Page 13 of Praise Me: Pilot (Praise Me Daily #6)

Haylo

J oel carries me into my apartment, because I’m boneless and I can’t stop giggling.

He doesn’t seem to mind, though. Far from it.

He can’t stop staring at me or kissing me every chance he gets.

Like now, when he sets me down on my feet in the middle of my living room and opens his mouth over mine, his hands scraping down over my hips.

Yes, I’m still wearing my bikini, but I’ve put on a pair of cut-off jean shorts, and he seems on the verge of wrestling them off.

“Are you expecting anyone home?” he says against my mouth, hoarsely.

“They should be at the sorority house for another couple of hours,” I say, nipping at his bottom lip. “Though I find it hard to believe that you care whether we have an audience or not after ravishing me in the grass.”

His left eyebrow arches. “Ravishing?”

“I’m taking a Victorian literature class,” I say airily, taking his hand and tugging him playfully into my room, marveling at the sight of this six-foot-three pilot with a five o’clock shadow in my girly room full of furry pillows and bras drying on door handles.

“Wow, seeing you in here reminds me how many years there are between us. Our ages.”

“Are you saying I look old?” he drawls, amused.

“No,” I pout, running my hands up his bare, sculpted chest. “I’m saying you look old er .

Than me.” My face is turning pink, I can feel it, but he’s looking at me so patiently, I find the truth flowing easier.

“I’m saying I like that you’re older. Your maturity makes me feel…

free to be young. Does that even make sense? ”

He nods, looking thoughtful. Running a knuckle down the side of my face.

“You had to be the mature one growing up. Now you don’t.

” His chest dips low, his lips dropping to speak quietly against my ear, like we’re passing a secret.

“You have a Daddy now who is going to take care of everything while you enjoy yourself. Be there when you need to cry or fuck. Buy you pretty things. Handle the tuition and bills—”

“Tuition? B- bills ?” I sputter. “Joel, my father pays my tuition and—”

He’s already shaking his head. “Not anymore, Haylo. Daddy in bed and out.” He unbuttons my shorts and yanks the zipper down, shoving the garment down to my ankles.

Eyes darkening, he picks me up by my waist and settles me onto my desk, untying my bikini top and tossing it away, groaning brokenly at the sight of my perky breasts.

My body in nothing but itty-bitty thong bathing suit bottoms. “Anything you might have gone to your father with before, it comes to me now.”

“But you’re not my father,” I point out.

“No? Try it out.” Gradually, he begins to breathe hard against my mouth.

Or is that me struggling to draw air? My head is spinning a little, because I’m not sure what’s happening, but I know the walls of my sex are contracting rhythmically, tingles racing up and down my legs, arms. “Try it out, angel.”

“Try what out?” I gasp, feeling gooey and ticklish beneath my navel.

Uncomfortable, but not in a bad way? At least, I don’t think so…

What’s going on here?

“You know what,” he whispers.

I close my eyes. I’m scared and excited at the same time.

What is happening to me? I’m on the verge of something…emotional and physical.

“Dad, did you send my tuition check?” I murmur, voice unsteady.

“It’s in the mail,” he rumbles.

I close my eyes. Does he know that’s the exact phrasing Phil uses?

No, he couldn’t possibly. But because of those four familiar words, suddenly, it’s someone else entirely between my thighs.

It’s someone else clutching the bare cheeks of my ass and dragging me to the edge of the desk, his erection prodding my mound.

Someone else raking his mouth down the side of my neck and reclining me back slightly, in order to suck noisily on my nipples.

Right, then left, with an older, greedier mouth.

“Y-you shouldn’t,” I whisper, choked, forbidden images painting themselves on the backs of my eyelids. “We sh-shouldn’t.”

He pauses for several heavy seconds, breathing erratically.

Then, “You need money for textbooks, too, don’t you?

” He runs a finger from my belly button to the underside of my thong, twisting the digit gently against my opening through the barrier of white material, but it’s like a sensual bomb going off inside of me, confusing and intense.

“It wouldn’t kill you to show me a little appreciation. No one needs to know.”

A bead of sweat rolls down my spine and I swallow with the use of an arid throat.

I’m not sure what’s happening, but it has to be bad.

Why does it feel like I might come from mere…implications.

Still. “Dad…” I say, in warning. In encouragement. I don’t know .

“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t, it’s just…” He leans over me, pinning my lower body. Rolling himself forward with a shuddering grunt. “You grew up so fast. So pretty. Just like your mother.”

