Chapter 65

Verity Ferrari-Stone woke in a tangle of limbs feeling warm and loved in a way she’d never really felt before. She hadn’t meant to take things as far as she had last night, but there was a point where she’d just chosen to let go, let things happen, and deal with the consequences tomorrow.

Tomorrow had come and the consequences were probably right outside the window, but they weren’t here in this room with them now. Last night had been a moment of weakness, but the weakness had been so delicious that she couldn’t help extending it a short while longer. She curled up against Sunneva and kissed the hollow of her throat. Sunneva let out a soft moan and opened her eyes. “Morning already?”

The bedside clock read 6:53. Verity stretched out like a cat, luxuriating on the feeling of skin on skin. “Early morning yet.”

No one had ever told her that a kiss once placed could linger on the lips for hours, making them tingle. After their kiss on the dance floor, she and Nick had talked for a while sitting among her friends, but feeling slightly removed from them. There had been a constant pressure of other people wanting to talk to Nick, business to be done, people to dance with. Nick had put them off for a while, but Verity had eventually released him to go be a good host.

He’d gone, but the kiss had lingered. They moved in their own circles for the rest of the night. She caught sight of him a dozen times and saw him looking at her more than once. By midnight, she was exhausted by the effort of not seeking him out. But she didn’t trust herself not to kiss him again if she did. Midnight seemed like the earliest time it would be polite for her to leave and she did, asking a field agent to tell her she’d had a lovely evening and needed sleep.

She hadn’t invited Sunneva to join her, but had explained her plans in an open-ended way that allowed Sunneva to invite herself. More importantly, she’d sent Roseangela away. Verity trusted Threnody’s former staffer a lot more than she had when this trip started, but that was still a long way from trusting her completely.

Plenty of people had asked about the kiss in the intervening hours and she’d given them mostly noncommittal or enigmatic answers. But when Sunneva had asked on the way home, Verity had answered. “I just ... I don’t know what’s going to happen between me and Nick. I can’t imagine him giving up what he has to be with me and ... I don’t think I want him to. Nick’s world is so big and full of life and joy and all the things I think I want for myself. I started to imagine myself at the center of that, one of many but by his side and ... everything that entails. The idea pulls me into it. But it’s so far away from anything I’ve experienced. I couldn’t imagine just jumping in with both feet, but I also don’t want to take it slow or I’ll be like thirty before I’m ready. So, I asked him to kiss me ... sort of. Or I mentioned that I’d never even kissed a boy and he took the hint.”

They’d talked more and, even though Sunneva had her own borrowed apartment in the Loft, she’d followed Verity instead and Verity let it happen. Even then, her strategic brain was calculating. People had already seen her go into and come out of a bedroom with Sunneva last night. Tonight wouldn’t even be news worth sharing if someone was watching. Then, once they were inside, she reasoned that even Threnody couldn’t see into sealed rooms and all anyone but the two of them knew was that Sunneva had come in with her at night and left in the morning. And then they were on the couch kissing. And even though her lips were still vibrating from Nick’s kiss, it faded into the background for a while.

And now here they were, naked and alone - together, but each of them alone in a profound way. Verity reached up and stroked Sunneva’s soft, plump lips. She’d worked very hard not to notice how kissable Sunneva’s lips were, but she’d never be able to forget now.

Without opening her eyes, Sunneva caught Verity’s wrist in both hands, held it still, licked her finger, then sucked it into her mouth. She was only sucking a finger, but that finger seemed to have a direct connection to her clit this morning. She rolled in close enough to kiss Sunneva’s nipple. Sunneva stroked Verity’s hair and held her closer.

As Verity went up on one elbow to take Sunneva’s breast in her mouth, Sunneva slid one leg between both of Verity’s and pressed against her sex. With both hands, she massaged Verity’s ass. Verity ground against her while sucking and licking the nipple. The strategic part of her mind, normally too paranoid for this sort of thing, just acknowledged that the damage was pretty much done and then faded into silence.

Verity had just started giving Sunneva’s mouth the kind of kissing it deserved when her phone chirped. She rolled off of her friend onto her back and groaned. “No ... o ... o.”

Sunneva loomed over her. “You could ignore it.”

