Page 145 of Daddy, Sir

I raised my eyebrows. Lola had been one of my Rent-A-Daddy clients. She’d been 86ed for bullying and not respecting boundaries. “Well, she's not supposed to be,” I reminded him. “Get rid of her.”

Zeke looked at the floor, cleared his throat, and looked back up at me. “She says she wants to apologize, sir, and she seems… different.” He cleared his throat again and looked me straight in the eye before adding, “I wouldn’t bother you all if it didn’t seem important. Says she’s in therapy now, wants to apologize.” He let his gaze roam around the room to my colleagues. “I think you should talk to her.”

I bristled. My hackles were up. My experience with Lola had not been a good one. But Zeke was someone I trusted, and henever stuck his nose into club business. He had spent a decade doing his job. Nothing more, nothing less. We’d invited him to join us several times in the lounge, but he never accepted, insisting that he didn’t want to mix business with pleasure. Audrey wrapped an arm around my waist in a gesture of comfort and support as my friends all looked toward me. Audrey had been my client, after all.

“She’s here?” I questioned, confirming.

Zeke nodded. “Waiting right outside the door. The main door, I mean, not this one.”

The clarification wasn’t needed. Zeke had been doing his job perfectly for a decade.

I sucked in a breath. “Send her in.”

He nodded and disappeared. Five minutes later, he returned with Lola and shut the door behind them.

All right, so he was staying for this.

I know I wasn’t the only one surprised when they entered. The Lola that walked in wasn’t the one I remembered. That one had always played up to her platinum blonde hair, ruby red lips, old-Hollywood-sex-symbol looks with teased locks and barely there dresses. This one was dressed in a soft, lightweight, pink sweater that was doing its level best to downplay her large breasts and tiny waist. The jeans she wore covered her long legs, but I was sure that if she turned around they would hug her booty just as well as any of her club dresses had. Her usually teased up, blonde-as-blonde-could-be hair had been darkened to a honey blonde that lay in soft waves around her shoulders, framing her face. She still wore makeup, I could see, but it was far more subtle than it used to be.

And she was nervous. I’d never seen Lola look nervous before. Zeke must have noticed, too, because he touched the small of her back and said, “Go on, tell them what you told me.”

Lola gave a short nod and licked her lips before opening her mouth. By then, I knew I’d be speaking for the whole room if I said we were ready to hang on her every word. I wasn’t sure it would change anything, but I was listening.

She glanced beside her at Zeke, then nodded once more and started to speak. “I um… I wanted to apologize to you all, but especially you, Archer, for the way I behaved last year. And well, anytime I was at the club, really.”

I wasn’t yet ready to accept her apology until I heard what else she had to say, but I nodded and forced a smile so she would keep talking.

“I’m in therapy now, and I...” She trailed off, shuffling her feet and glancing down at the floor before looking back at us. She cleared her throat, before starting again. “I was raised a certain way. Real religious, and uh… the only thing about me that was ever given value was my ability to please men, and what I could be and do for men. In and out of the bedroom, but especially for sex. I left the church a long time ago, but I guess I hadn’t realized how deeply ingrained that was, and how attached to my self-worth it had become.” She swallowed hard and forced a smile. “I thought my therapist was going to laugh or fire me when I told her about the whole Rent-A-Daddy escapade, but she actually thought it was a good idea. She said I needed to do it in the way that it was intended, though, and use it for self-improvement and goal setting, with sex off the table. I’m nervous about it, but I agree with her. I need to have that accountability in my life, and I need to learn to look at relationships with men differently. So…” She gulped. “I guess I’m asking for a second chance. Not… with Archer or anything. Just in general. Let me prove I’ve changed.”

I looked around the room at my friends, whose expressions were a mix of sympathy and concern.

Audrey stepped forward and walked right up to the nervous-looking Lola, taking her hand. “I’m sorry you went through that, and I’m proud of you for working on yourself.”

Everyone, including myself, nodded in agreement. Lola flushed and looked at the floor again. “Thank you. It’s been a process. I didn’t realize how deeply the way I’d grown up had affected the way I viewed myself.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I understand if the answer is no. I just had to ask. I promised my therapist I would do the hard things.”

I glanced around the room, meeting Theo’s gaze, then Bas’ and Bain’s, and finally Lennon’s. I saw their answers clearly, and was about to speak up when Bas did it for me.

“We’re all grateful for and accept your apology, and we’d love to offer you a second chance, but unfortunately, we just closed down our Rent-A-Daddy services for the foreseeable future.”

“Oh.” Lola looked crushed and actually blinked back tears. “I see. I understand. Well, thank you for listening and?—”

“I’ll do it.”

I jerked my head up at the hard tone in time to see Zeke grabbing Lola’s hand that Audrey had dropped.

“What?” I choked out.

Bas frowned. “I’m sorry. That’s not possible. As I’ve said, we shut down the service.”

Lola’s face, which had brightened, became a mask of disappointment.

“Off the books,” Zeke pushed. “Unofficial. For free.”

I arched my eyebrows and briefly wondered why he’d make such an offer. And as the owners of the establishment where she’d come seeking help, did we have an obligation to stop him? My legal prowess failed me. There was no correct answer. But as our resident legal department, it fell on my shoulders to speak up.

“It would have to be a privately negotiated arrangement between the two of you, and it would have to be made with the full understanding that it’s in no way affiliated with the Penthouse.” I frowned, then offered, “You could probably read over an existing contract and questionnaire, but only as an example. You’d have to make your own.”

Zeke stepped forward, nodding his understanding. “The club would be in no way responsible. We’d be two private citizens negotiating terms. Just like any play partners or people in a relationship.”

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