Discovering Daisy (The Protectors)

Chapter 1

Cash

“It was a nice ceremony, wasn’t it?”

I spared Sage a glance before turning on the road that would lead to the small motel just a few miles from our hosts’ home. I didn’t respond, since I knew Sage wasn’t actually looking for a response. And because I knew he hadn’t gotten to the subject he was itching to discuss.

Daisy.

Sweet, young and oh-so-innocent Daisy.

She hadn’t been at all what I’d been expecting.

Of course, I hadn’t really been expecting anything since Sage was the one who had a borderline obsession with the young woman.

It was probably something that should have bothered me more than it did, but there was one thing I knew about Sage better than anyone else.

Of all the qualities Sage Brighton possessed – his humor, his never-ending need to flirt, his boldness – he was, above all else, loyal to his core.

It was one of the many things that had drawn me to him when we’d worked our first case together.

That and his stunning good looks. The man hadn’t been anything like the guys I typically went for, but then again, there was nothing typical about Sage.

His red-orange hair and hazel eyes shouldn’t have been a combination that worked, but it most certainly did.

His hearty laugh, incessant drive, and unflappable focus, along with his need to protect those who were weaker than himself, had drawn me in almost immediately after we’d first explored our off-the-charts chemistry.

But it was his ability to smile despite everything that had happened in his young life that had made me realize that my connection to Sage went well beyond attraction and sexual compatibility.

Above all else, though, it had been his acceptance of what I’d needed from our relationship that had made me realize I was so deeply in love with the man that I no longer knew how to look at us as two separate entities anymore.

And I had no doubt that my feelings were returned, though I was going on instinct rather than concrete proof.

Which was how I knew that, despite his obsession with Ronan’s young IT girl, Sage was mine and always would be.

It was another five minutes before Sage finally got around to saying, “So Daisy wasn’t what I expected.”

I smiled to myself but kept my expression neutral.

“How so?” I asked, though I knew very well what he meant. We’d both made assumptions about the young woman after we’d talked to her on the phone and after Sage had managed to coax some tidbits of information out of her, giving us some insight into her life.

For starters, she was young… very young. At nearly forty myself, I knew I was almost twenty years her senior. I’d felt like an old man after pursuing Sage who was twelve years younger than me, but with Daisy I’d positively be a lecher.

With Daisy?

What the hell was I even thinking?

Despite her youth, the young woman seemed to be very much alone in this world, though technically as an employee of Ronan Grisham, she would never really be alone.

Sage himself was pretty talented when it came to computers and he’d managed to dig up some information on the girl who, up until today, we’d only ever heard through the muffled speaker of a cell phone.

The product of a single mother, Daisy had been left alone in the world three years earlier after her mother had been raped and murdered by two men who’d frequented the restaurant the woman had worked at.

Daisy had barely been eighteen at the time and instead of trying to figure out how to move forward without the guidance of the one constant in her life, she’d gone seeking vengeance.

And she’d nearly paid for it with her life.

It was information Sage had found when he and Maverick “Mav” James had been helping Ronan sort through some of the files left by the previous IT resource, Benny.

There’d been a file on Daisy, and Sage had studied it incessantly until he’d pieced together the facts.

Daisy Washburne had once been a client of Ronan’s underground vigilante group, but somehow, she’d managed to join it.

It didn’t take a genius to determine that her skills with a computer had gotten her the gig.

I guessed that it was the combination of Daisy’s vulnerability, talent, and drive that had caught Sage’s interest. The fact that she’d rebuffed his shameless attempts to flirt with her had likely been the reason he’d grown increasingly obsessed with the woman.

And I had to admit, I was finding myself more and more intrigued by the young hacker. And the fact that she looked nothing like the skinny goth girl I’d imagined did nothing but stir my interest.

With her long chestnut hair, curvy figure, and heart-shaped face, I’d been hard-pressed not to let Sage have a go at her.

It wouldn’t be the first time we’d brought someone else into our bed for a little bit of fun.

