Page 22 of Valentine's Heart

He’d hung up the phone with a promise to hunt me down and slit my throat if I ever hurt his sister—a threat I welcomed. I stared down at her sleeping face, tucking a few damp tendrils of honey-brown hair behind one ear and wondering how an unworthy asshole like me had gotten so lucky as to have her. Even if it was only for a few short days.

At last, I curled up next to her, intending to nap for a few minutes.

“Donovan?” A small voice pulled me from the familiar nightmare—or memory, really—that had me in its claws. A vision of blood, and terror, and a woman begging me to stop.

And me, not stopping.

“What’s wrong, Valentine?” I asked, looking around. She was hunched over, her back to me. The bedside clock said ten a.m., and I blinked at it for a second, stunned. I never slept this late, or this long.

And Valentine had been alone, awake.

“Baby—” I stopped as I heard a whirring sound. That’s when I noticed that the bed was littered with the sex toys I’d purchased on our trip. “How long have you been up?” It must have been a lot longer than a few minutes; she’d unboxed everything, and the bed resembled…

She giggled. “It looks like a table at a sex worker’s yard sale, doesn’t it?”

“Pretty much.”

Valentine twisted to peer at me, a sheet pulled around her flushed body. Sweat dampened the tendrils of hair around her face. She’d pulled her hair up into a knot of some kind, and when she turned, I could see she had a vibrator in each hand. One was a thick dildo with a simulated alpha knot. The other was a slimmer anal vibe with a flared base and a jewel at the end.

I was suddenly very, very hard. “What are you doing, baby?”

“I, um, well… I woke up and I had some water, and I ate some of the cobbler and then came back to bed with cramps, but you were fast asleep so I thought I could take care of it myself, since you showed me how, sort of, last night…” Her lower lip trembled as she stopped babbling. “But I can’t figure it out.”

A wave of sadness filled me, followed almost immediately by a dark rush of gratitude. Her fear and insecurity were the only reasons she couldn’t come. I could fix that.

“I don’t want you to figure it out, sweetheart,” I said, taking the vibes out of her hands. “We need a few rules, okay? I’m going to be the one in charge. I don’t want you to even try to have an orgasm without me; the only exception will be if I order you to touch yourself for me while I watch. Do you understand?”

“N-no,” she admitted.

“What I mean is that I am in control in this room, this house, for this heat.”

“I’m not sure it even is a heat,” she interrupted. “From what my sister Lindyann says, omegas in heat can’t even speak intelligibly. Or think.”

“For this house, then. Under this roof.” I waited for her to nod, then went on. “Your orgasms will all come from me. My tongue, my fingers, me holding the toys I bought for you. You won’t use them or your own hands to climax. Can you promise me that?”

“Um, that’s easy.” I lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, I promise.” I waited another moment, then frowned. Her cheeks went pink as she whispered, “I promise, Daddy.”

“Good girl,” I praised.

She squirmed on the bed. “I-I need to ask you something. Not about sex. Well, mostly.” I could tell she was truly worried about something.

“Anything. I’ll never lie to you, Valentine.”

“Have you… The Daddy thing… Are you doing that for me? Or is it your thing? Have you done this with other women?” Her eyes were squeezed shut by the end of her outburst, and I sat up, pulling a sheet over my lap and around my waist before taking her hands in mine.

“Sweetheart, you don’t need to be embarrassed. No. I have not ever wanted to have another woman call me Daddy. Not one ever has.”

“Then… how?” she whispered. “How did you know?”

“I read one of your books.”

“Which one?”

I grinned at her wide eyes. “Daddy’s Little Omega. I read a few pages of yours, then bought my own copy on my e-reader.”

“Oh.” Her mouth stayed in a little circle as I went on.

“I liked it. The way he cared for her, and she gave him control. The gentleness of it. I looked into some of the other types of Daddy play as well.” I took a breath, looking for the right way to say this. “I’ll try anything you want, but?—”

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