CHAPTER NINE

CHRISTIAN

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My hard on is excruciating.

It pushes into the metal teeth of my zipper, pinching and confined against the denim of my jeans. It’s been a relentless force all through breakfast as Mira sits too close, her sweet fragrance a chokehold around my throat. She hasn’t said a word the entire time we ate, but her cheeks glow a vibrant pink. Her thighs shift and rub, despite Daniel’s hand. Her restless need is all I can focus on because all I want is to pull the knee closest to me back over my lap and finish what we started.

Fucking Clemence May. She always had the worst timing. Mira was so fucking close, it wouldn’t have taken more than a few thrusts to have her drenching my fingers.

Goddamn it!

She’d been so hot and moist pressed into my palm, so needy and delicious. And her whimpers ... fuck me! Her fucking whines. Her sweet, malleable sobs of my name.

Fucking Clemence May.

Hated her in high school. Definitely hate her as a fully grown fucking adult.

Although, it does bring to mind the claw marks on Mira’s small hand, the jagged gashes marking her skin. Most of them are shallow, red, torn lines that would be gone by morning, but two had gone deep. Blood bubbled in beads from the wounds that had almost sent my own bloodlust roaring at the thought of Clemence having hurt Mira.

I’ve never hit a woman — spanking does not count — but I was fully prepared to track her husband down and punch him in the mouth. But then I saw Clemence coming out of the bathroom with her red rimmed eyes and disheveled hair and realized my ... Daniel’s baby had whipped her ass. I’ve never been so fucking proud.

“What do you think?”

I blink, realizing Daniel has been talking this whole time. I have no idea what he said, but I know asking him to repeat himself will only get me that grouchy, grumbly frown and I’m not in the mood.

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

Next to me, her soft thigh pressed alongside mine, Mira glances up from her plate. Our eyes meet and the uncertainty in hers has my chest aching and my hand reaching up to smooth across her cheek. It’s an unintentional gesture. My limb has grown a mind of its own, acting without guidance from me, but it seems to calm her which is all I want.

I have no doubt that she probably has a million questions. A lot happened in the span of an hour. She probably thinks it should have been Daniel who touched her, but she’d given her consent to me. She’d looked at me when she asked to be touched. Those were the rules.

Maybe the rules don’t apply to her. Daniel and I haven’t discussed anything and usually that’s the first step, but he pulled back. He gave me free reign to touch her, to put my fingers inside her slick heat and make her cum.

Fuck! I don’t know anymore. I don’t know what Daniel’s doing. Mira seems as confused as I am which means he hasn’t spoken to her either about any of this.

We finish breakfast and Daniel leaves to settle the bill, leaving me alone with the tiny bundle of temptation watching me with questions I can’t answer.

So, I settle for a different topic.

“What happened in the bathroom?”

Mira blinks with an innocence I see right through. “Nothing.”

I narrow my eyes. “Don’t lie to me. What did Clemence say to you?”

She glances over to where Daniel is standing at the register, wallet in hand as Mabel punches keys in the register. There’s desperation in the furrow of her brows when she turns back to me.

“Promise me you won’t tell Daniel.”

I almost roll my eyes. My only resistance is the fact that she looks so adorable peering at me with such helplessness.

“I won’t tell him.”

She licks her lips and I am immediately drawn to the damp folds. To the soft shape of them as they move, forming words I should be paying attention to, not getting distracted by the idea of leaning in and licking her saliva off them.

“I lost my temper,” she’s murmuring when I finally pull back to the present. “I shouldn’t have, but she wouldn’t stop talking.”

I have no idea what she said, a fact that makes me want to kick myself for. I’m better than this. I’m a grown ass adult with full capabilities of listening, but everything about her is driving me fucking insane.

“Kiss me.”

Mira breaks off with a stammering, “What?”

Fuck, that was not what I was going to say, but it’s out now.

“You want me not to tell Daniel. I want a kiss.”

She’s breathing hard, a rapid rise and fall of her firm tits that only makes my need to taste her all the more urgent. All the more dire.

“Are you serious?” she gasps at last. “You’re blackmailing me?”

I shrug. “Fair trade. I could ask for something else if a kiss is asking too much.”

