7 #2
If she really has another child, she couldn’t have consented to it.
Not if her father had been drugging her.
And if that child isn’t with her now... what could have happened to it?
I just can’t bring it up. Not right now.
I’m already at the limit of what I can handle. And, more importantly, she is too.
“Do you still love bagels with cream cheese and salmon?” I ask instead. “Just wait till you get back home. You’re going to be drowning in bagels.”
She smiles but doesn’t answer.
“But maybe you’re sick of them. Have you eaten a lot of bagels in Ireland? Is that even a thing here?”
She blinks again. “I’m not really sure. No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve had a bagel in a long time.”
“What’ve you been eating, then? What’s your favorite food? I could make it for you, when we’re home.”
“Logan, I...” She blinks again, and I start to wonder if it’s only from exhaustion. “I don’t really know. I wish you would do what you said and tuck me into bed.” She gives me another wry smile.
“Okay, baby. Sure.”
I crush the now empty plate into a ball, grab some clothes from the suitcase, and try to form a makeshift mattress. Then I lay her gently down on it.
“What about you, Logan?” she murmurs. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“Don’t worry about me.” I kiss her, gently at first, then hungrily. “You’re beautiful, Lia,” I say again.
She shakes her head. “I’m old, and I’m fat.” She sighs. “How did it happen?”
“You’re neither of those things,” I growl. “And if I hear you say that one more time...”
“Yes?” There’s no mistaking the way she squirms at the threat I’ve left suspended in mid-air.
“Well, I’ll just have to see for myself if it’s true.” As I speak, I toy with the hemline of her shirt, and she squirms again. “You know what? I’m going to check anyway.”
Dipping my hands under the fabric, I run them over her stomach, her sides, all the way up to her breasts.
She’s not as toned as she used to be. Her stomach’s soft, she’s gained a little weight, her breasts are fuller and lower.
She does feel different, but not worse. I loved her as a skinny teenager with a flat chest, as a young mother with stretch marks and cellulite on her ass, and as a curvier, softer woman.
She’s beautiful, and she’s mine. She’ll still be beautiful and mine when she’s one hundred.
“Logan…”
When I glance up at the sound of my name, my stomach twists when I notice the way she’s chewing her lower lip nervously.
“Shh, baby,” I plead. “Let me do this. Take it like a good girl. Please, Lia.”
I cup her full breasts, then run a thumb over her nipples, and she sighs. I tweak them each in turn, and she wriggles under me, letting out a low moan.
“You haven’t changed all that much, have you, ghost girl?” I hum in her ear. “You can pretend nothing matters. But your body still wants mine. I can tell.”
“I don’t… know…”
The tweaks turn into a hard pinch, and her wriggling intensifies, but I don’t let up on my torture until she lies panting on the ground.
“I’m going to make you admit you still want me. I won’t let your body alone until you say you want me back. I don’t give a fuck, I’ll force you. I’m a lot stronger than you are.”
She nods slowly, her eyes staring up at me.
“You can still say red, baby,” I add, going back to stroking her tits gently.
Her full lips part, and I inhale sharply, but she shuts it before any sound comes out.
Breathing out in relief, I lift her shirt up, closing my mouth around one of her nipples and sucking it in between my teeth. Then I flick over the stiff peak with my tongue, hungrily lapping at it, taking advantage of every second that the dreaded word doesn’t escape her lips.
“Logan…”
“Shh, baby.”
I focus on her other nipple, and she throws back her head, moaning softly.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” I say, between licks. “I can make you feel so good, baby. You don’t have to think, or feel, or worry. Just let me use your body. Remember? Just like you used to say. You didn’t want to have a choice.”
“Logan…”
“Shh.”
“Logan, what about… Piper?”
I can sense her hesitation as she forces out her daughter’s new name.
“Is that what this is about?” I pull away from her breasts to kiss her lips again. “I thought you were going to say red.”
“I…” She blinks her eyes in confusion. “I just… Piper… where is she?”
“She won’t hear us. She’s sleeping a little farther away with Quill.”
“Who’s that?”
I frown. “He’s her boyfriend. Her husband. Don’t you remember?”
“Uhm, yes.” She rubs her eyes. “Yes, of course I do. I’m sorry, Logan.”
“Those drugs really did a number on you, didn’t they?” I stroke her cheek.
“It’s just that those bikers… those masked bikers…”
“It’s okay, Lia. We killed them, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow. And I’m going to fix you. I’m going to get you all fixed up, I promise.”
“How are you going to do that?” she breathes.
“Well…” I sit back up, biting down on the pained grunt that threatens to leave my lips when I move my arm. Then I admire her as she lies on the clothes. “I’m going to start by fixing your body. I’m going to touch it until I’m sure you’re not a ghost, but a very naughty girl.”
“Logan…” This time, my name in her mouth is accompanied by a small smile.
I remove her shirt entirely, admiring her nakedness. “Maybe you’re not a brat, but your body is. You’ve got a very naughty body, and I’m going to punish it.”
The words came out forced at first, but I keep repeating some variation of them until they roll off my tongue, and after a while, it gets easier to pretend.
I do my best to pull off her jeans too, despite my stiff arm, then edge back to look at her.
She really is just as beautiful as ever.
In the crackling firelight, I can make out the lines of her waist, curving toward her wide hips, and the ass that’s hidden from me, but that I can tell is as fat as ever. Maybe even fatter.
And then, her legs, still slim, though the tops of her thighs are riddled with the cellulite that was once only visible on her ass. She’s wearing white cotton panties with a tiny bow in the center, and no bra. She never did wear a bra.
“How should I punish you?” I murmur, kissing her belly button. “How should I punish you for disappearing for eighteen years, ghost girl?”
I shouldn’t have said that. At once, the playful, albeit strained atmosphere melts, replaced by something equally strained but painful.
“I deserve it,” she murmurs. “I deserve pain. I deserve punishment. I deserve to die, Logan.”
“Stop that.” I lie down beside her, squeezing her to me. “The only reason you deserve punishment is for having the sexiest body I’ve ever fucking seen.”
Her sad smile tells me she doesn’t believe me. “You were going to kill me, Logan.”
“That’s because our daughter was right. I’m cruel, and you’re the victim. If life were fair, you’d be punishing me. But life isn’t fair, and the only person who’s going to sleep with a red ass tonight is you.”
The sadness melts from her smile, and I reach a hand around her to touch the part of her that I once kept permanently bruised.
“Who owns you, Lia?”
She licks her lips, looking up at me shyly.
“Aren’t you going to tell me who owns you?”
“I wish…” She rests her forehead against my chest. “I wish you would remind me.”
I press a kiss to her, then flip her so suddenly onto her stomach that she lets out a squeak.
“Careful what you wish for, baby.”
I run my hands down her back, to the slope of her ass. I was right. It is fatter than it was all those years ago. Thick and magnificent, and I can’t wait to sink my cock between those cheeks.
“Get on your hands and knees, Lia. Get on your fucking hands and knees.”