“That’s insane.” Russ lets out a long breath when I’m done. “Goddamn. What are you going to do?”
“I’m open to suggestions.” I laugh without humor. “Honestly I’ve got no clue.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard you talk like this about a woman before. This is it, isn’t it, what you always said you’d feel when you found the woman you wanted to be with?”
I think for a moment, delving inside of myself and tasting the hot certainty I feel for my Kelly, sampling it the same way a predator might sample his prey before he devours it completely.
And I know, bone deep, that Russ is right.
This is it.
“Yeah. But I didn’t plan on her being my daughter’s best friend.”
“No shit.” Russ sighs. “I don’t know, man. How do you think Natalie would take it if you told her?”
“I don’t know.”
I’m starting to feel like that’s the only thing I know for certain, how little I know anything right now. I feel as if I’m wading through a dense forest, caught in the underbrush, and I can’t see any way out.
Except to pursue my woman, chase her like the beast I am, throw her to the floor and then catch her so she doesn’t fall too violently.
Lower her to the ground and claim her with my lips at first, kissing roughly, painting the nape of her neck in kisses before moving to her gorgeous round breasts.
Suck her nipples until they become hard in my mouth, coaxing the pleasure out of her, and then drive up deep inside of her…
Goddamn it, I need to focus.
It’s so easy to lose myself in thoughts of my woman, in dreams of all the things I’m going to do to her to make her mine.
“Not well, I’d guess,” I go on. “They’ve been best friends since they were little kids. But I swear to God, I didn’t recognize her. She looks… I can’t explain it in any other way, even if it sounds cheesy. She looks like mine.”
“That does sound a little cheesy,” Russ admits. “But if this was any other woman, I’d tell you to go after her, cheesy or not.”
“And now?”
“I’m sorry, bro, but—”
“You don’t know. I get it.”
“But keep me posted. Let me know when you make a decision. You know I’ll support you no matter what.”
“I know.”
We end the conversation and I place my cell phone on the table, my eyes returning to the setting sunlight, my body full of pounding need for my woman.
I can’t stop thinking of the way she softened for me when I kissed her.
It must’ve been the last thing she expected, me grabbing her and pulling her close to me like that, driving my throbbing need against her belly, but then I felt her soften and she shivered against me. I felt her sink into me, giving herself into the lust.
She must’ve recognized me, which was why she gave me a fake name.
She didn’t want me to know she was my daughter’s best friend because then…
The horny thing.
Because then I wouldn’t have kissed her. I wouldn’t have claimed her.
And she wants to be claimed.
My cock pulses at the base, the tip aching from the tension. It takes all my self-control not to reach down and grip my thick shaft through my pants, squeezing it and imagining the tension comes from her pulsing wet pussy instead.
I can so easily imagine the way she’d look bent over, her bare ass calling to me, wetness smeared down her thick thighs and even more dripping from her sopping creamy hole.
I can feel the way her pussy would tighten around the tip of my cock as I drove up inside of her, as I pushed deeper and deeper and her eyes widened with my presence in her tight young hole.
“Dad?”
I sit up with a jolt, my daughter’s voice pulling me from the moment.
“Yeah?” I say, turning far too quickly.
Suspicion glimmers in her eyes. “I’m going now. I’ll see you soon.”
“Of course, Nat. I love you.”
“Love you too,” she calls over her shoulder, pausing to aim an uncertain look at me before leaving.
I stand and grip the balcony railing, my eyes cast over the city.
Now that I know Kelly’s true identity, I could go out there and find her tonight.
Assuming she hasn’t moved from the loft apartment they had before I left.
I picked her up and dropped her off many times when she was a kid, Natalie, and Kelly in the back of the car, talking about school and whatever else it is girls go on about.
The truth is I never tuned into their conversations.
I was simply happy Natalie had a friend.
My thoughts were always on fighting, my businesses, how to build a future for my daughter after her mother left and then passed away.
But now Kelly is all I can think about.
The father in me recoils at the idea of going out into the city and finding her, but the beast in me demands it, roaring at me to ride the elevator down, get in my car, and pay her a visit.