AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I swallow and attempt to brace myself. “Go ahead.”
“Luke said he wants to kiss me, but I want to kiss Scotty.”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Remain calm. Remain calm.
I take a few breaths before answering. “Sweetie, you’re seven. There’s no kissing boys at seven.”
“How old do you have to be?”
“Well, you can’t kiss unless you’re officially boyfriend and girlfriend, and you can’t be boyfriend and girlfriend until you’re an adult. So when you’re eighteen, you can have your first kiss.”
She pinches her eyebrows together. “Oh, I didn’t know that.”
I mentally pat myself on the back. Parenting win.
I continue, “But you always only kiss the boys you want. No one else tells you who to kiss. Is that clear?”
I see her little mind processing. “Okay. I’ll tell them what you said.”
I kiss her head. “Good girl.”
“Papa, do you have a girlfriend?”
I shake my head. “No, baby. I don’t.” And I never will.
“Don’t you want to kiss someone?”
I smile as I squeeze her. I pepper her head with kisses. “I save my special kisses for you because you’re the most special girl in the world.”
She giggles.
We chat a little longer until she eventually falls asleep in my arms. I lay awake thinking about her question about me wanting to kiss someone. I would love to live in a world where Beth could be my girlfriend, but that’s not the world I live in anymore. It hasn’t been for a long time.
CHAPTERSIX
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO
DOMINIC
“Where are you going, cariño?”Honey. I pull her back into bed with me and cuddle her naked body to mine.
She shifts onto her back and looks up at me with the smile that makes my world spin. She runs her fingers through my hair. “I have to get to the studio. Professor Whittaker already despises me. I don’t need to give him another reason to hate me. And you have a game today. You need to get going too.”
She lifts her head and kisses my jaw. It’s a fleeting moment of tenderness from her. At least in the past few weeks. Before that, she was always so loving. She’s the sweetest woman I’ve ever met. That’s what I fell for. Well, that and the fact she’s beautiful.
She’s become a bit distant, at times seeming like she’s not present. I think she’s falling in with the wrong people at school and they’re a bad influence on her.
I use my strength advantage to pull her under the blankets, cocooning her inside. “Two more minutes. I need to get my fix.”
“Fine. Two minutes—and I’m counting—but then I really have to go, and so do you.”
I smile as I sink my face into her neck and take in her fruity scent. I can’t help but get aroused. She does it to me all the time. Her smell, her gorgeous face, her perfect body, it all does it to me.
She shakes her head and giggles, wiggling her hip. “I feel that. It’s not happening this morning, love.”
“Just a quickie?”
Her honey-brown eyes give me an incredulous look. “You don’t do quick.” She pretends to look at her watch. “Ninety more seconds left before I get up.”
