Page 57 of Daddy's Princess

“Special as in your specific flavor of sweet little subbie?” Lucian is as far from a dominant as they come—vanilla through and through—but he knows all about my lifestyle. He came with me to Bidden and Bound once many years ago, and it was definitely not for him.

“She’s exactly my type. Practically fucking perfect in every way,” I admit. “That’s why it’s so frustrating that she is avoiding me. I really thought we were on the same page. I hate the thought that I might’ve rushed her or pushed her too hard.”

Lucian puts his hand on my shoulder and gives me a little shake. “Quit doubting yourself. Your instincts are good. If you think you’re on the same page, you probably are. Something probably spooked her, or it could be completely unrelated. You won’t know until you get in touch with her. Call her. If she doesn’t answer, find her and make her talk to you.”

He’s right. Sugar is skittish after the way things ended with her ex… She’s probably running scared. I’ve told her that we will move at her pace. I just have to prove that’s true. First, I have to find her.

“Thanks, man. It’s time to find my girl and fix whatever went wrong.”

My hair is still wet from the world’s quickest shower when I direct my driver to head toward Sugar’s apartment. If she won’t talk to me over the phone, she’ll talk to me face-to-face. I refuse to give up on what we could have. We are too damn perfect for each other to let her fears stop us. I just have to elevate those fears and do my level best to make her feel comfortable. Even if we have to go forward at a snail’s pace, I don’t care as long as we are moving forward together.

I dial her number one more time. To my surprise, the phone connects almost instantly.

“Mister Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater, this number is no longer accepting calls from yoooouuuu,” the woman on the other end of the phone sing-songs.

“Who is this?”

“Ooo… he’s pulling out his big bad dom voice,” she says. I hear several giggles from her end of the phone. It’s clear that she is intoxicated. If I had to guess, I would say that it’s Candace, but I’ve not spent enough time with her to recognize her voice for certain.

“Candace put Sugar on the phone.” Okay, yeah, I’m pulling out the dom voice.

She makes a buzzer noise in my ear that makes me cringe. “Wrong answer. This is Gandalf and cheaters shall not pass!” she says in a piss-poor imitation of the iconic Lord of the Rings scene. Even more giggles erupt from her side of the phone.

I take a deep, calming breath focusing on what Candace has said since answering. Despite her attitude, she’s mentioned cheating twice. My gut clenches as I remember Britney’s lips on mine. Is that what this is about? Did Sugar somehow find out about that and think that I would ever cheat on her?

Ludacris. Doesn’t she realize she’s everything to me? I would rather cut off my own leg than hurt her in that way.

“Candace, there is obviously a misunderstanding happening here. Am I correct in assuming Sugar thinks I’ve cheated on her?”

Candace snorts. “Assumed? Ha! She saw you kissing that bitch, you big jerk.”

Fuck.Sugar was there when Britney kissed me? No wonder she’s avoiding me. I can only imagine what that looked like from her point of view. Why wouldn’t she confront me, though? She was at the office this morning. There is no way she didn’t hear all about Britney being fired, and the scramble to fix the cluster fuck that is her having creative domain over the images she drew for Wildwood. They are so specific to the character’s described that it could be a huge issue when we publish if another artist were to draw the images as the author intended.

It’s a fucking mess.

“Britney is the one who kissed me, and I pushed her away immediately right before I fired her ass. I would never hurt Sugar like that. I’m falling in love with her.” There is a pleading edge to my voice that I hope masks the half-truth. I’m not just falling in love with Sugar. I am in love with her. Crazy as it is, I think I fell in love with her the first moment I saw her. I’ve never believed in love at first sight, that’s fairytale bullshit. I might make my living by selling fairytales, but that doesn’t mean I believe in them. There is no denying the instant draw I felt toward Sugar that night, and it’s only grown as I’ve gotten to know her.

“Love?” Candace practically chokes on the word.

There is the sound of a scuffle from the other end of the line, and finally, the voice I’ve been waiting for comes through. “You’re not allowed to kiss other women and then throw around the ‘L’ word like its confetti.”

“Babygirl—”

“I’m not your girl, baby or otherwise. Leave me alone.”

“Sugar, I didn’t cheat on you,” I say in a rush hoping she’ll listen instead of hanging up on me.

“I saw you!” she wails. I can hear the hurt in her voice like a physical pain.

“Baby—Sugar, Britney kissed me.”

“But I saw…”

“I promise you. I did not cheat on you. Tell me where you are. I need to see you. I will explain everything, I swear.”

“We’re at Jose Locos…”

“Be there in ten, babygirl.”

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