Killer Queen: A Painted Faces Novel (23 page)

He smiled back at her.
“Great! So, I suppose you’ll want to celebrate your new business. Want to go
grab a drink with me?”

She opened her mouth to
answer, but before she could, I cleared my throat. Obviously, she wasn’t going
to take him up on the drink, but when it came to Fred, I was possessive and I
got jealous easily. It was a new sensation for me to want to mark my spot, but
she brought out my inner caveman. Who’d have thought it, huh? A bloke who wore
dresses and lipstick on a regular basis was going all alpha male. There was
definitely a touch of irony in there somewhere.

Her eyes met mine, and
her smile grew huge.

“Viv, you sly dog! I
thought you weren’t flying in until tonight!” she said excitedly, and strode
forward before launching herself into my arms. I hugged her tight, my arms
sliding around her waist.

“I thought I’d surprise
you,” I murmured.

“You did,” she replied,
burrowing her face into my neck and breathing in deep. “God, I’ve missed you.”

The suit fidgeted
uncomfortably at our affectionate reunion, and I gave him a satisfied smirk
over Fred’s shoulder. “Um, I think I’m going to head off now, Freda, if you
don’t need anything else?”

She turned to him,
replying absently, “I’m good, Eugene. Thanks so much for all your help.”

He nodded and made a
speedy exit. As soon as the door shut behind him, I began to walk us forward
until Fred’s arse hit the service counter. She giggled. “My, my, somebody
definitely missed me.”

I raised an eyebrow.
“Eugene?”

“What? He works for the
letting agents.”

“He wants to fuck you,”
I said, voice low, my hands pressing into the base of her spine.

She blushed but covered
it up with a snicker. “Oh, my God. You’re being a jealous Josephine. This is
priceless. Can I take a picture? Your jealous face is hilarious, Viv.”

“Don’t goad me, Fred. I
didn’t like the way he was looking at you. Would you have gone for a drink with
him if I hadn’t interrupted?” I asked curiously.

A mischievous gleam
came into her eye as she licked her lips and responded sweetly, “Maybe I would
have. A drink’s no big deal.”

I growled and lifted
her by the hips before setting her down on the surface of the counter. She
squealed in delight and wrapped her legs around my waist. “You wouldn’t have
gone. You’re lying,” I grumbled, and pressed my cock into her. The way she was
teasing me was turning me on and pissing me off at the same time.

“Well, now you’ll never
know,” she purred, and gave me a peck on the lips.

“You’re loving this.”

“Oh, yes…yes, I am.
It’s making me feel better about your whole ‘Dorotea’ episode.”

“That was months ago.
Why are you bringing it up?” I asked, my brow furrowing.

She laughed loudly.
“I’m pulling your leg, Viv.”

“I should spank you for
that.”

“Go ahead. It wouldn’t
be a punishment,” she said, baiting me.

“Fucking hell, I love
you,” I rasped, and brought my mouth to her neck. She gasped, and then her
phone started to ring.

“Don’t answer it,” I
warned her. My hands were already reaching for her jeans, undoing the button
and pulling down the fly.

“I have to. It’s
probably Harry. He, Sean, and Phil are coming over to see the shop. I promised
them a grand tour, so you can button my jeans right back up, sneaky.”

I groaned. “Tell him
you’ll show them around tomorrow instead. I want to make love to you right here
on this counter. I’ve missed you like a madman.”

She smacked me on the
shoulder. “Viv! The whole front of the shop is glass. We’d be giving everyone a
show. In fact, we already are.” At this she shoved me away and hopped down off
the counter, finally pulling out her phone to answer it. I scowled at her
playfully while she chatted with Harry. Five minutes later, the three men
arrived,
ooh
ing and
aah
ing about how nice everything was going to
be once Fred was finished with the place. As well as money for the lease, I’d
insisted she allow me to pay for the interior design. She’d protested for a
while, but I soon wore down her resolve. I was crazy in love with her, and I
had this urge to spoil her rotten.

“The colour scheme I’m
going for will be all light pinks, blues, and purples. I want the décor to
remind people of candy and sugary treats.”

