“Caitlin, help your brothers and sister clear the table.”
“Oh daddy, can’t I be excused just this once? It’s Todd’s first day home.”
“Caitlin!” Todd tugged on my hand to stop me. I love this new thing he does, the way he just says my name in that commanding way.
“I’ll help you.” I hid my blush as I moved around the table removing empty dishes as the others got up to help. I was back to feeling shy and out of my depth when he just silently moved around the table with me not saying a word.
I rushed through my chores even sending the boys and Catalina away since he was helping me. They were only too happy to make their escape, leaving us alone in the kitchen.
My face stayed red the whole time and I could feel my heart knocking against my ribcage. I didn’t realize my hand was shaking until he covered it with his. “Relax, if your dad sees you being this jumpy he’s going to guess that something’s up.”
His words and the way he looked at me as he said them made my knees weaken and I bit into my lip and grabbed onto the sink, white knuckling it. “Don’t do that.”
I gave him a questioning look and he reached over and pulled my lip from between my teeth.
The look in his eyes said he wanted to kiss me but I knew he wouldn’t even though I wanted him to in the worst way. Because of daddy I’ve never really allowed myself to think of us in a sexual way. Of course there were times that my mind would stray and I’d wonder how it might be. I don’t live under a rock after all.
I have friends who’ve gone all the way with their boyfriends already who don’t mind sharing all the details, so of course I’ve wondered a time or two how it would be between us. But for some reason it was brought home to me as we stood at the kitchen sink looking into each other’s eyes, that this was the first time I’d ever felt this level of sexual tension between us.
Always before he was the boy I could trust, the one I wanted to be with and hopefully spend the rest of my life with. I’ve no doubt that it’s because of daddy that I’ve been able to keep my teenage hormones under control. That and the fact that Todd had moved away, or the fact that he himself had never once brought up the subject of sex with me.
Now that I think about it, we’ve been like an old married couple without the benefit of an actual marriage. We were comfortable with each other in a way that none of my friends are with their guys. While they were having sex and moving from partner to partner, Todd and I were planning our future together once I escape the clutches of the world’s strictest father.
But now my mind, and my hormones, are working overtime. I’m seventeen, more than old enough I think to know what I want. I’ve always been a good girl, always did as I was told. Maybe too good if it took only one heated kiss to turn me into a seething inferno.
It’s as if someone had turned a switch and I’ve gone from the sweet Caitlin Lyon who’s never put a foot wrong to this person who has sex on the brain. Or maybe I’ve always been this way and had just repressed myself until now. Whatever the case may be, I don’t think this Genie is going back in the bottle.
“What’s that look for?” He finished drying his hands with the dishtowel as he looked at me awaiting an answer. He lifted his brow when I didn’t answer right away and I didn’t miss the way he swallowed under my intense gaze.
“Oh nothing!” I took his hand and lead him from the kitchen. “How about I show you how well I’ve learned to drive?”
LYON
“What’s going on with you and Todd?”
“What do you mean?” Slick bastard took a sip from his glass with a straight look on his face.
“Well, I had my eye on him all night and surprisingly he wasn’t making eyes at my kid the whole time, he just kept giving you strange looks all through dinner.”
“Let me ask you this. Is what we’re dealing with the only reason you won’t let Caitlin go to school a year early? Or is it because you want to keep those two apart?”
“What do you think?” He took his time answering.
“Well, I’d like to think that the man I’ve come to know wouldn’t be that obtuse. From what I’ve seen so far, the kid’s a standup guy. I’m sure you’ve vetted him up one side and down the other; so I’m inclined to believe that it’s this thing we’re dealing with that’s the holdup.”