Daddy's Princess

by Nikki Wild

  Only one possible destination made sense.

  I took my sedan five straight hours back towards Philadelphia, where a warm, comfy bed in a quiet college dorm room awaited me.

  The walk of shame from the car to my dorm room felt like it was miles long, but luckily the place was deserted.

  Mostly deserted.

  I spotted one of the musicians from the night I’d left. Of course, it was Christa’s boyfriend, Zack. He was seated on a park table, with a few of the other listeners in the circle.

  Don’t recognize me.

  Don’t recognize me.

  Don’t recogn–

  Unfortunately, the table was painfully within sight of the dorm entrance. There was no way to avoid them as I approached.

  “Hey, Chloe!”

  Under any other circumstances, I’d have been flattered that he’d remembered me. But it wasn’t the time. It had never crossed my mind that I’d left anything of an impression to that group.

  “Chloe?”

  I tearfully shook my head, jogging past them to buzz my ID card against the scanner pad.

  Once safely inside, I took a few deep breaths. Almost everyone was gone for Spring Break, so I made it to my room without suddenly bumping into anybody else.

  Christa was out somewhere, thankfully.

  Small victories.

  I dropped my keys, wallet, and phone on the tiny end table near my bed, and then kicked off my shoes and socks.

  It didn’t take long to scrub off the remainder of my makeup. I slumped straight into my bed and pulled the comforters to my chin – thanks to my five-hour stint as a runaway pajama model, I was already dressed for the occasion.

  I didn’t last two minutes before sleep came.

  The sound of the door scraping open stirred me away, and I pulled the bedding over my head.

  Christa was humming faintly as she closed the door behind herself. I heard her take a few steps, only to quickly pause.

  She’d obviously spotted me.

  But instead of sitting on the edge of my bed, or trying to pull me into conversation, I listened as her footsteps picked back up. I slowly pulled my comforter down from my face as she moved around as if I wasn’t there, although as quietly as possible.

  My best friend sat down cross-legged in her dorm bed, fishing a textbook out of her backpack.

  I quietly watched her study some of her ignored homework as sleep gradually tugged my lids back down…

  When my eyes opened again, it was starting to get dark. I stretched my toes out, rolling over to face her way again.

  Christa was watching something on her laptop with her earbuds in, and glanced over at me. Hitting a key and pulling the buds loose, she flashed me a smile with a singsong voice:

  “Wakey wakey, Chloe.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned, sitting up in bed. The long drive had taken it all right out of me, and my head ached. “How long have I been out?”

  “Since I got back?” She glanced at her screen for a moment. “Only about two hours, really.”

  I nodded, yawning.

  “Listen,” she started, turning to me with concern. “Zack told me he saw you. Said you looked like you needed me. We definitely don’t have to talk about whatever went down out there if you don’t want to, but you know that I’m here for you, doll.”

  I thought about keeping it all in for now.

  If I wasn’t talking about it…

  Maybe it wasn’t real.

  But she smiled faintly, tilting her head, and I felt my reserves depleting. My strength inside came crumbling down, and I told her the truth: that everything had just blown up in my face.

  As she settled down into a spot on my bed beside me, I didn’t spare a detail.

  I explained Damian, and how he had been a part of my childhood as a family friend; I told her about the falling out he’d had with my father; I explained the messages, the uncertainty, the recent gap in our relationship; I described what it was like to live with him in my old house, with that incredible warmth and the amazing sex; I went on about my father’s return, and the explosion that forced a rift between us.

  And, of course, I told her about the ring.

  Christa took the entire thing like a champ. There wasn’t a single moment of judgment during the entire tale, and she remained pensive for a minute when I finally finished.

  “There’s no way that this can go forward,” I explained. “I don’t know what was going through my head.”

  “Well,” Christa shrugged nonchalantly, “I don’t know. It seemed to me that you probably just loved this guy.”

  “What, my mystery sugar daddy?” I asked. “Why did you think that?”

  She considered this for a moment.

  “It was the way you talked about him, mostly. You always had this silly smile when he came up, and you spoke about him in a way that told me you really adored him.”

  My gaze moved to the floor.

  She’d probably known long before I had.

  “I just… it all felt so real, you know?” I faced her sympathetic expression again. “It was so strong. It seemed like I could trust him, even when he went all radio silent on me for a couple of weeks…”

  Christa looked thoughtful as she turned to me. “It sounds like you were freaking out because he hasn’t explained himself, right? About just kind of cutting you out for a little while there? But he wanted to try and show you that he means it when he says he won’t do it again…”

  I nodded, following along.

  “So yeah, maybe the ring thing might have been a bit much. But I can’t think of any promises that can hold a candle to that.”

  Recalling our nights of candle-lit sex, I held back a smile and quietly agreed.

  “The guy sounds complicated,” she admitted. “But it really just sounds like things, I don’t know, changed for both of you. Feels like a point came where this was no longer just a fun, frisky little business transaction.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” I replied sadly. “I mean, for me, it definitely has.”

