“What’s that?”
“Something sweet.” He takes my hand and leads me to the kitchen where he begins to pull out hot cocoa mix, put a kettle on, and in the pantry, he finds a mason jar of marshmallows. He fixes us each a mug and then leads me to the couch. He doesn’t tell me to strip, or to beg, or to get on my hands and knees. No. Smith treats me like a lady.
And God, as I slip off my boots and curl my feet under myself next to him on the big leather sofa in front of the fire, my eyes start to fill with the most unexpected tears.
Smith hands me the hot cocoa and then sees the tears in my eyes. “Oh Sugar, what is it?”
“It’s just… you are being so nice to me. I expected… I don’t know, I always assumed one day my brother would get rid of me, to someone who wouldn’t respect me. And I had come to terms with the fact that was my fate, you know. That it was all I deserved. So tonight, when he told me to go with you, I figured the time had finally come. That I’d lose my virginity to a man who was willing to put a price on it. But then... But then you…”
Tears fall down my cheeks and I try to wipe them away, but my shoulders shake. I set down the cocoa on the coffee table, not wanting to spill it and Smith takes my hand. “Sugar, first of all, you’re priceless. Second of all, fuck that being your fate. You can’t settle. Let yourself dream, girl. Don’t let your brother and his bullshit plans for you be your destiny, Make your own.”
I close my eyes, “You don’t understand what it’s like for girls like me.”
“Girls like what?” he asks.
“Girls who have no money, no skills, no education. I don’t have a lot of options.”
“And if you had those things, money and resources, what would you do?”
My eyes open at his words and his sure and solid face greet me with eyes full of compassion, and a body so strong that I feel like I could lean against him and be protected from any of life’s storms.
“You know what, Smith? No one in my life has ever asked me what I wanted.”
He smiles, handing me back my cocoa. The marshmallows have melted just like my heart. “Well, Sugarplum, let’s change that. Starting tonight you get to make all the decisions. So, what’ll it be? What do you want?”
I take a sip of the velvety chocolate, the sweet warmth spreading through my body. Feeling brave, with my hand in his, I answer with absolute certainty. “I want you, Smith. Tonight, I want all of you.”SmithShe says she wants me and I'm not going to tell her no, not after a lifetime of men not giving her what she wants. This time I'll give her exactly what she wants, what she needs, and God, how good it feels to know that I am what she chooses.
Maybe not for tomorrow, but for tonight she picks me and damn, how I long to show her that I pick her. I draw her against me, our hot drinks set aside, and I run my hands through her honey blonde hair, the long hair I've been eyeing since the first moment I saw her. Now in the low light of the cabin, with the fire in front of us, it practically glows. Sugar is a vision and somehow, she is here with me. My cock aches at the knowledge that I'm finally going to get the one thing I've always wanted: the woman of my goddamn dreams.
“Are you okay?” I ask, she nods, nervously biting her bottom lip. There’s a hint of a smile pushing through though and it eases my worry that she might have doubts.
“When you run your hands through my hair, it makes me feel so beautiful,” she whispers.
“Good,” I tell her, loving her honesty. “Because it makes me feel like a king.”
Her eyelashes flutter and she looks up at me coyly, as if she’s both nervous and ready. “Do you mind if I…” She licks those pretty pink lips of hers and then begins to run her fingers through my beard. “I’ve been aching to do that since the moment you walked into the bar.”
“You're saying you saw me before I saw you?” I ask her.
She smiles. “I was reading a book in the corner. You wouldn't have seen me. I was pretty engrossed in my novel.”
“Not too engrossed to run your eyes over my beard?”
She giggles, and God, the sound is sweet. “Yeah, you're my type.”
“I like the sound of that.” I look at her feeling so lucky. “You’ve really never been with a man, Sugarplum?”