1. Ford

one

ford

The sun shined bright, and sweat started to form at the back of my neck. All I wanted to do was head back inside to the air-conditioned living room of the house I was renting, but I couldn't. Not when I knew she would come out at any moment.

There was no way in hell I'd miss one of my favorite parts of the day.

Don't get me wrong; I loved working outside. I'm a contractor, run my own business building additions to homes and working on commercial properties. And I was damn good at it. Hell, I made more than enough. I was well off, and my bank account had grown very healthy in the last ten years.

For an ex-Army medic, it was what I needed when I was honorably discharged and needed to find a purpose for my life when I could no longer stand the sight of blood.

But yard work and landscaping? That was not my gig .

The problem was I could only pretend to tinker with my truck so many days in a row before she could grow suspicious of what I was doing outside. There was only so much cleaning and organizing I could do in the garage while I waited for the sweet angel across the street to come out.

I stopped the mower to wipe the sweat off my brow with my forearm and looked around the neighborhood I'd moved into two months ago. Not that I hadn't been around the area before that.

I'd been like a madman possessed since I found my sweet angel online by pure accident.

One fucking look at a smiling face while I was scrolling through my phone, and I was a fucking goner. Hooked. She had been talking about freeze-dried candy, and damn it, I couldn't stop my body had from reacting or starting to wake up just at the thought of it. The way she had shut her eyes with pleasure written across her face made my heart and dick swell three times their size.

I immediately fell down a rabbit hole, checking out her social media.

Carmelita Cardova, or Lita like she preferred, was beautiful.

My sweet angel, too innocent for her own good, had no idea what the sight of her could entice men to do. She didn't understand the consequences of her actions. Posting those videos of her taste-testing gelatos and then pastries. Or nibbling on lollipops that had my balls ready to explode. There was no way she could grasp the bigger picture of how a man could look at her and fall. Feel things he'd never felt. Want things he'd never thought he'd crave.

And why would she?

She was an innocent.

I could tell by the sparkle in her eyes and the shy smiles she gave the camera.

She was my good girl.

Mine.

It had been all too easy to find her. The first time I saw her in person was two days after I found her account. She had posted about being at a coffee shop that happened to be a block away from my home, and I didn't think twice about taking a chance to see her in person. I had no idea what I had been thinking. Hell, I didn't know what the fuck I was thinking half the time now as it was. But I'd gone there with the intention to prove to myself what I felt looking at her on the screen was no way real.

Damn. I shook my head. It was most definitely not the time to think about that day. It got me worked up like no other, but I couldn't stop myself. I'd noticed her the moment I walked over the threshold.

Lita had been sitting in a booth toward the back, but I swear to god it felt like a higher power himself was shining a bright golden hue behind her with how she stood out to me in that moment.

Maybe if I hadn't seen her, I would have been able to let go of the pull that drew me toward her? Maybe if I hadn't felt what I had, I would have been able to keep my cool and not done the things I had?

But that wasn't the case.

Shoulda, woulda, couldas have never really been my motto anyhow.

My fate was sealed seeing Lita in real life.

She was so much more beautiful in person. An angel on earth. She looked like the very definition of innocence and sweetness. A sweetness I wanted to taste and an innocence I wanted to sully and claim for myself like a selfish bastard.

I shook my head and tried to brush the thoughts away. I couldn't get distracted. Not when I knew she was about to come out for what she called her hot girl walk. Whatever the hell it was made me hot, too. For her.

I'd followed her around after that day. All without her knowing it. She never noticed me, I made sure of it. I lurked in shadows and hid in plain sight before I really lost it and started to rent the house across the street from her despite having my own place. I didn't hesitate about the money either. Not when I needed to be closer to make sure she was safe.

My girl was too good, too trusting. She needed someone to watch over her and protect her. A daddy. I shook the thought away. No. I couldn't go there. I shouldn't go there. I had my kinks. Nothing I was ashamed of, but Lita brought it out of me triple fold. I had never wanted someone to call me that more than when I thought of her. I'd never wanted to claim a little girl more than when she popped into my life.

She was so trusting. Too trusting. With her easy smiles and kind gaze that always drifted toward me when I was out here in the afternoon.

Like I said, she was too trusting.

Too sweet.

