Little One Read online

  “You take a lot of showers,” she comments as I return.

  The bowls and pans have been cleaned and put away. Now she’s curled up on the sofa, a blanket over her legs with some girly shit on TV.

  “They’re necessary.”

  “Two in one day? Come on, V, you’re not that dirty.”

  She has no fucking idea. Just look at her, all wide, innocent eyes and sweet, tempting little body. No idea just how dirty I can be. The temptation to show her burns deep in my gut.

  I point to the kitchen. “I thought I told you not to do anything.”

  “I just wanted to help.”

  “Well don’t. I’m meant to be looking after you. I don’t want you lifting a damned finger.”

  “I’m not your wife to order about, V.”

  “If you were, I’d be putting you over my knee for not listening. If you were, I wouldn’t let you lift a fucking finger either.”

  “That’s a little old-fashioned.”

  “Wanting to look after your wife?”

  “Well, I guess…” She shrugs. “I guess when you put it that way...”

  I slide onto the sofa next to her, careful to keep distance between us. “If it’s old-fashioned to want the woman in your life to be looked after, call me old-fashioned.”

  Gray peers at me in that way that seems to drive right to the core of me. She tilts her head and purses her lips as though trying to figure out a puzzle. I don’t think there’s anything complicated about me. I work, eat, sleep and start again. In between that I fantasize about plunging into Gray’s virgin pussy. Not complicated stuff.

  “Have you ever been married?”

  My fingers clench involuntarily. I look away.

  “V? Have you?”

  “A long time ago.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Eighteen years.”

  “What happened?”

  I drag in a breath. I don’t talk about my life before Danny. Ever. Danny knows the basics but that’s it. Why would I? I left it far, far behind. “Things changed.”

  “What changed?” She shifts closer to me. “I know you were in the military once.”

  I nod. “Navy SEAL.”

  “Was that what changed?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Come on, V, we’re friends, aren’t we? Tell me what happened? After all I’m meant to trust you with my life, but you don’t trust me? It’s hardly fair.”

  “Little One, I trust you, but you don’t need to know the crappy tale of my life.”

  “I might not need to but I want to.”

  I don’t know what it is about her. Maybe that’s what always has me pushing her away. Not just because she’s too young and Danny’s sister but because she can eat under my skin and have me confessing every fucking thing I’ve ever done in my life.

  “I married young. When I was eighteen. She got pregnant so we had a quick wedding.”

  “You’re a father?”

  “No. She miscarried.” I shove aside the painful stab it causes to my heart. It was so long ago, I forget it can even hurt me sometimes but the memory of that day is fresh and raw.

  “I’m so sorry.” Gray puts her hand on the back of mine.

  With a shrug, I remove my hand from under hers. “I’m not the only one it’s happened to. And it’s happened to better people than me.”

  She shakes her head slowly but doesn’t try to tell me different. “What happened to your wife?”

  “Got bored with me I guess.”

  “No.”

  I lift a brow. “No?”

  “You’re lying, V. I can tell.”

  “You’d be the only one.”

  “Well, perhaps I am.”

  “It’s a long, boring story. You wouldn’t be interested.”

  “I would be.” She leans forward. “I am.”

  I stand and walk into the kitchen to distance myself from her. Gray watches me and I can feel her staring into my back. “There’s nothing to tell, Gray,” I say over my shoulder.

  “Yes, there is. And you’re going to tell me one day, I know you are.”

  “Don’t hold your breath,” I mutter.

  She remains quiet for most of the evening, the dull chatter of the TV unable to distract me from sneaking glances at her. I want her to hate me. I want her to see me for what I am. And yet I don’t. I need to bundle her up in my arms and protect her from the world that crafted me. I can’t do that if she hates me.

  When we go to bed, I can’t sleep. It’s a different tension than normal. Not that hot, impatient, burning need to flip back the sheets, march through to her room and rip those flimsy shorts from her.

  No, this is different. But why?

