All Grown Up (Eden High)

I cracked and forked her lobster before dipping it in the hot seasoned butter and held it up to her lips. She stuck her tongue out to lick some escaped butter from the corner of her lips, and my dick got hard. I was tempted, very tempted. Especially when visions of me rubbing that butter over her nipple before tasting it with a hint of her essence mixed in ran through my head.

I had to remind myself that I’d barely let her get through lunch, and she needed to eat to keep up her strength. Fuck knows I plan to keep her up half the night. I fed her while my food grew cold, but I didn’t care. I was enjoying watching her enjoy something else she loved and getting a kick out of it.

I never knew it was this pleasurable to see joy in someone else. I never knew the feeling of wanting to move mountains for the person who meant the most to you on this earth. In the span of twenty-four hours, the feelings I had for her had doubled at least. The fear was new to me.

In the last year or so, while dealing with Mancini, I’d come to see what some might consider the underbelly of humanity. Somehow I’d been detached from it before. Though it had become more than a job, or something to do to feel good about myself, it had never felt as personal as it now did as I sat across from her, watching her gaily laugh at something I said with not a care in the world.

I’m beginning to feel like an idiot each time I have the thought of calling the others to share, but I wanted to know if this thing that I’m feeling was what they’d been trying to explain for months now. A day ago, I was just a horny teenager in love with the girl who made my heart soar.

Tonight, I feel like I imagine a husband would feel. The sense of responsibility was just a little bit frightening. I didn’t know that I’d feel this all-enveloping need to protect her from everything. Even when we’d been walking through the little marketplace earlier, I’d found myself shielding her from so much as being brushed up against by anyone, man, woman, or child.

Let’s not talk about the caveman that came awake inside me each time I caught some douche checking her out. At least that I expected and was somewhat prepared for, on the outside at least. No one warned me about the killer instinct that would kick in and take over my mind and thoughts.

In short, I think I grew up last night, as corny as that sounds. The past few months leading up to her birthday compared to now, this minute is like the difference between playing house as a kid and the real thing. I only have one problem though, my revenge on her dad. I’d planned to out his ass publicly and have him black-listed.

During our late-night talk last night, I’d told the others my plan, and they seemed all for it. For once, Jace was going to let me handle something on my own without him babysitting me, not just me; he does that to all of us. But watching her, listening to her talk to her family when she called them earlier, I think I might hurt her if I go that route. So now I’m stuck thinking up new ideas because there’s no way I’m going to bring her pain.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” I guess my thoughts had trapped me into staring at her without blinking for the last few seconds.

“You’re pretty, and you’re mine; why can’t I look at you like that?” Her cute little nose scrunched up with her smile as she tried to hide from me behind a waterfall of hair.

I reached over and brushed it back behind her ear. “Don’t hide from me; I like looking at you.” The sun was a fiery ball on the horizon behind her, its dying rays a perfect backsplash to her enchanting beauty. There was a look in her eyes I’d never seen before—a look of contentment, excitement, and pleasure. Hopefully, I can keep it there for the next fifty-sixty years.

I pulled her over to me when she was through eating so we could watch the last of the sun disappear just as the moon rose above the water; it was magic. I figured someone with as romantic a heart as she has would appreciate such a thing, and I was right.

I had to carry her up the beach once we docked because she was beat. “Are you too tired for your last surprise?” She perked right up at that, all tiredness gone from her gaze.