She’s staring at my mouth. she hasn’t broken connection in nearly a minute and I’m ready to drag her across the seat right there, get between her tender thighs and fuck her, but I need Daniel to fucking let me play with his baby. I need his actual words.

“Like what?” my little temptress whispers.

I raise an eyebrow. “What else can I ask for?”

Her throat muscles bob and she nods.

“I could ask to kiss your other lips.” I smirk when her big eyes jump up to mine, opaque with need. “To slip my tongue between them and clean your messy little cunt. To lick until you’re fisting my hair and cumming all over my face.”

“Stop!” Her gasp is a husky growl of such raw need I almost cum in my fucking pants.

Her musky aroma plumes thick in the air between us, a hypnotizing siren’s song beckoning me to crash against her sweet shores, but again — Daniel!

“Get out of the booth, Mira,” I tell her. Warn her. “Get out before I fuck Daddy’s little girl until she screams and cums all over my cock.”

She’s not moving.

Her small hands are white knuckled fists clenched against her thighs, thighs that are squeezed together so hard I almost worry about her breaking a bone. But it’s her eyes. Those damn eyes are so fucking expressive she doesn’t even need to say a word for me to understand.

“Why won’t you move, Mira?” I taunt, already knowing exactly why. “Is your pussy leaking all over the seat? Is there a puddle under your sweet ass?”

Mira drops her gaze. Tries to. I won’t let her. I capture her chin and make her face me. Make her see just how fucking turned on I am by that knowledge.

“Open your legs, sweetheart. Show me.”

Her blush is an ocean of red rising up her throat to flood her face. “Please...”

Daniel takes that moment to return. His gaze shifts from me to Mira and back as he tucks his wallet into his back pocket.

“What’s going on?”

I force the smirk to mask the snarl threatening to curl my lips. Last thing I want is to scare her.

“Your baby wet her panties.”

“Christian!” Mira’s horrified squeak has me tightening my fingers to keep her still when she tries to pull free.

“It’s all over the seat, Daniel. We’re going to need napkins to mop up her pussy juice before the whole town learns what a dirty girl she is.”

“Stop,” she gasps, barely above a whisper.

But she doesn’t see what I see over her head.

She doesn’t see the feral glower on Daniel’s face. The hard grind of his jaw. His flared nostrils as he stares at her legs. She has no idea how close she is to getting mauled by both of us right here on the table.

“Take off your panties, Mira,” I tell her, releasing her face. “Give them to your daddy.”

“What? No...”

“Off,” Daniel commands, silencing her.

She still hesitates, but Daniel and I watch in vicious silence as she tucks trembling hands beneath her skirt and drags her panties down her thighs and over her feet.

Daniel practically rips them from her fingers. The plain, cotton fabric is dark all across the crotch and down the crack. If the heavy scent of her pussy wasn’t a lingering force consuming my life, I would have thought she spilled water in her lap.

“Fuck, baby,” Daniel growls, running his fingers through the moisture. “You’ve made such a mess.”

“Please, stop,” she begs, thighs practically overlapping as she tries to stifle another flow. “There’s so much...”

“Get out of the booth,” Daniel orders, folding the scrap of fabric and tucking it into his pocket. “Walk to the register and ask for napkins. Then you’re going to clean your mess.”

There’s panic in her pretty eyes, but Mira doesn’t voice her concerns when she carefully slides out of her seat. Her legs tremble. The hem of her skirt at the back is damp, a darker purple than the rest. But my main focus is the puddle on the plastic. The glistening smear of her arousal making the light pink glisten.

Daniel and I lock gazes as Mira wobbles her way to where Mabel is watching her approach with apprehension.

“How much longer?” I grit out through my teeth.

Daniel only shakes his head. “She’s not ready.”

Both my eyebrows rocket up to my hairline. “Are you fucking serious?” I wave a hand over the Atlantic Ocean she’s created on the seat. “She’s fucking ready.”

Again, he rocks his head slowly from side to side. “That’s not what I mean.”

I don’t hear what he means when Mira returns with a fistful of napkins. Her face is a delicious red as she sets a knee on the edge of the bench and bends forward.

