“Oh, Winnie, it’s gorgeous—that architecture! The setting!” She clucked her tongue. “You’re going to love it. And they’re so lucky to get you.”
“Thanks.”
She closed her computer again. “Have you told your folks?”
“They know about the offer, but I haven’t told them I accepted yet.”
She grinned ruefully. “Frannie will cry buckets just like she did when Felicity moved to Chicago.”
I laughed. “Well, she knew it was a possibility.”
“This is so great, Winnie. I’m thrilled for you. And of course we’ll miss you around here, but I completely understand wanting to broaden your horizons.”
“Thank you.” I paused. “I really do love it here. Cloverleigh Farms has always felt like home to me.”
“Sometimes we have to leave home to chase our dreams.” She sighed, looking around. “And sometimes we find ourselves right back where we started, and that’s okay too.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Aunt Chloe.”
“You’re welcome, darling.” She blew me a kiss as I rose to my feet. “I’m always here if you need anything.”
I’d just gotten home from Pilates that evening when I heard a knock at my door. I pulled it open to find a grouchy-looking Dex on my porch.
“So where can I adopt a cat?”
I laughed. “You want to adopt a cat?”
“Fuck no.” He exhaled loudly and held out a folded piece of paper. “But the girls won’t leave me alone about it. I just found a note in a dresser drawer they must have written last time they were here.”
I took the note and unfolded it. It was written on lined paper that had been torn out of a notebook. The print was round and childish but neat.
Dear Daddy,
We think we should be aloud to have a cat here. We will take good care of it. You can hug it when we are not here. You need more hugs so you do not turn in to an oger.
Love,
Halsy Pal and Loony Toon
I smiled and looked up at him. “An ogre?”
“Yeah. Did I tell you about the story Hallie is writing?”
“No. Is there an ogre in it?”
“Yes. Named Rex. There’s also a princess named Minnie.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth. “Not too subtle, is she?”
“Nope. Anyway, a cat isn’t a sailboat or a fancy vacation or even a horse, but it’s something they’ll love.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “And I’m a sucker, just like you said.”
“I think it’s great. I’ll get you the name of a few adoption places. And my offer still stands to feed the cat while you’re at work.” I paused. “At least until I move.”
“Thanks.”
“I can probably help you find someone in the complex willing to swing by and feed it. There’s a widowed lady who lives one building over that’s really nice.”
“Sounds good.” He reached for the note. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”
“No. I just got home.” I pulled my sticky shirt away from my body. “I worked out, so I was going to shower before I thought about food. I’m sweaty.”
“I was just going to order some takeout. Want to come over and eat with me?”
“Sure.”
“Do you like Thai food?”
I rubbed my belly. “Love it.”
“Okay. I’ll order some different things, and we can share.”
“Perfect. I’ll be over in about half an hour.”
“Cool.” He put a hand on the door, pushed it wider and stepped over the threshold, staring me down. “This isn’t a date.”
“Thank God.”
“But if you want to wear the sexy black underwear, I won’t be mad.”
Laughing, I turned him around and shoved him out the door.
“How did you even find this show?” Dex asked me a couple hours later. After dinner, we’d decided to veg out on the couch and watch TV. I’d convinced him to watch a few episodes of Bewitched.
“I don’t remember. I think my grandmother liked it, and we’d watch it when she’d come to visit us.” We sat side by side, our legs propped on the coffee table. Beneath my shorts and oversized sweatshirt, I’d worn the lacy underwear he liked, but he didn’t know it—yet. “I loved the idea of being able to wiggle your nose and cast a spell, and no one would know it was you.”
He snorted. “I bet you tried it.”
“All the time. But it only worked once.”
He put an arm around me. “What was the spell?”
“I made my dad fall in love with our nanny.”
Dex laughed. “Of course you did.”
“I never told a single soul, either. I just wiggled my nose and went about my business, but when it happened, I wasn’t a bit surprised.”
“Magic,” he said.
“Magic.”
“I’m gonna try. Am I doing it?”
I looked up to see him concentrating hard at twitching his nose. “Sort of. Now think about something you want to happen.”
He closed his eyes. Ten seconds later, he opened them again. “It didn’t work.”
“What did you wish for?”
“A blowjob.”
“Dex!” I spanked his leg. “Magic doesn’t work that way.”
“Too bad.” He flipped me onto his lap so I straddled his thighs. “But it’s fine. There are plenty of other things I’d like to make happen.”
I whipped my sweatshirt off, revealing my skimpy black bra, gratified when his jaw dropped open. “Like that?”
“Exactly.” He pulled me closer and rubbed his face against my breasts. “You just made a believer out of me.”
He carried me into his bedroom with my legs wrapped around his waist. After tipping me backward onto the bed, he yanked off my shorts, leaving me in the black bra and panties. “Those stay on,” he ordered when I hooked my thumbs in the waistband of the underwear.
He whipped all his clothes off and climbed over me, his eyes hungry and dark—which was when I took him by surprise and flipped him over. It required all my might, and when I had him beneath me, I laughed triumphantly.
“What’s this?” he asked.
I grabbed his thick wrists and pushed them to the mattress like he always did to me. “I want to be on top.”
