CHAPTER NINE — DAVID
Every single time this has meant anything, I've walked out of the room like it was on fire. Told her to get some rest. Left.
Not tonight.
Afterwards, she's curled up in my lap in the blanket, folded into me, like she's trying to get as close as humanly possible. Her makeup's a disaster. She's going to be sore for a week. She's never looked better. I tell her that, and she calls me a liar. I laugh because it's true.
"That's going to bruise," I say, running my hand down her back.
"Good," she mumbles into my chest. "I want to feel it tomorrow."
I laugh before I can stop myself, and I feel her smile against me, and something that's been locked up tight in my chest since yesterday finally loosens.
"Stephanie. Look at me." I tip her chin up. "I'm going to say this once, and I need you to actually hear it, because I've been an idiot about it for a very long time."
Her eyes go still.
"I love you."
She stops breathing.
"I have for months. And I kept coming up with reasons I couldn't. You're too young, you're my tenant, blah, blah, blah. None of that matters, though, because I fell for you anyway."
"Even after what I did?" she whispers.
I nod. "That's how I knew for sure how I felt. I wouldn't have felt that devastated if I didn't love you," I say.
She's crying again, but it's a different kind, and she grabs a fistful of my shirt.
"One more thing," I add. "The arrangement between us is over. No rent for this, no deal, no lease over your head that lets me pretend I'm the one in charge of any of it. I don't want a tenant, Stephanie. I just want you."
"But I can't afford—"
"I don't care about the money. The arrangement's dead.
Live downstairs until you finish school, move upstairs, whatever you want.
But you're not paying me in anything, ever again.
I'll put it in writing so that you know you'll have a guaranteed place to stay, no matter what happens between us.
From now on, though, you're mine because you want to be. Understood?"
She's half laughing, half crying, but she smiles and nods.
"The rules still stand, though," I add, and I watch that land low in her, watch her breath catch.
"Behind closed doors, you still do as you're told.
And if you don't, I'll punish you. That part's not up for negotiation.
But you don't need to worry that your tenancy or anything else is at risk.
" I tip her chin up one more inch. "But out here?
We're even. I'm just as much yours as you are mine. "
I kiss her, and she moans into my mouth. I feel my cock stir a bit, and I have to stop myself from flipping her over and burying myself into her.
She pulls back, and I watch a familiar look wash over her eyes. A look that tells me she's scheming. It's a look I love.
"I still have John's texts," she says. "All of them. Including the thread where he sent me the fake email himself. He forged it, David. An email from his own company's legal team. We can use this against him."
She's right.
Fuck, I love this girl.
"You clever, terrible woman," I say slowly, and she grins up at me, fierce and pleased. Mine. I don't think I've ever wanted her more than I do right now.
"You're perfect. You know that, right?" I ask.
She smirks and shrugs her dainty shoulders. "I know."
And with that, I push her down onto the couch and rip off the blanket. I kiss her, covering her mouth with mine, enveloping her with my body. Shielding her, like a cocoon.
She melts into me, and I bite her lower lip, whispering into her ear, "You're mine."
She moans that soft, perfect little sound. "Yes, Daddy," she whimpers.
Fuck. I bite her lower lip and claim that bratty, sassy little mouth.
Mine.
Forever.