Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
“You got it, kiddo,” she says, and floors it, no questions asked.
nine
LUCAS
I’m packing because it’s the right thing to do, and the only thing I can do. I can’t stay here and see Tatum every day and not touch her, not talk to her, not love her. But if I’m to respect her wishes, then I have to get as far away from her as possible.
I take everything I have that reminds me of Tatum: her letters, the photographs we took together, and okay, yes, a pair of her panties. I take these things, along with the few clothes and tools I own, and shove them into my duffel bag. As far as I’m concerned, Nina can rent this place out furnished, charge a little more for it than she might’ve been able to otherwise. Maybe that can be the small thing I leave behind, a little bit of furniture and some TLC on the unit to make it lovely and livable.
I clean out the fridge, getting rid of anything that might spoil. I’m about to take out the last bag of trash when I hear a knock at the door. For one second, I think maybe, maybe it’s her. But I can’t think like that anymore. It’s over. She wants me gone.
But when I open the door, there she stands, mascara streaking down the slopes of her cheeks, and her eyes red and glassy. She’s clearly been crying, but she’s not crying anymore. She sniffles, but she holds her head high.
“Tatum?”
“We need to talk,” she says. I step out of her way to let her in, closing the door gently behind her. She looks around and notices the few boxes, bags, and trash I’ve collected. “You were just going to leave?”
“I thought that’s what you wanted,” I say, defeated.
She turns to face me.
“I don’t want you to go anywhere. I was angry when you told me about the letters, but I realized…” She sniffles again and shakes her head. I note the sadness in her expression, and I suspect that Gene must have been an even bigger disappointment than I thought he’d be.
“Baby girl,” I say, “how did things go with—”
“Terrible.” Her lip trembles, and I can no longer keep my distance. We fly toward each other, arms open. I hold her tight and rock her gently until her shoulders stop shuddering and she finally catches her breath. “He hates me,” she says.
“Shh, no he doesn’t, baby,” I whisper into her hair. “He just hates himself, and he has to take all that hate out on someone else. It’s self-preservation. That doesn’t excuse it, but I swear to you, no one could hate you, baby. Least of all your father.”
I cradle her face in my hands and force her to look at me. And finally, amid all the tears and snot and sadness, she smiles, just a little.
“I realized something today,” she says.
“What’s that?”
“No one has ever loved me like you love me.”
I press a kiss to her forehead. “I love you so, so much, Tatum.”
“You know what else?” she continues. I brush her hair back from where it’s matted to her damp cheeks.
“What, baby?”
“I love you, too.”
I kiss her like I’ll die without her, and I swear I might. She kisses me back with equal fervor. “I’m so sorry I lied to you, baby girl,” I say between kisses. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“I forgive you,” she says, hugging me tight. “It’s okay. I forgive you.”
She glides her hands down my chest, sparking a fire inside me, and the desire to reclaim my territory.
We begin shedding clothes as we stumble together toward the bedroom, a tangle of limbs that can’t get close enough. She falls onto the bed and pulls me down on top of her so that we’re skin to skin, soul to soul.
She spreads her legs for me and whispers, “I need you, Daddy.”
I brush the hair from her face.
“I need you, too, baby.” I’m rock hard and ready, and so is she. I slide into her easily, burying myself as far as she can take me. I groan and brace myself above her, moving slowly at first, until she wraps her legs around me.
“Harder, Daddy,” she says. “Fuck me like you’ll never leave me.”
And I do, because I won’t. Not now, not ever. I slam into her, drawing delicious, animalistic sounds from her sweet mouth. She feels amazing, but I know I can go deeper. I adjust our position, hooking my hands beneath her knees and pressing the tops of her thighs to her abdomen, as I plow into her.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous like this, baby girl. Spread wide for me, tits bouncing, completely at my mercy.”
She wets her lips. “I love…uh…looking at you…while you fuck me.”
Tatum yelps as I roll us over so that I’m on my back and she is on top of me. She teeters for a second, then steadies herself with both hands on my chest.