Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Sebastian
I’ve ignored a few messages from Lily’s father—as headmaster of an expensive private school, I’m used to dodging meddling parents—but his last contact came curiously.
To an email address that is attached to my name but not really accessible to the public. Definitely not through an official channel.
We would like our daughter to stay at Edgewood for another term. We must talk about this soon.
It’s an innocuous line, a seemingly reasonable request from a parent. The most parent-like request Mr. Murphy has made in all of his efforts to get in touch with me.
I don’t like it.
So when I’m alone at my residence on Saturday afternoon, I call him. I need to hear his voice and figure out his angle. Man to man.
His tone is hard when he answers the phone, but it turns jovial as soon as I introduce myself. Like he’s handling me instead of the other way around. Interesting.
“You’re a hard man to get ahold of,” he says.
“You found a way.”
“I had my assistant do some digging.”
I can imagine how frustrating it must have been to only find a private email address I use for online purchases. I’m a pretty boring guy, outside of the fact I’m having a secret affair with his daughter. “There are proper channels for academic inquiries, Mr. Murphy.”
“I tried those.”
“The lack of a response should have been a clue.” I wince at my tone. This isn’t how I should be acting. But part of me doesn’t care.
“Delilah isn’t ready to graduate.”
“Her transcripts say otherwise.”
“She has struggled at past schools,” he replies silkily. “And those headmasters agreed she needed more time. We’re happy to make another donation if that is needed.”
He’s bribing me. “You would pay Edgewood to keep Delilah here another term?”
I stop talking as I hear a rustle of footsteps, and Lily steps into view.
She’s dressed for a run and breathing hard like she’s nearly at the end of it, and this wasn’t how she planned for it to finish.
Me neither, sweet girl. Fuck. Her face is tight with a hurt expression, and I wince at what she’s just heard.
I hold up my hand as if to compel her to stay and clear my throat. “That is not an option, actually. She’s already completed enough school work to ensure she will graduate at Christmas.”
Lily watches me as I finish biting out those words, for her ears as much as his, and her expression shifts from hurt to wary. It’s slightly better.
“Of course, it’s an option.” His voice is tight. “It’s always an option.”
I bet it has been in the past.
“If you won’t cooperate, Mr. Craig, we can remove her from your institution.”
“She’s legally an adult. You don’t have guardianship over her in that regard. You might think you know—”
“We may not be her legal guardians anymore,” he snarls. “But we’re the named beneficiaries of her trust fund allowance. So if we say her tuition needs to go somewhere else, it will go somewhere else. Do you understand me?”
That is not fucking happening. I need her here, with me, until we can leave Edgewood behind—together. “Let me be crystal clear, Mr. Murphy. Tuition at Edgewood is non-refundable. And we always make decisions that are in the best interests of our students, not their parents.”
I end the call before saying something else, something I might regret, and Lily and I stare at each other in silence.
“So that was my father, huh?” She shrugs. “He’s nice, right?”
“Do you want to tell me about your trust fund?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Why not?”
She doesn’t answer.
I gesture for her to come closer. She cautiously climbs onto the porch, and I duck so we’re the same height so she can see that I’m not angry at her. I never would be. “He doesn’t have any say over what happens next, Lily. You will graduate at the end of term.”
She shudders in relief. “Thank you.”
“If you tell me more about what you know, then I can help you even more.” I suspect her father is misappropriating her money, but I don’t want to tell her that. Not yet.
“My father is a wannabe businessman. He’s also a part-time criminal, but I don’t think he’s good at that, either. My trust fund comes from my grandfather, and it pays for my education—it’s tied up in that, so I need to be a private school, or nobody gets any money from it.”
“You went to a public school for part of last year.”
“They hated that. That’s when I figured out they were taking some of my annual allowance.
And they’re allowed to, as long as they pay for my schooling.
It’s kind of messed up. My grandfather set it up, and I don’t think this is what he intended.
Before he died, he told me I would get access to it when I graduate high school.
But that’s been harder than it should be because my… .”
When she trails off, I come to a horrible conclusion. Her parents are deliberately delaying her graduation. Somehow. It’s madness. Maybe even criminal. But she doesn’t need to worry about that anymore.
