Title: Buttons & Power
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Dark Romance, Fiction.
What It's About: Sapphire returns to New York City, and meets with Andrew Lexington of the Lady Lingerie Company. She agrees to work for him for ten years to the tune of 300 Million USD, and with the signing of her contract, she gets her first 30 million payout. She uses this to purchase her own house in New York--something that is her own and not to be taken away from her. She begins to work with Andrew, and wears his designs but he seems to keep asking her for ideas to try to get an insight into Conway's mind and hope to get a hit show with the pieces. But Sapphire never reveals anything.
Conway in the meantime is losing his mind--he is worried sick over Sapphire and has no idea what is going on, where she is. It gets even worse when the red Ferrari is returned to him and the courier tells him that he's just doing his job, but he doesn't know what happened to the person driving it. Conway asks Carter to find out what is going on, but Carter cannot find Sapphire in the manifest of any airline, so they have no clue what happened to her. Vanessa calls Conway and yells at him because she cannot get in touch with Sapphire, not knowing that Sapphire has ditched her phone.
When Conway finds out that she's working for Lady Lingerie, after Carter finds her in an advertisement, he goes all the way to New York to see her. He figures out where she lives and waits for her in front of the door of her apartment, which surprises her. She lets him in, and they talk with Conway trying to convince her to come back to him in Tuscany. She tells him that she can't do that, because what's to stop him from kicking her out like last time, and she wants love, which is something that he can't give her. Conway heads back to Verona without her, and spends the next few months being cooped up in his house, unable to produce any of the work that he normally does, and begins jerking off to images of Sapphire that he finds. His father even comes to visit to talk to him and tell him to go after her, during which Conway reveals the whole truth about their relationship. Crow tells him that it's a special type of woman who sees him for who he is, and loves him regardless.
During those few months, Sapphire goes out to the gym, where she meets the gym owner and they go out together one time. She tells him that she's still in love with another guy so she's not looking to start a relationship with another person, and he tells her that's okay--he can wait around and he'll be at the top of the list for her when she's ready. They end up hanging out a few times around the city together, and some of these images make the publications. Andrew Lexington tells her it's good to see her moving on, and when Sapphire sees the images, she cringes because she doesn't want Conway to think that she's moved on.
When Conway sees those images, he heads back to New York and finally tells Sapphire that he loves her and cannot live without her. He's not comfortable making a move on her because she's wearing another man's shirt, but Sapphire tells him that they aren't actually together, that he's been on the waitlist. Conway then tells her to burn the shirt, to which she chuckles and tells him that it's his own shirt. They make love in the apartment, and the next day, together they go to Andrew Lexington's office, where they break Sapphire's contract so that she can return with Conway back to Italy. He's agreed to pay her money in exchange for her working for him--money that she will keep in an account in case he ever tosses her out again, and when the relationship becomes more serious, she will return that money to him. They return back to Verona, and the next day go back to work even though Sapphire would love to spend time getting back to bed with him. She knows he's had a drought and wants him to get back into creating his designs for his business. He sticks to his promise and pays her with a check for her work. These designs will be debuted at their Christmas show, but then Lacey Lockwood decides to go work for Andrew Lexington, leaving them short a model, and missing the star.
Sapphire offers to do it for him, this one time, and while Conway is against it, he realizes that it may be the best choice at the moment since there's no one else who can take that place. Besides, Sapphire has already been photographed and her images are out there, so one show won't harm them. One of the days while preparing for the show, Dante (Conway's Butler) brings Sapphire some tampons, because he's realized that she's running low. She then realizes that she hasn't had her period for some time, and asks Dante to discretely get her a pregnancy test. He leaves it for her in the kitchen, so she sneaks down when Conway is asleep, and takes the pregnancy test. Turns out that she is pregnant, and that terrifies her because she's afraid of Conway's reaction. She's off for the next couple of days, and when Conway tries to talk to her, she shuts down. Sapphire heads up into his room to hide, while Conway's instinct is to demand answers from her. Dante tells him that she's scared and to talk to her with understanding; that she needs support. So Conway goes up to her, to ask her what is going on, and tell her that he will be there with her no matter what. She gives him the pregnancy test that shows she's pregnant, and starts to apologize as she doesn't know how the birth control shot failed. Conway is surprised, but tells her that it's good and he's happy with her, taking her completely by surprise.
Vanessa in the meantime returns to her apartment and comes face to face with a man sitting in her living room. She nonchalantly goes over to her fridge, where she grabs a knife and attempts to stab the man in the heart, but he avoids it so that it only gets lodged into his shoulder, and then knocks her out. Conway gets a call from Knuckles who tells him that he has Vanessa and is willing to exchange her for Sapphire because he really wants Sapphire, otherwise Vanessa dies. He gives him some time to think on it, and Conway call his father for the second time in a couple of days. Crow tells him that he told Pearl the news about the pregnancy, and Conway is okay with that, but tells his dad that Vanessa was kidnapped. He knows that Knuckles hasn't taken her out of Milan, because he wants Sapphire, and Crow tells him to get his men as well as Carter's men and meet him and Cane in Milan. That's what they do, and when Knuckles calls, he asks to speak to Vanessa, who gives him a clue that doesn't quite make sense to him. It turns out that Crow had taught her how to recognize her location and give it in code, so he's able to figure out what it most likely means. The whole contingent of men and Pearl go to the location and realizes that they will have to go door to do, which is problematic as it might raise awareness of their operation.
Vanessa in the meantime asks for more water while in captivity, and then knocks one guy out, grabs his gun, shoots the other, and starts running for it. Conway and the rest of them hear the gun shots, and start to move. Vanessa runs towards them, and bleeds profusely out of her arm, having been shot. Knuckles shows up when they try to get away with her, but Crow doesn't let him get to his daughter. Crow stands up to Knuckles, who in turn holds the gun to his head and fires off an empty shot. Before Knuckles can do anything else, Pearl comes from behind with a rope, and basically rodeos him down from Crow so he won't shoot Crow, before asphyxiating Knuckles. Conway, Vanessa and Carter are in a bit of a shock at Pearl, but then Vanessa gets taken to the hospital, and once she's awake, everyone is happy to see her. She gets transferred over to Conway's house to continue to recover.
Conway takes Sapphire out on a ride one day back to their tree, and proposes to her. She says yes (though it's not really a question), and when they return, the whole family is at his place for the engagement party. He had revealed that he'd hope to make the announcement at the show the following day that they're engaged and expecting. Vanessa stays on until after the very successful show but then moves back to Milan. She wants the same kind of love story as her brother, and living with him reminds her of what she doesn't have.
My Thoughts: I love this ending. I think it's a fitting ending for Conway and Sapphire, though I think that he's going to struggle with the fatherhood aspect--it's just so funny how Conway and Crow struggled more with saying that they loved Sapphire and Pearl, but didn't struggle as much with the idea of being fathers once these girls were pregnant with their kids. For me, that seems a little unrealistic considering how quickly Sapphire got pregnant after they came back from New York, and knowing that Conway wasn't certain about kids at all, it seems a bit of a tough pill to swallow that he'd be okay with it--unless he magically worked on his issues around commitment while they were apart (which is doubtful considering everyone around him told him to get therapy but he refused). Still I'm glad that they've worked it out together, and I'm happy that they are together as a couple. Enjoyed this story.
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