by King, Imani
“Enough to somehow hate her even more,” I replied. “It’s impressive, because I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“Don’t pay her any mind. Sometimes you don’t know how vile a person is until it’s too late.”
I looked away from him. “Yeah, sometimes that happens.”
“Come here, Ashley,” Miles said, trying to put on his best face for her, and picking her up. He kissed her on the forehead. “Love you, sweetcake.”
“You too, Daddy.”
“I need you to be strong for me, okay? Just put up with her a little while longer, and I promise it’ll be over.”
“Okay, Daddy. Then Destiny can be my new Mommy?”
I glared at her, eyes wide. This girl wasn’t going to let this go, was she?
“Maybe. I don’t know. You just be a good girl, got it?”
“Got it.”
I watched as Miles carried her out. I sat at the table, grabbed some cooling pancakes, and chewed on them, dry without syrup.
Damn, these were good.
I tried to just enjoy the breakfast Miles made, but Vivian’s words circled in my head.
No, it wasn’t that she called me ghetto trash. I was used to that. Demeaning stuff was pretty much my job description. What hurt was her telling Miles the truth.
Miles came back in, and I could tell he had a lot on his mind. He approached me quickly as I picked the pancake up off Ashley’s plate. Hey, there was no point in letting it go to waste.
“We need to talk,” he said, flatly, quickly sitting down across from me.
On the other hand, it was Ashley’s pancake and it was rude of me to steal it. I put it down, stood up. “Well, I got up early, I’m going back to bed now.”
“Destiny sit back down.”
“You can’t make me.”
“Just because Ashley left doesn’t mean you can start acting like her.”
I made the same unfeminine grunt Vivian had made earlier, and sat back down.
“We have to talk about last night. About us. About the future. About the truth between us.”
“You... you can’t possibly think that Vivian was telling the truth about me, can you?”
“No, it has nothing to do with her, Destiny. Right now that woman could tell me that water is wet, and I’d want to damn sure double check before I accepted that as fact.”
“What truth is there to tell? I did apply to be a maid.”
“Destiny, I’m not dense.” He reached across the table, and took my hands into his. “I’m not lying when I feel something deeper with you. Sometimes with that comes the ability to read people far and beyond what they say. Far beyond knowing if they’re checking you out.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip thinking. What if I came completely clean? What if I told him everything about me? What would happen? Would he have any respect left for me?
No. That was insane. I was a woman who used my body to get by. I can’t even love and respect myself for that, so how could I possibly expect him to love me if he knew the truth? The truth changes everything. He would never have floated the idea of a fake fiancée. He wouldn’t for a fucking split second have allowed Ashley to associate with the likes of me. I couldn’t even be a fake mommy. Strippers aren’t mothers. At least not intentionally, and they never get to have the father around. Yeah, I was destined to be that stereotype. Not some rich country guy’s wife. Not a beautiful girl’s new stepmother. That didn’t happen to people like me.
“I want you to tell me, Destiny. Tell me what’s going on with you. I want to know about you.”
What was there left for me to do here? Lie more? Make up some normal sounding back story for myself? Or did I rip off the band-aid and tell him the absolute truth?
“I know you’re hiding things from me. I understand. We all have secrets. But if it’s going to be about us, we can’t just keep hiding from it all. We need to let out some truth. There’s too much. You still haven’t told me to invite anyone to our party. Are you seriously going to tell me no one would care if you were getting married?”
“I... I...” I stammered, mostly to buy myself some time. How was I going to get myself out of this one?
“I won’t be mad. I’m not an angry person. You’re carrying some big burden. I want to help, Destiny. I don’t want to see you crushed by your own demons, anxieties, or whatever it is eating at you.”
There was no getting out this without giving something up. I didn’t want this to end with him. Not now. Not after last night. I needed to salvage this. I decided to I keep the worst of it hidden forever. That was best for everyone.
What worked for now though?
He reached out, holding my hands. “Trust me. Please. It’s all I ask.”
I pleaded with myself to come up with something, anything to let me enjoy this a bit longer. “You really want to know, huh?”
“I want to help you.”
I had a gold mine of secrets I was keeping. Some of them were far more damning than others. “I was hired... um,” I said, already in my truth, “by Quinn North West Services to learn about your holdings and finances. My job was to learn what it would take to make you finally sell your land.”
He paused a moment, and let out a long, deep breath. “I never would have suspected that. You definitely aren’t the type they would send to spy on me.”
“I said the same thing. But I...” Thinking for a moment. “Needed the money.”
“What have you told them, Destiny?”
“Absolutely nothing. I haven’t even tried to snoop around, or look for anything at all. I’ve been feeling like complete crap about it ever since I’ve gotten here. Meeting you and Ashley, and seeing your struggle against Vivian. I haven’t been able to go through with anything. I feel like a complete shithead whenever I think of doing anything that would remotely harm you.”
He was silent for a time. Was this a bridge too far? Even the most minor of revelations would cost me?
“Destiny... I’m glad you finally admitted you care.”
