Page 116 of Bet On Me, Daddy

“I want his name.” His voice was tight with cold fury, the same fury she saw burning in his eyes. And even though it healed some more of those hidden cracks inside her for him to be so angry on her behalf, she shook her head.

“So you can go on some white-knight crusade and ruin everything you’ve worked for? Absolutely not.”

“I don’t give a fuck about what I’ve worked for. I will burn my company to the ground if it means I get to see that bastard ended for what he did to you.”

And that right there was one major difference between the man in front of her and the man who’d tried to break her. Preston never would have sacrificed even a single client for her. How many times had she begged him to come spend time with her and he’d put her off because of a meeting?

Yet another humiliation, remembering how she’d lowered herself to begging for scraps of his life, his time.

“Look, I appreciate that you want to save me or whatever, but I’ve already been saved. I saved myself, and I promised I’d never put myself in the position of relying on a man for anything ever again. That’s why I freaked out when I found out you got me fired, and then you started saying you could ‘take care of me’. I know you didn’t mean it that way, but it felt like I was walking into the same trap, and it fucking terrified me.”

“I can see that, now. And hopefully you can see why I maybe overreacted a bit to you trying to work when you were tired and not feeling well.”

“I can.” And she appreciated his acknowledgement that he had overreacted. “The question is, where do we go from here? You’re not going to be able to turn off being a Daddy any more than I can turn off my need for independence.”

“Compromise.” Another smile teased at the corners of his lips. “It’s not a word I’m very comfortable with, but for you, I’d be willing to try.”

If he could bend, maybe she could, too. Bending didn’t mean breaking, under the right circumstances. “Until we figure out what that looks like for us, no sex. No scenes. I don’t want things to get messy.” Again.

“Considering you still look like death warmed over, that’s not much of a compromise on my part. I’d like to stay though. Make you dinner, maybe. I can leave when you’re ready for bed, if you want.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

Beckett

Three daysafter baring his soul to the woman he loved, Beckett sat in a booth at Club BDE, watching her flit from one end of the bar to the other. She wasn’t moving as quickly as usual, and she was still looking a bit pale for his tastes.

Letting her come to work at all had been a compromise, and one he’d found hard to swallow. His instinct had been to keep her home, bundled up in that ratty old blanket she loved, for at least a few more days. But she’d insisted on coming back to work, with the agreement that she would leave early if she started feeling too rundown.

It was an exercise in patience not to pull the plug an hour into her shift.

Compromise, remember?

Yeah, he remembered. Didn’t mean he had to like it.

“You look like my sister when she’s forced to attend family functions.”

Beckett looked up as Killian O’Rourke, Club BDE’s favorite mobster, slid onto the bench across from him. Killian’s ever-present smirk graced his lips as he tilted his head to the side, studying Beckett. “Want to talk about it, Bex?”

That’s one for you, Ruby Red, whenever I get my hands on you again.“Not particularly.”

Baring his soul twice in one week was bad enough. He certainly wasn’t going to do so again, and he definitely was not going to bare it to Killian O’Rourke of all people.

Killian’s smile didn’t falter as he leaned back against his seat with a shrug. “No problem. Just figured I’d offer since the rest of your posse seems to be missing tonight.”

“I don’t need a posse to handle my woman.”

“Ah, so it is a woman problem. I figured as much but… well, you know what they say about assuming.”

Goddammit. Killian had a way of getting under his skin without even trying. He was usually better at keeping him at bay, but his defenses were already down after everything that had happened with Ruby. “It’s not a problem.”

“If you say so.”

They sat in what could almost be called a companionable silence for a few minutes before Beckett’s curiosity got the better of him. “Have you ever had a woman turn her nose up at your wealth?”

“Beckett, my dear boy, no woman has ever turned her nose up at me, period.”

Rolling his eyes, Beckett drained his whiskey glass and moved to slide from the booth. “Never mind. I knew better than to ask you.”

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