Those people have never taken care of her properly. Now I will.
I growl under my breath, and she gives me a look that says she likes it when I get all possessive.
I like it too.
She cranes her neck around me, looking at my house. “Is this where you live? It’s private.”
It sure is. And just like that, my blood heats. I should tell her she can’t be here. Make her go back to the dorms and wait a little longer. But she heard the sharp end of a conversation she doesn’t understand, and I need to make that right first. “This is the headmaster’s residence, yes.”
“It’s nice.” She’s angling for an invite inside.
I want to carry her over the damn threshold.
But first, I need to make something crystal clear to her.
I catch her wrist, bringing her hand to my chest and her attention to my face.
“Lily, I need you to know that when I called your father, it was so I could better understand the situation. I want to protect you so we can be together for real.”
She blinks. “Together?”
Forever, if she’ll have me. “If you want me, when this term ends, I will follow you wherever you go.”
“No way.”
I smile at that. “Would you like that?”
“I was thinking of going to the West Coast.” Her eyes narrow. Testing me. “Pretty far from here.”
The echo of my own fantasy escape isn’t lost on me. “Sounds great.”
She rolls her bottom lip between her teeth. “Why?”
The first answer that rolls through my head is, I don’t know.
But that’s a lie. “Because there’s been something between us since that first moment.
I walked into that truck stop, and I thought, I want to be with that woman for the rest of my life.
And if that scares you, I’ll choke on those words until it doesn’t. But if you’ll—”
She leaps into my arms.
Fuck, she feels good. I carry her inside and lock the door behind us.
Then I crush my mouth against hers, tasting the craving on her lips.
She tangles her fingers in my hair, holding us together as I work my hands under her tight, damp running shirt.
Her skin is impossibly soft, her body slight and strong at the same time.
I need to see all of her this time. I need to stretch her out in my bed and take my time.
But the bed is all the way upstairs. So I settle for the stairs, sprawling on the first landing with her perched in my lap.
The raw, sweet scent of her fresh sweat makes me feral.
I peel her shirt up just enough to bare her belly.
My fingertips brush the bottom of her breasts.
She’s not wearing a bra, and my cock stiffens with another jolt of adrenaline.
I ease her back a little, so she’s still perched on my lap, but I can see my big, off-limit hands groping her under her bright pink running shirt.
She whimpers as I stroke her sweet flesh. “Sebastian, I need a shower.”
“The fuck you do.” I press my face to her trembling neck and breathe her in. My cock strains against my jeans, thick with the need to be inside her. To claim her and have her claim me in equal measure. I wish I could wear the mark of her scent on my body.
She’s going to be the death of me, and I won’t mind even a little.
I rock my erection up into the soft, sweet cradle of her tight ass.
My hands slide the rest of the way up her shirt, finally cupping the sweet, slight swells of her innocent tits.
Her perfect, tiny breasts that I should never touch, never put my filthy mouth on, never suck on, and definitely never cover in my come.
I’m going to do all of that and more today because I cannot stop myself.
Ducking my head, I breathe in another lung full of her scent, then lick a careful circle around one nipple. The soft, puffy peak tightens, and I pull the newly hardened bud into my mouth. She arches her back as I suck on her flesh, her hips moving unconsciously to find my cock.
My sweet, innocent girl needs me inside her.
I let her grind as I taste my fill of one breast and then the other. I go back and forth until she tightens her fingers in my hair and pulls me off. Her mouth comes crashing down on mine, hungry and wet.
Together, we strip naked on the landing, and when we finally stand, still kissing, we’re bare-assed, revealing all of ourselves for the first time.
She skims her hands over my chest and down the sides of my torso. “You’re bigger naked.” She blinks up at me shyly. “And you were already big.”
My cock rises in the air between us, approving of the compliment. Lily wraps her fingers around it and slides her hand down to the base, making a bead of pre-come appear at the tip. “It’s different like this. It feels real.”
“We don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with.”
She twists in front of me, a lithe siren. “Oh, I want to do everything.” She squeezes my dick firmly, then lets go. She walks up the stairs, turning just enough to give me another look at her mouth-watering nude profile. “Which way to the bedroom?”