Teach Me Daddy: A Mountain Man’s Secret Baby Romance

by Hart, Rye

  From the moment I walked into the diner, I was speechless. It was as if the past three years hadn’t aged her at all. The halo of innocence that surrounded her didn’t seem tainted at all by her circumstances. The way she continued to glide around the floor, cleaning up after people who probably had no respect for her, was astounding to me.

  It stunned me into a silence as I made my way to the counter and sat down.

  The fact that this woman was my daughter’s mother made my heart pound hard within my chest. I’d been able to keep part of the vow I made to myself that night. I followed it so fervently, in fact, that I couldn’t fuck any other subs after her. I was disgusted by their inferiority to the perfect submissive I’d found in her that night. They were all just pathetic copies of the one true princess I’d found in her that evening.

  That perfect evening three whole years ago.

  When I saw that first picture of my daughter, I’d almost lost my mind right there in the cabin. After losing both of my parents to such senseless violence, I couldn’t live without my family, now that I knew they existed. I couldn't allow my daughter to grow up thinking her father didn’t want her. Didn’t love her. Didn’t care for her or her mother.

  But I was also eager to see Rose. To see this beautiful princess again for the first time since that night. I was ready to be in her presence again and feel the tension that naturally thrummed between us. As I sat down at the counter and watched her pour me a cup of coffee, I couldn’t help but hide a smirk at how the words burst forth from her lips.

  She wanted to know what I was doing here but pretty soon, I would show her.

  I watched her drift around the diner, cleaning up and tending to her own business. I could see the slight sheen of sweat on her brow, denoting the long day she must’ve had. A twinge of guilt slithered through my body as I watched her hunch her back over that damn broom.

  The mother of my child shouldn’t have to work nearly as hard as she was in order to provide for our child.

  I knew she recognized me from the moment she looked into my eyes. When she asked me what I was doing here, I no longer wanted to tell her. Anger bubbled up in my throat as she defied me and bucked up against me with the strength I knew she possessed. She’d kept my child from me. She’d kept our beautiful daughter a secret. I’d missed precious years of her development because of her unwillingness to reach out to me.

  She needed to be punished like the bad little princess she’d been.

  Now, I had her in my grasp. I could see the fear behind her eyes, but she made no move to get away. There was still an innate trust vibrating throughout her entire body, pressing her into me in a movement I don’t even think she registered. I bent my lips down to her ear and heard her gasp, kissing the shell of her ear before she continued to writhe in my lap.

  “My truck’s out back,” I said. “You’ve got twenty minutes to close down and get out there.”

  Then, I released her and made my leave. I threw a few bills onto the counter to pay for the coffee, striding out back as I made my way to my truck. I watched her while she flew around and cleaned, making haste in everything she did as I sat back and smiled. She was trying her best to prove to me she could still listen, even after committing the ultimate betrayal.

  It was that innocence in her rising to the top and I felt my cock pressing hard against my pants.

  Twenty minutes later, she cut off all the lights and locked up the building. She came outside and spotted my car, and she approached it without hesitation. I kept the motor running so she could climb into its warmth, and the moment she sat down in the seat next to me, I could hear her teeth chattering.

  “What do you want?” she asked as her gaze whipped over to me.

  “Why didn’t you contact me?” I asked.

  Her eyes widened in surprise and her lips parted in shock. I watched her eyes narrow as that fierce spirit of hers flooded back to the surface and I prepared myself for a fight.

  “Why in the world should I have tried to contact you?” she asked.

  “You’re really not going to tell me on your own, are you?” I asked.

  I watched her swallow hard, but her gaze stayed intense. I had to applaud her for her strength. I was finally getting the full understanding of how the note I’d left her had affected her. She straightened up her back, with one hand on the door handle of the truck, ready to escape should the slightest thing go wrong.

  I decided to keep the door unlocked, just to let her know I wasn’t going to cage her.

  Not without her permission. “I guess I’m just going to have to drag it out of you,” I said, grinning.

  My cock was hardening against my pants as I thought about all the ways I could torture the information out of her. I could spank her until she cried out for mercy.

  All the while, she sat there, sturdy and strong, but still with that little glimmer of innocence in her eyes.

  “Drag out what?” she asked.

  She wasn’t going to tell me, but I couldn’t punish her in the car like I needed to. Like I’d intended to the moment I stepped out of my cabin to venture into town. My eyes scanned her body, taking in every dip and valley that was still so beautiful, yet just a bit different from the last time I’d taken her. I wondered if any other man had touched her body since, defiling her while she was pregnant with my child. The thought awoke anger inside me and as my eyes bored into hers, I saw her scoot back just a bit from me.

  Her fear was beginning to take over, but all I wanted to do was taste her coming on my tongue. All I could think about was her legs clamping down around my head. I thought about her hands tugging at the tendrils of my hair. I thought about her juices getting trapped in my beard while my hands pinned her arms, rendering her silent and immovable while her tits arched into the air for me.

