Three Dirty Harts

by Cara Dee

  “I could wring your neck,” I replied curtly.

  He laughed.

  Dinner on the roof was relaxing and wonderful for the most part. Belle was curled up in a chair, chatting excitedly about this and that, and Jace had put his inappropriate agenda on the backburner to tease and banter. They had a way of jumping from dynamic to dynamic; sometimes they were almost like siblings, and sometimes she came to him for advice and help.

  I was content to sit back and listen. I sipped my wine and gazed out over the pool, enjoying the moment. For now, there were no worries, no guilt, no shame.

  My only trouble was the damn bed. Belle had filled it with blankets and pillows, string lights hanging from the fabric-covered ceiling, and she’d pushed the terrace’s only heater closer to where we’d be sleeping. I supposed it would suffice, but I was a headcase regardless.

  I had to make a decision about the highly inappropriate ideas Jace had gotten into his head—and mine. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to enjoy much of anything before I made up my mind, and…and it was simply so wrong. I shook my head to myself and willed the images to stay away. They rattled me too much, and I wasn’t even a worrier anymore because of them. I was neurotic. It wasn’t who I wanted to be.

  You can’t go there. You can’t think of her that way.

  No, I seriously couldn’t. Unfortunately, there was little I could do about my thoughts. They crept in unbidden no matter what I did. What I could do, however, was to never encourage anything. She could do whatever she wanted. I was going to remain a gentleman, and damn it all to hell, I was going to continue being the best father I could be for her.

  I blew out a breath, feeling a bit more settled. This was going to work.

  Chapter 4

  After dinner and too many s’mores, we went downstairs quickly to change into more comfortable clothes. Sweats and a long-sleeved tee should keep me warm throughout the night.

  I had no idea what was taking Belle so long, but I had filled the dishwasher, returned to the roof, and helped Jace bring the snack bowls and the games to the sunbed by the time she reappeared.

  She was dressed appropriately for once. Pajama bottoms, a cozy-looking flannel pair, and one of my old tees from college.

  “Did you take forever so we would do all the work?” Jace tugged on her ponytail as he limped past her with the last of the snacks.

  “No.” She scowled at him and smoothed down her hair. “I had to shave my legs. They were a little scratchy.”

  “Well, come on, you two. What game are we starting with?” I carried over a side table that we could put our drinks on. Then I shifted the layers of mosquito netting to the side and let Belle jump onto the thick mattress. She wore the most adorable smile.

  “Monopoly!” she declared.

  Splendid. I was going to win that. I was a bit of a Monopoly shark.

  Jace snuck onto the bed too, taking the other side so Belle would be in the middle. That left me in charge of the heater and the drinks. My brother had set the cooler on the floorboards, so I poured a glass of Sprite for Belle and grabbed a handful of ice cubes from the box. Jace got a beer, and I went for another glass of wine.

  Belle set up the game in the middle of the bed, and I scooted farther down the mattress so we were spread out. Besides, she needed the space for her countless bowls of candy. She already had a bowl full of gummy worms in her lap, and she was munching away while sorting through the stacks of Monopoly money.

  My chest tightened at the sight of her carefree spirit. Could I love her more?

  It was going to be a great night with my two favorite people.

  “Oh my God, no!” Belle palmed her cheeks in horror as she landed on one of my hotels. “I can’t—not again!”

  I laughed. “Pay up, darling.”

  “I won’t have any money left!” She got adorably angry and started going through what was left of her little stack.

  Jace nodded at me and sucked in a breath, a signal I was hitting the right spot. His leg started cramping up about half an hour ago, so I was massaging the pressure points on his calf.

  The foot of the bed had become mine, and I was lying sideways across it to access his leg, my Monopoly fortune, and my last glass of wine. I’d set it on the elevated footboard and had already spilled twice—only a few drops, thankfully.

  “You should know better than to play Monopoly with him,” Jace reminded Belle with a tired chuckle. “What did you expect would happen?”

