Sugar Daddies (19 page)

But they did.

They were the horniest fucking words I’d ever heard.

This girl. This sparkling, lively, sweet, baby blue-eyed girl was something. She really was something.

Forgetting the fact that she was with us for money, forgetting the fact that she was practically half my age, a virtual stranger, and blatantly far more into Rick than she was into me, forgetting all of this, and then some
, I could fall for a girl like Katie.

I couldn’t sleep. Not even in the post-sex, post-alcohol bliss with two gorgeous naked bodies in the bed alongside me. I stared at the ceiling and wondered where this was going, where any of this was going.

And it worried me to think the answer was nowhere. Just like always.

A big fat fucking excuse for nowhere.

Rick always scowled and rolled his pretty eyes and told me to
chill
.
Chill, Carl, give it a fucking minute, man. Chill, Carl, not now, just not now. Chill, Carl, just see how things go. See how things go. See how things fucking go, Carl.

But I was tired of seeing how things fucking go. That’s not who I am. I don’t just coast. Not anymore.

I’m not a victim of fate. I’m not a victim of letting life pass me by without taking hold of it by the scruff and dragging it wherever the hell I want it to go.

Katie Serena Smith. Cute, small town girl with big dreams. Could I drag her wherever the hell I wanted to go?

She stirred beside me, stretching out her legs under the covers. She was hot, squirming, her arms reaching out of the warmth in pursuit of cooler air. I’d opened the drapes before I slipped in bed, happy to admire the dawn over the sea if sleep didn’t find me, and it was coming. The first signs of morning light, blooming over the orange hue of the street lighting down below, and it illuminated the perfect little creature at my side beautifully. She squirmed again, and rolled in my direction, and her arm landed over mine. A flutter of her eyes and they opened, and she started, just a little.

I turned to face her and she put a dainty little hand under her cheek, stared at me.

Rick was out for the count behind her, star-fishing as usual with one leg out of the covers.

“Hey,” she whispered.

“Hot?”

She nodded. “Three in a bed, quite some heat.”

I smiled. “Yes. Quite.”

I slipped out of bed and pulled on some boxers, then went to the balcony doors to let some cool air in, but Katie slipped out after me. Her wince as she got to her feet didn’t escape me. As much of a travesty as it was to cover her nakedness, I handed her the shirt I’d discarded, and she pulled it on, buttoned it up just enough to hide her modesty, and then she went outside.

I slid the door closed behind us.

“Wow,” she said. “This is amazing.”

“Yes. It is.” She was looking at the sea, but I was looking at her. The messy cascade of blonde down her back, her eyes in the morning light. “How are you feeling? Are you… sore?”

She smiled. “I feel like someone shoved a boot up my pussy and kicked my ovaries. Repeatedly. Clodhoppers, with steel toecaps.”

“Sorry about that.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve got internal bleeding.” But she was laughing. “If I slip into unconsciousness, please call me an ambulance. It will likely be my womb falling out of the gaping hole you guys left me with.”

“Maybe we should give you danger money. For the risk.” But I was laughing, too.

“I just hope my bits go back together again.” She grinned and her eyes were sparkling. “I’m too young for a saggy pussy.”

“Pelvic floor,” I said. “You’ll be fine, I promise.”

“It was worth it. Probably.”

“Only probably?”

She shrugged. “Depends how long it keeps me from riding. There’s no way I’ll be mounting up for the next few days.”

“Sorry,” I said. “Should have thought.”

“I was joking. It’s all good.” She leaned over the railings to check out the street below, and my shirt hitched up her thighs, draping beautifully over the rounded curve of her ass. Another day. Definitely.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s all good, Katie.”

She turned to me and her eyes met mine, and there were nerves there. Nerves and questions.

“Was I ok?” she said. “I mean,” she brushed her hair from her face, “did I meet your…
criteria
?”

Direct. I liked that.

“Yes. You were ok.” I stretched out my arms, enjoying the morning breeze, and her eyes roved my chest. Landed on the swell in my boxers. “You were more than ok. You were incredible.”

It made her blush. “Thanks.”

“You want to continue? With our arrangement?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I want to continue.” She smirked. “Definitely. Really definitely.” Her eyes twinkled.

“Rick’s quite something,” I remarked.

“Yeah, he is.” Her smile was so easy. So honest. “He says the same about you.”

“He flatters me.”

“I’m not so sure.” She laughed. “I
don’t think you’re all that bad.”

“Not all that bad?” I tipped my head. “Is that supposed to be praise?”

“Yeah.” Her laugh was intoxicating. Light and unguarded and fresh. “That’s praise.”

I watched the waves break on the pebbles, the litter pickers on the front, the straggle of people making their way places down below. Quiet. The calm before the storm of a sunny tourist Sunday. An illusion of stillness amongst the chaos that Brighton offers.

