by Sosie Frost
“You don’t know shit.”
“You need someone to talk to.”
“And you need to shut your mouth.”
“Why are you afraid to let anyone close?” She met my gaze, daring me to walk out that door and never look back. “Do you realize that you’re pushing everyone away? You’re so eager to get out of Butterpond that you don’t see the damage you’re leaving behind.”
I emptied the whiskey. Cracked open another.
The minibar didn’t have nearly enough booze to deal with this fucking interrogation.
“What about you?” I asked, words bitter. “What the hell is keeping you in Butterpond? I might be desperate to leave, but you’re desperate to stay. Afraid of what you might find outside Daddy’s house?”
She quieted, clutching the jar of cherries. Why was she even eating the fruit? She was sweet enough already, and all I did was yell at her like a fucking asshole.
Jesus, she looked ready to cry. Heart-break in a sunshine yellow dress, cheerful and fun wrapped up against sensual and soft. She crossed her legs under her, like she was worried the dress would reveal too much skin.
It needed to go. The dress. The crossed ankles.
The woman should have been pushed flat on the bed, legs spread wide, pussy stretched to the limit on my cock.
I still tasted her. Still wanted her. Needed to prove her wrong and prove her right. Needed to confess everything and hide even more.
She was as confusing as she was beautiful, and I dizzied in her shadow.
“I don’t know what’s keeping me in town.” She finally spoke, her voice soft. “For the past couple years, it was my father. My mom died when I was fifteen. Cancer.”
I could relate. Dad became unbearable after Mom died. “Sorry.”
“My parents fell in love at first sight,” she said. “Everything was a fairy tale with them. Whirlwind romances. Living happily ever after. Laughter and love and just…” She swallowed. “Everything you’ve ever read in the storybooks.”
I couldn’t imagine. “Sounds…cute.”
“After she died, I was so worried about Dad. His heart was broken. Crushed. And I didn’t want to lose him to grief. So, I did everything I could to make life better for him. We were a team. Father and daughter, best friends, partners. I took care of him. Made his dinners. Kept the house. Helped at the veterinary clinic.”
I nodded. “Sounds like you were a good daughter.”
“I tried to be. After I graduated, I stayed for him. Wasn’t one for college anyway. Couldn’t imagine staying cooped up all day. So he got me the animal control job, and I started the Geese Police business. Got myself a puppy.” She grinned. “Ambrose was a cute little thing.”
“He’s still a pain in the ass.”
“Oh, I know.” She winked. “But that was all I needed. My dog. A job outside under the sun. Taking care of my Dad. What more could a girl want?”
“A good fucking.”
She didn’t deny it. “Never crossed my mind.”
“Really?”
“Never really dated anyone. Didn’t have time, between work and helping Dad. It just…fell off the radar.”
“That’s a fucking tragedy.”
“I managed.”
Managing wasn’t the same as getting pleasured, teased, and fucked in every immoral and sinful way possible. “So…what changed?”
“Chloe changed.”
I raised my eyebrows. Gretchen tensed, words a little sharper.
“Three months ago, Dad told me he’d met somebody. That he was finally ready to move on with his life. To take a risk. He wanted to close his clinic, retire, and spend his golden years with his new love.” Gretchen rolled her eyes. “Imagine my shock when that new love turned out to be his twenty-two-year-old college intern. Not only has he fallen for her, he’s decided that he must marry her right away. What better way to start his new life than with his blushing bride at his side in the Bahamas, not a care in the world?”
“They’ve only been dating for three months?” I smirked. “How long has he known her?”
“Met her the month before.”
“Jesus.”
“I want to be supportive. I really do.” Gretchen didn’t have to promise. I doubted there was an untruthful bone in her body. “But I don’t trust this.”
“Why would you? She’s a gold-digging tramp.”
Gretchen flinched. “She acts like she loves him.”
“He’s her meal ticket.”
“There’s not that much money.”
“But now you don’t get any.”
I’d insulted her. She stiffened, storming off the bed. She’d need more than tippy-toes to intimidate me.
“It’s not about the money,” she said. “It’s about a reckless decision. About just leaving everything behind for her. About leaving…”
“About leaving you?” I smirked. “You’re just a daddy’s girl, aren’t you?”
I hoped it’d rile her up. Piss her off. Get her agitated.
It did the opposite.
Her voice hollowed, and she looked away. “He’s leaving, Marius. Just packing up and going. What the hell am I supposed to do?” She paused. “I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m not exactly popular in town. I don’t have many friends, haven’t been in a relationship. I’ve always been…”
Odd?
Frustrating?
Insane?
“Different,” she said. “So, it’s just me and Ambrose. And when Mayor Desmond threatened to take him away…” Her voice nearly broke. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be alone?”
“I like being alone.”
“No. Not that alone. Alone-alone. Isolated. Not by choice, but because of…life.”
“I’ve been in some remote places, sweetness.”
