Chapter 7
SEVEN
With both hands cupped around my orange, honey, chamomile tea, I blow the steam from the top, watching it rise as Sunshine reclaims his chair across from me, now clad in a pair of sweats. While my tea steeped, he undressed in my bedroom and slid on a pair of black sweats he keeps here when he visits. He’s not wearing a shirt, which I hate. It’s distracting. It’s always distracting, but it's even more so now that I haven’t seen him like this in months.
He leans back in the overstuffed chair, getting comfortable—his legs spread out, bare feet on display, along with a smattering of gray chest hair, pecs most thirty-year-olds would kill to have, and tattoos, all those glorious tattoos. Wanting to scratch my own eyes out for even looking, I blink once to break the spell of all that is Sunshine and look elsewhere. The man’s magnetic, sucking you in. His presence is a warm blanket—soothing despite the pain he’s caused. I hate it. This is why I didn’t want to talk to him. This is why I didn’t want him in my house. I knew, I just knew, the moment I let him in, even for a moment, I’d weaken. He does that. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But he does. He’s safe—a buoy in a storm. While my head says liar, my heart says—home.
My stomach quivers.
Tears well in my eyes.
I swipe the back of my hand across them to get rid of the evidence.
Ugh.
I don’t want to do this.
Fucking Till.
Fucking… life.
“Sweets,” his deep, sensuous voice calls.
I stare into the black void of the television.
“Sweets, look at me. Please.”
I swallow hard.
I don’t want to do this.
With trembling hands, I raise my mug to my lips again and blow the steam away, desperate for a drink.
Sunshine sighs.
His chair makes a sound, and then the floor creaks as he moves and sits beside me on the couch. My eyes widen in horror at his proximity. I lose all ability to breathe. I open my mouth to beg him to go away, but nothing comes out as Sunshine removes the tea from my shaking hands, sets it on a side table, and wraps his thick fingers around mine. Goosebumps flare as I suck in a sharp, shuddery breath and try to jerk away, but he doesn’t let go.
“Sweets.” He draws my knuckles to his lips and kisses me there .
One by one, he takes his time, like he has all night. His lips are soft and warm against my chilled flesh.
Once he reaches my pinky, a knot lodges in my throat, and tears unleash… dumb, emotional, traitorous tears.
They drip down my cheeks like water on a windowpane. Falling off my chin and onto the bare skin of my chest.
“Aww. Fuck.” Sunshine sighs as if watching me hurts. “Don’t do that.”
My bottom lip wobbles, and my nose burns as I try and fail to stave off the inevitable.
Pain rips from my throat as I succumb to the onslaught of every emotion I’ve buried for months. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t feel like this. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to feel this way.
Muscular arms scoop beneath my legs, and before I can process what’s happening, Sunshine carries me to the bedroom and sets me on the edge of my bed. He clicks on the lamp on the nightstand and kneels at my feet. Wetness glosses his sad, gray eyes as he stares up at me, straight into my soul.
He brushes the salty heartbreak from my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry, my sweets. So fuckin’ sorry.”
“You lied,” I croak. “You’re my home, and you lied.”
Scooting closer, Sunshine drops his hands from my face and rubs them up and down my bare thighs. “I know. Fuck. I know. I promise I’ll tell you everything. In the morning, we’ll have a fresh start. Tonight, just let me hold you.”
Biting my bottom lip, I shake my head. “No,” I whisper, afraid to trust him, to believe this is real. I’ve been stupid before.
“Sweets. No more hurting. Never again,” he vows.
“Don’t lie, Colton.” I hiccup. “You can’t promise that.”
“I promise to never lie to you again. That, I can promise.” Without my answer, he rises to his feet and kneels on the mattress behind me. It dips beneath his weight as Sunshine brushes wayward strands of hair off my neck. I shiver from toes to nose as he unfastens my dress. The zipper retracting echoes in my ears, and coolness envelops my back. Sunshine doesn’t stop there when he slides the black lace from my shoulders. The tape holding my breasts in place detaches, leaving me exposed, as the fabric slides down my chest to pool in my lap. My nipples harden from the cold. Goosebumps rise across my breasts, puckering the skin.
A low, animalistic rumble sounds in the back of his throat as he climbs off the bed to kneel in front of me once more. With care only he possesses, he shimmies my dress from around my waist and down my legs, leaving me in nothing more than a pair of black lace panties.
He’s never seen me this way before.
For whatever reason, call it stupidity if you want, I don’t care. I’m exposed. His eyes are kind as he rakes my form—no judgment, only warmth as he reaches out and carefully peels the tape remnants from my chest and tosses them on the floor to deal with later. His knuckle brushes against my hardened nipple, and I suck in a harsh, unexpected breath. A ripple of something else entirely pools in my center .
“Colton,” I gasp.
“I’ve got you, Sweets. Always,” he swears, and for once, I believe him, even if I shouldn’t.
Lifting my legs into the air, my ex-father-in-law drops my back against the soft mattress. My breasts bounce on contact. Another sound percolates in his throat as he props my ankles on his muscular shoulders and glides his palms up my smooth calves and thighs to my hips. Ever so slowly, as if waiting for me to stop him, he hooks a finger into each side of my panties and slides them down my legs, exposing everything to him. Every inch. Every fold. Every private part.
Thickness tents in his sweats as he tosses my thong on the floor and swivels my legs so I’m lying naked in bed, my head on a pillow, arms down at my sides.
“Should’ve pulled the blanket back first, huh?” He chuckles, soaking in the length of me. His head shakes in awe. “You’re perfect,” he whispers, swiping two fingers across my knee.
Unexpected shyness flutters low in my belly as I watch Sunshine hook both thumbs into the band of his sweats and drop them to the floor. His length bobs, fully awake and slick on the tip, as he rounds the bed and slides onto the mattress next to me. Resting on his side, an elbow holding his head up, his girthy cock brushes my thigh in a simple hello—an I-missed-you-old-friend, leaving a wet imprint in its wake.
Shutting my brain off, I try not to think, only do, when I curl onto my side, offering my back to him. Sighing in relief, he slides behind me, nestling his dick against my butt. Familiar arms envelop me. A splayed palm presses to the center of my stomach, covering the raven of my tattoo. Heat wafts across the back of my neck as his nose nuzzles there. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” I admit, even if he doesn’t deserve to know the truth. Because I have missed this. Him.
A satisfied sound vibrates in his throat as Sunshine brushes hair from my neck and presses a simple kiss there. “Now sleep, my sweets. We’ll talk in the mornin’. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got you.” Concurring with his statement, the cock pressed against my bottom jerks.
Blowing out a breath, I bathe in his words, his presence, and the peace I haven’t felt in months.
He’s home.
With me.
Holding me.
Protecting me.
Tonight, that’s all that matters.
Tomorrow, we’ll figure everything out.
Within minutes, wrapped in a cocoon of warmth, I drift to sleep.