Page 15 of Sweet as Puck
“I’m an eighties man. I grew up in the days of hair bands and glam metal, but I’ll listen to almost anything. And yeah, I grew up a bit like you too—my parents loved music from the fifties, so we always had the radio on. Of course, back in my day, we didn’t have television, and we walked twenty-seven miles each way to school—”
Cara’s giggle was sweet and sexy at the same time. She was an adorable mix of shy and bursting with sunshine that instantlydrew me to her. The sadness in her gaze was still there, but her laugh was genuine. She was having fun right now.
“Something”changed to “I Saw Her Standing There”,and as the beat sped up, I held my arm up and stepped back so Cara could twirl around. She giggled again and turned, ducking back into my arms.
I pulled her close again and sucked in a breath when her body connected with mine. I resisted the temptation to look down at myself—barely—and blinked, processing the reaction my body was having.
I was hard.
As steel, in fact.
Fuck me. Fuck. Me. No, seriously,fuck me!
My head swam and my vision blurred as I let out a harsh breath and inhaled deeply again, taking her soft perfume into my lungs. My balls throbbed, and I closed my eyes as a shiver worked its way from my tailbone through my whole body.
Desire flooded me, and I basked in the overwhelming need coursing through my veins. My cock had been largely on hiatus for a decade. I used to love sex. I loved the way I could make my wife shake and scream through her ecstasy. But grief over her loss had rendered me a shell. I still jacked off, but there was no heat behind it, no urgency to get off. It was a performative function that I carried out because my balls demanded draining every now and then. It was nothing more than a physical relief.
But in under five minutes, my body had done a one-eighty and my sex drive was back online. I was raring to go. My balls were already drawn up tight, every fibre in my underwear cupping and rubbing my sensitive shaft and sac. Jesus, if I didn’t do something, I was going to come in my pants like a fucking teenager. I tilted my hips back, defying every demand of my body. I separated us just a little to save myself from embarrassment.
Cara looked up at me. Her lips were still stretched into a smile, but it had changed. The flush that accompanied it looked like embarrassment, but her blown pupils told me that perhaps she was suffering like I was.
Time to reel it in before I did something that I’d regret.
Like lift her into my arms, carry her upstairs, and make a meal out of her body.
I cleared my throat and playfully pinched her chin. “Not that I want to bring the mood down, but why haven’t I seen this beautiful smile all day?”
“Urgh,” she grumbled, her smile slipping.Shit.“Everything is going wrong. I mean, not here. Here is great. But everything at home and work is… not great.”
“I thought you worked for Tristan.”
“I graduated a couple of months ago. The podcast has been recorded and the screenplay has been handed back to the writers, so I needed something closer to full time. My rent is expensive, and my car needed repairs, so I got a job with Dad.”
“Do you work for him or just at the same place?”
“He’s the CEO, so yeah, I work for him, but I make it a point not to go into his office nowadays.”
“O-kay,” I said, stretching out the word.
She huffed, and her eyes filled with hurt. Every protective instinct in me flared, and I pulled her closer, ignoring the way my cock was tenting my shorts. Was it her dad who’d hurt her? My anger was irrational, but it didn’t make it any less real. I wanted to tear him a new one.
“I caught him cheating on my mum. Literally in the middle of it.” She shuddered, and her lips pursed in distaste. “I now know what my dad’s orgasm face looks like.”
“Oh, jeez,” I sympathized, trying not to laugh at her look of mortified disgust. “That had to be rough… and disturbing.”
“Right?” she exclaimed, lifting her hand before resting it once again on my bicep and rubbing the spot gently.
My concentration whited out, my mind blanking as every one of my nerve endings flared, sending heat through me at her appreciative touch.
“It was an ordinary day at work, then I find my dad doing it with someone in his office. I had to tell Mum—I couldn’t very well keep it a secret from her—and everything has gone wrong ever since.”
My amusement fled and I drew her closer, trying to soothe her and bring that smile back.
Tears filled her eyes, and she kept speaking, her words flying out at a mile a minute. “They’re headed for a divorce. I don’t blame Mum for wanting one, but I feel responsible because I’m the one who caught Dad. He and I were supposed to go on tour with the Seals when they come here next month. But I don’t want to even see him now. I told him that, and he’s been good about it, but it’s also bad because he pulled out of the tour. He said everything is uncertain, so I think that means he wants to work on his relationship with Mum. But I’m not sure, and his deciding not to go leaves me stuck because I need to find someone to go with me and help with sponsor stuff—”
“Cara, breathe for me.”
She kept going, my words not even registering as her tears fell. “I’m just the office junior. I shouldn’t even be going, but Dad knows how much I love—”