But it would have been the first time that it might have been more than that.

No, I wasn’t as enamored with Daisy as Sage was, but having spent the last couple of hours watching her navigate all the social norms that came with attending a wedding, I doubted it would take much to put me on the same path.

It had been a long time since I’d been attracted to a woman, though it wasn’t an unheard-of thing for me.

Before Sage, I’d been with plenty of women, men, even both at the same time.

But men had always been my preference because I found they could handle my needs a little better than the average woman.

Even Sage, who was a good four inches shorter than my own six three and who I easily had forty pounds on, hadn’t initially stirred my sexual interest. But that was only because I’d been sure he wouldn’t be able to handle my darker needs.

He’d handled them.

He’d more than handled them.

In fact, he’d welcomed them, and he’d spurred me on to show him every base need I had in me and then some.

Even as I’d fucked him for the first time, I’d been sure it would be a one-time thing.

But within minutes of pulling free of his body, I’d wanted him again and instead of pushing me away, he’d urged me to take him again, only even harder.

It hadn’t mattered what position I’d put him in, what I’d said to him as I’d fucked into him over and over again, how many times I’d come while ordering him not to, Sage had never denied me.

And what’s more, he’d craved everything I’d done to him.

He’d gotten off on it. It was only later that I’d learned he’d needed it just as badly as me, more so, even.

And he’d never once argued with me about calling the shots in our relationship, especially in bed.

I’d been certain that my obsessive need to dominate him would end us before we’d really gotten started, but for reasons unknown to me at the time, Sage had thrived under my hand. And while our relationship wasn’t about pain or humiliation, it was something most wouldn’t understand.

Like the pleasure we took in bringing a third to our bed every now and then.

It wasn’t something I needed and I doubted Sage needed it either, but it was something we both enjoyed and our relationship was strong enough that it actually brought us closer together rather than pulling us apart.

But even with our thirds, I had strict rules, which Sage had readily agreed to.

For starters, I never let anyone fuck Sage.

It was a hard limit I’d set from day one and I’d been certain it would be a non-starter for Sage, but he’d had no issue with it.

I did let Sage fuck other guys and, on occasion, women, but I was never a passive participant.

I was always either fucking Sage at the time or I was getting my dick sucked by our plaything.

My favorite thing, though, was to fuck our third while Sage watched.

There was nothing more beautiful than my man pleasuring himself, riding the edge of his lust, but refusing to let himself go over until I gave him express permission to do so.

And I rarely gave him that permission, preferring instead to bring him his pleasure myself.

The intricacies of our relationship remained primarily in the bedroom, though there were occasions when it would bleed into our everyday lives.

As strong and as vivacious as Sage was, there were times where he’d need more, and his need had nothing to do with sex.

I knew it came from the darkness of his past, though he’d never confirmed it.

Just like he hadn’t needed an explanation for why I required sexual subservience – though I’d eventually told him – I never required him to voice the demons that drove him, though I was pretty sure I knew what they were.

“I expected…” Sage began, but then his voice dropped off.

“You expected,” I said, waiting patiently.

I felt his eyes on me. “She’s so confident on the phone…calls me on my shit.”

I chuckled but didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t expect her to be so…uncertain,” he finally said.

I didn’t miss the thread of hurt in his voice. It was a definite sign that his interest in the young woman wasn’t merely sexual.

It should have bothered me more than it did.

But even though I had an almost vital need to control Sage in our bed, I had no interest in controlling his future.

Even though it would likely kill me if his feelings for Daisy ended up being stronger than what he felt for me, I’d accept that.

Because despite the fact that Sage was brutally loyal, he hadn’t ever admitted his true feelings to me.

In my heart, I believed that he loved me, but while I’d shared those words with him many times, he had yet to do the same.

If I didn’t know him as well as I did, I wouldn’t have been as confident as I was that his feelings were the same as mine.

Because while Sage desperately needed to give up control, he’d never been able to give up all of himself.