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Slowly lifting her hand off my thigh, she reaches for one of the sandwiches. Her hands are shaking, but she does exactly what I told her to, she tries, bringing it to her lips and taking a small bite.
The world doesn’t stop, but it feels that way as I watch her struggle through every mouthful. She reaches for me three more times, but each time she asks for my control, I take over, telling her over and over that her mom doesn’t have any hold on her anymore, that she’s mine, that I adore her, want her, and need her.
By the time she places her plate back on the table, she’s eaten a sandwich and some soup, and her eyes are haunted but oddly bright. Twisting in my lap, she leans forward and presses her lips to mine. “Thank you,” she whispers.
“Always.”
My chest fills with want and need and fucking love, and I have no idea how the hell I’m supposed to contain everything I’m feeling so it doesn’t explode from my chest and cover us all in sparkling fucking glee. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I love my family; I love my friends, who are more like brothers, and Izzy, who feels like my sister. But what I feel for my Princess when she looks at me like I’m the only thing that’s saving her from herself is so much more than I ever thought I was capable of feeling.
Until yesterday, I’d thought my desire for her was more of a carnal urge, that her need to have someone take control was simply calling to my need to be in charge. But now I know it’s so much more than that. I like when she denies me just as much as when she complies. She is by far the most complicated woman I’ve ever met, and she’s fucking ensnared me.
When Gulliver said that everything he had was Izzy’s too, I got it, and I feel the same way. I want to share my entire world with the girl in my lap. I want to give her everything, and all I need in return is her.
We stay at Gulliver’s for a few more hours until we have a clear plan in place on how and when to leak the story about the Rhodeses’ deaths. When it’s dinnertime, Beth brings out a steaming pan of lasagna and a huge, brightly colored salad, and we pile around the dining table, eating family style.
Just like at lunch, I make Penelope’s plate and hand it to her. Placing her free hand on my thigh, I whisper in her ear that the rules from earlier still apply, that all she has to do is squeeze my leg and I’ll take over and chase away the monsters in her mind. She eats painfully slow, barely touching the pasta, but after this morning, I consider every mouthful a victory.
No one mentions it, but I know the others have noticed her struggling, but Izzy is the only one who looks stricken, glancing between her sister and the food with sadness glistening in her expressive eyes.
“We should get going,” I announce, once we’ve plotted as much as we can.
“Thank you for welcoming me into your home,” Penelope says to Gulliver. “I know I don’t deserve any help from any of you. You’ve all been so?—”
Rushing forward, Izzy throws herself at Penelope, pulling her in for a tight hug.
For a long moment, my Princess stands frozen, completely unsure what to do with her sister’s affection. Then she slowly brings her arms up and hugs her back. Izzy’s smile is so wide, I swear her face might crack, and when she finally releases her sister, she tumbles into Gulliver’s arms, brimming with so much happiness it’s pouring from her in waves.
“Come on, Princess, let’s go home,” I say, smiling as I hold my hand out to Penelope, entwining our fingers together the moment she places her hand in mine.
“See you guys at school in the morning, ready to make another grand entrance,” I say, rolling my eyes in amusement.
“Yeah, yeah, you love it really,” Kip says dryly.
“Yep, I’m hiring a wind machine and a DJ to play our theme song,” I snark back playfully as I lead my girl from the room.
She’s quiet as we drive toward the marina, but her energy doesn’t feel frenetic or anxious, she’s just still and internalized. I could push her to talk, but I want her to feel free and comfortable to tell me how she’s feeling without being pressured into it. I want her to want to talk to me, to rely on me. Fuck, I sound like a needy fucker, but with her, I feel needy. For the first time, I want something deeper than just a physical connection. I might only be eighteen, but it’s not unusual in our world to marry young, especially if you’re lucky enough to find your person.
When we pull into the parking lot at the marina an hour later, I kill the car’s engine and silently climb out, shutting my door behind me and waiting for Penelope to join me. She takes my hand when I reach for her, and I silently squeeze her fingers, loving how thoughtlessly she connected herself to me.
Turning to look at her, my breath hitches when I take in how fucking beautiful she is. Izzy is gorgeous, but Penelope has a darkness to her that her sister doesn’t. She’s not pure innocence, she lives in the shadows that lurk ominously between good and bad, and something about that makes her immensely more sexy to me. The urge to strip her free of her clothes and gorge myself on her body and naturally submissive sexual nature pushes itself to the surface, taunting me like the devil on my shoulder, to take her, to own her. But I fight it, because even though I want her almost as much as I want to breathe my next breath, I want her permanence in my life even more.
I don’t know how she’s changed my entire life in such a short amount of time, but it feels like all of my thoughts now revolve around her. She’s become my center, my axis.
* * *
Waking up curled around her naked body is absolute perfection. She’s an incredibly peaceful sleeper, hardly ever moving. She fell asleep cradled in my arms, and I woke up curled around her, my back pressed against my front.
A part of me is still expecting her to run, to wake up and find her gone, her scent on the cold sheets the only remnant of her left behind. But she’s still here, her mussed hair spread across my pillow, her round, fucking perfect ass pressed up against my rock-hard dick. Sighing happily, I pull her a little tighter into me and press a kiss to her shoulder.
“Hmm,” she sighs sleepily.
“Good morning, Princess,” I whisper.
“Do we really have to go to school today? We could just stay here,” she says, slowly wiggling her ass against my hard dick.
Laughing, I slide my palm up her ribs and gently cup her breast, pinching her nipple softly between my thumb and forefinger. “I’d love to spend the day naked in bed with you, but not today.”
“Why not?” she moans breathily, arching her back and pushing her breast further into my touch.
