Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 179(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 179(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
“No idea. Few hours if we’re lucky. Longer if not.” I pause, brushing hair off her cheek. “Promise me, Emery.”
Her eyes lock with mine, steady and clear now. “I promise.”
Five Hours Later, we find him three miles into the woods, perched on a fallen tree, calling out for his wife like she’s just around the bend. Cade spots the trail instantly. Soft prints in the mud, branches broken low. The guy’s a bloodhound in boots.
He’s cold. Scared. Still wearing his nightshirt.
But alive.
By the time we get him to the ER and finish all the damn paperwork, the sun’s up, and I’ve got a tension headache pounding behind my eyes.
All I want—all I fucking want—is to see Emery. To press my face to her stomach, to smell her skin and let everything else fall away. To assure her I want her and everything that comes with her. Every. Fucking. Bag in her baggage.
But, I need a shower, a few hours to get my head straight about what’s coming next for us. I check my phone and find a single text.
Emery: Let me know everything is okay with the elderly guy. And with you, Daddy.
Me: The elderly guy is fine. Cold and confused, but no harm done. How are you, Babygirl?
Emery: All good, Daddy, just missing you.
Me: Same, baby. I’ll see you real soon.
Emery: Yes you will ;)
That makes me crack a rare smile. What I don’t expect is to pull up to my cabin and see it flickering with soft candlelight.
Her little gray van in my driveway.
It makes me fucking hard seeing it. Like I’m coming home from work and she’s there. Home before me.
Home.
What I really don’t expect is to hear her voice floating out through the cracked window, singing something soft and low, reminding me of how she stood up for karaoke before her night was interrupted by that fucker with an attitude.
And through the glass?
She’s in my shirt. Just my shirt. Bare legs. Hair down. Swaying slightly as she moves around the kitchen like she belongs there.
My heart goes still.
Because she does. She does belong there.
She’s done this for me. Set this up. Candles. Music. Herself—wrapped up like a goddamn fever dream in plaid and vulnerability.
No one has ever done anything like this for me.
I take a deep breath of pine forest as I stand on the precipice of what feels like the rest of my life, and then I take the few steps up to the cabin and walk right in. Because if this is forever, then I want all of it.
“Hey,” she says with a smile that slams into me like a semi. “So he’s safe?”
“He’s safe. Cold, confused, but safe.” I take a step forward, zeroing in on her like a man tracking his salvation. “What’s all this?”
“I just…” She glances around the room, nerves fluttering beneath her confidence. “You always take care of everyone else. I thought maybe tonight… I could take care of you.”
It hits me like a punch straight to the ribs.
Because no one takes care of me.
Not since Mom died. Not since Dad checked out. Not since my brothers and I learned to carry the world on our backs with no one watching.
But here she is. Twenty-one. Single mom. Still trying to give when no one’s ever really given to her.
“Baby girl,” I groan, my dick already painful and ready.
She slides closer, tip toeing in bare feet until her fingers slip up to the buttons of my shirt. “Let me do this for you.”
The first button unravels me.
I can’t breathe.
“Daddy needs to relax after a long day.”
She undoes the next one. Then the next. Her knuckles brush my chest, and I swear to God my knees almost give out.
“You’re gonna do a good job relaxing me, baby.” My chest is a war zone. Everything tight and hot and too damn full.
“I’m gonna try hard.” Her voice slithers down into my bones as her hand puts an exclamation point on the word ‘hard’.
“Daddy, this is big.”
“Big dick for a big girl.”
She blinks twice, then smiles realizing I’m not making fun of her sexy as fuck body.
This woman, wanting to give instead of just take. Wanting to worship me the way I worship her.
"Okay," I say quietly, covering her hands with mine and helping her push the shirt off my shoulders. “You want to relax me? You gonna do as you’re told?”
A nod, a smile. “Yes and yes.”
"Kneel." I punctuate the word with my hand on the top of her head pushing down. She’s lit this fuse, and she’s gonna get the full explosion whether she’s ready or not.
Zero hesitation as I position her in front of me, those eyes looking up make me want to be everything she needs in the world.
"Good girl." I cup her face in my hands, thumbs stroking across her cheekbones, fighting for control. "Such a good girl for Daddy."