Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance)

by Caitlin Daire

  “And they left you here alone?”

  She shrugged. “They didn’t want to. But I told them to. I knew you were coming, and I wanted to see you.”

  “That was very silly, Vanessa,” I reprimanded her. “You’re drunk and alone outside a bar. You think that’s a good idea?”

  “I wanted to see you,” she repeated.

  Her big doe eyes made me picture her down on her knees, staring up at me as she sucked my cock, and I immediately banished the thought. I wasn’t going to take advantage of a young girl. She was drunk out of her mind and didn’t know what she was saying; didn’t know what she was implying.

  “Let’s go,” I said, putting my hand on her back. “Can you walk?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said, giggling.

  I helped her across the road, my hand still protectively resting on her back, and one of her legs gave way under her even though she was wearing ballet flats. I grabbed hold of her small body before she could begin to fall, and she stared up at me as I gripped her tight in my arms. “Maybe you should just carry me,” she said.

  Oh, how I was tempted to carry her all the way home to my bed and ravish her. Instead, I gestured ahead of us. “Car’s right there. I’ll need your address.”

  She pouted and got into the passenger seat, and she gave me the address of her apartment a moment later. I frowned when she mentioned the area.

  “In the big brown apartment block on that corner? That’s not a good place for a girl like you, Vanessa.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

  “I didn’t mean to offend you, it’s just a very rough place.”

  “Well, it’s all I can afford,” she said, crossing her arms and turning her head away, obviously upset. “Not all of us college girls have rich daddies who buy them everything.”

  I grunted a vague apologetic response, not wanting to cross the line by saying anything else at this time. I knew someone like her deserved better than living in a crime-infested neighborhood, but the more I said, the more I seemed to offend her, and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt my girl.

  She’s not your girl, I told myself, pressing my foot on the gas pedal and pulling out of the lot.

  We rode in silence to Gilroy, and when we arrived outside Vanessa’s faded brown brick apartment block, I spotted a man hanging around the entrance. He was skinny—as in drug addict skinny—and he was twitching and looking around rapidly. It also looked like he was talking, because his lips were moving, but there was no one there, so he must’ve been speaking to himself. Or worse, someone only he could see.

  Vanessa followed my gaze. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “That guy hangs around the building occasionally. He usually doesn’t bother me all that much.”

  “Usually?” I said, my hands balling into fists by my side at the mere thought of anyone harassing a girl like her.

  “I think he’s just a bit messed up,” she replied.

  I reached over and put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m not letting you stay here tonight; not now. You can stay at my house again.”

  Her eyes widened. “In the pink room?”

  “Yes.”

  “But...”

  “We’ll discuss all of this in the morning,” I said. “Right now, you’re drunk and tired, and I don’t trust men like him in this area. I want to know that you’re safe, so you’re coming with me. Got it?”

  She nodded, folding her hands demurely in her lap. “Okay, Jacob. Thank you,” she said softly.

  Now that she’d finally started to get my name right, I wished she’d go back to accidentally calling me sir.

  We arrived at my house twenty minutes later. I escorted Vanessa upstairs to her room, and I went and found an old shirt for her to sleep in. She thanked me and disappeared into the small bathroom to put it on. I was neatening up the sheets on the bed when she stepped out.

  “Thanks for the shirt, Jacob,” she said. I glanced up, and my eyebrows shot up when I saw her.

  It was just an old shirt, but holy shit, she was wearing the hell out of it. The bathroom tiles had obviously been a bit cold, because her nipples were visible under the thin white material, and my voice went husky as I tried to reply.

  I wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked. I wanted to tell her to take the damn shirt off and show me the rest of that unbelievable body. I wanted to tell her that I’d never wanted anything as badly as I wanted to feel her in my arms right now.

  “No problem,” I ended up saying. “It looks comfortable.”

  “It is,” she replied, before biting her lower lip and taking a step toward the bed, which I was still standing directly next to.

