CHAPTER SIXTEEN

DANIEL

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I’m not an asshole.

My only purpose in life is to protect Mira. It’s my job. My responsibility. I swore to her mother, my best friend, on her deathbed that I would keep her baby girl safe.

Then I broke that promise by bringing her to Jefferson. A town with all the wrong laws. Skewed morals.

A place that turned a blind eye when they killed my brother over lies.

Now, Mira thinks it’s her job to protect us.

Christ, I love her.

I love her strength. Her passion. Her love. I love that she’s brave and loyal, but damn it, it’s going to get her killed and I will burn this town to ashes with everyone still inside. I don’t give a fuck. If they hurt my baby, none of them will be safe.

Maybe she’d be less careless if she knew the truth, if I unpacked my past for her and emptied everything into her lap. But I doubt it. It won’t make her any less angry or determined to protect us. Knowing Mira, it will make things worse.

Still, I have to say something.

“Mira.”

The tiny creature is still and silent in the seat next to mine. Her face is turned to the window, watching the picturesque town sweep past in a hue of approaching fall. There’s a hard knot in her slender jaw that reflects in the anxious picking of a hangnail on her thumb.

“I know,” she replies with none of her earlier rage, but her sigh is bottomless. “I know why you’re upset. I know there’s something wrong with the town. It’s evil and the people in it are...” she gives her head a small shake. “There’s something wrong with them.” Her face lifts and she meets my gaze. “I know the Sheriff won’t help if something happens. I know you’re trying to protect me. But...” she growls deep in her throat. “I hate them. All of them.”

I bite back the amusement threatening to take over. “I know, baby. I hate them, too.” I reach across to capture her hand in mine and pull it across to kiss the knuckles. “Chris and I have a plan. We just need to wait until after the weekend. We’ll be out of here as soon as I can get the paperwork rolling.”

Mira nods slowly and pulls our clasped hands into her lap. Her head drops back against the headrest, and she goes back to watching Jefferson in all its beauty.

Jefferson is beautiful. Always has been. Like the firm hand of God, every corner is stubbornly maintained, trimmed, painted and polished to protect the rot festering just beneath the veneer.

“I’d like to live somewhere like this,” Mira says softly. “Not here, but a small, cute town like on Gilmore Girls .”

I know way too much about that show. After Sam’s death, it was all Mira wanted to watch. We’d burrito on the couch for hours, days watching Rory’s villain arc.

“But I don’t think I’m cut out for it. I’m really against knowing my neighbors.”

I burst out laughing. Mira is definitely not small-town girl material. This morning at the diner proved that. Growing up in a confined environment meant letting everyone in on your business, willingly or not. They will pop in at all hours without invitation and will tell everyone about the speck of dust on the sideboard. Mira wouldn’t put up with that.

But maybe I could build her a home somewhere quiet and isolated. hugged by wilderness and canopied by a whole galaxy of stars. Chris and I loved running off into the forest every chance we had. We camped out all summer, living off the fish we caught and berries we foraged. Mira would love a little garden in the back. A jacuzzi sounded nice on the back porch where we could barbecue and cuddle. Maybe a firepit.

A play structure.

I’ve always liked the idea of at least two kids. Mira’s an only child and I only have Christian. None of us had any other people in our lives who might bring a child over, but ... we could have one.

But I know Mira. She wouldn’t. Having me, now Christian in her life is already stretching the limits of her anxiety. A child — a baby — would send her over. Nevertheless, one day. Maybe. If she wants. I’m not against the idea.

Still, the thought of my cum filling her so deep she gets pregnant has my cock practically vibrating in my pants. It’s ready to get the job done, but this is a whole conversation that needs to be had between us, and Christian. A baby with Mira would make me ecstatic, but I’m just as okay if she decides it’s not for her.

“Christian kissed me.”

I blink out of my thoughts to steal a glance at the figure next to me. “I’m sorry?”

Mira turns her face, one eye squinted against the glaring sun. “Christian kissed me back in the parking lot of the diner.”

I know that.

