Page 4 of Bet On Me, Daddy

“Counteroffer. I don’t do that and you just beat me extra hard for not following directions.”

The shift in him was so subtle, she would have missed it completely if her entire being hadn’t been focused exclusively on him. But because she was watching him so closely, she saw the way his jaw hardened, the way his brown eyes darkened in response to her offer. “I don’t negotiate with brats, Ruby Red. Do you work tomorrow?”

“No. Well, not here, anyway. I am working tomorrow during the day but I have tomorrow evening off.” She was babbling, and she knew she was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

Luckily, it didn’t seem to faze the man across the bar. “Good. You have twenty-four hours to make your decision. If you decide to come clean with Braden, I’ll be waiting.”

“And if I don’t? Are you going to tattle on me?”

“No. If you don’t tell him, you’ll just have to live with that little pit in your stomach. The one all subbies get when they know they’ve done something naughty and deserve to be punished for it.” Straightening, he tapped the bar, his expression still hard as steel. “Twenty-four hours, Ruby Red, and then the deal expires.”

Scowling, she watched him saunter away as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb right on her head.

She did not have a pit in her stomach over lying to Braden. She didnot.

Unfortunately for her, she was much better at fibbing to Doms than she was at lying to herself.

Dammit.

Beckett

“You’re looking ratherpleased with yourself.” Elias ‘Ice’ Turner, the man Beckett considered his closest friend, raised an eyebrow as Beckett slid back onto the bench at the VIP booth they’d reserved for the night.

“Do I?” Leaning back against the padded bench, Beckett shrugged. “Maybe I am.”

From her spot curled up under Ice’s arm, his girlfriend Silver grinned. “What’s her name?”

“Why does it have to be a woman?”

“You only get that look in your eye when you’re about to get lucky in business or in your pants. And since it seems unlikely you landed a major client on your trip to the bar, I have to assume it’s your dick that’s getting lucky.”

“Your Daddy doesn’t spank you nearly often enough,” Beckett muttered, more for form than anything else. It was difficult to be annoyed by her observation since she was right, the little brat.

Bottom lip puffing out in a pout, Silver reached behind her to rub at her ass. “Trust me, he does.”

“Uh-oh. Did someone get herself in trouble tonight?” he teased, hoping to distract her from giving him the third degree about who he was ‘getting lucky’ with.

“She did.” To Beckett’s surprise, Ice’s voice held none of the playful warmth he’d been expecting. “Apparently, Ace has been texting her since before Christmas and Silver didn’t seem to think that was information her Daddy needed to know.”

Fear, primal and more familiar than he was comfortable with, gripped Beckett by the throat. The kind of fear that came from knowing someone he cared a great deal for had put themselves in danger, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Ace was not only Silver’s ex-boyfriend, he was the man who had put her in the hospital and nearly ruined her career as a professional drummer. His was one of the faces Beckett saw in the nightmares that had become more and more frequent over the past few months. Along with a dozen other images he thought he’d buried long ago.

Pinning Silver with a stern look, Beckett slowly raised a brow. “Is that so?”

Red bloomed on Silver’s face as she shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with all the attention being directed her way. “Don’t say it like that, Beckett.” Her voice pitched up to a whine. “I already got my ass blistered for it.”

“Good.” He didn’t gentle his tone in the slightest. “You don’t need to have any contact with that piece of human excrement. I swear I’m tempted to take you down to the pit myself.”

‘The pit’ being the main play area of the club. It was a wide-open space on the bottom floor, with all of the podiums perfectly situated so that the voyeurs in the bar-slash-restaurant area of the top floor could sit and watch the entertainment.

“If it happens again, I’ll give you a call,” Ice said, his tone still hard. “But it’s not going to happen again, is it, Amanda?”

“No, Daddy. I’m really, really sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

Everything about Ice softened at her apology. “I know, baby. You don’t have to apologize again. Clean slate and all that.”

Clean slate. Just like he’d promised Ruby. He wasn’t even sure what had possessed him. For weeks, he’d been avoiding a scene with her, even though she’d made it abundantly clear she would enjoy one.

But she’d been an itch under his skin that entire time. And maybe it was the excitement of New Year’s Eve, maybe it was the way she’d looked at him when he’d playfully scolded her. Whatever it was, something had prompted him to do more than just tease her tonight.

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