All thoughts of our conversation vanish as she gives her bare pussy to Daniel while I get a clear, perfect view of her perfect tits down the front of her dress. They sway and jiggle with her every scrub. The nipples are the sweet pink of candy hearts I want to crush between my teeth.

Behind her, Daniel’s transfixed by her wiggling ass. I know he’s thinking how easy it would be to flip her skirt up and slide home. To fuck her while she’s cleaning up her mess. I know because it’s exactly what I would be thinking, only I would make her use her tongue while I pound into her ass.

The brown paper towels are soaked through by the time she stands again. She balls them up in her fist, not meeting either of our eyes.

“Good girl.” Daniel smooths a hand over her hair and presses a kiss to the side of her head. “Time to go.”

I scoot out of the booth and follow the pair out the diner doors. Daniel has his arm around Mira’s waist. His hand splayed across her lower back. But her head turns over her shoulder to find me, to make sure I’m not left behind.

I give her a grin to assure her I’m still here and that seems to satisfy her as we reach Daniel’s truck.

I want her. I want to splay her across the bed, naked and flushed for hours while I find every spot that makes her giggle. Makes her moan. Makes her body bend and break. I want her hands in my hair, fisting and holding my tongue to her core and grinding her hips into my mouth while Daniel stretches her cunt. I want to take the hot cave of her pussy while Daniel stretches her ass.

I want to do things to her that will have the neighbors calling the cops.

It’s maddening because I have been with so many women I can barely remember them all, but never, not once in my life did any of them step into my path and dropkick me in the gut the way Mira did last night. I’d been expecting a little girl, someone that would mean nothing to me. My brother’s stepdaughter. Some random girl he took ownership of after her mom died. Instead, I looked up and she knocked the wind out of me.

And she hasn’t fucking stopped.

Every time our gazes lock. Every time she smiles. Every time she shares that little grin with me ... I sink deeper in this hole.

Back in my seat behind Daniel as he and Mira take the front, his hand on her naked thigh, all I can do is beg him to reach under. To stop being a little bitch and finger her before we leave. To make her cum.

It’s pissing me off because this isn’t Daniel. I’m the one who drags on the torture. I’m the one who makes them suffer and beg for release. Daniel likes watching their anguish, not causing it. So what the fuck is he doing? Even I’m dying over here.

Instead, we’re pulling away from the diner and making our way towards the grocery store like anyone gives a shit about food right now.

“How long are we staying?” Mira asks as Daniel sets a giant hand on the slope of her back and leads her to the sliding doors of Jefferson’s only grocery mart..

“Don’t know. Hopefully, not long.”

Daniel pulls a cart from the row by the door and maneuvers it deeper into the produce aisle with Mira at his side and me following quietly on her other side.

“If it’s longer than a week or two, I might need to grab a few things,” she says, drifting away to pluck up a green apple and bring it to her nose. “Maybe I can try making an apple pie.”

“Oh, you can’t use green apples, dear,” says an elderly woman over on the opposite side of the fruit bins, long fingers dropping plums into a plastic bag. “They have to be red.”

“Oh, that’s nonsense, Stacey. She can use whatever apples she likes,” says another woman further down at the green peppers.

“Green is sour, Lidia. Who wants sour pies?”

“They won’t be sour once they’re baked,” Lidia counters hotly.

“The tartness doesn’t just vanish!” Stacey huffs.

Mira places the apple down gingerly, no longer looking in the mood for pie.

“Thank you for your input,” she says kindly, but neither woman is listening or notice when Mira hurries back to Daniel.

“Making friends?” he teases her.

Mira chuckles and hooks her arm through his elbow. “You know me, one pie war at a time.”

I’m baffled by them.

By her.

By the way she has my giant of a brother wrapped around her tiny fingers. She barely comes to his chest, but the way he melts when she smiles at him is a thing of inspiration. He watches her with the awe and reverence one would bestow upon a goddess. Like she personally hung every star in the heavens and is the only reason he’s alive.

And Mira ... that girl looks at my brother like he’s her whole world. She doesn’t even attempt to hide how much she loves him. It’s in every glance, every touch. She adores him to the point where I have to wonder what the fuck am I doing here?

