Chapter Nine #2
Okay, she knows! She knows everything! She went to the bar, she asked questions, and surely someone told her that a man matching Clint’s description dragged me into the backroom and out of the building!
Well, my life is over. There’s no going back. Mistakes were made, but there’s always my next life to try again.
As my sister continues to stare directly into my soul, I can’t help but question the hesitation. Usually she’s already set to attack-mode when she knows something.
What if they don’t know? What if this is a game to see if I crack?
I can’t spill out the truth here and now. I mean, I could, but I won’t. I’m not going to throw away this divine second chance.
My chest tightens and my heart races so fast I swear smoke is coming out of my ears.
I don’t know what to say. What the hell comes next?
“You went home with someone else, didn’t you?” my mother adds, sipping what I hope is decaf. “Who did you leave with?”
“What?” My heart hammers.
“She doesn’t want to tell us who, Mom.” June grins. “I give you a hard time, Bella, but maybe you’re more grown up than I think you are. You really know how to take care of yourself lately.”
Nope, still a complete idiot.
“I mean, life is hard, and I know I’ve made things harder for you recently. I shouldn’t be doing that. You worked your whole career for that job at the school. You don’t owe me anything anymore. It was wrong of me to ask for as much as I have, and I’d like to offer you some grace.”
I narrow my brows, and I swear to high heaven I’m about to throw up. She definitely knows something. My sister has never apologized a day in her life. She once got caught taking money directly from my piggy bank, and she blamed me for leaving it unlocked.
“It’s what sisters do,” I say, desperate to diffuse whatever bomb it is she’s lit.
She stands from the table and walks toward me slowly, her gaze never leaving mine in the dim light of the kitchen. “The thing is, I’ve always seen you as competition. You’re young, you’re pretty, and you’ve got this femininity that I don’t have. I get jealous of that sometimes.”
Okay, I’m totally creeped out.
“Anyway,” she sighs, leaning in for the first hug she’s taken in ten years, “I’m too tired to go home. I think I’ll stay here tonight. We should do a big family breakfast in the morning.” She winks and offers me a grin. “Maybe then you’ll feel like telling us all your secrets.”
My secrets.
Right… because she knows I’m a whore that’s totally sleeping with her ex-fiancé.
“Your sister is nicer than I am,” my mother adds.
“I think you’re rude and disrespectful for making us worry about you all night.
Don’t pull that shit again. I’m too old for this nonsense.
” She stands from the table with a wobble and turns toward the back bedroom as my sister hops up to her old room at the top of the stairs next to mine.
That’s it? How can that be it?
I almost wish she’d called me out. Then at least the truth would be out in the open. I mean, who the hell am I, and what am I doing?
What kind of decent human being does the things I’ve done, and why, in this moment, after everything, do I still crave the arms of the man I’ve been calling Daddy?
My stomach tightens and my thighs ache just thinking about him.
The way he touches me. The way he talks to me.
The way he was with me tonight at the bar, so feral and hungry.
The way he was with me, picking flowers and painting, so sweet and patient.
The way he was with me in the lake, so caring and protective.
Chest tight, I click off the kitchen light and climb the stairs up to my bedroom, the one in the center of the hall with the pale pink walls I haven’t bothered painting since I was a kid. Except when I step into the room, the man I ran from is standing in the center of the space.
My head goes light, my mouth goes dry, and my body moves on instinct, pushing the door closed behind me. “What the hell? How did you get in here?”
He nods back toward the window. “Climbed up the trellis. Couldn’t walk through the front door, given the circumstances.”
“Umm… okay.” My heart pounds as he steps closer.
This isn’t normal. A normal man wouldn’t scale the house and sneak into my bedroom in the middle of the night.
A normal man wouldn’t pin me down and make me touch myself outside of his house.
A normal man wouldn’t carry me to the back room of a bar, fuck me like an animal, and ask me to call him Daddy.
Maybe he’s crazy. Maybe he really is obsessed. Maybe I’ve invited something into my life I’m going to severely regret.
“Why are you here?” I whisper, heart pounding as I stare up into his chestnut eyes. “My sister is sleeping in the room right next door, and my mother is just downstairs.”
Light from the moon filters in through the open window as he stalks forward, his massive, inked arms highlighted as he holds his gaze on mine. “You left me, little girl. You didn’t even tell me where you were going. That’s something I wasn’t expecting out of you.”
“My mom and my sister were texting me. I had to leave. I didn’t want to wake you up.”
His hand slides down the side of my arm and onto my hip, before he flattens his big, rough hand over the top of my pussy.
I should be repulsed. The man snuck up to my room, and he followed me here from the lake house. He’s crazy, and yet, I’m the furthest thing from repulsed. In fact, my pussy is sopping wet, and I’ve never wanted him more.
“You’re mine, little girl. We talked about this. You ask Daddy’s permission before you leave the house. How else can I keep you safe?”
My clit twitches as his warm breath spreads against the lobe of my ear.
“I’m sorry,” I sigh, melting into his big, heavy touch. “I should’ve told you I was leaving.”
Why am I apologizing? My brain is telling me that it’s the right thing to do, but my clit is craving Daddy’s punishment.
“You should have. It’s the middle of the night. Anything could’ve happened to my girl.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I say, blinking up at him sweetly.
“Sorry isn’t enough for this kind of offence, baby. Daddy needs to punish you.”
My clit throbs as my panties soak, the world blurring in warm, hot, vibrating circles.
“At the lake house,” I murmur. “You can punish me at the lake house.”
“No,” he grins backing me toward the twin bed I’ve been sleeping in for decades, “you’re going to take your punishment right here. You’re going to spread your legs and take Daddy’s cock like a good, little girl. Do you know why?”
I swallow hard as I fall back on the squeaky bed, my breath fast and heavy. “No, why?”
“Because you’re mine, my sweet girl. Mine to protect. Mine to love.” He leans in, growling lower and lower with every word like an animal as he says, “Mine. Mine. Mine.”
“Yours,” I repeat, swallowing down the lump in my throat. “I’m yours.”
“Good girl. Now spread those thighs for Daddy.”