“No, it could be Threnody.” Verity reached for her phone.

“Tell her we’re fucking and you’ll call her back when we’re done,” protested Sunneva.

The idea was unthinkable, but this had been a weekend for entertaining unthinkable ideas and Verity imagined doing just what her lover suggested. The image in her mind’s eye sent another wave of desire through her powerful enough to momentarily cloud her vision. It took her a second to see and make sense of the message she’d received. When she did, she laughed and laid back down on the bed.

Sunneva’s quizzical, slightly worried look just made her laugh harder. She said, “That was Nick. He wants to know if I still want to go to church this morning.”

“Ah...” Sunneva laid a hand gently on Verity’s stomach and waited.

“I should really go. He’s the whole reason I’m here this weekend. And we left a lot of things unspoken last night.” Verity said.

“Of course.” Sunneva withdrew her hand. When Verity didn’t move, she added, “You should go get dressed for church.”

Verity slipped out of bed, texted Nick, and went to the closet where her clothes were hanging. When she looked back, Sunneva was still lying on her side watching her. Verity braced herself. “Are you upset?”

“I am disappointed. If you ever have a lover who is not disappointed at losing a chance to have sex with you when you should be in church, you should leave them immediately and never look back,” said Sunneva.

Verity laughed, relieved that there wasn’t a fight coming. But having braced for it, she had to add. “You know that if Threnody finds out we’ve slept together, she’ll think of you as an exploitable weakness. And if anybody besides us knows, she will find out.”

“So, we’ll keep it secret,” said Sunneva as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Still facing the closet, Verity looked into the reflection of Sunneva’s eyes in the mirror attached to the back of the closet door. Sunneva spotted her and shrugged. “What? I don’t want to offend you, Verity, but I am still looking for my first boyfriend and it’s been difficult enough without attaching the problem of you and your crazy family. If it got out that I was ... linked to you, I don’t think I’d like the men who considered that an advantage.”

Verity considered that, then considered what she thought about what came to mind, then thought about the consequences of speaking up. That got her through picking out her clothes and laying them on a chair. She turned to Sunneva. “I can think of one man who wouldn’t mind that you might like.”

“Who would...” Sunneva started to ask, then stopped. “You mean Nick? I’m not like you, Verity. I have kissed men, but I don’t think I’m ready for what being with Nick brings. Plus, I have been here for weeks. He knows what I am looking for and he’s never asked.”

Verity crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. “Maybe he’s waiting for you to show some interest in him.” When Sunneva didn’t answer, she added, “And maybe what he brings is negotiable. Do you think he’ll think less of you if you ask?”

Sunneva stared up at the ceiling, not looking at Verity. “I think I would not like to hear he doesn’t want me. He has already said he does not need any more lovers. Why would he meet my terms?”

Verity rolled so she was looming over Sunneva. “He would meet your terms because you are beautiful and you are desirable and you are explicitly not looking for a husband. Plus, you have the most incredibly kissable lips I have ever seen.” She demonstrated how kissable Sunneva’s lips were until Sunneva was reaching to draw her down and make her late for her meeting with Nick. Then she slipped away and headed for the shower.

By the time she emerged, Sunneva and her clothes were gone, only the rumpled bed sheets and the scent of her left behind. As she dressed and applied her makeup, Verity considered what she’d done and decided that, in the balance, she was pleased. The risks of sleeping with Sunneva were well established, but she’d come on this trip with the explicit goal of expanding her own agency and specifically her ability to act in ways Threnody wouldn’t approve of. She wasn’t entirely sure Threnody would disapprove of her and Sunneva, but she would undoubtedly exploit the relationship if she knew.

She dressed in a knee-length plaid tartan skirt and starched white blouse buttoned almost to the top. L’Ecole had several different uniforms for special occasions. This wasn’t one of them, but it borrowed elements from a couple of them. After doing her hair up in a neat chignon, she put on her pleasantly neutral face and stepped out into the hall.

At this hour, the Loft was mostly quiet. Everyone she met in the hallway was a field agent on their way somewhere else. Each glanced her way long enough to see that she wasn’t asking for anything and went on with their duties.

