Wanting by Lynn Burke

Gideon

“They may marry, but we’ll never be a family,” the little princess snipped back rather than acknowledging my little warning. A delicious pink rose on her high cheekbones, her sexy as fuck lips pressing tight as I studied her.

My grin grew, but the truth of the situation I found myself in didn’t create one fucking ounce of joy. Dad’s latest conquest had a hot as fuck daughter, a few months shy of Alaska’s legal age for consent, but when had that stopped him? And the tasty-looking morsel in front of me with the pale legs and gorgeous tits had my mind going the fuck and conquer route the second I’d laid eyes on her.

“Dad always wanted a little girl.” I gave her the brutally honest truth and waited, wondering how smart Addilyn Reed really was.

She shivered like she caught my drift, and I glanced over at my dad again where he sat with her mom. His dark eyes lingered on the princess’s tits as his soon-to-be wife held his new, ugly as fuck tie, whispering in his ear.

His conquest. Her daughter.

Without a doubt, the real reason he’d decided to snag the rich widow as his latest sugar momma. While I hated him for what he did and what he’d done in the past, I hated Addilyn too.

The fish I’d eaten for dinner took to flopping around in my gut like it was fresh off the line, and I swallowed against the bile creeping up my throat. If Mrs. Reed knew Dad’s past, she wouldn’t have let him step foot into her stately mansion with its marble floor and wrapping stairs. She would have told the bastard to take a hike rather than mess with the fire of my father and the sure tragedy to follow in his wake.

Addilyn slid her hands back onto her lap, her fingers laced together on a plaid skirt that showed too much damn thigh for her own good. A stain on her white button-down, right above her pebbled left nipple drew my focus—again.

With firsthand knowledge of living beneath a controlling parent, I’d seen more than either Mrs. Reed or her daughter had probably expected or meant to show when she’d walked down the stairs like royalty.

Mother Reed didn’t appreciate Addilyn’s appearance in what had to be a school uniform when she herself wore expensive-looking slacks and a silk blouse of the most hideous vomit-yellow color. Mother Reed’s disapproval hurt her daughter deeper than she probably knew too.

Did the blonde beauty with the captivating eyes sitting across from me ever consider rebelling? Had she ever gone against her mother, stretched her wings, said ‘fuck you,’ and just breathed? She sure as fuck didn’t act it—she looked like a sheltered princess, exactly as I’d tagged her.

An innocent one if her reactions to the lust-filled looks I couldn’t help giving her when Dad wasn’t paying attention were any indication. Sultry mouth parting like she sucked in air. Wide eyes, her pupils dilating the slightest bit. Twice, a flick of her pink tongue to her lower lip.

Those slender fingers of hers tightened together, the knuckles growing whiter the longer I stared, drinking my fill.

She hated me. Hated Dad—rightly so, smart girl. Hated that her mother had brought two strange men into their lives.

Well, I hated her and her pissy attitude too, but what else?

I cocked my head to the side and studied Addilyn Reed, the snobby hot bitch who without a doubt felt me and my dad were way beneath her station even if her mom didn’t. Peering down her nose at me even though she was a good ten or so inches shorter definitely came naturally.

Her ankles were crossed, knees pressed tightly together. Prim and proper, shut off except for those few times I got her to hiss and spit like a damn cat. Fucking loved it too. All that pent-up anger I thoroughly understood, the kind that made for one hell of a hot fuck when given the chance. Made me want to poke and prod beneath her exterior. See how far I could get her to go beyond her tight-reined upbringing. See all the shades of red her high cheekbones held beneath her pale skin.

Addilyn had chosen a seat close to the door as though seeking out the quickest way to escape when allowed, but she sat straight, shoulders back, drawing attention to her perfect set of tits.

Her chin was held high and white-blonde hair shone like she brushed it three times a day, but her gaze flitted to my face and away as though my stare caused some deep insecurities to rise inside her. Like I unsettled her—when it should’ve been Dad alone who sent that shiver down her spine. I’d noticed it when he’d held out his hand to greet her earlier in the foyer.

The twitch of a frown between her perfectly shaped—dark—eyebrows hinted displeasure I’d already figured out and made me wonder what color of hair hid her little clit.

A contradiction, a mystery I wanted to unravel.

And the press of her full lips in continued disdain…

She had lips that would look fucking fantastic glistening with my pre-cum I smeared over them—or wrapped around my dick.

Goddamnit.

