The Rogue and His Flower (Princetown Heirs #2)

Chapter 30

DALTON

CHAPTER THIRTY

“You have a lot of explaining to do!” my father grinds out, pointing to the chair opposite him as he steeples his hands on the desk and glares at me. We’ve been home no more than an hour and he’s already demanded I meet him in office like a naughty fucking kid, or worse still, an errant employee. Thank fuck Daisy went to rest after our long journey home, because she doesn’t need to be here for this.

“There’s nothing to explain. Daisy and I went on our honeymoon, and now we’re back,” I retort, settling in the seat and folding my arms across my chest. “Oh, and we had a great time, thank you for asking.”

“Not much to explain?! You walked out on your wedding day and left me with over two hundred fucking guests to deal with!” he explodes, his skin flushing a furious shade of red. “Not to mention the press.”

“Your wedding guests,” I remind him as I level my gaze with his. “Apart from a handful, none of them were people that Daisy and I would’ve chosen to attend our wedding. As for the fucking press–”

“A wedding I paid for, alongside your damn honeymoon,” he reminds me, cutting me off.

“Actually, I paid for our honeymoon. Not you,” I retort, fucking bristling.

He barks out a laugh. “With the money I pay you to run my hotel. Don’t get fucking smart with me, son.”

I grit my teeth, hating how he always throws that back in my face, as if nothing I earn could ever truly belong to me. It’s always his money, his business, his fucking rules.

“You brought the press to our wedding reception. There was no way I was putting Daisy through that bullshit.”

“Why the fuck do you care? All you had to do was show up at the church, marry her, and act as a doting husband at the wedding reception.”

“I care about Daisy,” I say, meeting his gaze head on.

“Bullshit. She’s a means to an end. You know that as well as I do. This is an arrangement, a marriage of convenience. The sooner you get her impregnated with my grandchild, the better. So, have you fucked her yet?” he asks, an evil grin sliding across his face as he leans back in his chair.

“That’s none of your fucking business,” I snap back.

“I think you’ll find it’s exactly my business. So have you?”

“No,” I lie

His smile widens. “And there I was thinking you’d be happy to have some pussy on demand. Just fuck her, and get the damn job done.”

“Enough!” I snap. “She’s my wife, and I will not allow you to talk about her like that. She’s not someone you can use and toss aside once you’ve got what you wanted from her.”

He leans forward, his face contorted with anger. “You don’t get to play the devoted husband now, Dalton. You went into this knowing full well how it was going to play out. Marry Daisy, impregnate her, divorce her once the child hits a year old, and, meanwhile, represent the Gunn family in the way I fucking expect!”

I clench my fists, rage like nothing else I’ve experienced before boiling my blood. “Daisy belongs by my side. So like it or fucking not, that’s the way it’s going to stay,” I shout, pushing upright, my chair toppling over from the force of my anger.

He looks up at me, eyes narrowing. “Please don’t tell me you’ve gone soft and fallen for her? She is not your future. We both know she doesn’t belong in our world.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. She is my future, and when we bring a child into this world, we’ll be doing it together as a married fucking couple. There’ll be no divorce, not in a year’s time. Not ever.”

He snorts, leaning back in his chair, regarding me with a mixture of disdain and contempt. “You really think you’re capable of being with one woman for the rest of your life? Don’t be so fucking foolish. You’re my son, after all. The Gunn men aren't built for marriage, let alone spending our days with one person. You’ll realise this soon enough.

“I may be your son, but I am not like you,” I grind out, striding towards the door.

“You keep telling yourself that, but you forget I know you. You’ll tire of her eventually,” he throws back, and I don’t need to see his face to know he’s smirking. “Now, I’ll be out for the rest of the evening. Make sure you get this done.”

Reaching for the handle, I yank open the door before throwing a look over my shoulder. “You don’t know me at all. You never bothered to take the time too, so do not sit there and think that you do, because, father, I will show you exactly the man I am if pushed too far. Enjoy your fucking evening.”

With that I step out into the hallway, slamming the door behind me.

I cautiously push open Daisy's bedroom door, but hesitate in the doorway. Daisy is sound asleep, her face nestled in her hand and her legs curled up against her body. I long to join her in bed, to hold her close and wrap my arms around her, but I’m still fuming with anger from my heated argument with my father, and I don't think I have the energy to contain all of my emotions if I wake her up. She doesn’t need to know about the argument. So, reluctantly, I gently shut the door and head to my bedroom at the far end of the hallway.

Right now I could really do with a friend, and making a decision, I pick up my phone and dial Drix’s number. After a few rings he answers.

“Dalton?” he questions.

“We’re home. I thought you should know.”

“Where’s Daisy? I’ve called but she hasn’t answered.”

“Asleep. She’s tired after the long journey.”

“Can you ask her to call me when she wakes up?” he says, and by the tone of his voice, I know he’s about to put the phone down on me.

“Listen, Drix. Can we talk, clear the air?” I ask, heaving out a sigh as I pinch the bridge of my nose.

The line goes quiet, and I hear his muffled words as he says something to Lia, no doubt. “You’ve got five minutes. Make it good,” he says.

“I–”

“What Dalton?”

