[Dawn]Aldo grins and doesn’t stop tracing his circles. I stare at his muscular chest for a few seconds, weighing everything up, before answering. “You remember when we were kids and there was that summer when you came around and Andre wasn’t home one time and we hung out?”.Aldo’s grin widens. “Really? Then?” He’s gobsmacked.I nod. “I know how silly it is. But us just mucking around and having fun together felt so right. So comfortable.”“We had a fart competition,” Aldo says. He laughs. Heartily. It warms me.“Yeah, but we had a fart competition and it was fun.”Aldo just shakes his head and keeps grinning and tracing his circles. “Well, it’s good to know a good toot can bring people closer.”I laugh now, and he squeezes up against me.We lay there, and everything just feels perfect. We’ve spent so much of the night lost in each other's bodies that we’ve only got six hours until our flight at ten in the morning.I reflect back on the trip, and I think I need to thank Sophie for m
[Aldo]Dawn throws my hand down instantly. I go to ask what’s wrong, then see Andre.“Hey, hey,” he says. “It’s the drivers.”Dawn and I both pause for a second before going forward. “Andre, what're you doing here?” Dawn asks.“Luca told me to come get you guys. Said everything went well.” He’s grinning despite everything. “Said Leandro was happy with you two and everything.”I feel like we’ve been set up. Is this another trick from Sophie and Luca? To send us back into a trap? Or to teach us to be careful? The paranoia of the trip is getting to me.“So how was it?” Andre asks.“Good,” I say.“Bad,” Dawn says.We both look at each other quickly, and Andre laughs.“I get it,” he says, pointing between us. “I bet Aldo made you listen to those corny classics the whole drive up.” He throws an arm around his sister and grins. “She just doesn’t like your music, bro. She never has.”Dawn grins. “Yep.” She laughs nervously.Our nervous energy seems to be lost on Andre, he seems too happy. We
[Aldo]Over the next few weeks, my conflict grows at the same rate as my love for Dawn does. I spend my mornings and days hanging out with Andre, unless I’ve got a day off, then I go to Dawn’s. Otherwise, every day is the same, as is every night. I head out for some family errand or some other reason and secretly meet Dawn.We laugh and talk. We shop and dine out at restaurants. We have secret breakfasts and text each other constantly. Andre thinks I’ve just got a string of women on the end of my finger and often jokes about it. I play along, because, for once, it grants me privacy from his wandering eyes.And I grant him his privacy back.I end up dropping the whole Russian thing. His mood has changed now that he’s working for Luca, and he doesn’t seem so secretive. He still hasn’t told me what went wrong up north other than a breakup. but I sense it’s a tender wound. It still gnaws at him, and when he thinks I’m not looking, I see the stress still there. But all in all, he is hap
[Aldo.]“Well you know…” She begins.“No. I don’t know. This is what you’ve been arguing about these last few weeks. You convinced me that everything would be alright. That we’d all be happier with the truth in the air. Now you’re backing out?”“I’m not backing out, I’m just anxious.”I take Dawn’s hands in mine, and we both take a large breath in and then exhale slowly. “Everything will be fine, remember? We love each other. We’ve known each other forever. It only makes sense that we’d eventually see each other this way. Like you said,” I cup Dawn’s jaw in my hand. “We need to look after our happiness too.”Dawn grins. She looks unsure but ultimately agrees. She takes the keys and pops them in her purse. “I locked the car before getting out anyway.”Sophie comes out then, holding a few drinks and passes them off to us. She encourages Dawn to drink quickly and then pulls her away to dance. Dawn looks back at me one last time before disappearing into the throng of bodies. I stand th
[Dawn.]The next few weeks are horrible. Aldo is working everyday and we don’t get any time to see each other. I suppose with heartbreak there’s all the deep sorrow you have to deal with, but having to pretend like nothing is wrong is even worse.I can see how much it hurts Aldo too by the way we’re texting. After the first few days I realize I’ve been hanging out with Sophie just to maybe catch a glimpse of Aldo, so I stop bothering her so much. It even starts making me sick. Nauseatingly so. To the point where in the mornings, I need something salty to eat. Like crackers or toast.Two weeks in is the worst. I wake up on Saturday, and I vomit on my way to the bathroom. It’s horrid. With the sun pouring in through my window it stinks immediately and makes me sick again.That’s when it hits me.It might not be the heartbreak of not being able to see Aldo…But Aldo is definitely involved.The realization makes me drop the vomit soaked tea towel. The nausea moves and I sprint to the ba
[Dawn.]By the time I pick myself up off the floor, do a happy dance, and then force myself not to text Sophie excitedly, I get dressed and I allow myself one cup of coffee before tidying up and putting on my shoes.I grab the keys for the car and then, losing all orderly manners, I run for my car and drive excitedly for Aldo’s.The traffic can’t even piss me off as I make my way across town. The humidity doesn’t even bother me, as it frizzes my hair and makes my car stink like a jar of pickles.The sun burning off the puddles doesn’t blind me but dazzles me. I feel so high, so full of hope, that it seems nothing can pull me back down to earth. As I park in front of Aldo’s apartment building and see the kids all hurrying to the side of the street to let traffic pass, I imagine that someday it will be our kids.Our kids...Will there be more?The thought fills me with warmth. I’m giddy. I practically skip all the way to his door. I practically throw the gate open that leads to the rear