  Christa ran her fingers through her dreads in deep thought. “It’s just a damned shame that you two didn’t decide this crap at the same time. With all the craziness, maybe things would have been a little different…”

  “Oh?” I asked.

  “Yeah, well…” Christa reminded me, “You did tell me that the note said he’d been thinking of this ‘a month ago’, right? That means he had already known for about a week that he wanted you when you finally said something.”

  I hadn’t considered that.

  “But then… why would he…?”

  “There might just be a valid explanation,” she smiled at me. “But you certainly don’t have to decide anything right now.”

  “Yeah, I do,” I groaned.

  “Why?”

  “He wants to hear my decision.”

  “Then, take a night. Think it over. That’s the best advice I can offer you. For whatever reason, he made you wait a few weeks, right? Give him a little of his own medicine for a night.”

  I threw my arms around her.

  “You’ve always been a fantastic friend, Christa,” I pressed my face into her shoulder. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

  “You can start by getting me the hookup with that sugar baby app,” she laughed as she held me. “Hell, with the kind of luck you’ve had, I can’t wait to see what I might be able to do with it!”

  It felt great to laugh.

  We were both starving, so I had pizza delivered for us. Christa and I spent the rest of the night gorging ourselves and watching movies on her laptop together before we finally curled up in our own respective beds.

  I already felt relieved and, although the world was still waiting out there beyond the door to our dorm room, it could wait a little longer.

  That’s why, when I woke up to a new message on the Candy Companions app from Damian, I felt that I could handle what was coming my way.

  But I was going to be surprised…r />
  Chloe

  It had felt like an eternity since I walked into the offices of Clarke Solutions, although it had really only been less than three weeks.

  The notification had been clear:

  Come to my office at noon.

  Please confirm.

  I hadn’t even hesitated in agreeing, although it was only when I walked through the super modern floor of his company’s offices that I had to confront the reality of that choice.

  Just like usual, nobody paid me any mind as I walked along. I heard hushed whispers from a few employees in the hall, but there were no guilty glances at my presence.

  Maybe something’s going on.

  The grand, oak doors to Damian’s personal office stood in my sight before long. With a deep breath, I summoned my courage and knocked.

  “Come in,” I heard bellowed from inside.

  I let myself into his office, closing the door and turning around…

  And my jaw almost dropped.

  Damian Clarke was standing with his hips to his desk, arms crossed and facing me. He looked as confident and cool as ever, although a wide smile crossed his lips to see me.

  However, sitting at his foreboding executive desk, was my father. His hands were clasped out in front, placed against the polished veneer. I wondered if he had any idea how much of my skin had kissed that tabletop.

  “Dad? Daddy–” I quickly corrected myself, “Damian…? What’s going on?”

  The two men turned to each other.

  “You wanted answers,” Damian replied as he faced me again, “and you deserved them. Well, it’s time you found out what was really going on.”

  My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Go on…”

  “It’s time that this little feud between us was over,” Damian continued. “There’s no reason for us to fight anymore. Our companies are merging, and honestly? The future looks bright.”

  “But… how?” I asked, perplexed. “You two utterly hate each other!”

  My father rose up from behind the desk. I couldn’t read his expression, but he didn’t look angry… which only confused me more.

  “Because of you, Buttercup.”

  “Me? What did I do?”

  “I fell for you,” Damian spoke up. “I fell for you hard, and I knew it a month ago. So, I reached out to your dad here to bury the axe, to desperately try and make amends…”

  “At first, I thought he was joking,” my father clarified. “It sounded like some ridiculous plot to undermine my firm – I was bitterly opposed to the idea – but he managed to convince me that he was sincere.”

  I thought on this a moment.

  “So, what happened when you disappeared on me like that?” I asked Damian. “I spilled all my feelings to you, and you cut me out for weeks…”

  “That was my fault,” my father answered. “When he told me what had happened, I told him that I’d expose him for this – for trying to seduce my daughter to break my allegiances and ruin my company. I made him stay away because I feared he would hurt you.”

  “It utterly devastated me,” Damian took over. “All I wanted to do was see you again. So I told him that I’d walk away from everything if I could be with you.”

  “Everything?” I glanced between them.

  “Yes… everything,” my father confirmed. “Damian rang me and told me that he couldn’t bear another moment away from you. He was prepared to sign over his entire company.”

  I was stunned.

  “You would give this all up… for me?”

  “If that’s what it took,” he flashed me a natural, handsome smirk. “Babe, I just couldn’t bring myself to put that choice at your feet: picking between your father or me. I knew that we needed his blessing, and knowing how the Pittsburgh market was faring… I saw a way to prove my sincerity.

  “I was willing to give him Philadelphia, and all my resources here. Sacrificing it all so that he would understand that you were more important to me than our stupid feud, or my power here.

  “And I sure as hell made him know it.”

  All of this…

  It all fell into place.

  If that’s why he was distant…

  Something else clicked in my head, and I turned to my father. “Your business trip – you were meeting with Damian.”

