Page 76 of Yearn

Landon continued. “I was so happy when he said yes. He said he’d show up to celebrate with me. Every detail I planned with my mom had my dad in mind. I thought he’d be impressed with how perfect it all was. I thought he’d be proud to see me with so many friends, in a beautiful dress. So, I waited at the dock. I greeted every person who boarded, sick to my stomach with nerves, and when we were ready to pull away, I begged them to wait a little longer. I figured he was running late with traffic. Mom couldn’t understand who I wanted to hold up my party for, so I finally told her.”

I remained silent, sensing she’d never told anyone this story and that she needed a witness. I tightened my grip and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. “What happened?”

“Mom laughed and said he’d already called her. Said he was furious with the amount of money she spent—his money. My dad informed her he’d never condone that type of cheap display of wealth and that I was spoiled. That we deserved each other.”

I stroked back her hair so she knew I was listening. She continued speaking without a quiver in her voice. “I went back to the party. I did everything I was expected but it was as if I was looking at myself from a distance the whole evening. It was truly beautiful, too. And Dad was right. I was spoiled. I began to embrace my entitlement after that. I took what I wanted, fromwho I wanted, as much as I wanted. Why not? It was what he left me.”

My chest tightened. I would have done the same—my fuck you to my dad was to embrace the very thing he despised—my music. I bore the scars of my rebellion but didn’t regret a second. Landon had walked the same path in a different way, and found a way to make peace with it, on her terms.

“When my stepsister turned sixteen, she posted pictures on Facebook of her family in her backyard with a birthday cake. There were sixteen candles. Dad had his arm around her and was smiling really wide into the camera. She captioned it:best sweet sixteen ever! She wore jeans and a t-shirt and there were four presents in the background. I know there were four because I counted. They all looked really happy.”

Something broke inside of me and cracked open. She made me want to show her my own demons without apology and soothe some of her pain. Instead, I buried my head into her neck and sunk my teeth into the sensitive flesh, tying her back to this moment with me, safe in my arms. She gave a little jerk, then softened against me.

“Fuck ‘em. That’s where you got your strength. Don’t ever wish for it to be any different.”

I absorbed her shudder, then scented her arousal, as if my very words had ripped her open, laying her bare to me. My hand slid upward to her begging, tight nipples.Yes.My Landon embraced pain in both the physical and emotional, turning it to pleasure. God, she was perfect.

And she was mine.

I tweaked her nipple with my thumb, then carefully pinched. She gasped, but leaned into me rather than trying to pull away.

Her ragged whisper drifted up to my ears. “Why is it like this with us? Why does something so wrong feel so right?”

Shock vibrated through my muscles and I stiffened. I’d allowed her to hide while she shared her story. Secrets and confessions were so much better told in the shadows. But instinct told me to force her to own everything she was now. I wouldn’t allow her to deny anything about us.

I’d made peace with my darkness a while ago. Landon was new in my world, but I’d be her guide, her teacher, her undoing. I’d show her all the secret doors she’d been missing by being afraid of opening them, and more pleasure than she could handle.

I didn’t want to say all of that now. It wasn’t time yet. We were just beginning.

I rolled over and pinned her to the bed. Her cobalt blue eyes glowed with a deep satisfaction, like a cat purring after a full bowl of cream. Her thighs automatically parted and I felt the wet tracks of her arousal; the stiffness of her nipples scraped against my chest. Oh, yeah, she was meant for all the nasty things I wanted to do to her. She held my gaze as I answered.

“Because we’re both broken, Landon. We need something more than most in order to feel whole.”

She sucked in her breath, obviously not liking my response. A spark of rebellion simmered and I knew she’d fight me every step of the way. Landon would never be submissive in any part of her life except when she was naked. In my bed.

Exactly the way I liked it.

“Not me,” she snapped back.

“Especially you. You’ve just denied it longer. I’m going to show you how good broken feels.”

Stubborn denial coated her words. “I just like me some kinky sex.”

A low laugh escaped me. I rubbed my thumb over her lips, parting them roughly, and she opened her mouth to suck hard the same time her gaze called me an asshole.

I fucking loved it.

“Then I better do my job. Let’s put that mouth to something more useful than your inane chatter, shall we?”

She turned her head to avoid my thumb, so I used my mouth instead, my tongue thrusting in deep, dominating strokes. She tried to wriggle away but I knew the game, so I pinned her wrists and shoved her legs wider apart while my cock rubbed her clit back and forth until she moaned and arched up for more.

“I hate you,” she moaned.

I smiled as I looked her dead in the eye, then shoved my cock deep inside her pulsing

pussy, holding it there while she caught her breath and struggled to accept the invasion.

“Back atcha, princess.”

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