I can’t marry her off to an associate’s son if she’s already been used.”
This is the first I’m hearing of any of this.
Sure, keeping her away from boys has always been the top priority, the way I would assume it would be for any father in a position like my boss’s.
He doesn’t want her running around, pissing money away on parties and drugs the way some kids in her position do.
Kids who fuck their way through their classmates.
He wants better for her than that.
But only so he can get the highest possible price when he sells her in marriage.
“Well, I suppose you’ll want to get to bed before packing up your room… unless you want to have some fun with Melissa over here?”
Mr.
Morelli is all smiles as he waves toward the girl kneeling on the ground.
“She might not be untouched, but she likes to pretend she is, and her pussy is tight enough to believe it.”
He chuckles.
I glance over to the girl who’s grinning at me, her eyes twinkling with excitement.
She pushes out her breasts, trying to lure me in, but there is nothing she could do or say that would get me excited.
Only one pair of tits has my dick hard, and if her father knew about that, he wouldn’t be sending me to Blackthorn.
“Thank you for offering, but like you said, I better get to bed.
Long day tomorrow.”
“Of course.
See, this is why I trust you with Mia.
You don’t think with your dick like most men.”
You have no idea.
He goes back to his desk, where he spends so much of his time.
Deals are made and broken behind that desk.
The fates of many men have been decided there, too.
To think, I figured it was a lucky break.
A promotion, even, working my way up the ranks.
Going from just another one of the boss’s hired men to a cushy indoor job involving a teenage daughter none of us knew about until she was practically on the front doorstep.
How very wrong I was.
And now, it’ll just be the two of us.
Nobody looking over our shoulder.
No excuse to check myself when the temptation to admire her ass or tits is too much to resist.
Right now,
I feel worse for myself.
I’m not the sort of guy who walks around complaining and blaming others for his own shit.
That’s never been my way.
But if I was in the habit, I’d be just about as depressed and disgusted now as I’ve ever been.
It’s bad enough having her around all the time here at the house, where there’s always the promise of being discovered holding me back.
Holding us both back.
What happens when we’re on our own, without the promise of being discovered?
How strong am I supposed to be?
I was as strong as I’ve ever been that night by the pool-because never in all my life have I been tested the way she tested me.
It was almost like she knew all the filthy, perverted fantasies I’ve had about her since her father assigned me to her care.
Like she’d reached into my head and plucked a dirty thought out of the file.
Dropping her clothes in front of me, offering her body up as a prize.
I deserve a prize for restraint.
Only the very clear understanding of what would happen to me kept me from fucking her until we both passed out.
Since then, she’s been impossible to deal with.
The girl was never quiet and shy to begin with, but now it’s like she’s determined to drive me out of my skull.
Like she wakes up every morning and asks herself how she can test my self-control.
Smarting off, rolling her eyes, slamming doors like a spoiled brat.
It’s better this way.
I know I hurt her when I turned her down.
I saw the tears in her eyes, and I’d have to be blind not to notice how she ran away up to the house.
Some sick part of me wanted to stop her, too.
I knew how humiliated and horrified she had to be.
I’m not a monster.
I didn’t want to hurt her.
But goddammit, I would end up being the one who got hurt if I did what any red-blooded man would have done in my position.
She might as well have offered herself up on a silver platter.
It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, which is saying a hell of a lot since I’ve done a lot of things.
She doesn’t know.
She can’t know.
How she lives in my dreams, my fantasies.
Sick, dark fantasies, most of them.
The things I’ve done to her in my head… if she had the first clue, she wouldn’t want to come anywhere near me for fear of what might happen.
How I would defile her tight, lush little body.
She’s never been touched, not like that.
What would it mean, being the man to break her?
I can’t think that way.
It’s dangerous.
Even if I tell myself I have no intention of following through on any of my fantasies, thinking about it makes the temptation worse.
Practically impossible to resist.
I can’t even let myself get in the habit of thinking this way.
Especially now that we’re going to be alone.
Nobody watching over my shoulder.
How the hell am I supposed to resist her when the last thin barrier between us is gone?
Chapter 2: Mia
2
MIA
“I
knew you would be happy about this.”
Happy?
Maybe I would be happy if I had a chance to catch up with what my father is telling me.
Right now, I’m too busy trying to understand what he just said.
I’m going to Blackthorn Elite.
“But I didn’t apply there.”
“You didn’t have to.
I took care of everything.
Don’t I always?”
Yes, he does, and right now, that doesn’t make me feel happy.
As usual, I don’t get any say in my life.
What a trade-off.
I have all the money I could ever want.
I never have to worry about anything, but I also don’t get to make a choice.
Not even where I go to school.
He’s looking at me like he expects me to be grateful, so I put on a smile.
“This is great.”
Under the table, though, my nails dig into my palm hard enough to hurt.
It’s sort of a habit I’ve developed for when I have to pretend to be happy about something.
I’m not ungrateful.
I know how lucky I am.
My life could’ve gone in a very different direction if he hadn’t found me.
I could be out on the streets or just scraping by while working two jobs.
Instead, I practically live in a castle.
Even the most pampered princess wishes for freedom sometimes.
I’m not allowed to drive.
I can’t go out alone.
I don’t get the chance to see friends.
I miss my best friend, Blair, so much.
Sometimes, it’s enough to make me cry myself to sleep.
Anybody else would feel lucky to be in my shoes.
Am I ungrateful for wishing I could go back to when things were simpler?
“Only the best education for my girl,” my father says with a satisfied little grin.
I know he likes to take care of me, and when I see how glad he is, it makes me feel bad for that first flash of irritation.
“Everything is taken care of.
I already have your housing sorted, and the furniture will be there in another day or two.
You’ll be all set once classes start.”
He even picked out where I’m going to live and how it should be furnished.
“Thank you,” I murmur, looking down at my breakfast and wondering where my appetite went all of a sudden.
“I have to say, it will be different, not having you here.”
There’s an almost wistful tone in his voice when his eyes meet mine from across the table.
“Isn’t that crazy?
I haven’t had you with me all these years, but I’ve gotten used to you.
Now I wonder how much quieter and emptier this house will feel.”
“I’ll come back for holidays and breaks.
And it’s not all that far away-I could even manage some weekends.
You’ll be tired of me really soon.”
“I don’t think that would be possible, though you are at an age where a father has to get used to the idea of not having his daughter around anymore.”
When he looks at me, he must see how confused I am.
“Well, usually a girl either goes to college, or she’s married off.
One or the other.”
This isn’t the first time he’s made a comment like that.
I never know whether I should take him seriously or not.
Do people really still think that way about girls?
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.