But she couldn’t shake the feeling that no matter what happened, she would be safe with him. And maybe that made her an idiot, just like her mother had always said.
If it did, she didn’t care.
She wanted him. Wanted the pain he promised, and whatever else came with it.
“You shouldn’t,” he said, echoing her own thoughts. “And I shouldn’t let you. A good man would take you back to your friends, tell you to forget you ever met me.”
“Then why don’t you?” she asked as they slowed and turned onto a long driveway.
“Because I’m not a good man. And I haven’t been for a very long time.”
Holden
He knew damn well this was a mistake. The woman currently wandering the front rooms of his house with a curious, if shrewd eye, was too young for him. Too innocent.
Too… breakable.
And yet, he couldn’t seem to force himself to take her back to her friends, where she clearly belonged. The need for her was like a living, breathing thing inside of him, stronger than anything he’d felt for anyone in a very long time. Possibly ever.
So instead of doing the right thing, the honorable thing, he found himself crossing the distance between them while she watched him with those wide, amused eyes.
“Your safeword is ‘Red’,” he said when he reached her, cupping her head in one hand while the other slid around her waist, yanking her to him. “Say that, and all this stops.”
“Got it.”
“The right answer here is ‘Yes, Daddy’.”
Some of the amusement faded from her eyes, replaced with surprise. “You were serious about that?”
“Yes.”
“And if I refuse?”
He could tell her, of course. He could, and should, lay it all out for her in plain language even the most vanilla person could understand.
But he had a feeling a woman like his little siren would respond better to action than words.
With that in mind, he bent and scooped her up, tossing her over his shoulder. Damn girl barely weighed anything, a fact he tucked in the back of his mind for later, so he’d remember to be careful with her.
Or at least as careful as a man like him was capable of being.
“Holden!” Her shocked shriek met his ears as her small fists pounded at his back. “Put me down!”
“As you wish.”
Dropping down onto the edge of his bed, he flipped her face down over his lap all in one swift move.
“This isnotwhat I meant!”
“It’s what I meant. Consider this your first lesson in obedience, Francesca.”
All it took was a single tug of her too-short dress to bare her ass to his gaze. The thong she was wearing covered next to nothing and left just as much to the imagination. Which worked in his favor, even if the thought of anyone else catching a glimpse of what she wasn’t wearing under that dress had his pulse pounding with a possessive need he knew he had no right to feel.
Riding that possessive high, he cupped her ass and squeezed, hard enough to send her legs kicking as she yelped in protest. “You asked what happens if you refuse to do as you’re told. This is what happens to naughty girls who don’t listen to their Daddies.”
Chapter Three
Frankie