  “I thought you’d go down first,” she grumbled under her breath. “Okay, here’s all I have. You’re a meanie, Dad.”

  I winked and accepted the money. She was left with one little bill, and the next time she ended up on my property—or Jace’s—she’d be out.

  The game continued, and Belle got lucky for a few rounds. She raked it in when Jace landed on three of her hotels, and I commented that I would look after the money once she surrendered her winnings to me. That prompted her to throw a few gummy worms at my chest.

  “That’s sweet of you to bring me candy.” I bit into one. “Tasty.”

  She was positively seething.

  “Okay, I’m out.” Jace leaned back and placed a hand under his head. “It’s funnier watching Andrew piss you off, small fry.”

  “Can I have your money?” She batted her lashes at him while I removed his hotels and houses from the board.

  “Fuck no, I wanna see you crash and burn.” Jace smirked and finished his beer.

  The tightness around his eyes had lessened, meaning he was no longer in pain. That was good. It’d worried me when he’d said he wasn’t going to take his medication today since he was drinking. I would’ve preferred if he didn’t drink and took his pain relief when he needed it.

  “Okay, it’s just you and me, princess.” I sat up and rubbed a kink out of my shoulder.

  “You’re both meanies.” She pouted. “Screw it. Daddy wins, I come in second, and—”

  “The fuck?” Jace spluttered a laugh. “You’re broke, Belle.”

  “But you quit the game,” she retorted.

  That started a new bicker war between the two, and I stayed out of it. While I packed away the game, my thoughts strayed to her new name for me, and I wondered if it was okay that I loved it when she called me Daddy. It probably wasn’t, was it? Christ, I really was a pervert. I’d told my brother not to cheapen her affection for me, and here I was, linking Daddy to a fetish I’d sought out online more than once rather than seeing it for what it was, a substitute for Dad.

  “I forgot he snores sometimes,” Belle whispered.

  I cracked a smile and kept gazing up, the millions of stars visible through the netting that covered the canopy of the bed. “It always soothed me to hear him snore.”

  Belle made a noise. “Why?”

  Because then I knew he was home. Safe and sound. I knew I wasn’t alone. “You know I worry when he’s in some remote corner of the world.”

  She hummed and shifted closer, ending up using my shoulder as a pillow. “I love you, Daddy. Don’t ever forget that.”

  Heavens, she knew how to squeeze my heart. “I love you more, darling.” Slipping my arm underneath her instead, I hugged her to me and kissed the top of her head. “Are you cold?”

  “A little,” she admitted.

  “You should’ve told me,” I chided. Then I sat up and pulled my shirt over my head. I was lying next to the heater, and I’d had almost a whole bottle of wine; if anything, I felt hot. “Here, put this on.”

  We fumbled a bit in the dark until she was drowning in my long-sleeved tee. The crisp air felt good on my skin, and I lay back against the mattress with a sigh of contentment. As she snuggled closer again, I made sure the duvet was up to her chin.

  “This is nice.” She made another humming sound and slid a hand up my chest. “We should have a sleepover every night.” The reaction as she brushed her fingers through my chest hair was anything but innocent, and I cursed the amount of wine I’d had. It made it so mu
ch easier to enjoy her when that was the last thing I should do.

  Closing my eyes, I surrendered to the pleasure of it. For one moment, I allowed myself to pretend this was all right. I stayed motionless, therefore guiltless. I wouldn’t encourage anything, I repeated to myself. This was her doing.

  The sensations kept flooding me and began to slow dance with sleep. My family was home; they were right here with me, safe and sound. What more could I ask for? I twitched when her fingers got a little ticklish along my lower stomach. They’d found the trail of hair below my belly button instead.

  Her sweet touches and soft humming turned me into a listless being. It was as if my body had succumbed to the deepest of sleeps, yet my mind stayed relatively alert. Only sluggish and languid.

  Just…not too sluggish not to notice when her fingers dipped underneath the waistband of my sweat pants.

  “Daddy?” she whispered. “Are you sleeping?”

