Forbidden: a Contemporary Romance Anthology Read online

  “Yes, Harrison. I want you. I want this.” And I did. I might not have any idea what I was going to do or where I was going to live a few months from now, but I wanted to live in the moment and grab the happiness I felt in his arms.

  With his eyes locked on mine, he surged deep in one powerful thrust. “Felicity,” he growled. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  I was biting my bottom lip, trying to stop the tears from leaking out but it wasn’t working. They trailed down my cheeks anyway.

  “Shit, honey. I’m so sorry. Shhh, it’s okay,” he murmured, holding perfectly still.

  I felt like my body was about to split apart, and the pain was wreaking havoc on my emotions. “Are you mad at me?”

  “Fuck no,” he reassured me. “Knowing I was the first man to sink inside you wouldn’t have stopped me. I just would have been a little more careful so it didn’t hurt you as much.”

  “It’s already getting better.”

  He swiveled his hips in a small circle. “Still okay?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I moaned at the pleasure his movement sent sparking through my body.

  “Thank fuck cause just feeling your virgin pussy wrapped tight around my cock has me almost ready to blow. I don’t want to go yet. Not without you.”

  He began to move inside me, slowly pumping his hips with shallow thrusts. It felt like it went on forever at that steady pace until I felt myself getting wetter and it got easier for him to drive in and out. The tension started to build inside me, until my back was bowed and my toes were digging into the mattress.

  “Now, honey. Come for me,” he ordered, hammering deep with his thumb pressed against my clit.

  I splintered apart, screaming his name. He continued to thrust into me, over and over again until his body stiffened above mine and he groaned in my ear. We stayed wrapped around each other, and I wished it could last forever. But eventually Harrison drifted off to sleep, and I caught sight of the clock on his nightstand. It was almost one o’clock. It was past time for me to slip out of the fantasy Harrison had woven around me and head back to my reality.

  3

  Harrison

  My eyes slowly trudged open, and I frowned when I realized my arms were empty.

  “Felicity?” I called as my gaze swept the expanse of my room. The wall across from the bed was made entirely of windows, also containing two glass doors that led out to a large deck, overlooking the forest behind my home. I’d been so focused on Felicity last night that I had forgotten to lower the built-in shades, and my room was flooded with light as the sun crested over the tops of the trees.

  When I received no answer, my brow furrowed even lower and my chest tightened painfully. Had she left? I began to worry about how and whether she got home safely as I threw off the covers and stood up from the bed.

  A glance at the sheets caused a slow burn to ignite in my belly. There was a pink stain—proof that I’d been the first man to explore Felicity’s sweet body.

  And the last.

  Whoa. That thought snuck up on me, but the moment I considered it, the more I realized how true it was. I didn’t give a fuck how young she was. It was obvious she wasn’t twenty-one, but even if she was only eighteen, she’d sealed her fate when she let me inside and allowed me to take her cherry.

  A shiver coursed through me as memories of our night flashed in my mind. I immediately hardened and when I glanced down at my dick, I noticed the smear of blood on it as well. Fuck. I’d taken her bare. I shook my head in disbelief. I’d never had sex without a condom before her. Felicity had broken through all of my barriers, wiping away any rational thoughts, leaving nothing but an animalistic need to take her. The thought of breeding her…it only fueled those urges.

  I did a quick sweep of the master suite and kitchen to confirm her absence before rushing to get ready for the day. I didn’t have much to go on, but I wouldn’t rest until I’d found her and made her mine forever.

  “She’s where?” I roared, my hand clenching my cell phone hard. I paced my office like a caged animal, every protective instinct in me rushing to the surface.

  The last several days had been Hell. The morning after we made love, the security cameras at the front of my house showed Felicity getting into an Uber at around one thirty. I was able to get the license number and had a security friend of mine run the plates. Then a shadier security friend hacked into the app and got me Felicity’s last name.

  Once I had it, I ran a background check on her, figuring it would be the easiest way to find her. And, it satiated a small part of my desire to know everything about her.

  Name: Felicity Scott

  Age: …

  Fuck. Fucking motherfucker fuck!

  She was fucking seventeen. Seventeen!

  The rational part of me. The part that had made me billions as a venture capitalist. The part that recognized how wrong it should have felt for me to fuck her. It screamed for me to let her go and walk away. The age of consent in our state was sixteen, but she was still way too damn young for me. I was twenty damn years older than her.

  I spent four days trying to “do the right thing.” But, when I laid in my bed and pictured her long and straight, glossy black hair, her wide, violet eyes fringed with thick, sooty lashes, and her pouty, red painted lips. When I remembered what it had felt like to be on her—in her. My reasons for walking away became cloudy and instead, the list of why I should go after her grew.

  My intention to move on hadn’t stopped me from learning everything I possibly could about her. From her birth to her current circumstances in a foster home. She would be so much better off with me. I would take care of her, love her, worship her. And, what if she was pregnant? I would never abandon my child or its mother.

  Soon, I was picking up the phone to set the wheels in motion. It was amazing what you could accomplish when you threw money at the right people and had a team with a variety of…interesting skills at your disposal.