And that’s how I felt. Like this was an illusion. A moment of quiet connection with a storm on the horizon.

My heart picked up its beat, and there was the urge in me. The urge to lay it all out on the table. Negotiate. Hammer out the details.

If there would even be any details. We never usually made it that far.

Chill, Carl, just give it a fucking minute, man.

“What do you want out of life, Katie?”

She raised her eyebrows. “That’s quite a question for stupid o’clock in the morning.” She paused. Took deep breaths of sea air. “Everyone always wants to know where you’re going.
What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to study at university? What car are you going to drive? What’s your life plan? What salary band do you want to be in when you hit thirty? When are you going to get a mortgage?
”

“I wasn’t looking for your twenty-year plan.” I smirked. “Just a rough idea.”

She stared at me and her eyes were piercing, weighing me up. “You’ll think it’s stupid.”

“Your stable idea? Why would I?”

“You just would.”

“Why don’t you try me?”

She shrugged. “I used to think there was something wrong with me, that I had some kind of defect
because I wasn’t as ambitious as my friends in high school. The career planners would tut and shrug at me and say I was worth
so much more
. I didn’t want a degree from Cambridge telling me how clever I was, or some megabucks career path that would land me with a Mercedes and a three-bed semi in suburbia by the time I was twenty
-five.”

“So, what
did
you want?”

“I wanted the things in my heart,” she said. “Still do. Horses. Freedom. Life. Riding was everything to me when I was growing up. Still is.”

“A stable will complete you?” I was trying not to sound patronising. I didn’t want to patronise her.

She shook her head. “Not the stable. The joy.”

“The joy?”

She nodded. “It was the best part of my week when I was growing up, that one little hour of riding on a Saturday morning. Mum works in care, and has done since I was born. Crappy money, long hours. We did alright, but she couldn’t really afford the luxuries. An hour on a Saturday was all I got, and I was grateful. I loved it.” She shifted position and a grimace flashed across her face. “Yowch, ovaries. Anyway, I want to offer that same joy. Set myself up in a little yard, a couple of horses, offering decent lessons. Affordable lessons. Maybe a couple of loan arrangements for kids in exchange for them helping out about the yard.” She shot me a look of fire. “I’m not stupid, I mean, this will make money. Enough to live. I’m not some hopeless dreamer. It needs to make money to be sustainable. But just, enough.” She checked out my eyes and smiled. “Told you you’d think it was stupid.”

And I did. Partially. I thought it was a waste of a sharp, vibrant gifted girl who clearly had some brains in her skull. I thought she could be aiming for higher, bigger. A huge stable filled to the brim with horses — eventers, and racers, and show ponies, and a whole riding programme dedicated to the disadvantaged, if that’s what she wanted.

“Why so soon? Why not live a little first? Tread the corporate boards to get a bit of experience behind you. Travel. Make some sound investments to see you through any dips in the road? You said your mother works long hours for crappy money, is that what you want? What about life? What about all the experiences out there to be lived?”

“I
am
living,” she said. “The yard is where I feel alive.” She sighed. “It’s owned by a guy called Jack. A nice guy. The best guy. He’ll rent me the stables and the land, but he’s up against it. His wife left him, and his maintenance business is failing and the bank is after the clothes from his back.” She met my eyes. “It’s my shot. My dream. I just need a bit of cash to put it together. That’s why I’m here, with you. Partly.”

“Only partly?”

“Only partly, yeah. The other part is for me. Just because… you know.” There was a blush on her cheeks again. “A girl has needs.”

“Sacrifice a few years to pursue a career and maybe you could
buy
Jack’s land. Have a stable of your own, not one you rent from someone else. A couple of years away from the dream to set yourself up for life, for the long haul.”

She laughed. “I’m a graduate, big whoopy. Just some regular business graduate from Worcester. Who’s going to give me a few hundred grand for a couple of years’ work? I’ll come out with a scrappy bit of savings and a few years of wasted time. I’d rather have the time. The bottom rung of a ladder you want to climb is better than a couple of rungs on one you don’t, don’t you think?”

And it was on my tongue. It was on my fucking tongue.

Right there. Right fucking there.

I leaned into her, and I took her elbow, and she stared up and me and her eyes were wide and her lips were parted, nervous. As though I was going to kiss her, as though I was going to press my lips to hers and tear that shirt from her body and take her poor, battered pussy right here on this balcony.

But I wasn’t. I wasn’t going to do anything of the fucking kind.

“Katie…” I said, and then I stopped.

Not to
give it a fucking minute
,
man
, but because the balcony door slid open and out stepped Rick, stark bollock naked aside from his glasses, with his hair a tangled mess all on one side.

Only Rick looks so hot when he’s that fucking dishevelled.

Katie smiled, and he smiled back, and I stepped away. Recoiled like I’d been bitten, but they didn’t notice.