Chapter Four
Reed
Her dress is modest. A knee length floral pattern with buttons running down the center, the cut over her full breasts covering every bit of cleavage.
Her hair curled and partially twisted into a butterfly barrette I bought her a few months back at the farmer’s market.
We’d been on a quest that morning to find banana peppers when she came across the handmade jeweler’s tent.
The woman was selling everything from bracelets to earrings, but Nikki was drawn to the monarch butterfly barrette clipped to a rack at the front.
She said she loved how its wings moved with the wind, but we both know it reminded her of her mother.
The day she passed, at least twelve monarchs gathered near the back garden where she liked to sit. One of them landed on Nikki’s knee and sat with her far longer than a butterfly usually sits.
I’m not a woo-woo symbols guy, but that was weird enough that even I think of her mother every time I see a monarch. I then subsequently wonder how she ever put up with Pete. Then again, he was different with her. Hell, he was different with everyone back then.
The road weaves up the mountain through a grove of pine as the sun drops fast behind the ridge, throwing long streaks of gold across the asphalt.
Down in the valley, everything is shadowed dark blue as the guardrail flashes silver on the side of the road.
It’s peaceful as hell up here and I’m looking forward to spending plenty of time hidden amidst the pines, though I wouldn’t mind if Nikki were hiding with me.
“Take another sip of water.” I glance toward my kitten before returning my gaze back at the road again, my heart drumming against my ribs as I try to calculate how tonight will go.
The last night we spent together was in her senior year of college, but she was afraid to be left alone. I was the guy who was keeping the werewolves and the vampires at bay. Trouble is… she’d already let the monster inside.
My head was in the gutter all night long with thoughts of stripping what little fabric covered her. Thoughts of what her little pussy looked like, smelled like, tasted like. I must have jerked off half a dozen times that weekend. Twice while I watched her outside with the family dog.
When she’s taken another sip of water, she twists toward me. “You’ve got a real daddy vibe about you. Anyone ever told you that?”
For some sick reason my cock twitches.
“Daddy vibe? What’s that mean?”
She shrugs and takes another sip of water, swishing it around before swallowing. “Like, caring for me with this panic stuff. Being way over the top protective.”
“Well,” I clear my throat, “if over the top protective means I’m a daddy, then I’ll be your daddy all day long. You,” I reach over and squeeze her thigh without thought, “you’re worth protecting.”
I’ve never done that before, and I don’t know where the fuck it just came from.
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to faze her. Instead, she’s distracted by her phone again.
“What is it?”
“I texted Mulligan to apologize and maybe get the sale back. He left me on read, so,” she blows out a breath, “I guess that’s officially off.”
“Like I said, you’re destined for bigger things.”
“Spoken like a true daddy.” She grins and redirects her attention to my glove box, popping it open to rummage around inside.
“What are you looking for?”
“Clues.” She pulls out two screwdrivers and a tape measure, her little hand balancing everything as she digs with the other.
“Clues of what?”
“Women.”
“Women?” I laugh. “Well, I don’t keep women in my glove box, but—”
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Seriously, though,” she says, dumping all the tools she’s found back inside, “when was the last time you had a girlfriend? Like a serious, romantic thing.”
My brows narrow. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I don’t know. I was just contemplating your daddy vibe, and I got thinking about how I’ve never seen a woman around you. So… I wondered if you kept them secret or something.”
“Nope.” I turn the wheel to the left and into the long gravel driveway that leads to the cabin. “No secret women. No not-so-secret women. Just no women, period.”
“Why not?”
I scrub my hand down over my beard and shrug as the cabin comes into view. “I don’t know. I just don’t have much interest in dating, I guess.”
“But you love taking care of me.” She scrubs her hands against her thighs as she talks. “I bet you’d love taking care of a family of your own too.”
I bite back the urge to tell her that’s bullshit, that I don’t date because the second I start getting close to someone else, I think of her, and deep down no one can compare.
“You are my family, kitten.” I put the truck in park and glance toward her. “I love you, so I take care of you.”
“That’s sweet,” her words are joyful and cute sounding, as though she’s trying to lighten the mood, “and you know I love you too, but don’t you want more? Like a wife and some kids? You’re getting up there in age, in case you didn’t know.”
My cock thumps at my zipper. The urge to speak my truth and fuck her tight, little core until she’s filled with my babies is overwhelming.
“I mean, look at this place.” She stares out at the cabin. “It’s huge! You clearly wanted a family at some point.”
It’s true, I did, except it was Nikki I imagined here with me. Her expanded belly, her bare feet on the lawn, her famous chocolate chip cupcakes in the oven, her clothes on the line as she sits next to me on a lazy Sunday in the rocker by the front porch.
“No, this is boredom. I started building it as an off-grid shack to stay during the winters and it turned into this. Can’t wait for the fucking tax bill.
” I smile and hop out of the truck, rounding to her side to help her down and into the cabin as a warm breeze blows the scent of lavender across the field.
I haven’t planted any, but there’s a lot of it growing behind the barn.
“Oh, the tax bill is gonna be huge,” she laughs, hopping into my arms so I can help her out of the truck. “But by the looks of the place, it’ll be worth it. This property is insane! You’ve got a full view of the western range!”
The western range is gorgeous. People come from all over the place to see the sun turn the mountaintops all kinds of colors, but Nikki is the best view I’ve had on this property since I bought it.
We climb up the front steps of the covered porch, the boards creaking under our weight as I fish the key out of my pocket, pretending to focus on the lock instead of her question. The evening air hangs cool against my neck, my gaze dodging hers as I push the door open.