I whimper hysterically.

“Wonder if you feel the same.”

I orgasm so suddenly, I jackknife with a scream, my core convulsing violently, cloudy feelings both hot and wrong, course through me, wetting my thong until it’s sopping wet and I’ve made a mess on the desk, all while strong arms close around me, lips kissing my temples and shhhing me while my body is ransacked with wave after wave of strange relief.

Desperate to dispel the very specific, very incorrect imagery, I seek Joel’s eyes, relieved to find him there. Clinging to him desperately, needing him to make sense of what just happened. “I…I don’t know why…”

“It’s okay, angel.” He kisses me fiercely, holding the sides of my face in his hands while looking me in the eye. “You’ve got some father issues. Of course you do, after everything he’s put your through. We’re going to work them out of you. Together.” Again, he kisses me. “Okay?”

I nod in relief, throwing myself into his solid embrace.

This is where I want to be.

I’m going to stay here forever, where it’s safe.

But I don’t have that option, because Joel’s phone pings with a text a second later. One glance at the screen and his eyes are already filling with dread.

“It’s the airline,” he says, voice gravelly. “There are flights in danger of being cancelled, because of storms in the southeast. Real ones, this time.” He sighs. “They need me to come in early.”

It’s a terrible time for Joel to leave and we both know it.

I only agreed to be his girlfriend a matter of hours ago, a new position that makes me nervous as hell, not only because of my major trust issues, but because of my father’s reaction. My father. I really don’t want to think about him right now. Not so soon…after.

Joel knows my deepest, darkest secret now, doesn’t he?

It’s a secret that even I didn’t know. Not until I was in the middle of addressing it with no way out but to let my body succumb.

My daddy issues are a lot more complicated than I expected.

Or even knew possible. I knew I wanted Phil’s love, but I didn’t expect my repressed feelings to be so…

Freudian. The psychology major in me wonders if my father, for all his tomcatting ways, became a figure in my life synonymous with sex.

Therefore, when I imagine being loved by him, well…

What happened…happened.

Joel, looking tortured, starts to walk out of my apartment, but comes back for the third time to kiss me again, and I’m more than happy to accommodate him. Just like the previous two times, I end up pressed to the doorjamb, both of us moaning into the kiss.

“Hey.” He pushes our foreheads together. “As soon as I know my exact schedule, I’ll send it to you. I’m going to see you again as soon as humanly possible, Haylo.” Another long, breathless kiss. “And I’m going to speak to Phil at the earliest opportunity about us.”

My heart flip-flops happily, but there are strings holding it down, preventing it from soaring too high, too far. Joel is leaving. Leaving is leaving, isn’t it? I made excuses for my father for too long. Am I going to make them again now?

As badly as I want to believe Joel is serious about me, determined to go all in, I hold some of myself back. He senses it, too. His perceptiveness truly knows no bounds, does it?

Nor does his dominance of my senses.

My head is full of him, my body attuned to his hands, his breath.

“I’ll miss you,” I whisper, my heart heavy.

“Not as much as I’ll miss you,” he says fervently, swiping the moisture from my eyes.

“Have faith in me, all right?” My dutiful nod slows when his expression darkens.

“If another man so much as breathes in your direction while I’m gone, I will come back here and take this campus down, brick by brick, so I can stack them on top of his grave. ”

“I can’t stop a man from breathing,” I gasp, incredulous.

“No?” He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “I stopped breathing the minute I saw you. Haven’t taken a full one since.”

“That sounds dangerous. Are you sure you’re okay to fly?”

“Knowing it’s the only way to get back to you? I’ll manage.”

I’m beaming at Joel as he climbs into his rental car, waving at him through the windshield while he looks his fill one final time. Seeing him in the driver’s side of his car makes me think of him in the cockpit of a plane. Which gives me an idea.

I’m worried that Joel is going to follow in my father’s footsteps and be a flagrant pursuer of women while he’s jetting around the globe, aren’t I?

In fact, he hasn’t even left yet and my stomach is beginning to hurt, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe I should make it drop sooner than later. If I find out early that he’s not good boyfriend material, I can start to get over my damaged feelings sooner. Right?

Maybe…I’ll follow him.

Just to see how he behaves at work. Because I won’t be a sucker.

He’ll never even know I was there.

But at least I’ll get some insight, won’t I?

Either a broken heart or peace of mind.

Whichever comes first.