  “I was just fixing the sheets for you,” I explained, leaning down to finish the job.

  She brushed up against me on her way past me, and the small gesture made heat rush to my groin. “Thank you,” she murmured. “For taking such good care of me. You’re a really good….boss.”

  I didn’t miss the pause between her words there. She was so close that I could smell her. Sweet floral perfume, coconut-scented hair….and boozy breath. I took a step back.

  “You should get into bed,” I said, standing up straight. “You’ll need to get a lot of sleep to recover from the night you’ve had.”

  “I’m not ready for bed. It’s not even that late. I’m not a child,” she said.

  “You’re behaving like one right now. Bed,” I ordered, pointing to it.

  “I don’t want to. I want to….”

  “You want to what, Vanessa?” I asked, unable to resist the temptation of asking.

  “I want to kiss you,” she said, looking up at me with wide blue eyes. That wonderful gaze of innocence. Only she wasn’t so innocent; not right now.

  “You don’t know what you’re saying,” I growled.

  “Yes, I do. I want you, Jacob,” she said, her voice breathy now.

  I wanted to devour every inch of her sweet young body. But I held back. “You’re wasted, and you’ll regret this in the morning,” I said. “This isn’t like you, Vanessa. You’re not this girl. You need to stop.”

  “You don’t want me?” she asked. I could see tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, and I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

  “You’re half my age, Vanessa. I’m old enough to be your father.”

  “That’s not an answer,” she pressed on.

  “I’m too old for you, and you’re my employee.”

  “I just want to know,” she said, her voice soft and nervous. “I need to know. Do you want me….sir?”

  Fuck. She knew exactly what she was doing now; there was no way she didn’t. She was being a very naughty girl, and we were entering very dangerous territory.

  “I want you,” I murmured. “But I can’t….”

  I didn’t finish that sentence, because Vanessa suddenly slipped the shirt over her head and threw it on the floor, leaving herself completely exposed.

  Christ, she was fucking perfect. Even more so than I’d imagined so many times. Her breasts were small and perky, the perfect handful. So much better than the bolted-on silicone things that so many women had these days. Her slender, nipped-in waist curved out to perfect hips that I desperately wanted to grab, and I resisted the urge to stride over, throw her on the bed and spank her curvy little ass for being such a tease.

  My cock practically felt like it was about to explode right then and there, and I averted my eyes, trying to look anywhere but at her. “What are you doing, Vanessa?” I asked.

  It was so hard to keep my eyes off her. I picked the shirt up and slowly approached her, holding it out in front of me so that her body was hidden behind it, and she murmured breathlessly. “I knew it. I knew you felt the same,” she said. “Jacob…I want you to be my first.”

  There was no way I could give her what she was asking for. I wanted nothing more than to touch her, feel her, taste her…but I couldn’t bring myself to even entertain the idea of actually doing it while she was this w
asted. She was a virgin, and while she wasn’t acting like it at the moment, I knew there had to be a reason behind why she’d held onto her virginity for so long when most other teenagers were out there giving it away when they were fifteen or sixteen, sometimes even younger. It was obviously something she considered special, so I wrapped the shirt around her and gently rebuffed her, wishing I could actually take her over my knee and spank her ass red and raw for being so naughty.

  “It’s not going to happen,” I said. “You’re very drunk and not acting like yourself. You need to go to sleep.”

  In a last-ditch attempt to change my mind, she stood up as high as she could on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to mine.

  Shit.

  Standing here, with this amazingly gorgeous girl pressing her tits into my chest and closing her sweet, plump lips over mine felt more right and more natural than anything else in the world. How could something that felt so right ever be wrong?

  But it was. It was wrong. She was drunk. I wouldn’t take advantage of her, no matter how fucking much I wanted to.

  “Stop,” I said, breaking the kiss and gently pushing her away.

  She looked heartbroken, shoulders sagging as she gingerly touched a finger to her lips, where mine had just been. The expression of sadness was quickly replaced with a queasy look, and I slid an arm around her and pulled her back toward the bathroom where she’d changed earlier.

