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My Juniper.My jaw clenched tightly as my heartrate started to pick up.
I swear, the more time passed, the more it felt like my body protested with the space I had purposely placed between us. I’d avoided bumping into her. But never, not once, did I not have my eye on her. I kept my finger on the pulse of her needs.
From simple things like someone sending in an anonymous cashier’s check to help her with whatever fundraiser she had going on. During the holidays, my girl started early with helping the citizens of our small mountain town. From collecting candy at Halloween to putting together Thanksgiving dinner baskets in November, to a toy and coat drive in December. Hell, my girl even co-hosted a Valentine’s dance with her best friend, Rory Rangel, to help raise funds for the art department at the local elementary school where her friend taught.
If there was a need, Juniper found out about it and searched for a way to help.
She was so damn inspiring.
She really believed in the things she did and the changes she could make in our community. I had been a cynic before I stepped into my living room three years ago. But after watching her so closely, I believed more than anyone in the positive way she had impacted Holly Burrows.
The only problem was, she was usually so busy taking care of everyone else, my angel often forgot to take care of herself. That’s where I stepped in. From sneering at men who thought they could possibly have a chance with her to secretly delivering food to her place, to making her think she won a new car when her old one started to give her issues last year. Anything, I was there.
But watching from the shadows was getting old.
It had been too long since I had those beautiful eyes pinned on me. Since I’d been so close, I could feel the heat of her curvaceous body and smell her sweet scent.
I needed more.
At first, I had convinced myself I couldn’t touch her. Not only because she was my son’s ex-girlfriend, but because she was so damn young. Juniper Winters was twenty-one years younger than me. Two decades younger. My gut tightened at the reminder.
I knew better.
And for that first year after meeting her and finding out an angel lived among us, I stuck to it. I kept my distance. But it wasn’t enough. Not in the small town we lived in. We’d accidentally bump into one another in town here and there. And that had been enough.
Until last winter.
On the second anniversary of us meeting, I’d been heading home from work. We’d been hit with an early snowfall that had me driving a little slower. Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise when I recognized her car parked on the side of the road with her hazard lights blinking.
I’d gone to check on her, my heart lodged in my throat. Every worst-case scenario rushed through my head with every step I took. Each one getting worse than the last. A rush of relief washed over me when her big green eyes connected with mine.
She told me her car had died and her cell phone didn’t have a signal. When she stepped out and brushed her body against mine, I’d been tempted to take her right then and there. But in my eyes, she was still so damn young.
She was about to turn twenty-four, so I couldn’t touch her. I’d talked myself blue into waiting until she turned twenty-five. For whatever reason, I’d made myself believe that would be a good age to claim her.
I knew the moment I made a move, there would be no going back. She’d be mine.Forever.I’d work hard to make sure she never wanted for a thing and felt nothing but happiness every day from then on out.
But I didn’t want to suffocate and steal opportunities from her to live before locking her up. Because I would. I’d lock Juniper up as mine. Tie her to me in every way possible. My ring on her finger, her head would lie on the pillow next to mine. It was possessive and genuinely crazy. I felt like an unevolved caveman with the things she made me want when it came to Juniper.
That night last year had locked her fate when she’d smiled up at me like I was some kind of knight in shining armor. She was too innocent to know I was the bad guy. The one who wanted to do sinfully naughty things to her, ached to hear her call out for me.
For her daddy.
If she knew, I was almost positive she would have never slipped into the front seat of my truck and let me take her home. But she did. Because my angel was too good, too pure for a dirty old man like me.
The entire drive, I took it nice and slow. Using the snow as an excuse to drive as slow as possible. Any extra second of her time I could milk, I would.
But once again, my angel on earth, my sweet little innocent vixen, didn’t say a word. Didn’t notice it. She simply sat next to me and talked all about what she’d been up to the last couple of years, letting it slip she was going to be celebrating her birthday with a couple of friends at the Barrel, and if I didn’t have plans, I should stop by.
Part of me wondered if I had somehow imagined the sexy little glimmer in her eyes when I’d turned to look at her. If she had actually meant the invitation.
If it was possible that my sweetness felt the same pull I felt toward her.
But as soon as it appeared, it was gone the next time I glanced at her. All too quickly, my time with her had run out. I’d dropped her off, and she had slipped through my fingers.
I shook the thought away and blinked.
It’s almost time,a voice whispered in the back of my head. It was almost her twenty-fifth birthday. Once that came, I would make a move.
