Chapter 1
Ruby
Flying high on the lovely buzz drinking a little too much wine always gave her, Ruby waved goodbye to her rideshare driver as stumbled up the steps to the house she shared with Beckett Stone, her boyfriend and Daddy.
The way-too-big, way-too-expensive house she’d once viewed as yet another gilded cage a man with more money than God wanted to lock her in.
Now, though, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Even when Beckett was in overprotective Daddy mode, the way he’d been ever since the craziness with Cordelia and Jacob and the cult they’d escaped had started, he was still the best man she’d ever known.
He was her comfort and her accountability and her soft place to land when life got a little too hard.
He was home. And it was both as simple and as baffling as that.
Before she could even reach for the front door, it swung open, and there he was. Grinning down at her with that boyish smile she’d fallen head over heels in love with well before she’d been willing to admit it to herself.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
Returning his grin with her own, she let herself fall forward, confident he would catch her. Which he did, of course, even if he did stumble backward a bit in the process. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Hey there, pretty girl. Have a good time with your friends?”
“Uh-huh. So much fun.” Giggling, she pulled away, spinning so that the dress she’d sworn up and down that she didn’t want because fuck was it a lot of money, twirled around her legs. “Ivy was naughty, though. She locked Cordelia out of the house.”
Beckett turned away from the front door, his mouth falling open. “She did not.”
“She did! I swear! It was so funny. Well, I thought it was funny but I don’t think Cordelia did.
She took Ivy upstairs and they were gone forever and Ivy was blushing so hard when they came back down.
Whoops.” Slapping a hand over her mouth, she smothered a giggle.
“I’m prob’ly not supposed to tell you that.
What happens at girls’ night stays at girls’ night. ”
“Your secret is safe with me, Ruby Red. But we should probably get you to bed so you’re not hating yourself in the morning.”
“Awww but the night is still young! And so are we!”
“Be that as it may…” Chuckling, he slid an arm around her waist and guided her toward the stairs. “You need sleep since you have to be at the hotel at an ungodly hour tomorrow for reasons that still escape me.”
“It’s ‘cause Lottie’s getting married!”
“Yes, she is, and unless you want to be standing up there beside her with bags under your eyes, you’ll get your ass in bed.”
They’d reached the bedroom at that point, and she took the opportunity to spin away from him again, grinning as she did so. “Who’s gonna make me?”
Hunger flashed in his eyes, those deep pools of brown she could lose herself in. “Naughty girl. You know I’m not going to spank you when you’re this far gone.”
“Aww, spoilsport.”
Snagging her around the waist, he yanked her toward him, his lips hovering just over hers.
“I won’t spank you tonight. But if you don’t get that gorgeous ass of yours in bed, I will start my morning by dragging you over my knee and turning your ass red.
And when you’re whining and crying and begging me to stop, I will bend you over and fuck that pretty ass, so you’re forced to walk down the aisle with your bottom full of Daddy’s cum.
Now, are you going to be a good girl for Daddy and get ready for bed? ”
Need throbbed between her thighs, and as tempted as she was to put that threat to the test, she wasn’t so buzzed she didn’t know how uncomfortable walking down the aisle with a sore, plugged ass would actually be. “Yes, Daddy.”
“That’s my good girl. Let’s get you into some comfy pajamas and wash your face. You’ll be pissed if you wake up in the morning with all your makeup still on.”
“Probably,” she agreed with another giggle as he led her toward the bathroom, where he proceeded to wipe her makeup off and wash her face.
And she was reminded why she’d fallen so hard for him so fast. As much as she enjoyed bratting him and the punishments that came with said bratting, she’d been helpless against the sweet, caregiving side of him. The Daddy side.
When her face was clean, she wrapped her arms around his waist, tilting her head back. “Kiss me.”
Lips curving up in a wicked smile, he hummed softly. “Is that how you ask your Daddy for something, Ruby Red?”
“Maybe,” she shot back with a cheeky smile of her own.
“You’re lucky you’re so damn cute when you’re drunk.” Pulling her close, he brushed a kiss over her lips. “Let’s get you in bed, silly girl.”
“Awww.”
“You’ll thank me in the morning.”
That was probably true, since he was right and she did have to be at the hotel super early. So she let him help her into a pair of her favorite pajamas and then into bed, but not before he forced a whole bottle of water and two painkillers on her.
“I need to finish cleaning and locking up downstairs. Your ass better still be in this bed when I come back up here.”
“Or what?”
The swat he landed to her pajama-covered ass was just hard enough to let her know exactly ‘or what’. “I’m starting to think maybe you need your bottom warmed in the morning, one way or another. Go to sleep, Ruby Red.”
“Mmm, ‘kay. Night, Daddy.”
“Goodnight, baby.”
She tried to sleep, but she felt a bit like a kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa to come.
