The Way She Burns by Jessa Kane

7

Sebastian

Istare out the window of my study to the cliffs beyond. Early evening has turned the sky into an orange fire bomb, gulls swooping and calling to each other, their silhouettes outlined by the fading sun. but I’m seeing none of it. No, I’m captivated by Chloe’s reflection. She sits behind me, sprawled out in a mountain of pillows in front of a roaring fire, reading to her brother. Every minute or so, she yawns adorably and loses her place. It’s no wonder the girl is exhausted. I’ve gone down on her five glorious times today.

Each time, her orgasm has been more explosive than the previous one. Her inhibitions are long gone. Where at first she was almost afraid of the pleasure, now she goes after it. Her breathy little hiccupping sounds have taken up permanent residence in my head. My tongue is sore from the amount of licking I’ve done today—and I’ve never been more fulfilled in my life.

Nor have I ever needed to fuck so bad.

My balls are so heavy with unspent seed, they might as well be full of cement.

But God in heaven, she’s worth every second of the pain.

This last time I ate her pussy, I carried her up the stairs to my bedroom while Dobbs entertained Curtis with a sock puppet show. I ordered her to ride my face, to grind down on my stiffened tongue until she came—and she almost screamed the fucking house down. I had to pounce on her and cover her mouth, talk to her in a soothing voice to calm her down afterward.

Obviously I don’t share Chloe’s belief that she has a dangerous wicked streak. Something inside of her that needs to be subdued, lest it cause bad things to happen. Of course I don’t believe that nonsense.

That wicked streak is real, however—and it’s a goddamn treasure. A revelation. When she’s aroused, she transforms into a desperate, whimpering wildcat. And I wouldn’t change a single thing about it—or her. She’s perfect. Crafted by God himself.

How can I convince her that the passion inside of her is something to be celebrated and enjoyed, instead of being ashamed of it? My plan so far consists of giving her so many orgasms, she can no longer live without them. Or me.

She’s mine.

The thought of her leaving because I bring her wickedness to life…it terrifies me.

Her arrival has brought this house to life. Brought me back to life.

I was nothing but ice on the inside until her touch thawed me. And I can’t let her go.

I refuse.

My obsession will remain right here with me where I can protect her, make her happy my whole life. Or so help me God, I will level the place. Tear it down with my bare hands and throw it brick by brick into the churning ocean at the bottom of the cliffs.

I breathe in and out slowly, trying to stop the racing of my pulse. I’m not going to last much longer without coming inside of her. No, I’ve got minutes left to my patience.

It has been a painful torture not to fill Chloe with my cock once today. Giving her pleasure without receiving my own was meant to be an atonement for my selfish behavior last night, but giving her head? That’s definitely no punishment. God, no. It’s the fucking opposite. Her little wet cunt tastes like the finest sugar, so tight and tasty and horny.

I might have to make this a weekly event.

Again, she loses her place in the book, her head dropping forward sleepily as if it weighs a hundred pounds, before she jerks upright and apologizes to Curtis, searching for her place in the story. She giggles when she realizes her brother has nodded off in her lap, and the sound of her contentment washes over me. Makes my heart pound in a jagged rhythm.

I love you.

I wish to say those words to her reflection, but she won’t say them back. I’m sure of it. Not so soon. I’ve been living in this cold mausoleum for years, shunning the world, keeping people at a distance. I’m a bossy asshole and I have a long way to go before I can convince this angel to love me. Until then, I will give her safety and pleasure and any material item she could ever want. I can give her brother peace and an education.

If she’ll just stay.

Giving myself a moment to harness my need for Chloe , I push away from the window and cross the room to where she strokes Curtis’s hair, his head nestled in her lap. I’m caught off guard by the potency of the scene and before I can stop myself, I’m envisioning her holding our own child in her arms, murmuring to them about cows jumping over the moon. My heart shoots up into my throat and stays there, making my voice unnatural when I say, “Would you like me to carry him to bed for you?”

“Yes, please,” she whispers, hazel eyes shining up at me. “He’s had the most wonderful day, but it knocked him right out.”

I nod stiffly, trying not to show how happy that makes me. Perhaps I’m not so hopeless after all. “I’m glad to hear it.” Reaching down, I pick up the child and cradle his sleeping form against my chest, an odd pang catching me in the sternum when he curls closer, trustingly. “I’ll just…be back in a moment.”

