And by god, I wanted to agree to that if it meant kissing him, touching him.
“I want daddy to take care of me.” The words slipped past my lips, and I knew I’d never been surer of anything in my life.
His lips tilted, and when he leaned in, he sealed the promise of more with a kiss.
Sweet and soft.
Tentative.
Almost like he was waiting for me to change my mind and push him away, but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to. The hands on the clock ticked away while our kiss grew deeper. Wetter. An insatiable hunger started to grow low in my belly, and my hands started to wander. Up his neck, into his incredibly soft hair. Down to his strong shoulders.
“Fuck,” he cursed, “you’re going to be the death of me, baby.” My lips kicked up in a smile I felt in my heart. “So fucking sweetand cute. And mine,” he growled. A squeak escaped from me when he stood and carried me along with him.
He started to take a step forward but stopped just in front of the fireplace. He pulled back and stared at me. Even when I was in his arms, he had to look down at me.
“Need to stop?” he asked. I shook my head with enthusiasm.Stop?That was the last thing I wanted. “Cold?” His eyes skimmed to my bare shoulder. I shook my head again, but his brows bunched, and then one rose higher than the other. “You sure about that?”
“Just a little,” I whispered. “Maybe you could warm me up, daddy?” I chewed on my bottom lip, shocked at my boldness. His eyes changed. Turned darker. Hungrier. More predatory than before.
“I’m sure that’s something I can more than handle, pretty girl.” He set me down slowly, making sure I felt every inch of him before my feet touched the ground. “What if you take a hot bath and—“ The lights chose that moment to turn back on.
I couldn’t hide the weird disappointment I felt. I’d always hated the dark, yet there I was, standing in the living room over an hour away from home, sad the space had filled with light I usually loved.
“Generators kicked in,” he mumbled. I nodded quietly.
Somehow, in the now bright room, some of the inhibitions I had lost started to build back up. And I had a feeling that without having to say the words, he knew that. Could somehow sense it.
“Do you trust me, princess?” Warm wetness coated my thighs. The answer made my tongue feel almost too big for my mouth.
“Yes,” I answered, just above a whisper. I couldn’t tear my eyes off him as he moved.
His tall, strong body moved with a confidence and grace that dropped off the man.And he’s mine.The thought was jarring.Mine.The more it volleyed in my head, the truer it felt. I hardly knew the man’s full name. Past that, I was clueless about him.
But it was something deeper than trivial facts I could learn in a quick game of twenty questions that made me trust him.
It was like my soul, my spirit, recognized his. This thing was more than attraction to a seriously handsome stranger I’d just met.Mine.Immediately, I realized just how whole I suddenly felt. Like a part of me that I hadn’t known was missing, was back.
He reached the panel that held what seemed like a dozen switches on the wall by the door. His fingers hovered over one in particular for a moment before he pressed it. The cabin dimmed, filling back with only the warm, golden hue of the fire roaring at my side and the moonlight still streaming through the windows.
“Better?” he asked, and those walls that had started to come back up crashed to the ground without a second thought.
For better or worse, I was going to take a chance on him. For a night, a week, or however long this could be.
“Better,” I responded with a smile. Before I could inhale completely, he was back with me.
“Fuck the shower.”
“Okay, we can do that later,” I whispered, and he winked. I giggled, my heart and soul lighter than they had felt in a long time. Before I could think, my feet were no longer touching the ground, and I was back up in his arms. This time like a bride would be carried by her groom as my arms wrapped around his neck.
“I got you, princess. I promise I got you.” The tone of his voice felt like it was more than a promise. It was a vow.
We didn’t stop until we reached the main bedroom of the cabin. It was spacious, a lot bigger than any master bedroom I had ever seen before. I’d only been in there for a moment, not nearly enough time to appreciate the beauty of the spindled cedar wood bedframe of the California king-size bed with theluxurious bedding in the prettiest, deepest shade of hunter green.
And standing in front of the man who had taken my breath away with one look, I wasn’t paying attention to it then, either.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, I’m not sure how the hell it’s possible that you’re real, Ember.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” I chewed on my bottom lip, but his hand came up and pulled it out.
