Daddy, Sir (Dirty Daddies 2024 Anthology #6)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Holden

This place is a fucking nightmare.

Loud music, flashing lights, too many damn people. Way too many. If the fire marshal showed up they’d be shut down in five seconds flat.

Not to mention the number of entrance points. More than his men could cover for the job they’d been hired to do. Which meant his pretty-boy, self-important client would need to find a different venue for his birthday party.

What a shame.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he shot off a message to Falcon, his second in command.

Holden

Club’s a No-Go. Heading out.

Falcon

Told you.

With a roll of his eyes for his right hand’s snark, Holden shoved the phone back in his pocket and headed for the back exit. Being the closest thing to a giant most people had seen didn’t always work in his favor, especially when he was trying to blend in. But when he moved through a crowd, people tended to take one look at him and get the hell out of his way, and luckily for everyone involved the crowd tonight was no exception.

He was just a few feet from freedom when he heard it. A loud, chiming laugh, loud enough to be heard over the blare of the music and the conversation around him.

Something about that laugh froze him in his tracks. And when he turned, searching for the source, his heart slammed to a stop in his chest.

Hair as red as fire was pulled up in a high ponytail, the wild curls exploding around a perfectly heart-shaped face. Everything about her, from the hair to that face he was certain had been sculpted by a very generous angel to the slender curves barely concealed beneath the glittering green of her dress was designed to draw a man in. To capture his attention, at the expense of the world around him.

A siren come to life, and had he been on a ship he would have already been well on his way to a watery grave.

As it was, he was halfway across the room, heading straight toward her before he even realized he’d moved. His siren looked up, dark eyes meeting his in the flashing lights, and a grin stretched across her face as she leaned in to say something to the blonde next to her.

The blonde’s head whipped around, her eyes going wide when they latched onto him. Holy shit.

He wasn’t close enough to hear her, but he could see her mouth forming the words plain as day. Just as he could see and hear his siren’s laugh as she threw her head back again, her carefree joy piercing the air around them.

“Hey there, handsome,” she greeted him with that wide, mischievous grin as soon as he was in hearing distance. Which, in this particular club, meant practically standing on top of her. “Wanna dance?”

He didn’t. What he wanted , was to carry her off somewhere and have his way with her. Ravage her until she came screaming his name.

Or for Daddy.

But that wasn’t what people in polite society did, so instead he nodded, holding out his hand to take hers.

Shoving her drink at her blonde friend, the siren placed her hand—her much smaller, much daintier, much more fragile hand—in his. With a whoop of laughter, she spun around him, dancing her way out onto the floor with Holden close behind.

Which, as it turned out, seemed to be all she expected of him. Arms in the air, she spun and shimmied and moved to the music without any encouragement from him at all.

He was transfixed by her. And when she leaned back against him, her round, firm ass pressed against his legs as she moved her hips, he was lost.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her closer to him, savoring the feel of how small, how delicate she was in his arms. “You’re a tease, little siren.”

With another of those wild laughs, she tilted her head back to grin up at him. “Hell yeah, I am. What are you gonna do about it?”

Holden Prescott wasn’t a man given to recklessness. Years of military training, followed by the work he did as the owner of one of the most respected security firms on the east coast had taught him to be careful. Deliberate. To never do anything without a plan.

One look at her was all it took for him to throw every second of that training out the window.

“Let’s get out of here and I’ll show you what happens to little girls who tease.”

Because he was watching her, and because she was still pressed right up against him, he felt as much as heard her sharp intake of breath. Was able to watch as her pupils darkened, as the muscles in her throat moved frantically.

For a second, he thought he’d overplayed his hand. But then she nodded, excitement burning in the dark brown of her eyes. “All right. Let’s go, big guy.”

Frankie

“Who the hell is that?” Lottie, one of Frankie’s oldest and closest friends asked as Frankie hurried back to the table her friends had claimed pretty much the moment they entered the club.

“No idea.” Breathless, both from the dancing and the man, Frankie scooped up her purse with a laugh. “I’ll let you know if he gives me a name. Bye, girls!”

“Wait!” Jumping up from the table, Eva, another of Frankie’s oldest and closest friends, lunged for her, grabbing her by the arm before she could get too far. Eyes wide in a pale face surrounded by big, fat blonde curls, she looked like a particularly worried china doll. “You can’t just leave the club with some random guy you just met. Especially when that random guy looks like he could snap you in half without breaking a sweat.”

She wasn’t wrong. But that was part of the thrill, as far as Frankie was concerned. “Don’t worry about me, Eva. I’ll be fine. I promise to check in as soon as I get home.”

Guilt pricked at her when she pried Eva’s fingers from her arm, ignoring her friend’s panicked expressions as she turned to head back to the dance floor, where her huge silver fox stood waiting for her.

Waiting. And watching. He’d stopped dancing the moment she’d stepped away, and she’d been hyperaware of his gaze on her the whole way back to her table.

There was something powerful in that, in having a man who looked like he could take on every single person in the club all at once and leave without a scratch on him watching her like he was dying of thirst and she was the last drop of water in a barren desert.

And if there was one thing Francesca Legare craved more than anything, it was power.

So maybe she slowed her steps a bit, and maybe she put a bit more swing in her hips than usual. Who could blame her when a man like that was watching every move she made?

Coming to a stop in front of him, she let her head fall back, let her lids close just enough to give her a sultry, sexy sort of look. “Ready?”

“Let’s go.”

Silver Fox placed a hand at the base of her spine, and she would have been lying if she tried to say it didn’t give her a little thrill. There was just something so possessive in that simple touch. She didn’t usually go for the jealous, protective type, but maybe she’d been missing out.

Outside, her impromptu date for the evening handed his card over to the valet who immediately rushed off. It was still early enough that most people were just getting their nights started, which meant it was just the two of them and a handful of stragglers outside under the streetlights.

And she was suddenly, intensely aware of how very small she was compared to him.

Maybe this wasn’t her best idea, after all.

“It’s not too late to change your mind.”

Humor twined around the deep, gravelly notes of his voice, and when she looked up at him, she found that same amusement dancing in his eyes. Which only served to spark the competitive streak inside her that her father had been nurturing from the day she’d been born.

Tilting her chin up, she cocked an eyebrow in a look that had been known to send weak men running for the hills. “And why would I do that?”

Obviously, her Silver Fox was no weak man. Chuckling softly, he captured her chin between his fingers, giving her no option but to look up at him. “Because you look like a rabbit who suddenly realized she’s invited a wolf to her front door.”

That was a fair assessment of how she was feeling, though she wasn’t about to tell him that. “Maybe I’m the wolf in this scenario.”

“Keep telling yourself that, little siren.”

Siren. One of those beautiful creatures of the deep, known for luring men to their deaths with the power of their song. Or something like that, anyway.

Did that mean he considered her dangerous?

She liked to think so.

“If you’re the wolf, does that mean you’re going to… eat me?” She dragged the question out, made it as deliberately provocative as possible.

“No.” Leaning in, Silver Fox dropped his voice, the deep growl sending a shiver up her spine. “It means I’m going to devour you.”

Ho. Lee. Shit.

Where the hell was that car?