My jaw clenched again, and I had to glance away. I hated my tight suit and tie and the stuffy feeling of the parlor as much as Addilyn despised our presence in her house.

No fucking way could I let Dad know what the sight of her did to me. No fucking way could I let him close to her either. I’d been conditioned. Could read a person’s body language, their tells—an ability he, thank fuck, didn’t seem to possess.

Living with Dad for seventeen, almost eighteen years had taught me well, and I knew what that fucker was after.

Same as before.

Just like with the last ripe peach I hadn’t realized he’d wanted or known I’d needed to protect until it was too late.

I’d been in juvie for the third time—for losing my shit after walking in on him with his hand down my stepsister’s leggings—when carbon monoxide filled our house. Dad had been out of town on business.

Without a prenup to ensure his dead wife’s remaining family inherited her estate, Dad had gotten it all.

A muscle ticked in my jaw as memories battered my head. He hadn’t defended himself when I’d given him that black eye, but I’d come to realize what he was capable of. Fear for my own life kept me quiet, and I didn’t share my suspicions with the police who’d investigated the little ‘accident.’

And in a quiet exchange neither of us spoke about once settled, Dad greased a few pockets to clean up my record.

I hated that I owed him one. But my birthday loomed, and I would find my freedom.

He excused himself to go take a piss—without so many words—and Mrs. Reed watched him walk out the parlor door, a small smile on her lips, eyes shining like a fool in love. Totally smitten with a man she never should’ve allowed into her bed. She’d been won over by a selfish prick whose bank balance dwindled.

That inheritance from his dead ex-wife? Gambled away.

Almost destitute, he’d found himself a new toy, one with a young daughter, a seemingly virginal young girl ripe for the plucking.

Addilyn didn’t even glance his way as he checked out her legs in his periphery while striding past.

The girl definitely had smarts to not be drawn in by my snake of a father—even if she was a bitch.

“You’re a very lucky young man to have such a distinguished role model,” Mrs. Reed murmured in a breathless tone after Dad shut the parlor’s door behind him.

A spew of words filled my mouth, and even though I expected Dad would hear about whatever shit I wanted to say while still fighting off bile at the memories, I didn’t give two fucks. I wasn’t eighteen, and he couldn’t legally toss me out just yet. The fucker was stuck with me until spring.

Besides, the way he looked at Addilyn pissed me the hell off. Fuck him and his bad choices that had left us damn near penniless.

“Lloyd’s full of shit,” I muttered, lounging back like a sprawled, rebellious teen since I expected the bitch queen wouldn’t appreciate it.

Addilyn’s head jerked my way, big blue eyes wide as hell, lips parted on a gasp.

“Young man,” Mrs. Reed whispered fiercely. “In this household we show respect for our elders!”

I slowly turned my head toward her. My soon-to-be stepmom from hell held her chin high, same as her snobbish daughter. Didn’t they realize looking down their noses like that left their necks exposed? Pink spread over Addilyn’s mother’s cheeks too but not in a way that made me want to keep her unsettled. I figured she would expect me to address her Mother like her daughter did, but Mrs. Reed would soon find I did things however the fuck I wanted.

Perhaps I would take to calling her Ingrid, her given name. I expected she would love that shit.

Having zero respect for the widow since she couldn’t judge a man’s character, I didn’t feel the need to show her any. But I knew how to play the game, and the strange, stirring desire to keep her daughter safe for as long as I could restrained my usual rebellion with a tighter than expected leash.

“Yes, ma’am,” I murmured, priding myself in keeping the sarcasm from my voice while putting on a full-on smile that always landed me where I wanted. Too bad it hadn’t worked on Dad when I learned Ingrid had a daughter and I suggested he find a woman closer to home. And too bad begging to not move to snow country or transfer schools my senior year got ignored.

His newest lover’s face smoothed a bit.

Keeping Ingrid happy meant Dad would stay off my back.

Keeping Dad away from Addilyn would keep me happy.

Alaska might be cold as fuck without nearly enough sunshine for my liking, and even though I told myself I hated the princess for getting my ass dragged north, she was like a ray of golden sunlight shooting down from the heavens. Feigning disinterest in her sexually and allowing my annoyance loose over having another stepsister would keep us both safe.

I hated her, but I wasn’t so much a bastard that I’d allow Dad to get after her ass while I was around. I would protect her for as long as I could before I hightailed it back to California.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t annoy the shit out of her in the meantime. Fuck knew I would need to find something to smile about out in the backwoods of no-man’s land for the next couple of months.