At Home Late CH 33

released me and held me out in front of him, I was wearing a pair of tight jean
shorts and a white tank top and noticed his eyes travel down and linger on my
cleavage for a moment. I smiled sweetly up at him. He cleared his throat. and met
my gaze.
“So, honey,” he said, “what do you think of your new place??
I looked around at my new apartment, not quite believing that I was finally on my
own. After eighteen years of living at home, having my own space in a new town
was an odd feeling. Mostly I missed the idea of being away from my stepfather. I
could tell from the way he had been acting all weekend as we settled me in that
he was feeling the same thing. He had been reluctant to see me off to college,
and though he hadn’t said anything about it, his voice had had at wistful quality
to it since we’d left the house the day before with a trailer full of my stuff.
“I love it, Daddy. Though I’m a little nervous to start college. My father smiled.
“You are going to have such a good time, sweetie. College is one of the best
times of life. Just be sure to study hard, but also make room for fun. Oh,
and be careful about the boys.” “Dad!”
“I’m serious,” he said, grinning. “You are going to meet a lot of them, and being
the beautiful woman you are, they are going to want to do things to you. Just
make sure you only do what you’re comfortable with and make sure to use
protection.”
“Daddy” I repeated. “Everything is going to be okay. I’m not interested in those
types of boys anyway.”
“That’s what you say now. But I still need to warn you. Even though I’m sure you
are already sexually active, it makes me feel better as a father to warn you—”
“Tm not sexually active,” I interjected.
“You’re not?” From his eagerness, I could tell that he was pleased by the news.
“No, Daddy,” I cooed, siding up to him and wrapping my arms around his large
frame, “I’m not. I’m saving myself for someone special. I don’t want to just give
myself away to anyone, you know?”
My father bent down and kissed the top of my head, some strands of my curly
brown hair sticking to his stubble as he straightened back up and squeezed me
tight.
“Good for you, honey. I know the man that you finally give yourself is going to be
very lucky. Even though I’m your father, I have no problem telling you that you
are absolutely beautiful.”
Fold Up
< Hand My Stepfather And His Best Friend
“Thanks, Daddy.”
“I love you, sweetheart.” “I love you, too.”
“Now,” my father said, pushing me away from him once more. “What’s say we
build that new coffee table of yours before the lights go out and we drown?”
The storm moved in not long after. As a light rain began to whisper outside the
window, my father gave one final turn of the screwdriver in his hand and dropped
it onto the carpet. He sat back and looked at the coffee table in front of him. I
was sitting across the room on the couch, watching with a bowl of ice cream in
my hand. I enjoyed seeing the strong muscles of his arms tense as he assembled
the various pieces, his face scrunched in concentration, his tongue
absentmindedly sticking out of the comer of his mouth. I had always enjoyed
watching him work. He had a special ability to lose himself to whatever he was
doing, and being the extremely handsome man he was, the effect was
intoxicating.
“What do you think?” he said, wiping his hands. “It’s nice, ehh?” “I love it, Daddy.
Thanks for putting it together”
“My pleasure, sweetheart. Of course, my favorite part is having you watch me,” he
said, winking
grinned.
“I like seeing you work. You get so involved.”
Just then a giant peal of thunder shook the windows of the house. I jumped,
causing my father to laugh.
“There’s nothing to worry about, Leah,” he said. “Just a storm.” “Sounds like a
scary storm.”
Another peal of thunder cracked the sky. The light rain roared into a downpour,
the wind lashing the windows and rattling the panes.
My father stood up and walked over to the window to look out at the sky.
“Although I will admit, it looks like it’s going to
be one hell of a storm.”
He walked over to the couch and sat down beside me. He placed a hand on my
knee, my heart fluttering at his touch.
“We’ll just have to play some board games. What do you think, daughter of
mine?”
“As long as you promise that we aren’t going to wash away”
My father chuckled and patted my knee. His fingers caressed my thigh as he
looked into my green eyes.
Tp
I promise, love.”
Even though he was only my stepfather, John was the only parent I had ever
known. My real father had deserted my mother before I had been born, and my
mother had run out not long after. In the interim, she had met John at
an entrepreneur convention and gotten remarried a few months later. I think she
had been planning to leave all along and had been looking for someone to trick
into taking care of her daughter. Being the man he was, my stepfather had had
no qualms deciding to keep me and raise me singlehandedly once my mother
had filed. As he had told me more than once, despite not being technically
related, he had known from the moment he had seen me that I was the love of
his life.
A man in his late thirties, my stepfather was quite the catch. He was tall, about
6’2“, and overwhelmingly handsome, with a penetrating gaze and an aura of
confidence and kindness that inevitably made every woman he met swoon.
Growing up, I had been the playmate of choice for many of the kids in class just
so their mothers would have a chance to talk to John whenever he came to pick
me up or drop me off. It wasn’t unusual for women to slyly hand them their
phone numbers in the grocery store or to interrupt us at restaurants to flirt. And
it had never failed to amaze me how my stepfather had handled each of these
situations, graciously turning down the women.
Because in all the years I had been cognizant enough to notice the world around
me, I couldn’t ever remember him dating. A self–made millionaire who had
retired after my mother left, his sole task had been to take care of m
Fold Up giving me the best and making sure that I was happy in every way. I had
asked him once or twice why he w
Stepfather. And the Best Friend
interested in the women he met, some of them stunningly beautiful, but he had
always just shrugged in that adorable. way of his.
“It’s because you’re all I need,” he would say.
So it was only natural for me to grow up loving him as much as I did. And
somewhere along the way, what had been a girlish attachment on my part to my
father had suddenly blossomed into a romantic love for him.
