by Jenika Snow
“I know what you meant.” And he did. He sat up and faced her. “You made me feel better, so thank you for that.” She blushed again and he couldn’t help but grin. But as he stared at her he took note that her innocence and vulnerability didn’t just make her this sweet girl, but also this gorgeous woman. She could see the light when things looked pretty fucking dark. Her long dark hair was over one shoulder in a loose braid, and little wisps of hair fell around her face. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her small nose, stared at him with wide blue eyes, and he had to clear his throat and turn from her. He wasn’t thinking the most honorable thoughts about her right now, and that made him feel like a sick fucking bastard.
They were family by marriage, and if he was being technical he was her step-uncle. She’d come out here to make him feel better about his situation, and what was he thinking?
That she is so damn pretty and you’d like to kiss her.
“Are you okay?” she asked, obviously sensing the fact his body language had changed.
“I’m good, Lake.” He cleared his throat. “Thank you again for the talk.” Although he hadn’t meant to make that sound so dismissive, it did, in fact, sound like he was pushing her away. He didn’t look at her again, suddenly feeling really uncomfortable in her presence.
“Okay, well, if you need anything everyone is inside.”
He nodded. “Thanks.” He sat there as she got up and went back inside. Once the door was shut he breathed out and scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling the stubble on his cheeks. What in the fuck was he thinking, feeling? What in the hell was he doing? He needed to get his shit together, because wanting anything more than a friendship with his sister’s stepdaughter was fucked up.
Chapter Five
“I just feel like this is moving a step back, Ginny,” Reese said to his sister. It was a couple of months after Brittany had gone to Texas, and he hadn’t spoken to her aside from organizing the legal aspect of the divorce. True to her word he’d gotten the divorce paperwork shortly after she’d gone, dated weeks prior. But he hadn’t been upset about it, and in fact, had felt this relief.
“It’s not moving back, Reese,” Ginny said and grabbed his duffle. He’d put the house up for sale shortly after Brittany left, and already it had a bidder and the closing on it was underway. He’d moved out of the house he’d shared with his ex-wife for the last two years, put all his belongings in storage, but he’d thought he would have had time to find another place.
The housing market wasn’t the greatest, and although his home was in a great location with a small patch of property, he couldn’t stay there. It was just too big for a man to live alone, and it didn’t have the best memories. If he became involved with a woman in the future he didn’t want to spend time with her in the house that held memories of Brittany. But not only all of that, Brittany had stipulations in the divorce that the property was to be sold and the assets split. If he wanted to fight it he could have, but he didn’t want the property anymore than he wanted her as his wife.
“I can rent until I find a place to buy.”
His sister waved off his comment as she led them up the stairs and down the hallway to the spare bedroom. “And sign a lease for a year?”
“They have monthly rentals, Ginny.”
“Yeah, in the scuzzy part of town.” She pushed open the bedroom door and set his bag on the bed. “We have an extra bedroom, Reese, and you spending money, whether you have it or not, on a decent place just until you find a new house, is stupid.” She turned and faced him, and a smile crept over her mouth. She went up to him and hugged him, just held him as if she were the older sibling and trying to make everything okay.
“It’ll be fine, Ginny. I’ll be fine.”
She leaned back and looked up at him. “I know, but it still breaks my heart that Brittany, that bitch, thinks she could do this to you, and try and get alimony.” Her cheeks turned red, and he chuckled at her anger for him.
“She’s not getting a dime of my trust money. Precautions were put in place, don’t worry, you know that.” He chucked her under the chin. “No, I guess I’ll unpack my few things while I crash here for a while.” He really didn’t want to crash at Ginny and Calvin’s house. The truth was he had the money to find his own place until he found something more permanent, and staying with his younger sister and her stepdaughter and husband wasn’t what he ever envisioned himself doing. But he could see the determination in Ginny’s eyes when she’d brought it up and all but demanded he stay with them.
“Reese, I want you here, and Calvin knows how important you are to me. You’re family, not just my brother, but family to Lake and Calvin, too.” She smiled. “I know if the roles were reversed you’d do the same for me.”
“If a man broke your heart I’d break his face,” he said teasing, but also serious.
She chuckled. “I know.” She pointed to the bed and bag. “Unpack and rest up. I know you did a lot today with the storage of the furniture and getting the paperwork all organized for the divorce.”
He stood there when she turned and left, and for a second all he did was close his eyes and listen to the silence surround him. He knew all about being in an empty house, even when he was married. Brittany had enjoyed being out more than staying in, and when she was out it usually wasn’t with him.
“Stop thinking about her,” he said out loud, even though he was alone. He rubbed his eyes, breathed out, and sat on the edge of the bed.
Time to start his life over.
****
Reese felt like a pervert, felt like a sick bastard because here he was, standing at the back door and staring at Lake as she swam. Ginny was lying on the chair reading a book, her large brimmed hat creating this saucer of shadow covering her upper body. He watched Lake move through the water, her dark hair a trail behind her like spilled ink in the water. His heart started beating a little faster as he saw her form under the water, as he saw the roundness of her ass peek up above the liquid before disappearing just as fast. She was a good swimmer, fluid, graceful even, but here he was, watching his sister’s stepdaughter like a bastard wanting to mount her.