  “I was,” he confirmed. “I might have been exaggerating when I said I was leaving town. You wouldn’t believe the amount of rewards points I have at the Hilton chain…”

  “So you knew that Damian…”

  “Was in my home, yes,” he nodded. “In fact, I invited him. He’d told me that you two had been seeing each other for a little while, but never staying together. It was impulsive of me, perhaps. But when you told me you were coming back home, I saw an opportunity for you two.”

  That didn’t explain everything, though. I turned curiously to Damian. “And you couldn’t tell me anything, even when we were alone, because… why?”

  “Try to understand the complicated situation I found myself in,” Damian looked guilty. “I was trying to explain to my biggest rival that I had fallen in love with his daughter. I had to maintain a careful balance from that point on, and if I’d told you he was involved in this…”

  “Yeah, I could see how I might have reacted,” I confessed. “Poorly. For any of us.” I turned to my father, crossing my arms. “So, that whole thing with you yesterday…?”

  “Partly sincere, but a test,” Dad explained, turning to Damian. “Let’s call it half and half. I’ll have to be honest, you proposing wasn’t expected, and it threw me for one hell of a loop…”

  I butted in. “You convinced me that you still thought he was the Devil in a three-piece.”

  “I’ll admit that the idea of you marrying Damian might have caused me to… overreact,” my father conceded. “I might have forgotten my place in things for a decisive few minutes…”

  “You think?” I was incredulous.

  He took that in stride. “But I’m sorry for how I acted. I have no right to stand in your way, and you’re a woman now. It’s time I started respecting your choices… whether it’s your choice to move to another city, or to choose to allow another man into your life.”

  My father was coming out from behind the desk as I tried to process all of this. He took my hand in his and looked into my eyes.

  “Is this what you want? Is this what will make you happy, Buttercup?”

  Seeing it all come together like this made the decision much easier to admit aloud.

  “You’ll always be my Dad,” I told him. “But this is what I want. I love Damian… and I want to be with him. I should have told you this sooner, but I didn’t think you’d ever accept it.”

  “Honey, I’ll love you no matter what,” he told me with a smile. “Follow your heart.”

  I gave him a deep embrace.

  “I love you too, Dad.”

  As he pulled back with a smile, he glanced over at Damian. The two businessmen in my life shared a respectful, meaningful glance.

  Satisfied, my father stepped back around the side of the desk, where he pulled out his briefcase and unclipped it on the polished surface. “Well, I have to go take care of a mountain of paperwork. But first…”

  He withdrew something from inside, then closed up the case and shook hands with Damian. A look of confusion slipped across my lover’s face, but it vanished just as quickly with a smile.

  “I’ll be seeing you soon,” Dad told him. “And Damian, in more ways than one… welcome back to the family.”

  “Good to be back.”

  They parted ways.

  My father kissed me on the forehead. “Call me more often,” he told me sternly. When I nodded quickly, he broke into another smile and excused himself out the office.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “What was what?”

  “With the briefcase,” I nodded towards the desk. “He said, but first, and then just sort of closed it up and left at that.”

 
; “Oh, that? Patrick was returning something to me,” Damian replied, getting down on one knee in front. As I gasped, he revealed the object in his palm with a flick of his fingers…

  The ring caught a glimmer of light from the window, shining majestically. “Something very important to me. Chloe Lockwood, now that you know the truth… will you marry me?”

  “Yes… oh God, yes…” I whispered.

  He slipped the engagement ring onto my finger. I loved how it felt as it slid into place, and I couldn’t help but stare at how it gleamed.

  My eyes were still on it as he rose.

  The sound of Damian Clarke’s rugged voice finally broke my trance. “I think that you’re forgetting something, Princess…”

  Entranced by the beautiful ring on my finger, I hadn’t even noticed him take a seat in his executive chair. I took a few steps towards the man I was going to marry, looking him dead in the eye with a sexy as hell glance.

  “Yes, Daddy…”

  Damian

  Chloe dropped to her knees, unbuckling my belt as I reached for my landline. Her mouth was already on my cock as I dialed my receptionist.

  “Gladys? Hold all my calls.”

  “For how long, sir?”

  I smiled at my new fiancée.

  “An hour.”

  “Fine but, just a reminder, you have a meeting around that time. It’s Arthur Prudence again. He swears that it’s very important this time.”

  I groaned as Chloe’s tongue slid beneath the crown of my cock. Her hands tugged at my slacks, desperate to pull them down my knees.

  “Oh, I know,” Gladys replied sympathetically, blissfully unaware of any other reason why I might let out a groan. “But you’ve already made him reschedule when you took off out the office.”

  Chloe’s innocent little glance from between my knees betrayed mischief as she tugged my silk boxers down, freeing my hardened cock.

  “Okay, sure,” I replied before having to cover the microphone with a palm. After another deep groan from her hand around my erection, I put the receiver back to my ear again: “Whatever. I’ll take care of him, but no sooner than an hour.”

  “You’re the boss,” she noted.