Page 60 of Don't Call Me Daddy
“It’s just …” She sighs, and the tears start back up. “My twin sister and I had this list …”
I tilt her chin up, silently encouraging her to keep going as my hands trace her small frame like they’ve got a mind all their own.
“Like a checklist?” I ask, she nods and scoffs a laugh.
“Something like that. Fern called it her Fuck It List. It was all the things we were going to do together after we graduated …” Her voice trails off, and she wipes her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Okay, so you and your sister had a checklist … of things to do together. I still don’t understand what that has to do with starting a wet T-shirt contest during a work event.”
She looks down, pulling the sleeves of my shirt over her hands. “My sister died when she was seventeen. From lung cancer.”
“Ivy, I’m so sorry?—”
“She told me she’d help me complete the list from wherever people go after they die …” She bites her lip to keep from crying as her eyes well with tears. “It all just happened so fast … I guess I just felt like she was making it happen. She hadenter a wet T-shirt conteston the list.” She looks to me and shrugs. “I know that sounds crazy, but it’s like ever since I got here, I can feel her. Not like when she was alive, but like the veil separating us is thinner …”
“Ivy, that’s …”
“Insane. I know.” She shakes her head and wipes her nose on my sleeve, and that little gesture almost makes me laugh. Only Ivy would use a five-hundred-dollar shirt as a hankie.
“That’s not what I was going to say at all.” I slide my hands up her toned thighs, feeling a rush of bravery come over me. It’s almost like since I’m consoling her, these touches don’t count, so I want to get in as many as I can before I come back to my senses. “What else is on the list?”
She fidgets in my lap, then crosses her feet, tucking them behind my back, and suddenly, I am keenly aware of our wet bodies and how thin the fabric separating us actually is.
Her soft body feels so good, pressed up against mine, and I urge my cock to calm the fuck down because this is neither the time nor place, but images of Ivy’s perfect nipples flash through my mind anyway. The way her shirt clung to her tits, carving out the shape of her curves and confirming she was even more perfect than I’d already imagined.
I bite my cheek, urging the thoughts from my mind, focusing on how angry she made me instead. But somehow, that just excites me more, and my cock strains beneath her, growing harder and harder by the second.
“And camping,” she says, and I realize I just zoned out when I see Ivy biting her lip, eyes curious and twinkling with mischief. Just how I like them.
For a moment, I forgot what we were talking about, but I quickly put it together as I dig my fingers into her hips that are beginning to roll across my lap. Fucking hell, she saw right through me just now, didn’t she?
I clear my throat. “Camping, huh? Seems pretty mild compared to a wet T-shirt contest. Sounds like your sister had quite some range.”
“She specifically wanted to go camping in the Appalachian Mountains. I was thinking I’d go tomorrow evening if we don’t have any couple plans or events to be at? I know I probably caused enough trouble tonight?—”
“Absolutely not.” I shake my head and tighten my grip on her waist to stop the rocking.
And just like that, the bubble clouding my vision pops.
“What do you mean,absolutely not? I wasn’t asking for your permission. If we don’t have an event or anything, then I’m going camping?—”
“Do you really think I’d let you go camping—which involves hiking sometimes up very steep cliffs—alone after you just had an asthma attack from running up the stairs?” My voice comes out a little harsher than I intended, but for fuck’s sake, I’m still coming down from my own freak-out, watching her struggle like that. There’s no way I’m letting her out of my sight to spend a night in the mountains alone. No way in hell.
She crosses her arms over her chest. “You don’t get to tell me what I can do. You’re not my boss … well, not for real.”
“Do you even know how to camp? To set up a tent? Any basic survival skills whatsoever?”
She just blinks.
“In the Appalachian Mountains?” I shake my head. “That’s good, Ivy. Do you not remember what those mountains were like the night we first met? You practically threw yourself down a cliff because you thought something was chasing you. Hell, you were lucky it was only me. It could’ve been anything out there.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re so dramatic. Of course I was scared. I wasn’t prepared, and you were making scary sounds, stalking me like a creep.”
I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Let me set you up a little tent in the backyard. You can spend the night out there under surveillance, and I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe.”
She pulls her legs from around my back and climbs off my lap, sending a cool gush of air in her absence. “No. That’s not how the list works, Leo. It has to be in the mountains. You might control everything else around here, but not me.”
She opens the front door to go inside and tries to slam it in my face, but I catch it just in time. I keep in step behind her as she stomps through the house, down the hallway, only stopping when she makes it to her bedroom door.