I’d been angry and annoyed coming out of the diner, but I wasn’t blind to Mira’s flushed face. Her ravaged lips. The bright, purple hickey against the soft white of her flesh alongside mine from earlier. It just took a backseat to the much bigger situation.

“Did you like it?” I ask.

“Yes ... and no,” she murmurs, shifting slightly in her seat.

My gaze drops to her thighs pressed stiffly together. Her tight little nipples extending against the front of her soft top.

“Did he make your pussy wet, baby?”

Her blue eyes jump to my face for the barest second. “Yes.”

Since my talk with Christian about access to Mira, part of me waited to feel the punch of regret. I wonder if I should have waited. I only just tasted her. Maybe that should be enough until she’s ready for more.

But then Christian was leaving, and my plans got hazy because I want to see her with him. I want her riding his cock. I want to watch him eat her pussy until she cums the way she did for me. I want her cunt used and dripping when I push her quivering thighs apart and take her all over again.

It’s not all I want. Sharing her isn’t mandatory or a deal breaker. Having her to myself, using and breaking her on my own is enough, but there’s something about watching a woman being forced to take everything, to cum so much she’s in tears. There’s a special kind of pleasure in overwhelming her until the pain becomes a sort of bliss.

But only with Christian.

I never felt this need with another man. I never even considered it. The very idea bores me. But with Christian, he knows what I like. He knows how to place them for me to watch. He knows how to make them scream to make my cock hard.

I want him to fuck my Mira. I want him to hold her down and make her take him while I watch her struggle. And if I had any doubts that Mira might not like the idea, it vanished that morning when I know she saw Christian and begged me to make her cum again. It was her unwavering stare on him while I lapped her greedy little cunt.

I fucking want that again, but more.

I want all of it.

“Take your shorts off, baby girl.”

In the next seat, Mira turns her head away from the window to blink at me. “What?”

“Shorts, baby, off.”

I don’t blame her hesitance, but she asks no follow up questions when unsnapping the silver button and dragging the zipper down. The soft denim slides over her hips and down her knees to puddle at her ankles.

I chose her outfit. I did it with a clear purpose in mind. I wanted her in as little as possible and the three pieces are easy to take apart and put together at a second’s notice.

The silver ring holding her top up hooks in my finger, and I drag it down, baring her beautiful tits.

“Daniel...”

I ignore her whimper. I ignore everything when slipping my hand into the elastic of her lacy, pink panties. I ignore her choked whine when I part her smooth, soft lips and find her slippery hole.

She widens her knees and lifts her hips into my palm, giving her cunt to the fingers I force inside.

“Oh God!” she hisses, head falling back.

I keep my focus on the road, but I tease my toy at the same time. Her pussy is such a wet mess, a delicious playground I never want to leave. And she’s so vocal. Moaning and begging, and humping my fingers, and I’m so proud of her.

“Open your mouth, baby girl.”

She does and I’m feeding her, her own delicious juices. I’m pushing my coated fingers deep down her throat like I had my cock earlier and making her suck herself off.

“All of it. Lick your pussy off.”

My good girl dips her tongue between the V and around each finger. She licks and laps and gravitates down to clean my palm where she’d been grinding her clit.

My cock throbs. It aches to slam inside her in whichever hole is closest. Instead, I’m forced to wait for a red light to wrap my wet fingers around her pretty neck and squeeze. I drag her across the console as far as I can with her belt on and shove my tongue into her mouth and suck on hers until the light changes.

“Put your clothes back on,” I tell her, pushing her back into her seat.

I expect complaints that I didn’t let her finish, but Mira drops back and replaces her clothing without a word.

I kiss the back of her hand in reward and keep our fingers locked in her lap as we drive the rest of the way to the hardware store.

My list is vaguely still fresh in my mind. It’s harder to focus when all I can smell is Mira’s arousal coating my hand. When she’s sitting right there, fidgeting like her pussy’s on fire and needing my cock to soothe it.

Christian is already parked and waiting for us when we pull into the parking lot. He’s leaning against the side of his bike, arms folded, glowering at something in the distance. His scowl doesn’t change even as we pull up alongside him. Instead, he reaches for Mira’s door and yanks it open.

