Chapter 20
TINLEY
“This place is beautiful.” I looked around the room, taking in the high ceilings of the massive room. The second floor seemed to be in the building next door. The whole place felt like an illusion.
“It is. I haven’t had a chance to explore it all. You want to?” Rayna stood up. “Daddy?”
“Yes, little girl.” The moniker made everyone in the room blush. Kyler wasn’t so serious now that he had Rayna back.
“Can I give Tinley a tour?” She stepped toward the stairs but stopped when a scowl took over his face. “We’ll be careful.”
“No breaking into locked rooms.” He walked toward her. “And stay out of Tyler’s room.”
“Aw, Daddy, we might find some clues in there.” Rayna bounced over to her Daddy.
“No snooping.” He gently grabbed her wrist and held it out of the way before he wrapped his other hand around her waist, planted a kiss on her lips that left her with her mouth hanging open.
“Uhm. Hello.” I knocked on Rayna’s shoulder and she came out of her trance with a shy grin on her face.
“Let’s go.” She skipped up the stairs. I looked back at Josh.
He nodded. I followed her up the stairs.
Rayna and I discovered a gym and a library with stacks of old and new books.
She pointed out the shelf with the kinky books.
“I’m going to have Daddy ship some of these to Vegas so I can read them. ”
We wandered into a lounge with a large skylight and a few other bedrooms on the second floor. I tried the final door at the end of the hall, but it was locked.
“What do you think is in here?” I tried again.
“Probably the playroom and not the kind for littles.” She giggled.
“Is Kyler into more… stuff?” I whispered.
“Not really.” She shrugged. “I mean, he’s partial to the spanking bench, which he had put in our room, but other than that, we haven’t played much. There is a BDSM club in the Vegas hotel. It’s called Quad IV.”
“I heard about it from Dr. Maria.”
“Oh, she’s super nice, isn’t she?” Rayna took my hand. “Are you into other kinks?”
“I’m open to exploring.” I winked.
Rayna giggled and guided me toward the stairs to the third floor, which consisted of an open room with gaming equipment on one end and a pool table, bar, and a large screen television with four huge comfy brown recliners.
I plopped on one of the chairs and practically sank in. “I could sleep on these.”
“Rayna went to the other side of the room and tried the door, but it was locked, too. “I think this is Tyler’s room.”
“You really think he’s a little?”
“Not exactly sure, but he certainly has a Daddy.”
“Reminds me of Josh and me.” I pushed a button, and the recliner lay flat. Rayna crawled into the chair next to me and did the same.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s a Daddy, but I’m not the best little.” I avoided looking at her. “I mean, I have been littler with him than I thought I could ever be. He makes it easy, but he’s not really my Daddy.”
“Yet.” Rayna grabbed my arm. “I told you he’s totally into you. I don’t think he would let you go so easily.”
“He would if I told him to.” My heart sank.
“But you don’t want him to. I mean, you want him to be your Daddy, right?” Rayna blinked back tears. “Please don’t tell him to go.”
“Why are you crying?” I blinked away my own tears.
“I don’t know.” She let a tear fall.
I crawled out of my chair and into hers and hugged her.
“Kyler is my first and only real Daddy, and it’s scary.” She sniffled. “I love him with everything in me, but his life is so different from what I grew up in and we are still getting to know each other.”
“He loves you too.” I patted her shoulder.
She shook her body from head to toe. I laughed.
“Anyway. My point is, I almost lost him because I expected him to do something instead of telling him what I needed.” Rayna wrapped her arms around me. “I think if you want Josh, you should decide you want him and then the rest will work itself out. Okay?”
“Okay.” She made it sound so simple.
“Plus, I want you to stick around for purely selfish reasons. It’s more fun to get into shenanigans with an accomplice.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“I don’t like those words.”
“What words?” Rayna pushed the button, and the chair rose up and up.
“Shenanigans and accomplice.” The chair continued to rise and we rolled off right onto the floor. We looked back at the chair and at each other and erupted in a fit of giggles.
Once we gathered some composure, we headed back toward the stairs and made our way back into the library and plopped into the lounge chairs near the window. The whole street was visible from our vantage point. A Christmas tree was being delivered to the house across the street.
“What are you going to get Kyler for Christmas?” I flipped through a book she handed me.
“Oh my goodness.” She closed her book. “We have to go Christmas shopping.”
“I don’t have any money.” I looked around the mansion I sat in and laughed. I hadn’t thought about it much, but it was true. I had no job, no prospects. I didn’t think my former employer had left my position open as a vigil. Although I bet the magazine would love to hear my story.
“I bet you do.” Rayna returned to her book. “They seem to have a knack for producing bank accounts and credit cards with your name on them. It’s so like the things billionaires do in romance novels.”
“Don’t you feel weird about it?” I stood up and went to study more of the books on the shelves.
“Not after the spanking I got from denying my Daddy the right to take care of me how he saw fit.” She giggled. “It seemed like a silly thing to fight about. Like saying I agree to submit to you, but don’t you dare say what’s mine is yours.”
I turned to face her.
“It is not an argument I can win.” She shrugged. “So we have to go shopping for our Daddies.”
“How can we shop for them when they won’t let us out of their sight?” I turned back toward the bookshelves.
“That’s what all the security is for, right?” Rayna’s voice went all sinister. “Leave it to me.”
Funny, I didn’t picture her as a brat. But shenanigans and accomplices were definitely part of a brat’s vocabulary.
The next day, Kyler and Josh took us shopping and out to lunch.
It was fun to be escorted around sections of stores or back rooms of stores.
