Guardian Daddy (MC Daddies #13)

Chapter 1

1

E than Stone was going to kill his brother-in-law.

“What do you mean you’re going to a concert on your own? At night?” he grumbled into the phone. “That’s not happening. What is Stu thinking? Where is he?”

“Ethan! I’m nearly twenty-nine years old. If I want to go to a concert, I will.”

There was a part of him that was aware he was acting irrationally. But he’d always been that way when it came to Lana. She would always be his baby sister. No matter how old she was.

“I don’t care if you’re twenty-nine or eighty-nine,” he countered. “It’s not safe.”

“I’m going with three friends. We have a sober driver. And I’ve packed my mace.”

Well. He supposed that was something.

“You’ll stick with your friends at all times?”

“Yes.”

“You won’t get into a car with a stranger?”

“Of course not.”

“Or drink anything that is handed to you or has been out of your sight?”

“I won’t.”

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. His head was pounding. “Fine, you can go.”

“Jeez, thanks, Dad,” his younger sister said sarcastically.

“Don’t be a brat.” He still wasn’t impressed that her husband wasn’t going with her.

“Ethan?”

“Yeah?”

“You need to stop worrying about me so much. I’m all grown up and I’m fine. Nothing bad will happen.”

But that was just it. Something could happen. Something bad could happen at any time and she should be prepared for that. Lana thought he was a worrywart, but he thought she didn’t worry enough.

“Just be careful.”

“I will. Now, go do something fun. Maybe find yourself a girl, so then you can concentrate on smothering her in protection instead of me, yeah?”

He ended the call, still grumbling as he walked out of his office at Callahan Security.

He didn’t want to go home.

Was he turning into a workaholic?

Or is it because you live in a barren, empty apartment with no warmth.

He could go to the club, but that wasn’t very appealing either.

What the fuck was wrong with him? Was he having a midlife crisis at thirty-eight?

Did he need to go buy a red sportscar? Get a new look?

As he walked past Brody’s office at Callahan Security, he saw the younger man slumped over his desk.

“Brody? What are you still doing here?” he asked as he walked into the room.

Brody sat up suddenly, causing his arm to fly out and knock over a half-full bowl of ramen noodles.

“Oh. Shoot!” Getting on his knees, the younger man started scooping up the noodles.

Stone shook his head as he crouched next to him. “Leave it, man. I’ll clean it up. You should go home.”

Brody straightened, banging his head on the underside of his desk. “Ouch. Crap. Owie.”

That had to hurt.

“Be careful.” He winced at the note of scolding in his voice.

Fuck.

Brody wasn’t his sub or his Little. But he often triggered Stone’s Daddy Dom instincts. It didn’t help that Brody wasn’t very good at taking care of himself. And that Stone liked taking care of other people.

“Here, let me help.” He grasped hold of Brody’s forearm and pulled him up.

Stone felt his presence before he heard him.

A whisper of darkness.

The promise of pain.

“Don’t touch what belongs to me.”

Fuck.

This is why he needed to stop letting his Daddy instincts overtake him around Brody.

Because Callahan Security’s tech guy already had a Daddy.

A psychotic assassin Daddy.

Ethan stepped slowly back from Brody, who huffed out a breath.

“Fox,” Brody scolded. “Don’t scare Stone.”

“I wouldn’t need to scare him if he wasn’t touching you.”

“He was just helping me. I fell asleep while I was working. And when Stone woke me up, I accidentally spilled noodles everywhere. I was trying to clean them up, but I banged my head and, well, here we are . . .”

Ethan wasn’t sure if Brody was trying to help or hinder him. Ethan had never directly interacted with the Fox, but he knew enough to be concerned.

“You banged your head?” the Fox asked.

The other man didn’t step out of the shadows and Ethan didn’t fully turn to look at him.

It was safer not to.

For Stone.

He was pretty sure the Fox was now to his left rather than behind him. Although it was hard to tell. He hated not being able to see him clearly.

“Yeah. It hurts.”

“Brody! Are you ready to go home?” Autumn bounced into the room. She came to a stop as she saw Ethan, moving closer to where the Fox was lurking.

“Oh, hi, Mr. Stone. I didn’t know there was anyone still here,” Autumn said.

“Call me Stone or Ethan,” he told her.

“Stop flirting with my girl, Stone,” the Fox warned in a low voice.

Ethan tensed. Holy. Fuck. “I wasn’t. I was just talking to her.”

“Daddy!” Autumn chided. “Stop scaring Mr. Stone. He’s a very nice man.”

A very nice man?

Stone grimaced. Damned by faint praise. He would rather be sexy. Dangerous. Gorgeous.

Nice?

No, he wasn’t nice.

The Fox grunted. “First, he touches my Pup, then he flirts with my Bunny. You don’t want to breathe for much longer, huh, Stone?”

Ethan closed his eyes. Why? Why him? Right now, he could’ve been at the club with a sub on her knees, getting ready to suck him off.

Although, for some reason that was becoming less and less appealing. He’d been going to the club for years and he’d always found the club a good mood stabilizer.

No matter what else was going on in his life, the club was his constant. Where he felt in control.

But he now found himself . . . disinterested.

Indifferent.

He was the guy everyone came to with their problems.

Mr. Fixer. With all the answers.

If he didn’t have something to keep him grounded . . .

Fuck. He was worrying about nothing. Maybe he just had ‘Dom block.’ Like writer’s block.

Yeah. That’s all this was.

A temporary issue that would hopefully go away soon.

Perhaps after a vacation.

Opening his eyes, he spotted Brody glaring at something to the side and behind him.

Not something.

Someone.

The Fox.

“Fox, we’ve talked about this,” Brody chided. “You can’t scare our friends.”

“Brody is right,” Autumn said. “We have to be nice to our friends or they won’t want to be our friends anymore.”

“Of course they will,” the Fox drawled. “I’ll make them.”

Dear Lord.

He wondered if they ever intended to have children.

Just imaging the Fox with a child gave him chills.

A baby.

A girl baby.

Holy. Heck.

Parent-teacher conferences would be a nightmare.

Play dates would be a minefield.

He fought off that terrifying thought.

“Papa,” Brody said.

“Fine, Pup,” the Fox said gruffly. “I’ll let your friend leave. But no flirting with my babies, Stone.”

Ethan didn’t bother to protest that he hadn’t been flirting in the first place. He just breathed out a sigh of relief as they left.

Then he sat in Brody’s chair.

Yeah, he definitely needed a vacation.