The angry sea is an adversary of mine. There’s an unspoken agreement between us. When it’s howling and tossing my boat around on twenty-foot swells, it’s trying to kill me. It’s understood. I’m gambling on fate when I come into its house. I’m rolling the dice with my life, wagering that I can steal enough of the sea’s treasure before it swallows me whole. I’ve done it successfully for years, despite watching men on my crew lose their footing and sink below the icy surface, never to be seen again. Yeah, I’ve battled angry seas successfully until tonight.

This is a new kind of storm—the one inside me for Clara. And I lost. Hell, I couldn’t even put up a decent fight against this…this obsession. It swells and grows more turbulent by the minute. I’m obsessed with her soft voice, her big doe eyes, her virginity. Taking it. Protecting it from myself. Killing over it.

I should be put in jail for what I did tonight. Fucking my sweet little niece up the ass over the hood of her car. The car my brother is probably paying for. I’m following behind it now along the dark avenue, making sure Clara gets home all right. There’s a stuffed bunny rabbit in the back window and a ballet slippers bumper sticker. She’s so young. So refreshingly honest. Her future is bright, except for the depraved black spot I’ve just left.

In the darkness of my car, though, I can’t help but reach down below the steering wheel and fist my satisfied cock. Lord, she took it like a champ. Creamed all over my hand even while I was treating that tight backside like my own personal playground. At one point I had my boot up on the front fender so I could thrust deeper…and she only mewled like a happy kitten. I’ve never come harder in my life. And I sure as shit have never wanted to hold a girl afterward. Rock her, kiss her forehead, massage away the soreness.

Never wanted to take on the world for a female before. But when she flashes those big eyes at me, I want to be her superhero. Someone to fight evil on her behalf, keep her tucked away in a safe place and provide for her every need.

The brake lights on Clara’s Camry light up as she pulls into her driveway. I pull over at the curb across the street, knowing I can’t go inside. Or I will hold her. I’ll sleep in her bed with her tucked against me. She’ll be so soft, her pussy there for the taking, and I won’t be able to help it this time. I’ll bang her nine times before morning. Shit, at that point, the addiction will be out of control. I’ll still be here when my brother returns from Bali, either shacked up with his little girl or…I’ll have taken her home with me. I’ll have claimed her forever.

I have to leave before the obsession turns into something I can’t control.

The suggestion that I’m controlling it now is laughable. Because she’s jogging toward my car and I’m fighting the urge to pull her through the driver’s side window and peel out of this goddamn suburban nightmare. I live closer to the coast, not too far away. We could be there in no time, Clara tucked into my sheets with a tummy full of food. She belongs with me. Me.

Beneath my white-knuckled hand, the steering wheel creaks. “Go on now, girl. Get. I’ll wait here until you’re inside.”

Hurt flashes in her eyes and I call myself a bastard ten times. “But…don’t you want to come inside?”

“Can’t. I’m going on a hunting trip in the morning.”

Her lower lip pushes out. “Where?”

“Long Shadow.”

She absorbs that. “What if there are robbers?”

“Come again?”

“Inside my house,” she whispers, glancing over her shoulder. “Like, if I’m already home with the doors locked when it gets dark? I’m fine, you know? No robber just waits in a house all day to jump out and start robbing when night falls. But if I come home in the dark—like, right now—there’s a better chance of robbers. Because I haven’t been home since there was daylight. They could have snuck in after dark. Can you just come in and check?”

God almighty, she’s as cute as a button. And she wants me to play her protector, despite the fact that I just tarnished her innocence in a public parking lot. Just looking at her hopeful face, my heart lifts and sticks in my throat. I can no more say no to this girl than I can change the seasons on command.

I grunt. “Just a quick check.”

She dances around, her hands clasped beneath her chin. “Thank you.”

I climb out of my truck and cross the street beside her, making a warning sound in my throat when she curls her fingers into mine, holding my hand. “Clara…”

“What?” She looks up at me through her eyelashes. “Uncles hold hands with their nieces, don’t they?”

“When they’re kids, maybe.”

“I didn’t know you when I was a kid. Can’t we make up for lost time?” She holds up my hand and twirls beneath it. “I see lots of presents in my future.”

In the corner of my eye, I see a male neighbor in his driveway, squinting at us in the darkness. Probably wondering if I’m Clara’s new, ancient boyfriend. Probably wondering if I’m going to ride her to the Promised Land as soon as we’re inside the house. Ain’t a red-blooded man alive who wouldn’t wonder about how and when Clara spreads her thighs, but I pass him a black look, anyway, pointing at him in the darkness. In other words, I know where you live. Don’t look. Don’t touch.

Ironic, considering I should be following those rules.

Clara lets go of my hand to unlock the door and I frown, wanting it back. “How come none of those girls tonight helped fix up your knee? Ain’t they your friends?”

She ducks her head and trudges through the open door. “No. Not really.”

“Why not?” I ask, following her inside. “They stupid or something?”

The smile she turns on me makes my steps falter. “No, they’re not stupid. They just think I’m weird.”

I start flipping on lights and going through the house, searching closets and under beds while she follows behind me on the balls of her feet. “Why the hell would they think that?”

