My stepfather clicked off the television and turned to look at me. As always, when his piercing blue eyes fell on mine, I couldn’t help but shudder with excitement. John, my stepfather, smiled and spread his hands out in a helpless shrug.

“Weatherman says it’s going to stay cruddy like this until tomorrow morning. The state has put a warning out not to go out on the roads.

Supposed to be the storm of the century. Looks like we’re hunkering down tonight. Just you and me, kiddo.”

“That’s okay, Daddy. I’ve got some mac and cheese we can eat for dinner.”

My stepfather laughed and walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me into him and I nuzzled my head into his chest, breathing in deep and enjoying his musk and the warmth of his body against mine.

He released me and held me out in front of him. I was wearing a pair of tight jean shorts and a white tank top and I noticed his eyes travel down and linger on my cleavage for a moment. I smiled sweetly up at him. He cleared his throat and met my gaze.

“So, honey,” he said, “what do you think of your new place?”

I looked around at my new apartment, not quite believing that I was finally on my own. After eighteen years of living at home, having my own space in a new town was an odd feeling. Mostly I missed the idea of being away from my stepfather. I could tell from the way he had been acting all weekend as we settled me in that he was feeling the same thing. He had been reluctant to see me off to college, and though he hadn’t said anything about it, his voice had had a wistful quality to it since we’d left the house the day before with a trailer full of my stuff.

“I love it, Daddy. Though I’m a little nervous to start college.” My father smiled.

“You are going to have such a good time, sweetie. College is one of the best times of life. Just be sure to study hard, but also make room for fun. Oh,

and be careful about the boys.” “Dad!”

“I’m serious,” he said, grinning. “You are going to meet a lot of them, and being the beautiful woman you are, they are going to want to do things to you. Just make sure you only do what you’re comfortable with and make sure to use protection.”

“Daddy!” I repeated. “Everything is going to be okay. I’m not interested in those types of boys anyway.”

“That’s what you say now. But I still need to warn you. Even though I’m sure you are already sexually active, it makes me feel better as a father to warn you—“

“I’m not sexually active,” I interjected.

“You’re not?” From his eagerness, I could tell that he was pleased by the news.

“No, Daddy,” I cooed, sidling up to him and wrapping my arms around his large frame, “I’m not. I’m saving myself for someone special. I don’t want to just give myself away to anyone, you know?”

My father bent down and kissed the top of my head, some strands of my curly brown hair sticking to his stubble as he straightened back up and squeezed me tight.

“Good for you, honey. I know the man that you finally give yourself is going to be very lucky. Even though I’m your father, I have no problem telling you that you are absolutely beautiful.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

“I love you, sweetheart.” “I love you, too.”

“Now,” my father said, pushing me away from him once more. “What’s say we build that new coffee table of yours before the lights go out and we drown?”

The storm moved in not long after. As a light rain began to whisper outside the window, my father gave one final turn of the screwdriver in his hand and dropped it onto the carpet. He sat back and looked at the coffee table in front of him. I was sitting across the room on the couch, watching with a bowl of ice cream in my hand. I enjoyed seeing the strong muscles of his arms tense as he assembled the various pieces, his face scrunched in concentration, his tongue absentmindedly sticking out of the corner of his mouth. I had always enjoyed watching him work. He had a special ability to lose himself to whatever he was doing, and being the extremely handsome man he was, the effect was intoxicating.

“What do you think?” he said, wiping his hands. “It’s nice, ehh?” “I love it, Daddy. Thanks for putting it together.”

“My pleasure, sweetheart. Of course, my favorite part is having you watch me,” he said, winking.

I grinned.

“I like seeing you work. You get so involved.”

Just then a giant peal of thunder shook the windows of the house. I jumped, causing my father to laugh.

“There’s nothing to worry about, Leah,” he said. “Just a storm.” “Sounds like a scary storm.”

Another peal of thunder cracked the sky. The light rain roared into a downpour, the wind lashing the windows and rattling the panes.

My father stood up and walked over to the window to look out at the sky. “Although I will admit, it looks like it’s going to be one hell of a storm.”

He walked over to the couch and sat down beside me. He placed a hand on my knee, my heart fluttering at his touch.