  I scooted closer to her and, in an instant, the door was open and she was out in the cold once again.

  I took a deep breath as she stood there, staring at me. She was different now. She was special. She was the mother of my child and we had to find a way to forge our family together. We had to find a way to navigate these new and uncharted waters side by side. I had to find a way to learn softness. My hardness and my cruelty were no longer appropriate. No longer necessary.

  No longer what she needed.

  I realized, then, why she was keeping her secret. Why she wasn’t telling me about our daughter. I settled back down into my seat and drew in a deep breath, trying to settle my cock while she trembled out in the cold. I clenched my hands onto the steering wheel of my truck, feeling the animal she brought out in me quiet down as a sigh ripped from between my lips.

  Slowly, she got back up into the truck and I decided to simply tell her.

  “I know about our daughter, Rose.”

  I looked over at her and her eyes widened. I watched her pale skin, that was once flushed with the pleasure I could bring her, grow paler than the snow falling outside. I felt a twinge of regret, exposing myself to her like this, but I had to press on.

  My daughter was at stake.

  “When I moved to the area a few months ago, I hired a private detective just to check up on you. To make sure you were all right after our encounter all those years ago. That’s how I know about our daughter.”

  Her jaw unhinged in shock, her chest panting as my words rendered her speechless.

  “You… live here?” she asked.

  “I do a lot of skiing here. It only made sense to have some sort of home here I could come to, instead of paying for those luxury spa resorts.”

  I wasn’t ready to tell her yet about the fact that I’d moved here to be close to her and that I was running from my past with the mob. I wasn’t ready to tell her about my nephew.

  I wasn’t ready to tell her any of that, just like she wasn’t ready to tell me anything about her, either.

  “I know she’s my daughter,” I said.

  I waited to see if she would contradict me and, when she didn’t, I breathed a sigh of re
lief. I turned my gaze back out through the window as the snow continued to pour harder and harder onto my truck. I knew if I didn’t let her go soon, we’d both be trapped here at least overnight.

  And while the idea of being trapped with her throbbed my cock to life again, I knew it would only frighten her more.

  My perfect little songbird, scared to sing her song for me.

  “She is,” she said. “But I didn’t contact you because of the note you left me. It was a very telling warning. That, coupled with the rumors of your background and your connections to organized crime, I thought it better to simply leave you be.”

  I kept my gaze hard out the window as I relaxed back into the seat of my truck.

  “I understand. But I do wish I would’ve had that time with her. Would it be possible for me to see her?”

  “I… honestly, I don’t know,” she said. “I’m a bit nervous about that. I don’t know what your intentions are, or where you are in your life, or what types of trouble you might bring into ours.”

  I nodded slowly, her words piercing me like one of the knives I had hanging on the walls of that room I’d led her into that night.

  That night that changed everything for me. For us. For my future.

  “You know, you didn’t exactly reach out to me either. I haven't heard from you all this time and, now, you just show up out of nowhere and want to see your daughter? What changed?”

  I’d almost forgotten how intelligent she was. How she could put pieces together, even if she didn’t understand she was piecing.

  “I won’t rest, knowing my blood is out there, and I have no ties to it. Family is the most important thing to me, more than anything else on this planet. And I look forward to proving that to you.”

  I turned my gaze toward her and I could see the doubts running through her mind. Her hands were squeezed in between her thighs, her body desperately trying to keep a grip on her nerves. But there was a strength about her, even as she trembled in my presence. There was a fire behind her eyes that wasn’t present the first time I’d ever gazed into them. She had a strong moral streak, I could tell, and I knew she would eventually relent.

  I knew she wouldn’t keep me from my daughter for long.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll let you see her, but only because it’s the right thing to do. Because she’s your daughter. Not because of… whatever just happened back there.”

  I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding and relief coursed through my system. We could talk about what happened in the diner at a later time. For now, I was simply reveling in a truth I didn’t realize I needed so desperately.

  My beautiful Rose would let me see my daughter and my heart thundered with joy while the snow slowly let up its furious downpour.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN – ROSE

  “The snow’s letting up,” I said.

  “It is.”

  “Would you like to follow me to my place?” I asked.

  I studied the way his face fell back into its stern expression. His strong jawline was present, even underneath the thick, trimmed beard. The way the flannel on his body pulled against his taut muscles called to me and, for a split second, I wasn’t looking at a man with a shadowy past. I wasn’t looking at the man who had taken my virginity without one ounce of regret. I wasn’t even looking at the man that had just made me come inside my own work establishment.

  Instead, I saw a shocked man, chomping at the bit to claim the only piece of family he seemed to have left. A man like him, with the life he led, must’ve seen many people he loved dearly die, and there was a part of me that didn’t want to keep him from her. Or keep him from the family he unknowingly created.

  I slid from the truck and walked around to my car. The taillights of his car were on my body, and I unlocked my car as I went to turn it on. I kicked up the warmth, trying to get the ice off my windshield, and I grabbed my scraper.

