“Kelly, I’m not in a position to talk about it, so I suggest you let it go.”
She released a light scoff. Through the mirror, I saw her sit up, stand, and walk to the closet. She pulled down a cotton dress and made a noise, like she had more to say. “You know, the whole point of me joining you for this vacation was so we could get to know each other better. Talk to each other a little more,” she noted.
“I remember.”
“So…why can’t you talk to me about what happens in your life?” she asked with a slight dig to her voice. “I never knew Derek had a drinking problem and never would have guessed it, either.”
“Because it’s not your business, Kelly, and that’s not my life, it’s his.” I put my focus on her, and by her shocked expression, it was clear I’d hurt her feelings. She dropped her eyes to avoid mine, and I sighed, taking a step toward her. “He’s my best friend,” I said, a little softer. I sometimes forgot how sensitive she was. “I’m just—I’m not sure what all you expect me to say about it. It’s not really a problem, it’s just…he’s aggressive when he drinks. He’s not an alcoholic or anything. He knows when to stop, he just doesn’t do well after a few hard ones, is all.”
“I understand,” she murmured, but she truly didn’t, and she probably never would. Her thick eyelashes fluttered as she put her focus on me again. She closed the gap between us by taking three simple steps, and then her sun-kissed arms were wrapped around my neck, her lips on my jawline. “Why do I get the feeling that’s the reason you didn’t want me to come? Because you didn’t want your perfect friend Derek to rear his ugly head.”
That wasn’t why, but she could believe whatever she wanted for now. “I never said I didn’t want you to come. I just wasn’t sure how they’d feel about you coming without asking first, but they’re fine. They always get through it.” I sighed. “Everyone seems to be warming up to you.”
“Yeah…” Her smile disappeared, her eyes a little more serious. “Everyone but Kandy.” She huffed and pulled back.
I kept my expression casual as I asked, “What do you mean by that?
“She’s so…cold to me. She gives me this grim look sometimes like she wishes I wasn’t around. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure she likes you, Quinton—and I get it. I’ve had a lot of crushes on guys who were older than me. Some of my dad’s friends were really hot, and it didn’t help that they visited our house so often. It’s just a girl thing, I guess. I just…I mean it’s been that way since I first met her. I always get this distant, icy vibe from her. I’m trying to get her to warm up to me as much as I can, but she is not having it.”
I turned so I wouldn’t have to look at her and was glad she didn’t notice.
“I thought she’d be way past that now, but hopefully she gets over the crush she has on you soon. Mindy said she’s noticed a little distance happening with her too—that Kandy used to tell her everything, but now she’s kind of keeping to herself, or locking herself away in her room. Or hanging out at Frankie’s more. She also said Kandy called it quits with some football player she was talking to? I’m wondering if maybe that’s why she’s been acting like that.”
Shit. She really did it. No wonder she was pissed. I’d told her to end it with him, got her hopes up, only to crush them by bringing Kelly along with me.
“She’ll get over it—the distance, I mean,” I said. “She’s still young and has a lot to learn.” I turned and grabbed Kelly by the waist, reeling her in and kissing her lips. I wanted her to stop talking about Kandy. The mere mention of her name made my cock ache.
“I just want her to like me, you know?” She whined. She was doing it again. The whiny thing she did when she wanted something to go her way. It was a terrible mindset to want everyone to like you. It just wasn’t realistic. “I’m going to be around for a long time, don’t you think?”
I pressed my lips. “Yeah. I hope so.”
“We’ll be like family soon. She’s a good girl—I see it. She kind of reminds me of a little sister. Maybe right now we’re just feuding like sisters do.” She gave me a peck on the lips. “Maybe I can warm her up by taking her and Frankie shopping in the morning. Buy her whatever she wants. Derek is so strict with her about what she wears. As a young woman, she deserves to explore her options. Mindy said she had to sneak Kandy to a lingerie store for one of her birthdays because she was begging to go for their annual sale. Can you believe that? She shouldn’t have to beg or sneak to a store created for women. There’s nothing wrong with expressing interest in those things.”
