She’s fucking sixteen.
The knowledge didn’t abate my hard dick, and as painful as the effort was, I kept moving until I found her.
She was splashing around in the pool in the dick tease she called a swimsuit. She was hard to miss or ignore in the lime green and black two-piece.
I swallowed a groan and scrubbed the palms of my hands over my eyes in a desperate attempt to erase the images of what I’d like to do to her from my mind.
I was sick for wanting her the way I did.
“I know that look in your eyes, son.” I never even heard my father approach. “I haven’t stopped looking at your mother that way since the day I met her.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Mian.”
I reluctantly ripped my gaze away from her playing in the pool with her slutty ass friend, Erin. She’d been giving me the eye ever since the first time she stepped through the door. “The kid?” Saying her name would leave me exposed.
“The kid you’d fuck six ways to Sunday as soon as her father’s back was turned.”
“Jesus, pops. She’s sixteen! I’m. Not. A Fucking. Pedophile.”
“I never said you were, but I also know firsthand how someone like her can be hard to resist. She’d make you throw away your morals and your goddamn soul for just a little taste and all she’d have to do is whisper, yes .”
“Bullshit.”
“So you don’t want her?” The knowing glow in his eyes didn’t need an answer. “You’re only twenty-two and still a kid yourself. I know what you’re thinking.”
He watched me, dangling the bait. He was a lot more calculating and patient than I was. I sighed and gave in. “What am I thinking?”
“You’re wondering just how far you could push the boundaries that keep you separated before your conscience gets the better of you.”
“Wrong.”
“How so?”
“Because I’m wondering how many of her boundaries I could push before I destroy her.” He swore and shoved his hand through his hair when I gave him the answer he sought.
I wanted her.
My mind was made up, and I wasn’t changing it. Not for him, her father… or her.
“You can’t have her, son.”
“It’s too late to stop me.”
“You are not going to pursue her, Angeles.” He used my full name to let me know he was serious.
“Maybe not today.” I met his stare. “But she’s mine, pops.”
He sighed. “At least allow her to grow up. She’s got years before she’ll be ready to be a lady of this life. Even then, Theo may kill you before he allows you to take her.”
“When I take her,” I said, letting him know I would take her with or without Theo’s approval, “the first thing I’m exorcising from her mind is her father.”
“Meaning?”
“She’s too dependent on him.”
“She’s sixteen,” he reminded me unnecessarily. I was well aware of her age. It was the only thing that has held me back.
“I meant her emotional dependence on him. The only man she’ll need to take orders from is me.”
My father left knowing he couldn’t persuade me onto some righteous path. I holed myself in my room until the sound of her laughter drew me out again. Erin left hours ago. She should have been alone.
I was drawn to the guest room she had turned into her own since everything in that room belonged to her… right down to the racy boy shorts and tiny tops she liked to wear when her father wasn’t around.
I didn’t bother to knock. I twisted the knob and pushed open the door. If the door had been locked, I would have broken the fucking thing down.
She watched with wide eyes as I entered. After a brief glance her way, I searched the room. If I had taken in the sight of her half-naked in tiny shorts and tank in the middle of her ruffled lime green and black sheets, I would have lost it.
“What are you doing here?”
“I live here.”
“ Well, why are you barging in my room?”
“It’s a guest room, which means it belongs to whatever person who temporarily inhabits the room. Spreading your shit around does not make it yours,” I lied.
Pain appeared in her sensual brown eyes. “Get out.”
“In a minute.” I ventured deeper inside as she pressed her thighs together and eyed me. She wasn’t even aware of the cues she gave off. She wanted me. Maybe even as much as I needed her. The thought had me wanting to climb right into that bed with her and do things that were illegal. “Who is in here with you?”
“Excuse me?”
“I heard you laughing.”
“And that means someone is in here with me?”
I’d had enough of her games. I stalked her, which made her scramble to get away from me. I was too quick for the Sprite. With one hand, I grabbed the front of her pathetic excuse for a shirt and lifted her in the air. I held her safely out of the way as I used my other arm to rip the mattress and box springs beneath it away.