Hold On

“What’s wrong?” I dare ask, cold with fear that I’ve hurt or frightened her.

“I just…” She shakes her head, her hands running up the sides of my ribs until they are on my cheeks, her thumbs moving in small circles under my jaw. “I just felt something weird. Like the world did this little hop or something under my feet.”

My entire body is shaking.

I’m on a hair-trigger. If I kiss her again, I doubt my ability to stop myself from taking her completely. I’d strip her naked right here, lay her out on the countertop and drive my tongue deep into her soaking sex to drink from the well that I know is mine already. But, like with the kiss, I want her to be ready. No matter my own crazed need.

“It feels like I screwed it up. I’m stupid sometimes, I feel things. I don’t know if they are real.” She drops her head with a shake, and I reach down and pinch her chin, bringing her back to my eyes.

“You didn’t screw anything up, little one.” That unfamiliar nervous feeling comes over me again, not wanting to fuck this up. “You made the world shift under my feet the moment I opened my door and saw you standing there.”

“Really?” Her lips curve into a sweet, pink smile, and my heart leaps. Seeing her smile is my new favorite thing. “You’re full of it.”

“Really. Now, I have another deal to make with you.”

“Oh? What is that?”

“You liked that kiss. So, you’re going to let me kiss you wherever I want, and after that, you get to decide if you want me to fuck you or not. Deal?”

It’s bold. Probably too bold, but it’s out there now, and my instinct tells me it was the right move, though I can’t be sure.

Microseconds feel like months before her lips curve into a smile, her eyes twinkling as she reaches down and takes my hand, moving it to her mouth and sucking my middle finger between her lips.

“On one condition,” she says after she pulls my finger from the wet warmth, nearly stopping my heart.

“What’s that?”

“I get to kiss you, too.” She leans to my ear. “Wherever I want.”

Eight

Emmy

THE ROOM FEELS LIKE it’s spinning.

I don’t know who this girl is that’s taken me over since I landed on Marshall’s doorstep, but I finally understand the word ‘slut.’

And I like it.

There’s an aching between my legs that surges with my thundering pulse as Marshall’s arms scoop me up off the counter before he carries me out onto the expanse of the stone patio. Outside, the sun is warm, and I hear the surge of the lake’s waves against the shore as the breeze brings the clean scent of freshwater and summer dreams.

“I want you here, where God can see us, because I have to believe you dropped straight from heaven, and I want Him to see how much I appreciate the gift.”

My head falls back as he lays me over a double chaise lounge. All the other problems in my life evaporate as I lose myself in the moment for the first time in as long as I can remember.

Being around Marshall, my mind clears. Something tells me he will make sure everything is okay. That I’m okay. And as strong as I am, it feels so right and perfect to know that this incredible, dominant man I’ve just met seemingly has my back like no one has before.

As much as I loved my grandparents, as wonderful as they tried to be as parents, I still never had a full sense of security. Money was always a struggle. They did their best, but they didn’t really understand what it meant to grow up in my generation. I spent so much of my life telling them everything was okay, when it was far from okay.

Being the nerdy, goofy girl with grandparents instead of parents that looked so different from everyone else set me up for a lot of ridicule. From the moment I arrived at kindergarten with them looking straight out of that American Gothic painting and me wearing a hand-sewn dress matching my grandmother’s, life at school became a battle to keep my head down and, at best, be ignored.

I’ve never felt beautiful or desirable before, not until the first time Marshall Rogers looked at me.

Now, I’m lying here and he’s standing over me, the sun at his back creating this glow around him like a golden lust that makes me feel powerful in a way I don’t ever remember.

I feel so small and beautiful under his gaze, so tiny in comparison to his enormity, even though I know I’m never going to walk a runway. Again, those insecurities I’ve always had about my size melt away, and I feel sexy for the first time in my life.