Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Lochlan
Fucking hell, she was beautiful. Even more so with her bright-red lipstick smeared all over her face and her eye makeup running down her cheeks. A beautiful fucking mess.
And all his.
Which meant pampering her a bit now that he’d so thoroughly debased her. He might be rough with his toys, but he still took care of them. “C’mon, babygirl. Let’s get you a shower.”
“Mmm, don’t wanna.” Humming softly, she buried her face in his chest, as if she was trying to get as physically close to him as she could possibly manage.
Adorable.
But as cute as she was, he needed to get her cleaned up and hydrated, maybe get some chocolate in her to ward off the coming adrenaline crash. “I know you don’t want to, babygirl, but you need to. Be a good girl for Daddy and do as you’re told.”
That did the trick. Groaning loudly, she pulled away and rolled out of bed, glaring down at him through bleary eyes. “Bossy.”
Climbing out of the bed behind her, he grinned. “Absolutely. And mean. Two things to keep in mind if you want to keep defying me.”
To accent his point, he gave her still-pink ass a hard slap that sent her scurrying toward the bathroom with a squeal.
The shower was more than big enough for both of them, so once the water was nice and warm, he nudged her into the stall and stepped in behind her.
“Brr.” Wrapping her arms around herself, she gave an exaggerated shiver. “Too cold. Turn it up.”
“Seriously?” It was plenty hot enough as far as he was concerned, but judging by the determined glare she sent his way, his babygirl did not agree. “All right, all right. If you want to be boiled alive, I suppose that’s your prerogative.”
He turned the heat up, wincing as the scalding water splashed over him, but his girl just sighed happily and tilted her head back.
“Much better. Thank you.”
“Anything for my babygirl.”
The smile on her face widened. “Keep talking like that, you might have to keep me.”
Pumping the provided body wash onto a washcloth, he ran the sudsy fabric down her arm. “Works for me.”
Her expression shifted, and even with her eyes still closed he could see the worry there. “You don’t mean that.”
He did. But clearly she wasn’t ready for that conversation. “Did you bring a bag with you?”
“What?” Blinking against the water dripping down her face, she stared up at him while he worked the washcloth over her shoulders, the soft planes of her chest.
“An overnight bag. I didn’t see one, and I assume you’ve got some feminine magic you usually work on your face.”
“Oh. Um. I wasn’t planning to stay the night.”
Pausing just above her heavy breasts, he frowned down at her. “You came to a hotel without planning to stay overnight?”
Panic flickered in her eyes. It was gone nearly as quickly as it came, but in his line of work a man learned to look for those quick bursts of emotions. The ones people tried to hide, but were never quite quick enough to keep them from showing at least for a second.
“I told you, I was just meeting a client for drinks. I live nearby.”
Right. She had told him that.
But if that was all there was to it, why the panic? And why did she suddenly seem so defensive?
Anyone else might have missed it, but not him. He noticed the way her shoulders hunched slightly forward, the way her jaw firmed like she was preparing for a fight.
Why brace yourself for a fight if you were telling the truth?
Every instinct he had was screaming at him that something was up. He just wasn’t sure what.
Pressing her would just put her more on the defensive though, so instead he just smiled, warm and reassuring. “Ah, that’s right. I forgot.” Moving on as if nothing were amiss, he slid the washcloth over her breasts, forcing himself not to linger, as much as he wanted to. “How’d the meeting go?”
“Good. I think we’re ready to move forward.”
“Forward with what?”
Her lips twitched. “Our project.”
“Mmm.” Taking her wrists in his hand, he backed her up against the shower wall, pinning her to the tile. “You’re being cagey, babygirl.”
“Maybe you’re just being nosy, Daddy.”
“Oh, I am definitely being nosy.” Down, down the washcloth went, over her stomach, down to that place between her legs where he’d found heaven.
Her pupils widened as he stroked the cloth over her clit, rolling the swollen nub beneath his finger.
“You asked what I do for a living? The answer is, I get paid to be nosy as fuck. Our competitors have secrets, I find out what those secrets are. Someone is looking to cut into our territory, I find out exactly how they’re planning to move in.
