Page 90 of His Rules

I threw out my arm. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about.” A fucking lie since everything in my life had just turned to shit.

Daniel struggled to get to his feet, blood on his lip, and it sickened me. He sneered at me, his chest heaving as he waitedfor us to be alone. Finally, the door was closed and the silence and tension between us was more than we’d ever shared.

I wiped my mouth, noticing his aim had been as savage as mine. Exhaling, I stared at the blood before rolling my fingers together.

“You fucking deserved that,” he hissed.

“Yeah, well, so did you.”

“You’re… You’re fucking my daughter? My daughter? Of all the women you’ve had and could have, you chose her. You sick fuck. She’s almost half your age.”

He wanted me to fight with him, but he was right. “It’s not what you think.” Oh, yeah, right. The pictures were vivid and detailed, leaving nothing to the imagination. We were obviously in a steamy affair. The entire office knew.

When I’d walked in, not a single person had been able to look me in the eyes. While they’d chimed in their greetings, they’d done so with utter trepidation.

“Yes, Daniel. We are seeing each other. She’s an adult.”

“And my daughter! Your best friend’s twenty-six-year-old daughter. Did you forget about that?”

“Hardly.” It was only nine-thirty in the morning and I was ready for a damn drink. While Drake had taken a much lower blow than I had, I’d been a fool for not taking more precautions. My need to taste Kacey had been the reason.

She’d blinded me to the necessities of being careful. This wasn’t just a game that was being played.

This was a bloody war and it was soon to get much worse.

He ripped something from his pocket, tossing it in my direction. “I had to wake up to this? This? Are you even going to apologize?”

“For what?” The piece of paper was a printout of the photograph in the pool. There was no mistaking what we were doing.

“For stealing her innocence. Did you threaten her job? That sounds like something you would do. That’s my little girl. My baby girl.”

“I didn’t steal her innocence, Daniel. And she’s not a little girl. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s helping me. She’s aware this isn’t what it seems to be.”

“You fucking asshole.” He lunged at me again, almost managing to get in another swing.

I snapped my hand around his fist, twisting his arm just as we were interrupted. Kacey bounded into the room, immediately stepping to the side between us. “Stop it. Both of you. Just fucking stop it.”

The look on Daniel’s face remained filled with hate. Jesus. I could tell by the look on her face she’d overheard what I’d said and misconstrued the words. I wasn’t going to try explaining them in front of my friend. Maybe my ex-friend. I was racking up exes rapidly.

I refused to let him go, cocking my head so he knew I had no intention of allowing him any advantage with me.

“Stop it. Now!” she demanded.

We both continued to hesitate.

“Goddamn both of you. I care about you, both of you, but you will not treat each other or me this way. I’m a person here, an adult. And as such, I get to choose who I want to spend time with. I get to decide who I want to date. I’m not your little girl, Dad. Maybe you haven’t opened your eyes, but I haven’t been that in a long time. And you,” she hissed as she snapped her head in my direction. “You don’t have any right to beat up my father. Not under any circumstances.”

“I was just trying to protect you,” Daniel insisted.

I relaxed my hold. This was getting us nowhere.

He ripped his arm away, rubbing his fist but still glaring at me.

“Protect me?” she chided. “You’re suffocating me. I love you, Dad, but I can’t do this. I can’t live this way. I won’t be subjected to the two of you fighting. Grow the fuck up. I will do what I want and right now what I want is to get the hell away from both of you. I’m taking the rest of the day off. If you don’t like it, fire me. In fact, why don’t you.”

“Kacey. We need to talk,” I jumped in.

“What do we have to talk about? You’re using me. Right? You’re just using me.”

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