“It’s mine!” I shout. “You can’t play with it!”

“Sebastian!” Miss Janet yells as she looks over at me. “Give Jared the plane!”

The shaking in my hands travels through the rest of my body. It’s all I have. Jared has everything, even parents who are just waiting for the court system to say their house is in good enough shape for him to come home. He has them, he has a home, he has his own toys, and I have nothing.

Screaming at the top of my voice, I throw the plane against the wall. The shaking turns to pressure in my head and chest as I watch it fall in little pieces to the floor.

“You see what you did!” I scream at Jared as I launch myself at him.

Shaking the memory away, I swore to myself again that Alex was not going to have the same kind of life that was forced upon me as a child. I wasn’t going to let that happen to him.

Promptly at eight o’clock, Raine coerced Alex into taking a bath. I watched as he floated little boats around in the water and Raine washed his hair. Seeing her with him made me feel proud of her but also extremely inadequate. How did she know how to do these things? I was at a total loss.

“Can you grab some pajamas for him?” Raine asked.

“Where are they?”

“Second drawer.”

I went into his bedroom and dug around through the dresser until I came up with a faded pair of PJs with Spiderman all over the fabric in various heroic poses. Alex held onto my shoulder as he stepped into them, and Raine dried off his hair and handed him a toothbrush.

“Can Dad pick out a story to read?” Alex asked.

I looked to Raine, nearly panicked. I’d never read a story to a kid in my life.

“Of course he can,” Raine said. She grinned at me and leaned close. “He likes the one called The Hungry Thing.”

After a little digging, I found the book on the floor beneath Alex’s dirty clothes. I tossed the clothes in the hamper near the door and pulled one of the plastic chairs to the edge of the bed. Alex settled in, and Raine pulled the blanket up to his chin.

I held the book in my lap and chewed on the edge of my thumb, unsure of how to begin. Raine raised her eyebrows at me and nodded her head toward the book. I took in a deep breath, opened the cover, and began to read in a shaky voice.

It was a weird story about a creature coming into a town and demanding various things to eat, but it never said the words right. Only one kid in town was able to understand what it wanted. Alex laughed every time the creature demanded a new dish.

When I arrived at the end of the story, Raine kissed Alex on the forehead and told him goodnight before she walked out of the room. I stood there for a minute, not sure if I should do the same or not.

Apparently tired of my hesitation, Alex looked at me and held out his arms. Glad for the invitation, I reached down and gave him a hug.

“’Night, Dad.”

“Goodnight…son.” I choked.

Raine was standing in the hall with a grin on her face.

“That was pretty good,” she said.

“I’ve never done that before,” I admitted.

She placed a brief kiss on my cheek.

“You’re a natural.”

I wanted to deny it. I wanted to tell her I had no fucking clue what I was doing, and watching how good she was with Alex was a little intimidating. That little, abused kid inside of me wanted to remind her that she’d be better off finding some dude with a regular job who could drink an occasional glass of wine without losing control of himself.

I didn’t.

Her hand brushed over my cheek, and I didn’t want to say those things. I didn’t want her to find someone else.

I wanted to be that man.

Well, probably sans glass of wine with dinner, but everything else.

Could I do that? Was there any chance I would be able to give her everything she deserved to have in life without my past always getting in the way? I’d dwelled on it for so long, allowed it to make me into someone who couldn’t handle a fucking dinner party with his girl’s friends, that I wasn’t sure I could ever be any other way.

Fuck that.

She deserved more, and I wasn’t going to deny her. I could never let her go, but I could change myself. I could be what she needed most. I could be a father to Alex, one worthy of the title, and in the process, I would make myself into a man she would be proud to call hers.

I would do it, but first, more than anything, I wanted to show her something else I was a natural at doing.

“Get in that bedroom,” I said. “Now.”

Raine’s eyes darkened as she swept her tongue across her lips. She turned quickly to comply. I followed, closing the door behind us.

I grabbed her waist before she could even reach the bed, turned her around and covered her mouth with mine. I was hungry for her, the weeks of not having her body pressed to mine overwhelming me with sudden intensity. I needed her more than I ever had before.