“Oh yeah?”
I nodded, slowly rocking my hips, grinding against his hard, swollen cock. “Got a problem with that?”
He growled, his hands curling into fists, then spoke through clenched teeth. “No.”
“Good. Now listen to me.” Talking to him like this, seeing him beneath me on the bed, had my heart racing and my panties wet. “I’m in control tonight. You don’t touch me unless I allow it. You don’t come until I say you can. Understand?”
He gave me his angry-bear scowl and lifted his wrists off the bed, letting me know I was only on top because he was permitting it.
I stopped moving. “Understand?”
Beneath me, his massive erection throbbed like it wanted to answer for him. He dropped his wrists again.
“There, see? You’re going to like this.” Smiling in satisfaction, I leaned forward, brushing the curve of my breasts against his chest, his jaw, his mouth. His arms twitched with the urge to get his hands on me. But since that wasn’t allowed, he lifted his head and used his tongue, stroking my nipples through the satin and lace.
“Take it off,” he commanded.
I laughed throatily. “Nope. You wanted to leave it on, remember?”
After a string of curses, he used his teeth to drag the thin bra cup beneath one tingling peak and quickly sucked it into his mouth before I could stop him. But truthfully, it felt so good, I arched my back and moaned with pleasure and let him do the same to the other breast while I rocked my hips over his rock-hard abs.
I could feel the impatience growing within him, his body tense and trapped beneath me. I lifted my chest and stared down at him. “Your hands stay right here, or I won’t let you come while I ride you.”
/> He didn’t answer. His breathing was labored and ragged. I tested him, letting go of his wrists—he left them on the mattress.
Smiling, I shimmied down his body. He inhaled sharply as I fisted his huge cock with one hand and gave it a few tight strokes. He propped himself up on his elbows.
I stopped moving my hand.
“I just want to watch,” he said.
“I suppose I could allow that.” Kneeling above him, I pulled my panties aside and positioned the tip of his dick between my legs. Then I slid down his length, inch by inch.
Finally, my body rested on his, and he filled me completely. His cock twitched. I smiled, swiveled my hips, and it happened again.
“Fuck this,” he growled. “I have to touch you.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” I warned, starting to undulate seductively. I lifted my hair and held it on top of my head as I moved above him in slow, sinuous motion. “Not if you want to come tonight.”
“I’m about to come right this second.”
I laughed. “Not yet, please. I’m just getting started.”
He cursed again. “You’re going to torture me until I break, is that it?”
“I’m going to fuck you until I come, is that the same thing?” I was already close, but I didn’t tell him that.
“Yes,” he rasped.
I circled my hips a few more times before putting my hands on his chest and pushing him down again. “Then you’ll just have to lie back and take it.”
“The day we met, I thought you were so innocent and sweet.” He struggled for control as I continued to ride him.
Leaning forward, I grazed my tongue along his bottom lip. “The day we met, I thought about biting you.”
“Fuck. Who are you?”
Delighted, I took his lower lip between my teeth and tugged, clenching my core muscles at the same time. “Just the girl next door.” I laughed. “Are you sorry you invited me over to play?”
“No.” He brought his hands to my ass. “But goddammit, you’re making me crazy.”
I let him keep his hands on me because they felt good, and I moved over him harder and faster, my body tightening around him. My breath was quick and shallow. “God, you feel so good. I want to come on that cock.”
“Jesus.” His body tensed. His fingers dug into my skin and his hips bucked up beneath me. “Fuck. I’m gonna—”
“Not yet,” I told him, nearly delirious with the need for release and the thrill of bossing him around. I was torn between wanting to let go and hang on.
“Come for me,” he growled. “Right fucking now.”
Unable to hold back any longer, I cried out with every pulse as the orgasm burst open inside me, and a moment later felt his climax surging from his body into mine. I rode it out until I was sure I’d wrung every last drop from him—his low, guttural moans accompanying my high-pitched sighs.
“Fuck, that was mean,” he said after I collapsed onto his chest. His heart was thumping hard.
“I quite liked it,” I panted. “I felt very powerful.”
“Witchcraft.” He pinched my ass.
I smiled. “Babe, I had the sexy black underwear. I didn’t even need witchcraft.”
He laughed, and I realized how much I loved the sound. “But will you take it off now?”
I picked up my head, surprised. “Okay.”
He watched as I slipped the lingerie from my body, then reached for me, pulling me down so I lay atop him, head on his chest.
We stayed like that for a moment, our breath still returning to normal, our pulses slowing. He began to run his palms up and down my back. As I stared at the moonlight slanting through his blinds, a childhood memory surfaced.
“When I was young, I hated nighttime,” I confessed. “I thought there were monsters under my bed.”
“Yeah?”
“I was so scared of them. I’d lie there frozen with fear, too scared to even go get my dad, because I knew for sure that as soon as I put my feet on the floor, that monster would grab my ankles.”
Dex kept rubbing my back with slow, reassuring strokes.
“Sometimes, if I worked up enough nerve, I’d stand up on the mattress and take a running jump as far away from the bed as I could and go racing for my dad’s room, which was all the way on the first floor of our house—this was before he even got remarried.”
