Built Over Time (Middleton Hotels 4)

“Oh shit.” He took a step back like he was going to be attacked at any second.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, sweetheart. We’re just a little too far apart in age. I thought maybe you were seventeen or so, but I want you to know that this isn’t over. Only three more years. But know this, I’ll be back for you. I’ve spent the last year thinking about things I had no right to. And technically, they would have gotten me arrested had I even thought of acting on them.”

“I’ll be waiting here in three years. Just for you. Will you wait for me?” I felt like that was a loaded question. The young girl in me felt like a princess. The realist in my fifteen-going-on-forty brain told me that he wouldn’t be waiting for me. It was just words.

“I can’t promise anything when I know you won’t keep to yourself. I’m sure you already have had more ladies than I can count.” All of a sudden he crowded my space.

“Princess, you’re mine. I’ve never touched a woman and won’t. Three years from now, you’ll get this same man, only smarter and wealthier.”

“Harper,” my father shouted.

“Goodbye, my Harper.” I couldn’t wait until we met again.

Chapter 3

Bryce

“Dad, can I talk to you for a moment?” I asked entering his office. I wondered if this would make me some sort of pedophile or something. Our ages would legally say yes, but morally we weren’t that off in time.

“Sure thing. What’s up?” he asked, looking up from the news report on his latest tablet. It was faster than the tablets of the past with more capabilities of a computer. Everything could be easily sent from it, giving him more time with mom. They loved each other beyond compare. That was the way I felt about Harper. She was my world and it was going to be hard to live without her. Three years and I’d be back to claim her. For now, I had to try to not think of her at fifteen. Fuck! Three years without her or stroking it to thoughts of her? That was going to be terrible. My balls were going to fall off.

“Well, Dad. The thing is that I’ve been thinking about this girl.”

“Bryce, you’re too young for anything serious.”

“It’s not that. She’s too young for me,” I confessed.

“How young?”

“Fifteen.”

“Stay away from her,” my father warned. The anger on his face was clear.

“It’s not like that. It’s just that I dream about her and they aren’t pure. I didn’t know she was that young when I first caught a glimpse of her.”

“So, you’ve wanked it to her?”

“Yes, and I feel guilty now that I know her real age.”

“Legally, she’s too young for you, but your age gap isn’t that bad. It’s just not the right time.”

“I feel lousy, but it’s hard not to think of her and I don’t want to think of anyone else.” He shook his head and laughed.

“When I was young, it didn’t take much to get hard and take care of myself. Watch some porn or something. You probably won’t remember her in a few months.”

So he thought. I hadn’t forgotten her from that glimpse a year ago and I wasn’t ever going to.

Three years later…

“Come on, ride with me,” Joe Jr. said. Since I didn’t have any brothers, my cousin and I hung around together all the time.

“I can’t, Joe. My flight leaves in the morning,” I told him.

“Come on, it’ll be fast, but I feel like racing.”

“What’s going on? Girl trouble?” I teased since I was about to fix the only girl problem I had.