Chapter Nine
Kit
Of course there’s a teacher’s meeting today which ran far too late, keeping me at school until well after five. That’s how things go when you have other obligations on the front burner, work runs late.
I’m halfway down Main Street when Charlotte calls. I pick up right away.
“News travels fast.” She sighs into the line. “What the hell?”
“I don’t know. Duke showed up, I followed him back to his truck, and this urge just rolled over me. I had to kiss him.”
“Right then, right there, at the school?”
I flick on my blinker to turn up the mountain road that leads back toward Duke’s cabin. “I guess so. I mean, it wasn’t my intention to ensure everyone was staring, but they were.”
“Has your dad gotten ahold of you yet?”
“I haven’t answered his calls. I don’t know what to say. I mean, how do I tell him I’m in love with a man nearly his age? It’s kind of sick.”
“You don’t need to tell him. Duke did,” she laughs under her breath, “and I’m sure he heard it a hundred more times all day. Everyone is talking about it. I ran into the diner for lunch and Mrs. Robinson was talking about it.”
“Mrs. Robinson? I thought she was sick?”
“She was. Doing better now, though. I told her we’d stop by next week for dinner.”
My chest tightens. Not because of dinner with Mrs. Robinson. That will be lovely. No, my chest is tightening because everyone in town knows what a jerk I am. Everyone in town is talking about how sick and deranged I am for dating a man so much older than me, a man who’s best friends with my father.
“I’m never going to live this down.”
“Who cares?” Charlotte states as though her opinion is fact. “You don’t owe anyone anything. You’re a grown woman.”
I know in theory she’s right, but deep down I do feel like I owe my dad something. I’m just not sure what that is. I don’t want to apologize for loving Duke, but maybe I should apologize for hurting him, for not telling him sooner.
Ugh, why is everything so complicated?
“Distract me. How was your day? You make any progress with Jake?”
“No!” she laughs. “I didn’t even talk to him.
Tonight, I have to go see my sister and help her and my mom with some wedding prep stuff.
As you know, the whole thing is super last minute, so I have no idea what we’re doing.
It’s just funny to me that if she meets a man three weeks ago and decides to marry him on a whim, she’s cute and eccentric.
If I decide to stay single, raise cats and read, I’m an outcast.”
“Which is exactly why you don’t need Jake or any fake boyfriend at the wedding. You should go as you are and let them accept you for you.”
“Yeah right.” She chuckles low. “Do you have some kind of torture wish for me? It’ll be easier to find a man that looks like my fake boyfriend and lie to everyone all weekend. Trust me.”
I pull past the row of pines on the corner, turn left, and then down the long stone driveway that leads to Duke’s cabin. “Whatever you say. I’m here to help.”
“Same goes for you. Let me know what happens. If you don’t, I’ll hear a version of it from someone in town.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha,” I manage as I park beside Duke’s truck in front of the porch. “Catch you later!”
“Later!”
I’m barely sat in the driveway for a second when the front door opens and the giant man I’ve been thinking about all day steps outside, the screen door slamming behind him.
The sky is already dark, but the front porch light illuminates his wide shoulders, his flannel rolled up at the sleeves, his big hand brushing down over his beard.
I want to cry. I want to smile. I want to run into his arms and let him carry me straight back to the bedroom. I want to make all this official before either of us has a chance to change our minds.
“This place looks incredible,” I say climbing up out of my little jeep as I take in the work he’s done on the property.
I didn’t realize it had been so long since I’d been out here.
Where a single two-bedroom cabin once stood is now a sprawling ranch house with rooms that look to go on forever.
Somehow, he’s even found wood that looks to be aged exactly like the original house, at least from what I can see in the dark.
I expect him to respond but he doesn’t. He only keeps his eyes on me, watching me carefully as though there’s a possibility I might disappear if he looks away. That, or I have something on my face. I’m hoping it’s the former rather than the latter.
It’s confirmed when I meet him on the first step of the porch and he lifts me up into his arms. “You know how long I’ve been waiting for you?”
“Sorry. I texted you about the meeting, right?”
“No.” He grins and carries me into the warmth of the house.
The house with a baker’s kitchen layout with double ovens and extra counter space.
The house with pine wood floors and a sprawling living room set with a natural fireplace that’s currently lit and crackling over a record playing in the background.
The house of my dreams. “I mean this… I’ve waited so long for this moment.
This moment where you walk into this cabin and you belong to me. ”
My breath catches and he strips off my jacket, letting it fall to the floor before lifting me up onto the stone counter.
My feet dangle as he removes my boots and tosses them back by the door. My heart pounds as he moves his big hand up my thigh and under my skirt. My breath quickens as he tugs at my panties, and I swear to God, I almost die when he pulls them off.
“Kitten,” he says, voice rough and hot against the lobe of my ear, “I wanted to be a good man. I wanted to wait until we’d smoothed things over with your dad, I wanted to take my time with you, and make sure this moment was perfect.
I lit candles, I started the fire, I put on a record I know you like, and I’d thought about all the things I wanted to say to you.
” He kisses the lobe of my ear, his rough beard scratching against my face as he talks.
“But the second you stepped out of that jeep, I knew I couldn’t wait. I have to have you.”