Not that I’m angling to steal her heart. I don’t even know if I’m capable of loving someone so sweet and innocent. I don’t know if Daniel will even let me.

Mira is his.

I get her only if he allows it and only her body. The rest is up to her, and the way she’s hopelessly devoted to Daniel, I don’t think there’s room for me.

Which is fine, I tell myself. I’m not good with relationships anyway. I’ve tried a few times and they never work.

She’s better off with Daniel.

She’s safe with him.

As if sensing the storm clouds collecting across my every thought, Mira glances back over her shoulder. Her expression light and watchful. Always so watchful. Every time she looks back to make sure I’m still there. Every time she slows her pace when I fall behind.

It’s probably in my head, but it’s like she doesn’t want to leave me behind, which absolutely could have a valid and innocent reason like she’s just a kind soul, but then her eyes meet mine and it’s not so innocent.

There’s a vixen under that cute smile. There’s a wild, feral creature waiting to be released. I can feel her hunger clawing through me and I wonder if she knows just how badly I want to shove her face first into the shelf of canned goods, stuff my hand under the useless skirt and fuck her until she cums. It would be quick. Hurried. It would have to be unless she wants an audience.

I’d do it right in front of Daniel. I’d fuck his baby. Pump her full of my cum and send her back to him, dripping.

He likes it when I stretch their pussies with my cock, and they scream and pulse around it. He likes watching me cum in them and it dribbling out of their wet, tender holes. He’s a deviant that way.

So am I. We both have things that get us hard.

At the moment, it’s the hot piece of ass nibbling on her bottom lip and eyeing my crotch.

I feel myself smirk when I catch her. Her cheeks darken, amusing the shit out of me.

She turns back quickly to Daniel who pauses in his scrutiny of several bags of dried pasta to peer down at her.

“Okay?”

I walk past them, but not before I hear her murmur, “Fine.”

Liar.

Her pussy is a dripping mess. I don’t even have to touch it to know she’s swollen and only a few expert flicks from cumming.

But I can’t and he fucking won’t. He’s just letting all that delicious cream go to waste.

God!

I force my fingers to unclench at my sides. The joints stiff. They pop in protest, but I ignore it. Ignore the flare of annoyance rumbling through me as I round the aisle into the next.

Treats. My favorite section, especially when it’s the only indulgence I’m going to get until we figure this house situation out. Part of me hopes it’s soon. Like in the next hour because I don’t know how much longer I can resist keeping my hands off my brother’s little girl.

I focus instead on the last packet of triple stuffed Oreos mocking me for my weakness. The dusty shelf around it sits empty, a void of unhappiness.

“Great,” I mutter to myself.

What am I going to do with only one pack?

“Oh, triple stuffed!”

The object of my turmoil appears at my elbow. Blue eyes shine under the harsh lights and cast a soft glow to her face as she stares excitedly at my cookies.

Daniel is nowhere to be seen.

Interesting.

I turn to face her.

“Like them?”

She nods eagerly. “They’re the only acceptable cookie.”

My lip twitches. “Agreed.”

“Daniel thinks they’re gross. Too much frosting, he says.”

“Daniel’s stupid,” I retort without hesitation.

Mira gasps but there’s laughter in her eyes. “Hey! That’s not nice, but he definitely can’t be trusted picking treats.”

I don’t know about that, I think. He got you.

I keep that to myself as I watch her eyeing the shiny foil on the shelf.

“You know there’s only one way to eat them, right?”

Her eyes go enormous with delight, and she claps her hands together. “Peeling the frosting out and making a frosting sandwich?”

Fuck my life.

The raw, bone deep need to kiss that fucking mouth is all consuming. I don’t even know what’s stopping me.

“Milk,” I bite out and get to watch her gasp happily, cheeks pink with excitement.

“Yes! Daniel hates it, but ... Ugh!”

She needs to get away from me.

I need her far, far away.

Instead, I’m leaning into her space, into that sweet scent of her that I want all over me. She’s caged between me and the shelves, helpless and at my mercy.

“Speaking of, little girls shouldn’t wander away from their daddies,” I pitch my voice lower. “Someone might kidnap you, chain you to a bed and do dirty, unimaginable things to you.”

