“Totally getting you one, my man,” D returned.
“You’re both totally getting one,” Molly declared. “When you play with your pixie at home, you’re now gonna be my dragon warlords.”
“Word,” D agreed, sounding keen.
Maddox said nothing.
Sixx grinned, then turned immediately to Stellan, leaned in, and opened her mouth.
“Darling, please,” he murmured before she could say anything. “Allow yourself to bask in the glory victorious of your last amazing feat,” he indicated Naya’s empty seat with an inclined head, “before jumping right into another one.”
Since that night at the Bolt, she’d fully shared about her experience with the trio.
“They’re so happy, and they’re so good together, but if someone can get through to D, they could be more happy—” she started softly so the trio wouldn’t overhear.
“Make a deal?” he asked, brows raised.
She grinned again. “Sure.”
“One week. Hang up your cape for one week. Then you can dig into fixing all the problems of your precious ménage.”
“Thanks, baby,” she said to agree. “But I don’t wear a cape. I wear leather.”
His eyes dropped to the bronze leather under her gold choker at her chest.
“And I thank the superhero gods for that.”
She burst out laughing.
Stellan kissed her lips while she did it.
Then the next gladiators came in.
And the king and his queen sat in attendance, holding hands, enjoying their evening.
STELLAN
Stellan opened the door to his office and stopped dead.
His first inclination was to clench his teeth so he wouldn’t say anything he’d regret.
What happened next made that effort unnecessary.
The dancing, happy eyes of both the women he loved turned to him amid the laughter they were sharing, and one of them greeted through it, “Yo, boss man,” while the other one greeted, “Hey, baby.”
He moved to the jamb and leaned a shoulder against it, crossing his arms on his chest, aiming his gaze at Susie sitting behind the desk, not at Simone, who was standing in front of it.
“Have I not shared the instruction that you were to inform me when Simone was here?”
“She has her own keycard, Stell. She showed to surprise you to take you out to lunch, the operative word being ‘surprise,’ and I was just telling her you have a lunch meeting, so we decided we’re going to go out together instead.”
Stellan pushed from the door, ordering, “Cancel my lunch meeting.”
Susan’s eyes got big. “Stellan, it’s in fifteen minutes.”
“Cancel it,” he repeated. “I’m having lunch with my assistant and my girlfriend.”
“You’re negotiating a seven million dollar deal at this meeting,” Susan reminded him.
At that, Sixx’s eyes got big just as he made it to her and curved an arm around her waist, pulling her body into his.
But he turned his head to Susan. “The deal will still be there when we reschedule the meeting.”
“You’re annoying,” she snapped.
He raised his brows.
She threw up her hands. “How am I going to get all the juicy tidbits of Stellan Lange as boyfriend from Simone with you sitting there?” she demanded to know.
“Precisely,” he replied.
Simone laughed softly, and Stellan looked down to her.
“Where shall we go to lunch?” he asked.
“I promise, I would only tell her the parts about such things as you casually throwing thousands of dollars of gold and platinum custom-made jewelry in my lap like you did it every morning before taking your vitamins,” she said instead of answering. “I wouldn’t have gotten into the sex parts.”
“Good,” Susan said into their exchange. “I can’t handle the sex parts. He already seems like a god. I don’t need proof he is a god.”
Simone was laughing again, he felt it against his body, and it gave further indication that when he struck their deal weeks ago he was very unusually woefully unprepared for the ramifications of pulling out all the stops to make Simone Marchesa happy.
In other words, just how doing that would return the feeling.
“Darling, I asked, where would you like to go to lunch?” he repeated.
“Where would you like to go?”
“I’m in the mood for steak.”
Her brows rose. “Aren’t you always?”
It was resolute when he replied, “Absolutely.”
To that, his Simone just smiled.
It was warm.
It was sweet.
It was happy.
*
That evening, having turned the page on the sketchbook to where Simone had finished her latest story, studying the image on the page, Stellan had a queer sensation he’d never felt before.
As queer as it was, he knew instinctively it was one he’d forever treasure.
The tone of her story had changed significantly.
Through her new association with a mysterious, shadowy man who possessed great powers, it would seem Superhero Sixx had a lock on a miracle cure that was slowly erasing her scars with each good deed she did.
So as she fought to find ways to offer love and succor to the brave soldier through the arms of a beautiful princess …
And as she kept her eye on the beneficent business tycoon who was in love with a protégée, but his hesitation meant he might lose her to another man …
And as she looked into the demons of a rough but handsome, loving and good-natured man who had the love of a beautiful pixie and the adoration of a powerful warlord …
Her scars were fading.
And in that last panel, Superhero Sixx lay naked atop her shadowy savior, her forehead tucked into his neck, her legs straddling his thigh, his face obscured, but her face was not.
Even still scarred, it was the first time she’d depicted her alter-ego’s expression as soft, unguarded, and filled with beauty.
Yes, that queer sensation was something he’d forever treasure.
“So, what do you think?”
Sixx was reclined beside him on his chesterfield, pressed to the back of the couch and down his side, her eyes on the sketchpad he held up, braced against his stomach.
His voice was not his own, hoarse and gravelly, this catching her attention as her eyes shot to his when he asked, “Is that how you see us?”
Gently, she answered, “That’s how we are.”
Fuck.
But he loved her.
“You should publish these, Simone.”
Her chin jerked into her neck.
“They’re extraordinary,” he declared.
“They’re my life. And now, yours too.”
“No one need know that. No one need know you did them at all. You can publish under a pen name.”
“I—”
“They’re beautiful. Your talent is unquestionable. They’re provocative. They’re erotic. They’re emotional. You can’t help but root for Sixx. And now, as the story turns, root for her and her shadowy lover as she turns from life as a heroic antihero with a chilling, tragic, jaded past to an unadulterated hero with a future filled with hope.”
“Stellan—” she whispered.
“Think about it, darling. I know people who publish erotica. They do very limited graphic novels, but I feel they’d jump at a chance at this.”
“Someone might know it’s you,” she told him.
“I don’t care,” he replied. “But I can’t imagine they would. You cloak my face.”
“I don’t cloak mine.”
“Regardless.”
“I want you protected.”
Of course she did.
She was Simone.
But she’d always be Sixx.
“That’s hardly necessary,” he said quietly. “Especially not now, no one’s seen these but me. Though that’s a shame, considering how remarkable they are. But just to say, if anyone were to guess it was me, I would far from care. And not simply because you’ve cast me as gallant redeemer to your hero. A savior. All-powerful. That’s hardly unflattering.”
She looked to the pad, mumbling, “I’ll think about it.”
He used his other arm, which was around her, to give her a squeeze, regaining her attention.
“I hope you truly do.”
Her head quirked to the side, and an expression he could not read filtered over her pretty face.
As was becoming her way, Simone did not make him wait or even ask after it.
She gave it to him.