Vic Vaughn is Vicious by J.A. Huss

CHAPTER TWENTY - DAISY

This day is a gift. I have never felt so welcomed. Ronnie pulled me in the moment we met. But making a single new friend is one thing. Getting her girl-pack to love me as well? That’s nearly impossible.

But this is what happens at the farm today.

Ashleigh is a small woman with dark hair and soft eyes. She’s Ford’s wife, Kate and Five’s mother, and—surprise—Sasha’s adopted mother.

Sasha is about my age, married to Jax, and she has two children—one of them, Lauren, is a couple years older than Vivi. Plus a toddling baby boy called Justin. I’m not sure how exactly Sasha came to be adopted by Ford and Ashleigh, since they are not that much older than her, but it feels like a very long story no one really wants to get into at a Sunday afternoon pool party.

Rook is Ronin’s wife. Two kids, Sparrow, a new teenager, and Starling, same age as Vivi.

This is when Ronnie admits that she has bribed the admissions people at Saint Joseph’s to get Vivi a spot in Starling’s class. She’s hesitant to tell me this because maybe she feels like she’s stepping on my toes. And last week, this would’ve pissed me off. But the thought of Vivian not going to school with the rest of these kids physically makes me ill.

“Don’t worry about tuition,” Ronnie tells me. “Trust me. Vic can afford it.”

And I guess he can. He bought seven hundred thousand dollars’ worth of property this week. Cash. So I don’t worry about the money. And I get a little lost picturing my Vivi dressed up in one of those uniforms, sitting over at the Fort Collins Theater sipping smoothies with her… cousins.

I have to let out a sigh just thinking that word.

The show the kids put on was adorable. It was everything you imagine packs of kids who live on farms get up to in the summer when they are surrounded by nature and aren’t on the phones or socials.

I have a few drinks with the girls out by the pool. We lounge under large umbrellas, and gossip about people I don’t know, and talk about how we might spend the holidays.

I start picturing myself there, with them. But Ronnie starts talking about Christmas in the mansion and I suddenly realize, those men in that house, they are my new family too.

This is like a dream for me. And it’s got nothing to do with the way I grew up as an only child. It’s just… I really never thought I’d have a family again. I had given in to the inevitability that all that was left was Vivian and I. And then, one day, she would leave and I’d truly be on my own.

And now that will never happen. Ever. There are so many people in this family to lean on, I will never have to go through a crisis alone again.

It’s incredibly comforting.

Eventually, after a day of swimming, and talking, and sunning, it’s time to go home. I expect Vivi to put up a fight. Maybe even ask to stay another week. But she doesn’t. She clings to me as we say goodbye to the new extended family and falls asleep with a smile on her face as we drive back to town.

Vic pulls into the family housing apartments and that’s when I start to wonder what comes next. But I don’t wonder for long because he pulls into a parking space and turns the truck off.

I turn my head to ask where he’s going to sleep tonight, but I find him smiling and forget the question.

“Did you have a nice day, Daisy?”

I nod. Slowly. “I did.”

“Do you want me to stay over? I don’t have to. I can walk—”

I grab his arm to make him stop talking. “I want you to stay. I know it’s early in our relationship and everything is changing so fast—but Vic? I like this. I’m up for this change. I’m sorry I was difficult last week.”

“Hey, stop.” He takes my hand off his arm and holds it for a second as we gaze into each other’s eyes like idiots in love. “You had every right to be mad. Vivian should not have walked off. I should’ve noticed she wasn’t my niece.”

“I should’ve noticed she was gone, Vic. That’s what I was really angry about. I messed up and I was looking for someone to blame.”

“Let it go. I happen to think that last Sunday was fate. Look at it this way. When people ask about the mansion, I tell them a story about how my gramps won it in a stinking poker game back almost a century ago. When people ask about Sick Boyz I tell them about Pops, and the twins, and Vann. When people ask about Veronica, I tell them about Spencer and Bombs A-Way. So now”—he pauses to bring my hand to his lips, kisses my knuckles—“now, when people start asking my fam where the hell this kid came from, they’ll tell that crazy story about stealing donuts from an AA meeting, and eating jackalope hotdogs at a Moran family reunion.”

“What?” I chuckle. “I think I missed that part.”

“Doesn’t matter. The point is, we’ve got ourselves a kick-ass love story, Daisy Lundin. People are gonna be jealous of us. They’re gonna wish they had that kind of beginning. But they can’t have it. It’s all ours.”

He carries Vivian inside and gently puts her on the bed. I take off her boots and socks, but let her sleep in the t-shirt and shorts she put on after swimming. Then I kiss her cheek, leave her room, and close the door behind me.

I find Vic in my bedroom already shirtless and his boots kicked off into a corner. He flashes me a grin as he pops the button on his jeans and slides his pants down his legs.

My dress is already coming over my head, my fingers reaching to unfasten my bra as he slides into bed, holding open the covers as an invitation.

I flip the light off and feel my way over there, then climb in next to him, my back fitting against his chest perfectly as he pulls me closer. And at first, I think that maybe he’s not interested in having sex. But then his fingertips slide over the curve of my ass and slip between my legs from behind. He rolls me over onto my stomach, his hand very busy as his mouth comes down on the middle of my back. His breath tickles as he kisses his way down to my hips.

He gently opens my legs, and then he’s fingering me with one hand and sticking his fingers in my mouth with the other.

I suck them, my heart beating like crazy, my desire to have his cock inside me growing with each passing moment.

But his fingers are like magic as they stroke me. Pushing and drawing back. Making me wet for him. He kisses his way between my cheeks, spreading me open as his tongue licks me in all the right places.

I’m close. I know I’m close. But I do not want to come first. I want us to come together and I want to look him in the eyes when I do that. There’s not a lot of light in the room, but there’s enough filtering in from the outside for this. So I turn over.

“Done already?” Vic asks.

“Not even close,” I joke back. “I just want to be on top of you.”

He doesn’t object when I push him back into the pillows and then swing myself over so I’m straddling his thighs. Then I lean down, palms flat on his chest, long hair sweeping over him as I lower my mouth to his, and we kiss.

This is no ordinary kiss. Filled with mistakes and regrets, yes. But also, it’s a promise of something new and different.

I lift my hips up just enough for him to slide his cock between my legs and place it up against my entrance. Then I slide down, allowing him to fill me up.

I nearly forget why I wanted to be on top and close my eyes. But I catch myself just in time.

Vic made no such internal promise, so I watch him as he lets go and his lids, already heavy with lust, fall closed and he sighs.

This is not a dirty fuck. It’s not fast, it’s not urgent, and it’s not hard.

Everything about us tonight is slow, and soft, and careful.

It’s the type of fuck only true lovers do.

It’s the new us.