Page 15 of Until Daddy

“Carissa, I have to get back to work. And you have some thinking to do.” He caught Garrick’s raised brow but turned away from him. He’d address that later. “I’m coming over this afternoon. I expect you to be at your apartment. Since you hadn’t planned on being off work today, you shouldn’t have any plans. You will stay in your apartment until I get there. And then we will discuss last night, this morning, and this conversation.”

“You’re grounding me?” He imagined her dark eyes widening, a reddish tinge touching her cheeks as her temper rose. “I know we play with our ages a bit, but I’m not a fucking child.”

“Not one foot outside your apartment. And we’ll add your language to the list.”

“And if I’m not here?”

He almost growled. No other woman had pushed him so hard before, maybe she wasn’t serious about giving them a real try. Maybe she really was just looking for fun at the dungeon. Except hesawher, saw the light in her eyes when he had her snuggled up in his lap. It wasn’t an orgasm she was looking for, it was a connection. The same thing he was searching for with a partner. He’d held her and felt her, not just her warm body, buther—the girl in the woman, the woman in her soul.

“I’ll be here,” she whispered after a long moment of silence.

“As soon as I finish here, I’ll come over.” He finished the call with a softer tone and took a moment to breathe before facing Garrick.

He should have waited another moment. When he turned around, Garrick had the biggest shit-eating grin he’d seen him wear in a long time plastered on his face.

“So that’s what you left our party for on New Year’s Eve? Carissa?” Garrick folded his arms over his chest.

“You knew exactly what I was doing,” Jamison shot back. There were very few secrets between them, having been friends since college and business partners for a handful of years already.

“She’s going to be hard to tame.” Garrick raised his brow. “That woman has been all twisted up since I met her.”

“Twisted up about what? She knows what she wants, she’s not ashamed of being submissive, and even less ashamed of playing in the nursery.” Jamison pretended to shuffle files around his desk.

“It’s not that. She’s a natural submissive. I’ve seen her with a few boyfriends—oh, none of them lasted very long. Either they weren’t into the scene and she thought she could deal, or they couldn’t deal with her,” Garrick said.

“You aren’t making any sense,” Jamison accused, although that did give him a bit of an insight into Carissa’s misguided idea that all relationships were terminal.

Garrick sighed. “She’s got a mind of her own but she doesn’t understand that she can have that and belong to someone. One or the other.”

“Ah, no gray area, all black or all white.” Just like her theory that they would either last forever or they wouldn’t make it out of the gate.

“So, while you’re trying to get that through her thick skull, she’s going to give you a run for your money,” Garrick promised with another gleeful grin.

“You act as though the taming isn’t going to be fun. I’ll grant you, I don’t know her like you do—I may have met her socially here and there, seen her from across the room at a party or two, but now that she’s mine, she’s all mine.” The utter possession he felt with his words only amplified his desire to get to her apartment post haste. “The taming, the training, it’s a never-ending thing.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Are you telling me you don’t want me to date her? Don’t think I can handle her any more than you can handle your Jade?” Heat prickled Jamison’s neck under his collar. Not handle Carissa?

Garrick’s expression darkened at the mention of his new girlfriend. They’d had a rocky start, but from what Jamison could tell, things were starting to smooth out.

“I’m just saying—well, hell, I don’t know what I’m saying. Carissa’s like a little sister in some ways.” Garrick ran his hand through his hair. “Just don’t fall for her toughness. Sometimes she gets all puffed up but inside she’s all soft and gooey.”

“Are we still talking about Carissa or one of those marshmallow Peeps?”

Garrick laughed.

“Now. What did you want? I know you didn’t come in here to warn me off Carissa.”

“No, though I did enjoy hearing your end of that conversation. Nice to see someone else trying to keep his mind in one piece while wanting to pull every shred of hair from his head.”

“Glad I could entertain.” Jamison sat in his brown leather chair that perfectly matched the deep brown coloring of all the furniture in the room. Thankfully, the designer had opted to use light colored carpeting and paint, otherwise his office would resemble too closely the dark den of his father’s house.

“Well, anyway. I wanted to ask you about the high rise. Your father sent over some reports and a meeting request. I didn’t realize you wanted to start building properties.”

“I don’t. I mean, I’m not sure. He mentioned something last night but I haven’t looked at what he gave me. He contacted you, too?”

Garrick rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought it was weird. Usually the only dealings I have with him are when you force me to your place for dinner or he barges in here with urgent business matters for yourrealbusiness.”

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