I smile and lean next to his ear.
-Of course. You’re fucking desperate for it, right?
It’s his turn to smile at me over his shoulder.
-Yes, but you too.
She rolls her hips in a teasing gesture and I grab them tightly, thrusting into her. She’s barely able to stay bent over, I’ve pushed her against the wall while my cock goes in and out of her, hitting that spot that I know she likes so much.
I know it because of the noises it makes. The way he pushes me. The way he screams.
He keeps his hands on the wall, like I ordered, but he keeps looking over his shoulder at me with so much fucking love in his eyes. More love than I’ve ever seen. More love than I deserve or know what to do with.
The kind of love I’ve been known to taint.
I grab her chin and kiss her. I kiss her hard and full of all the feelings I’m too fucked up to put a title to.
And then we fall off the cliff together, in something that I try not to scare me. I struggle to stay in the moment, with her pressed against me.
We are so in tune. So perfect together.
So perfect together that icy tendrils slide down my spine. Because I am me. And whenever something is perfect, it goes to shit.
The knock on the door is proof of this.
33
jasper
“Just a second!” Sloane melts against me.
We are pressed against each other, breathing heavily, when there is another loud knock on the door.
I smile, running my nose along the back of her neck, damp with sweat and with small loose strands from the tight bun in her hair.
“Someone probably heard you scream and wants to check if you’re okay.”
Their shoulders shake with laughter as I kiss them.
-I’m not well. You made a mess of me, and my legs are going to give out if you let me go.
With a laugh, I bend down and pick up her robe from the floor, knowing it’s the quickest and easiest way to cover her. While I hold her, she slides her arms through the loose sleeves and I place them around her shoulders.
I turn her to face me, give her a quick kiss on her ruined lips, and step back to fix my pants. I don’t bother tucking my shirt in. I make sure I’m dressed and hide my cock again.
Sloane’s deft fingers make quick work of the belt around her waist and, after looking me up and down, she nods. And she blushes, brushing away her loose hair with an incredulous shake of her head.
He looks at me like that a lot, like he can’t believe we’re here, doing this. Sometimes I feel the same. As if everything were a dream.
When he opens the door, the dream freezes. We woke up abruptly, as if we had fallen out of bed.
Robert and Cordelia Winthrop are standing in the hallway. Robert is red, almost vibrating with fury. Sloane’s mother is standing a few feet behind him, eyes drooping on her shoes with an embarrassed blush on her cheeks.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Robert asks.
Sloane crosses her arms and instantly stiffens.
“I could ask you the same thing, Dad.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Sloane. The ballet company announced in the newspaper that you were going to replace her, and that we would never miss our little girl on stage. I am talking to you . His meaty index finger digs in my direction. What the fuck are you doing here with my girl ?
But I have more respect for Sloane than going there.
I give him a blank look and shove my hands in my pockets, drawing his gaze to my unbuttoned shirt.
“What I should have done a long time ago.”
Robert’s hand shakes as he pushes his finger toward me hard, just over Sloane’s shoulder, like she’s not even there.
“I told you to stay away from her.” His loose chin shakes with the force of his anger.
“It seems you didn’t inform me of that.” Sloane’s hand rests on the door as if she’s stopping her father from reaching me. Protecting me as always.
To your own detriment.
“Sloane, step aside like a good girl.” This doesn’t concern you. We’ll have a lot to discuss once I’ve taken out the trash.
Good girl? Have you gone crazy talking to him as if he were a dog?
Sloane gasps. I’ve always known he’s a piece of shit, but I think this may be the first time she’s really seen him.
With two long strides, I am at his side, completely blocking the door.
“Talk to him like that again and you’ll see how it ends for you.” “The angry, fucked-up teenager in me lights up. I’ve worked hard to control myself over the years, and Robert fucking Winthrop just undid it all with one well-placed tug on a tightrope.
“Do you forget what I told you, boy?” Do you want that career? Do you want that salary? I can still ruin you. I can take it all off you in a second. -Snaps his fingers for emphasis.
The logical part of me doesn’t want to believe him. The logical part of me knows I’m a household name. A national sensation, as the headlines would say. Essential for my team, at least when I play well.
Sloane approaches her father, dwarfed by his size but with her head held high as if she doesn’t notice. Her delicate finger points to her father, firm and strong.
– Talk to him like that again and see how it ends for you.
“Sloane, let the men speak. “He pushes her away as if she were completely inconsequential to him.
She leans back as if he had hit her. And I guess in a way it has.
He also spoke to her like that again when I told him not to.
With a gentle hand, I push her behind my body, protection welling up within me.
-Out.
“I’ll ruin you, Gervais.” You’re not in the plan for her. You are an orphan who works in the entertainment industry. She is practically Canadian royalty.
My head tilts, and Robert Winthrop might as well be a record. Because all I can think is that I need to stop it. Stop your progress in this room. And stop your stupid mouth.
“I think Sloane will be the one to judge that.” I think we’re all going to stop telling Sloane who she is and what to do. I think Sloane is very intelligent and very capable of knowing what she wants for herself.
My gaze flits over her shoulder to Cordelia, whose eyes lock onto mine. She seems angry, but not with me. It’s the kind of anger that could overflow into hot, silent tears.
I know that anger. I know those tears. They taste like regret, and that’s what’s written on their face.
She looks so much like her daughter that it’s hard not to see the parallels between them. It’s hard not to see her living the life Sloane could be in a few years. Having to see his own daughter pawned like chattel.