Their Courtesan: Billionaire Menage Romance

by Cynthia Dane

  He had his easel and bag of art things with him, but all Judith saw was his red and black flannel shirt as it hung loosely on his firm frame. She wasn’t used to doctors being so athletically built… not that Seth was overly muscular, like Miguel, but he was definitely more than fit. He was probably the type to clear his head with weights and running. I always thought he was hot, but damn. Out here in the natural world, where sunlight and breezes played, Seth’s brown hair bordered on copper. He hadn’t cut it in months, it looked like. Oh, it was trimmed, as befitting his station, but bangs blew against his brow and wisps of that hair curled around his ear. As he crouched down to study his supplies, Judith realized that she was aroused for the first time since Miguel took her for round two a couple of nights ago.

  I really could not go wrong with either one of them. Miguel who? Every time she was with one of these guys, she almost forgot the other. Almost. Both always lurked deep in her mind, taunting her, reminding her that she was a beautiful woman with luscious curves and a brilliant sense of humor. Or at least they always seemed amused with what she said.

  “By the way, I like that color on you.” Seth nodded to her lingerie. The thick robe was curled up on the other side of the fountain. “It goes well with your skin.”

  “You notice those things, huh?” Most men said they liked something, and they only liked something if it happened to be their favorite color, regardless of how it actually looked on Judith. She looked terrible in dark green, and yet one of her first clients always insisted on dressing her in it because he loved dark green. Didn’t matter if it washed Judith out or clashed horribly with her hair. “I guess that makes sense, Dr. Artist.”

  “Suppose I’m pretty observant for a guy.” He set up his easel before moving it around, looking for the perfect light. Judith stayed in place on the fountain and wouldn’t move until he told her to. “You have to be, both as an artist and as a doctor. Can I tell you a secret? Every time I see your boss, I go into doctor mode. I can’t help it. I stare at her and wonder if she’s taking too much of a certain vitamin.”

  From any other man, that would’ve sounded strange, maybe creepy. “As an artist?”

  “They go hand-in-hand a lot. Doctors look at the big picture, and artists at the minute details. The macro and micro.” Seth seemed pleased with his final setup. “Your macro is that you’re a gorgeous woman who inspires me to be happy… well, maybe I shouldn’t put it that way. I swear I’m not that sad.”

  “It’s okay.” Judith tried not to smile. “It’s my job to make you happy, in whatever way.”

  “You know what I mean…”

  She wouldn’t respond to that. Don’t fall in love with me, okay? Many men had fallen in “love” with her before. It never worked out well with her career. They either discovered they were in love with her forbidden fruit, or they immediately asked her to stop working or “get a real job.” Men wanted to be her one and only. She wasn’t even sure she could live that kind of life. The thought of only being with one man for the rest of my life… weird.

  “So what’s my micro?”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to study that.”

  “And?”

  Seth wouldn’t meet her gaze. “It’s not something I can put into words. As a man of the visual arts, I prefer to explain it with my work. You’ll have to take a close look to get what I see.” Now he looked at her, eyes sparkling with a new topic. “Speaking of, my agent is currently shopping around my current collection of your paintings to galleries all over the world. Who knows? You may be displayed in Tokyo soon.”

  “Hate to burst your bubble, but I’ve been displayed in Tokyo before. Or was that splayed?”

  The dramatic sigh making its way over to her almost made Judith giggle.

  Once he was pleased with his setup, Seth wandered over and helped her choose a good pose for them to work with. Judith sat on the fountain ledge with one leg drawn up and the other hanging loosely toward the ground. Her elbow rested against her knee, forehead against head and hair tumbling behind her. Seth asked her to keep a disconnected expression while he painted. Not hard to do, when she was already bored within ten minutes. Nice money, though, and I get to look at him. There was something about a former doctor in flannel painting her, looking at her with those hungry eyes. Seth wasn’t shy about carnally wanting her anymore. Those barriers had been torn down between them. He liked her, he wanted her, and in turn she felt largely the same way. I don’t mind him coming over for whatever he wants. Seth was a bit aloof, but he was kind and thoughtful when Judith put herself in the foreground. Even when he got rough in bed he made sure she was happy. Miguel was the same way, and yet they accomplished the same ends so differently. For one man it was a point of pride. For the other, well… Judith was still trying to figure out what Seth got out of it.