[Aldo]“That ain’t a part of this conversation!” he yells.I put my controller down too. “You’re gonna say all this and then expect me to tell you everything?”“You’ve always been the one with secrets” Andre shoots, folding his arms.“What the fuck are you on about? We’ve just been working together for the last two weeks and you bring it up now? Like fuck, I’m not sorry, if this is how you're acting now.”“You’re gonna apologize and then take it back?” Andre says, looking at me like I’m a bug under his boot. “Let me guess, now you’re gonna hold the fact that you got me the job from Luca over my head too?”“The fuck is up your dickhole?” I snap. “Your prison pen pal bitch break it off with you over a letter?” I gesture at the paper next to him.He reddens. That’s pushed him over the edge. “Fuck you, man!” Andre stands. “I got no issues stomping a backstabber!”I rise too. “A backstabber? You’re the mother fucker who kept secrets about the fucking Russians. Yeah, I know. Those mother fu
[Dawn]The sun sets by the time we realize we’ve been on the couch for an hour like this. Aldo is still tender in the ribs, and he groans slightly as he sits up. I slide out and run to his fridge to find some ice or peas to press against his face. We’ve literally been sitting in silence while I stroked his hair and he lay in my arms. The whole time I thought about telling him, but never did.I come back, and he tries to get up. “No, back,” I command, pushing him with one finger.He groans but doesn’t fight it. He even exhales a satisfied breath when I press the cold ice pack to his face. It turns out there’s barely anything in his fridge, and it turns out there’s barely anything in the freezer too. I was lucky to find the pack.“He hits hard,” he says, finally talking of the fight. “I guess he’s just pissed off.”“At what, though? Who‘re these Russians? What’s the note?” I ask, intertwining my fingers and scratching nervously at my leg.Aldo pauses for a few beats and then makes him
Xavier when we get home on Sunday, I haven’t given a second’s thought to Melanie. It hasn’t occurred to me to wonder if there might be some sign of her left behind, if she could have maybe forgotten something—maybe even left a note. I’ve been so completely transported by the events of the past twenty-four hours that I’ve practically forgotten about her.So it’s a shock when I unlock the door and walk in to find Melanie waiting in the kitchen.“Hello!” she trills from a stool at the kitchen island, lifting both hands and one foot in an overly-exuberant greeting, as if we’d be happy to see her. Her phone and a glass of wine are on the island in front of her.“Melanie,” I say, stunned. “What are you doing here?” My lawyer was supposed to have her escorted off the premises. It occurs to me I haven’t even looked at my phone since last night, I’ve been so utterly consumed by Hazel, fucking her again and again over the course of the night and this morning until she complained that her pussy
“Yes.”“And you’re on the pill?”Understanding dawns in her eyes. “Yes.”“When I come, I want it to be inside of you, Hazel.”She pauses. “Okay, Daddy.”I can’t help but smile. “That’s good, baby. That’s very good.” I press the head of my cock harder against her hole, until I can feel her resistance. “I’m not going to wear a condom, because it’s different with us, okay? I’m not some boy doing God knows what. I’m your daddy who’s going to take care of you.”“Yes, Daddy,” she breathes again.“That’s good,” I murmur, caressing her cheek with one hand. “You’re such a good girl, Hazel. You’re so good to your daddy.”I push against her entrance, feeling the squeeze of her pussy as I slide into her slowly. She pinches her eyebrows together, looking strained, and I slow down. Grown women with lots of experience sometimes have trouble taking my cock. It’s something that I’m used to.“It’s okay,” I reassure her. “I’m going to go really slowly. Just relax.” I push in a little deeper, the tight b
“Yes.” My voice is almost a whisper. I can hardly hear it over the pounding of my heart. “Yes, Daddy.”He smiles slowly. “That’s good. What I really want is to be your daddy in every way, Hazel. I want to comfort and care for you, and love you, and I want to play games with you, games I think we will both enjoy, things we’ve tried out a little already. I want to be your daddy in bed, and I want you to be my little girl. Do you want that, too?”“Yes,” I breathe.“That’s good.” He takes another sip of his drink and then places the glass on the nightstand between us. “Then in that case,” he says. “You’re going to be a good little girl for me tonight.”#Xavier #it’s a relief to let go, to drop the burden of self-control. To lay down the mantle of responsibility and honour and just say, fuck it.Hazel’s safety and wellbeing comes first. I will always care for her and protect her, but knowing that she wants what I want, that she’s as eager to be my willing little girl as I am to be her b