It’s very odd carrying a child, but I’m not a moron, so I manage to make it to the room beneath the stairs without incident, shouldering open the door and stepping inside.

“I’m very sorry to inform you, Curtis, your sister isn’t going to be sleeping in here with you tonight,” I say, knowing he can’t hear me in his unconscious state. “If you need her for anything, she’ll be upstairs in the master suite.”

“Where is that?” he asks, an eyelid cracking open.

I blink down at him. “Were you fake sleeping?”

He shrugs. “Chloe was tired.”

A smile stretches my mouth before I can stop it. “So you pretended to be asleep so she wouldn’t have to read anymore? That’s pretty considerate of you, Curtis.”

“Is considerate good?”

“Yes.”

His grin is white in the dark room.

Realizing I’ve stopped in the middle of the floor with the child still in my arms, I take two strides and lay him in the center of the bed. “Well, then. You’ll just…drift off now?”

“Yup.” He nestles into the bedding, looping a sheet around his hand and pressing the bundle to his face, like some kind of odd ritual. “’Night, Sebastian.”

The kid butchers my name. It sounds more like Sebashun. We’ll have to work on that. “Good night.” I turn to leave, but he calls my name, bringing me up short. “Yes?”

“Did you kill the bad guys today?”

My skin tightens in anger at the memory of how they spoke to my Chloe. How close she’s come in the past to being hurt by one of those miscreants. “No. I just made it so they wouldn’t bother your sister again.”

His shoulders slump with seeming relief. A second later, however, he perks up. “Can you teach me to kill bad guys?”

“Curtis, I didn’t kill—” I break off, sighing. “Sure.”

He swings his little fists like a miniature boxer. “They won’t bother Chloe. I’ll be bigger soon.”

Before, I might have just dismissed his ramblings, but it’s almost like my heart has opened…and now I can see and hear new things. I can hear the slight wobble in Curtis’s voice when he makes the childish vow to protect his sister and I know there’s a lot more happening under the surface. “Curtis, you’ve done a very good job of protecting your sister for me. Until I could find her. She might not have been so cautious if it wasn’t for you. I figure that means…I owe you. For a job well done.”

When he beams at me like I’m some kind of hero—which I certainly am not—there is a very suspicious tightening in my throat.

“Well, then.” I rub at the spot. “Good night.”

Without answering, he drops back into the sheets, his soft snores reaching me a few seconds later. And for some reason, I smile on my way back across the downstairs floor to the study. I might be mistaken, but I think I might have put that child’s mind at ease. Me. Is that possible? If so, who knew such a thing would be so…fulfilling?

Chloe is on her belly staring into the fire with a drowsy smile on her face. She turns it on me when I walk into the study and my tongue grows heavy in my mouth. Christ, she is too beautiful for words, especially with her hair down and loose, the dove gray dress molded to her pert derriere, the fire making her skin glow. I can do nothing but stare. Marvel over my fortune. Count my blessings that she came to my doorstep and not someone else’s. I want to tell her about what happened with Curtis, but I’m barely getting used to the idea that I could actually be good for these two amazing people. Will it sound ridiculous out loud?

“I was thinking we could go for a walk,” I say, instead. “On the cliffs.”

She gasps, rifling into a sitting position. “I was thinking the same thing.” She dances to her feet, her lively energy making my usually dull study seem infinitely more exciting. “I haven’t been on them since I was a child. Since you…built the walls.”

Discomfort nudges me in the gut, but I disguise it with a tight smile, patting the pocket of my jacket. “Good thing I have the key to the gate. No lock picking necessary.”

Looking like she wants to say more, she nods. “I’ll go get my coat.”

A few minutes later, I’m assisting her down the back steps of the house and into the wind. A breeze picks up the long strands of her hair, blowing them across her laughing mouth and once again, those three words lodge behind my jugular, aching to be let out. I keep them contained, however, guiding her into the courtyard surrounding my house. And for the first time, the sight of the walls make me uncomfortable, the nape of my neck tight.

Chloe looks at the high stone walls penning us in from all sides, then over at me, chewing on her bottom lip. “I was still thirteen when you started to build them. It was silly…but I convinced myself it was my fault. That my trespassing was the final straw.”

“In a way, it was,” I say, surprising myself.

Surprising Chloe, too. “How?”