The harder she tried to force herself to sleep, the more it eluded her.
One of her best friends was getting married in the morning, but not only that, it was her first wedding ever as an adult.
The man who’d come before Beckett had stripped her of those experiences, deliberately isolating her from the people she loved, and she was determined not to miss a minute of the celebration this time.
Even if Lottie and her wealth did still intimidate her a bit.
But, she realized as she lay there, she had a much more pressing issue at hand. Rolling out of bed, she stumbled toward the bathroom to relieve her bladder, which was feeling very, very full courtesy of all the wine she’d had at Lottie’s and the water Beckett had made her drink.
As she was washing her hands, her gaze landed on their toothbrushes, each in the exact right spot. Because her Daddy was a little ridiculous when it came to putting things in their places.
Giggling to herself, she moved their toothbrushes, and then the different tools and oils he used to keep his neatly trimmed beard looking all sleek and sexy.
In the bedroom, she looked around for anything else she could move around to irritate her Daddy in the morning. With any luck, he’d notice it all before they had to leave and she’d be treated to a nice, thorough spanking to help relieve her pre-wedding jitters.
Hmmm. Could they even be called jitters if it wasn’t her wedding?
With that question rolling around in her mind, she fumbled around the bedroom in the dark, guided only by the moonlight, moving various little things to random spots.
Satisfied she’d done everything possible to keep her Daddy on his toes, she collapsed into bed again, and finally fell deep into slumber.
Beckett
He’d set his alarm for well before Ruby’s, because he’d learned over the past eleven months that his girl was a rather delightful drunk but the resulting hangovers made her incredibly cranky.
Even with the water and the painkillers he’d poured down her throat the night before, she was bound to be feeling the effects of all that wine this morning.
Slipping from their bed, he made his way into the bathroom, mentally running down the checklist of things they needed to get done before they headed over to the hotel.
Shower, get dressed, coffee—not necessarily in that order, depending on how cranky his babygirl was—make sure they had everything they needed that hadn’t already been delivered to the hotel.
Oh, and the rings. Braden had used Beckett’s personal jeweler for his and Lottie’s wedding bands, and he’d been too busy to pick them up last week, so that task had been delegated to Beckett. Which hadn’t been a huge inconvenience, since he’d had something of his own to pick up anyway.
Butterflies fluttered in his stomach at the memory of the ring he’d picked out for his girl. A ruby, to match her name and fiery nature, surrounded by a halo of diamonds. He planned to give it to her on Christmas morning, but the waiting was proving harder and harder every day.
He was finishing up in the bathroom when he noticed the toothbrushes. It was a small thing, but Ruby knew damn well it was like an itch under his skin when anything was out of place. Which, of course, made it her favorite prank to play on him.
And it wasn’t just the toothbrushes this morning, either. Nothing on the sink was where it was meant to be, and as much as his palm itched to connect with his naughty girl’s bare bottom, putting everything to rights was the more immediate itch.
When the vanity was finally sorted out, he made his way back to the bedroom, where his babygirl was still dead to the world. Hair a mess, her mouth slightly open, she was hands down the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. It was almost a shame he had to wake her.
Almost.
Grinning as a plan formed in his mind, he stripped down to nothing before scooping her out of the bed and carrying her to the shower.
Ruby, he’d realized rather early on in their relationship, had a love-hate relationship with his shower.
When she was prepared for it, she loved the way the various jets beat at her muscles.
But when she wasn’t prepared, however…
Juggling her in his arms, he turned the temperature on the water down as low as it would go, set all the jets to full blast—
And braced himself.
She came alive in his arms, squealing and fighting to be let free as icy cold water pelted them from all sides. “Beckett, what the fuck! Let me go, you asshole!”
Laughing so hard he could barely breathe, he set her down and reached for the controls to bump the temperature to something more reasonable.
Well, reasonable for him, anyway. Ruby preferred being boiled alive in the shower, and he usually indulged her, but she hadn’t yet earned that particular luxury.
“Morning, Ruby Red. Enjoy your wake-up call?”
Standing in the middle of the shower, her pajamas soaked through, her dripping hair covering half her face, she glared at him. “You’re a fucking—”
“Careful.” He put a hint of warning in his tone, enough to have her pressing her lips together though fury still blazed hot in her eyes. “I was willing to let the first round of name-calling pass because I am, indeed, an asshole. But that’s the only free pass you get today.”
“At least you’re willing to admit it,” she grumbled, shoving her hair out of her face. “What the fuck was that all about?”
“That was payback for moving all my stuff around last night.”
Her nose crinkled in clear confusion, but only for a moment before her expression cleared and a sheepish smile tugged at her lips. “Oh. I did do that, didn’t I?”
“You did. Now, let’s get you out of those wet clothes so Daddy can help you… warm up.”