All I can do is stand there with my heart in my throat and try to ignore the creeping intuition that my days are numbered.No. Fight back.
She’s only going to put up with you for a week.
With that impending doom hanging over my head, I cut a quick path to the bathroom and pry open the door, finding her in the middle of getting undressed. Her head is trapped inside her T-shirt, and I must have startled her, because she stumbles and smacks her temple off the glass shower door.
Something sharp slices into my jugular.Goddammit.
“Ow,” she sniffles.
“Come here,” I say, my voice annoyingly thick. I turn her in my direction and—with more gentleness than I knew myself capable of—disentangle her from the shirt, her mussed hair andmuddy face popping through a second later. She’s so fucking beautiful, I stare dumbfounded at her face, instead of looking at her bare breasts. Now,thatis terrifying. “Is your fool head okay?”
She nods. “Just bumped it a little.”
“Don’t bump it again. Don’t bump anything.”
“I won’t.”
Why can’t I swallow? “Good.” Jesus, I need to pull myself together. I’m acting like she broke her leg. I need to get this whole situation back under control. She’s turning me into something I’m not. Someone I don’t know how to be.
I lower my head to hers, circling her throat with my right hand, and I speak right up against her mouth. “When you’re done showering, go into my room and lie down on the bed naked. Right in the middle. Keep the lights off and don’t say a word.” I plant a hard kiss on her mouth, skating my fingertips down, down between her breasts, over her stomach, tapping a finger low against the fly of her jeans. “I’ll come in when I’m ready to fuck.”
I force myself to wait outside the bedroom for fifteen minutes.
I can’t let her know how eager I am.
Can’t let her know that I am salivating over the fact that she is on the other side of this door naked. Waiting for me to come collect on her parents’ debt. Although…
There must be a conscience rattling around somewhere inside of me, because the insane lust raging inside of me is now tinged with guilt. Shame. I’m a thirty-five-year-old man about to defile an eighteen-year-old girl who set out to be brave for her family. To fix a problem she didn’t cause. Perhaps if I wasn’t sofucking drawn to Billie, I’d forgive the debt without making her sacrifice her body.
But I know damn well there is no other way I can have her.
No other way she’d choose me.
She’s a light.
I’m a dweller of the dark.
If this is the only way I can experience her, so be it. I’ll ignore my conscience.
I’ll ignore how she’s getting to me…emotionally.
That horrifying admission has me ripping the door open with a snarl curling my upper lip. I’m going to attack her. I’m going to spread her legs open and ride her as hard as I want, because that was the deal. I get to do anything I want to her. Right?
I’m in a trance at the foot of the bed, however.
Marveling at the treasure laid out before me.
She’s exquisite.
I’m a rich man simply by observing Billie, naked in my bed. Her pussy is a shadow between her bent knees, her tits rising and falling with nervousness. Her wet hair has been towel dried and left to fall in dark brown waves on my comforter. I can smell the fresh, inviting warmth of her flesh. That spot where her tight ass cheeks transform into her cunt makes my balls clench and out of necessity, I unzip my jeans, relieving some of the pressure. Pressure she causes just by existing.
“You actually followed instructions for once,” I say, sounding winded.
Her gentle smile reaches me in the dark. “Don’t get used to it,” she whispers.
I make a gruff, involuntary sound.
I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m overwhelmed with hunger for her. All of her. Her delectable body, her quick wit, her soft heart, her admirable courage. Instead of holding her down and taking what I need with some impersonal fuck, I find myselfunbuttoning my shirt and removing it, knowing if I don’t feel her skin against mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my miserable life.