I sit a moment and watch as she moves to slide down. I watch the moment Christian gets a whiff of her because I know it fills the cabin, coats my skin. Her scent is such a distinct torture I would recognize it anywhere.

Christian says nothing as he helps her off the footstep. He shuts her door and steps back, but he never once takes his eyes off her until I round the hood, and he meets my gaze. Both of us knowing.

“What are we getting?” Mira asks, oblivious to the immediate danger she’s in.

Christian reaches for her. He captures a lock of hair off her right breast. Her tiny frame twitches when his finger grazes her skin, but he winds it around his index finger and tugs her to him.

“You might want to sit in the car, sweetheart,” he tells her gruffly, hungry eyes watching her over the coil of hair he’s brought to his nose.

“What? Why?” Mira asks, sounding genuinely puzzled. “Is this a man thing because it’s a hardware store?”

Christian snorts. “It’s a, you’re going to start a whole riot, thing. With that outfit and your pussy smelling so sweet and ready for a cock, I’m going to end up going in for murder.”

“Christian!”

I think she meant to sound shocked, appalled maybe, but the way her voice wavers, the little catch makes me think otherwise. Plus, there’s the fact that she hasn’t pulled away. She’s still inches from him, face tilted as if in offering.

Careful not to startle her, I place my hands on the warm, naked flesh of her waist and slide them up to cradle her tits through her top. Mira twitches in surprise, but she doesn’t stop me when I run my thumbs over the peaks and elicit a sharp whimper.

Christian is watching my hands, watching Mira gasp and shudder when I pinch the peaks.

“He’s right,” I growl into her ear. “He made your pussy so fucking wet, Mira.”

“Daniel!”

Her face burns crimson, but she’s still in my arms. She’s still peering up at Christian as he closes his fingers into her jaw with her hair still caught in his grasp. Her small hands fly up to his shoulders. I’m not sure if she meant to push him away, but she doesn’t stop him when he drops his face inches from hers.

“If I made the mess, I should be the one to lick it clean before we go in, don’t you think?”

Mira’s loud inhale breaks into a weak moan I feel where my palms have travelled down to flatten against her tummy, half tucked inside her shorts. Shorts that Christian picks idly at the button of while staring into Mira’s wide, pleading eyes.

“Or your daddy can while I hold his little girl open and let him eat—”

Mira’s hand claps over Christian’s mouth. She silences his very enticing offer. She’s breathing hard and her scent is a wild inferno burning up around us. Even the skin beneath my touch blazes as if she has a fever.

“Stop,” she begs, trembling against my chest. “Please. I...”

I slide my hand deeper the same time Christian flicks her button open, giving me room to cup all that hot, liquid heat soaking her panties.

Mira melts with a shivering sob.

“Do you want Daddy to lick your pussy again, little girl?” he taunts around her palm while I rub her swollen clit.

We’re rewarded with her sweet submission as she practically dissolves into my chest.

“Please,” she gasps, head falling back against my shoulder, hips rolling in time with my strokes. “Please.”

Christian captures her wrist and tugs her hand down. He smirks into her flushed face but says nothing when lowering himself down in front of her.

“Open your baby’s pussy for me, Danny,” he says, hands closing into the V of her shorts.

“Spread your legs, my pretty toy,” I whisper harshly into her ear. “We have to clean your mess.”

Mira does. She widens her stance and watches Christian drag the soft material over her hips, baring her pretty, pink panties to the world. Beneath the scrap of fabric, I have her lips spread between two fingers, her clit ready for his tongue. My baby is whining and begging and making the most pathetic whimpering sounds.

But a car door slamming nearby has the moment shattering. Mira flinches and Christian yanks her shorts back up. I pull the material closed and fasten it in place.

I turn her into my chest and hold her as she gasps and trembles. Her back shudders under the palms I stroke along the curve. Over her head, I meet Christian’s starved expression, his pluming annoyance and desire.

He shoves five fingers back through his hair and blows out a breath even while his gaze sweeps the area around us.

“You both made it worse,” Mira groans into the front of my shirt.

“Ten minutes,” I promise into the top of her head. “Ten minutes and we’ll go home and take care of you.”