“You…were the last good thing, the last genuine person I met before my family descended like vultures, picking me apart. And I guess I just wanted to let my hatred fester. If you came back, I never would have been able to do it.” My laughter is slightly uneven. “I was right, wasn’t I? You’re back here for one day and I’ve already…”

We stop at the gate the leads out to the cliffs. “You’ve already what, Sebastian?”

I force the words out, even though they leave me vulnerable. Flapping in the wind like a goddamn sheet on the drying line. “I don’t want to hate anymore.” I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, the softness of her expression making it difficult to breathe. “Jesus, look at the beauty I’ve been missing.” Possessiveness rises up inside of me, wrapping around each and every one of my organs. Squeezing them. “The walls have their use, though, don’t they? After all, I might need them to keep you locked in this time.”

In the fading of the sunlight, she studies me closely. “The walls can’t keep me in or out,” she whispers, playing a hand on the center of my chest. “They’re designed to keep you locked away. Not other people.”

Feeling exposed, I take the key out of my pocket and unlock the gate, pushing it open. We both stare through the archway to the wild cliffs beyond in silence.

“I’ve forgotten what I…what the world looks like on the other side of the walls.”

She threads her fingers through mine. “You’ll never know unless you go looking.”

We’re not talking about the physical walls anymore, but rather the emotional ones I’ve erected around my heart. The ones that only she can climb. And as we walk toward the edge of the cliff, long grass blowing around our ankles, I decide to let her. Or rather, I realize there is no choice. This girl was always destined to live inside my heart. There’s no shifting my fate, and Christ, why would I ever want to?

We stop in the spot where I held her five years before, when she was far too young for a man and I hadn’t yet become a jaded prick. A lot has happened in that time away from Chloe. A lot of disappointment and bitterness and anger, but looking down into her warm hazel eyes, it all falls away. The anger and resentment slides right off and it’s just me again, the young man who formed her trust—the trust that, thank God, drew her back to me in the present.

“Stay with me,” I rasp, leaning down to brush our lips together, the palm of my hand sliding down her spine, scooting her closer. Closer. Fuck. She can’t get close enough. “Chloe…”

Her eyes are already glazing over with need, her attention straying to my mouth. Heating considerably, her pupils expanding. “Every time you satisfy me, I only grow more eager for the next time. And the next time.” Her hum of arousal vibrates through me. “Where does it stop? I feel myself getting…consumed. By you. By us.”

“Let it happen,” I say, snaring her lips in a hard kiss, keeping her there with suction while I unbutton her coat with unsteady fingers, pushing the garment off her shoulders. “Do you understand me, little girl? You let it fucking happen. Are we going to bring each other to the brink of madness? Yeah. Yeah, I don’t think there’s a way to stop it. But just like when I caught you going over this cliff, I won’t let you hit the rocks below. Ever. You have to trust me.”

“It’s me I don’t trust…” She trails off on a gasp when I nibble down the side of her neck, licking back up to her ear. “It’s me I don’t…recognize when we’re g-giving in.”

My hands are up the back of her dress now, delving into her panties to pet her pretty ass cheeks. Separate and squeeze and smack them. “You’ll learn, baby.” There’s a throb in my throat. My chest. Between my legs. Everywhere. I can hear the beating in my head like a drum. “You’ll learn to let down your physical walls and I’ll learn to let down my emotional ones—as uncomfortable as it makes us, okay? And we’ll both win.”

“Because we’ll be together,” she whispers, looking up at me.

And I’m lost. I’m lost after that. I drag Chloe down, lunging forward and knocking her back into the grass, yanking her skirt up like I’m one of the men from the tavern, trying to take something sacred without permission. But no. No, she’s splaying her thighs for me, opening them so I can fit my hips into the sweet notch of her thighs and rock my angry erection against her pussy roughly while I devour her mouth. Fucking her through our clothing. Grunting through my teeth as I hump, my hands ripping clumps of grass from the ground, her mewling sounds like music in my ears.

“You pleased me all day, Daddy,” she says breathily, girlishly against my lips, her heels raking up and down the backs of my thighs. “I want to make you happy now. Please?”

A moving image demands my attention. Me straddling Chloe’s gorgeous face and unzipping my pants, letting my cock slap out onto her pretty features. “I’ve had this come locked up inside me all day, Chloe. Licking that tight little sugar cunt, dying to get my dick wet. If you tried to blow me right now, I’d fuck that mouth so hard, I would injure you and I’d be an even worse bastard than before.” My hips ride her panty-covered mound with urgent thrusts, a rusted sound of need emanating from deep, deep inside of me. “I might not even make it inside that pussy before I blow. Goddammit.”