  Is it because she wants to know more? Or because I’m half tempted to tell her the whole sordid tale? Fuck knows why. When I got out of jail, I vowed to walk away from my past. I did my job and I fucked up. For that, someone lost their life and I deserved to lose mine. Working for Danny passed the time, earned some dough, and buried me so deep in the underworld that my past would never come back to haunt me.

  At least that’s what I thought. I can feel it lingering around me like mustard gas in the air, clouding everything I do. I’ve been through rigorous training, been waterboarded for fuck’s sake. Tortured and left to starve. Why would a few questions from a girl like Gray eat through my defenses and have me considering confessing my every sin?

  That strange grating sensation is back in my gut. It echoes something over and over. Tells me I know.

  My heartbeat quickens as I stare at the fan on the ceiling. Love, love, love, it says. I don’t think I’m capable of that. How can I be after everything I’ve seen and done?

  Fuck.

  A sound from the room next to me has me on my feet and forgetting anything about love. It was Gray.

  I yank open the door and burst into her room. When I flick on the light, she bolts upright in bed. Her cheeks are flushed and a sheen of sweat lingers on her skin. I glance left and right but there’s no intruders. Only Gray, her chocolate hair a wild mass around her face, the strap from her top slipping down one shoulder.

  “V?” She blinks at me. “What are you doing?”

  Three strides take me to the edge of the bed. I fling back the duvet. The shorts are gone and she’s wearing cotton panties again, little pale blue ones with a tiny satin bow at the waist.

  Wild heat flares through me. I can feel my breaths getting harsher. I lean down and put a finger to the crotch of her panties. Wet, just as I thought.

  What I’d heard was not a cry of alarm or pain, it was her coming in those cute little panties.

  “Did you just come, Little One?”

  She’s frozen, her eyes wide as she blinks in the light. Her legs remain slightly apart. Enough for me to nudge her sensitive clit and make her squeak.

  “I won’t ask again. Did you just come?”

  She nods.

  I release a long, low breath. “What were you thinking about?” I press her clit again to force along another confession. I can already feel the bud growing beneath my fingertip.

  “You.”

  The word ricochets through me. It jars into my mind and settles there, slowly driving me insane. Who the fuck am I kidding? She’s had me questioning my sanity ever since she began growing into a woman.

  “Was it hard?” I ask.

  “What?”

  “Keeping quiet.”

  She bites into her bottom lip and nods.

  It physically hurts—the idea that she had to muffle her cries of pleasure. I want her screaming it to the top of the roof not burying it against a pillow.

  “You’re going to come again, Little One,” I tell her, ignoring the shake of her head. “You’re going to cum again and you’re going to scream. None of that trying to keep quiet bullshit.”

  I ease onto the bed and hook my fingertips around the edge of her panties. For one brief moment, some flicker of sanity registers and I pause. But the sight of her j
uices darkening the cotton and the soft flesh of the inside of her legs quickly crushes that voice.

  I draw down her panties. Slowly, slowly, slowly, so that I’m torturing both of us. She’s wriggling, desperate to bare herself to me. I’m sucking in the scent of her orgasm and staring at her pussy like a starving man.

  The cotton drops below her clit and reveals her pussy lips, peeking out between a tiny thatch of dark hair. Her cunt is pink, wet, delicate. I have to try very hard not to come right then and there.

  I continue pulling down her panties, leaving kisses along her thighs, the backs of her knees, her calves and her ankles as I go. I press one more kiss each to the arch of her foot and come back up to admire my creation.

  Her top remains on, one strap still hanging off her shoulder. Her thighs are spread for me. She watches me with heavy-lidded fascination. Her chest rises and falls with a quickening pace. A little pussy juice lingers on the inside of her thighs and when I touch it, she jolts. She’s so fucking sensitive to my touch that this is going to be spectacular.

  I lick the juice from my finger, savoring the musky flavor of her, then I ease her thighs apart farther. I could remove her top and reveal those lush little tits of hers but I quite like her this way—sort of ravaged looking.

