“Yeah, I… I mean, I don’t trust most men in real life.”
“Why?”
Goddamn, I know why. Alena was fifteen, I was eighteen, we were on the beach, and she ran away, crying, while I beat him within an inch of his life.
But I need Alena to tell me. I need her to trust me, Loch. Not @LuvPounder. Then, it really is the word that’s too soon to say.
“I don’t…” But she looks away, tears welling in her eyes again.
I caress her cheek, turning her swimming stare back to mine. “Alena, please tell me. Tell me why you don’t know how you’re so fucking beautiful, and I promise, I’ll make you feel it. Tonight. Tomorrow. Forever. As long as you let me, Babygirl, because you are.”
Her lips tremble, but her chestnut eyes lock on my soul.
“Because I was bullied,” she mutters. “All through middle school. And he made me feel so small and big at the same time. I used to love how I looked. I look like my mom, and when he called me fat and ugly, he was calling my mom that, too, and I missed her so much, and it hurt so bad. I wanted to die like my mom did until my best friend saved me.”
Fuck me, I know where John Thurmond still lives, and I want to maim him all over again.
“He’s gone.” I cradle her wet jaw, swearing to her eyes. “He’s so fucking gone because I’m here. Always. Knowing your mom was so damn beautiful because you’re so goddamn breathtaking, Alena, it hurts to look at you. Because I feel it in my chest, my dick, my heart, my hands. I want to grab you and make you mine, but that’ll scare the shit out of you?—”
“I’m not scared of you. Of us.” Her lips reach for mine. “I’m yours, Loch Waring, and I want you to make me feel it tonight.”
Days. Years. Forever. It’s in our kiss. It’s in my lips, taking her breath away. My tongue, rousing her moan.
She presses her wet body to mine, and I wrap my arms around her. Rescued. Relieved. Feeling so goddamn alive that we made it through this.
Alena knows me, the truth, at least, some of it, but that suddenly makes me remember. “Fuck,” I pull back, huffing from our kiss. “Fuck, my video call, my fans, they’re still waiting for?—”
“It’s still on?” She glances at the back of my laptop.
“Yeah, I…” I turn to walk across the room, to slam it shut, but she grabs my hand.
“Wait.” She chews her lip. “I… I want…”
I can read her blushing cheeks, her blooming flesh, my kinky world shifting on its lonely axis, but I want her to own it. “You wantwhat, my DirtTGirl?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
LOCH
Her stare volleysfrom me to my laptop, then back at me, confessing, “Half of me wants to be DirtTGirl with you online. It’s my kink. But half of me, Alena, doesn’t feel beautiful enough to do it yet. It’s my insecurity.”
No, it’s her bravery. Her honesty. It’s the contrast to my lies, making her even more stunning. Awe and arousal crest inside me. I need to please her, but I’m protective.
“Alena, half of me wants to show you off.” Fuck, my dick twitches. “But half of me wants to hide you forever, because ALL of me knows you’re so goddamn sexy and mine.”
She won’t stop chewing her plump bottom lip. “I almost believe you when you say I’m beautiful. It’s like when I do a rescue; I have to leap and believe in my body,” she reasons. “And you make me feel sexy. That’s what LuvPounder taught me. To be bad and bold for him. And then, you, Loch, taught me to feel free wearing a mask, and…”
Fuck, all the kinky ways I want to please her. In front of the whole world, but…
“Babygirl, I’ll always pleasure you, but I’ll never hurt you.And you said you wanted to go slow. And you can’tevershow your face online. It’s too risky.”
She assumes I worry about her job, and I do. But I worry about her heart. I won’t rush her. Also, her father, my family, and every threat I’m trying to protect her from. Even myself.
But she beams with a sudden plan, aiming for my door. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“It’s Fate. Leather and lace,” she calls over her shoulder. “Imagine how hot we’ll look together online.”
