Page 8 of Daddy's Rule

Bas

God, it was good to have her home.

It felt like old times as we knocked back drinks and laughed at memories from our past. It took a while for the smile to reach Nyla’s eyes and the tension to leave her body, but as the night wore on, the alcohol seemed to diminish all the stress she’d been wearing like armor when she’d come in. I could see the change as she barreled through the nice buzz and jumped headfirst into drunk as hell.

When she started to sway on her feet and slur her words, I took her drink and replaced it with water. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s getting late and we’re not twenty anymore. We’re all going to regret this in the morning if we don’t call it a night now.”

“Nooo, I’m having so much fun. I missed you all so much.” Nyla wrapped her arms around Theo and held tight. “Just a little longer.”

Theo chuckled and patted her clasped hands. “The fuddy-duddy is right, Ny. We missed you too, but you’re home now and we’ll have lots of opportunities to hang out. Hell, we work in the same office and live in the same building.”

She gasped like she just remembered a state secret. “And the club. We can play! Oh my gawd, it’s been so long. So fucking long. Can we play?” She turned her question back to me and fluttered her eyelashes.

I smiled and shook my head. She was too adorable for her own good.

“Please! Pretty please!”

“Not tonight.” I answered her with a shake of my head.

“Well, that’s my cue to head to bed.” Bain stood up and stretched. “You going to get Nyla back to her place or do you need back-up?” he asked me.

“I’ve got her.” As much as we all loved Nyla, things like getting her to bed when she’d drank too much or holding her hair when she woke up the next day with a horrible hangover always fell on me. Not that I minded.

“Let’s go, Ny. It’s bedtime.” I put my hand out to her and she pushed her lip out in the perfect pout. That was her only protest as she let go of Theo and put her hand in mine.

We said good night as we all made the walk to our apartments. Mine was right next door to Nyla’s.

“Keys.” I put my hand out to her.

She pulled the keys out of her purse and handed them over, and I let us in. We’d kept her apartment on the cleaning rotation even though it hadn’t been used in over a year. Deep down, I’d always hoped she would find her way back to us. I wasn’t happy that things went the way they had with her ass of a husband, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glad to have her back.

“Why don’t you go get ready for bed?” I asked as soon as we stepped over the threshold, closing the door behind us.

“Why don’t you come with me?” Nyla purred, reaching down to cup my balls through my pants.

“You’re drunk, Ny,” I said as I peeled her hand away.

“That never stopped us before. C’mon Bas, have sex with me, like old times. It’s been so fucking long.”

I chuckled. It one hundred percent had stopped us before, on several occasions. We’d fooled around many times, usually on nights like tonight when alcohol and break-ups were involved, but we’d always stopped short of having sex. Nyla had apparently conveniently forgotten that or was in the mood to rewrite history. Luckily, I had enough experience with drunk Nyla to know I had to either distract her or let her down gently. I chose the latter.

“Trust me, Nyla-girl, I am unbelievably tempted, but you’re in a very vulnerable headspace and I can’t let you do something you might regret.”

I tried to guide her to her room, but she turned and wrapped her arms around me, stepping on my feet, halting my progress.

“There’s lotsa regrets, but I never regretted you.”

Her words were slurred and muffled into my shirt, but I understood them just fine and my heart clenched in my chest. I hugged her back and kissed the top of her head, not really knowing how to process what she was saying and trying really hard to blame the alcohol and stress for all of it.

She looked up at me with her giant brown eyes and I saw real pain in their depths.

“Bas?”

“Yeah, Ny?”

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Shit.”

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