“And it didn’t matter because no matter where you went in the world, you had a home here. You had brothers, a sister, family, friends. You had people. I don’t.” She plucked the flower from her hair and pitched it onto the bed. “It’s not like that with me. I have a dog. I have a job that keeps me away from people. I work in solitude. I come home to an empty house. No one to talk to. No one waiting for me. And once Dad moves to the Bahamas? It’ll only get worse.” Her voice crumbled. “I just don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Jesus, her sorrow hurt me more than losing the fucking leg.
But what the hell could I offer her? A pat on the shoulder? Words of encouragement?
It wasn’t like I was the most well-adjusted asshole in the world. I could fight and I could fuck, and I wasn’t sure she needed either right now.
“Sounds like you need a new life,” I said.
She nodded. “You too.”
“I got my future under control—but now, thanks to you, I need a goddamned baby.”
She scoffed. “Like you’d have any trouble.”
“Oh, am I supposed to pull a baby out of my uterus?”
“And here I thought you only had a prosthetic leg.”
“God only knows what they did to me during those surgeries.”
“Well, they didn’t mess much up,” she said. “I mean…someone out there would love to have your baby. Look at you. You’re gorgeous. It can’t be that hard.”
“Don’t compliment a guy by saying something isn’t hard.”
She ignored me. “The only thing bigger than your cock is your ego. You know you’d have your pick of any innocent girl who accidentally trapped herself in your bed.”
Easier said than done. “I don’t do marriage. Despite the lies you told the interviewer, I’m not family material.”
“Maybe the old Marius, but the new Marius has every reason to get out there, meet someone, and put down roots.”
Shackles was more like it. “Roots would strangle me. I’m a one-suitcase kinda guy. Everything ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
“Maybe you haven’t met anyone who could convince you to stay.”
“Gotta stop looking for fairy
tales, sweetness. They don’t exist.”
She sighed and leaned against the bed. “You’re probably right. I mean, I had a crush on you. Look where it got me.”
“Trapped in a strange hotel with a dashing man?”
“Okay, so it got me in trouble.” She giggled. “Instead of taking advantage of me, why don’t you find someone who can help you with this image problem? Settle down with her. Get her to agree to have your baby.”
Because it was that easy. I laughed. “What are you doing in nine months?”
Gretchen’s eyes rose to mine, a dark secret just begging to be confessed. Her voice steadied with a quiet confidence, and my cock hardened as her words caressed my skin.
“I suppose I’ll be having your baby.”
Last week, I’d left Gretchen naked, squirming, and begging for my cock because I didn’t trust the desire surging through my veins, demanding that I make her mine in the most primal, literal way possible.
I hadn’t trusted those urges. Hadn’t believed a man like me would crave something so dangerous.
I’d wanted to bury myself in Gretchen, pummel her core until she surrendered to my cock, and then fill her womb with every drop of my seed.
Here I thought I was protecting her from my terrible, sinful demands. Now she offered me a chance to fulfill that very same fantasy?
We were both insane.
I frowned. “Do you realize what you’re saying?”
She nodded. “I’m saying that I’ll have your baby.”
What the hell was wrong with this woman? “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“You’re going to get pregnant and have my baby.”
“Yes.”
“You want me to knock you up?”
Gretchen tilted her head. “It would solve both of our problems.”
“Pretty sure it’d cause a lot more.”
She smirked. “Obviously, this job is looking for more than credentials on a resume. They want the real package. A family man. A dedicated worker. A former soldier. Somebody balanced and capable. You’ve got to prove to them that you are that ideal candidate. And I’ve lost my job. My remaining family is leaving the country. I’m alone. It’d be nice to have a light at the end of the tunnel in nine months.”
“A baby?” I asked.
“Everyone else is starting their life. About time I do the same.”
She couldn’t be serious.
“And you’d be willing to have that baby with me?” I asked.
“I assume you’ll give me a little help?”
I didn’t hesitate, a surge of pride and absolute confidence shadowed my words. “You’ll want for nothing.”
“And I assume you’ll be a part of the baby’s life…even after you get the job?”
My own flesh and blood? “Scares the shit out of me, but I’d do anything for my kid.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Pretty much every part of it.
“It’s a big decision,” I said.
“We’ll make the decision together.” She took my hand. “We both need to start thinking about the future. You can’t go back to the SEALs. I’ll never find Prince Charming. From this moment forward, we’re done letting fate ruin our lives. If we want a new life, we build it together.
“A partnership?”
She offered her jar of maraschino cherries. I clinked the glass with my whiskey.
“Think you can put a baby in me, sailor?”
She should have run when she had the chance.
My voice lowered, a dark and dangerous growl.
“Just try to stop me...”
8
Gretchen
I’d agreed to have Marius’s baby…
But I had no idea he’d want to make one so soon.
With a dark, uncompromising stare, he loomed over me, made even more powerful and imposing by a surge of masculine confidence.
I figured he’d like the idea. I’d underestimated how much.
His green eyes—a swirl of mystery and darkness—devoured me with a stoic approval. His gaze sizzled against my skin. Hungry. Eager.
I’d offered him everything before—every part of me, every secret I possessed, every dark and terrible fantasy. But he’d pushed himself away. Marius must have been strong. Disciplined.
