Daddy Crush - Adriana Anders Page 0,45

now, but he leans down and kisses my tear-soaked mouth. Just a peck, way too small to draw a gasp from my lungs.

“Dammit. Come here.” He shifts me so I’m straddling him, slides his fingers into my hair and cups my ears. This time when he kisses me, it’s in earnest. Not a little one—a devouring of tears and hiccups and pain. Between pulls, he tilts back and looks me in the eye. “You’re a force of nature.” Another kiss, fierce and hard enough to bruise. “You’re fucking magnificent, Jerusha.” Our next kiss is lighter, more caress than consumption. “So fucking beautiful.”

A disbelieving snuffle escapes me.

He tightens his hold, levers me back to stare me down with those soul-wrenching eyes. “Since you showed up, you’ve changed my life. Made it better. Made me better. Made everything so much brighter.” His inhalation is as shaky as mine. “I don’t…” He draws a hand from my tangled hair and smooths his knuckles over my cheek, looking at me like…like I mean something to him.

I swallow back the hope trying to creep in. It’s a delusion that will only hurt me. Like the stupid invite that I should never have sent.

Karl’s eyes slam shut and his forehead presses to mine. “I don’t know how to… I shouldn’t…”

“Shouldn’t what?” I whisper.

“Be so damned selfish.”

“Selfish?”

“Wanting you. It’s selfish.” He grunts and shakes his head. What I see of his face looks pained.

“Be selfish,” I urge, surprising myself. “Be selfish with me.”

He grates out another raw sound. “I don’t just want your body, Jerusha. I want what you’re offering. Your…” He shakes his head, jaw rock-hard. “Those looks you give me, like I’m a fucking giant? Like I could move mountains for you.”

“You are. You could.” I nod, my breath picking up. “I’d do the same for you, Karl. I’d do anything.” I hook his arms at the elbows, and tug until his hands are in mine. I hold them tight.

“You don’t know about all the shit.”

I can’t help but smile. “I know the good shit.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m not all kisses and orgasms.”

“I know.” With a shuddering, post-cry exhale, I flip his hand over. Slowly, carefully, I pull away from him, enough to look down at the crude tattoos inked into his fingers, and over the backs of his hands. “I know you have a past. I know you have a daughter who seems pretty amazing. I know you’re a good man.” His gaze rakes over my face, hot as coals. “I know you hurt inside.” My fingers slide between his, gripping his hand, showing him my strength. Under my bottom, I feel the hard length of him. I can’t help but twist my hips, very slightly. Teasing, promising. “I want to make you feel good.”

He lets out a long, slow breath and shifts almost imperceptibly beneath me. Deep in his eyes, the ferocity still burns. I want to kindle it brighter, make it hot enough to consume us both. “Will you let me do that, Karl? Let me make you feel good?” Another twist presses us tightly together, the move the most overtly sexual invitation I’ve ever made. “Will you let me love you?”

“I want to make you feel good, Jerusha. Let me take care of you tonight.”

His hands move to my ass, but I’ve got other ideas. Slowly, confidently, despite being bright red, tear-streaked and sniffly, I settle on my knees in front of him.

His mouth drops open.

Karl

Jerusha goes to the floor between my legs and every brain cell in my body goes dormant. Or dies. I don’t know. Or give a fuck.

All I care about is the hunger in her gaze, the bright color in her cheeks, the way her mouth drops open when she looks at my crotch.

I don’t even notice what she’s wearing until the robe slips to one side, giving me a pale, freckled shoulder. Christ, even the ugly terrycloth loves her curves, making her look like some Greek statue.

My balls have been aching for days—since the last time I sat on this couch—and the smile that curls her lips only makes it so much worse.

“Couldn’t stop thinking of you,” I admit, feeling raw, like I’m exposing my ugly insides. “Every second.”

When she opens her mouth, I figure she’ll say, Me, too. Commiserate, maybe. Instead, she levels me with a hard look. “Good,” she says, blowing every expectation out of the water and, in the process, blowing me wide open

In that moment, I’m gone. I’m hers. I don’t know if