She saw me and thought I was a nice guy. But that was thanks to my good looks. I knew what people thought when they looked at me, and it wasn't that I was being a cocky motherfucker, just an honest one. I wasn't stupid; my looks made life easier.

My carefree smile and welcoming hazel eyes set people at ease around me. I was tall but not too tall. Muscular but not in an intimidating way. My mom had always teased me for being her chameleon, while my brother was the opposite. He was her bull in a china shop—too big, too tall, too everything, and it made him stand out.

The only thing that might make people hesitate around me was my long hair. I needed to get it cut soon, but between working and following my girl around, I hadn't found a moment to get it trimmed. I started to wear it longer after my time in the Army, but it was overgrown for my taste. I pulled the long strands into a man bun using the hair tie I always kept on my wrist. But not before I tugged at the strands and groaned at the pinch of pain I felt.

It reminded me I was alive. Rolling my head, I glanced toward the small house across the street with bright red roses blooming in the front yard.

My dick was awake and hard, but when wasn't it? The fucking monster between my legs was always at attention anytime she floated through my head, and from the moment I' d first laid eyes on her, she was never far away from my thoughts.

Lita was my very own siren.

My angel on earth who I was going to lead down the road of temptation. I knew it was inevitable. I was trying to gain her trust. The interest was there. I knew it with how she blushed when we talked or the way she smiled in the mornings when we both left for work.

I was the nice guy in her eyes. The good guy next door.

But daddy was more than that.

I had a darkness in me that only she would be able to satisfy.

Movement inside her house caught my gaze, and my mind went blank. The pulse point on my neck picked up speed. I glanced down at the watch on my wrist and tried not to bounce on the heels of my feet with excitement.

It's almost time.

My fingers stroked the handle bar of the lawn mower, but all I could think about was her. What it would be like to touch Lita. To feel her bare skin beneath the tips of my fingers. How would I touch her when I finally got my hands on her?

Soft and tender? Firm and demanding? I shook my head and started the mower up just as her front door opened.

Talk about good timing, an animal inside of me whispered. I hated how the rumbling of the engine blocked any sound she might have made. But it was a means to an end. A reason for me to be out here when she embarked on her walk.

One of my top three favorite times of the day .

I slowly pushed the noisy-as-hell machine and glanced toward her place. My hands started to ache as they gripped the mower's bar tighter. She is stretching. Bending and twisting her body in ways that should be illegal for her to do outside. The get-up she was wearing didn't help matters either.

It left nothing to the imagination.

I loved and hated the clothes she wore on her walks. They fed the primal thing inside me she'd brought to life and made it feel like it was ready to burst through my skin. Her yoga pants stretched over her round ass, but it wasn't see-through. I couldn't make out the lines of her panties, and my nose flared as I forced myself to pay attention to what I was doing. Turning the corner, I exhaled slowly while my mind went off-roading into dangerous avenues. I wasn't going to be able to hide the effect she had on me despite wearing compression shorts under my gym ones.

Is she bare beneath the stretchy material? Would her perfect little cunt be natural or shaven? I shook my head, slipping another look at her just as she did some other stretch that called my attention to her thick, toned thighs. It made the blood already buzzing in my veins heat. She had paired it with running shoes that had seen better days and a loose white shirt she had cut at the neck. It draped over her delicate shoulder. Giving me a peek at her hot pink sports bra. I ran my tongue over my teeth and tried to get my body under control.

Just then, like every day, the hairs on my neck prickled up and everything around me slowed down. Time moved like a turtle for a shake as those beautiful brown eyes of hers found mine, and I watched her face transform into a bright smile. She lifted her hand up, and her tits bounced softly when she waved hello. I jerked my chin up with a grin of my own. Then, just like she did every day for the last month, she blushed.

That pink tinge at the apples of her cheeks made my eyes skate down her neck and to the tiny bit of cleavage she showed off. Her ample breasts were fucking perfection. My hands tightened around the mower's bar with a white-knuckled grip so I wouldn't do anything stupid. Like run across the street, toss her over my shoulder, and lock her inside my house. No, I couldn't. If I did something like that, I'd never let her go. I'd talk her into it, too. Into loving me like I loved her. Oh. Yeah. I had a serious screw loose when it came to my angel who just put her headphones over her head and waved goodbye at me.

And I didn't care.

Lita was mine.