On the other hand, the common spaces suggested the Loft was packed to overflowing. Young people sat or stood or laid down pretty much anywhere they could find space - except that someone had made sure they left a clear, wide path for people to pass through. A few people awake and aware enough to notice her gestured or greeted her, but no one delayed her.

She found Nick on the second floor in the ACCD offices. Other than a young woman sitting at reception and wearing a bluetooth headset, he was the only one on that floor. He was sitting behind a desk and reading something on a computer screen when Verity entered. She cleared her throat.

He looked up, saw her and laughed. “Ready?”

“I am. Is this your office?” Verity looked around.

“It is.” Nick rose from his seat, came around the desk, and offered her his arm. “Do you like it?”

“It’s very ... egalitarian,” said Verity.

Nick laughed again. “Yeah, I might get a boss office with a massive desk once we get more space, but for now, it does what it needs to.” He guided her down the stairs and out to the street. “I thought we could walk. It’s not far and the service doesn’t start for a while. Plus, it’s right on Washington Square Park. We could sit there and talk until it’s time to go in.”

“All right.” Verity gestured for him to lead the way. Once they were across Lafayette Street, she asked, “Why did you laugh?”

Nick turned to look at her. “What? When?”

“When I first came into your office ... you laughed like something was funny.” Verity reminded him.

“Oh.” Nick looked down and might have blushed a little. “It’s just that you look like a Catholic schoolgirl this morning.”

Verity rolled her eyes. “Nick, I am a Catholic schoolgirl.”

“Right, so you looking like a Catholic schoolgirl isn’t funny.” Nick agreed.

“I mean ... L’Ecole isn’t a Catholic school, but I am a schoolgirl and I’m Catholic.” Verity reminded him.

“Yes, of course.” Nick answered a little too quickly.

“But... ?” Verity prompted.

Nick took a few more steps, then turned to face her. “But that particular look - the Catholic schoolgirl in the starched white blouse and the tartan skirt has been fetishized to the point where I can see it and not, in the moment before the conscious mind catches up with the lizard brain, think that it’s a costume.”

“Ah.” Verity walked up to him, took his arm, linked it with her own, and continued up the road. “So, it makes you think about sex.”

“Actually, it’s very ... uh tasteful and church-appropriate.” Nick demurred.

“Making a man think about sex without showing off any skin is a special talent.” Verity said as they waited to cross the street. “I didn’t do it on purpose with this outfit, but it’s a good trick to remember.”

Nick didn’t say anything else until they were in Washington Square Park sitting near the mostly-empty dog run. He pointed out a stone building across the street. “That’s Judson Memorial Church.”

“Is that your church?” Verity asked.

“I don’t have a church. But it’s a church ... and it’s close and they do a lot of good work with the homeless and other outreach services.” Nick frowned. “Also, I gave them money. So, it’s probably as close to being my church as I’m going to get,” said Nick. When Verity smiled at him he added, “What?”

Verity laughed. “Just that you’re babbling a little. Are you nervous about going to church, Nick?”

Nick rubbed his face with one hand. “No, actually, I’m just really tired. I only got three or four hours of sleep last night tops, but I woke up knowing I wasn’t going to get back to sleep. I ... don’t function well on limited sleep, but church seemed like something I could handle for a couple of hours and you did ask me to take you.”

Verity wrapped herself around his upper arm. “You know, you really are a sweet guy, Nick.”

Nick laughed. “I ... don’t think that’s true.”

“I do.” Verity insisted. “Nick, do you remember how strong I came on when we met in Tuscany?”

“You made quite an impression. It would be hard to forget,” said Nick.

“I did more than that. I was so sure that Threnody was going to just hand me over to you that I was just trying to make it through the day unimpregnated. I basically gave you permission to have sex with me.” Verity pointed out.

“I didn’t take it that way,” said Nick.

“No, you didn’t take it that way when you could have. I was so sure you would take it that way, most of my planning was about getting the best possible deal on my virginity,” said Verity. “Not only did you not pressure me once this weekend, never once did I feel like you didn’t want me.”

Nick sighed. “All right. We’ve gotten as far as ‘not rapey.’ That’s still a long way from sweet.”

