Lily needed to smile more often.

John was scowling. Again. Screw the old man. Mac could care less if John didn’t like him showing affection to Lily. He’d had more than enough of the way the man treated his daughter.

“Besides,” Lily said, turning back to her father, a wicked grin on her face. “I’d rather stay here tonight. Mac and I are going to bed so we can fuck.”

Chapter Fifteen

Mac nearly choked on his coffee. John’s face went stark red, his cheeks puffed out and Mac prepared to do CPR.

Holy shit, her father was mad. And Lily leaned back with a serene smile on her face.

At that moment, he didn’t think he could ever love her more.

“I’m ready now if you are,” Mac said, standing and holding out his hand. “It’s been a long damn day.”

She slid her hand in his. “Night, Daddy.”

“Thank you for dinner, Mr. West,” Mac said, wrapping an arm around Lily’s waist.

John didn’t say a word as Mac turned away and headed out of the room with Lily. When they got to the foot of the stairs, he swooped her up into his arms. She let out a shriek of delight, laughing as he bounded up.

“First door on the right,” she said when they reached the landing.

She helped by turning the knob on the door. He nudged it the rest of the way open and found the light switch, immediately blasted by a plethora of Pepto Bismol pink.

“Good God,” he said, setting Lily on her feet.

“I know. Disgusting, isn’t it?”

He didn’t have words. A double bed with frilly pink bedspread. Pink walls in a contrasting shade. Pink lampshade, pink curtains. Pink shelves. Every-freakin-thing in the room was pink.

“You don’t really expect me to sleep in here, do you?

I’ll wake up emasculated, my balls shriveled.”

Lily giggled and wrapped her arms around him, pressing a soft kiss to his mouth. “I think you can handle it, macho man.”

“I don’t know. I feel weak. Must. Sit.”

She snorted and pushed at his chest, then wandered over to the window seat, which was adorned with, of course, thick pink pillows. She flounced down on it and looked at him.

“I used to think about you while I spent time in here.”

“Oh yeah?” He arched a brow and moved toward her.

She kicked her feet up in the air, locking her ankles together. “Yup.”

“You mean you fantasized about me.” He grabbed her boots and pulled them off, then her socks. Her window was half open, bringing in a breeze that ruffled the lacy curtains in his direction.

“That’s exactly what I mean. I’d sit here at my window seat every night and write in my diary about this boy who made me hot.”

He toed off his boots, then flipped open the button on his jeans. “Naughty girl.”

“Scandalous,” she said with a saucy smile, unzipping her jeans and lifting her hips. “I’ll bet the maids found my diary and read it.”

He pulled the bottom hem of her jeans, sliding them down her legs. “And what did the maids read in your diary?”

He threw the jeans to the floor, mesmerized by Lily’s slender legs.

“They read about how it felt to stand next to you every day, to feel your hard body brushing against mine.” She pulled her shirt off, leaving her in only a black bra and matching panties. “About how much I ached to have you touch me. But you wouldn’t, so I had to touch myself, fantasizing it was your hands on me.”

She demonstrated by palming the swells of her breasts, teasing him by slipping her fingertips inside the fabric of her bra to skim across her nipples. Her breath caught and Mac could only imagine what she was feeling. She was touching her nipples, making them hard, feeling that sensation shoot between her legs.

“Did you touch yourself here in your room at night, and think about me when you were doing it?” He dragged the zipper down on his jeans, making sure to take his time since Lily was watching. He pushed them over his h*ps and let them drop to the floor. His boxers went next and he grasped his already hard c**k in his hand.

Lily licked her lips, her gaze riveted on his shaft. She moved one hand to her panties, letting her fingers drift under the satin fabric. “Yes, Mac. I often touched myself and thought about you.”

He fisted his c**k in a hard grip and began to stroke.

Lily spread her legs, dipping her hand fully inside her panties. “I’d sit like this at my window seat. The windows would be partially open and the summer breeze streaming in, helping to cool my heated skin. I’d lean back against the wall and touch my pussy, wishing you were here with your hand in my panties.”

His c**k leapt forward, his balls tightening at the visual she presented, both present and past.

“My pussy’s so wet, Mac.”

“Take your panties off. Let me watch.”

She pulled her panties down, kicking them away, then spread her legs, skimming her fingers over her pu**y lips. They glistened with moisture in the soft light cast by the table lamp, making her pu**y look like it was adorned by crystals.

Lily’s eyes were half closed as she ran two fingers over those sweet lips. She swept her fingers over her cunt, tantalizing him with her movements, then tucked them inside.

Her lips parted and she sucked in a breath, thrusting her fingers in and out between the swollen folds.

“Oh, yeah. I love watching you touch yourself.” He tightened his grip on his cock, plunging it in and out of his hand. He moved closer, needing to see her, to inhale the musky scent of her pu**y and watch her pleasure herself.

With her fingers embedded in her pussy, she pressed the heel of her palm against her clit, lifting her hips. Panting, she looked at him with blatant desire in her eyes, a glassy look that screamed ‘fuck me now’.

Exactly his thought. But first, he was going to taste her.

He dropped to his knees between her widespread legs, planting his fingers against her thighs to hold them in place. He felt her muscles quiver there, smiling as he went down on her. The first taste of her was hot, spicy, her sweet cream flowing against his tongue as he licked her from pu**y to clit. Lily let out a low moan and slid down in the window seat, clutching the sheer curtains in a death grip.

Mac slid his tongue inside her pussy, using his thumb to caress her clit.

“Oh. Oh, God, Mac.”

She came in a rush, her eyes widening as she jerked against his face and jammed her pu**y against his mouth. He licked her until her trembling subsided, then stood, yanking her from the window seat and taking her spot, pulling her astride him. She settled over him, sliding over his swollen c**k with a whimper of pleasure.

