Twisted Desire (The Twisted Series) (18 page)

“You?”

“Not me.  But most.  My father would have killed
me if I went sleeping around.  But by age seventeen, there weren’t many of
my friends who could still call themselves virgins.  I hate to be the
bearer of bad news, but…”

“Then there’s still hope,” Harley blurts, unwilling to
believe what Aliah’s implying.  Besides, Hannah knows better.  She’s
a smart girl.”

“You can hope.”  Aliah turns to leave, but he stops her
with a firm grip on her shoulder.

“Oh… uh.  Thanks for the lesson in marriage, by the
way.”  After giving her a sarcastic squeeze, he releases her.

She shoots him a narrowed glance.  “I only speak the
truth.  Sorry if it isn’t the perfect picture you try to sell your little
toddling princess.”

Harley makes a fast approach around her, and it has her back
stepping.  “You’ve really thrown the idea of marriage under the bus?” he
asks.  He’s standing over her now, his eyes a sight of dark
seduction.  “Tell me you haven’t given up all hope.”

He’s so big and tall that she should be scared.  But
intrigue is all she feels screaming from every orifice in her body.

“For me?”  She pauses.  “Yeah.  There’s not a
hope in hell.”  Aliah shrugs her shoulders and slides away.  She’s
already given it a lot of thought.  Her chances at a truly happy life are
non-existent.

“You’re so young yet.”

Aliah rolls her eyes at that.  “Oh, and you’re such an
old man.  If you wanted a wife, you could have one.  Look at this
house.  It looks like you’ve ripped a page straight out a home
magazine.  You clearly have money.  And you aren’t a bad looking
guy.  For all I know, you have a hoard of girlfriends you pick from to
take out each night of the week.”

“Gee.  You paint me in such a pretty picture.”

“The truth,” she states, as he reaches out to her and skims
a finger down her cheek.  It has her shivering, as he leans in closer.

“I have a good housekeeper,” he growls.  “And my
gardener is pretty damn good too.”  His words are by no means intimate,
but the way he says it has a delicious chill skipping up her spine. 
“There are no girlfriends.  There’s only you.”

That confession has Aliah swooning, but she refuses to let
it show.  “So clearly you’ve given up too.”

Harley
boops
her on the nose like she’s an adorable
child.  “I gave up a long time ago.  But just because
I
didn’t
find love, doesn’t mean I don’t want that for Hannah.  There’s no reason
why she can’t secure a marriage based on love, trust and companionship. 
I’m trying really hard to teach her that there is such a thing as true
love.  Can you respect that?”

“I think so.  Just because
I’m
doomed, doesn’t
mean your beautiful daughter is.”

Harley smiles.  “She is beautiful, isn’t she?”

Aliah nods, glancing up at him adoringly.  “She has
your eyes.”  She wonders how she manages to let that one slip.

Harley steps toward her and she steps backward again. 
He glances over his shoulder at the closed door and then turns his gaze back on
her.  He reaches out to her, waiting for her to give in, then lets his
hand fall.

“Why are you being like this?”  He’s begging for her
forgiveness, but he hasn’t confessed anything.

“You must think I’m stupid.  You haven’t given me an
inch.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid at all.  I don’t invite
stupid women into my home.  Hannah doesn’t need that kind of shit in her
life.  She’s an impressionable young girl, and she has enough issues of
her own.  I’m not about to add daddy’s ditsy girlfriend to that list.”

Did he just call her his girlfriend?  Maybe, in some
fucked up sort of way.  It confuses her.  “Why were you looking through
my things?”  You can hear the hurt in her voice.

He pauses for a minute, and she takes that opportunity to
order him to be real.

“The truth.”

He sighs, and she knows she’s not going to like what he’s
about to say.  “Let me explain.”

Hannah re-enters the room at the most inopportune time,
interrupting his confession yet again.

“Really, Hannah?” he shouts, in the heat of the moment.