Everyone has secrets, but nobody manages to keep them from me for very long. ”
There it was again. A flicker of worry in the bright blue of her eyes.
Pressing her more firmly against the wall, he abandoned the washcloth to push two fingers into her slick heat. “Tell me your secrets, babygirl.”
“I-I don’t have any secrets.”
Liar.
“Everyone has secrets,” he repeated, drawing her arousal out, circling her clit as she shuddered beneath him. “Tell me yours and I’ll let you come.”
“When I was ten, I stole twenty dollars out of my mama’s purse so I could go see Jurassic World.”
Surprise had him going still. “Really? The dinosaur movie?”
“Yeah. I’m a sucker for a T-Rex on a rampage.” She rolled her hips against his hand. “I told you a secret. Can I have my orgasm now, Daddy?”
It wasn’t the secret he wanted. But she had told him a secret and while he might be a sadistic bastard, he was an honest one.
Mostly.
“Greedy little girl,” he said with a low chuckle as he resumed stroking her, working her into a frenzy right up against the tile wall.
Touching and teasing until she shattered, her screams echoing around the bathroom as she slumped against the wall, her chest rising and falling with deep, shuddering breaths.
“Come on, babygirl. Let’s finish getting you cleaned up.”
Daisy
Tell me your secrets, babygirl.
Those words haunted her well into the night, long after he’d fallen asleep and she remained awake, rolling the events of the evening around in her brain.
When she’d set out on this revenge plan, she hadn’t expected him to be so…
sweet. None of the men her mother dated were ever sweet.
She couldn’t imagine any of them ordering the entire room service menu just so she could have her pick of food when she woke up from a nap after being showered with more orgasms than she could count.
Then again, maybe that’s why her mother was still hung up on him twenty-plus years later. The love of her life, the one who got away.
She had a feeling she was going to be pretty hung up on him, too.
Like mother, like daughter.
Ugh.
Phone in hand, she stared down at the empty screen, debating her next move. She knew what that move was supposed to be, but after getting to know Tiernan, it just felt wrong. Like it somehow diminished everything they’d shared tonight.
But if she didn’t do it, then the whole night was pointless. Well, maybe not pointless considering she’d had some of the best sex of her entire life. And even if her mother never found out, she would know that she’d gotten her revenge.
Maybe that was enough.
Sighing quietly so she wouldn’t disturb him, she opened her phone and, as she often did, clicked on one of her many social media apps for her regularly scheduled doom scroll.
Weddings… babies… food… more food… even more food… cute cat videos… her mother straddling Daisy’s ex-fiancé in a hot tub, grinning over her shoulder at whoever was holding the camera.
Fuck.
The pain of seeing them together was like a physical blow to the stomach, just as deep and raw as it had been that first night she’d caught them together.
In the bed she’d shared with Derek, in the apartment she’d been paying for all on her own the past twelve months while he 'found himself’, whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean.
Clearly the universe was telling her to go ahead with her plan.
Flipping on the camera, she turned it around to selfie mode, giving herself a few minutes to fluff her hair so she looked appropriately rumpled.
Wishing she still had her ruined makeup to show off, she positioned herself next to Tiernan so both their faces were openly displayed.
And took the damn picture.
Technically she took about twenty, until she was sure she had one that would be social-media worthy.
Ignoring the pangs of guilt as she did so, she set the phone aside and slipped from the bed to gather her clothes.
Her panties were nowhere to be found and she didn’t want to risk turning the lights on, so she abandoned the search and resigned herself to making the drive of shame back home pantie-less.
When she was dressed again, she gave herself a long moment to simply watch him as he slept.
Fucking hell, he was gorgeous. And she knew, deep in her soul, that once she walked out that door, she’d never find another man like him.
Not just the physical beauty, but that combination of ruthless sadism and sweet caregiving she’d already fallen head over heels for.
Yeah, she was definitely more like her mother than she cared to admit.
Leaning over the bed, she brushed a kiss across his stubbled cheek.
“Goodbye… Daddy.”