“I can honestly say in good faith I walked into my marriage with your mother with semi-good intentions. To take care of you both and to get that green card. But you weren’t Kathleen. You were…stronger. The reason why your mother never sent you to work the streets is because she knew you never would.”
I don’t want to think about it, but maybe it’s true. Annabelle used to get mad at me when we were still living together, just the two of us. She got mad at me when she needed to feed me an
d wanted to spend the cash on drugs, and she used to get really pissed when I asked for new shoes or textbooks for school. But every time she tried to coax me into helping her out, she didn’t even say what she wanted me to do, I just had a gut feeling it wasn’t right, I shook my head violently and said that I’ll have to ask Nana if it’s something worth doing. That’d shut her up right there. She knew my grandmother would never let these kind of things happen to me.
“I wanted to save you, but then something weird happened, Dolly. You turned into someone I never expected you’d be, especially with your kind of upbringing. A good girl, who doesn’t fuck around, who is interested in dancing and dreams about going to a good college. You looked at me respectfully, but never tried to get too close. Not a gold digger, and not someone who cares about my money too much. I started noticing you, and it was terribly inconvenient, both for my mind and my cock. I wanted to fight it, I didn’t want to be the guy who fucks his step-daughter, it’s bad for business this kind of reputation, but then I realized that you were never actually my daughter. You refused to accept me as your father and I…I never really looked at you fatherly either.”
I chuckle sadly. It was the truth. Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I ask, “So what made you finally let go?”
“You,” he responds quietly, squatting down and rearranging the flowers on Kathleen’s grave. Without asking him I know for a fact that he’s the one who put them there. And maybe even every week, or every month. It makes me love him even more.
Fuck, love him.
I love this man.
The realization hits me hard, like a punch to the gut, and I gasp for air.
“I knew when you entered my club that it was a sign. A sign that you’re mine. A sign that you always were. When those idiots hit on you and you raised your eyes to the second floor and saw me, it was fate. Corny as shit but it was. Because you were looking for something else, someone to save you from those assholes. You found what you were looking for.” He smiles, but not happily, at the grave. When he stands up, I notice that he’s holding one of the pink flowers in his hand. He hands it to me.
“This will never happen to you.”
“I know,” I whisper. We stand in front of one another for a long minute before he says:
“What do you wanna do?”
I lift my eyes, and know that even though I don’t say it, he sees it, “I want to make you happy.”
“I meant right now,” he smirks.
I nod, and repeat myself.
“Make you happy. That’s what I wanna do. Now. Tomorrow. Anytime.”
A week passes by. I still think about the graveyard incident, but Graham and I don’t talk about it anymore. I go to school every day and it’s weird not having Shawn around. He got out of the hospital three days ago, but said he still hasn’t fully recovered from the minor car accident he was involved in. Just to make sure the story is legit, Graham smashed Shawn’s Jaguar into a tree on the outskirts of Princeton. Since Shawn was drunk and coked up when he tried to get into my pants, and traces of both alcohol and cocaine were found in his blood stream, this made total sense to the hospital staff and his parents.I’m not sad for him. I just hope Graham is right and Shawn will never try doing this to another girl ever again.
Jade is still pestering me about my relationship with Graham, so I finally decided to make it “official” by inviting some of my friends over for dinner with him. I figured it’d make everyone see that we’re just a regular couple and maybe make them ditch the whole “Dahl is screwing her daddy” running gag they’ve been taunting me with. I invited Jade, Britney and Sarah, another friend from school. Graham invited Carter, a guy named Ross and his younger brother, a guy I’ve never met before, Cole Savage. Graham was always careful to keep his real family separate from Mom and I. We saw t Cole is twenty-five and they’re only half-brothers from their dad’s side, but I am still eager to impress him.
For the past week, we’ve spent every single evening together. We have dinner, discuss our day and fuck like our lives depends on it until the early hours of the morning.
It makes me feel like a grown up. Like a woman. Like someone who is loved. I know my mom will be back soon, but I opt for denial at this stage as per usual. No harm in trying to forget about it. I mean, it’s going to happen anyway.
I’m in the kitchen now, making my special roast, the one Nana taught me how to make, and fry some bacon for my egg and bacon salad. I stand in front of the stove, flipping the juicy pieces that sizzle in my pan, when I feel his hard body grinding against mine. He is enveloping me from behind, planting a kiss on my shoulder and snaking his arm next to my waist to steal a piece of bacon. Graham throws it in his mouth and chews on the crispy piece of meat, deliberately doing so while his mouth is on my ear.
“So fucking tasty, but it’s not the only thing I wanna eat right now.”
“Then you’ll have to starve.” I cock an eyebrow, smirking as I fish some of the bacon out of the greasy pan and throw it into a bowl. “Because I need to fix dinner for eight, and I’m not even halfway done.”
His cock pokes at my ass cheeks and damn if I don’t want to turn off the stove, order some Thai food and tell my guests to deal with it.
“Oh, she’s sassy.” He sucks on my earlobe, palming one of my tits and circling his thumb around my nipple through my shirt.
“Does that annoy you?”
“Not really. Every time you say something mouthy, I just picture your lips around my cock. That’d silence you in a second.”
I turn around, opening my legs wider and hoping he’d take the hint, grab me by my ass and carry me upstairs, even though my inner thighs are still recovering from our session last night, when the doorbell chimes and Jade walks in swiftly like she owns the place. Graham offers me a look that says that he is unimpressed, reaches behind me, takes another piece of bacon and gets out of my personal space.
“Hi, Mr. Savage!” Jade waves the bottle of cheap wine she brought in her hand. Jesus. We’re not even trying to disguise the fact that we’re drinking underage.