Chapter 7 Jade
SEVEN
JADE
I couldn’t sit still after the night I’d had.
Never had I thought of doing what I’d done with a guy in a private room. Not even fantasized about it. I’d heard other dancers talk about things that happened under the old owner, but I’d never come close to even imagining myself in that position.
But Mr. Porter, Daddy or whatever his damn name was, was different.
My face had felt hot, and when I’d walked straight to the dressing room, I felt like every girl back there knew what I’d done.
I’d come.
Hard.
All over a perfect stranger, who happened to somehow be related to my boss. A man whose first name I didn’t even know and who had a sinfully dirty mouth. One who got me sopping wet!
Shit. What kind of stupid rabbit hole had I fallen into?
Rubbing my temples, I stared at the mailbox in the lobby. After tossing and turning in bed, I’d decided to be productive. I’d gone for a run on a treadmill in the gym downstairs and was now grabbing the mail from the little alcove near the lobby.
With my schedule, I hardly ever found time to grab it, so it was usually overflowing by the time I did.
I was just about to put my key into my slot when a name caught my eye from the box just below mine.
L. PORTER. Porter. My heart stalled in my chest, and I blinked.
L. PORTER. He lived right under me. That’s how these boxes were organized, weren’t they?
It was a coincidence. It had to be.
Porter was a common last name. Wasn’t it? My hands dropped to my sides as I turned and pressed my back against the boxes. He lives a floor beneath me? Daddy lived in the same building.
Dream about me. Play thinking about me. He’d said those dirty things not because he hoped that’s what I’d been doing after the night before or wishful thinking on his part. The back of my neck tingled as I tried to remember my dream last night.
The one in my bedroom after I’d played with myself and fantasized about a man in the corner. Had he been there? Watching me, whispering dirty things, making me come so hard from the corner of my room, I’d fallen right back to sleep.
No. I am being ridiculous. I shook my head even though every unsteady breath told me differently.
The front door opened, and I heard the doorman say hello.
A deep, all-too-familiar voice answered back.
I watched as his tall, imposing, muscular figure walked past the doorman, too much in a hurry to notice me by the mailboxes.
His strides were long and confident as he moved through the lobby and straight to the building’s elevator.
My hand rose to cover my lips. How was it that he was even more handsome under the unflattering fluorescent lights of the lobby?
Daddy’s eyes bounced towards the door of the stairs, and impatience radiated off him.
He was in a hurry.
To get to me? To get home? Or is it one and the same?
I’d felt like someone had been watching me. Could it really be him? Could this L. Porter, my daddy, actually be a stalker?
My stalker? The thought should have terrified me. Should have made me taking my cell phone out of my pocket to call the police. At the very least call Kitty or Opal. Shit. My cousin Citrine was studying to be a lawyer; she would tell me exactly what I should do. But I didn’t do that.
I didn’t move.
I couldn’t even get myself to blink as I watched him tap his foot impatiently as he stared at the elevator like he was willing it to open with his mind.
I couldn’t look away. This opportunity of being able to look at him, soak in as much as I could, almost felt like a gift.
I breathed in and exhaled slowly, cataloging everything I could about him.
From the style of shoes he wore to the shape of his hands and the way he strummed his fingers against his thighs.
He was gorgeous.
Grounding myself, I tried to process everything. Figure out what it was that I actually felt at the discovery this stranger I’d met wasn’t really a stranger even though I didn’t know his first name yet. Mine. His name doesn’t matter when all I need to call him is mine.
Relief hit me first. I wasn’t crazy or losing my mind. I could trust my instincts after all. Someone had been watching me. What shocked me was what I felt next. Unadulterated excitement hit me like a current of electricity, covering my body with goose bumps.
Daddy lived in my building.
It was Daddy who had been in my place. There was no doubt about the hint of cologne I had been smelling for the last couple of weeks was his. He called me Jade and not my stage name from that first day because he knew it, not guessed it randomly.
The elevator dinged, and he stepped in, pressing the button for the floor he lived on, and I didn’t miss the impatient way he pressed a different button a handful of times.
Daddy was in a hurry to get the door shut to get to wherever he was going.
Once the doors closed, I walked out of the little alcove and stood at the elevators.
Without pressing a button to call it back down, I stood there, my eyes pinned on the lights above them. My heartrate picked up when he didn’t stop at the floor below me.
Nope.
The elevator went to my floor.
Heat curled between my thighs as need started to coil in my lower belly.
I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I had a feeling he would be inside my condo when I got there.
Self-preservation was nowhere to be seen when I tapped the button.
The doors opened a moment later, and I stared at the numbers in front of me.
I could have gone to his level. Tried to sneak into his place and find some kind of proof that he had been sneaking into my place. But what good would it do? I wasn’t going to call the cops. As unfathomable as it might be, I knew I wasn’t going to tell anyone.
He was mine like I was his.
As crazy as it was, I knew my fate had been sealed.
It was time to find out Daddy’s real name.