Page 7 of Daddy P.I. 3.0

Caddy shakes her thick falls of brown hair back over her shoulders and looks up at me through her fringe. Barefoot, inripped jeans and an oversized sweater, she barely looks old enough to vote. But her eyes are ancient, and winter’s-night cold.

“You didn’t need my vote,” she responds.

“You were the one who encouraged me to put an age-play night on the roster in the first place. Why do that if you’re just going to cut my knees off when it comes to a vote?”

“I’ll repeat, you didn’t need my vote. If you had, I’d have cast it.”

“But since I didn’t,” I grit. “You abstained with Chess and Cris so you can continue to pin me under your fucking thumb?—”

I cut myself off when cool fingers wrap around my wrist.

“I think you’re hangry, dear,” Maude says in my ear. “Time for breakfast.”

I grind my teeth in irritation.

“Save me a seat,” Caddy says, holding my eyes.

“You don’t get to?—”

I’m cut off by Maude clamping down on my wrist again. Fuck, she has a grip.

“Of course we will, Catriona,” Maude says. “Will darling Finn be joining us?”

Caddy purses her lips, then smiles. Although she has a pretty mouth, it’s like watching a shark smile. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I don’t think Finn’s been formally introduced to Emily. I’ll call him.”

She pulls a phone out of the breast pocket of her sweater. Maude pulls me away as Caddy begins typing.

Maude waits until we’re out of the conference room and in the corridor before she gives me an earful.

“She’s right: you had more than enough votes. I know you’re still angry at her for maneuvering you back into Master of Training but antagonizing her serves no purpose, Logan.”

It serves a major purpose. The purpose of letting me vent before I fucking explode.

“They got what they wanted. I apologized to Pence for threatening to dock his pay. I ousted my friend as Master of Training. I’m doing the theme nights, including the age-play night Caddy fucking recommended. Then we get into committee and the three of them cut me off at the fucking knees? Now, if anyone bitches, it’s all on me.”

Maude takes my arm and begins walking me upstairs, toward the private room where Emily’s waiting for me.

“That’s right, it is all on you. And when the age-play night and the Nursery are a grand success, as I’m confident they will be, then you will be our shining star. When we have a full roster of happy, healthy house submissives, then you’re the man who fixed the mess. Then Javier and I can deal with the problem of our charming Master of Rope with total impunity and the Three Cs can’t be accused of favoritism. Focus on the bigger picture, Logan.”

Bigger picture, my arse. I know when I’m being hung out to dry.

“I’m inviting our entire fucking playgroup,” I growl. “I’ll fill the Nursery so full of littles that Caddy and her cabal won’t be able to squeeze a toe through the damn door. I’ll run them through the fucking corridors like a herd of cats and let them crayon all over the wood paneling?—”

“Temper, dearest,” Maude says soothingly, like she can’t swear like a sailor when her own feathers are ruffled. “I know this feels like an attack, particularly coming after Ten’s vitriol but I see it as an opportunity.”

“Opportunity.” I snort. “It’s a lynching opportunity. That’s what it is. And I don’t appreciate it.”

Maude squeezes my arm. “No one is getting lynched, particularly not our golden boy. I know you’re frustrated?—”

“You bet I am.”

“You’re not alone, Logan. I’ve been frustrated for longer than you have, both at the state of our house submissives and at how long it has taken our leadership to recognize it. But I believe in winning the war, not the battle. You’re focusing on the battle.”

“If Ten had cost me the vote on Mac’s membership, that would have been more than a lost battle, Maude.”

“But he didn’t,” she says as we reach the top of the stairs. “He didn’t stop you from creating the Nursery. Nor from expanding the Stables. Your age-play night passed by fourteen votes. That would not have happened six months ago. We have real attractions for age-players here at Blunts for the first time in the club’s history. And it’s passed largely under the radar of some very hardline sadists, mostly because of the example you and Emily have provided. The balance of power on the membership committee is shifting. That is the war, Logan. Not one application that could have been raised again in six months when the membership committee has a different composition. I’m asking you to lift your head above the trees and look at the forest.”

The rebuke stings and I swallow the remnants of my anger.

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