To her credit, her complexion deepens to a tomato red, but she keeps eye contact.

“I’m not worried. Daddy won’t let that happen.”

I have to suck in a breath to keep from reaching for her.

“You think he can protect you?” From me, I don’t say out loud.

“Yes,” she whispers.

I bite the inside of my lip and stare at her mouth. At the plump, pink folds taunting me. God, what would she taste like?

“You owe me a fucking kiss, Mira,” I growl. “Unless you want me to tell your daddy what a naughty girl you’ve been.”

Her uneven pants tangle with mine. They burn my chin and cheeks as the sliver of space between us shrinks.

“If I kiss you, do you promise not to tell?” she says, gaze fixed on my lips.

I groan. “He’s my big brother, sweetheart. I don’t like keeping secrets from him. You’ll have to really convince me.”

There’s a little grin on her lips that tugs at every string around my stupid heart.

“Sounds like you want more than just a kiss.”

Fuck it.

Fuck everything.

I slide my hands under her flowy skirt and cup her pert, little ass. Mira’s eyes grow round, but she doesn’t stop me. Doesn’t make a sound as I lift her onto the edge of the shelf and wedge myself between her thighs. Her long legs automatically locks around my hips.

“I want your cunt, Mira,” I drive my rock-hard cock into her naked mound, stealing a sharp gasp from her. “I want to feel your tight hole grip my cock and squeeze until I cum all up inside you.”

I pump against her, grinding the rough grain of my jeans into her pussy as Mira fumbles to find purchase. Her flailing arms knock packets of cookies to the floor until she hooks her fingers into the shelf above her head. I release her ass to grab under her thighs, spreading her wide around me as I dry hump her right there in the aisle.

“Don’t stop!” she groans through her teeth, head back, eyes closed tight. “Please. I need to cum so bad.”

“Shh, baby,” I try. I really try, but Mira is lost. “You have to be quiet, or they’ll make me stop.”

“No!” she whimpers. “Don’t stop. Christian, please!”

She sobs my name as I slam against her harder, driving her into the shelves. Something crashes to the floor in the aisle over and I know we’re running out of time.

“Come on, sweetheart. Cum for me.”

Her beautiful eyes spring open and fix on mine, devouring my whole soul with the raw pleasure boring back. “I’m so close. Christian...”

I don’t get the chance to answer when we hear a high, startled squeak of alarm at the end of the aisle. I hastily set Mira down and glance back at the two elderly women gawking at us like they’ve never seen two people fucking in the snack aisle. Still, when they hurriedly maneuver their carts to escape, I know we only have minutes before security gets involved and we’re escorted from the building. Granted, Jefferson doesn’t have security. It’ll most likely be the manager, but I’m not about to let Mira face that.

I turn back to my little demon and am met with those deep oceans. She looks as frustrated and miserable as I feel, but there’s nothing either of us can do about it now.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I skim her warm cheek with my fingers. “I’ll make it up to you later. Let’s go find your daddy before I get us kicked out of this place.”

She doesn’t protest. She grabs the last pack of triple stuffed Oreos and my hand and lets me lead her out to find Daniel.

He’s leaving the cereal aisle when we finally spot him. His gaze swings from Mira to me to our joined fingers then back to me with a raised eyebrow.

Mira drops her gaze. Guilt a dark furrow between her brows.

I meet his glance head on, and I know he knows the look when he pivots his attention to the tiny figure between us.

“What did you do, Mira? Did you let Christian touch you?”

Heat swarms her cheeks, but she dares a glance at me before meeting the other man’s eyes.

She gives a faint nod. “Yes.”

Daniel brushes his thumb along her cheek and down along the line of her jaw. “Did he make my baby cum?”

Her flush darkens, but she shakes her head.

“We were interrupted,” I mutter.

There’s a ravenous scrutiny in my brother’s eyes as he looks her over. I know he’s dying to know what I did to her. Where I touched her. If I put my fingers inside her little hole. My cock.

He even glances at me like he’s waiting for details, but I just give him a shrug and move on ahead.

Fucker’s been torturing me all morning. He can suffer not knowing.