And again, I don’t really understand why this turns me on, I just know it does.
He leans forward and his hands go right back up my thighs as his chest presses against my breasts. His mouth finds mine, but he doesn’t really kiss me. He just lingers there, barely touching. “The panties are hard too.”
I can’t wait to hear what he wants to do with my panties.
Then his hand slides down the inside of my thigh and suddenly his thumb is pressing against the cotton fabric between my legs. He presses a little and I feel the wetness slip out of me. He grins, pushes harder and then… I don’t know what happens.
Actually, I do.
I come. It’s like he pushed a button and that was that. My orgasm is an abrupt explosion and comes with a squeaky moan.
“Oh, Peep. You’re about to undo me with that little display.”
“Sorry.” I am breathless. And slightly mortified that he can control me this way.
“Don’t be. I’m not disappointed. I want you to come a hundred times tonight. And trust me, it’ll happen.”
It did happen. Just the way he planned.
And six weeks later I was leaving school and moving home. Swollen with Vicious Vaughn’s baby in my belly.
My parents didn’t even get mad. I think my dad was relieved, actually. Not about the baby, but about college. I didn’t realize how much he was sacrificing to pay my tuition. And I was his little farmhand growing up. Free labor, that’s why farm families have kids. It’s a lot of work. He was struggling. But when I came home, things got a lot better for the farm. He used my tuition money for the down payment on the farm upgrades.
And when Vivian was born, my parents fell in love with her. They had fertility problems, so even though they’d wanted a big farm family, they only had me. Vivi was the light of their lives. Everything was pretty great for a while and I forgot all about Vicious Vaughn and the way he slowly, gently seduced me that night.
Until everything changed and I had to move back to town.
And see him, of course.
And then I just felt hate.
Because his life was something charmed. Free and easy. Special and out of the ordinary.
And I was nothing but a cliché.
CHAPTER SEVEN - VIC
“You gotta turn yourself in.”
I’m still standing in Spencer’s front yard holding the princess—who is still a princess, even though she’s not one of the known princesses—when he says this. Veronica is inside calling her friend, Ford, so he can call his lawyer. So much for all that extra cash I just made.
I am a fucking kidnapper. Like… this is not good. “This is not good.” I say it out loud to drive home the point.
“No shit,” Spencer says. “We need to call the police and tell them you’re here—”
But the screen door bangs open and Veronica comes bouncing down the porch stairs holding out her phone. “It’s the lawyer. He wants to talk to you.”
I awkwardly take the phone and position it up to my ear without dropping… Vivian, and then say, “Yeah.”
“Mr. Vaughn.”
“Yep. That’s me.”
“So you mistook this child for your niece?”
“That’s correct.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Well.” I sigh. I am a dumbass and there is no way around this. “She wandered into my shop this morning—”
“The tattoo shop?”
“Yes. And this is something my nieces occasionally do—”
“That’s not true.” Ronnie stomps her foot. “We don’t drop them off without saying anything!”
“OK. Fine. The whole thing was weird, but I was still maybe a little buzzed from Saturday night and I had been up for thirty-six hours. And the most important thing is, she looks just like my nieces. OK? Just like them!”
“OK,” the lawyer says. “Perhaps this girl is somehow related to you or your family?”
“Um.” I look at Spencer. “Do you have any kids we don’t know about?”
“Fuck you, Vic!” Ronnie is not having that.
“No, asshole,” Spencer says. “And how are you still alive? You’re so stupid. This girl is your child, Vic. She’s yours.”
“What was that?” the lawyer asks. “Did he just say—”
“He’s wrong. I do not have kids. Sure, she looks like my sister—”
“She looks just like you, Vic!” Ronnie protests.
I sigh. “Just tell me what to do. I don’t know what to do. I didn’t kidnap her. She came into my shop, sat down on my couch, and I thought she was a princess niece. All I did was babysit a girl I thought was my niece. I refuse to go to prison for babysitting.”
“I’ll call you back in five minutes.” The lawyer hangs up.
“What’s going on?”
Shit. The unknown princess is awake and I’m still holding her. “Um.” I put her down, but hold on to her because she’s a little wobbly. Then I bend down to look her in the eyes.