“Pretty please,” she says, pouting against my mouth. “Can I ride it out of you?”

It’s not what I think I want.

What I think I want is to yank the crotch of her panties aside and slam into her tiny fuck hole until I pop off and the unholy pressure in my balls is gone. She won’t give me enough power, enough friction if she’s on top—at least that’s what I think. Unable to refuse her anything, I roll us over and unzip my pants, slapping her delectable ass until she falls forward onto my chest with a whimper, kissing me hungrily, dragging her pussy up and down my shaft.

When she lifts her head from our kiss, there’s a new light in her eyes.

And I realize…she’s lost, too. This is Chloe balanced right on the razor’s edge of her sanity, a servant to the abundant lust inside of her. She’s let go of that final reservation. And she’s getting ready to share it with me.

She bites her lip innocently and reaches into my pants, fisting my cock and jacking me teasingly, sweetly, her tongue traveling across the seam of my mouth. “Is it bad to want my Daddy like this?” she purrs, stroking my dick in a tight, tight grip. Just once. Before it goes back to loose and leaves me growling. “Is it bad if we just see…if it fits?”

I’m this fucking close to flipping her over and plowing her cunt until neither one of us can see straight. But I’m not letting my pain get in the way of finding out more. Finding out where her desires run…and exactly how deep. So I can cater to them every day of my life.

“It’ll fit, baby,” I say hoarsely. “God made us to lock together.”

With her swollen mouth resting on top of mine, she works the fat head of my cock beneath the barrier of her panties, keeping me poised just on the outside of her entrance. Making my balls seize up. Throb. Protesting the delay. “God meant us to lock together,” she murmurs. “Even Daddy and little girl?”

I grit my teeth to keep from coming. Oh fuck me. This girl needs something very specific and I will give it to her. Every dark inch of this land she wants to explore. “Not always. We’re special. We have a special kind of fun together.” I knead her lush backside once, then help to tug her panties to the right, stretching them until I hear a rip. Then I give in and tear them all the way off, exposing her bare ass to the ocean. Making her whimper excitedly. “No one understands how badly we want to be…locked together.”

“No one,” she agrees on a trembling exhale. “Just us.”

“Just us,” I grit out, thrusting my cock into her grip.

Pressing out foreheads together, she presses down onto my cock, that too-tight, too-slick pussy enveloping me slowly, slowly, all the way down until the lips of her cunt are stretched around my pulsing root and we’re both laboring to breathe. “W-what do I do now?” she frets, her thighs shaking around my hips.

I’m one good stroke away from coming, I swear to Christ. She’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. The dress is long gone, leaving her totally naked. Those tasty nipples are hard, expression brave but innocent, hair wild in the wind. Her pussy is tight as fuck, pulsating around me, so young and eager. I’m barely hanging on. But I bear down and hold back. Just a little longer. Make her come. “Rub that little pink berry on Daddy. Make it tingle.” Lip caught between her teeth, she does what she’s told, slowly grinding on me, moaning brokenly. “Doesn’t that feel good and right, little girl?”

“Yes!”

“No one can tell us different, can they?”

“No,” she sobs. “No.”

The more I feed the game, the hotter she’s burning. Her eyes are almost a vivid green now, sizzling with heat, just like the rest of her. She starts to ride me in a medium-paced gallop, tits bouncing for my enjoyment, her mouth wide open, but soon she loses her grip on control and starts to, quite simply, get down and dirty. And it’s fucking glorious. She whines and bucks and rakes her nails down my chest, calling me other names for Daddy. Papa. Father. Dada. An orgasm whips through her and she screams, but doesn’t stop riding me, her hips rifling up and back and driving me to a point of arousal I didn’t know existed. One so fierce I don’t even realize I’ve flipped Chloe back over and started an all-out assault.

“Tight little girl,” I growl through my teeth. “All for me. All mine to fill with come, aren’t you? Is that why you lured me out here with your baby talk and big eyes? You needed filling?”

“Yes,” she whimpers, her head tossing side to side.