It clearly upsets her.  “Screw you!” she shouts back,
with a horrifying screech.  Then she narrows her eyes at Aliah, forgetting
why she’s returned, and leaves the room in a huff.

Harley presses his eyes shut, a wince of pain wrinkling the
corners of his eyes.  “Shit.”

“She’ll get over it.”  Aliah tries to make it better,
but Harley obviously feels like a piece of crap.

“She doesn’t have anyone else, Aliah.  I can’t push her
away like that.  She needs me.  There’s no mother here to caress her
hair, shower her with kindness and nurture her love for her dad.  It’s all
me.”

It’s a drastic change of topic yet again, but Aliah senses
his guilt and decides to leave it alone for now.  “I know all about
it.  My mother’s around, but she’s pretty useless.”

A glimmer of hope flickers in his somber eyes.  “Maybe
you can talk to her for me.  Hannah definitely does not want to talk to me
right now.”

Aliah squints her eyes, trying to figure this man out. 
“Why do I feel like this has suddenly turned into a counselling session?” 
She wishes he would realize that this is supposed to be about
us
, not
about
them
.

A smile slants across Harley’s face.  “It’ll be good
for you both.”

“Really?  Because I doubt me telling her what an A-hole
her father is will help your situation.”

His smile slides off his face.  “At least you’re
guaranteed to have one thing in common.”  He’s completely serious when he says
it, which makes it that much more funny.

Aliah can’t help but smile.  She doesn’t want to
smile!  But she can’t even force it away.  “I’ll do it.”

“You’ll do it?”  He seems shocked.

“I said I’ll do it, so I will.  Don’t make me change my
mind.  And don’t for one second think that this will make me brush all
that other shit you’ve done under the rug.  You’ve got some major
ass-kissing to do if you think you’re going to get another piece of
this
ass, I tell you.”

It’s too late when Aliah realizes that Hannah has snuck back
inside unnoticed.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”  Hannah makes a grab
for her purse and slams the door again with a definitive snap.

Aliah palms her forehead.  Harley smirks, but inside
he’s horrified.  This is new to him too.

“That’s my Hannah,” he says, shaking his head.  “I’m
sure the last thing she wants to hear is that her father is having sex.” 
He winces at the reminder of her untimely interruption.

“Oh, please.  I bet the boys are knocking down your
door to get to her.  Is she seeing anyone?”

“Whoa.  What do you mean?” he snaps.

It makes Aliah smile again.  “Dating, Harley. 
Like a boyfriend, maybe?”  She says it like a tease.

“No.  Not my baby.”  He really is that clueless.

“Oh, boy.  You need my help worse than you thought.”

“I need help?”

Aliah scrunches her nose up and nods.  “Desperately.”

“Help me then,” he growls.  “Give me the help I need.”

The way he pleads leaves her wondering if there is more to
it than that.  He leans in close to her, until his breath washes over her
lips.  It looks like he’s going to kiss her.  A breath catches in her
throat, as she quickly turns away.

“Where do you think she’s gone?  I’ll go talk to her
now.”

“Now?”  It is clear he believes he’s done enough
talking to get her back to sharing that ass with him.

“Yes, now,” Aliah answers.

Harley smirks, as he tugs her back against him.  He’s
grown in his pants and his abs are equally as hard against her back.  “I
was hoping to ask you what you thought of
our
relationship first.” 
He flexes his love muscle against her.

“I’d hardly call it that.”  She spews it out before she
even realizes that he means the sex they’re having.

“Then what would you call it?” he asks, smirking.  He
leans into her and presses his cheek to hers.  Then he reaches around her
hip and strokes between her legs.

“A hit of good clean fun?” she starts, with a feminine gasp.

His fingers are circling on her and he knows just the right
spot.  She tries to act unaffected by him, but he really knows what he’s
doing.  His lips brush across the nape of her neck.  The hair on his
face is rough against her skin.  It has her other body parts humming.

