Maryanne
NINE
“I have to go home.” I laughed, unable to comprehend the expression on Hollis’ face.
“Why? Why can’t you just stay here?”
“Because I don’t live here.”
“You could.”
“You’re crazy.” I laughed harder.
“About you,” I could have sworn he muttered under his breath, but I pretended I didn’t catch it.
“And I have responsibilities.” I sighed and shut my eyes.
Guilt ate at me.
If I was honest, I didn’t want to go back to the small, stuffy trailer. It wasn’t like my sisters were going to come over and spend the night. They were with my mom on the weekend, so I had given myself these last few days to spend with Hollis.
It had been a week since we had become whatever we were.
Inseparable, the sex kitten he had awoken muttered in my head.
You two are inseparable, she repeated and wasn’t wrong.
The afternoon after we had hooked up, Hollis tried to talk me out of going back to the club, insisting he would pay me more than enough at the gym, but I couldn’t let him do that.
So, he insisted on being there every shift, regardless of it being an early one or evening one.
When I wasn’t at the club, I was at the gym with him, where the girl who was heading back to school trained me and taught me about the responsibilities I had as a greeter. Working at the gym and the club had been a little tricky, but Hollis hadn’t left my side, and I hadn’t minded.
He would even come back to the trailer with me, meeting my mom and sisters. Even more surprising was how well my mom took to him. And the girls, too.
But for some reason, as the new week was about to start, reality hit.
“I have to help my mom with my sisters.”
“That’s fine. We can pick them up in the morning, take them to school, and go to work. You don’t have to go home for that.”
“Hollis.” I shook my head, tempted to go along with what his plan My eyes roamed the living room, seeing things he probably took for granted.
Stupid, simple things I marveled at. The stable walls that made up the house and the high ceilings and open floorplan. The spaciousness of it only reminded me of just how different our backgrounds were.
“I have laundry.”
“You can do it here.” He had an answer for everything.
“Handsome, I need to go home.”
“Fine.” He sighed, and even though it was my choice, disappointment hit that he hadn’t pressed me a little more to stay. “Let me go pack.”
“Pack?” I repeated.
“You think you’re just going back home and what? I was just going to drop you off?”
“Yeah.” I stared at him, and he smirked.
“That’s exactly what isn’t going to happen.” I blinked. “I love you.” Three little words I’d never had directed at me by anyone I wasn’t related to.
“Hollis.”
“I love you, and you’re mine. I told you that first night.” A muscle in his cheek twitched.
“You’re a little possessive,” I whispered. His amber eyes brightened.
“There is nothing little about how possessive I am when it comes to you, little flower.” He pulled me closer, wrapping me up in his strong arms. “I told you the first time I saw you, I knew.” He had. The morning after, while we ate the brunch he’d whipped up for us, he’d told me everything.
His hidden obsession, he’d called it.
A madness that had driven him to do things he’d never thought he would do.
From watching me from his brother’s office without me knowing to creeping into my trailer when I wasn’t home and even riding the bus sometimes a couple of rows behind me when I had used it to get home after a shift at the club to make sure I got back to my place safe and sound.
It had been a lot to take in.
At first, while he confessed what he’d done, I’d thought he was being funny. Pranking me. Making up outlandish shit for some kind of laugh. But when he didn’t smile, his eyes intense, I’d known.
Hell, I’d felt someone watching me but hadn’t been able to explain it.
What jarred me wasn’t what he’d shared but my reaction to it.
I never felt everything I should have felt.
I should have been weirded out, freaked out that he had broken into my place and even stolen my panties.
I should have been terrified that he had looked into me and my life and knew all sorts of things about not just me but my mom and sisters.
But those were none of the things I felt.
He’d sat across from me and anxiously waited for my reaction, his shoulders set tensely. And when I’d stood up, I hadn’t missed the way his eyes had jumped to the front door. I’d known he thought I was going to make a run for it.
And having found out I not only had a bratty side, but that Daddy was a safe space for me to be one, I’d done just that.
I’d run. And he’d chased. Pinning me to the wall, apologizing with kisses on my neck, his hands on my body before he turned me around and froze when he saw the smile on my face.