  “Let it all out,” I murmured as she knelt by the porcelain toilet bowl and began to throw up. “It’s okay, I’m here. I’ll take care of you.”

  “Oh god,” she gasped between acrid-smelling splashes. “I feel so sick.”

  Well, this was one way to kill the heat between us. I grabbed a glass of water, some aspirin and some tissues, and when she was done vomiting, I gently wiped around her lips. “Drink this,” I said, handing her the water. “And swallow this aspirin. I’ll get you some mouthwash too.”

  “Thank you, Jacob,” she whispered from the tiled floor when she was done. Her face was etched with shame. “I’m so sorry. For earlier. For this whole night. And I’m sorry for calling you…calling you daddy. I’ve behaved so badly.”

  “Yes, you have. You’re a bad, bad girl, and if you were mine, you’d really be sorry,” I growled, handing her the mouthwash. “Because that’s what happens to bad girls in this house. They get punished for breaking rules.”

  Her glassy eyes widened, and I saw her eyes briefly flash to my crotch, where it was all too obvious how hard I was at the sound of her saying the word ‘daddy’ again. “What do you mean?”

  I shook my head, snapping out of it. “Nothing.”

  “Please tell me. I won’t remember in the morning anyway,” she said.

  If she were mine, she wouldn’t be able to sit for a week after an episode like this. But she wasn’t, and it was my duty to take care of her. I knelt down and gently grabbed her wrist, pulling her to her feet. “You need to go to bed,” I said. “I’ll carry you. Don’t worry.”

  I picked up her fragile little body and carried her back out to the bedroom before gently placing her on the bed and pulling the sheets back to cover her.

  “Jacob?” she murmured as I turned away to make sure there was a glass of water on the bedside table for when she woke up.

  I turned back to her a couple of seconds later. “Yes?”

  But she was already asleep, her perfect chest slowly rising and falling as she breathed in and out. One arm was splayed out by her side, and her lips were slightly parted. She looked like a sleeping angel, and I sat and watched her for a moment before gently moving a loose strand of hair off her face and tucking it behind her ear. Then I pulled the blankets up over the sheets, making sure she was nicely tucked in before leaning down and lightly touching my lips to her forehead.

  “Night, baby girl.”

  Chapter Eight

  Vanessa

  Sunlight crept through the curtains, and I groggily opened my eyes. Thank god it was Sunday and I didn’t have to work. But since when did I have expensive curtains instead of cheap blinds? And since when did I have a bed bigger than a single?

  I sat bolt upright as memories from the previous night flooded back. I groaned and turned my head, searching the room for Jacob. He wasn’t there.

  “Oh, no. No, no no…” I said out loud, my cheeks flushing as I recalled what I’d done.

  It was awful. Beyond awful. I got trashed at a bar, called him, somehow guilted him into picking me up, and then I’d thrown myself at him. I cringed as I recalled myself calling him daddy, then later stripping in front of him and begging him to take my virginity.

  Oh my god. Oh my god, I really did that.

  I hadn’t even taken no for an answer. He’d calmly rejected me like the decent man he was, and instead of being mature and accepting it, I’d lunged at him and kissed him. Wow, how dumb could I be? And then I’d vomited everywhere; the bitter cherry on top of the crap cake that was last night.

  I didn’t think a single other human being in the world could possibly feel as humiliated as I did right now, and I deserved to feel this way too. I was a complete idiot. My behavior last night was absolutely mortifying. I doubted I would even be able to look Jacob in the eye after the incident.

  I lay back down and buried my head under my pillow, never wanting to leave bed again. I didn’t even feel all that hungover; it was mostly just regret making my head pound. What the hell had I been thinking? Of course he’d turned me down, and I was sure as hell glad he had. Otherwise I would have waited all these years only to drunkenly lose my virginity on a whim. To my boss, no less.

  There was a knock at the door, and my heart sank even further. “Vanessa? Are you awake?”

