I was about to do a hell of a lot more, but my senses alerted me to the fact that someone else was witnessing this little play. “If your father wasn’t watching us from the window, I’d make you pay for that. You’re not going to get many more chances to mouth off at me in the future, so get them all out now while you’re safe.”
“I don’t understand any of what you just said. Is that a new language? While I’m talking to you, why are you sniffing around here?” She did some kind of self-defense move that I wasn’t expecting and escaped my hold; I felt the separation immediately.
And what was she doing while I stood there feeling like someone had taken a limb just because I was no longer touching her? Glaring and all but foaming at the mouth. How can she infuriate and excite me at the same time, every time? Doesn’t she realize the danger?
One punch on the chin should set her straight, but she’s too cute for that, so I’ll have to find another way that would work when the nut in the window was around. I can’t kiss her anymore because my dick was already acting like a divining rod in my damn pants. One wrong move and he’d probably try to take over.
I was about to say something else to answer her question, but I happened to look into her eyes just then; wrong move, but we’ll talk about that later. She has these expressive eyes, at least to me they are. And when I looked into them now, I saw…fear.
Not a deep, unmoving fear of physical harm, more like a fear of me and what I could do to her; fear of me rejecting her again. Why have I never thought about that before? The fact that she might be just as wary of me as I am of her? I guess I’ve just always been aware of her feelings for me and had somehow taken it for granted that they were still there. They better the fuck be.
“Why am I sniffing around you? Because my intuition tells me that you’re mine. Until I figure that shit out, I’ll sniff as much as I want. I’ll be back at seven. Be ready.”
“Oh, dear. Did you get an expired medical shot, or were you made this way?” She tapped her temple, implying that I was nuts.
I probably am, because I have no idea why the hell I just invited her out to dinner. I came over here to put her in her lane, but this one takes the whole damn highway with her bullshit. I’m mad and turned on at the same time, which is a bit of a conundrum, and for some reason, each time she gives me one of her insolent looks or rolls her eyes at me, my dick gets harder.
“Jessica, just be ready!” She swallowed hard at my tone, and I knew she was fighting to stand here with me, half-naked as she was. Funny, I forgot about what she was wearing or not wearing,so I’m guessing she’s not just a body like the others that only lasted as long as that physical need was there. And I’m fucked.
Calm down, Julius, take a deep breath. I brushed a stray lock of hair off her cheek, drew her in for a forehead kiss, then turned and walked away. If I didn’t, who knows what this uncontrollable urge would lead to.
I started to wave at her Dad facetiously, but thought better of it in the end. There’s no telling how he would react or what hell he’d add to my daily existence. The whole family is nuts as far as I can tell, no judgment here though.
CHASE
“That boy is slow as molasses.”
“Is he? Or is it our daughter?” She’s got a point. Those two have been sniffing around each other for a while now, at least that’s how I see it. I’m sure they don’t think that anyone knows.
I don’t know when it started, but I put two and two together a few years ago when my kid started ditching any engagement that he might attend. It could’ve been happening much longer than that, and I never noticed, but from the time I picked up on the pattern, I kept myself on alert.
Julius is the son of one of my closest acquaintances, both professionally and personally. A man of integrity who had raised his kids pretty close to the way I raised my own. I know his standards and trust them.
When I realized that there was interest there, I was glad in a way that my little girl could possibly end up with his son. Thenshe got into a serious relationship, and I thought that was that, even though it was obvious to all of us that they were in no way compatible, my kid and that Dale person.
I’d long put the idea of her and Julius getting together behind me, though, so I wasn’t prepared to see it again that night, when he came here. There was an unspoken understanding between us men when I let him handle that idiot woman in the driveway, one that I hoped he picked up on, and it looks like he did.
When I sent her to his office, I was expecting something to come of it, but here we are, almost a week out, and he’s only now making a move. Kids! I watched them out the window before things started heating up, then I dragged my wife away when the boy wrapped his hand around my kid’s neck.
There was no need to step in, even though he looked pretty mad from where I stood, because I know him very well. If there was any danger of that, he wouldn’t get ten feet near her. “What do you think is going on?”
“What do you think? Those two might need some help, though.” I know my kid, and that stuff the boy just pulled, wrapping his hand around her throat and all the other mess, is not going to go over very well.
I’m pretty well aware of the way I was with my wife when we first met. That feeling of possessiveness that makes one crazy one moment and deliriously happy the next is hard to control. The things I did back then, I could get away with, but I’m sure I wouldn’t get far today.
When we met, my wife was a victim of constant abuse from those who were supposed to love her. She can hold her own now because I made sure to give her wings so she could fly. Everything her family had robbed her of, I gave back in full.
Now she’s a strong, self-assured woman who is nothing like the scared young girl I first met all those years ago. My kid, on the other hand, was raised like the princess she is; all of mykids were raised to know that they matter. The shit I pulled back then, I don’t think would work on my girls today. I should probably give the boy some pointers because, from what I saw out the window, he’s following in my footsteps, and with my little darling daughter, that shit might get him killed or maimed, neither of which is good.
JULIUS
Iarrived at exactly seven to pick her up. A lesser man than me would’ve high-tailed it out of there once he saw what was waiting for him, but I am made of sturdier stuff than that. Knowing her abominable temperament, I expected nothing less than what I found awaiting me, but I came prepared and was more than ready to beat her at her own game.
Her family must’ve had some sort of consensus, most likely led by her sister, because not one of them was in sight, which is rare for this bunch. “You ready?” I pretended not to notice that there was anything amiss, which threw her off.
She looked down at herself in the ratty shorts and stretched out tee-shirt and the muddy sneakers on her feet as if to say, can’t you see I’m not dressed for company?
“Do I look like I’m ready to go somewhere?” I looked at my watch and back at her.