Verity looked him over thoughtfully. Did Nick really not understand? If he didn’t, did she want to explain it to him? She decided to keep what she said personal rather than general. “Nick, you couldn’t rape me. I’d already decided not to say no.”

It was Nick’s turn to look her over now. He did so with such intensity that it made Verity question if she was the one who didn’t understand. Then, he closed his eyes, rubbed his temples, and said, “I think the thing I like least about being rich is the possibility of discovering I’m with something who just ... decided not to say no to me.”

Verity could feel that she’d touched a nerve and that what she said next might define or just end their relationship all together. She considered her options and decided not to hedge. “Well, yeah. And what I hate about being a princess is knowing that I’m probably not going to get more of a choice than that. If the decisions made for me are too odious, I can fight and suffer the consequences. If they aren’t too disagreeable, I can decide to go along with them. I could...” She held up a finger to forestall any argument. “I could try to walk away from it all, but I would be a refugee and Threnody would find me. Knowing all this and having met you once, I decided I would rather be at your mercy than my sister’s. I even allowed myself to fantasize that I would enjoy it, but even if I didn’t, it would be better than waiting for whoever she chose next.”

Nick looked pained. “That’s not ... I don’t want that for you. I don’t want that from you.”

“I know.” Verity rested her head on his shoulder. “Nick, I would very much like to be with you and I think you would very much like to be with me.”

“I would, but...”

She shushed him. “Exactly so. There are people who wouldn’t let us be happy unless we made them happy too. My becoming one of your girlfriends would only make you and me happy.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “People, plural?”

She nodded. “It’s easy to lay everything at Threnody’s feet, but there are people in Ferrari who are very invested in the behavior of the royal family. And there are Stones who would see such an arrangement as exploitive and consider you an enemy for it.”

Nick kissed the top of her head. “I’m not sure I know who you’re talking about, but my grasp of family politics is still pretty raw. Are any of the people you’re talking about scarier than Threnody?”

“No,” Verity chuckled. “But, I’m not sure you understand how scary Threnody really is.”

Nick drew his arm out of her grip, put it around her shoulders and held her close. “Vee, if we ever decide we want to be together, you can tell me about all those moderately scary people and I’ll make sure they can’t stop us from being happy.”

Verity lowered her head until she felt a tear bead on her eyelash. Then she looked up. “See? You are incredibly sweet. And I know a secret about you. You’re sweet even when there’s no pressure at all. Did you know that Sunneva and I were friends at school?”

“I ... knew she was a recent graduate. I assumed you’d probably met,” said Nick.

Verity laughed. “That’s how good I am at hiding how I feel. Sunneva might be my dearest friend in the world, but we spent years hiding that friendship because I know my sister will use anyone I really care about to control me. I would have liked...” She pushed her hair back and paused, wondering if she was laying it on too thick, but she had Nick’s attention now. “You know what she’s looking for, don’t you?”

Nick nodded. “She told me.”

“And yet you’ve been nothing but incredibly sweet to her,” said Verity.

“I’ve barely had time to even talk to her,” said Nick.

Verity nodded. “All you’ve done is given her everything she was willing to give all of herself in return for and asked for nothing.”

Nick frowned. “I did it as a favor to your uncle Giovanni.”

Verity scoffed. “You know her story, right?”

“Not entirely, no.” Nick admitted.

“She ... It’s not my story to tell, But we talked this weekend. Her time here in New York with you and your friends is the happiest she’s ever been.” Verity had gone from elaborating a few details to making things up out of whole cloth, but she wanted to leave no uncertainty. “She’s so worried that you’re going to send her away at the first opportunity, sometimes she can’t sleep at night.”

Nick frowned. “She’s welcome to stay as long as she needs.”

“Until she finds a boyfriend?” Verity prompted.

“That’s what she wants, isn’t it?” Nick parried.

“No, it isn’t. That’s what she thinks she needs in order to get what she wants. She might talk about the trappings of romance, but all she’s ever really wanted is somewhere where no one will send her away, a home and something that feels like a family. She desperately wants to stay with you, but she’s convinced you don’t want her.” Verity laid a hand on Nick’s chest.

Nick sighed. “Vee, it’s not that I don’t want her. Sunneva is an extraordinarily beautiful young woman. I’ve just complicated my life to the point where I’m already probably going to hurt somebody I care about terribly without meaning to. Taking another lover is just going to make it worse.”