I sighed. I knew Kandy was going to hate the idea of shopping with Kelly, but I had to pretend Kandy was just my best friend’s daughter. In Kelly’s mind, I was like an uncle to Kandy, which meant she wanted to be like the aunt. “I think they’ll enjoy that,” I told her. “Just…don’t push too hard, okay? Kandy has a mouth on her, and she isn’t afraid to use it when she’s fed up.”
Kelly smiled, patting my chest. “I think I can handle it. I’m glad you support the idea.” She kissed me on the cheek and then walked around me to undress. She put on the orange cotton dress that stopped just above her knees and then slid into a pair of sandals. “Going to have a drink or two with Mindy. Maybe she’ll want to go shopping tomorrow, too.”
I nodded and watched her go. When I heard her going down the stairs, I made my way out of the door and walked to the balcony, pulling the pack of cigarettes from my shirt pocket. After that conversation, I needed a buzz.
Before I lit it up, someone said, “If you want to live to see sixty, you should probably quit soon.”
I turned to my right, spotting Kandy sitting in one of the white rocking chairs. She had on a pair of black lounge shorts and a crop top. The diamonds in her ears that Derek bought for her seventeenth birthday shimmered beneath the moonlight. I remember them because he’d sent me a text message asking if I thought she would like them. I knew she would.
The waning moon was bold and bright, lighting up the whole sky and everything beneath it, including Kandy. I could see every inch of her, from the curly, dark brown hair that was pulled up into a messy bun, down to the silky, beige legs that were folded in the chair.
“Haven’t I told you before to mind your own business?” I said with the cigarette clamped between my teeth. “I think you were about nine when I told you that.”
Despite what I said, I didn’t want to pass my bad habits onto Kandy, so I pulled the cigarette from my lips and dropped it in the pocket of my shirt.
“Maybe I should. Maybe I shouldn’t.” She looked away. “How am I supposed to know what to do when it comes to you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re an asshole,” she replied quickly, with no hesitation whatsoever, like that word had been bottled up inside her, waiting for the perfect moment to be used.
“Me? An asshole? Damn. And all this time I thought I was the nice guy.”
She fought a smile, still focused on the ocean.
“Where’s your friend?” I asked.
“She’s on the phone with her boyfriend. I didn’t want to hear her whining about how much she missed him, so I came out here.”
“On the second floor balcony?”
“Ours doesn’t have rocking chairs. Just cheap, plastic chairs that are too uncomfortable to sit in.”
“Mm-hmm.”
We were quiet for a moment.
Kandy dropped her feet and exhaled. I could tell something was on her mind. I didn’t have to ask to know what was bothering her.
“Why did you bring her, Cane?” she questioned. “I’m honestly just curious. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure it out, but I just don’t get it. Do you love her?”
“Kandy—”
“Because if you do, then it all makes sense. But what you told me that day in my parents’ living room doesn’t…”
I breathed hard through my nostrils. From where I stood, I could see Mindy sitting on a loung
e chair with a wine glass in her hand. She was giggly and bubbly. Tipsy for sure. I could hear Kelly talking, but couldn’t see her.
“I care about her,” I said, and it was the truth.
“But you’re not in love with her.”
I shook my head. It felt wrong to try and say it out loud.
“Is she your girlfriend?”
I sighed. “I don’t know what she is, Kandy. She’s just a woman I’m dating.”
“For a whole year? She must be desperate.” She laughed, but her laughter contained no joy.
“You know she’s trying to get to know you better.”
“Yeah. She’s trying too hard. I don’t want her to get to know me.”
“She knows you have a crush on me, too.”
Her eyes widened at that. “What? How?”
“She just…sees it, I guess.”
“It’s not just a crush anymore. You know that right?”
“You need to let this go, Kandy.” My voice was stern, my smile fading.