“Hazel.” His voice is soft but censorious, a father gently correcting a child, but something inside me is breaking open; something that can’t be contained. I love him. I love him with a kind of fierceness that can’t be locked up or tamed.“Xavier.” I match his tone. “Don’t you know everything’s different between us? I can’t pretend we’re the same as we were before. I can’t pretend I don’t love you, and I don’t want to. What if it…what if it wasn’t a secret anymore?”He closes his eyes for a second and takes a breath. “Sweetheart. You know how I feel about you, but look around. We don’t live in a world where this is okay. And with your mother gone, I want you to know that I will always be there for you, okay? As…as a father.”“I know, Dad.” I tighten my arms around him, squeezing him before I ask the question that might make him pull away from me. “I know you will always be there for me. But I don’t want to stop what we’re doing. I…want you. Even if we have to do it in secret, then fin
The wedding is a short Uber ride from our hotel at a winery. Guests in their finery are milling all over the place, inside and out, and it’s clear the entire space is rented out just for the wedding. White ribbons billow from every post, and strings of Edison bulbs sway in the wind above us. Xavier doesn’t wait for a server, and walks right into the main room, ordering a scotch from the bar. When the bartender offers me a glass of wine, Xavier answers for me. “She’ll have a Coke.”We head outside, towards the back where white wooden chairs have been set out in neat rows below a makeshift ceiling of string lights, and I trail after Xavier as he circulates among the guests, introducing me to the people I don’t know and reminding me about the people I do. It feels a little like a game of make-believe, and I wonder if anyone would believe I’m Xavier’s date—except that he keeps introducing me to people as his daughter.When a woman in a headset with a clipboard starts telling us to take ou
“Babe,” she resists, blinking nervously. She knows me well enough to know when I won’t back down.I take a step forward. “I’ll call Patrick to take you to a hotel tonight.” Our family lawyer, Patrick, is well known to Melanie. “Tomorrow you’ll find accommodations for yourself. You will not speak to Hazel, you will not show up on our doorstep, and any future communication will go through Patrick.”She twists her mouth, furrowing her brow. Frustration is etched all over her face. “You could have had it all and now you’re going to throw it away?”I take another step forward, dwarfing her with my full height. “Could have had what?” I ask menacingly. “You and your daughter? She’s not yours to sell, Melanie.”“I’ll use it against you,” she threatens. “I’ll destroy you!”“I don’t care what you do. You think you can send any storm my way that I can’t weather? Do your worst. But don’t you dare try to use Hazel as a pawn.”She steps back. “You’ll have to pay me more alimony to shut me up!”“The
She sighs. “The point is this: We could both have what we want in this marriage, if you can just expand your definition of what a marriage is.”I roll my eyes, pulling my hands away. “Didn’t we try this already?” Years ago, at Melanie’s insistence, we’d tried swinging and I’d hated it.“See what you’re doing? You’re closing your mind already. You don’t even know what I’m going to say!”“Fine.”She continues. “I miss our lifestyle. I love being the wife of big, strong, rich Xavier Rochat.” The description irks me—those three things are all I am to her. “But we could lead separate, independent lives. Free to see or fuck other people if we want.”“But I don’t want that, Melanie. I’ve never wanted that.”She leans in, a satisfied look on her face like she knows she’s about to score the winning goal. “But don’t you? With me as your wife, Xavi, it doesn’t look weird for Hazel to be living here. No one will raise an eyebrow. What you do behind closed doors, no one will know about. I’m the pe
Xavier i’m surprised to find Melanie sitting at the kitchen island when I come downstairs. I’ve worked out, showered, and done a couple of hours of work at my desk but it’s still only ten in the morning. Melanie almost never gets up before noon.“Good morning,” I say civilly. “Coffee?”“Please.” She widens her eyes emphatically. “I’ve missed good coffee.”I don’t take the bait. I don’t ask more about her life in New Mexico or why she didn’t have good coffee, I don’t even return her smile. I just load up the Nespresso and pour two cups.“Hazel and I will be out today,” I tell her as I pass her a mug, and I don’t miss how her eyes flash up at me with sudden interest. “We’re going to Sarah Kearns’ wedding.”“Together?”The way she asks the question takes me by surprise, as if there’s something unusual about it. “I don’t have a date. Thought it might be fun for Hazel.”“Hm.” She takes a sip of her coffee, both hands wrapped around the mug. The oversize white dress shirt she’s wearing sli
I pause for a beat. He knows about it, of course, because he pays for it. It just seems like an out of the blue question. “About a year,” I answer.“And you take it every day? The way you’re supposed to?”“Yes.”He strokes harder, faster, his eyes glazed and distant as he looks at me. “That’s good. And when you had sex with Dante, where did he come? Inside of you?”“Yes.” For some reason, this line of questioning makes me nervous, like I might be in trouble. Lines seem blurred. But there’s an urgency to Xavier’s question; thinking about it is turning him on. “But in a condom,” I add.“That’s good,” he breathes, voice quivering. “That’s good, baby.” His brow furrows deeply, as if he’s in pain, and his breath starts coming in hard, rough pants. “Show me how good your tits feel. Squeeze them for me. Let me see you play with them.”Lifting my hands, I cup each one, rubbing and massaging them while my stepfather stares with rapt attention. I have a terrible thought, a thought I feel guilty