Phil clapped his hands
together. “I love it!” Then his eyes landed on me. “So, Nicholas, how did
everything go over in London? I heard about your magazine feature. You’re
turning into quite the celebrity, it seems.” He pursed his lips and gave me a
little smirk.

“Next thing you know,
I’ll be getting my own talk show,” I deadpanned. “David and Elton were even at
the club while I was performing, if you can believe it.”

Phil’s jaw fell open.
“They were not! You’re lying — tell me you’re lying.”

I should probably
mention that for Phil, David Furnish and Elton John were the equivalent of the
Royal Family to people who were obsessed with the Queen. I was totally lying,
but I ran with it. “They were. I sang ‘One’ from
A Chorus Line,
and they
came to my dressing room after to say hello. Lovely couple. Elton invited me to
join him on a shopping spree the following day to buy some new dresses. I had
lots of fun.”

Phil scowled. “Now I
know you’re lying. You are such a tease sometimes.”

Fred laughed from the
other side of the room; she was showing Harry where the display cabinets were
going to go. “Viv is the ultimate tease,” she said, winking at Phil.

“So,” Sean interrupted.
He was sitting on top of a table, drumming his fingers on his thighs. “What are
you going to call the place?”

Fred chewed on her lip
and gave him a considering look before her eyes landed on me and she grinned.
“I was thinking of
Fred & Viv’s Cupcakes
, what do you think?”

A smile spread wide
across my face. Aside from the start-up money, I couldn’t really claim
ownership of this place, so it was thoughtful of her to include me in the name.

“I like it. Sounds like
an old married couple who’ve been running a bakery for twenty years. It’s
homely,” said Harry.

Fred glanced at me
shyly before looking away, and it made me curious.

“You know, funny
coincidence, I actually have an aunt and uncle named Fred and Viv,” Phil put
in, hands on hips. “One time when Fred came home after losing a grand on the
horses, Viv clobbered him around the head with a frying pan in a fit of temper.
Fred got a concussion, and when the police came to investigate the domestic,
Viv told them she’d welcome a few weeks behind bars for her crime, said she was
due for a bit of a holiday anyway.”

Harry, Fred, and Sean
laughed loudly at that, but I was still wondering about Fred’s shy look simply
from the mention of us being an old married couple. It was cute. It also gave
me a little rush of excitement to imagine being married to her. My mind was
racing with ideas.

God, was I actually
considering proposing?

This was crazy talk.

All in the space of a
few minutes, I was concocting grand romantic gestures and wondering how much it
would cost to rent out a hot air balloon. Perhaps we could go on a day trip to
Paris.

I mean, there wasn’t a
single reservation in my mind that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with
her, so why shouldn’t we get married? I couldn’t think of a single reason not
to, and I’d always enjoyed living by the philosophy of grabbing on to any good
reason for a party.

Phil suggested we all
go for dinner in the Italian restaurant down the street, and Fred quickly
locked up the shop. After we’d eaten, Fred noticed that she’d left her phone
back at the shop, so we said goodbye to the others before returning to collect
it.

It was dark when we
stepped inside, and before she could reach for the switch to turn on the
lights, I swept her up into my arms, kicked the door shut behind me, and carried
her into the kitchen. I’d been dying to get her alone all evening.

“Viv, put me down this
instant,” she giggled, and struggled in my hold, but I was stronger than she
was and managed to lay her down on a table in the kitchen. “This is not
happening here,” she protested. “It’s unsanitary.” The smile in her voice told
me her protest was all for show. If I knew anything about Fred by now, it was
that she shared my enthusiasm for sex in unconventional locations. It was a
rush that made fucking her that much more intense.

“We’ll clean up after.
Don’t be a prude, Freda,” I murmured cajolingly. The light from a building
behind the shop shone through the window, softly illuminating the room. She
looked gorgeous splayed out on the table, but she was all buttoned up in her
peacoat. I quickly started to relieve her of the coat and her jeans. She wasn’t
protesting any longer, simply breathing so heavily she was practically panting.

