42. Daisy
42
DAISY
A aron tossed his shoes aside and leapt up onto one of the worn gray rocks.
Before I could scramble up like an overfed seal, he leaned down, grabbed my hands, and swung me up like I weighed nothing.
Just like the last time.
Did he even know? Did he even remember?
Of course he did. He was Aaron Richmond.
“I haven’t been here in ages,” he said softly. “It only lights up on summer evenings.”
We ducked under the low-hanging rock.
“Can you even fit through here?”
“That’s… Well, I guess that is what she said last night,” he quipped as he pushed his massive shoulders through the narrow opening. “Good. We’re not too late.”
Or are we…
Aaron cupped my face.
The sunlight from a crevice above us lit up the mica on the walls, sending the light dancing. The effect should have been romantic, would have been romantic if we weren’t in the place where this all fell apart.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, kissing me softly. “You’re my dream come true.”
I stiffened.
“Don’t worry,” Aaron murmured, his hands wandering under the ruffly top and cupping my tits. “I’m not a teenager anymore. I’d rather fuck you in bed than in this cave.”
So he knew.
“This was just another way for you to fuck with me, isn’t it?” I demanded, slapping his hands away.
“Coleman…”
“No, screw you, Richmond.”
He scowled at me.
“I’ll be honest,” I said, my voice shaking, “I seriously believed you. You almost had me, but you showed your hand bringing me here.”
“So that’s it?” he exploded. “We just can’t have a nice time, ever? You’re never going to grow up? You’re never going to get over whatever childish reaction you always have to me?”
“Fuck you, Aaron!” I screamed. The curse echoed around the cave.
“Fuck you , Coleman.” His fists clenched by his sides. “You’re the one who made me think you’d changed.”
“You don’t even know me. You don’t see me as a person.” A sob cracked my words. “I’m just a thing for you to abuse.”
“What the hell do you know about abuse?” he sneered. “You’re a spoiled trust-fund princess.”
“Stop acting like my life is perfect. You are the one who ruined my life.”
“Coleman, what the hell are you talking about? I never hurt you, or abused you, or ruined your life. If we’re digging up dead bodies, you were the one who—”
“ But you did, ” I screamed at him. “You did it right here, and you’re acting like you have no idea what I’m talking about, and I don’t know what’s worse: if you are trying to gaslight me or if you really don’t remember how you ruined my life.”
“You are so fucking sheltered and na?ve—”
“You humiliated me,” I yelled over him. “You used me. You spread rumors about me. You embarrassed me in front of everyone. High school was hell for me because of you .”
“High school was hell for me because of you .” He was breathing hard. “You…” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “You dug up all my family shit and spread it around high school. You passed around pamphlets about my father and how I was just like him. You tried to get me expelled.”
My eyes burned from my mascara as it mixed with my tears. “You deserved it, Aaron, because you were horrible to me.”
“What did I do to you,” he snarled, “that was so awful? What the fuck did I do? Nothing. And you know it. I only ever protected you. I only ever looked out for you.”
“I hate you! You know exactly what you did,” I sobbed, “that summer before high school. I was awkward and aching for you to notice me, to want me. I was so in love with you. We were playing spin the bottle on the beach, and I got you. I thought it was fate.”
“I didn’t touch you,” he barked.
“I know!” I screamed at him, fisting my hands in my eyes. “I tried to kiss you, and you pushed me away. Fine, whatever. A guy like you doesn’t want Dump Truck Daisy, even though I starved myself for you so I could fit in that bathing suit because I thought you’d think I was cute. Except you were so disgusted by me. And then you didn’t even have the fucking human decency to just lie to people, Aaron. You’re a fucking liar. You lie all the time. You bend the truth to save your company a few pennies, and you couldn’t lie for me. You couldn’t do that for me.”
“Coleman…”
It was all coming out now. I’d always sworn never to give him the satisfaction of crying to him, of allowing him to see me weak, yet here I was, barefoot and shivering, vomiting my soul all over the floor.
