Page 17 of Landlord Daddy's Girl

“What would you like?”

“I’ll put it in your capable hands.”

I tip her a wink. “What else would you like to put in my capable hands?”

Her giggle is high and girlish, and she looks down as her cheeks flush bright red. The two sides of her personality—one so innocent, the other absolutely wanton—turn me on more than I can say. I love that she can flip that switch, going from naïve to filthy in the blink of an eye. She’s the best of both worlds, and that dichotomy to her personality is like catnip to me. I am so powerfully attracted to both sides of it that I sometimes have a hard time thinking straight around her. And when I’m not with her, all I can think about is the next time I will be.

At the same time, I can’t deny feeling a twinge of guilt about doing all this with Sierra behind her brother’s back. Derek is not going to understand. And he’s most certainly not going to like it when he finds out. But like Sierra said, she is a grown woman. She’s an adult who is capable of making her own decisions in this life. She’s more than capable of choosing who she wants to spend time with. All I can hope for is that Derek will come around to understand that.

“Here you go,” I say as I put a drink in front of her.

“What do you have for me?”

“This is called California Wildfire.”

She looks at me skeptically. “And what’s in it?”

“Fireball, a little Cointreau, a dash of Goldschlager, and orange juice.”

“That sounds repulsive.”

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it.”

Still eyeballing me with an amused smirk, Sierra takes a sip. It’s a strong drink, and she winces. It quickly fades, and she nods and smiles.

“This shouldn’t work,” she says, “but for some weird reason, it does.”

“I’m not one to say I told you so,” I reply. “But I told you so.”

“Yeah, all right. Laugh it up.”

“You just need to have a little faith in me. That’s all.”

“I do trust you.”

Her eyes linger on mine, and I know there’s more behind her words than she’s saying. She trusts me. It’s a simple statement, and yet I know it means much more than that. She’s put her faith in me. Put her trust in me that I’m not going to hurt her. It’s something I value. No, it’s something that I treasure. I’m going to do everything in my power to show her she was right to put that faith and trust in me. Sierra is mine. And I take care of what’s mine.

“Looks like you’ve got a good crowd in tonight,” she says.

“Yeah, it’s been good,” I reply. “But I’m ready to go home.”

“Tired?” she asks in a suggestive tone.

“Not all that tired.”

“Good.”

“Hold that thought,” I say.

I walk down to the other end of the bar to take care of a few patrons, talking and laughing with them for a few minutes. Asmuch as I like to, I can’t spend all my time with Sierra, not when some of these people came out to see me.

“I appreciate you guys coming out,” I say, wrapping up the brief conversation.

After shaking hands with them, I turn and make a few more drinks for customers clamoring for some libations. As I do, I notice Stu hovering over Sierra. I can tell she’s trying to be polite, but she’s growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way he’s looming over her and keeps touching her. He’s staring at her in that creepy, inappropriate way he did the last time she was in. And I don’t like it any more now than I did then. In fact, I like it even less.

I finish up what I’m doing then make my way down to Sierra, who gives me a pleading look. Stu has his hand on her shoulder and is laughing wildly at something that, judging by the look on Sierra’s face, isn’t nearly as funny as he thinks it is. His face red, he turns as I walk toward him, and his smile falters slightly. He quickly takes his hand off her shoulder.

“I was just telling Sierra here about that guy who was in here earlier? The one who fell off his stool?” he cackles.

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