“So then take me.” I don’t know how loud the words are as they come out of my mouth. Truthfully, I don’t know what I’m doing at all. My body is like Jello, and my heart is somehow going too fast and too slow all at once.
His teeth graze the lobe of my ear. “Are you sure you’re ready? I’m not always the softest.”
My pussy pulses against the cool stone beneath me. “I don’t want you to be soft.”
I gasp as his fingers find my crease and work their magic.
“You’re soaking wet for me, Kitten.” He circles my clit as he growls against my neck. “My beautiful girl is soaking wet for me.”
I rock back and forth against his touch, resting my forehead on his shoulder as I moan out.
“You want more?”
I hum the answer under my breath, and he slides his fingers inside of me. I have no idea how many but enough that I feel the spread, enough that I feel the precision and strength of his touch, enough that I’m arching back and begging for more.
After last night’s nearly almost, I’m not sure I’m going to make it much longer.
Reaching down, I unbuckle his belt, pulling his jeans down with my feet like a talented, little circus performer, assuming pulling someone’s pants down with your feet is a trick worthy of the big top. I bet it is somewhere.
My pulse races, and the second his cock brushes the inside of my leg, I know I’m done for. He’s huge, massive, thick and long, and much more impressive than the dildo in my side drawer.
He pulls me to the edge of the counter, pulls off my sweater, and buries his face against my tits, suckling each nipple with equal pressure before scraping his teeth across them. “Tell me you belong to me, Kitten. Tell me you’re never leaving.”
“I’m never leaving.” I say the words without hesitation, with more confidence than I’ve ever felt about anything. “I’m not leaving.”
“Good girl,” he groans, tugging me to the edge of the counter before stroking his cock with the juices still on his hands from my soaking pussy. His gaze is on me as he growls and edges inside. “You tell me if it hurts.”
I nod, though I’d never say a word. I don’t care if it hurts. Hell, I want it to hurt. I want it to hurt so damn bad… and it does.
It hurts. It stings. It pinches. It burns.
It does all the things you’d think a massive cock would do to a virgin pussy, until all the sudden, pain turns to pleasure.
Pain turns to a pleasure so deep in my soul that my entire body tingles and warms. Pain turns to a pleasure so pure that I can’t look away from him.
Our eyes stay locked on one another as he holds me close and thrusts inside of me, stretching me wider and wider with each push.
“You’re so damn tight,” he groans under his breath, sending heat against my shoulder as he bites down.
I never imagined biting would feel so good, but I want more. More of every ounce of this for eternity. More of his rough hands on my skin, and his thick cock inside of me. More of this cabin, this life, his heart.
“I’ve been saving myself for you, Duke,” I sigh. “I always knew it would be you.”
I didn’t say it to turn him on, but it seems to take him over the edge. His gaze turns feral and wild, his thrusting more erratic.
“Fuck. You’ve gotta come on this dick now, Kitten. I’m gonna fill you up.” He reaches between us and works my clit as he growls, hitting the right rhythm of depth and stimulation, sending me over the edge.
I’ve had orgasms before. Plenty of them alone in my bed. Plenty of them screaming out his name. But right now, with our bodies sweaty and sticking together, his low voice in my ear, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. My eyes roll back, my scalp tingles, and my entire body convulses.
“Duke… oh my God… don’t stop!” I pant the words as I dig my nails into his shoulder.
I’m not sure a full second passes before he’s tensing, thrusting in harder, rougher, more desperately, and all at once growls out in relief.
“Fuck!” He leans down and buries his head against the nape of my neck as he pumps, strangling out the last bit of come. “I didn’t waste a single shot there. You’re filled to the brim.”
He’s not lying. I haven’t even stood and I already feel him sliding down my thigh.
“Good.” I smile, kissing his shoulder. “We’ll really give everyone something to talk about.”
“I know it’s wrong, Kitten, but I’ve thought about this moment so many times. You and me, a family—”
“In this cabin?”
“If you want.”
“You thought about me when you were remodeling, didn’t you?” My cheeks heat as he holds eye contact. “You built the baker’s kitchen and the natural stone fireplace with the live edge mantle. I’ve talked about those things for years.”
He offers a half smile and tilts his head to the side in the cutest way. “I may have thought you had some good ideas. That’s all.”
I wrap my legs around his waist, his cock still inside of me. “I love you.”
“Love you more, Kitten. Always.”
“Even though my dad isn’t going to make any of this easy?”
He nods. “According to the version of him I talked to earlier today, I have until tomorrow morning to leave Rugged Mountain for good… or else.”
“He doesn’t mean that.”
“He might.” Duke presses his forehead against mine. “He really might, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I just brought you home. I’m not ready to leave yet.”
Home. I’ve spent so long dreaming about this moment that I almost can’t believe it’s real.
“He loves us both. It’ll take time but I’m sure he’ll come around.”
Duke nods, though I’m not sure he believes it as wholeheartedly as I do. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Dad will never understand why we fell in love. Maybe he’ll always see me as his little girl, and he’ll always see Duke as the guy that betrayed him.
I’m not sure what the future holds for Dad and I, but I know one thing for sure. I’m finally living my truth, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.