“I can’t help who I want, Cane.” She let out an unstable breath. “I can’t help what I want or how I want it, either.”
I breathed evenly through my nostrils, doing my best to ignore the sultriness that took over her voice.
She stood up then, and I watched her rest her elbows on the guardrail. She stared out at the ocean, then up at the moon and stars. “I wish I could erase it all—the way I feel about you, you know? I wish that I looked at you as more of a brother or an uncle or something, rather than…whatever this is I feel for you.”
I sniffed, but nothing more.
“I know I’m not allowed to touch you right now, and that’s killing me. Having to hold back and keep to myself is harder than I thought,” she continued. “I also know it will hurt my parents, especially my dad, if he finds out that we ever touched each other in that way. I don’t want to ruin what you guys have. They’re happier when you’re around. I’m happier too…but only when it’s just you and you alone.”
“What are you saying?”
She shrugged and waved it off. “It’s not like you’ll do anything about it anyway.”
“You did something I told you to do.”
She frowned a little. “What are you talking about?”
“You got rid of that guy, like I told you to.” I rested my elbows on the guardrail.
“I didn’t do that for you.”
“Bullshit,” I laughed. “Lying straight through your fucking teeth, Bits.”
“I didn’t!” she exclaimed, but her words ended with a small giggle.
“So why end it with him? Right after what I told you?”
“I just wanted to.” She shrugged again. “Stop acting like you have this great big power over me because you don’t.” She stepped back and was about to make her way to the door, but I caught her hand before she could go.
I don’t know what came over me—or what it was that hit me in that moment. Maybe it was her words, and how easily she defied me. Maybe it was because she looked so pure and sweet beneath the moonlight, and all I wanted to do was dirty her up. Her eyes. Those lips. Everything on her was ready for me to devour.
You’re a fucking fool, Cane, my conscience screamed.
A subtle gasp fell through her parted lips when my hand wrapped around hers, and then her eyes swooped up to meet mine.
“I know exactly what kind of power I have over you, Kandy,” I rasped, looking her over.
“You don’t have any,” she challenged. “Not with her around.”
“Really? If I told you to drop to your knees right now, you would do it with no questions asked, wouldn’t you?” Her eyes shimmered, betraying the tough persona she was trying to keep on display. Her throat bobbed, and she caged her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Maybe if I was yours, I would, but I’m not yours.”
She tried pulling away, but I didn’t let her. I reeled her in closer, my heart drumming in my chest. My cock twitched from being so close to her. “Doesn’t matter what kind of shit we go through, you’ll always be mine, Kandy. Doesn’t matter how fucked up the situation is, or how wrong it fucking feels…you are mine.” I let my lips touch the shell of her ear. “Don’t you ever forget that, you understand?”
I felt her shiver when my chest pressed on her shoulder. Goose bumps trickled up her arms and she looked up into my eyes, studying them. Studying me.
It was like she could read every single thought running through my head in that moment.
Fuck, I want you.
I want to feel your virgin pussy wrapped around my cock. Hear you moan. Sigh. Gasp. Make you beg me to fuck you.
But there’s Derek…
Mindy…
Kelly…
You…
But she ignored all of that. “I want you, Cane,” she whispered feebly. Her hand skimmed over my cock, and I twitched hard in my pants. “It’s killing me that I can’t touch you—that I can’t be with you.” It was killing me, too, but I couldn’t admit that to her. I started to pull away, but before I could, she cupped me in her hand. My cock sprung to life when our eyes locked again. “I can get on my knees for you…if you want me to…”
“No. Don’t.” My voice was thick. Coarse. If she was to kneel, I would have lost it—fucked her right on that balcony and destroyed every good thing in my life in a single act. “Go back to your room.”
But of course she didn’t fucking listen. She never fucking listened. She was so damn hardheaded and persistent, which only increased my need to fuck some respect and discipline into her.