“We’ll just have to play some board games. What do you think, daughter of mine?”

“As long as you promise that we aren’t going to wash away.”

My father chuckled and patted my knee. His fingers caressed my thigh as he looked into my green eyes.

“I promise, love.”

Even though he was only my stepfather, John was the only parent I had ever known. My real father had deserted my mother before I had been born, and my mother had run out not long after. In the interim, she had met John at

an entrepreneur convention and gotten remarried a few months later. I think she had been planning to leave all along and had been looking for someone to trick into taking care of her daughter. Being the man he was, my stepfather had had no qualms deciding to keep me and raise me singlehandedly once my mother had fled. As he had told me more than once, despite not being technically related, he had known from the moment he had seen me that I was the love of his life.

A man in his late thirties, my stepfather was quite the catch. He was tall, about 6’2”, and overwhelmingly handsome, with a penetrating gaze and an aura of confidence and kindness that inevitably made every woman he met swoon. Growing up, I had been the playmate of choice for many of the kids in class just so their mothers would have a chance to talk to John whenever he came to pick me up or drop me off. It wasn’t unusual for women to slyly hand them their phone numbers in the grocery store or to interrupt us at restaurants to flirt. And it had never failed to amaze me how my stepfather had handled each of these situations, graciously turning down the women.

Because in all the years I had been cognizant enough to notice the world around me, I couldn’t ever remember him dating. A self-made millionaire who had retired after my mother left, his sole task had been to take care of me, always giving me the best and making sure that I was happy in every way. I had asked him once or twice why he wasn’t interested in the women he met, some of them stunningly beautiful, but he had always just shrugged in that adorable way of his.

“It’s because you’re all I need,” he would say.

So it was only natural for me to grow up loving him as much as I did. And somewhere along the way, what had been a girlish attachment on my part to my father had suddenly blossomed into a romantic love for him.

Not that I ever planned on telling him that. I was smart enough to know that most people would consider my feelings for my stepfather to be wrong. Though I didn’t think my stepfather would be one of those people, I still didn’t want to chance it. Still, in some corner of my heart I had been holding out the hope that he felt the same way about me, and this was why I had never been interested in any of the boys in my classes, and why, when all the other girls were talking about blowjobs and sex and getting fingered for the first time, I had shied away and not participated in their discussions. Truth be told, I was saving myself, my virginity, for the man I wasn’t sure would ever take it.

“Leah? Leah!” My father’s sharp voice broke through my thoughts, snapping me back to the present. Another roll of thunder shook the windows. I turned to look at my father. My hand went down to his on my bared knee, and I smiled.

“Sorry, Daddy,” I said. “Was lost in thought.” “I can tell. You doing okay?”

I sighed and laid my head against his shoulder. My father leaned his head down against mine and our fingers interlocked.

“Yeah, I’m doing okay, Daddy. Just feeling overwhelmed with this whole growing up thing.”

“You and me both,” he said, his wistful voice lost to the thunder.

BOOM!

A giant seemed to stomp on the roof of the apartment building and the lights flickered and went out. Suddenly, it was eerily quiet, even the background noises of little electronics whirring in their boxes extinguished.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” my stepfather said, tossing his cards onto the new coffee table. “How are you feeling? Do you want to keep playing? We can get the flashlights and hold them between our teeth.”

I yawned.

“No, it’s okay. I’m pretty tired, Daddy. It’s been a long day. Maybe we should just go to bed.”

Alright. Let’s do it, baby.”

I felt a hand touch my leg in the dark and I reached down and grabbed it. “Come on,” my stepfather said, pushing himself up from the couch and

pulling me up to my feet. “Let’s go brush our teeth.”

After we had gotten ready for bed, using our phones in the dark to navigate our way to the bathroom, we returned to the living room, standing close to one another in the dark.

“Okay, Daddy. I’ll take the couch and you can have my bed.” “Are you sure?”

“Yes, silly. You’re too tall for the couch.”

“Well, thank you. Are you going to be okay out here?” “I think so.”

“Well, just wake me up if you need anything.” “Okay. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Goodnight.”