When he doesn’t agree with her, she feels the need to give
another explanation, now that her skin is covered in tiny bumps of
arousal.  She rests her head against his shoulder and comes up with her
best excuse.

“Something to kill the time while my massage therapist is on
holidays?” She poses it like a question, and while it is mostly true, the heat
in Harley’s eyes gives away his disbelief.

He slants his head while he thinks about it, but doesn’t
lighten the pressure on her clit.  “I can handle that.”

“Good.  So, you won’t be asking me on anymore dates
then?”

“It wasn’t a date.  Remember?”  He presses into
her back with his erection, then he lightens the pressure.

“Whatever you say,” Aliah says, smiling.  She pries
herself from his tempting arms, trying to ignore the cry of her body from the
loss.  “I’m going to go now.  Is there somewhere I should look for
Hannah first?”

He gives up, realizing that she isn’t going to stay for a
quickie.  Though seeing him hard up like that really has her reeling.

“Head up the road westerly.  I doubt she’s made it very
far.”

“Why’s that?”  Aliah’s blood still hums sweetly through
her veins.

He dangles the car keys from his finger.  He’s
right.  Without those, she likely hasn’t made it very far at all.

Aliah heads out to her own car and opens all the
windows.  She never expects to find herself in the position of a role
model, but she feels some responsibility to help the poor girl.  Her
father is clueless, and Hannah is so close to the girl she once was that it
scares her.

Aliah slides her car into gear and eases out of the
driveway.  Sure enough, maybe five houses up the road, she finds Hannah
walking next to the curb.  When Aliah pulls up next to her and stops, she
doesn’t say anything, but Hannah does.

“Great.  You again.”  Hannah doesn’t look real
impressed to see her.

Aliah knows the feeling.  “Just get in the damn car.”

“My dad’s taught me not to accept rides from strangers.”

This girl truly is a sassy bitch.  As sassy as Aliah,
even.  Maybe even more so.  Aliah can’t deny she recognizes it. 
Hannah really needs someone to talk to.

“Look.  I know where you’re coming from.  I only
want to talk.  I’ll buy you a coffee.  You don’t even have to say
anything, if you don’t want to.”

Hannah looks like she thinking about it.  Then she
glances over her shoulder, like she’s considering making a run for her
house.  “Fine.”  Her voice sounds exasperated, but Aliah knows she’s
made some progress.

One step at a time.

Harley never thought that Aliah would volunteer to have
the
talk
with his daughter, after only having just met her.  Aliah
continues to surprise him every day.

He can’t believe she’s going to be the one to talk to Hannah
about sex, when
they’ve
only had sex together a handful of times
themselves.  That has to change.  He wants to sex her five ways to
Sunday.  Anything to make it so that he is the only one sexing her up from
now on.

He’s thinking this, while Aliah is chatting over coffee with
his daughter.  Had he really believed that he’d be fine with sitting here,
not having a clue about what they are discussing?  He paces his living
room, trying to steer his thoughts away, but how does he even know that Aliah’s
telling her the right things?  Harley had met Aliah at a bar, after
all.  He’d screwed her not much more than a week after that.

That’s certainly not the kind of behavior he’d condone from
his teenaged daughter. 
I would hope she knows this. 
Harley
slaps his hand against his forehead. 
What has he done?
  He
isn’t one to sulk, but this girl has really gotten to him.  He hardly even
knows her, and now she’s out with his daughter.

What the hell was I thinking?

He must have officially lost his mind.  That would be
the only explanation for his actions around this girl.  Truth: Aliah is
crazy.  But no one is as crazy as he, right now.

Crazy in love?

He did not just think that.  He does not
love
anyone, except for his daughter and himself.  He is not capable of loving
another person.  But if there is a love for him to have, then this is it.

This is it.

Aliah’s last name should be spelled trouble with a capital
T, and yet it feels like she is the missing link in his life.  He’s now
fed her so many lies he can’t even keep them straight.  Maybe he should
tell her his name isn’t actually Harley.