  But when I looked up, he was already out of his truck, scraping the ice off my windshield while I sat in the warmth of my car.

  “Camillo,” he said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I suppose we should introduce ourselves,” he said, grinning.

  His eyes connected with mine from behind the windshield he was clearing, and I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. I felt a bit of the tension release between us and, for the first time since he’d walked into the diner, I watched his shoulders release.

  “I suppose we should,” I said as I stepped out of the car. “Rose Brugman.”

  “Camillo Moretti.”

  I held my hand out and he took it, shaking it with a firm grip. His hand held onto mine tightly and, even from beneath the gloves, I could feel a spark between our bodies. The flames roaring in my toes shot up my spine, prickling my arms as I let go of his grasp.

  Had I not known any better, I could’ve sworn he was smirking at me.

  “Get back in the car,” he said. “It’s too cold for you to be out.”

  Grateful for his words, I slipped back in and shut the door. My car was warming up, and I sighed with relief, listening as he continued to scrape the ice off it. His demeanor came off as bossy, even though his actions were kind, but deep down, I kind of liked it. I had to make so many decisions for Ana and Kevin throughout the day that it was nice for someone else to take charge for a change. It was nice to not have to do anything but listen.

  In a way, it showed he cared about me. He cared enough to want to get me out of the cold. He cared enough to scrape off my windshield so I didn’t have to do it. It wasn’t much, but it was something and I held onto that something as I thought back to our moment in the diner.

  The way he glared at me. The way his hands felt around my wrists. The way my body came for him in an instant, just because he wanted it.

  When I opened my eyes, he was no longer there, and I panicked. Where had he gone? Then his truck lights flickered at me, commanding me to pull out so he could follow me.

  I watched him in my rearview mirror all the way back to the house. As I got closer and closer, I realized just how rundown our house truly was. It was two stories and, at one point in time, it shined with the glory of familial love but, over the years, it had withered away. I couldn’t keep it up the way my father had, nor did I have the money to pay someone to do it.

  I was suddenly embarrassed. Would he think it wasn’t suitable for his daughter? Would he try to take her when he saw what she was living in? It was the best I could do under the circumstances, and I felt tears rise to my eyes as I pulled into the driveway.

  Camillo was rich and, if the rumors were true, living in a shitty house wouldn’t be agreeable to him. I jumped out of my car and rushed inside, panicked with the decision I’d just made as I walked into the madhouse. Kevin was blaring music and Cassie was burning dinner. Ana was tearing out pages in a dictionary I didn’t even know we had and scattering the bits all across the carpet. The smoke from dinner was filling the kitchen and I cut the stove off, glaring at Cassie and telling her to back away.

  Then, I went to the bottom of the stairs and began yelling.

  “Kevin! Turn that shit off!”

  “But it’s the best part!”

  “Then turn it down,” I yelled. “Now!”

  I scooped Ana up into my arms and she giggled with delight. I handed her to Cassie and threw her disgusting, burnt soup down the drain.

  “I’ve made a decision I’m still not sure about, so I need you to trust me,” I said.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

  “I don’t have time to explain. Get upstairs with Kevin and keep him entertained. Please keep the noise down and shut the kitchen door. I’ll explain once he’s gone.”

  “He?” she asked, her eyebrows raising in surprise. “Who’s ‘he’?”

  “Cassie, just do it. Please.”

  I washed the remnants of the soup down the drain and piled the dishes in the sink. I sprayed some perfume around the room, ho
ping to disguise the stench, and I turned on the oven fan. Cassie was looking at me wildly as she stepped out of the kitchen, shutting the door and closing off the ripped-up paper in the living room before she ventured upstairs. I cooed lightly in Ana’s ear, bouncing her in my arms while she giggled and clung to me.

  I turned around from the mess in the sink and saw Camillo standing there, his eyes bright as he looked fondly upon the child in my arms.

  “Ana, there’s someone I’d like you to meet,” I said lightly in her ear. “His name is Camillo. He’s a friend of Mommy’s.”

  I nodded my head for him to come in but he stayed just at the door. He closed it behind him, not wanting to let the little bit of heat we had out into the nighttime sky. I could tell by the way he was staring at her that it was love at first sight. The hard expression he usually wore faded away, softening his intense jawline and sparkling his eyes.

  In that very moment, the warmth that spread throughout my chest was unmistakable. The way he was looking at his daughter melted my insides and I knew that I’d made the right decision.

  “Hello, Ana. I must say, you are very beautiful.”

  The way he spoke to her melted my heart, and I had to keep blinking in order to keep my tears at bay. Ana waved at him, making him smile, and the beauty of his bright smile lit up his entire face. His features came to life and his body arched toward her, his hand reaching out for her while she reached for his finger.

  I watched as she wrapped her little fingers around his massive one, smiling even bigger as his eyes sparkled in her direction. It was the first time I’d ever seen this expression on his face and I felt my stomach do a somersault. He was so handsome—like a fallen angel. Not a dark prince.