But even a Navy SEAL had his limits.
No matter the determination or poise, a man could only be pushed so far before the animal within seized total control.
“Do you know what this means, sweetness?” A rumbling amusement shadowed his words. “Do you really understand what you’re asking me to do? What you’re letting me do?”
I stepped back, but my knees struck the bed.
Nowhere to go but down.
My heart fluttered, attempted to escape, and tumbled to my core to talk me out of this madness. Too bad that part of me was already hot. Twisting. Aching for more of Marius’s attention.
He’d already delivered me the greatest pleasure I’d ever known, but he’d stopped before taking what we’d both wanted. Needed.
Craved.
All I’d desired was to feel…overwhelmed. Protected, used, and worshiped.
Connected with someone.
“You don’t scare me,” I whispered.
“You don’t have any idea what I’ll do to you…” Marius’s smile wasn’t kind or gentle. His teeth bared, a threat of sensual menace and wild ravishment. “But you’re gonna find out. You’re gonna see how a man like me gets a little thing like you into all sorts of trouble.”
I understood the process, but I couldn’t imagine the pleasure.
“Give yourself to me.” It wasn’t a request. His demand pulsed everything deep and secret inside me. “You’ll do everything I tell you. Behave, and you’ll be rewarded. You’re not just giving me a baby—you’ll owe me your total, unwavering submission.”
My bravery couldn’t hide the tremble in my voice or the shiver in my spine. The heat bound me in place, demanding my honesty. “Maybe I need that.”
Marius edged closer, capturing me in his shadow. I didn’t dare move. Didn’t collapse onto the bed. His scent overwhelmed me, a feral rush of whiskey and smoke.
“You don’t know what you need,” he whispered. “You can pretend. Hell, you can lie. But I know the truth. You don’t understand what you want or what I can do. You’re just hoping you can hang on tight enough to survive what I plan to take.”
“Does that scare you?” I asked.
“I’m not the one who should be scared, little girl.”
Maybe he was right.
What was I doing here?
All my life, I’d imagined lovely words and gentle caresses. Champagne and rose petals. Rings on my finger, and a man more prince than dragon.
But Marius was rough and fierce. A soldier without a battlefield. A man aching to be wild.
This wouldn’t be soft. No love to be made, no crash of passion and whirlwind emotions.
Just bodies. Sweaty. Hot. Pressed together—forced together—demanding everything and taking even more. It’d be visceral. Damning. Animalistic and monstrous.
And I’d never wanted anything more.
“I don’t think you’re ready for this,” he warned. “A good girl like you? Giving yourself to a man like me? You might be brave, but you have no idea what a man like me desires.”
I licked my lips. “Surprise me.”
“I got a feeling everything I do will be a surprise.” Marius gripped my waist, holding me close. I bumped against his chest, forced to look up into his eyes. “When was the last time you were touched?”
I swallowed. “I thought you’d remember.”
“Before me.”
I bit my lip. Raised an eyebrow.
My turn to shock him.
He stiffened. “You’re not a…”
I sucked in a hopeful breath. “Would it make a difference?”
“It makes me a monster.”
Everything inside
of me warmed, molten and desperate. “Why a monster?”
“Because that means I’m gonna like everything I do to you that much more.”
He hadn’t released me, and I struggled only to get closer to him. Why did I like being captured in his arms? His calloused hands tightened to a painful grip, evidence of his untampered excitement.
I’d awakened a beast.
He seized my lips—not a kiss but a demonstration of his power, proof of how thoroughly, ravenously he threatened to take me. I sunk into his kiss, parting my lip to allow his decisive lick against my tongue.
I shivered.
The guttural pride in his voice should have scared me. “You’re a virgin.”
I nodded.
“I was the first man to taste your pussy?”
I squirmed. “Does that bother you?”
Stupid question. His hands seized more of my flesh.
“I’m going to be the first man to fuck that tiny, creamy pussy?”
The anticipation would kill me. “Don’t brag until you do it.”
His breathing roughened, those green eyes dark with desire. “I’ll be the first man to come inside of you?”
I groaned as he kissed me once more.
Why did it sound so dirty?
We talked about the most beautiful, natural thing in the world–creating a baby. And yet, the process, the excitement, seemed so wrong. So naughty.
My core clenched, hard, desperate to be filled. I’d never surrendered to a desire like this. I craved his touch, begged for another kiss, and demanded a relief for the powerful, consuming passion overwhelming me.
I didn’t just want to be taken.
I didn’t just want to be touched. Kissed. Pleasured.
I needed him, needed this man in a way only he could offer. His body. His power. His own unrepentant desire to fill me, claim me, and leave inside of me every drop of his conquest.
I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be utterly filled, but my body ached for his touch. It would change everything—I wasn’t even sure I’d survive it—but I wetted at the thought of what this powerful, unstoppable man could do to me.
What he would give me.
What would grow because of him.
This wasn’t about sex, submission, or conquest. What happened next would forge an unbreakable bond between us—irrefutable and unending.