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Do it, Lennie.

Say it.

A crow caws above, then another, and it’s a sign. That black rot roils in my belly as I blurt out, “I have pictures of you on my phone. I’ve taken them for years. I use them in my bed at night. I’m a terrible daughter. I’ve had a crush on you since the day Mom introduced us. I should go to hell for how I feel.”

“Baby.” Cade pulls me to his chest, his warmth soothes me as his heart pounds against my cheek. I hate myself for chickening out, but it is a secret and I do feel horrible guilt about how I felt for my mother’s husband all these years.

“Baby, thank you for telling me. You give me that secret to hold now and let it go. Feelings aren’t right or wrong, they just are. And I think your mother would understand, just trust me on that.”

I nod, a modicum of relief loosening the knots in my shoulders. “What we do, the things you say… that has to be a secret though, right? Who would understand, you are my stepfather, everyone knows that.”

“What is between us isn’t a secret. What we tell the world or what they know is up to me. The only secrets you won’t keep are the ones from me.”

“Want to know another secret?”

“Of course.”

“I watched you swim in the pool when you didn’t know I was looking. I put your dress shirts under my pillow because they smelled like you. I looked through the keyhole in your office watching your work. I--” I tug my lips to the side on a shrug. “That’s stalker stuff right there.”

“You think I didn’t know?”

I swat his shoulder. “You knew?”

“Of course. You want to know a secret of mine?”

“What?”

“I watched you sleep. But since you turned eighteen and I somehow felt like less of a degenerate, I’d watch you sleep and jerk off in your bedroom.”

I gasp, with some added drama. “Pervert.”

“Maybe. But let’s see…” He slides his hand up the inside of my thigh and into the wicked, soaking proof of exactly how he makes me feel. “Little secrets made you even wetter. Daddy’s hungry. Lay back, baby, time for some of those special, secret kisses that make you feel good.”

“God.” I throw my head back as he lowers his face between my legs, lapping at me and sending me to the moon.

He licks me hard with the flat of his tongue, I tangle my hands in his hair for a change and pull.

Pull,pull… pullinghim closer, harder, more, more, more of what he’s giving.

I shake and curse as he devours me. The white blankets under my ass soaking as I drench his face and bellow to the roof, scaring off the crows when he nibbles my clit and eats me like a starved prisoner finally offered an all-you-can-eat buffet.

I quake and convulse as his lips and tongue do magic. He’s growling and rumbling his own curses into my wet heat.

“So fucking good, baby. You know Daddy loves how you taste. Like a good girl should.”

He pinches my clit between his fingers as his tongue stabs into my opening. “This hot little cunt is going to take all I give every day from now on. Forever, baby, this pussy is mine now.”

The wet sounds and the scent of my arousal drift upward as he doubles down and tongue fucks me to the edge of bliss.

I’m tearing at his hair, but he doesn’t stop. I’m twisting and on the verge of climax as I arch and call for him, but he stops. Suddenly and horrifically, the pleasure ends, leaving me teetering on that precipice.

“Please,don’t stop…”

“Say you love me, baby. SayI love you, Daddy. Say it and I’ll let you come.”

I stutter and moan, a sob clutching in my chest. He’s told me he loves me dozens of times in the last few days, but I’ve yet to return the words, feeling somehow unworthy. If I say I love him back, then everything is perfect. But everything isn’t perfect.

“I—please, justdon’t stop!” I beg, whimpering and feeling the brush of his beard between my legs.