Everywhere we went, the salespeople knew Josh and Kyler by name.
We stopped at an antique toy store in the village where Josh bought me two sketches done in color pencils of a Dalmatian family.
It was so beautiful, I couldn’t wait to get home and see if I could recreate it.
We stopped into a small Italian restaurant near Central Park and had lunch.
The restaurant was packed and had people waiting.
We walked right in and into the back of the place into a private room.
After we ate, Rayna pulled me into the bathroom.
“Okay, just follow my lead,” she yelled while I was using the bathroom.
“Follow your lead with what?” I came out of the stall and washed my hands.
“We’re going shopping for presents for Daddy and Josh, remember?” She handed me a towel.
“I don’t know.” A weird feeling crawled into my gut. “It’s been such a long day. Maybe we should go home and try it again some other time.”
“We might not get another chance.” She took my hand. “This is your initiation into our clan. You must always have your fellow ninja’s back, agreed?”
“Agreed.” The weird feeling grew.
We walked out of the bathroom.
“Daddy.” Rayna skipped over to Kyler and climbed on his lap. “You and Uncle Josh must be tired or have some work to do or something.”
I slid into my chair, my eyes darting back and forth between Rayna, Kyler, and Josh. I took Josh’s hand. He squeezed it. I tried to smile back, but he narrowed his eyes.
“Tinley and I both need to buy one more really special Christmas present, but obviously we can’t buy it when you’re with us.” Rayna batted her eyes up at Kyler.
“That’s what the internet is for,” Josh answered.
Kyler nodded.
Rayna pouted.
“We already saw what we wanted to buy. No reason to pay for shipping.” I didn’t recognize my own voice, but it wasn’t a lie. I did spot the coolest jacket at a men’s store we stopped in. It was hunter green and would bring out the sparkles in Josh’s eyes.
“Yeah, it’s just around the corner,” Rayna added. “We could run over there and get them and have them wrapped and that way you won’t see them.”
Both Josh and Kyler looked at each other for a long time. Neither spoke.
“It will take an hour tops, and Reggie and James can come with us,” Rayna added. “At a distance, of course. We don’t want people knowing we have bodyguards.”
“You’re lucky the bulletproof bubble I purchased hasn’t come in yet.” Kyler chuckled.
I laughed. He had a nice laugh.
Rayna did not.
“Are you sure you’re okay with going off by yourself?” Josh leaned into me.
“She won’t be by herself.” Rayna glared at Josh. “She’ll be with me.”
Josh rolled his eyes. Rayna gasped.
“I’ll be fine.” I squeezed Josh’s arm. “I have to learn to navigate the real world sometime.”
“Daddy.” She kissed his cheek. “Please. We will be perfectly safe.”
Famous last words.
Josh and Kyler shared another unspoken conversation, and both nodded. Rayna’s eyes grew wide.
“Okay, you go right there, and we will meet you at the corner in one hour.” Kyler grabbed Rayna’s face and squeezed her cheeks. Her lips puckered like a duck.
“Go to the store and then to the corner. Nowhere else.” He kissed her lips twice.
“Nowhere else,” Rayna repeated.
He lifted her and set her on her feet.
“You guys take care of each other. Promise?” Josh looked at me and Rayna.
“Promise.” I nodded. Josh leaned in and swiped his lips across mine. My lips tingled. I licked them, but before I could say anything, Rayna dragged me out of the room.
“I can’t believe they let us go.” Rayna giggled. We walked through the restaurant to the front door. I felt the uneasy feeling again once we stepped outside.
We walked to the end of the block and stopped.
I took out my phone to find the store where I saw the jacket.
It was three blocks down Madison Avenue.
We took our time, strolling the streets.
People dodged around us, but we were too busy looking at all the sights.
We crossed a street, and I looked behind me.
An older gentleman in a hat and scarf that covered his face stared at me.
It must have been one of the security guards.
I grabbed Rayna’s hand and hurried her along. I didn’t want to be outside anymore.
“Here it is.” She opened the door, and a blast of heat hit us in the face. We shuffled in.
“Good evening, ladies.” An older gentleman walked from the back of the store. “How can I help you?”
We took off our gloves and hats.
“We were looking for a gift for our boyfriends.”
“Well, how many boyfriends do you young ladies have?” The man had a funny mustache and dyed black hair. He fiddled with the buttons of his corduroy vest.
“Just one, each.” Rayna giggled. “But they are impossible to shop for. Any suggestions?”
The man took Rayna to the other side of the shop to show her some hats and scarves. I walked over to the jackets and spotted the one I had seen in the window. It was a soft leather bomber jacket with a metallic gold zipper. It would look so good on him.
“Did you find something?” A young woman wearing black from head to toe walked over to me. “This jacket is so cool. My father would never wear something like this.”
She motioned to the man trying on hats for Rayna.
“For my Daddy, it would be perfect.” I felt my cheeks get hot. I couldn’t believe I said that out loud, but the salesclerk didn’t think anything of it. “Uhm, can you wrap it?”
“Of course.”
I handed her the jacket. She took it to the counter.
Daddy. It must have been the spiked hot chocolate at lunch or the thrill of being back in the world, but I felt almost giddy.
Rayna had selected a brown hat, a tweed scarf, and gloves for Kyler. They weren’t much his style either, but he would wear them because that was what good Daddies did.
I wandered around the store more while Rayna paid for the items. The door opened and a rush of cold air made me shiver.
The man I spotted from the street stepped inside and removed his hat and scarf. Our eyes locked.
I knew him.
And from the look in his eyes, he knew me, too.