Thankfully, she redirects her attention to the view inside.
“Oh my God, Reed!” She glances around and then toward me, her eyes wide. “This place is incredible!”
Her approval sends a rush of relief and a spark of pride through me I’m not expecting, and my body does that thing again where I want to lift her up onto the kitchen counter and welcome her home.
Except this isn’t her home and I’m pretty sure my cock splitting her in two isn’t what she needs tonight.
“These countertops, and the fireplace,” she smooths her hands over everything has she walks through the house, “you built all this yourself?”
I lower my head and nod. I’ve never taken compliments well. “It’s just a house.”
“This is not just a house. This is incredible, Reed! Like seriously.” She stalls at the pine carved mantelpiece as she speaks, her hand smoothing over the grain. “Can’t you see everyone’s stockings hanging here by the fire?”
My cock pulses. “Yeah, that would be nice. You, ugh, you hungry? I don’t have the place well stocked yet, but I think I have a frozen pizza I can throw in.”
She grins. “Sounds good. We can take it outside and watch the sky change colors. I’m going to make it my mission to find you a wife. Your life isn’t over, Reed. You should date for real.”
“Are you dating for real?” I reach into the freezer and pull out the frozen supreme pizza I grabbed one night I was working late. It’s the kind with the crust that puffs and it’s not that bad, though the thought of me dating is. Hell, the thought of her dating is.
“No,” she laughs, lifting herself up onto the stool across from me at the counter. “Well, not unless you count the dinner dates for the house sales.”
My chest tightens. “Like the one you have with Troy?”
She staggers in a deep breath and bites back a grin. “You remembered his name.”
“I’m already stalking him,” I laugh as I pre-heat the oven and grab a pan from the cabinet nearby. “If you want me to play nice, he better be good to you.”
She pulls out her phone and clicks something before turning it toward me. On the screen is a tall, brooding man in his mid-forties. He’s clean shaven, strong jawline, and graying.
“Who’s this?” I ask, though my stomach is tightening like I already know who it is.
“It’s Troy.”
“You guys talk enough that he sends you pictures? On his sailboat? You don’t think he’s full of shit?”
She shrugs. “He just text me a bit ago to say he’s excited about dinner tomorrow night. He mentioned wanting to check out the lumberjack games. I guess he went as a kid so… should be fun.”
The oven chimes like we’re at a boxing match and it’s time to fight, and if this Troy asshole were here, I’d knock him the fuck out. Instead, I peel back the plastic layer on the pizza and offer Nikki a disappointed glare.
“I really don’t understand what all these old men think they have in common with a twenty-two-year-old? Fuck, what do you have in common with them? That guy looked older than me.”
“Actually, he’s your age. Not to mention, you and I talk all the time. Heck, sometimes I think it’s easier to talk to you than people my own age.”
So, I’ve created this problem. I’m the reason she loves perverted, old men.
Awesome.
My cock thumps against my zipper as I slide the pizza into the oven and stare at her.
I’m pissed so I don’t know why my cock is fucking hard, but I gather it has something to do with feeling possessive over Nikki.
It eats away at me every time I see or hear about another man getting too close to her.
It hits me fast and instinctual, like a sharp magnetic pull that’s impossible to ignore, and all I can think about is pounding into her little pussy until I release like a fucking animal.
“Still,” I groan, sweeping crumbs off the counter and into the sink, “I don’t think a forty-five-year-old man is someone you should be thinking about dating.”
She grins a perfect, white smile. “And there are the daddy vibes again.”
These daddy vibes. If she keeps talking like that, I’m going to spank her ass for being naughty.
“I think you care about me more than my own father. God knows he doesn’t care what I do.”
“Your father is—” I grit my teeth together as I lean against the counter. “He mistreats you, and I don’t like it.”
I don’t talk about how I’ve stayed friends with Pete to watch over Nikki. I don’t talk about the times I’ve gone to bat for her, about the times I’ve cornered the fuck in his own damn house demanding he treat her better. I don’t talk about it because it’s irrelevant.
“And that’s why you’re always having your ‘discussions’ with him, right?”
I nod slowly, the scent of tomato and basil filling the space as the pizza cooks.
“Well,” she opens the fridge and grabs a bottle of grape juice from the door, twists off the cap, and takes a slow sip before setting the bottle on the counter again, “nothing is going to—”
Her phone buzzes and she jumps back, knocking the juice off the counter and onto her pretty flowered dress, the liquid soaking straight through to her breasts.
“Oh no,” she sighs, staring down at the mess she’s made.
“Turn that thing off for the night.” I take the cell from the table and tuck it into my pocket before handing her a dish towel to clean off with.
“I can’t ignore him forever,” she says, disregarding her dress to clean the table and the floor now covered in purple juice.
“Hey.” I grip her arm in mine and redirect her gaze until we’re eye to eye in the dim light of the kitchen I’ve spent a decade perfecting. “Tonight, none of that exists. No one else. Just you and me.”
There’s silence for a second before she speaks.
“See,” she bites back a grin, “what did I tell you? Total daddy energy.”
Jesus Christ.
My cock rises and presses against my jeans, my shoulders tighten, and my throat goes dry with a need I’ve never felt in my life. A need that echoes somewhere deep and barbaric. Somewhere dark and yearning. Somewhere depraved. Somewhere I shouldn’t be fucking with.
Pressure builds in my chest as a rumble climbs up my throat and suddenly, I’m growling, “Call me Daddy one more time, kitten.”
Her gaze stays focused as her pretty, pink lips drop open slowly. “Daddy.”
Well, fuck.