Page 73 of Sinful Mates

Daddy was in the house. Woken from Castor’s rest.

My heart did some calisthenics, backflips and cartwheels mainly, with a little bit of flair swinging her skirt.

“Mewhen it comes to your health.” I called a piece of cantaloupe into my fingers and lifted it to his lips.

For my reply, he rewarded me with more soft bites, growing in heat, along with the length pressing into my stomach.

“Throw in a shower with me and feed me every bite and wehavea deal.” Hmm. Daddy liked it his way.

Fine. So long as he cared for his body while it was under stress. I slid the cantaloupe into his mouth, and he bit off some and I popped the rest into my mouth, smiling victoriously.

He nuzzled his nose into my neck and brushed his lips along my collarbone. “You take good care of me.” More words dangled on the edge of his tongue, lurking on the bond, stinging like acid. Remorse for being an asshole reluctant to mate.

I stroked the shadow on his chin that he would shave off this morning. “So do you.”

He needed to know that just because we didn’t mate, it didn’t mean I cared any less or that I’d favor the others over him. All of my mates were equal in my affections, even Zethan, who technically was my true mate.

Daddy sat me on his lap while I fed him breakfast, but despite our agreement, he wrestled me for control, stealing the spoon of yogurt and fruit to feed me, taking turns with me. We both took care of each other.

He sifted my hair through his fingers and made an approving noise. “Your hair looks fucking sexy.”

I touched my hair. Shit. I forgot all about the cut and color I got yesterday. His shout. Three inches shorter and teal and purple streaks. “Thank you.”

I played with his hair, toying with the idea to give him a trim and a scalp massage to relax him.

Another better idea came to me. Insight from Isis herself. A way to help Castor as I had with Alaric. Dominant Daddy didn’t relinquish control out of fear of losing it. Everything in his sphere he could control. Giving it to another made him feel weak, anxious, and vulnerable, possibly the basis for his objection to mate. If Castor and I had any hope of mating and him sharing all of himself with me, I needed to break down his walls, and I had just the thing to do it.

CHAPTER25

Aaliyah

“Daddy,”I said gently, pressing my palm to his heart. “Will you try something with me?”

“What is it?” Always needing to know. Never agreeing until he knew the terms. A true lawyer and enforcer of the law. But this was my game. My law. My way to heal him. Heal us.

“That’s not how this works.” I smiled, secretively.

He gave me a dark one back. “I never enter into a bargain without reading the fine print.”

“Then you don’t trust me?”

His bond reared back like a cornered snake. Wounded. Vulnerable. A place he never let himself be trapped. The solicitor in him arguing in court, the predator backing his prey into the corner, trapping them, tricking them into admitting facts that spoiled the case of the defendant.

“I’ve got to have a shower, get to the club and finish the reckoning.” He tried to shift me off his lap, but I made my body heavy as stone.

Fuck, no, he wasn’t pushing me away. This was me and him. Our goddamn relationship and we were working on it. I sent a spitfire of venom down the bond to tell him to sit back down. His bond coiled like a defensive snake. Someone didn’t like to confront his demons and wounds. Nope. Daddy always had to maintain an element of control. Not this time. Not if he wanted to keep me.

I fought him, forcing him back onto the seat. “Sit your ass there and you do this exercise with me or I’ll put you in a sleeping coma. Then the world really will go to shit.” A little bit more forceful than my standard nursing negotiations, but Castor could handle it.

He grabbed both my wrists, spun me away from him, pinning my arms by my side, crushing my back against his chest, his feverish lips scorching a line along my throat. “I’m fucking busy, Sorceress. Don’t play games or I’ll punish you.”

I smiled. Now we were getting somewhere. Defenses up, vulnerabilities exposed. Best time to mount an attack of the healing kind. “You shut that bossy mouth of yours up cause I’m in charge.”

Stalemate. I angled my head to stare at him, his heated gaze ready to mount a legal defense to crush mine. He probed the bond, searching for a crack, a hole in my reasoning, finding none.

Castor slackened, knowing I wouldn’t back down and neither would he. Fatigue clawed at him, his mind not at full capacity, and he lost some of his fight. “Here I was thinking Mads was the deal maker, but my mate wins, hands down.”

Flattery would get him everywhere.

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