She wanted this just as
much as I did. I palmed her breast, and her throat moved as she swallowed.
“Fuck,” she whispered. “Five days have never felt so long.”

A smirk formed on my
lips. “Poor thing. What, oh, what did you do without me?” I asked darkly, and
pulled down the cup of her bra to free her breast. Leaning down, I took her
nipple into my mouth, and she undulated beneath me.

“You don’t want to
know,” she responded, her face flushing. She clamped her mouth shut then, like
she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Instantly, I drew away
from her nipple and gave her a devilish stare. “Oh, I do believe I’m dying to
know, Freda. Tell me while I attend to your poor neglected nipples.”

She laughed, then
sighed when my mouth was back on her. “It’s weird and embarrassing,” she said,
which meant I was now
dying
to know what on earth she was keeping from
me.

I released her nipple
yet again and rose to my full height, staring down at her. (And yes, I probably
did just break a world record for saying the word “nipple” the most times
within nine sentences.)

Sing it with me!
Nipples, nipples, nipples. Now, don’t you feel glorious?

Fred pouted and groaned
in annoyance, but I wasn’t going to give in. I ate her secrets up with relish,
always hungry for new ones.

“I’m not telling you,”
she said firmly.

I grinned with teeth
and made a move toward the door. “Fine. Let’s go find your phone and go home.”

She jumped up, grabbed
me by the shirt, and dragged me back to her. “Oh, no, you don’t. You’ve gotten
me all worked up. That’s not fair.” Her voice was breathless, and I knew she
was aching for me to make her come. I was hard as a rock, but I didn’t think
she’d noticed yet.

I brought my mouth to
her ear and whispered seductively, “Tell me, and I’ll give you what you want.”

She sighed and buried
her face in my shoulder, her soft hair brushing against my neck. “You’re a
cruel mistress, Viv,” she whined.

“I’m waiting,” I
singsonged, running my hand lightly up and down her back.

“Ugh, fine,” she gave
in, her face still pressed into my shoulder. I imagined she was probably
blushing furiously as her words tumbled out. “So last year for my birthday,
Anny bought me a vibrator as a gift. It was a joke gift, obviously. I never
even took it out of the plastic packaging.”

I chuckled. “Of course
you didn’t.”

She pulled back and
slapped me on the arm, looking at me now. “I didn’t! It’s been sitting at the
bottom of my wardrobe for the last ten months. I completely forgot it was there
until this last week while you were away. Usually, I’m used to going without
sex, but since we got together, I actually notice its absence. Shock, horror. I
was lying in bed one night, thinking about you, far too turned on for my own
good, when I remembered the vibrator.”

“Oh, I like where this
is going,” I murmured, and gripped her hips, bringing my mouth down to suck on
her earlobe. She whimpered. “I can see it now. You all hot and needy for my
cock, and then you have a light bulb moment.”

“Stop joking around. I
knew you were going to laugh at me,” she huffed.

“I’m not joking, Freda.
Continue with your story,” I urged, and ran my hand up her inner thigh, sliding
under her knickers and straight to her wetness, teasing.

Her voice was laboured
when she went on, “So I got the vibrator out, obviously. It actually took me a
while to figure out how to use it. But oh, my God, once I did….” She trailed
off and moaned when I thrust two fingers deep inside her.

“Once you did?”

“Once I did,” she began
again, “it was a fucking revelation. And I know this might sound weird, but my
sheets still smell of you, so when I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine you
were there in the room with me.”

I grinned and quickly
undid my pants, pulling out my cock and fisting it, teasing it over her lips.
“Well, aren’t you a naughty, imaginative little thing.”

“Nicholas,” she gasped
when my tip slipped inside her, but I withdrew quickly. I wanted to tantalise
her until she was begging for it. My restraint was a surprise to me, because
the whole flight home I’d been figuring out the quickest and most efficient way
to get inside her. She wasn’t the only one who’d had to resort to masturbation
this week, and if she knew the things that were in my filthy mind, she’d know
her little stint with the vibrator was positively PG.