  A whimper escapes her.

  “I know, Little One. I know how badly you need it,” I murmur. “I’m going to give your hungry cunt everything it needs.”

  Well, not everything. I might have lost it but seeing her tight little pussy reminds me of one thing—she’s a virgin and I cannot, ever, take her. But it doesn’t mean I can’t taste and bring her more pleasure than she’s ever felt before.

  “Has anyone ever licked your pussy?” I ask, knowing the answer.

  “No.” The word is shaky and even though I knew, it still pleases me to hear that response. I want to be her first.

  I also want to be her last but that’s not possible. I might be nuts but I’m not stupid.

  Easing myself down between her legs, I pull apart her folds and eye the tight hole there. I can’t even think how I’d get a finger in there let alone a cock but I’m going to try.

  The first touch of my tongue to her pussy has her jolting from the bed. Jesus fucking Christ, the taste of her is better than I ever expected. I use the movement to my advantage and hook my hands under her ass, angling her hips so I can have full access.

  I touch her again, coaxing her clit to swell. I tease it over and over before licking all the way up her cunt. Her thighs tremble. I suck her clit into my mouth and tease it between my teeth. She grips the bedding and cries out.

  “Horny girl,” I murmur, approvingly before going back in again.

  I lick and suck her until she’s begging me to stop but I keep going, bringing her to the brink then releasing her before dragging her to the edge again.

  “V…please…” I suck harder. “Oh God.”

  Once the inside of her thighs are soaked with her juices and my spit, I take her slowly to the point of climax then gently push one finger into her tight hole. I’ve never taken a virgin—never thought I would—but she’s so fucking tight it’s insane. I feel the vibrations of her body through my hand, give her clit a suck and wait for the orgasm to come crashing through her. She comes around my finger. If it was my cock, she’d be sucking me dry.

  I ease out my finger but I don’t give her any time to recover. I can’t. After that display, I’m a goner. I yank down my boxers, pull out my cock and pump hard. She watches, eyes wide, her lips parted.

  My climax hits hard and fast. I clamp my jaw so tight I don’t know how I don’t shatter all my teeth. The sight of her wet pussy has me spilling onto her. I let my cum drop onto her body, coating her stomach and cunt. It’s the most singular, hottest thing I’ve seen or done in my life. Little Gray covered in my cum like the horny girl she is.

  She makes little whimpering sounds when I leave her to grab a hot, damp cloth to clean her up. I wipe away all the evidence, gentle on her sensitive pussy then I tuck her in and press a kiss to her forehead.

  “Don’t go, V. Stay here,” she pleads.

  I can’t resist. Hating myself as I do it, I climb into bed next to her and draw her into my hold. Her hair tickles my face and her delicate body fits perfectly in my arms. An instant feeling of satisfaction and—I scowl to myself—comfort sweeps over me. It’s like something I’ve never felt before.

  I didn’t take her, though. She’s still a virgin.

  It’s going to stay that way.

  Chapter Six

  Gray

  I wake, aware of something missing. I can’t think what it could be at first. My heart skips and I turn.

  V.

  My body had remembered him being here before my brain could. I guess that’s how it always is with him, though. My body knows more than my brain does. Like how to come so hard I nearly passed out.

  I lie there for a while, eyeing the indent in the pillow. He must have stayed most of the night to leave that mark. I’ve never shared a bed with a man but I had slept beautifully—probably the best I have since this whole running from someone trying to hurt me thing started. The fact was, I felt protected and cherished for the first time in a long while. I mean, sure, Danny knows how to protect me but his idea of doing that is to scare everyone who comes near me.

  Closing my eyes, I picture the previous night. I remember the sight of his cock, so big and masculine. His thighs were strong and hairy as he kneeled over me, getting himself off. I’ve never seen anything like it and it made me want to come all over again. Then he tucked me in and held me close. He made me feel small and precious. Special. In V’s arms, I felt like nothing and no one could hurt me. I felt invincible.