“You fucker,” he said under his breath, telling himself there had to be something wrong with him to even be thinking about Lake in any other way aside from a sweet, innocent girl. But she wasn’t a girl anymore, hadn’t been for a long time. She was smart, beautiful, and knew what she wanted in life. She was making something out of her life, and every time he passed by her father’s office she was in there studying. He didn’t see her go out with any friends, didn’t see her sneak alcohol or smoke pot like he had when he was her age, so a part of him knew she was more focused on bettering herself. But he also felt this empathy for her that essentially she was isolated from her peers.
He brought the bottle of water to his mouth, watched her like a fucking hawk about to pounce on a damn field mouse, and felt the stirring of his cock behind his jeans. Yeah, he was a sick asshole for wanting her. Hell, the ink on his divorce papers wasn’t even dry yet, and here he was, thinking about what she’d feel like under him.
But Reese didn’t feel like a predator, like he wanted only one thing from her. She was beautiful, not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. She was smart, so damn smart that even with his education and training in the military he felt like a damn fool at times. When she laughed he felt this warmth move through him. He hadn’t even been at Ginny and Calvin’s that long, but he already looked forward to seeing Lake every day, to hearing her speak, and to looking at her because she seemed to light up the whole room.
She moved toward the edge of the pool, gripped the railing of the stairs, and climbed out.
“Fuck,” he said low, breathless, and couldn’t help but watch the water as it cascaded down her curvy body. Her ass was so damn full and round that when she was out of the water and stood on the cement pad her ass bounced a little. “Good God,” he whispered and braced a hand on the wall beside him. She was only twenty, on
ly fucking twenty. Lake was fifteen years his junior, and his sister’s stepdaughter. Watching her was wrong; wanting her was so much worse.
She turned, wearing some kind of bikini that covered her midriff slightly, and started saying something to Ginny. She started smiling, and that had Ginny laughing. God, her smile lit up the whole damn patio.
She picked up the long fall of her hair wringing out the water. Her belly become more exposed, flashing him a tempting view of the roundness of it, of the fact she was built like a woman, not some skinny bitch like Brittany. Her tits were these damn works of art, and when she bent down to pick up the towel beside her, the top was low enough that he could see the mounds nearly falling free.
Throat tight, mouth dry, and tongue swollen, he felt his cock grow harder, press against his zipper, and demand to be free. Hell, all he could picture now was her naked on his bed, her body bared to him, her pussy spread. He turned, needing to get away, needing to try to get the images in his mind out.
Reese made his way up the stairs and to the room he was staying in. Once the door was shut he rested his forehead against the wood, closed his eyes, and breathed out roughly. His cock throbbed and was so fucking hard it had been painful just to walk.
Moving into the bathroom attached to the bedroom, he turned on the shower, stripped his clothes off, and stepped into the cold water. It was frigid, had his skin tightening, but his damn dick wouldn’t go down, even if he’d hoped the shot of chill would calm the fucker down. He reached down, grabbed his cock, and gave it a squeeze. He groaned, not able to help himself. Resting his forehead on the tile before him, he closed his eyes, opened his mouth to breathe harder, and started jerking off. Yeah, he’d just gone from watching her swim like a pervert to being a motherfucker that had to masturbate thinking about a much younger, totally off limits woman.
He started furiously stroking himself now, up and down, harder and faster. His balls drew up, his cock grew thicker with his impending orgasm, and he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. He moved his palm up and down his length, rubbed the tip of his dick on every down stroke, and finally let his climax rush through him. He groaned low, trying to keep the noise down, but it felt fucking good. The images of Lake getting out of that pool, the water dripping down her body, and her lush, cock-hardening thickness played on repeat over and over in his head.
His cum shot out of him, his orgasm so fierce that he curled his hands onto the slick tile. His whole body shook with the force of the pleasure coursing through him, and every time he imagined Lake it just seemed to go on and on. Finally, after what seemed like minutes of pleasure, he let go of his cock and braced his forearms on the wall.
Yeah, he’d just crossed the line, and he felt like the worst fucking creep in the world. He felt like he’d violated her even though he hadn’t touched her, even though she’d only been in his mind. If this kept up and his desire for Lake intensified, it would just rise until he suffocated from it and couldn’t maintain his control. He didn’t know if he could control himself around her.
Chapter Six
“This has to be something sadistic professors created to make it as painful as possible for students,” Lake said to herself, under her breath, frustrated. But she knew if she didn’t pass this calculus class her overall average would be lowered. That wasn’t something she’d be willing to do. So she’d been studying her ass off for the last week, hoping like hell this shit would stick in her mind before the final.
The sound of Reese chuckling behind her had Lake looking over her shoulder. He stood in the doorway of the office, his grin wide and the amusement on his face clear.
“You think it’s funny that I’m in pain with this?” she asked, teasing, but smiled when he continued to grin at her. He pushed off the doorframe and tossed his coat on the couch.
