Somebody Else's Sky (Something in the Way #2)(41)

She blinked at me. "Why would I stop you?"

"To put it nicely, I'm eager, Tiff."

"Manning." She wrapped her hands on the outsides of my forearms. "I'm not breakable. I'm not like some innocent little virgin who has no experience whatsoever." I only just grasped the dig at her sister before she pressed on. "Did I expect classical music and roses and lovemaking tonight? No. We can do that later. Right now, I want to be what you need."

Her words worked their way down my chest, straight to my cock. What I needed was a girl who could take it as good as I gave it. That was Tiffany. Had it been Lake in front of me . . . the filthy things I wanted to do . . .

Overnight she started to change . . .

Was that any way to think about the wide-eyed girl who'd come onto a construction site to thank me for finding her bracelet? She'd been fucking timid and kind and sixteen, and I'd still looked at her and wanted to possess her. That was how I knew I was no good. A decent man would've looked at Lake and seen a girl, nothing more.

You don't know what it's like to watch a girl become a woman.

I stuck the condom between my teeth, ripped open the foil packet, and spit out the top scrap. I had to be inside Tiffany now. I needed her. I needed to lose myself, set fire to my thoughts. I rolled the condom on.

"How do you want me?" she asked.

My balls tightened as I turned Tiffany around and unhooked her bra, tossing it aside. I took a minute to appreciate what was in front, running my hands over her slender shoulders, over the tiny dark freckles that spotted her back, down her spine.

She shuddered.

I tested her with my finger, and when I found her wet, I nudged my cock between her legs.

She fell forward over the bed, spreading for me. My fucked-up brain saw long blonde hair and smooth back and Lake and I drove into her.

She hissed. "Mmm."



       
         
       
        

"Sorry." My heart pounded. She wasn't wet enough. Why would she be? I'd done nothing to warm her up. She writhed a little on the mattress, and I only grew harder for her squirming. All those sordid fantasies I'd had about her, now I was living them. I needed to calm the fuck down.

"Babe?" she said.

"Yeah."

"Get the lube, okay? It's in the drawer. Then you can go as hard as you want."

A sense of gratitude came over me. She could've told me to fuck off for going too fast, but she was trying to give me what I needed. I slid out of her and went to the nightstand. While I was there, I peeled off the condom in case I'd broken it. I put a new one on, and turned back to her. I did the best I could in my animal state to make sure she came.



Uncomfortably hot, I woke with a start when I didn't recognize my surroundings. The sheets were soft and white, and sun came through the slatted blinds, warming up the bedroom. I had no idea when I'd fallen asleep or if Tiffany was by my side or what. In the kitchen, the faucet ran.

I sat up to grab my jeans off the floor and get my cigarettes from the pocket. I lit one and leaned back against the headboard. My head was clear for the first time in months. Maybe years. I shut my eyes and let the nicotine work through me. As soon as I did, I saw her. Lake. Lake, nearly falling at my feet in the foyer.

Physically, she'd changed. Her legs were still too long for her body, but now, she was lithe, not gangly. She had real breasts, ones that were just the right size for her frame. It made me equally uncomfortable and aroused. I liked them, but as they'd never be mine to memorize, to worship, I hated them. I hated the idea of other men looking at them, drooling over them, touching them. I breathed through my nose until the excruciating image passed.

She'd come to a hard stop when she'd noticed me, her lips parted, cheeks flushed. Why? Did I scare her? What would she have done if things'd been different? Leapt into my arms the way her sister had? In that short skirt, she would've pressed her heat right against me. Fuck fuck fuck. For what had to be the hundredth time in twenty-four hours, I was getting hard again.

Could I deny it? I wanted Lake. I wanted her bad. I always had, but I'd been able to control it before. She was still young, but she was seventeen now, and every inch the beauty I knew she'd become. She had lush blonde hair that was a little ratty and, like her legs, too long. Her breasts were high and round. For dinner, she'd worn tattered jeans and a t-shirt but why, why the fuck did she still look like the sexiest thing I'd ever seen?

I took a drag of my cigarette. All the times I'd fantasized about Lake inside, and when she was standing right in front of me, I couldn't even speak to her. What the fuck was there to say? I'd wanted to fall to my knees and pay homage. To overwhelm myself in her. Soak my senses with her. Touch her body, smell her neck, taste her mouth, hear her moan, feel her relief that I was home.