My throat squeezes and I fucking drop my head, struggling to find the damn words. The fight with my father has affected me more than I thought it would. It’s not like I haven’t argued with him before, but this is different. The shit he said about Daisy… I’m ready to commit murder, and I just need to talk it out. Except I can’t tell Drix what the bastard said because he’ll come here and do the job before I can, and I need to be smart about how I deal with that fucking arsehole. I need to bide my time, play him at his own game, and when the time comes I will ruin his fucking life, just likes he’s trying to ruin mine and Daisy’s relationship.

“I miss you, man,” I say instead, throwing it out there. It’s the truth at least. He sighs, and I rise to my feet, pacing. “I know you still fucking hate me–”

“I don’t hate you,” he concedes. “But I do love my sister, very fucking much, and I’m worried for her, okay? I know you.”

“Fuck, not you too,” I say, gritting my teeth. “I’m not… I won’t… I fucking…”

“Dalton, you have to look at this from my point of view. All the women you’ve been with, who you’ve fucked around over the years. I’ve seen it all,” he reminds me.

“This isn’t the same.”

“What, because you’re married now?”

“Yes. She’s my wife, Drix. I won’t do that to her,” I say vehemently.

“I want to believe you, Dalton, but–”

“I love her,” I blurt out, the words tripping off my tongue before I can stop them. Bending over, I drag in a deep lungful of air, winded by the confession. If it surprises me, then it sure as fuck surprises Drix given the long pause at the end of the line.

“Say that again,” he eventually says.

“I’m in love with your sister, Drix. I fucking love her, and it’s scaring the shit out of me,” I admit, straightening up, forcing strength into my spine.

“You love Daisy?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” he asks.

“What kind of question is that?” I throw back in frustration.

“I want to know why you love her. Tell me why,” he insists.

“Because she’s good, kind, strong. So fucking strong,” I begin, feeling out the words, searching for the all the reasons why I love Daisy, and finding them easily. “Because she makes me laugh like no one else has. Because she challenges me to be a better man. Because she is so colourful that she makes my fucking grey world brighter. I’m not just talking about what she wears, even though I love her style, I’m talking about her. She’s like a fucking rainbow on a stormy day, rare yet overwhelmingly beautiful.”

“She is,” he agrees, and I can hear the smile in his voice as he asks, “What else?”

“Because she looks at me like I’m someone worth loving. Because when I look at her everyone else just disappears. Because the thought of her carrying our child fills me with the kind of peace I’ve never felt before. Because she turns me on. Because I don’t just want to fuck her, I want to make love to her.”

Drix clears his throat at that, and I know it must make him feel uncomfortable at how attracted I am to Daisy, but honestly I don’t fucking care. It’s the truth.

“I love her. I love Daisy so fucking much and I’m terrified of messing this up,” I say, my heart pounding so loud I can barely hear his response.

“That’s the easy part,” Drix eventually says.

“What is?” I ask, dropping to the bed, my legs giving way beneath me.

“Falling in love,” he says. “That’s easy.”

“Not for me it isn’t,” I reply.

He hums, and I can imagine his expression as he deliberates my response. “Maybe so,” he agrees. “But I’m telling you now, this is just the beginning. If you love her as much as you say you do–”

“I do,” I reply adamantly.

“Then you have to be willing to love her through everything, and as contrived as it sounds, you have to love her through the good times, the bad, the mediocre, the everyday, because she deserves nothing less.”

“I will,” I say forcefully. “I will do that. I want to.”

“Being in love, loving someone is like the ocean, Dalton,” he says. “It can rage and it can be still, calm. You have to be prepared to weather the storm, to ride the wave. You have to be gentle, to be supportive and lift her up, because believe me when I say, she will need you to carry her when she’s unable to do that herself. Love isn’t fleeting, it’s not a passing phase. Love is eternal, it is bottomless. So when you say you love my sister, Dalton, do you truly mean it?”

“I mean it. I fucking mean it,” I insist, pushing upright, feeling a surge of love for Daisy overwhelm me in that moment. It eddies through me, sets every cell on fire. It’s consuming, exhilarating, yet peaceful, serene. “I feel it. I feel it, Drix. You have to believe me. I love Daisy. I fucking love her!”

He blows out a long breath. “Well, this changes things.”

“It does,” I agree. “What the fuck should I do?”

“Does she know?”

“That I love her. No.”

“Don’t you think you should tell her?”

“Yes, but how?”

“Use your words, Dalton. Then act upon them. Just love her.”

“I’m going to. I do. I will,” I say.

“Does she love you back?” he asks.

“Yes. She told me she loved me, and I swear to you, I swear on our twenty-year friendship that I’ve never felt more at peace when I heard her say those words to me. For the first time in my life, I felt wanted. It felt like coming home. She’s my home.”

“You’re a lucky man, Dalton,” he says with a soft laugh.

“I know that…”

He lets out a long breath. “Then make her happy, that’s all I’ve ever wanted for her.”

“I will,” I say. Silence descends between us and nerves coil in my stomach. “Shit. How the hell am I going to do this?”

“Don’t dwell on it, Dalton. Don’t wait. If life has taught me anything, you have to live it now. Be in the present, don’t second guess, just do. Go and claim the woman you love,” Drix urges.

I don’t bother to reply. I simply click off the call and stride towards Daisy’s bedroom ready to open up, ready to lay everything bare, ready to make her truly mine.