Christ, her ankles are up in the vicinity of my ears, the sound of horny flesh slapping louder than the waves hitting the rocks below. I have to throw my head back and bellow, the pussy is so goddamn good. So wet and snug. I have to pin in down. Pin in down and take it violently, harder and harder until she’s wailing into the grass face down, her wrists crossed at the small of her back. When did that happen? When? I don’t know. I’m delirious with the need to come and finally, finally a relief of epic proportions rides roughshod through my system, draining my balls of boiling seed and raking me through with pleasure. So much pleasure, I can barely stand it, my hoarse pants releasing into the top of her hair, hips still slamming, slamming, my movements eventually growing sluggish. “Jesus,” I groan, planting kisses along her shoulders, her neck, the top of her spine. “Jesus Christ.”

I pitch sideways and take her with me, down into the grass, gathering her close. I can’t get her close enough, no matter what I do. But I try. I enfold Chloe tightly in my arms and rock her, saying words into her ear I’ve never said to another soul. That I need her. That I’m fucking lost without her. That I’ll never let anything or anyone hurt her again. Somehow I’m still holding back those three most important words, though. They’re roped to my chest because I’m not sure yet if she’ll try to leave me, and if she does, she’ll rip me wide open. So I hold that final part of me back, even though it doesn’t feel right. Feels fucking wrong. She should know I love her.

My thoughts narrow down to her beauty when she turns and smiles up at me, drowsy and dewy in the last rays of the sunset.

“What are you thinking about?” I ask her, desperate to know.

She wets her lips. “I’ve always been afraid what would happen if I let out what’s inside of me. Every ounce of it. But I just did, with you…and the world didn’t end. Maybe I’ve just been scaring myself. Or letting my mother’s superstitions win.”

“Of course the world didn’t end,” I say, kissing her forehead. “For us, it’s only starting.”

Her eyes meet mine, so vulnerable and hopeful that my dick gets hard as nails again. My whole body does. Because I’m the man who reassures her. And I do it in more ways than one. All ways. Every time. She’s made me her Daddy, and hell, I’ve accepted with every fiber of my being. It’s a role I never expected. One I can’t live without now that it’s mine.

She gasps when she feels my erection, her fingers curling against my chest, that delicious body shifting in anticipation. “Can I sleep in your bed tonight?”

“No,” I say. “You can sleep there every night.”

My body Is demanding I take her again, right here and now, but I can see the abrasions on her perfect skin left behind by the grass. That simply won’t do. I want her skin soothed in my sheets. Want her comfortable and warm. Reluctantly, I fix our clothes and stand with her cradled in my arms, marching back toward the house.

With a breathy sigh, her cheek comes to rest on my shoulder as I bring us back through the gate and up the back steps of the house, once again making use of the rear entrance—

And as soon as we’re inside the house, the hair stands up on the back of my neck.

A small voice calls out. Panicked.

In pain.

Chloe stiffens, before pinwheeling into motion. She throws herself out of my arms and runs through the kitchen to the large foyer through which Curtis’s bedroom is located. I’m right behind her, expecting to find the child having a nightmare. It’s much worse than that, though. He’s lying at the bottom of the stairs cradling his arm, tears running down his cheeks.

“Oh my God! Curtis!” She rushes to his side and drops to her knees, hands fluttering as if she’s not sure if touching him is wise. “Your arm is hurt? What happened?”

“You weren’t upstairs,” he sniffs. “Then I fell.”

Chloe drops back, looking stricken.

Her gaze flies to mine—and dread swamps me.

“I did this,” she whispers.

The cold finger of dread traces up my spine.

I need to tell her she’s wrong. Completely wrong. But I know she’ll hear nothing I say right now. This girl lost her mother and blames herself for it. Now she’s blaming herself for this incident, believing that that act of indulging her sexual hunger—hunger that is specific to me—is the cause. Of course that’s nonsense. What her body needs is beautiful. What we do together is right and perfect and fucking fated, so help me God.

How can I tell her this in a way she’ll believe and understand?

A conversation with Chloe from earlier in the day comes back to me.

“That’s why you built the walls? To keep them out?”

“To keep everyone out,” I rasp. “I’m never going to bare myself like that again. It’s better to hold the power. To keep it close. Untouchable.”

How can I even attempt to convince her to let go over her insecurities when…I haven’t totally let go of mine? Is that how to break through to her? Finally, once and for all, making myself completely vulnerable…again? The way I’m asking her to do for me?