  “Yes,” I said meekly.

  “Are you decent?”

  I pulled the bedcovers up to my chin. “Yes.”

  The door opened, and Jacob entered with a tray laden with bacon, pancakes and orange juice. Coffee, too.

  “I made you breakfast,” he said. “Good food is the only real cure for a hangover. I assumed you wouldn’t be feeling too great today after the night you had.”

  I swallowed hard. “Jacob, I’m so sorry about—”

  He held up a hand, cutting me off. “Eat first. Then we’ll talk.”

  He sat down next to me, holding the tray in front of me. I haltingly reached out to grab the plate of pancakes, and Jacob held up a finger again. “One second. I forgot to ask. Do you like maple syrup?”

  I nodded. “I love it.”

  “Here,” he said, picking up a small white china syrup jug. It had an ornate carved pattern around the top, and I watched as he poured some syrup onto my pancakes. I’d always wondered where people got nice china and other stuff like that from. I’d picked up all my apartment’s kitchen things from dollar stores, and I wouldn’t even have the first clue where to get nice furniture and homewares. It was just one of the many ‘adult’ things I’d never learned, because my parental figures hadn’t exactly been the sort of people I could emulate. My mom certainly never bought nice crockery. In fact, she never bought much at all aside from whiskey.

  “Is that enough?” Jacob asked.

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  I tucked into the food, and Jacob watched me eat. Usually it felt unsettling to me to have someone watching me like a hawk, but this wasn’t like that at all. I felt safe and protected around Jacob, no matter what. Even though I was probably going to be fired in five minutes…

  “That was really nice,” I murmured, wiping my lips with a napkin from the tray when I was done eating and drinking. “No one’s ever made me breakfast before.”

  He arched a brow. “Really? Not even your parents?”

  “Not even them. I had to get my own breakfast. Mom was always too….” I hesitated. “Never mind.”

  He nodded slowly, obviously catching on to the fact that I didn’t want to start dishing about my childhood. Not now, anyway.

  “So, we need to talk,” he said bluntly, sitting up
straighter.

  My cheeks flushed, and I stared down at the white duvet in shame. “Yes,” I replied. “I know you’re going to let me go, but I just want to say how sorry I am anyway. I would usually never do anything like that. I didn’t realize how drunk I was. I only had three drinks last night. I guess I’m just so tired from everything that’s been going on lately, so the alcohol affected me more. But that’s not an excuse. I’m obviously not the kind of person who should be a nanny. And I’m definitely not the kind of girl who you would….”

  My voice trailed off as Jacob gently slid a hand under my chin, tilting my head up so that I was facing him. “Don’t be silly. Even nannies are entitled to have nights off to have fun with friends.”

  “Last night wasn’t fun,” I whispered. “I mean, it was until I…”

  Once again, my voice trailed off.

  “I’m not firing you, Vanessa,” Jacob said. “But I do think you need to be a lot more careful. No more drinking like that. Do you know how worried I was?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I want to take care of you, Vanessa. But I can’t do that if you’re running around seedy parts of town and bar-hopping. Not to mention that area you live in…it’s unsafe for you to be there,” he said. “I’m not trying to control you. It really isn’t a safe place.”

  My eyes widened with confusion. “What are you saying, Jacob?”

  “I’m saying I think you should move in here. A lot of nannies are live-in with their employers, so it wouldn’t be unusual. There’s already a room for you—you’re sitting in it now—and there’s plenty of space. You’d save so much time on commutes, especially considering how close college is to here, and it would help you save on rent so you don’t have to work so hard. I know you’re still at that coffee shop job as well as helping out with Tommy. So it’s no wonder you’re tired all the time.”

  “You want me to move in with you?” I said, unable to believe my ears. He still hadn’t brought up the way I’d thrown myself at him last night….instead he was inviting me to freaking move in to his mansion?

  He nodded. “This way you won’t be spread so thin. And it might help avoid a repeat of last night’s incident.”