  For the moment, the best solution seemed to be gaining guardianship over Felicity. Then in a few months, when she turned eighteen, we could be together. Until then, I would care for her, protect her, and keep her from any motherfucker who might get it in his head to try and make her his.

  Now, four days after starting the process, I was listening to one of my “fix it” guys, Dixon, as he told me that Felicity had been moved to a state facility the day after we’d met.

  “What the fuck happened?” I shouted.

  “Apparently, she was out past curfew and when her foster parents found out, they turned her back over to the state. She only has a few months left, so they stuck her in a group home.”

  If Dixon had been standing in front of me, it’s likely he would have found himself breathing from a tube for the near future. As it was, my wall gained a new hole shaped like my fist.

  “Why am I just finding this out now? She’s been there almost a fucking week, Dixon!” My heart was beating a million miles a minute. Some group homes were nothing like what you see in the movies and on television. But, what scared the ever living fuck out of me was that some of them were. I had no idea what my girl’s life had been like while I was being an indecisive jackass.

  “Give me the address,” I gritted through clenched teeth. I jotted it down as he rattled it off and then grabbed my keys and headed to the parking garage under my downtown office. “Get everyone on this, Dixon. I’m not waiting any longer to get her, so I want everything completed by tonight.”

  I didn’t pay any attention to his sputtering as I clicked my phone off. I’d reached my pale blue Jaguar, the fastest of my seven cars, and after unlocking it, tossed the phone, my jacket, and briefcase on the passenger seat. Once settled inside, I turned over the engine and it purred, the tires barely screeching as I careened out of my space and the parking garage.

  My house was built on twenty acres of woods about twenty minutes outside the city. It wasn’t far from the neighborhood where Felicity had last lived. The home she’d been banished to was
another twenty minutes beyond that. I kicked the car into high gear, breaking the speed limits to get to her. But, a glance at the clock made me realize the home wasn’t where I would find her. It was two in the afternoon. She’d be getting out of school soon.

  Another quick phone call, and I adjusted my course to the local high school. I glided into a spot near the front entrance and shut off the car. Stepping out into the balmy and unusually sunny, spring air, I set my sunglasses on my nose, crossed my arms over my chest, and settled against the car to wait.

  At two thirty, a bell chimed and the doors flew open, students spilling out in droves. I kept a close watch on the crowd, my body tense with the anticipation of seeing my girl again, of holding her in my arms, of kissing—no. Not yet. I frowned as I shifted angles, making the erection I was sporting less obvious.

  Then I saw her. Long legs encased in jeans that looked as though she’d been poured into them. Her light pink blouse with buttons up the front showed off the swell of her tits. My mouth watered, the taste of her candy nipples still lingering in my memory.

  Shit. I lifted my gaze from the perusal of her body before I did something stupid, like come in my damn pants.

  Felicity stopped and hefted a backpack up over her covered shoulder. Without sunglasses on her straight nose, her eyes were bare and I could see the turmoil in them as she stared ahead. She was watching the line of buses, then her head swung in another direction. A van approached, and her entire countenance drooped.

  Rage clawed at my chest. I was going to fucking kill whatever or whoever had taken the light out of my sweet girl’s eyes. She took a step towards the van just as I took one towards her.

  “Felicity,” I called, my voice low.

  She froze mid-stride for a moment. Then slowly, so slowly, her head swung in my direction.

  4

  Felicity

  I wasn’t sure who I was expecting to see after I heard my name spoken in a low, masculine tone, but it definitely wasn’t Harrison. The night I’d spent with him had been the best of my life, but it had cost me. A lot. Pretty much everything.

  “No,” I groaned, flashing a quick look at the van from the group home to see how much time I had before it pulled up to the curb. With the buses still idling at the curb, I had at least a few minutes. It wasn’t a whole lot of time, but it would have to do since I had to be on that van before it left...or else.

  “You can’t be here,” I hissed at Harrison.

  My anger didn’t seem to bother him as his dark eyes swept over my body like he owned it. I felt my cheeks heat as my body responded to that look. Damn my stupid hormones.

  “You’re wrong,” he disagreed, prowling towards me. “I think you’ll find that I can be anywhere I damn well want to be.”

  “Maybe you can, but I can’t.” I turned my head and caught sight of the van nearing the curb. The clock was ticking down quickly. “We’re not all billionaires who only answer to themselves.”

  “No need to be bitter, honey. You’ll be one, too,” he retorted. I shook my head, not understanding what he meant. I’d never be a millionaire or billionaire, or whatever. I’d barely be able to afford college, even with the state paying my tuition. But I didn’t get a chance to tell him that before he confused me further…and pissed me off. “You don’t need to answer to anyone but me.”

  “You?” I sputtered, practically seeing red. “You’re not the boss of me.”

  It wasn’t the best comeback in the world. In fact, I wished I could snatch it back out of thin air the second the words spilled from my mouth. It made me sound even younger than I was—and if he’d hunted me down at school, then odds were good that Harrison had already figured out exactly how old that was. I felt my cheeks grow warmer, but in embarrassment this time.