She began to ride him. “This is what I wanted, what I fantasized about all those nights when I sat alone here in my room,” she said, her voice husky and raw. “I thought about all the different ways you would kiss me, undress me, make love to me. You have no idea how much I wanted it.”

Yeah, he did, because he’d wanted the same thing.

She leaned over him and tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling his face to hers and covering his mouth with hers. She licked her own cream from his mouth, her tongue washing over his lips before diving between them.

He held onto her hips, setting their rhythm by lifting her, then pulling her down over his cock. She was slick, rocking back and forth against him, sliding over his balls until he gritted his teeth to keep from erupting inside her.

“I used to fantasize about you, too,” he said, letting go of her h*ps only long enough to reach for her breasts, cupping them in his hands and using his thumbs to graze her nipples.

She moaned. “Did you?”

“Yes. I wanted you. You were everything that was good and pure in my life back then. So sweet, so untainted. I’d jack off thinking about your sexy legs in those short skirts you wore, wondering what kind of panties you had on, and fantasizing about tossing you on the hood of my car and eating your pu**y until you screamed.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “I would have loved that.

I’d still love that.”

He surged upward, burying his c**k deep. “Remind me to do that later.” Because right now he couldn’t think anymore.

His balls tightened and he needed to come inside her. He slipped his hand between her legs and strummed her clit. Lily tilted her head back, her muscles tensed, she jerked forward and began to shudder. He pu**y squeezed his c**k in tight spasms as she came with loud cries, her nails digging into his shoulders.

That was all he could hold out for. He let go, releasing inside her with shuddering groan, clasping onto her h*ps and grinding her pu**y against him until he was empty.

Lily laid her forehead against his, her warm breath panting against his cheek.

“That was better than anything I ever wrote in my diary,” she said.

He laughed. “Glad to hear that. It was kind of kinky to f**k you in here, knowing you had all those fantasies about me.”

She grinned and kissed him. “I had a lot of fantasies.”

He wrapped his hands around her buttocks and lifted her, carrying her into her adjoining bathroom, which, thank God, wasn’t pink. They showered together, Mac soaping every inch of her body. He couldn’t get enough of running his hands over her skin, making sure to spend time massaging her shoulders until he’d released the knots of tension that her father had put there. When they were finished, they dried off and fell into bed. Lily lay against his side, her head on his shoulder.

“Your dad’s an asshole,” he whispered against her hair.

She laughed. “Yes, he is.”

“He hurts you with his words. I’d like to kick his ass.”

“Don’t bother. It used to make me feel insecure. I never felt as if I could measure up to his expectations of me, but I eventually got over it when I realized that no matter what I did, it wouldn’t please him. He no longer has the power to hurt me.

I’m immune.”

He’d still like to make the old man pay for hurting her.

He lay there for a while, holding her and listening to the night sounds, trying to figure out how he was going to say what needed saying.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said.

“For what?”

They’d turned off the light, so the only illumination was the moon filtering in through the windows.

“For being the same kind of a dickhead as your dad all those years ago.”

She sat up and switched on the beside lamp. Soft pink light filtered the room, casting a glow over Lily’s frowning face.

“What? You’re nothing at all like my father.”

“Yeah, actually, I am. You needed me to believe in you, to have faith in the decisions you made and what you wanted. I wasn’t there for you, just like he wasn’t there for you. And I pushed you away, believing I knew what was best for you. I was as full of shit as he was. Only you knew what was right for you.”

She was quiet for several minutes, her palm resting on his chest.

“I love you, Mac.”

His heart slammed against his chest. Jesus Christ, he hadn’t expected that.

She smiled down at him. “I’ve always loved you. When I was eighteen I fell in love with who you were, at first because you were so different than any guy I’d ever known. I was crazy about your bad boy image, your independent nature, the fact you threw caution to the wind and did whatever you wanted. I craved that kind of life because I was imprisoned here; my life had been entirely laid out before me and I wanted to be free.

“But as I got to know you, I realized you were more than just this image I had of you. There was an inherent kindness within you, an honor and integrity that you couldn’t hide, no matter how hard you tried. That’s the Mac Canfield I fell in love with, the one I wanted to give my body and heart to.”

He closed his eyes. And he’d taken her heart and stomped on it, tossing it carelessly back at her as if she’d meant nothing.

When he opened his eyes again, he looked up at Lily.

“Lily, I need you to know—what happened that last night we saw each other…”

“I know. You did what you thought was best for me.

You didn’t want to take me down with you. You weren’t trying to run my life for me, Mac. You’re nothing like my father.”

“I loved you.” As soon as he said the words, he realized they were true. He wasn’t just making excuses for the way he’d treated Lily. He’d dumped her because he loved her, because he was scared to death she would follow him down the black road of his life, that she would end up miserable if she’d stayed with him. “I didn’t want you to be with me because I was afraid of where I was going, and I didn’t want to tell you how I felt, didn’t want you to be able to see it in my eyes. If I didn’t let you go after I made love to you, if I didn’t walk away after that first night, I would have never let you go.”

Tears streamed down her face. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

“I’m not finished.” He brushed a tear away with his thumb. “I loved you back then and I didn’t tell you. I’m telling you now that I still do.”

Those words were true, too. He’d spent a lifetime running from them, but he’d never been able to run far enough.

Lily had always been in his heart, had never left. She never would. “I love you, Lily.”

“You’ve never said that to anyone before, have you?”

she asked, sniffling.

“I’ve never loved anyone before.” He was on unfamiliar ground now, and it felt strange. Good, but really strange.

She was still crying when she leaned over and kissed him, the salt from her tears searing him. God, she was sweet.