  Oh Christ, little girl, why are you asking me that?

  She moved her hand to my hip, and I could hear how her breathing changed.

  “Daddy,” she whispered again.

  I kept my mouth shut and my breaths even. I wasn’t a good man, certainly not a gentleman. There was one reason and one reason only I didn’t say anything, and it was to see what she’d do. I was hoping against hope she’d do something nefarious.

  “Daddy,” she said a little louder.

  The only response was Jace’s quiet snoring.

  Belle seemed to relax further in my arms. Inch by inch, she shifted her hand around my hip, acting as if she didn’t have an agenda. At this point, I could sense it. It wasn’t a hope. I knew. Jace had been right all along.

  A low rumble of thunder rolled in, and it took me a second to realize it was happening inside of me. Perhaps I was finally losing my mind. Because every time she moved, a part of me grew darker and more depraved.

  She was doing this to me. My sweet, innocent little girl wasn’t so innocent, after all.

  I counted the seconds until the very tips of her fingers ghosted along my cock outside my sweat pants, and that was it. Everything was about to change. Come tomorrow, I couldn’t promise I’d keep my word on just about anything I’d said in the past.

  I swallowed and let out a slow breath, and Belle’s fingers continued tracing the length of my cock. You filthy fucking baby. I couldn’t believe her. She’d had me so duped. I’d defended her against my brother’s accusations.

  A white-hot rush of desire flooded me when she applied pressure and palmed me, or as much as she could. Her breathing sped up a bit again, possibly because I was growing hard. My jaw tensed, and I had to tell myself to un-fucking-clench.

  What would it be like to flip her over right now and fuck her?

  Images I’d cursed myself for swirled in my head. From the sweetest fantasies of kissing her hungrily while she rode my cock like a good girl…to the darkest urges that summoned me to claim her, to pin her down with force and fuck her until her little pussy was overflowing with my come.

  Belle touched me curiously, her hand sliding down to cup my balls and trace the outline of them, then up again to caress and stroke. Once my cock was rock solid, she rubbed me from base to tip over and over. She seemed frustrated that my clothes were in the way, and frankly, so was I. But I wasn’t going to let her go too far. Now that I knew she was nothing close to innocent, it was time to regain some control.

  Fuck feeling guilty.

  I maintained my composure for the better part of the following day. Mainly because Jace was with his physical therapist and then working in his studio, and I wanted to discuss everything with him before I did anything.

  I was going to do something. Belle had made me snap last night, and since then, I couldn’t find an ounce of remorse in me, nor could I find the strength to deny myself. She’d let out the cutest little whimper, bordering on a whine, when I’d eventually rolled over and refused her access to my cock, which had sparked the question. How far had she been planning to go? Far enough, that was for certain. No. No more pretending to be someone I was not. I didn’t know how far I could take this, how far I dared to take it, but the box that’d been rattling quietly in the back of my mind had been opened.

  I ached to push her. I wanted to push her hard. She’d had her fun, and it was my turn now.

  I didn’t know what I wanted to start with, punishing her for being devious or using her for my pent-up possessiveness and selfish hunger. The mere thought of forcing my way between her thighs and spreading her open for my cock made my heart accelerate. Oh God, could I really—

  “Are you trying to chop through the cutting board?”

  “Jesus.” I sucked in a breath and took a step back at the sound of Jace’s voice. Inspecting the damage, I supposed his question was valid. The peppers I’d been chopping were almost liquid at this point. “You’re home.” I took another calming breath and set down the knife. “We have to talk. I think I’ve gone insane.”

  His eyes brows went up. “Is everything okay?”

  I shook my head, then peered around him to make sure Belle wasn’t in the hallway or had the door to her room open. “Far from it. Let’s sit down.”

  Jace wasn’t particularly surprised to hear what I had to say about last night, aside from the part where she’d chosen a time when we were both in bed with her to, for lack of a better word, explore.

  For the sake of my sanity, I had to ask him if I was sick to want her, and his response offered both relief and resignation.