  “Boss of you?” he chuckled, one corner of his mustache kicking up in a smirk. “It’s not quite how I would have put it, but it’ll do.”

  He took my hands in his own. When I tried to yank them away, his fingers tightened.

  “What do you mean by that?” A horn beeped, and I turned to see where the noise came from. The van from the group home was at the curb, and the irritated look on the driver’s face made it clear that he was the one who’d honked. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t have time to deal with whatever this is. I have to go.”

  I frantically yanked on my hands again, and when that didn’t work I tried to step away. It didn’t do any good because he refused to let me go. “Not so fast.”

  “I have to go,” I cried. “I’m already in enough trouble as it is. If I’m not in that van when it pulls away, it will only get worse.” I shuddered, thinking about the consequences at the group home for breaking the rules.

  “Whoever put that scared look in your eyes is going to fucking pay,” Harrison growled tugging me forward and wrapping his arms around me. He shot a glare towards the driver of the van. His eyes were full of fury, and it was scary enough to make the driver peel away from the curb.

  “No!” I yelled, struggling against Harrison’s strong, warm body as he guided me towards his car. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I have to get...home.”

  His eyes softened, filling with tenderness as he looked down at me. “Of course you’re coming with me, Felicity. I’m your new guardian, which means your home is with me.”

  “Wha—” I gasped. I couldn’t think straight. I was stunned. Completely and utterly floored. Shocked speechless.

  “Get in the car, and I’ll explain everything.” He yanked the door open and helped me in, bending low to buckle me in. Even though I was beyond irritated with him, I still shivered as his masculine scent hit my nostrils. I released a deep sigh, trying to pull myself together while he rounded the front of the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  He didn’t say anything, didn’t even look my way as he started the engine and drove out of the school parking lot. We both remained silent during the ten-minute drive to his home. I was busy trying to wrap my brain around his announcement. And Harrison...he just kept his hand locked around mine like he thought I was going to try to jump out of the car. A part of me wanted to, there was no denying it. I was afraid to hear what he had to say. Scared of my reaction to whatever it was—just like I was frightened of how he made me feel.

  But another side of me wanted to hold on tight and never let go. It was the struggle between the two which kept me silent right up until the point when he’d pulled up in front of his house and helped me out of the car. “I never thought I’d be here again,” I whispered, but not softly enough.

  “You shouldn’t have left in the first place,” he chastised sternly.

  “I had to,” I insisted as he led me inside.

  “You had to sneak out of my home in the middle of the night?” His eyes flashed with emotion. Oddly enough, it looked they were filled more with pain than anger. “You left me alone in my bed, thinking I’d wake up to you. That you were safe in my home, right by my side. When in reality, you’d run off instead.”

  “I’m sorry! It’s not like I knew how to handle the morning after—” I trailed off, uncertain how to word it.

  “After you became mine,” he filled in for me, his expression softening a little.

  It was a good thing he’d led me into the living room and got me settled on the couch because my legs turned to jelly at his raspy words. “Just because you took my virginity doesn’t make me yours.”

  He raised a single black eyebrow. “How about being named your guardian today? Does that make you mine?”

  “Why would you do something like this? You’re you”—I gestured up and down his length as he stood over me—“It’s not like you can’t easily get other women.” It hurt so much to say it that my voice caught at the end. The idea of Harrison with someone else hurt. So much. My mind should have been focused on survival over the last week since I’d been kicked out by my foster parents and placed in a group home. Instead, I couldn’t get him out of my head. He was the reason for my sleepless
nights; not my new living arrangements.

  “You left,” he answered simply, dropping down next to me. “Anything could have happened to you, and I wouldn’t have been there to protect you. That’s unacceptable to me.”

  “It isn’t your job to do that!” It hadn’t been anyone’s job but my own for too long.

  His eyes glinted as his jaw firmed. “That’s where you’re wrong, honey. You are mine, and that makes it my job to take care of you, to make sure you’re happy, to provide you with anything that will make you light up with your gorgeous smile.”

  “Harrison,” I sighed, running my hands through my hair. “Do you feel guilty for taking my virginity? Because you shouldn’t. It was my decision to give it to you.”

  “A gift I will always cherish. And you paid a steep price for that choice.” A muscle in his jaw jumped, and his eyes were back to burning with anger. “Kicked out by your foster parents and put into a place you shouldn’t even know exists.”

  “It’s not that bad.” I squeezed his leg without realizing I’d reached out for him until my hand was already there. He didn’t let me yank it back to my lap and pressed it against his thigh with his palm. “There’s worse places I could have ended up.”

  “Your place is here, with me, now. You don’t have to worry about where you’ll live. Never again,” he vowed.

  “You really did it? You convinced the state to put me in your care?” It was almost impossible to believe. There was an insane amount of red tape to cut through to qualify as a foster parent and have a minor placed in your care.

  “I did.” His dark stare burned with intensity.

  I didn’t really know how to respond; it boggled my mind. I shook my head. “But how did you even find me? Especially since—”

  “Especially since I thought you were older?” he interrupted.

  There went my cheeks again, filling with heat. “Well, yeah.”