Page 59 of Daddy's Princess

The look of relief on his face has me reinforcing my walls. I cannot let myself feel any sympathy toward his side of things. Not if I want to hold onto my determination to end this thing between us once and for all.

I turn to Candace. “I’ll see you at home.”

She looks between Oliver and me. “Are you sure?”

I have to swallow back the emotion that tries to creep up at her concern. Impulsively, I pull her into a hug. “I love you, C.”

Candace looks over my shoulder to where I know Oliver is standing. “I’ll be home in an hour.”

“Noted.”

Oliver tries to rest his hand on my lower back to guide me out of the restaurant, and I jump out of his reach as if his touch scalded me. I do some weird version of a speed walk to get to his car. Once inside, I experience my first ever awkward silence with Oliver and is fucking sucks. The silence stretches on and on like a yawning canyon between us and lasts until I’m unlocking my apartment door.

I head straight to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of Candace’s favorite wine. She’ll understand. Yes, adding wine to the tequila isn’t a good plan, but I’m way, way too sober for this conversation.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I can feel Oliver’s disapproval beating at my back in waves.

I bristle at the insinuation that his opinion matters one bit. He’s not my boyfriend, not my daddy, he is nothing but my boss, and we aren’t in the office. I give him a challenging look as I bring the glass up to my lips and chug. The wine is tart and not even a little tasty, but I down the entire glass before refilling it. I’m tempted to be stubborn and down this one too. If my head wasn’t already spinning—the alcohol flowing through my veins from earlier now revitalized by the wine—I would.

“You wanted to talk. Talk.”

“I didn’t cheat on you with Britney.”

“Since when is kissing not cheating?” I cross my arms. Instead of it feeling like I’m putting out a no-nonsense vibe, it feels more like I’m holding myself together.

“I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me, and if you would’ve stuck around a couple seconds, you would’ve seen me push her away and fire her. My mom was there to witness the fallout. Britney had to be escorted out by security.”

“But today, everyone was talking about Britney’s new project and how amazing it is…”

“Her drawings for Wildwood are amazing. And it presents a huge problem because it’s like she plucked the images from the author’s mind. It opens up all kinds of problems with us using similar illustrations. It’s a mess.”

I sigh, wishing once again that I had my sketchbook. I might be mad at Oliver right now, but I adore Eloise, and this is her pet project. The book is incredible and deserves to be illustrated in a way that compliments the story. It’s hard for me to admit that I’m good at what I do because I always see the flaws in my own work, but I do know my sketches are perfect for the book.

Why didn’t I show them to Oliver that day after seeing how horrible Barry’s storyboards were? Because I could hear my mother’s voice in my head telling me I’m not good enough. That I’ll never succeed. No matter how hard I try to silence that voice, it keeps right on fueling my self-doubt.

“What are you going to do?”

“That’s not what I came here to talk to you about.” Oliver closes the distance between us until we are inches apart. “Tell me you believe that nothing happened with Britney,” he says roughly. Desperately.

I do believe him. It doesn’t change anything, though. No matter how badly I want to be with him, it’s a big mistake. This incident proves it. After such a short time, he already has the power to wreck me. What happens after a month? Six months? A year? I won’t survive it.

I never should have let myself put him in the role of my daddy dom. I swore I would never take that side of myself outside the walls of Bidden and Bound again after what happened with my ex. And here I am again, except this is worse. So much worse because I now realize I never loved Cody, and even though it’s far too soon, I’m in love with Oliver.

I swallow thickly, willing my tears away by sheer stubbornness. “I believe you.”

“Thank God.” Oliver’s look of relief is immediate. The words have barely left his lips before they descend on mine and he’s kissing me hungrily. Kissing me like he has been starving for it. His woodsy scent intoxicates me while his lips seduce mine into returning his kiss.

For him, this kiss is a renewal. An affirmation that I believe him. For me, this kiss is good-bye. It’s one last indulgence. A selfishly stolen moment that I can file away in my memories to pull out in the dark of night when I’m alone. I savor his slight cinnamon taste. The way his cologne mixes with the smell of his skin to make a scent unlike anything I’ve smelled before. Woodsy and a little bit citrusy. I turn my focus to how his hands feel on me. The way they flex as he holds me tight to him. The restless way they move up and down my back and through my hair as he deepens the kiss. I even tuck the feel of his hard cock into my memory bank alongside the memories of how all that hardness feels buried deep inside me.

When I can’t stand the ache anymore, I push him back and take several steps away from him, shaking my head. It’s too much. No man has ever made me feel so out of control before. With one kiss, my resolve has been weakened.

Already, I crave his touch. It would be so easy to give in. I can imagine what it would be like. He would spread me out on my bed and kiss me from head to toe before burying himself deep inside me. He wouldn’t fuck me hard and fast. There would be no punishment. He would make sweet, slow love to me.

The kind of sex you have when you’re worshiping your lover. The kind that says how much you feel for them. How glad you are that they weren’t lost to you forever. A reunion of body, heart, and soul. And something that I absolutely cannot give in to no matter how much my treacherous body tries to convince me.

“What’s wrong, babygirl?”

I keep shaking my head, holding my eyes open wide because they are filled with my tears, and I have to get through this before I give into them.

---