“Um... no, it’s nothing don’t think too much about it. Really, it isn’t. It’s just me being an indecisive wreck.”
“No. You can’t push yourself to harm those you care for. Even for the sake of duty, you won’t do it. If you were as soulless as Vivian, you would have handed them a complete financial history of everything involving me. You? You’re not Vivian.”
He was praising me for having a heart. I didn’t deserved it. I was still lying to him. I didn’t think I should be rewarded just for being decent and caring.
“More and more I can’t deny it, Destiny. This is a fiercer feeling than I’ve ever had before. It isn’t just because you’re beautiful. It’s something else. Something else entirely has enraptured me about you. I feel like I have to say it.”
“Say what?” I said, hoping it wouldn’t be what I thought it was.
“I love you, Destiny Brooke.”
I cringed at that fake name. “This is all too fast. I can’t be doing this.”
“Sometimes things happen fast because they happen fast. Our desires, our passions, they all work in strange ways.”
“I... I....” I was looking for anything to say. Anything but the truth that would truly make him love me less. I didn’t want to hurt this man. He was too good, too good for me. But I had to tell him everything even if it destroyed me, because—
He stepped forward until he was directly in front of me, powerful and commanding.
“Destiny,” he drawled.
I shivered as all my thoughts left my mind.
He leaned over and brushed my cheek with his rough fingers. “What are you thinking?”
“I—I don’t know…”
He smiled. “Good. You need to stop using your head so much, and tell me what’s in here.”
He brought his hand to my chest. Mortification flooded me when I realized how easily he must have felt my heart hammering against my rib cage.
I gulped. “I can’t. My heart is
telling me stupid things.”
He bent over closer. “Like what?”
“Like…” Like I should trust you. Like I should throw caution to the wind and leap into your arms and start believing in dangerous things like happily-ever-after.
“Like what, Destiny?” he asked when I didn’t respond.
I tried to look away, but his gentle hands kept me in place.
His eyes softened. “I hope you’ll share those things with me someday.”
I shivered. “Why?”
“So that you’ll believe me when I share my stupid thoughts with you.”
Before I could answer and say something stupid or otherwise, his lips brushed mine.
Chapter 15
Destiny
His tongue slid between my lips, coaxing my mouth open. It was too sweet. Too kind. I didn’t deserve it. And yet, I was too weak to resist. If he knew how sinful and dirty I was, he wouldn’t want anything to do with me.
Yet I was powerless against his patience, his kindness, his reassurance. I couldn’t stop this. Not now, maybe not ever.
So instead, I gave in and allowed the kiss to grow more intense.
I pushed his robe off and moaned with satisfaction when I saw that he didn’t bother putting anything on underneath. His muscles flexed as he grabbed the bottom of my t-shirt and thrust it up over my head, making us as bare as we were only a few hours ago.
How could I resist this rock hard body? How could I say no to these sweet kisses? He moved his mouth down my body, making me cry out with desire.
I needed him now with an urgency even greater than before.
He pushed everything off the table. Dishes clattered on the floor. Neither of us gave a damn. He needed to feel me writhing in pleasure beneath him, and I needed him on top of me, commanding my passion.
His hands moved down my body, pressing me into him harder. His aura exuded confidence and strength, and I responded with raw need. He was already hard for me, just merely moments after seeing my bare body in front of him.
His girth pressed against my abdomen, throbbing. Our hunger was uncontrollable. We were fools for trying to control it. He set me down on that kitchen table and brought himself in. It was another damn near orgasm from that alone, but Miles wasn’t finished. He began fucking, our bodies intertwining so fast, breaking down my defenses and leaving me bare.
I cried out wildly from the pure unadulterated bliss in front of me. When he was inside me, nothing else mattered. Not what my name was or wasn’t, or my history, or why I was here. Nothing. We were simply lovers bucking into one another, saying with our bodies what we would never reveal with words.
I clawed at his back, his hair, holding onto him for dear life. When he pulled back I pushed forward, rising to meet him. He proved his strength by picking me up, carrying me, him still embedded within, taking me to a wall just because he couldn’t resist not fucking me for that long. His hands roamed wildly. Maybe at some subconscious level he also knew this wasn’t going to be something that would be forever, and he had a burning desire to learn every inch of me, so that he could recall every inch in the future. In his mind, this sudden, powerful tryst might be the best damned sex that he would ever have.
I knew that it would be for me. I would never have someone as sexy, as giving, as driven as him again. If this was only temporary, by God, I was going to relish every single second of it.
Hanging on for dear life, I let him literally drive me up the walls with the things he was going, every stroke spiking me higher and higher. It was a pure frenzy, and I pushed down on him.
Even as he stumbled back, my weight too much for him to contain as his own surge of pleasure hit him, we stumbled over onto the living room couch, and made an even bigger mess of it all. It should have hurt, it should have knocked the wind out of both of us, but when you wanted something so damned bad, the adrenaline let you ignore almost anything.
