in their moment of enthusiasm. Miquela slowly detached herself from June.Don’t think she’ll go again tonight.Fine with June. Her thighs were sore, and her opening was ready to be left alone. Yet she lay there, stunned, her eyes locked on her ceiling as Miquela stood in front of the bed and undressed. June couldn’t help but feel… owned.
Stop it. Stop thinking this. June needed to lose the sex brain and go back to being all business. Slowly, it came back to her, and she happily welcomed Miquela into her bed after tossing her torn negligee to the floor.
“Sorry about your clothes,” Miquela growled into her ear. She rubbed June’s shoulder and drew her foot up. “I’ll buy you another one.”
“I still have the beautiful one you got me before.” June touched the tip of her nose. Miquela caught her wrist and kissed her hand. “I could go change into it right now.” It hung in the back of her closet. “I want to sparkle for you.”
“You already do.” Skin touched hers. Breath as hot as fire blew across her body. The tenderness with which Miquela treated her was unlike any other… except for perhaps one. I had almost forgotten about her.Miquela lightly sucked her nipple. Not enough to arouse her again, but enough to make June moan. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll be a new woman. Thanks to you.”
Sadness clouded her eyes. June patted her chest, soft, covered in fine hairs.She’s the kind of woman I could feel safe and cozy with every night. It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t she have that every night? “I’m glad I could help. Soon, you won’t even needme anymore.” She said that matter-of-factly, because it was true. Eventually, Miquela would move on from this. From Rosa. From June. She was a lull in Miquela’s life. A much-needed one, but soon she could go back to her world and find herself a woman befitting the role of Miquela Bolivar’s girlfriend… and maybe wife. Maybe she would always think of her fondly. That was fine. June would think of her fondly, too, even when she stopped coming to visit her, as all clients did.
The thought made her cling to her, desperate to commit her scent and texture to memory. “When will you be back?” she asked.
“Ah…” Miquela’s hand went down June’s leg, tucking beneath her knee. When her legs were sufficiently spread for her enjoyment, Miquela touched her slit, her folds, basking in how they felt together. “I have to go back to Monaco for a couple of weeks. I’ll send you a gift while I am gone, to make sure you’re thinking of me.”
As those fingers gingerly dipped inside her, June pressed her lips against her skin, silencing her dismay.
“My maternity leave will start on July 18th,” Monique announced at Monday’s meeting. “I won’t be coming back to the Manoir for at least a month, and don’t plan to work again until at least six weeks after. June will effectively be in charge while I’m indisposed.”
Four pairs of eyes glanced at the woman in question. June, sitting on a couch, chewed on the inside of her cheek while one of her feet bounced on the plush material beneath her.No big deal. Gonna run a multi-million dollar establishment by myself for at least six weeks.Monique had been grooming her for thismoment for months. Not like June didn’t know how everything ran by now, from ordering supplies to placating clients, to booking appointments, to overseeing the maids, butlers, cooks… shit, June had been doing that latter bullshit for weeks now.
“So be nice to her,” Monique added. “She’s taking orders directly from me, but I don’t want anything to do with you all while I’m recovering.”
“Isn’t your due date at the end of July?” Grace asked. “You’re cutting it awfully close. Are you sure it’s okay?”
Monique barely deigned her a look.She’s a workaholic. It’s not even surprising that her maternity leave is only going to be six weeks.One of the only women in the country who could afford to take a leave as long as she wanted, and Monique did the minimum. June was one of the only people outside of Minerva and Helen who saw what Monique had done to her chambers in the past month. One of the underused walk-in closets had been turned into a hideaway nursery, complete with a changing table, rocking chair, and a bureau full of baby clothes, a lot of them suspiciously feminine.Either she’s going old school Victorian, or she’s having a baby girl.Monique hadn’t told anyone the sex of the baby, not even Helen. She probably knew, though. Monique knew everything, let alone what was happening in her own body!
Even one of the sinks in her bathroom had been retrofitted for baby bathing. Monique was going to be bringing an infant to the Manoir as soon as she was able, and nobody would stop her. When June glibly commented on the additions the last time she was in Monique’s room, the madam would only imply that any babies in the Manoir would not be leaving her chambers, and Minerva was also a certified nanny.
Of course, nobody was excited about having Baby Warner around while debauchery went down and suspiciously legal activities commenced, but what the boss wanted, the boss got.Monique was lucky she had that Warner money and power now. Nobody around to call her an unfit mother to her face, although June had heard plenty every time she went into town or stopped by Monique’s parties at the Warner Estate.
I hate snobby-ass bitches. If the broads weren’t gunning for Monique, they were going after her close friend Jamie Joy, the newly minted fiancée of Monique’s ex-girlfriend and primary investor, Etta Coleman.
It was a small world.
The meeting adjourned with nary a comment from anyone else. Monique, however, pulled June aside and asked to see her in the office.
Five minutes later, they were sitting in a sunny office that demanded at least a fan be turned on. Yet Monique sat down in her turtleneck sweater and loose skirt, looking like a freezing matron even though it was at least seventy outside. Easter had come and gone. Wasn’t it time to start wearing sundresses?
“I take it things are going well with Ms. Bolivar and Dr. Christie?”
June barely had time to settle in her chair before that comment dropped in her ear. “It’s fine,” she muttered, trying not to think of either one. June had awoken Monday morning still wrapped in Miquela’s arms, her body refusing to let go of her until she had made love to her one last time.I didn’t charge her. What is wrong with me? I only charged her for the night before… I didn’t want money for the morning… I’m doomed. I’m fucking doomed.
When Miquela finally left, June had to get ready for Sette and her canvases. June had been so anxious to get the taste of Miquela out of her body that the first thing she did when Sette arrived was seduce her right into bed.I fucked them both in one day. That wasn’t the weird thing. Theweirdthing was that themoment Sette climbed on top of her, all June could think about was her.Miquela who?
These women were going to be the end of her. She was able to forget the other when she was with one, but right after it ended, her brain was full of them both.
Miquela said she loved me.Sette had also said it, without words. June? She had told Miquela she loved her, too!
The world was ending.
“Good,” Monique said, interrupting June’s thoughts. “Both women keep bidding on you. Do you know how high they’ve gone? They’re going to hit one hundred thousand soon. A month! Can you believe it?” Her smile was genuine, but her tone attempted to be subdued. The damn sub in her. “You’ve outdone yourself, June. You should be proud.”