  I slip out of bed and stretch before heading to the shower. The scent of cooking reaches me. It’s funny, I never would have imagined him cooking before but it suits him, somehow. I shower quick, eager to see V. Will he push me away again? Pretend it never happened? I’m not stupid, I get why he doesn’t want to give in. I’m a lot younger than him and he’s known me for a long time. I’m like a little sister in a way. But after last night, how can he even pretend he can keep me at a distance? I want more of him. I want it all. Somehow, I need to persuade him it will be worth giving into.

  I towel dry myself, wrap it around my body and pad back to the bedroom to change. If I was older, perhaps, and more experienced, I’d simply step out into the kitchen, drop the towel and demand he take me. But I’m not. I have no idea what I’m doing. V has ignited something in me that I’ve never experienced before. I only wish I knew how to convince him to follow it through.

  The day is sunny and warm, with the sun’s rays glinting off the lake. I regret that I’m stuck in here on such a gorgeous day. I slip on a white dress with little buttons down the front and ease my feet into sandals before running a brush through my hair and leaving it loose. My brother had been fully prepared for me to come here and left me a little makeup and toiletries. He hates me wearing too much but I’m glad he at least left me some moisturizer and mascara. I smooth the luxurious cream over my face, dab on a little lip balm and put on the mascara before spritzing myself with perfume. I eye the collection of stuff Danny left me and shake my head. To think he’d been preparing for the day someone tried to hurt us. I wish I hadn’t been so naïve and ignorant. I don’t even know what I’ll do when I return home.

  V has his back to me when I enter the living area. He’s at the stove and I can hear something sizzling. My stomach grumbles in response and he turns.

  “Sorry.” I can feel my cheeks warm.

  He gives me a smile. It’s not one of those full, charming, cheeky smiles but a cautious one—one that creases his eyes in the corner but doesn’t commit. I’d love to get him smiling properly but V is still a bit of a mystery to me. Crazy, right? Considering what we did last night. Heck, I don’t even know what V stands for. All I can hope is that we’ll have more time. He said he’s going to contact my brother in a few days, and
then what? Will it all be over? I don’t know if I can stand it.

  “I’m glad you’re hungry.” He nods to the counter. “Sit. Food will be ready in a moment.”

  I glance at the clock on the kitchen wall. “I didn’t mean to sleep in this late. How did you know I wouldn’t be up until now?”

  “Good guess. I knew you’d need your rest.”

  After that explosive orgasm is what he means. My body tingles in remembrance. I want to tell him as much but the words won’t come so I sit and eye the marbled surface. If only I had more experience with men. If only I understood how to make them want me. I must be doing something wrong if he won’t give in.

  He plates up what turns out to be pancakes and bacon, and passes over a jug of syrup.

  “This is too much,” I say, eyeing the pile.

  “Eat up, Little One. You need to keep up your strength. I won’t have you losing weight.”

  Maybe that’s it. I’m too small. Not desirable enough. If I looked more like a woman, he wouldn’t be able to resist me at all.

  V flicks a finger under my chin and forces my gaze to his. “What is it?”

  “I know I’m too skinny,” I mumble.

  His expression goes from soft to furious in seconds. He marches around the counter, grabs the chair I’m on and twists it around so I’m facing him. He presses his hands to either side of the chair, effectively holding me prisoner there. My eyes are wide as I watch this display.

  “Don’t fucking say that again.”

  “But—”

  “You’re never too anything, Gray. Never too skinny or too sweet or too clever. Never. If anyone ever says that to you, I’ll fucking kill them, you understand me? If anyone doesn’t appreciate you as you are, they don’t deserve to live.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “You’re perfect.” He eases back and skims a finger down my face. “Too damned perfect.” He jerks his head toward the food. “I just don’t want you going back to Danny, having lost weight. I want to look after you, Little One, and this is stressful for you. The chances are you’re not eating enough. That’s all.” V lifts a shoulder. “And I like cooking for you,” he adds.