Chapter 6
Shawn wasn’t in the break room at the end of my shift.
I’d been working for the last five days, and for the first time, he wasn’t there like he usually was.
Is he bored of me already? the pessimistic side wondered, but I kept a tight smile on my face while I changed out of my uniform in the locker room.
Marty talked to a couple of the girls, making sure to include me in the conversation.
I nodded and smiled in all the right moments.
When I’d first met Marty, she’d scared me a little.
She wasn’t afraid to walk in late from what I could see and she called it like it was.
She was who I wanted to be when I grew up.
She was awesome.
Once we were dressed and ready to go, Griffin was waiting for Marty in the hall.
And still no Shawn.
I wanted to ask Griffin if he knew where Stone was but decided not to. He wasn’t mine. Not technically. Other than cuddling and sharing the same bed, we hadn’t done anything else. He hadn’t referred to himself as daddy or kissed my forehead since that first day we’d met.
The three of us walked together to the elevator and up to the rooms. Shawn had insisted on giving me a key of my own that very first day just in case he wasn’t around, and now I guess it was good he’d thought ahead.
Up until the end of my shift, I’d thought Shawn and I were okay.
That he was being sweet and respectful keeping his hands mostly to himself even though I hadn’t asked him to.
But now, I wasn’t so sure. Was he done with me?
Should I ask Marty or one of the girls I’d met in housekeeping about renting a place?
I wouldn’t need much. I would even be up for renting a single room or a trailer somewhere.
“Hey, Jessie?” Marty called out, snapping me out of my head.
“What?” I cleared my throat, trying to rack my brain and remember what she’d been saying.
“Where did you go just now?” she asked as we walked off the elevator. Concern flashed in her eyes, and I shook my head with a smile. She might be scary sometimes, but it was obvious she had a very sweet side with those she liked. Lucky for me, it seemed I might be on the list.
“I’m sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I was just…” My voice drifted to nothing because I couldn’t get myself to tell Marty about Shawn. Not that she didn’t know about my connection with Stone. Everyone in the casino knew. He’d made it abundantly clear I was under his protection that very first day.
Maybe he is regretting it now?
“Thinking about a bearded biker?” she guessed. My face brightened and I snuck a glance at Griffin. He was looking at me, too, with a smile on his face.
“Yeah, she was,” he teased. I wanted a huge black hole to suck me up. Marty being Marty elbowed him in his nonexistent gut because the guy was all crazy muscle. “Ouch, babe. Jesus.”
“Leave her alone,” she scolded before turning her attention back to me. “Don’t listen to him. You good?”
“Yeah, of course. Work’s good. Life’s good.” I smiled and noticed something flash in Griffin’s eyes.
“Stone had a couple errands he needed to run,” he shared. “Just in case you were wondering.” He shrugged.
“Oh.” Relief and something else washed through me. “That’s… that’s good.” I mean, I wished he had waited for me to go with him. I felt bratty thinking it, but I hadn’t left the casino since we’d arrived, not even to the rooftop or a parking lot for some fresh air and sunshine, but oh well.
Maybe the cost of having to feed me and keep me under his roof was too much for him? Maybe he hadn’t wanted me to go with him because he was worried I’d ask for stuff. I was working, but it would be another week until I’d get a paycheck.
“You have your key?” Marty asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah.” I showed it to her as we approached the door of Stone’s room. “Thanks for walking me.” I meant it. It was nice to make friends. After I graduated and my mom go sick, I’d lost touch with my girls, and it only got worse as my stepdad isolated us more and more.
“You’re on our way to this guy’s place.” Marty winked, grinning up at her guy. They were a really cute couple. “I’ll see you Monday,” she said, and I waved them goodbye. I pressed the keycard to the door and stepped inside, completely surprised by what was on the other side.
“Oh my god.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. “What…”
“You like it?” Shawn’s deep voice sounded, and my head turned quickly to notice him in the small kitchen area of his one-bedroom suite-like space.
“Shawn.” I slightly jumped, my back hitting the door I’d just shut. Approval flashed in his pretty, blue eyes before he pushed off the countertop and slowly started to head in my direction.
“Do you?” he asked again. I forced myself to look away from Shawn and really take in the space.
The small living area had been transformed into something I thought only existed in whimsical Pinterest boards or aesthetically-pleasing social media accounts.
He’d added a small couch, one that looked oversized, with an ottoman that was so big it almost seemed like a bed in the living room in front of the TV.
Warm twinkling lights hung off the wall behind the couch and glowed in the dimly lit room, giving it almost an ethereal or fairy-like ambiance.
And on the couch was a Squishmallow, one that looked so damn familiar, my eyes burned in the back of my head.
The little brown and white boba drink had a pink highland cow sitting next to it that had a sunflower pinned on its collar.
“Shawn, how… why I mean…” I felt like an idiot. My brain couldn’t seem to process the scene in front of me. Like it was stuck buffering to make sense of what I was seeing.
“For you.”
“Me?” I touched my chest with the tips of my fingers before having to bend my neck to look back up at him when he stood right in front of me.