  “Fuck that, big brother. She’s got the biggest heart and, evidently, the dirtiest mind. How’s a guy to resist? Besides, even if it were sick, it seems we’re all in the same boat.”

  I groaned internally and scrubbed my hands down my face. Sick, sick, sick. Yet, I knew the time for pretending was over. I’d watched her all day, and nothing could quench my thirst for her. She’d been on her stomach on the floor while watching cartoons this morning, ankles crossed in the air, and it’d been a miracle I hadn’t taken her right then and there. Her giggles filled my cock with blood and arousal.

  “I want to force myself on her,” I admitted with the last shred of decency in me. “I don’t want her to go back to London. I want her here—in my bed, spread out for me.”

  Jace cleared his throat and shifted on the couch. “Yeah, I, uh, I can understand why those thoughts would make you feel guilty—”

  “You think?” I snapped. Heavens, I was too strung tight to even hold a conversation.

  “Easy,” he replied mildly. “You gotta keep in mind that she’s put those ideas there. She’s not merely a woman in a short skirt. She’s done this on purpose, and last night she literally touched you while you, for all she knew, were asleep. If you wanna talk about crossing lines, start with her.” He had a point, and I clung to it. “My turn to tell you something.” He paused and threw a glance over his shoulder, down the hall. “I went through her computer the other day, and the porn she’s got on there… It’s fucking rape fantasy central.”

  “Christ,” I whispered. I rubbed a hand over my mouth, trying to picture my girl being into that filth. “Christ.”

  “I gotta know something, Andrew.” There was something off about Jace’s voice that made me push Belle out of my mind for a minute. He looked less confident. “You have to be honest. Do you want me to go back to my cabin? I won’t be offended, and with me outta the way—”

  “No.” The word left me without a moment of consideration, because the thought was akin to torture. For so long now, I’d wanted my family here with me, and damn if I was going to let him break us up. I’d been promised a summer, and I was going to take it. Then, the more I thought about what he was implying, my answer grew more resolute. “Jace, she’s been indecent toward both of us.” And there was no trace of jealousy. If anything, I wanted to use this. Anything to keep us together as a family—at least for the summer. And when Belle returned to the UK, I’d want him here more than ever. “You’re staying, and tha
t’s final.”

  That earned me a rare glimpse of the boy he used to be. He did always turn to me for advice and reassurance, and I had no plans on that ever stopping.

  “Okay.” He smiled and nodded once. “So, what happens now?”

  I had a couple ideas that would send us in the direction I wanted to explore, immoral as it might be.

  Chapter 5

  “I’m gonna go get apples, Daddy.”

  I looked away from the jar of peach preserves I was inspecting and eyed her over the rims of my glasses. “We’re already going to the produce, darling.”

  “I know, but I’m restless.” She toed the floor and shrugged. “You can meet me there, okay?”

  “Sure.” I stifled my smile and returned my attention to the preserves. Jace wanted to test his leg strength by going on a one-day hike next weekend, and I wanted to make sure he brought his favorite sandwiches. With one jar of strawberry and one peach in the cart, I continued down the aisle. At the end of it, the produce section waited—along with Belle’s restlessness, it seemed.

  Good.

  She was noticing the past couple of days’ changes, and she didn’t quite know what to do about it.

  I’d stopped trying to fit in, for one. I no longer cared if she and Jace found me fun to be around. I was a man in my forties, and I wanted things done a certain way. I had my hobbies and interests; Belle and Jace had theirs. Mine came first now.

  If Belle wanted to be my little girl, she’d abide by my rules too.

  Jace had reacted oddly well to my adjustment. Usually so headstrong and cocky, he appeared almost eager to take the back seat. I knew comfort when I saw it, and I’d cursed myself for a day and a half for not having seen this sooner. It wasn’t only the worrier in me he appreciated. Much like Belle, he required authority as well. Someone to ground him when he wasn’t out on his adventures. A place of stability, and that was what our home was becoming.