“I know. I wasn’t pleading her case. I was just pointing out how good you’ve been to her when not one man in a thousand - even with your resources - would be.” Verity let that sink in, then added as if it had been an afterthought. “But you can hurt people by rejecting them, too.”

Nick’s silence for the next few minutes told Verity she’d struck a decisive blow. There were still far too many variables for her to assume things would work out the way she wanted, but she’d set the ball rolling as fast as she dared.

“We should head inside. Services will be starting soon,” said Nick.

Verity hugged him tighter. “We don’t need to go to church. Let’s stay in the park.”

When he’d first planned this weekend, Nick had worried more than anything that he would be too tired by the time Sunday brunch came to handle the cousins he’d chosen for his experiment gracefully. Emotions would be high and some people might even be angry about his offer to help. He knew he would need to be at his best.

He wasn’t at his best. He’d left the party just after midnight, but he and Pilar and Guy and Sarah had been together in the penthouse until after two. Only when he’d been able to leave the two women in each other’s arms with Guy snoring away in the other room had he been willing to call it a night and head home. There was something about Sarah’s very handsome cowboy of a husband that brought out a deeply competitive streak in Nick that he hadn’t expected to find.

He’d been considering the implications of that when Verity called him sweet. He wasn’t as sweet or enlightened or generous or any of the things people thought about him and that he pretended to be. At heart, he was still a Neanderthal who wanted all of the women for himself and didn’t want to share.

The talk about Sunneva hadn’t helped. The brunch itself had, to a degree. Food and caffeine gave him a window of high functionality that might let him power through the long block of meetings he’d scheduled for this afternoon. But the way some of his guests had jockeyed for position and fawned over him made it impossible not to consider how many of them he wanted to sleep with or evaluate how many would come willingly to his bed if asked.

Once he’d finished eating, Nick had sequestered himself in the game room. Out in the main room, most of his closest friends and longer-term guests kept people entertained. Nick would ask for their opinions on the candidates later. For now, he sat at the poker table in the game room. He still hadn’t found time to play poker at it, but it had a “knights of the round table” vibe to it. Zola sat at the main desk dressed in a white peasant blouse to soften the impression she made. Ainsley sat on one of the couches in jeans and a Boston Red Sox t-shirt for the same reason. Additionally, she was watching some video on an iPad to keep her usual laser-sharp focus from freaking his cousins out.

Seeing Ainsley so casually dressed made Nick want to call off these meeting and just fuck his lawyer on that big desk where Zola was sitting. But he also wanted to yank down that peasant blouse, suck on Zola’s tits, and fuck her on the desk too, right next to Ainsley. These weren’t new thoughts, but he was usually able to keep a tighter rein on their with a good night’s sleep.

Fortunately, they were just thoughts. Instead of ravishing anyone, he sipped his coffee and looked over at Zola. “All right. Let’s start with ... Smythe-Stone. I’m blanking on her first name.”

“Margaret or Indira?” Zola asked.

“The one I didn’t actually invite - Margaret.” Nick hadn’t accounted for the fact that his friends might be bringing Stone cousins to brunch, but fortunately only Arwen and Lev had. Rather than cause tension by excluding her, he’d just added her name to the list of people whose lives he planned to build his personal network out of. It would be interesting to see if his friends were better at choosing candidates than he was. Maybe he would suggest they choose more next time.

Zola read off of a laptop. “Margaret Smythe-Stone goes by Maggie, age twenty-five, born in London. Granddaughter of the Duke of Smythe-on-the-Kettering on her mother’s side. Her father is a retired stockbroker who now owns and runs a marina on the Thames. Maggie has done some modeling, some acting, writes a travel blog with just under half a million followers and ... she was involved in a sex scandal that made the tabloids in 2009 when she was twenty.” She looked up apologetically. “We’ve been throwing together a profile on her since she showed up at brunch, but we don’t have the level of detail on her that we have for some of your other choices.”

“That’s fine. Tanvi suggested the background research as a way to flag problematic candidates for special handling, but part of the point is to let them surprise me. I didn’t even want to Google them at first. Were there any obvious red flags?”

