BULKY

“I want to.” I take his hand and press the palm to my cheek. “Talk to me.”

Gunner hedges a moment. “You know I haven’t been with anyone. Since the divorce.” He rolls a thick shoulder. “A lot of that was because of work. Because I didn’t meet anyone that interested me. But, uh…the divorce had a lot to do with it, too. Paul’s mother and I weren’t a great match. We didn’t have the same interests, but we came from money. It was more for status than anything. When she left, though…it was because of…” He nods down at his midsection. “The way I look. Big and bulky. Not lean like the tennis player husbands at the country club.”

I’ve only met Paul’s mother on a handful of occasions and I’m pretty sure I was too overcome with jealousy that she’d been married to Gunner to pay much attention. Right now, I’d like to stomp on her instep and bust her stupid nose, though. That much I know. “Well, I’m sorry, but that’s really horrible and shallow,” I say, my own nose starting to burn out of outrage and the need to cry for this man who provides for everyone without complaint. “That’s more of a reflection of her character than you.” He gives me an appreciative look, but clearly doesn’t believe me, so I swing for the fences because there’s no way my sugar daddy is going to feel anything less than amazing when he’s with me. I can’t believe he doesn’t know how desirable he is. “Listen to me. You’re sexy as shit. That thing you do…where you roll up your sleeves and plant both fists on the kitchen counter, the way you manspread in your swim trunks with those log-cabin thighs. That gray and black chest hair. Like, oh my god.” I bite my lip and give a low squeal, tugging him toward me by the front of his shirt. “I’ve been wanting to ride the Gunner train since it was highly illegal.”

His chest has started to heave. “Did you now?”

Contritely, I duck my head and look up at him through my lashes. “Uh-huh.” I rake my breasts side to side against his chest, his rumble vibrating my stiff nipples. “And I still don’t really know what it means to ride the Gunner train. You have to teach me, Papa.”

Gunner yanks open the red door and pulls me inside, closing us in. “I don’t know if you’re saying this stuff because you know you’ll be well paid or if you really mean it,” he says, backing me against the door. His mouth on top of mine as he reaches down, roughly cupping my sex through my panties. Groping me. Massaging. “Either way, it makes my cock hard, doesn’t it?”

“I mean it. Everything,” I moan, breaking off on a gasp when Gunner’s middle finger tugs aside the crotch of my underwear and enters me, pumping in and out of the dampness.

“Going to fuck this little wet gash, baby,” he growls in my ear, biting the lobe and tugging. “Going to rail it like a dog.”

I’m so overcome by heat, by lust for this man, all I can do is nod, brain scrambled.

“Fifty grand a week. A penthouse. A Rolls. Diamonds.” He pushes deep with his fingers and looks me in the eye, teeth bared. “Any damn thing you want. You just keep this pussy for Papa, are we clear?”

“Yes,” I whimper, pressing into his hand, arching my back. “Just for Papa.”

You’re all I want. All I’ll ever want for the rest of my life.

I want to say those things to him so badly, but he’s not ready to think of me as his equal. His significant other. I need more time to make him understand we could work. That we’re supposed to be together and there’s no use fighting it. That the money is secondary to what I feel for him. What I’ve always felt.

“That’s a good little girl,” he says, licking up the side of my neck. “Now I’m going to take you back to the hotel so you can squirm that tight teenage cunt all over my face.”

My knees lose control and I drop, but Gunner catches me, throwing my limp body over his shoulder without missing a beat and stomping out of the red room. Before the door can close, I glimpse the art installation. It’s a pitch black room with, “The truth will set you free,” written on the wall in strips of LED lights. Blinking.

And I take it as a sign. That I should confess everything to Gunner.

That I’ve loved him since middle school.

That my family is broke and his money will put me through college. If I tell him that, though, he’ll never believe my feelings are real. He’ll believe my claims that he’s sexy even less. Won’t he?