Perhaps because I only reach his shoulder, he doesn’t realize I’m prepared for war.
Chapter Six
Rex
The angry sea is an adversary of mine. There’s an unspoken agreement between us. When it’s howling and tossing my boat around on twenty-foot swells, it’s trying to kill me. It’s understood. I’m gambling on fate when I come into its house. I’m rolling the dice with my life, wagering that I can steal enough of the sea’s treasure before it swallows me whole. I’ve done it successfully for years, despite watching men on my crew lose their footing and sink below the icy surface, never to be seen again. Yeah, I’ve battled angry seas successfully until tonight.
This is a new kind of storm—the one inside me for Clara. And I lost. Hell, I couldn’t even put up a decent fight against this…this obsession. It swells and grows more turbulent by the minute. I’m obsessed with her soft voice, her big doe eyes, her virginity. Taking it. Protecting it from myself. Killing over it.
I should be put in jail for what I did tonight. Fucking my sweet little niece up the ass over the hood of her car. The car my brother is probably paying for. I’m following behind it now along the dark avenue, making sure Clara gets home all right. There’s a stuffed bunny rabbit in the back window and a ballet slippers bumper sticker. She’s so young. So refreshingly honest. Her future is bright, except for the depraved black spot I’ve just left.
In the darkness of my car, though, I can’t help but reach down below the steering wheel and fist my satisfied cock. Lord, she took it like a champ. Creamed all over my hand even while I was treating that tight backside like my own personal playground. At one point I had my boot up on the front fender so I could thrust deeper…and she only mewled like a happy kitten. I’ve never come harder in my life. And I sure as shit have never wanted to hold a girl afterward. Rock her, kiss her forehead, massage away the soreness.
Never wanted to take on the world for a female before. But when she flashes those big eyes at me, I want to be her superhero. Someone to fight evil on her behalf, keep her tucked away in a safe place and provide for her every need.
The brake lights on Clara’s Camry light up as she pulls into her driveway. I pull over at the curb across the street, knowing I can’t go inside. Or I will hold her. I’ll sleep in her bed with her tucked against me. She’ll be so soft, her pussy there for the taking, and I won’t be able to help it this time. I’ll bang her nine times before morning. Shit, at that point, the addiction will be out of control. I’ll still be here when my brother returns from Bali, either shacked up with his little girl or…I’ll have taken her home with me. I’ll have claimed her forever.
I have to leave before the obsession turns into something I can’t control.
The suggestion that I’m controlling it now is laughable. Because she’s jogging toward my car and I’m fighting the urge to pull her through the driver’s side window and peel out of this goddamn suburban nightmare. I live closer to the coast, not too far away. We could be there in no time, Clara tucked into my sheets with a tummy full of food. She belongs with me. Me.
Beneath my white-knuckled hand, the steering wheel creaks. “Go on now, girl. Get. I’ll wait here until you’re inside.”
Hurt flashes in her eyes and I call myself a bastard ten times. “But…don’t you want to come inside?”
“Can’t. I’m going on a hunting trip in the morning.”
Her lower lip pushes out. “Where?”
“Long Shadow.”
She absorbs that. “What if there are robbers?”
“Come again?”
“Inside my house,” she whispers, glancing over her shoulder. “Like, if I’m already home with the doors locked when it gets dark? I’m fine, you know? No robber just waits in a house all day to jump out and start robbing when night falls. But if I come home in the dark—like, right now—there’s a better chance of robbers. Because I haven’t been home since there was daylight. They could have snuck in after dark. Can you just come in and check?”
God almighty, she’s as cute as a button. And she wants me to play her protector, despite the fact that I just tarnished her innocence in a public parking lot. Just looking at her hopeful face, my heart lifts and sticks in my throat. I can no more say no to this girl than I can change the seasons on command.
I grunt. “Just a quick check.”
She dances around, her hands clasped beneath her chin. “Thank you.”
I climb out of my truck and cross the street beside her, making a warning sound in my throat when she curls her fingers into mine, holding my hand. “Clara…”