“I actually happen to be pretty good with math, so I can help if you want?” he asked and cocked a brow. He’d moved in to her father and Ginny’s place temporarily just a few weeks ago, but they hadn’t really seen each other. She’d been busy with school, and the few hours a week she’d been working at the restaurant she waitressed at had kept her pretty busy. Or maybe Reese had just been keeping to himself?
She knew he didn’t much care about staying here, and she suspected, even though they hadn’t talked or anything, that it probably had to do with the fact he felt a little weird. He might have money, might not even need to be here, but he had to know that they were all here for him. She hoped he realized that at least.
“Really? So you can help me make sense of this jumble of crap?” she asked and leaned back so he could see the scattering of paperwork on her father’s desk. He braced his hand on the desk and leaned forward. The scent of his cologne filled her nose, and she swallowed as she stared at his profile. He had a few days’ worth of stubble on his cheeks and chin, and his short dark hair brushed along the top of his brow. God, he really was attractive, masculine and so intense that she felt every part of her ignite.
“See they try and confuse you with extra numbers.” He pointed to the paper, and she forced herself to look away from him and down at her study notes. “You have to focus on the key points, then get the correct formulas to figure out the problem.”
Her heart was beating so loud it drowned out everything else. It thumped in her ears, made it impossible to hear anything else, and she was shocked by the sudden wave of desire that slammed into her. She’d always thought he was attractive, always knew he was smart and strong, but having him so close had something waking up inside of her.
For the next ten minutes he helped her with a particularly hard and confusing equation, but she couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t stop watching the way he held the pencil, how his big, strong hands were so close to hers that she felt the heat from him. His shirt was rolled up his forearms, and she stared at the light splattering of dark hair on his arms, at veins that lined under his skin, and the image of him using deadly force with all that power.
She’d heard from Ginny that before he got injured and got an honorable discharge and Purple Heart that he’d been a special operative. Aside from that and hearing from Ginny as well about the top-secret missions Reese had gone on, Lake didn’t know much about his military background, or the military in general. But she knew being a special operative had to be deadly, as only the best of the best were labeled as such.
“See how they did this one,” he said, his voice so deep it had her skin tightening, her nipples hardening, and her becoming wet between her thighs. Licking her lips, she moved her gaze way from him and looked at the paper he’d been trying to explain to her.
“Um.” She cleared her throat. “Kind of,” she said, knowing she had no clue how he’d figured out the problem because she’d been too busy thinking about him.
He looked at her, smiled, but the action seemed a little tense as the seconds passed. Reese leaned back in the seat he’d pulled up beside her, stared at her, and then cleared his throat. “Just go through the first formula I showed you.”
She didn’t move for a second as she stared into his dark eyes, took in his strong, masculine jaw, and the fact the first few buttons of his shirt were undone, showing off his smooth, golden skin. Even his throat was masculine, or maybe she was just so sex-charged being around him that everything on him looked good? Hell, even his fingernails looked good. Shaking her head, blinking a few times, and trying to push away the images of him, she stared down at the paper.
She could do this. Lake could actually do her work while Reese sat next to her and not want to jump his bones.
Well, she hoped she could at least.
****
He stared at Lake, watching the way she worried her bottom lip with her little white teeth, and seeing the concentration on her face as she tried to work out the problem. All he could think about was how he should be a role model, be someone she could look up to, come to for advice because he was older, more experienced. He shouldn’t be an asshole wanting to stick his dick in her tight little pu
ssy.
God, you can’t even think honorable thoughts, you sick motherfucker.
Closing his eyes, he clenched his teeth and curled his hands into fists as they sat on his thighs. The thing was he knew she was attracted to him. He’d seen her watching him on several occasions, and knew about women well enough that her body language screamed arousal when he was near. That had this heady sensation moving through him, had this desire like he’d never felt fill him.
He looked at her, her body hunched slightly over the desk. She shifted her legs, pressed them together over and over again, and she kept bouncing her feet, as if she couldn’t sit still. She also started biting on the end of her pencil, and his cock started getting hard at the sight of her teeth chewing on that wood. God, he could picture that mouth of hers, all lush and red, wrapped around his cock.
Turning his head away from her, he tried to focus on something that wouldn’t have his dick hard. Nothing helped, and in fact just sitting here made it worse. She smelled good, so damn good. When she shifted next to him, the feel of her arm brushing along his had his skin tightening, had his heart beating faster.
“Like this?” she said, and he turned and looked at the paper. Shifting on the seat, he watched her write out the problem, and although he knew right away that she was going in a different direction with the formula, and that the equation wouldn’t be correct, he couldn’t even focus enough right now to stop her and explain the right way to do it. Closing his eyes tight for a second, he opened them again and cleared his throat, making himself get in this moment where he was nothing but a person helping her out.
He reached out and took the paper, moving it slightly toward him so he could see it, and another zing of electricity, another wave of arousal and awareness shot up his arm when their fingers touched. They stared at each other for a moment. Then he cleared his throat, took a deep, steadying breath to try to calm himself. He needed to focus on the task at hand.