  “So you’re serious about this art thing, huh?” Judith had always known that about Seth, but hearing about what went on with these paintings in the outside world was new. “How many paintings have you made of me?”

  Seth stopped sketching long enough to count. “About eleven completed works right now.”

  “Eleven! What the fuck!”

  “Yup. Eleven. I’ve been prolific with you as my muse. I can’t help myself. I look at you and wonder how I can experience your image for the rest of my life… and how can I share it with the rest of the world.”

  She blinked away some pollen from her eye. “I’ve never heard that from a guy before.”“What? That you’re that beautiful?”

  “No, no… that you want to share me with the rest of the world. Most alpha types want to hoard me for themselves.”

  “That’s asinine. A total waste. A woman as great as you should be shared with as many people as possible.”

  “Ah, yes, an artistic gang bang.”

  “If you want to put it that way.”

  “Sure! Wouldn’t be my first one. Gang bang, that is.”

  Seth raised one eyebrow before going back to his sketch. “Do I even want to ask?”

  “Why not? I once took on nine guys in a night. Would’ve been an even ten, but the last one blew his load too soon and couldn’t get it back up.”

  “That poor man.”

  “Poor man? Poor me! I like round and even numbers. Nine is weird. It also means death in some cultures. What do we make of that?”

  “That your poor body died that night.”

  “Kinda, yeah.” Taking on nine men at once (okay, not at once, but at one point she had at least three dicks inside of her at the same time) was no easy feat, even for someone as experienced as her. “It was worth it, though.”

  “Did someone pay you to do this?”

  “In a way. Back when I escorted, a guy from Brazil said he and his buddies wanted to pound a girl for a bachelor party. I volunteered.” Hilariously, the other girls at the escort company turned their noses. How boring of them. “Of course I didn’t know how many guys it was. I was thinking four or five. When I showed up to the hotel suite and saw short of a dozen men drinking and smacking their dicks to get them up, I had to turn around and tell Mr. Brasilia that my fee had doubled. Somehow they had no problem with that.”

  “That’s fascinating. Really.”

  Judith rolled her eyes before forcing herself to convey that bored expression again. “Do you have an issue with me talking about my work, Seth? I had fun that night. I don’t regret it. ‘Course, not sure I’m young enough to do something like that again, but I’ll probably be thinking about it when I’m in the nursing home one day. Fuck, can you imagine me sunsetting to that?”

  “You will be the toast of the retirement home.” Seth picked up his palette and tested a color in the corner of the canvas. “And I don’t mind. It adds to my pictures of you. How can I convey who you are if you don’t tell me about yourself?”

  “So it doesn’t bother you when I say I’ve probably fucked five-hundred guys in my life?”

  He almost dropped the palette. “I… that’s a lot.”

/>   “Don’t know if you’re too old for this, but when I was in school they used to say that you have sex with all of your partner’s previous partners too. Of course now I know that misogynistic bullshit intended to make women feel like cheated cattle, but guys get weird about it. I’ve had hundreds of cocks in me. Many more have touched me or at least come because of me.”

  “As long as you’re okay with it.”

  “I’m asking because last time you seemed uneasy with it.”

  “Forgive me.” Seth finished brushing off his dirty palette. “Until you, I had never paid for sex.”

  “I have that effect on men. You gonna put that in your paintings too?”

  “God willing.”

  Judith smiled. “I like you, Seth. I know I’ve told you that before, but it’s the truth. I’ve only told a dozen or so men in my life that I like them. Most clients are business. They range from deplorable one-night-stands I refuse to see again to great lovers who make me see brand new colors. I’ve only told a few that I actually like spending time with them.”