Like an innocent pet, begging for guidance and affection, she dropped to her knees and stared up at me with wide brown eyes.
“Do you like seeing me like this?” she whispered. “Below you? Ready to worship you?”
I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth, shaking my head swiftly as I shut my eyes. “Kandy…”
She started running a fingertip along my belt, and the urge to pull her up was high and demanding, but so was my desire to watch her pretty, glossed lips wrap around my cock again.
“Has she pleased you?” she asked softly, tugging the tab of my zipper. “Since we got here?”
“That’s none of your business,” I grumbled.
“Does she kneel for you?”
A noise filled my throat. Kelly didn’t like to get on her knees. She felt it was degrading to women and would have rather sat on the bed while I stood in front of her, or get between my legs while I lay on my back.
“No,” I said, and it was a little harder to get that one word out. I was trying to hold on to control. It was damn near impossible. I swore I wouldn’t touch her anymore. I promised myself not even an hour ago, but fuck…
I couldn’t stop looking at her. My cock was so hard. So fucking hard. I was straining now, dying to unleash myself—thrust my dick through her pouty lips until I felt the back of her throat.
“Let me please you, Cane. The way you really want to be pleased. I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
My head swayed side to side, and I finally squeezed my eyes shut. I grabbed her arm blindly and hauled her up, jerking her against me, her nipples hard and digging into my chest. “You really want to please me?” My voice was gruff.
“Yes,” she pleaded.
“Then be a good girl, listen to me, and go to your room. We can’t do this here.”
She dropped her eyes to my lips again. She wanted to kiss me so badly.
“What is it that you want, Bits?” I asked as she breathed raggedly.
“You, Cane. All of you.”
“My lips?”
“Yes,” she sighed.
“One kiss,” I told her, and she didn’t hesitate. She clasped my face in her hands and forced her mouth on mine.
I gripped her face between my fingers, forcing her back. She whimpered, and that whimper alone made me want to tear her clothes off and bend her over the guardrail. If only we were alone.
“Don’t be greedy,” I cr
ooned. “Savor it. Enjoy it. Feel me.”
She sighed and nodded, and I took the lead this time. I held her face in my hands, bringing my lips down and kissing her slowly at first.
I deepened the kiss, and she moaned like I was making love to her. I pulled back, staring down at her lust-filled eyes. “Quiet,” I instructed, and she bobbed her head rapidly, leaning in for more. Our lips connected and then her tongue tried to find mine. I allowed it to come through. Our tongues clashed and danced, pirouetted and coiled, and it was me who had to fight a moan next.
She wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, being greedy again. This time, I didn’t mind. She was young and still learning. I wanted to teach her everything about her body—that patience and control was a virtue that could be practiced, even during kisses and sex.
I kept hold of her face, breaking the kiss again. She had her eyes halfway open, searching for my lips, desperate for them. Dropping my head, I thrust my tongue through her full lips again and groaned as quietly as possible. Her fingers curled in my shirt, her breaths ragged and rushed as her other hand tightened around the back of my neck.
I was a goddamn fool. Reckless and stupid all over again. Only she could do this to me. Little Kandy Jennings. I don’t know how she always pushed me to break my own rules. Kissing her felt like I was both drowning and breathing at the same time. How was that even possible? How could she give me life and damn near kill me at the same time? It didn’t make any fucking sense, but it didn’t have to. All I knew was that I was hard as fucking rock, throbbing like a motherfucker, and dying to be buried in her virgin pussy.
“Hey, yo, Cane!” Derek yelled from a distance.
I snatched myself away from her with haste. “Shit!” I hissed.
Kandy stumbled backwards, still in a daze. When she heard her dad’s voice again, she pulled herself together and scurried back over to the rocking chair, staring down at her lap and acting like nothing happened.
“Yeah, out here!” I called. I took the single step it took to get to the door, expecting to see Derek, but it wasn’t him standing there, looking through the door with wide eyes and a chin on the floor.
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