“You.” He nodded, taking my hand in his. He lifted it and brought it up to his lips. The warm firm press of his mouth on my skin felt electric.
“You’re not tired of me?” I blurted out like a needy moron.
“What?” Horror struck his face. “Why would you think that?”
“You weren’t there today,” I explained. His brows bunched.
“After work. You’re always there and we come up together, but when you weren’t there today, I thought…
I thought you had second thoughts about me.
That maybe you wanted me gone,” I confessed, because when it came to Shawn, I didn’t have it in me to hold things back from him.
“Babe, no.” He shook his head, and before I knew it, his face was eye level with mine.
Not because he bent down but because his two hands dropped to my hips and lifted me up.
My legs instinctively wrapped around his middle as he carried me to the dining area taking a seat on one of the chairs, making me straddle his thighs, my chest pressed close to his.
The chair groaned beneath our weight, but he didn’t seem concerned.
Well, not about the chair snapping under us, at least.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Jessie. I thought I would be back and set up in time, but by the time I was done with your surprise, Griffin texted me that you guys were on your way up on the elevator.”
“Oh.” Heat hit my face. How could I have let my thoughts get the better of me? “You did all that“—I waved behind me— “for me?”
“Baby girl, there isn’t a fucking thing I wouldn’t do for you.”
“Shawn.”
“Daddy,” he corrected, and the temperature in the room kicked up a couple of degrees.
“Daddy,” I repeated. I bit down on my bottom lip, but Shawn, or Daddy, wasn’t having that. His thumb pried my lip free with a look that shouted, don’t hurt yourself! “I wasn’t sure you still… wanted to, umm… You haven’t—“
“I know.” His deep voice was steady with confidence. “I wanted to give you some time to settle. To feel safe—“
“Shawn—“
“Honestly, I probably should give you more time, but turns out daddy only has so much patience before having his princess exactly where he wants her.” A tingle shot right through me.
“And where is that?” I asked, scotting closer to him, my hands on his shoulders, not missing the thick bulge pressing against the material of my jeans.
“This is pretty perfect right now, gotta say.” My face almost hurt from the smile that grew.
“Really?” There was something about the way he looked at me, the way he praised me, that made it even more special.
“Yeah, really,” he rasped. “You worked hard all week, twelve-hour shifts, and you jumped into it like it was nothing.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“It is.” I knew he meant it. “And in our family, you and me and whatever the future has in store for us, we celebrate every fucking win.” Oh man, he was sweet.
“Family?” I asked because suddenly, the pressure and expectations rocketed into something I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
“Team?” he asked. “Is that a word that would make you more comfortable? Either way, it means the same thing.”
“What?” I swallowed.
“That you’re mine and I’m most definitely yours, princess.”
“So… date night is to celebrate my work week?”
“Your first work week. You impressed everyone, including Mary. She’s a tough nut to crack in general, much less your first week on the job.”
“Oh.” I relaxed, leaning forward. My hands shook slightly as they ran through his soft beard. “I like us being a team,” I shared softly.
I was a little overwhelmed, but in the best way possible. This man, this big, beautiful man, not only wanted me and looked at me like I was the only thing he was capable of seeing but backed it up with every single action and every word he uttered.
“I like us being a team, too.” He smiled before leaning forward. His lips hovered right over mine, and my breathing changed as anticipation stirred in my veins. My lips tingled to feel his mouth on mine. “Soon,” he promised, his tone sinfully rough.
“Okay.” I swallowed, pulling back a bit.
“Ready for your first surprise tonight?”
“First?” My eyes widened. “Wasn’t that my surprise?” I wondered, glancing at the gorgeous set-up by the couch.
“Nope. That’s our movie night.” He grinned, answering a question I hadn’t even needed to voice out loud. “Head to our room, take a shower, and put on what I left on the bed for you. And only what I left on the bed.” I squirmed on his lap, rolling my hips against his hard length.
Shit, the last thing I wanted to do was get off his lap.
Getting off on his lap sounded so much better. I gasped at how good he felt. How right. How I could definitely see my hips writhing against him, my pussy lined up against his cock before…
“Princess,” he groaned, snapping me out of my dirty thoughts. His fingers gripped my thighs tighter as he pressed his forehead against mine. “First, your surprise,” he reminded me. Himself. The both of us probably.
“Right.” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. My eyes fluttered shut as his thick long fingers ran through my short hair.
“Be my good girl and do what I said before I pick you up, flip you onto our couch, and tear those clothes off your body before burying my face between your thighs and gorging myself on your sweet little pussy.” My nipples tightened under my white utilitarian sports bra.
I was just about to ask if we could go with option two, when he shook his head like some kind of daddy mind reader.
“Up.” He patted my ass, and I did as he asked.
“You going to be my good girl for me?” I nodded.
“Go.” His head tipped to the room, and I forced my feet to move.
To go along with whatever he had planned instead of pouncing on him and crushing my mouth to his before falling on my knees to beg him to show me what happened to good girls when they didn’t listen.