  “I’m a lucky guy, then.”

  You have no idea. Judith didn’t even know why she liked him so much. Was it how comfortable she felt around him? How easy-going he was? His artistic mind that was married to the logical side of the world? The fact he was an excellent lay on top of that? There were hundreds of men to compare him to. Judith was able to forget most of them the day after. Nothing special. Another night’s work. Seth was different. She looked forward to his visits, to chatting with him while he sketched her, to ripping off her clothes for him and begging – earnestly – for him to fuck her.

  “You are, Seth. If we had met in the civilian world, I would still be drawn to you. I don’t say that lightly.”

  Her face must have been serious enough for him to believe her. Seth gazed at her, face soft, steady. Then he went back to drawing, the lines of his mouth turning in thought.

  Sunset was falling by the time he finished his sketch. Judith stretched out her limbs, bare foot slipping into the cold fountain water and sending chills through her skin. Seth put his things away while Judith kicked at the water and thought about nothing but a hot bath.

  “Do you want to go inside?” she asked. “I mean… I’m assuming you’re staying a bit longer.”

  His sly countenance quickened her heart. That’s the kind of guy I want doing me tonight. Last time, he had commanded her to serve him. It was a fleeting moment between them, but damn was it hot. “I am,” Seth said. “Sometimes I think I’ll go home early with nothing more than a kiss from you, but then I see you, and I spend hours thinking about what I want to do to you.”

  “Good.”

  “Today I’m thinking… what do you like, Judith?”

  She stopped spreading her toes in the fountain water. “Huh?”

  “What do you like in bed? I mean, your favorite things. Positions, dirty talk, things like that.”

  She laughed. “Not many men ask me that.”

  He wasn’t laughing. “That’s too bad. You deserve to be spoiled too. Men should feel honored to pay for the privilege of giving you what you want.”

  What was this? Some of the strangest talk Judith ever heard. “I like lots of things.”

  Finally, he smiled. “Like gang bangs, huh?”

  “I don’t think you could deliver that right now.”

  “So, what do you want?”

  She had to think about that. “You’re putting me on the spot here. If I had to say what’s off the top of my head… well, Seth, I want you.”

  “You like to do what comes naturally, huh?”

  Judith shrugged, her robe falling off her shoulders. She didn’t pull it back up. “I’m so used to guys taking the lead, I guess. What do you want to do.”

  “Funny, that. I was thinking I simply want you too.”

  She spread her legs across the fountain’s edge and leaned back, her breasts spilling from her bra. “Then come over here and take me, Dr. Christens. I need an exam.”

  “This isn’t exactly how an exam goes.”

  She extended her arms above her head. “It is now. Come tell this bad girl how dirty she is.” Her smile nearly crushed her face “If you can.”

  He could. He did.

  I could get used to this. For a long time. Judith didn’t care that the hardness of the nearby bench – the same one Miguel fucked her against not too long ago – dug into her or that a chill was overtaking her body. All she cared about was Seth on top of her, kissing her, squeezing her, fucking her with everything he had. Which was a lot. The man was good at bottling up his needs and then unleashing them all over her – and in her.

  Judith didn’t often think dangerous thoughts during work, but she realized that this was quickly becoming not work. Worse. Seth was proving to be a rare man who could have caught her attention even outside of her career. In another life, he could be my boyfriend. Boyfriend. A word Judith hadn’t uttered since high school.

  Her heart seized in fear as Seth erupted within her. “Fuck, you’re mine,” he groaned into her ear. “Do you feel me, Judith? You’re all mine.”

  “Yeah…” Judith was trapped between sexual reverie and the kryptonite being exposed to her brain. “I’m yours, Seth.” His orgasm was taking forever. Tortuously so. Was he doing this on purpose? Was he slowly spending himself to draw this out and make her face how much he owned her in this moment?

  To what end?