Raine broke away, trying to catch her breath as I moved my lips down her neck. I grabbed at the bottom of her shirt and yanked it up over her head and down her arms. Reaching for her lace-covered breasts, I found her shoulder with my mouth and sucked at the skin there as she wrapped her arms around my head.

“I missed you so much,” she said.

“I’m going to make up for that right now,” I promised. I tore off my shirt and released my cock from my pants. Raine pushed them down my legs, and I kicked both the pants and my boxers out of the way.

Grabbing the waist of Raine’s jeans, I pulled them off and tossed them on the bed. Her panties and bra followed quickly, and I pulled her against me again, my cock pressing hard against her bare stomach.

Lifting her in my arms, I pressed her up against the wall. She circled my waist with her legs, gasping as I slammed into her with a grunt. I looked into her eyes as I pulled back and thrust forward again.

“You feel so fucking good,” I said. “You ready to take this?”

“Yes!” Raine cried out and then lowered her voice as she glanced toward the door. “Please, Bastian!”

“Beg me,” I whispered against her ear. I sucked the lobe into my mouth. “I wanna hear you beg for my cock.”

I pulled out nearly all the way, just leaving the tip inside of her. I moved back and forth with shallow thrusts from my hips, teasing her.

“Ugh, Bastian! Please…please…more. I need more!”

I pulled back again, then slowly buried myself inside of her, pinning her body to the wall with my own.

“You want me to move?”

“Yes!”

“You want it fast and hard?”

“Please!”

I wrapped one arm around her ass as I placed the other against the wall. I didn’t bother building up, just pulled back and slammed inside of her again as she tried to keep her cries low. I tightened the muscles in my arm with every movement, bringing her ass up to meet my blows. I could feel every tendon flex in time with the pounding of my cock.

Our lips meshed together, and our tongues found each other inside her mouth. I scraped her lips with my teeth, growling and pressing my hips hard against her body as she held on to me as tightly as she could. She flexed her legs with each thrust, bringing me deeper into her.

“So fucking good,” I groaned. “Jesus, Raine…so good…”

“More, Bastian…please…”

I could have sworn my dick hardened more at her words.

Stepping back from the wall, my cock slipped out of her as I turned us around and threw her face down on the bed. Raine scrambled to her hands and knees as I crawled in behind her, tapped her legs apart with my knees, and drove into her again.

Pulling back, I grasped her hips in my hands and shoved into her as hard as I could, making her jump and cry out. She pressed her forehead against the mattress and tried to stifle herself as I moved in and out, twisting and shifting my hips to change the angle and pressure. I wanted her to be sore in the morning. I wanted her to remember every fucking second of my cock being inside of her.

For all I knew, this would be our last time together.

I flipped her over on her back and entered her again. Reaching for her wrists, I held them both in one hand over her head as the other hand caressed the skin up and down her side. I gripped one breast, then the other, never stopping the strokes inside her body as she lay below me, gazing up with hooded eyes.

As we moved, I could see in her eyes everything she had been through since we were last together: her kidnapping and imprisonment in this little shed of an apartment; her forced motherhood; the willpower she maintained to embrace it all for my sake. Everything she had, she offered to me with her eyes.

As her strength flowed into me, she made me feel more powerful than I ever had before.

Through her, I could endure anything thrown at me. I’d do it for her gladly because she was counting on me to do so. She needed me now more than ever.

I intended to deliver. I would never leave her side again once this was through. I’d be there for her forever and always. She’d get a real house and a degree in whatever field she wanted. I’d stop being such a moody asshole and be the kind of man she deserved to have at her side. I’d fucking ask her to marry me if that’s what she wanted.

When all this was over, I was going to give her the fucking world.

Raine arched her back and bit into her lower lip. She moaned in her throat as she tried to keep herself from crying out. I felt her body shudder under me and picked up the pace. Squeezing my eyes shut, I leaned into her and pounded furiously until the buildup was too much to hold back, and I exploded inside of her.