I was on top of him now in our whirlwind of lust. Riding him, bouncing and grinding on his cock, using my advantage to drive him mad for a change. Even then, he didn’t let himself be out-given. He rubbed my clit with the rhythm of my bounces while the other hand cupped my breasts.
Lust drove us, and it was all soon coming together. I managed for one more kiss, and I knew that would be the last of this specific tryst. The flames inside me were growing wild, all my muscles seemingly going on automatic, pure instinct driving me to that next level of bliss. Faster, harder, he was solely driven to fucking me at this point. Hands on my hips, thrusting and I thrust down on him. Smashing into one another, not caring about a single damned thing in the world but that final climax.
It hit me, shattered me, put me back together. I felt it shoot through every cell of my body, causing me to shake, twist, and turn, and everything else. I screamed out, loud enough knowing there was no one around for miles from this ranch. My back arched back, trying to contain the delightful electricity going through me.
My entire body trembled from head to toe, down deep into my core. I heard his powerful, masculine grunt, his hands on my hips, firmly driving me down onto him. My tight channel gripped him, pulled at him, milked him for this seed, wanting it all. He came deep inside me, feeding that basest and most primal need. I relished the feeling. It was so perfect when you didn’t want to think about anything.
Soon, though, I collapsed on top of him. He slid out of me, and once again, I was simply in his arms, being held tightly. My hand rested on his chest, feeling his heartbeat, enjoying the serenity after the chaos.
The only sound for a time was us catching his breath, but he managed to break the silence first. “I wish I didn’t have to hand my daughter over to that woman.”
“I know,” I replied softly.
He studied me a moment, so intently that I stopped breathing. “I’m glad you’re here, though.”
I bit my bottom lip. “We’ll see after the big party.”
“You worried about it?”
“Maybe. And by that I mean how the hell can I not be worried?”
He grinned. “You’ll do great. My family is going to love you.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re going to be suspicious of me.”
“Maybe at first, but you’ll win them over.”
I propped myself up on my elbow, frowning. “How can you be so sure?”
“You did a pretty bang-up job with me.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not exactly a tough cookie.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is that a challenge?”
I shivered. Everywhere. The husky way he said challenge, his competitiveness and his enthusiasm…well, let’s just say that it was one hell of a turn-on. This was a man who kept me on my toes.
“Destiny,” he whispered, angling his head so it was closer to mine. “Are you ready?”
I ran my tongue in between my lips. “Ready for what?”
“Our bake-off.”
“Huh?” Bake-off? What the hell?
“I think we need to decide once and for all whose cookies are better: yours or mine.”
I laughed. Couldn’t help it.
“What is it?” he asked innocently.
“You know what it is. That was not what I was expecting.”
“Oh, and what were you expecting?” he asked even more innocently.
I smiled wide. I was a naughty girl, so I had no problem saying it. “First, I thought we were gonna have a fuck-off. And second, we already know whose cookies are better—mine of course!”
He grinned devilishly as he picked me up and threw me down on the couch. Then, he planted each hand beside my shoulders, holding himself up above me, giving me a damn nice view of this cowboy’s body.
He cocked his head to the side, grinning. “You really think you’re cookies are better?”
You’re still on the damn cookies? “Hell yeah they’re better! Even Ashley thinks so.”
“Ouch, that hurts.”
“It does not. You practically fell in love with me when you had yo
ur first bite.”
His expression suddenly softened as that word echoes between us. Love. Wait, had I just said that out loud? What was I thinking? “Not that you are in love with me, of course,” I babbled, eager to get things right again. “I mean, I’m not suggesting you are, or anything. That we are. That…”
He lowered himself over my body and kissed me.
Deeply.
Intensely.
The kind of kiss that would wake a princess from a fairy tale curse.
The kind of kiss you always dream of but never actually thought would happen.
The kind of kiss two people who are in—
No. I wouldn’t think it.
Instead, I ran my hands over the muscles of his chest until I found his back and brought him closer. He gripped my ass and then pushed my leg up and slipped in. I gasped as he took me, hands confident and possessive on my body, cock filling me up completely. He whispered my name over and over again with an agonizing sweetness that promised forever as I shattered and was put back together again in his arms, allowing myself to unravel in the moment.
Chapter 16
Destiny
We didn’t fuck all day long, but we practically did. Which is why I couldn’t believe it when I stepped outside and saw a stage, a bunch of tables, and enough food and refreshments to feed an army. “How on earth did you manage this on such short notice?”
I was looking at a damn near full fairground as Miles pulled the car into the makeshift parking lot.
“The Corbetts really, really value family. If you’re able, you’re expected to drop everything and gather for a wedding, a graduation, or a death. Whether for celebration or sorrow, we come together as family.”
“Wow, I guess.”
We stepped out of the car. Off to the right was a stage. Surrounding that was a large green field where kids ran around playing. Ashley? Not among them. Fat chance on getting Vivian to budge on her visitation schedule even if it meant Ashley would miss a big old family get together. Vivian never missed a chance to twist in the knife in Miles’ side.