“You told everyone I was still a virgin, that you’d never touch me, that I was obviously inexperienced, that there was no way I’d ever had sex, that I didn’t put out, that something was wrong with me.” I cried ugly, heartsick, broken sobs.
“No, I—”
“Yes, you did!” I screamed at him.
“Ah, shit.” His words came out in a bitter laugh. “You thought…” He looked up at the ceiling, the sparkle fading. “Coleman…” He stepped up to me.
I tried to move away, but he grabbed my hands, squeezed them, cupped my face.
“No, Coleman, I was trying to protect you.”
“No you weren’t,” I said petulantly. “You brought me here to destroy my reputation.”
“No, I wanted to save you. My mother…” He paused. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. “When my mother was…” He dropped my hands. “She went missing near here,” he said. “Did you know that? There were search parties mounted, the police called. They never found her, of course. My father liked to torment my mother. He had this old laptop, and he’d bring up a Facebook page from Riverside Prep. They were planning the five-year reunion, and they were talking about my mother, how she’d disappeared. The comments…” A heavy weight seemed to bear down on him.
“They said it was her fault, that she slept around, that of course she’d ended up missing, that she was a slut. Had lost her virginity when she was fifteen—no, maybe fourteen—no, another guy said she tried to give him head in a stairwell when they were twelve.”
His eyes had become unfocused, like he was back there in that damp, dark cellar.
“When we were rescued, the comments didn’t stop. Oh, they would visit Michelle and Bill’s house to gawk at me and Mom and pretend to be happy to see Emily.” His eyes were dark in the low light. “But I would hear them talking at the country club. There was zero sympathy for her, for what Stuart did to her. They said it was my mom’s own fault, that of course such a tragedy wouldn’t have befallen a good girl, that my mother had been flirting with disaster and this was karma for loose behavior.”
“Oh.” I wrapped my arms around myself. I felt sick.
“I didn’t want that to be you.” Now his mouth was turned down. “I didn’t want them to do that to you. I loved you, you see?” He just looked so beaten. “I didn’t want to go to the cave with you. But then I figured if I didn’t, then it would be someone else and they wouldn’t protect you like I would. You’re sunshine, summer itself. I wanted to hold you in my hands, keep you safe, make sure you stayed pure summer forever.” He laughed sadly.
“I’d seen a lot of nice things after we were rescued—Michelle’s house, a watch one of the FBI agents gave me, the pink hydrangeas someone sent my mother—but the minute I saw you, I decided you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I was—I am,” he amended, “so in love with you. You were all I ever wanted. I always thought of you as mine. And I didn’t want people to start calling you a slut and writing horrible things about you online. I wanted to protect you, like I couldn’t protect my mom. I thought I was keeping you safe. I thought I was doing something good, but then you were so angry at me after. You were so angry. You hated me, and I didn’t understand.”
I wiped at the tears on my face. I was going to puke.
“Now I understand.” He sounded exhausted. “I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry.”
I couldn’t bear to look at his face—the hurt, the heartbreak, the betrayal. The love.
“I guess you’re right. I really am a spoiled princess.” I took a shaky breath. “I’m sorry I spread all the sordid details of your childhood around school. I thought I was getting back at you. I thought we were in some sort of young adult enemies-to-lovers romance, like one of the books I read like I ate potato chips. Like that was our thing, like we were in some sort of epic battle. But I just retraumatized an already traumatized child, so I guess that makes me the rich asshole here.”
I sank down and rested my head on my knees.
“This sucks.” I wouldn’t look at him. “I’m really sorry, Aaron. I’m sorry I fucked you over and made you have a horrible high school experience when it should have just been some oasis of normalcy for you from your shitty family situation.”
He sank down beside me on the cold stone and pulled me against him.
I forced myself not to cry. I shouldn’t be the one crying. I didn’t get to be the one crying.
Aaron stroked my hair, kissing the top of my head. “At least I finally solved the mystery of why you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you.” My words were muffled by his white dress shirt. “I love you. I thought you broke my heart, and I still loved you.”
“Good, because I love you.”
“How?” I demanded, searching his eyes.