Not that I ever planned on telling him that. I was smart enough to know that
most people would consider my feelings for my stepfather to be wrong. Though I
didn’t think my stepfather would be one of those people, I still didn’t want to
chance it. Still, in some comer of my heart I had been holding out the hope that
he felt the same way about me, and this was why I had never been interested in
any of the boys in my classes, and why, when all the other girls were talking
about blowjobs and sex and getting fingered for the first time, I had shied away
and not participated in their discussions. Truth be told, I was saving myself, my
virginity, for the man I wasn’t sure would ever take it.
“Leah? Leah!” My father’s sharp voice broke through my thoughts, snapping me
back to the present. Another roll of thunder shook the windows. Hurned to look
at my father. My hand went down to his on my bared knee, and I smiled.
[Sorry, Daddy,” I said. “Was lost in thought.” “I can tell. You doing okay?”
I sighed and laid my head against his shoulder. My father leaned his head down
against mine and our fingers
interlocked.
“Yeah, I’m doing okay, Daddy. Just feeling overwhelmed with this whole growing
up thing”
“You and me both,” he said, his wistful voice lost to the thunder.
BOOM!
A giant seemed to stomp on the roof of the apartment building and the lights
flickered and went out. Suddenly, it was eenly quiet, even the background noises
of little electronics whirring in their boxes extinguished.
“Well, I guess that’s that,” my stepfather said, tossing his cards onto the new
coffee table. “How are you feeling? Do you want to keep playing? We can get the
flashlights and hold them between our teeth.”
I yawned
“No, it’s okay. I’m pretty tired, Daddy. It’s been a long day. Maybe we should just
go to bed”
Alright. Let’s do it, baby.”
I felt a hand touch my leg in the dark and I reached down and grabbed it. “Come
on,” my stepfather said, pushing himself up from the couch and
pulling me up to my feet. “Let’s go brush our teeth.”
to the
After we had gotten ready for bed, using our phones in the dark to navigate our
way to the bathroom, we returned to living room, standing close to one another
in the dark.
“Okay, Daddy. I’ll take the couch and you can have my bed.” “Are you sure?”
“Yes, silly. You’re too tall for the couch.”
“Well, thank you. Are you going to be okay out here?” “I think so.”
“Well, just wake me up if you need anything.” “Okay. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Goodnight.”
I heard my father move across the room, his footsteps disappearing into my
bedroom. Sighing, I unbuttoned my pants and slipped them off. It was too dark
and I was too tired to rummage through one of my packed boxes for a pair of
pajamas. I would just have to sleep in my underwear. I reached behind my back
and unsnapped my bra. 1 pu Fold Up straps over my arms one at a time and then
pulled out my bra from the top of my tank top. In the darkness,
Handse My Stepfather And His Best Friend
began to massage them slowly. This was a game I liked to play: As I touched
myself, I closed my eyes and imagined my hands were my father’s. I bit my lip
and pinched my
nipples with my thumbs and forefingers and rolled them back and forth. “Are you
okay out there?” my father called from the bedroom
I froze, my erect nipples between my fingers. “I’m good,” I called back.
“You don’t need any more blankets?” “No, I should be good.”
“Okay. Goodnight! I’ll see you in the moming.”
I let go of my breasts and sat down on the couch. I rummaged around for the
pillow I had been sitting on earlier and positioned it at one end of the sofa. I
stretched out and pulled a blanket over me. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness,
I looked around the apartment, taking in all of the unfamiliar shapes that now
constituted my home. It was such a strange feeling to know that this was my new
life. No more lazy Saturday mornings watching cartoons with my father. No more
daily hugs. No more dinners or lunches or breakfasts, I had known this day was
coming, but with all the fantasies I had harbored, I had never truly believed it.
Another loud crack of thunder broke the deafening silence of the room, making
me shiver under the blanket. Soon my stepfather would be gone and it would be
just me who would have to face these storms alone. Having him here I felt safe
from the rain lashing the windows and the wind howling amongst the unfamiliar
trees. How was I going to live without him?
On the next crack of thunder, I broke Standing up cautiously, I moved across the
living room, shuffling my feet to avoid tripping on the various knickknacks
scattered about the floor. At the door to the bedroom I paused to listen. My
father’s breathing was ever he seemed to be asleep. I stood there for a moment,
undecided. Then lightning flashed again and the weird shadows cast about the
apartment returned and I gave in.
“Daddy?” I whispered.
My father’s breathing remained unchanged. I spoke again, the second time a little
louder.
“Daddy?”
My father shifted in the dark, and I saw the dim outline of him shift and rise up
off the bed.
“Leah, what is it?” “Daddy, I’m scared.” “Of the storm?” “Yeah.”
“Oh, baby. It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about.” “Do you mind if I sleep with
you?”
“Of course not. There’s plenty of room. Here,” my father moved aside and patted
the bed beside him, “climb on in.”
I moved across the room and cautiously climbed into bed. I stretched my feet
under the sheets and my toes touched my father’s bare calf. I nestled in further,
lying down and pulling a blanket above my shoulders.
Thunder boomed again and I flinched and scooted closer to my father. His arms
were behind his head, and I laid my head gently on his chest. He was not wearing
a shirt; my cheek was pressed against his warm skin. I draped a hand over his
stomach, squeezing my hand around his waist. I placed my legs against his. It was
then I realized he was only wearing boxer briefs.
“I’m sorry, honey,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d be in bed with me. If you want,
you can hand me my shirt and pants from the ground and I’ll put them on,”