  “You’re amazing.” His kisses were harder now, covering her throat as he continued to stir inside her body. “So amazing that I insist on taking you up to your room and giving you whatever you want. You deserve it.”

  She didn’t charge him for round two. Or three.

  Chapter 17

  SETH

  Seth Christens had never been so content in his life. Work was fantastic. Joy had called him the day before to announce that a gallery in New York was interested in featuring his Judith collection in July. “I need a shortlist of the pieces you want to submit… oh, and how about a title for the collection? That would be SO HELPFUL, hint hint.” His finances were better than ever, with his accountant announcing that some of his stocks were skyrocketing and now was the time to cash out and invest in other things for more long-term gain. The weather was so beautiful that he was able to spend a healthy amount of time both indoors working and outdoors socializing with friends, some of whom he hadn’t seen in ages. Even his father didn’t give him crap for retiring from the medical world the last time they chatted on the phone.

  As for his love life? Seth had never been so infatuated as he was with Judith. Every time he thought of her, his face lit up and he started whistling a tune he had never heard before. Maybe he was making it up. Maybe it was a sign that his next artistic venture would be music.

  When he saw her instead of thinking about her?

  Life was complete.

  Seth took the good news from his accountant as a sign that he should keep bidding on his fair Judith. Him and the other guy were at a stalemate in the mid-60ks. Seth wasn’t sweating it. At some point the other guy would give up, and Seth was willing to go up to a full 100k. Judith was worth every pretty penny.

  Of course, he often fantasized about not having to pay for her at all. If she were a real girlfriend, he would be asking her to move in with him. Introducing her to his family. Taking her to Cancun like he promised so he could post selfies of them on social media. The world deserved to see them together, happy.

  One step at a time. First, he would win the bid and become her greatest patron ever. Then, after a while, if things were still going well and they meshed together in the civilian world, as she called it, he would start thinking about the next steps.

  What were the next steps? At some point Seth would want more from her. If not for her to retire from her career as one of the country’s greatest courtesans, then to at least leave the Château and be with him first and foremost. It was a pipe dream, and perhaps his goals would change as the months and yea
rs went on, but the truth was that Seth had never felt like this before. He fully intended to ride it out as far as it could go.

  One. Step. At. A. Time. Still, he looked like a fucking idiot as he sat at his and Zack’s favorite outdoor bistro, sunglasses covering his love sick eyes but his smile so broad that more than one person looked at him as if he were criminally insane.

  “You’re despicable,” Zack grunted. He stabbed his crab cake with a fork, but did not eat it. “I don’t even have to ask what you’re so dumb about. It’s that woman. Congrats, I guess. I would say I like the new positive you, but I still say you’re going to be eating this situation for shit-breakfast sooner rather than later.”

  “Don’t care what you think.” Seth emptied a pack of sweetener into his iced tea. He stirred it a little too vigorously, sending tiny splashes of light brown all over the bistro tablecloth. “I’ve put up with every woman you’ve fallen in love with since we’ve known each other. Remember Cathy? After the second date you were pacing around here, whooping and hollering, talking about how much you wanted to marry her already.”

  “Yeah, and it turned out that Cathy was dating Jeremiah Holder already, whom she married instead of me. That sucked.”

  “How about that model from LA? The soap opera star? Something like that?”

  “Cindy Charles. Had to dump her because she was stealing things right beneath my nose. Lost my grandmother’s 19th century locket because of that klepto.” Even so, Zack grinned. “She was a great lay, though. Almost made it worth it.”

  Not as good as Judith, I’m sure. Seth didn’t know how it was possible, but every encounter with Judith was better than the last. Maybe it was because he had shed every layer of inhibition he had been harboring for years. He didn’t care if he banged her against a stone bench or in her soft, malleable bed. The urgency, the desire, the passion was the same. When he asked her what she wanted? “Make love to me as if you have everything to prove.” He had. He not only wanted to be one of the most memorable men in Judith’s busy, infamous life, but he wanted to prove how much he cared about her. Seth had a feeling not many men she encountered did.