“Because,” he said, tipping my chin up, “you’re mine. You were mine the first time I saw you, remember?” He gave me a crooked smile.
“I think you can do better than me.”
“I’m obsessed with you, remember? Besides,” he added lightly, leaning in and kissing me, “the silver lining from this whole debacle is that I did fulfill my secret dark desire of taking Daisy Coleman’s virginity.”
“I guess you earned it after all that.”
“You guess?” He kissed me harder. “You can’t tell me any of those foreign exchange students you were running after would have done even twenty percent as good a job.”
“I don’t know. A certain British professor slid into my DMs last week.”
“You better not respond to him.”
“Not even to tell him I’m married to a pathologically protective guy?” I kissed him. “Also, you get free coffee for life.”
“Wolf said I couldn’t accept free coffee from the coffee cart girls anymore.”
“Who’s giving you free coffee?” I demanded.
“The girl before you. She was cute.” He nuzzled my neck. “But incompetent. Wouldn’t make my coffee strong enough. She didn’t last a week.”
“Did she not burn it?”
“I think it was lacking the resentment.” He nipped my bottom lip. “That was the secret ingredient.”
“Not anymore.” I crawled into his lap.
His hands cupped my ass.
“I’m a little worried”—he gave me another, deeper kiss— “that the coffee’s not going to be as good now that you’re apologetic. Maybe I should lock you up in my basement again to make sure you get my order right.”
His hands were on my tits now, and I felt him hard between my legs as I ground against him.
“I want to make it up to you,” I gasped against his mouth.
“You married me. That’s enough.”
“Really? Because I was going to choke on your cock.”
He hissed against my mouth as he slid his zipper down.
I palmed the huge bulge as he sucked on my tits.
“I want you to touch yourself like that,” he whispered, “while I’m fucking your mouth.”
“Then stop talking about it and give me your cock.”
I was satisfied to hear how ragged his breathing was as he stood up. I mouthed him through his black boxer briefs, making him hiss then curse when I took his cock out, just as huge and thick as I remembered.
“I can’t believe that was inside me.” I trailed my tongue down the thick length and flicked it on the slit.
Aaron grabbed my hair. “Stop fucking around and take my cum, you little slut,” he snarled as he buried his cock in my mouth. “That’s right, Princess, take it,” he growled, his hips jerking. “I can’t wait ’til I’m buried in your hot pussy.”
I let my hands roam on my breasts to squeeze and play with them as I hummed and sucked around his cock, flitting my tongue against the slit then taking the length deep in my throat. My green ruffly shorts were soaked.
Guess I should have worn panties after all.
“You like that? Is this what you wanted me to do to you here?” He thrust in my mouth again.
It’s hard to say, “No, I want you to come in my pussy,” when your mouth is full of his cock.
My hands crept down to my aching slit.
Aaron slammed that thick cock hard in my mouth, almost making me gag.
“Don’t touch yourself. I want your pussy aching for me when I finally take you.”
My fingers grabbed at the ruffles on the shorts then returned to my tits. I pinched my own nipples as he fucked my face while I wished he was taking my pussy.
“Damn, I love watching you do that.” In the dim light of the cave, his eyes were almost black.
He pulled out of my mouth with a pop .
“Make me come on your tits, Princess.” His glistening cock jutted up in front of me. I took my tits and squeezed them around his cock as his hips thrust between them.
“I can’t wait until you’re coming in me,” I whimpered as he fucked my tits. “I love feeling your hot cum up my ass.”
I squeezed my breasts together as that huge cock rubbed between my tits. Then he came all over them, the hot cum dripping down my tits, my mouth, my chin.
“I’ll never get tired of seeing you covered in my cum, Princess.”
I rubbed the thick white seed all over my tits as he knelt and kissed me, hungry for me.
I needed his cock.
His fingers slipped under the shorts and stroked my aching slit. “Did you not wear panties on purpose?”
“Take me,” I whimpered. “I want you in my pussy.”
“And I want to eat you out for an hour first. Besides, if I fuck you here, I might have to leave you here because you won’t be able to make it back.”