It might have earned me my very first spanking.
One Daddy made sure I enjoyed.
But now? Looking at his place, comparing it to mine, I wasn’t sure how we would make this work. How we fit.
“You belong with me,” he said, almost like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Right here, next to me,” he added, his tone the perfect mix of confident and stern.
“It doesn’t matter where we came from.” He’d shared his own background of bouncing around in foster care until the Porters adopted him and his four brothers.
“Hollis.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “You have your life together,” I tried to explain.
“Bullshit,” he said, and I frowned.
“You do.”
“I didn’t have shit until you came into my life.” I blinked away tears. “Move in with me.”
“Hollis,” I sighed.
“I’m serious. I don’t want to live without you.”
“What about my sisters? My mom?”
“The house across the street is for sale.”
“And?” I chuckled.
“I’ll buy it. They can live there. The schools in this area are better anyhow.”
“Baby—“
“I didn’t have shit until you came into my life. You’ve given me everything, and I will do anything to convince you to move in.”
“But buying a house?”
“Okay, fine.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s already mine.” He shrugged, and my eyes widened.
“Hollis!”
“Real estate is a good investment.
“Okay, but what if you change your mind and—“
“I won’t.” With anyone else, I would have called bullshit. But Hollis said what he meant and never did anything he didn’t want to do.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to move in just yet, but you will, little flower.” He frowned, and whatever walls I still had standing around my heart tumbled down. “Either way, the house is there, and they could move in tomorrow if they wanted to.”
“There is no way my mom would be able to afford the rent or—“
“It would be the same she pays now,” he cut me off. My nose stung with unshed tears.
“Hollis.”
“And since I’m probably putting way too much out there and already freaking you the hell out, I should tell you, you’re going to marry me one day, too.”
“You want to marry a stripper?” I asked and shook my head, but his fingers held my chin, forcing me to keep my eyes on him.
“You’re more than a dancer,” he said. “Whatever you want to do, you can. I’ll help you. You want to go back to school, I’ll help by paying for everything.”
“I’m not a gold digger!” I exclaimed, feeling vulnerable.
“You’re not. Never said you were. What you are though is mine. And I take care of what’s mine. I’ll pay for it. I’ll be up when you do an all-nighter, brewing you coffee and bending you over your desk so you can study flashcards while I finger you slowly.” My breath hitched.
“You’re ridiculous.” I laughed softly, shaking my head.
And as crazy as it was, as wild and absurd as everything he said sounded, I could picture it.
Our life together.
And I wanted it.
One that would be a little easier not because of his money alone but because the two of us would work ourselves to the bone to help the other make their dreams come true.
“Okay,” I whispered and watched my beautifully unhinged man blink.
“Okay,” he repeated slowly.
“I love you, too.” I bit away a smile and winced. “I should have started there. I love you and… and I like everything you’ve said.”
“But?”
“No buts.” I shrugged. “I want to build a life with you, too, Hollis Porter. Through the good and the bad and everything in between.”
“You’re moving in.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” The smile he gifted me was blindingly beautiful. “Good.” He let go of my face and turned, about to walk down the hall to our room.
“Wait, where you going?” I asked, taking hold of his wrist.
“I’m calling Victor and Tray.” The expression on his face was confused, like I should have known that was the next step.
“For what?”
“So they can help me pack your stuff up and move you in tonight.” He looked at me like that should have been crystal clear. As time went by, down the road, I would learn that Hollis never put anything off when it came to me.
“Tonight?!” I laughed. He pulled me into his space, picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around his middle. With my forehead pressed against his, I compromised. “How about tomorrow morning?”
“Why tomorrow morning?” he rasped, his eyes down on my mouth before meeting my gaze.
“Because tonight, Daddy’s going to show me just how much he loves me.”
“Fucking done.”
“And,“ I cut in, “he’s going to let me show him just how much I love him, too.”
“You’re fucking perfection, Maryanne,” he rumbled before pressing his lips to mine, sealing the deal and our future with a passionate, hungry kiss.