I heard my father move across the room, his footsteps disappearing into my bedroom. Sighing, I unbuttoned my pants and slipped them off. It was too dark and I was too tired to rummage through one of my packed boxes for a pair of pajamas. I would just have to sleep in my underwear. I reached behind my back and unsnapped my bra. I pulled the straps over my arms one at a time and then pulled out my bra from the top of my tank top. In the darkness, I ran my hands up under my shirt, feeling my smooth, flat belly. I gently stroked the underside of my breasts. Cupping them, I began to massage them slowly. This was a game I liked to play; As I touched myself, I closed my eyes and imagined my hands were my father’s. I bit my lip and pinched my

nipples with my thumbs and forefingers and rolled them back and forth. “Are you okay out there?” my father called from the bedroom

I froze, my erect nipples between my fingers. “I’m good,” I called back.

“You don’t need any more blankets?” “No, I should be good.”

“Okay. Goodnight! I’ll see you in the morning.”

I let go of my breasts and sat down on the couch. I rummaged around for the pillow I had been sitting on earlier and positioned it at one end of the sofa. I stretched out and pulled a blanket over me. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I looked around the apartment, taking in all of the unfamiliar shapes that now constituted my home. It was such a strange feeling to know that this was my new life. No more lazy Saturday mornings watching cartoons with my father. No more daily hugs. No more dinners or lunches or breakfasts. I had known this day was coming, but with all the fantasies I had harbored, I had never truly believed it.

Another loud crack of thunder broke the deafening silence of the room, making me shiver under the blanket. Soon my stepfather would be gone and it would be just me who would have to face these storms alone. Having him here I felt safe from the rain lashing the windows and the wind howling amongst the unfamiliar trees. How was I going to live without him?

On the next crack of thunder, I broke. Standing up cautiously, I moved across the living room, shuffling my feet to avoid tripping on the various knickknacks scattered about the floor. At the door to the bedroom I paused to listen. My father’s breathing was even; he seemed to be asleep. I stood there for a moment, undecided. Then lightning flashed again and the weird shadows cast about the apartment returned and I gave in.

“Daddy?” I whispered.

My father’s breathing remained unchanged. I spoke again, the second time a little louder.

“Daddy?”

My father shifted in the dark, and I saw the dim outline of him shift and rise up off the bed.

“Leah, what is it?” “Daddy, I’m scared.” “Of the storm?” “Yeah.”

“Oh, baby. It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about.” “Do you mind if I sleep with you?”

“Of course not. There’s plenty of room. Here,” my father moved aside and patted the bed beside him, “climb on in.”

I moved across the room and cautiously climbed into bed. I stretched my feet under the sheets and my toes touched my father’s bare calf. I nestled in further, lying down and pulling a blanket above my shoulders.

Thunder boomed again and I flinched and scooted closer to my father. His arms were behind his head, and I laid my head gently on his chest. He was not wearing a shirt; my cheek was pressed against his warm skin. I draped a hand over his stomach, squeezing my hand around his waist. I placed my legs against his. It was then I realized he was only wearing boxer briefs.

“I’m sorry, honey,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d be in bed with me. If you want, you can hand me my shirt and pants from the ground and I’ll put them on.”

I squeezed his waist and snuggled my head into his chest.

“I don’t mind, Daddy,” I breathed softly. “I like your warmth. I feel so safe in your arms.”

My father wrapped his arm around me, his fingers caressing my shoulder. I mewled a bit and slid my leg against his.

“Thank you, Daddy,” I whispered.

“Anytime, sweetheart.” From his tone, I could tell he was smiling. “I need to soak it in while I can. Soon you are going to be gone away for good. I’m going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you, too. You’ll have to come visit me. You promise?” “I promise. But I’m sure you’re going to forget about your old father soon

enough.”

“You’re not old.”

“Older than you,” he laughed.

“But not old. If anything, you’re perfect.” He laughed again and squeezed me tight. “Thanks, love. It’s good to hear that.”

We lay there listening to the sound of the rain beat on the roof above us. It was my dream come true. I was in bed with my father, my face against his chest, his arm around me. Absentmindedly, I ran my fingers across his stomach, feeling the tight muscles of his abdomen.