Sixteen

Wilder

The call ended, but that didn’t stop me from looking at my phone. My gaze was locked on Oakley, standing in the elaborately decorated foyer at my home, staring at the wall, as if lost in thought. She didn’t move, except for the small rise and fall of her shoulders when she sighed.

What was she thinking about? Me? The past?

“Damn, she can make a pair of yoga pants look hot,” King said, and I turned to see him looking over my right shoulder.

I shoved the phone in my pocket, annoyed that he’d been watching her—or that he’d caught me doing it.

“Why’d you do that?” he complained. “I wanted to see if she had a bra on under that little cutoff T-shirt she was wearing. She just needed to turn to the left a few more inches.”

“You’re a dick,” I grunted and walked over to the bed I would be using tonight in the room we were sharing.

“I’m a dick? You’re the perv who has hidden cameras in his house, watching his hot ex-sister-in-law prance around anytime he wants.”

“That’s not what I was doing. I was checking on Sarah.”

King laughed. “Yeah, well, I didn’t see Sarah in that video. Must have been looking at the wrong one.”

Jerking back the covers, I climbed in bed, relieved that we would be sleeping on a mattress tonight instead of taking turns on a concrete floor underground room. There would be no screams and wails of torture coming from the room across from us and no shift we had to get up for and take over to cause those sounds. Mentally and physically, I was exhausted. That was the only reason I’d been weak. Why I had kept Oakley on the phone so long, just to watch her in the camera as she talked to me. My conscience had gotten the better of me though, and I’d told her about the security system.

King was right though. I’d been watching more often than I should—and at times when Sarah wasn’t around. The sight of Oakley had become hard to resist.

“Is she single?” King asked. “I haven’t seen Oak in years, but, damn, the woman just gets hotter with age.”

He was trying to bait me. King loved nothing more than to get a rise out of someone.

“She’s single. Too bad she’s out of your league,” I muttered, shoving my pillow into a lump under my head.

“Fuck, have you looked at me? Have you seen these abs? There isn’t a female alive who is out of my league. Even Oakley Watson. I’d make her real happy. Spread those legs and feast on her—”

“Shut up!” I growled, hating the image he was putting in my head. “Go the fuck to sleep, King.”

He laughed as his bed creaked from his weight. He’d gotten what he wanted. Me to react. To her. Damn him.

“She still does it for you, huh?” he said as he cut off the light.

Yeah. She did it for all straight men, it would seem. But they didn’t know her. They all saw her, and that was what they wanted. The face, body, smile, those fucking eyes. They didn’t care to get to know her. Dig deeper. Take the time to find out more about her. And as much as I wanted to believe that, over the years, she was a bitch, she had betrayed me, she was selfish and controlling, I was struggling to hold on to those beliefs. Every time I watched her with Sarah on those damn cameras, I saw someone who didn’t fit what I’d created her to be in my mind.

She was kind, fun, patient, loving, and giving. Sarah was always smiling. They laughed a lot. They made huge messes and baked more shit that any household needed. Every inch of my house was decorated for Christmas. It was ready to be in one of those cheesy-ass Hallmark movies. Lights twinkled everywhere, even in my kitchen. And let’s not forget that Belladonna adored her.

I reached in my pocket and pulled my phone out again. The living room camera lit up my screen, and Oakley was kneeling beside Sarah, trying to wake her up. The soft smile on her face and the way her eyes shone with sheer love for my daughter got to me in ways nothing else could. Sarah sat up and rubbed her face, then leaned in and wrapped her arms around Oakley’s neck.

Oakley buried her nose in Sarah’s hair and closed her eyes tightly, then pressed a kiss to the top of her head before whispering something to her and helping her stand up. That was what a mother was supposed to be like. Not once in Sarah’s life had I witnessed Sylvia display that kind of affection to our daughter. She didn’t bake endless treats with her, or decorate for the holidays, or dance around the kitchen, singing off-key to songs.

Sylvia had rarely made Sarah smile.

“Is she naked? If she’s naked, you gotta share that shit, man. It’s only fair. We’re friends.” King’s voice carried across the room.

I closed the app and placed my phone on the nightstand. “I was watching her get Sarah to bed.” I felt the need to explain myself.

“Sure you were,” he replied, then chuckled.

I didn’t argue with him. There was no reason for me to pretend like I still hated Oakley. Not after this week and what I had seen on my phone. Even when I had tried to catch her doing something or acting in a way that would renew my belief that she was a selfish bitch, I never did. Because she wasn’t. She was still the Oakley who had managed to get so deep under my skin when she was sixteen that I couldn’t see anything but her.

I wasn’t that guy anymore. Life had gotten real. Things had changed. Shit had happened. Remembering that I could never go back—we could never go back—was the only way to keep me . For Sarah’s sake. She needed her aunt Oakley more. I could never do anything to threaten that.

Nine Years Ago

“Wilder Jones, are you ever gonna kiss me?” Oakley asked, standing so close that I could feel the warmth from her body, with her head tilted back, staring up at me with baby-blue eyes that could make a man do stupid things. Like kiss a girl who was too young for him.

“Oakley,” I warned, gently placing my hands on her shoulders to move her back so I could catch my breath.

Having her that close was hard. My willpower was weakening daily.

“But I turned eighteen last week. I was so sure you’d kiss me on my birthday.” She pouted, then stuck out her plump lip even further.

I groaned as my eyes solely focused on her full pink mouth. God, I wanted to taste her. Suck those lips and pull that bottom one between my teeth. I also wanted to see them wrapped around my cock—and that was an issue. I had to control this—what I felt for her. The things I wanted to do to her were not something a virgin could handle.

She put both her hands on my chest. “Please, Wilder. Just one. If you kiss me just this once, I won’t ask again. I swear it.”

The pleading in her voice as she begged me for what I wanted to do more than I wanted to take my next breath was killing me. I deserved an award. A big-ass gold award with a damn crown to go with it for not shoving her against my truck and devouring her right now. She’d enjoy it, and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.

Her hands slid up my chest and behind my neck as she lifted herself up onto her tiptoes. “Just one,” she whispered.

Jesus Christ, a damn priest wouldn’t be able to tell her no. As I lowered my head, my heart was slamming against my chest so hard it was all I could hear. The cherry scent from the sucker she’d been sucking on the drive here—which had been better than porn—wafted past me as my mouth hovered just above hers.

I was going to do this, and I knew there was no going back. This would change our “friendship” to something more. Not that it had ever really been a friendship. Oakley had made it clear over a year ago that she was attracted to me. That she was waiting until she was old enough for me. That I was who she wanted.

Not once had I told her the same or encouraged it, but I had held on to those words. Prayed like hell she’d meant them. I couldn’t see other women anymore. No one even caught my eye. It was just her. I needed Oakley. I craved being near her.

My lips brushed hers, and her small intake of breath was my undoing. Her hands gripped my shoulders, and she pressed closer to me until her tits were against my chest. Reminding me how much I wanted to get my hands and mouth on them. When she opened her mouth, I didn’t hesitate. I invaded with a hunger that needed to be sated before I lost my mind. She tasted as sweet and intoxicating as I had known she would.

When she moaned and her body trembled against me, I knew I’d not only lost my heart to this girl, but my soul was hers too.