“I don’t know…” I pass her in the doorway of a guest room and her tits graze my belly, making her gasp. “Th-they’re into boys. That’s all they’re into. But I think the guys they want to date are gross. I think they’re offended at how much I don’t care. They think I’m stuck up.”

Goddamn, the barest touch of her and heat is wriggling in my veins. I struggle to focus on the conversation, though, because I can tell it’s important to her. Yeah, nice try. It’s important to me. I care so much more than I should about Clara in relation to boys, it’s not even funny. “You don’t date?”

“Do you?” she asks quickly, seeming to hold her breath.

“Been on the boat for months. No one serious before that. Never really had nothing serious. No time. No…interest, either.”

Her shoulders deflate, mouth spreading into a smile. “Oh.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I say, knowing I shouldn’t.

Before I walk into the bathroom, I turn to catch the shake of her head. “I’ve been to the movies on dates a couple times, but…”

My hand pauses on the shower curtain I’m fitting to wrench back. “But what?” I bark. “Those little motherfuckers get handsy with you?”

“They wanted to,” she murmurs, coming up behind me in the dark bathroom. “I didn’t let them. I never wanted anyone to put their hands on me until I saw you. Now it’s all I can think about.”

Maybe it’s the darkness or the fact that we’re in a place no one can see us, but I can’t help drawing her closer, letting my hands roam over her back. “I was a rough son of a bitch with you tonight, girl. Ain’t no excuse for it, except kissing you…it made me forget the rules. I needed to give you all my come or I was going to die.”

“Kiss me again now, then,” she breathes, running her hands over my shoulders. “Uncles kiss their nieces, don’t they?”

“No.” I fist a section of her hair and pull, tilting her face up. “Not the way we do it. Not with open mouths and tongue.”

“What about tucking me in?” Her fingers brush the curve of my dick. “If we’re making up for lost time, shouldn’t you do that at least once?”

With a growl, I tighten my grip on her hair, lowering my face to hers. “You weren’t really scared of robbers, were you?”

“Oh yes.” She licks her lips. “Petrified. I probably will be all night long.”

My whole being protests over her being alone and afraid. But I’m learning to read my niece and here’s the deal: she can play me like a fucking fiddle. And she knows it. “I’m not staying, Clara, so don’t even try it. We done already gone too damn far with this.” I guide her by the hair through the bathroom doorway, my cock stiffening despite my mental commands. She’s just such a good girl, walking along dutifully under my guiding hand. I’m about to ask which bedroom is hers, but there’s a pink princess sign on one door. Shaking my head, I head us in that direction.

I’m expecting Clara’s room to be tasteful like the rest of the house, so I’m not prepared for the explosion of pink I walk into. “Jesus Christ,” I mutter, letting go of her hair and turning in a circle. Every spare inch of wall space is covered by an inspirational dance poster…or kittens in tutus. So many kittens in tutus. Her bed is cocooned in a gauzy, white canopy draping down from the ceiling. Beneath that, it’s buried under a mountain of stuffed animals. Everything is poofy and pink and sparkly. And I just took the occupant of this room up the ass.

There are so many layers of wrong here, I can’t even begin to dig. Because the top layer of wrong is something I didn’t expect. Something unacceptable.

I’m turned on as fuck. I want to lay Clara down on that stupidly adorable bed, hike her knees up over my shoulders and plow her until she’s screaming for her mommy. Completely opposite of that, I want to sit her on my lap in a nightshirt and watch as she brushes her hair for bed. God almighty. I…want to be her Daddy.

She looks up at me. “You don’t like it?”

My stomach twists. “I like it too much, girl.”

A smile breaks loose. “Really?”

“Yeah,” I say on a rushed exhale. The truth is out, but I don’t know how to handle it. My tastes have never run in this direction. I beat off to nudie magazines on the boat when there’s no Wi-Fi available. When I’m home, I get the deed done to whatever internet porn happens to catch my eye. But truth be told, I tend to avoid anything like this. Men giving in to their urges in places they damn well shouldn’t. It’s Clara that’s turned me into one of those men. Made me crave virgin blood and panties with pink bows and things I can’t have.

It would be so easy to go down this path without thinking about it too hard. Especially tonight. To not worry about consequences and just fuck my horny little princess under my brother’s roof. God knows she’s ripe for it. Her big eyes are inviting me to strip her naked and do whatever the hell I want. She would call me Daddy. I don’t know a ton about this shit, but some part of me has recognized since the beginning that a caretaker is exactly what Clara is looking for. Needs. Maybe my infatuation with her has turned me into that person…

But as much as I’m starved for her skin, her touch, her pussy, I can’t give in. I’m her uncle. I might satisfy her body, but she’d be even more of an outcast once I claimed her. Eventually went public. She doesn’t even realize how big the world is. Sure, the bitch crew of dancers don’t like her, but life after eighteen is so different. She’s about to discover that. Can I really saddle her down with someone who will alienate her from the world? Her family?

You blacken everything.

“The house is safe. No robbers.” Backing toward the door is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I take one step, then another. “I’ll do one more check of the house and lock up before I go. You’re safe, okay, girl? Good night, Clara.”

“Uncle Rex…”

I don’t hear the rest of what she says over the roaring protest of my heart.