Dirty Seduction

I focused back on Rosie as she carried on.

“Mum thought it was because she wasn’t good enough. She’d been at Triumph on the same night. She saw Jacob first actually. It was she who pointed him out. She said if she’d have been the pretty one… the funnier one… the cooler one… the smarter one…” Her voice trailed off. “It fucked her up.”

I could imagine that. Her mother’s self-confidence was likely shredded to pieces what little she may have had of it.

“How old were you when they moved away?”

“Eleven. My teachers thought I’d get back up and close to other kids after that, but I didn’t. And I was so depressed that Mum was so depressed, they put me forward for counselling. Listening through my problems, most likely scribbling down daddy issues rather than the fact that I was alone, trying to care for a mum that couldn’t take care of herself.” She looked over at me as I took a long drag of my cigarette. “She met Scottie in Triumph, you know? The same club. I think she always hoped she’d find another Jacob in there, but she found the total opposite.”

I used the opportunity to steer into him.

“Scottie wasn’t there on a business trip from London. What does he do?”

“He works in roofing. Just a shame health and safety is so strict, otherwise maybe he’d fall off a building.”

“Long days at work, at least.”

“Small mercies.”

“Quite.” I hoped I wasn’t being too obvious. “What hours does he work? Does he work away?”

She saw through me or thought she did.

“Don’t worry. He leaves early. I’ll be able to head in and get my college stuff without him being in the apartment.”

“Are you sure about that? How early exactly?”

“Five a. m.,” she said, and her smile was so genuine it gave me a pang. “Thanks for caring. It means a lot. It’s great to have somewhere to go. I haven’t had anywhere genuine, not since Molly.”

“Molly wasn’t a sex-addicted alcoholic who slammed his cock into you when you needed support.” I laughed, but Rosie’s face lit up, unexpectedly.

“Is that a promise? Are you going to fuck me?”

I stubbed my cigarette out in the ashtray on the windowsill. “I really shouldn’t.”

“Who says so?”

I smirked. “Almost all of conventional society. I think a jury would vote against it.”

She didn’t smirk back. “Who gives a fuck about conventional society? Do you? Really?”Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.

Rosie was serious. Her eyes were digging.

“I used to, yes,” I told her. “I used to care very, very much.”

“I used to think Molly would invite me over to live with her one day, or Mum would meet someone great and stop crying, or Scottie would one day stop being a nasty, violent asshole, but things change.”

“We become disillusioned.”

“Yes,” she said. “So, can you get disillusioned about this, please? You don’t have to be a nobleman. Not with me.”

I laughed, loving her faith in me.

“I couldn’t be a nobleman if I tried. That’s what led me here in the first place, after all.”

She didn’t laugh back.

“Don’t be one, then. I’m not asking you to be. I don’t need you to be squeaky clean and perfect.”

I returned to the sofa. Her breaths quickened as I took a seat beside her.

“You deserve a Jacob of your own,” I told her. “You deserve someone a lot better than a forty-eight-year-old sicko who wants to fuck you senseless at every opportunity.”

She took a deep breath.

“That was amazing what you did. You made me feel like the greatest goddess in the world. I’ve been thinking about the girl in the photos all the time. It drives me crazy because that’s what I want. I want you.”

Her honesty was impressive, but she was on the wrong track. It wouldn’t be good for her.

“I think you should reconsider that standpoint,” I said. “Aside from eating you out, all I did was pull an abusive idiot away from your mother and offer you a place to stay. That doesn’t give me a halo. It gives me a basic conscience.”

“It isn’t just about what you’ve done for me… I’d be here anyway.”

I tipped my head. “Really? You’d be here with me, the creepy man upstairs, if it weren’t for the fact that I intervened when you were desperate?”

Her eyes stayed firmly on mine. “Yeah, I would be. I’ve been thinking about more than just the way you saved Mum from Scott that night. A lot more.” She looked away from me with another blush. “I’d be here anyway, regardless of Scottie. You’re, um…”

She pushed her glasses up her nose in her trademark manner. It gave me a hard cock and a pang in the ribs, both in sync.

I loved the way she giggled, just a little.

“You’re pretty cool, you know, Julian? Hot, smart, and brilliant. You’re a lot more than a creepy man upstairs.”

It knocked me aback, hugely. I’d been approached and appreciated by many young girls in my life, but they had seen me against a different backdrop. Proud, successful, preened and polished. Not as a freaky loser in a suit from Crenham Drive.

I had to keep myself straight. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to slam her straight down onto the cushions and take her virginity like a beast on a mission.

“I’m not going to fuck you tonight. You aren’t in a position to have a clear head on things.”

She shrugged. “What about when I do have a clear head on things? I’ll still want it tomorrow, even when I’m exhausted after college. I’ll want it every single minute until you give it to me.”

I’d forgotten all about the time. We were deep into the early hours, with Rosie due at college, and my office monotony starting for a whole new week in the morning. Now definitely wasn’t the time to be easing my way into her virginity.

“I shouldn’t take advantage of you,” I said. “You’re a vulnerable girl in a difficult situation, with your whole life ahead of you.”

She brushed it aside. “Sure, yeah. Just say you’ll think about fucking me, will you?”

There was a tiny glimpse of her humor again. It was so genuine, and so quietly her, that I wished I could bottle it. It would be a bestseller on the essence front. Shame I couldn’t bottle that glorious essence of hers and press it to the pages of one of my ancient thriller novels. A character like her might well top the charts.

If only she knew it. She had no real faith in herself whatsoever. I wished she could see herself through my eyes, even for just a second.

“Time for bed,” I said, getting up to hold out a hand.

“Fine,” she said and let me pull her to her feet. It was becoming beautifully familiar.

She followed me into the bathroom, using her new toothbrush as I used my old one. There was a bizarre connection forming between us, making this joint bedtime ritual almost cathartic in its simplicity. I’d forgotten what it felt like to share the basics with someone. Not once had any of my playthings seen my daily, mundane practices.

I left Rosie alone as she hovered by the toilet. I didn’t want to impose that kind of privacy, even though my cock was desperate to see every single inch and spectacle of her, so I went on through to the bedroom. I got the bed ready for her, fluffing up the pillows. I was still positioning them when she appeared in the doorway.

“Will you stay in here with me?” she asked. “You don’t have to fuck me, you can just sleep.”

“If I stay in here, I will want to fuck you, Rosie. A lot.”

“Even more reason to stay in here, then.” She yawned with a grin, the sweetness in her shining. “Please, Julian. I like, having you close. Plus, you won’t have to sleep on the sofa. Double win.”

It was tempting. I’d love nothing more than to hold her tight. Could I trust my resolve, though? Really?

She shuffled on her feet like she was awaiting a verdict, and there was no doubt that I’d have to give it a try.

“Yes, I’ll sleep in here with you,” I said.

She looked as though I’d bestowed an honor. Crazy, how little a girl of her character and beauty had come to expect from life.

Grinning like a kid on Christmas Day morning, she whipped my shirt off over her head and dropped it on the floor. “Which side do you sleep on?” she asked, hands on her tiny hips.

I stared at her naked beauty but only for moments before I grabbed up the shirt and flung it at her.

“The shirt stays on,” I said despite my raging hard-on.

She rolled her eyes and made a show of wriggling slowly back into the shirt.

“I’m easy,” I said, “you choose,” and indicated to the bed.

She climbed into bed, watching me as I loosened my tie.

Of course… she hadn’t seen me naked.