“More than the tabloid sex scandal when she was twenty? Not that we’ve found.” Zola answered.

Nick scoffed. “I’ve got two years to catch up. If I don’t have a tabloid sex scandal by then, the tabloids are definitely falling down on the job. Let’s bring her in.”

A minute later, Maggie strode in. Tall, lean, and blonde in jeans and high heels, she looked and moved like a runway model. Nick had made a point to greet everyone while they were eating brunch, but he hadn’t really gotten the full impact of Maggie until they were exchanging a handshake and a kiss on the cheek. He could clearly see why Arwen and Lev might have chosen her out of the crowd. Nick might have chosen her himself if he hadn’t deliberately scheduled his nights with the Masterson-Stones to avoid the possibility of more random hook-ups. Even walking across the room, she had an animation that drew the eye.

“Maggie, thanks for coming in.” Nick sat and gestured for her to do the same. “How has your trip been so far?”

Maggie laughed, flashing shining white teeth. “My trip has been absolutely brilliant. I thought I would have to wait until Hamilton made it to the West End to see it and, of course, I’ve gotten to spend so much time with Arwen and Lev who have just been ... super-hospitable.”

Nick chuckled. He hadn’t been sure of how or if to broach that subject and he appreciated Maggie taking that particular conversational bull by the horns. “I’m glad. I’ve barely had time to say two words to either of them all weekend, but I was hoping my closest friends and the Stones would get along. Is this your first time in New York?”

“No, I went on the grand tour when I was eighteen and I’ve been back a couple of times since. I ... have a little travel blog and it affords me the chance to see a lot of the world - mostly Europe so far, but I’m hoping to build enough of a following that I can get some sponsors to send me farther,” said Maggie.

Nick had been afraid he would have to really dig with people today to get them to reveal what he could help them with, but Maggie was certainly making it easy. He asked, “Is that your big passion, travel?”

“I’m a woman of many passions, but I’d like to get traveling in while I’m young and able to enjoy it. Have you had much chance to travel, Nick?” Maggie asked.

“Before I turned eighteen, I only left the States once for a wilderness summer up near Montreal. Since then, it feels like I’ve been on the move constantly. I had one trip where we took a vacation to Milan then had to go to a funeral in Australia and wound up stopping in Singapore, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Luanda, and London before we got home again.” Nick answered.

“That was with Pilar and Emily, right?” Maggie asked.

Nick was momentarily taken aback, then he laughed. To Maggie’s questioning look, he said, “Sorry, I was just telling Zola how I felt kind of weird looking people up before I talked to them today, but it didn’t occur to me that you might walk in here knowing just as much about me. I guess Emily and Pilar posted about the trip?”

Maggie gave him a funny look. “So did you. I was following you on Instagram and updating my bucket list the whole time.”

“I...” Nick started to say he hadn’t posted anything, then realized what was going on. “Oh, actually that was Emily, too. She was still handling my social media at the time. I ... don’t think I’ve even looked at my own Instagram since then.”

“Hey, that’s cool,” said Maggie.

Nick shook his head. “No, it’s really not. I got a social media manager because it just seemed overwhelming to deal with all of the people who wanted to get a hold of me all of a sudden once I took over the Trust, but I didn’t mean to become one of those people who not only doesn’t write his own posts, but doesn’t even read them.”

“You’ve had a lot on your plate,” Maggie pointed out.

“I have ... but I should probably know what information I’m putting out to the public. Thank you for reminding me of that,” said Nick.

Maggie sat back. Someone had brought her a glass of orange juice and she sipped it now. “So, you looked me up?”

Nick ran his hand through his hair. “At the risk of sounding even more out of touch, I actually had my staff look up everyone I’m meeting with today in case there were any serious problems that needed to be addressed before I made any commitments, but I haven’t decided how much to let them tell me. I’m not sure I want to spend these conversations acting surprised when I could actually be surprised.”

“I get that. I have this dream of one day being dropped in a city where I don’t speak the language and maybe don’t even know what country I’m in so that I have to learn everything from like the ground level. The best part of traveling is discovering the things you didn’t research, but these days, you can research pretty much everything.” Maggie said.