“And what would he do?”
“Sometimes it was enough for him to just check and make sure nothing was there. Sometimes he would lie down with me until I fell asleep.” I chuckled at a memory. “Sometimes he’d bring the ‘monster repellent’ and spray it under my bed.”
“That’s fucking smart.”
“It was. He was a great dad, just like you are.” My smile faded. “Eventually I outgrew the fear of monsters under my bed. But I guess I never stopped hating the feeling of being left alone at night. Later, my therapist helped me unpack that a bit. She thought it was related to being abandoned by my mom so young. I was afraid everyone I loved would leave me that way, and I didn’t feel safe.”
His arms closed around me. “I’m sorry. That makes me want to go back and give little Winifred a hug.”
“Grownup Winifred likes hugs too.” I smiled again, even though my throat felt tight. “In fact, little Winifred grew up craving affection and attention so much that she became a love junkie. When someone made her feel special, she grasped it like a lifeline so she wouldn’t drown in her worst fear.”
Dex’s hands stopped moving. “What was her worst fear?”
“That deep down, she was unlovable.” I took a breath. “But now she knows that isn’t true—or at least, she’s working on it.”
“I hope so,” he said quietly.
I picked my head up so I could look at him. “Honestly, it’s much better than it used to be. I’ve had a lot of therapy, and I understand myself so much better than I used to. I still make terrible romantic choices sometimes, but I know I deserve to be with someone who makes me feel good about myself and not just lucky to be with them.”
“Fuck yes, you do.”
“And I’m not scared of monsters under my bed anymore.” Then I laughed. “But there is this one ogre who likes to mess with me . . .”
“Ha.”
I gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll be right back. Can I use your bathroom?”
“Sure.”
When I came out, Dex was right where I left him, lying on his back in bed, but covered to the waist. His eyes were closed and his breathing was deep and slow, as if he was asleep.
Not wanting to wake him, I tiptoed around, hunting for my clothes.
“And where are you sneaking off to?”
I looked over at him. “I’m not sneaking. I just didn’t want to wake you.”
“Don’t go.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Huh?”
“Don’t go yet.”
“Why?”
He threw a pillow at me. “Because I’m not done messing with you.”
Laughing, I scooped up the pillow and brought it back to the bed. “I thought maybe it was against our rules to stay over.”
“Listen,” he said, taking my arm and pulling me under the covers. “Ogres don’t follow any fucking rules. When they want a princess in their bed, they just grab one.”
“Any one?”
“Their favorite one,” he clarified, flipping me beneath him. “And my favorite happens to be Princess Minnie.”
I laughed. “You never told me about the end to the story Hallie wrote.”
“It’s not over yet. She left me on a terrible cliffhanger.”
“What was it?”
“Princess Minnie’s cat, Tigger, ran up a tree, and she needs to ask Rex the Ogre for help to get the cat down, but she’s scared of him.” Dex lowered his head to my chest and kissed by breast, my collarbone, my throat.
“She doesn’t know him,” I said. “I’m sure he’s not that scary once she gets past his hideous, grotesque appearance.”
&nb
sp; He bit my shoulder for that. “I asked if the ogre was really a prince in disguise.”
“And is he?”
“Nope. He’s really an ogre.” He kissed his way across my collarbone.
“Well, you know, princes are overrated.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. They’re handsome and rich, but they know it. They don’t even have to work to get the girl—girls are lining up at the castle door for them. But an ogre . . . an ogre has to woo his lady.”
He picked his head up. “Woo his lady? That sounds hard.”
“It is.” I wrapped my legs around him. “But you’re doing a good job so far. Don’t stop.”
I woke up with Dex’s naked body curled around mine, his arm wrapped around my waist, strong and solid. It was still dark, but I had no idea what time it was—I didn’t even want to look. Inhaling deeply, I let the scent of him swim around in my head, reluctant to move.
Again, I had second thoughts about leaving. Maybe we could have made this work. Despite the age gap, we were good together. I loved that he was gruff on the surface but had a soft side he kept hidden. I understood that—no one wants the world to see their weak spots or scars.
Although I’d shown him mine, hadn’t I?
Which was funny, really. I’d never even told Merrick about the monsters under my bed, or my mother abandoning us, or my fear of being unlovable. But something about Dex made me want to be vulnerable with him. I felt safe and—
A tiny frisson of worry snuck up my spine.
Gently disentangling myself from his embrace, I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
“You leaving?” Dex’s voice was raw with sleep.
“Yeah. I should go home. I have to be at work early. My alarm is set.” Moving tentatively across the room, I felt around on the floor for my bra, finding it over by his dresser. Once it was hooked, I turned around, surprised to see him getting out of bed. “Dex, don’t get up.”
He said nothing, just pulled open a drawer and tugged on some sweats.
“Guess I left my clothes downstairs.”
He laughed. “Wait here. I’ll get them.”
A few minutes later, he walked me across the driveway in the dark to my door. Rising on tiptoe, I gave him a hug. “Thanks for the Thai food. And the woo.”
Ignite: A Grumpy Single Dad Romance Page 19