Page 7 of Sweetheart and the Grouch
“A lair?” I can’t help but laugh at that. I’ve never thought of my place as a lair, but since it looks like a regular log cabin on the outside and has a lot of tech and creature comforts on the inside, I can understand a kid seeing it that way.
“Don’t be rude, Ellie,” Ainsley admonishes. “It’s bad manners to call people’s homes a lair.”
Ellie scrunches her face up. “Really? Lairs are cool.”
“I guess it depends on whether you think I’m a villain or a hero,” I say, dumping my keys in a bowl as I close the front door.
“Definitely a hero. Villain’s don’t save people they just met.”
“Glad to be the hero in the story then,” I say, giving her a wink before I head toward the kitchen through to the laundry and empty the back of clothes straight in the machine.
“Can I watch your TV?” she calls out.
“Go for it”
“I can do that.” Ainsley appears in the doorway as I’m dropping a pod on top. “You’re already doing way too much for us.”
“I’m not going to turn around and claim that you owe me anything, sweetheart. I’m simply doin’ what’s right in the situation. Wouldn’t you do the same?”
“I…” She frowns, and I shut the washer and switch it on. “Gosh, I don’t know. I guess so.”
“There you go, then. I’m not doing too much. I’m being neighborly.”
“Neighborly,” she echoes as I gesture for her to move back into the kitchen. “I guess that’s a thing around these parts. In the city people tend to just keep to themselves.”
I move over to the stove and light the burner underneath my kettle, quickly checking there’s enough water in it. “That’s where you came from? The city?”
She nods as she looks down and plays with the sleeve of her chunky knit sweater. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish she was still wearing my jacket and nothing else, but I’ve already established that she’s way too young for me, so I shouldn’t be thinking anything about her clothes at all. I should be focusing on getting everything together to make tea.
“I’m sorry about your parents,” I say after a while.
“To be honest with you, Mom wasn’t really the greatest. So it’s only really been the two of us looking out for each other most times. We don’t know who our dads are.”
“I see.” The kettle whistles, and I turn to pull it from the heat.
“Do you think less of me now?”
Glancing up from pouring tea into two mugs and plain hot water in the third, I shake my head. “Not at all. We all have our histories. It’s what we do with the present that matters most.”
“That’s what I like to think too,” she says, stepping back as I brush past her to get to the fridge. My arm tingles as I reach for the milk, and I wonder if she felt the same thing from the contact. When I turn back to face her, the pink in her cheeks, and the way she’s holding her arm tells me she does.
“You take milk and sugar in your tea?” I ask, noticing how the words catch a little in my throat.
“Uh, yeah. One sugar and a splash of milk.”
I reach into the cupboard and grab the sugar and a jar of chocolate powder, spooning them into the specific mugs before I add some milk and stir.
“Milk and one sugar for you. Hot cocoa for Ellie. I don’t have any marshmallows, though.”
“Thank you. She won’t mind one bit,” she says, picking up the mugs and taking them into the living area carefully. I lift my tea and take a sip, my eyes on her ass as she pads across the floor in bare feet. My fingers immediately come to life from the memory of her skin beneath my hands when I caught her falling down those steps. It was only a brief moment, but when that towel fell, I caught an eyeful of everything. It took an indeterminant amount of willpower to keep my cock at bay, and the fact we were facing a bit of an emergency helped with that greatly. Ainsley is all womanly curves, and I have to keep reminding myself that there is an entire sixteen-year-old worth of years between us to keep my mind out of the gutter. But that isn’t easy. Especially when I have her under my roof right now, and she keeps looking at me with a smile so sweet it makes me feel like a fucking king.Oh, how I’d like to rule her…
As she bends over to pass the cocoa to her sister, I have a feeling a slight groan found its way out of my mouth, because she looks right at me, and I have to feign choking on my tea as I look away quickly.I’m a dirty old fuck.
“I should make up the spare room,” I mutter, beating my chest as I continue to clear my throat to really sell the choking thing.
“Do you want some help?”
“No!” I say it a little too quickly and wince. “I mean, no thanks.” There’s no way I can stand across a bed from her right now. “You two rest up. I’ve got this.”
