by B. B. Hamel
I laugh and kiss his lips softly. Marta pushes Felix on the swings and he laughs, kicking his legs.
Declan puts his hand on the swell of my stomach. “Soon we’re going to have another little troublemaker,” he says. “Are you ready for it?”
“I am, but I doubt you are.”
He stretches a little. “You’re probably right.”
“You’re going to have to take a few weeks off, you know.”
“Try months.”
I laugh. “I don’t think the business can survive for months without you.”
He grins at me and nudges my side. “We’ll manage.”
Over these last two years, Declan and I have gone into our own little venture together. It started out as just an idea, something we were tossing around, and then about six months after the lawsuit settled, he suddenly wrote me a fat check and told me to set it all up.
Now we run our own development company, but we run it our own way. Everything we build is fully energy independent, reliant on mainly solar and wind energies to sustain themselves. Our carbon footprint is miniscule and we do our best to offset everything we use.
It’s environmentally friendly development, and it’s popular as hell. We didn’t think it would be, but it took off and hasn’t stopped for a single second. I quit my job at the law firm and went full-time.
And on top of that, he got me pregnant again. Well, we planned it this time. We want a family, a big family, and we better get to work. Declan’s not getting any younger, already he seems so energized and excited about our company.
He’s still involved with Reid but he barely goes in there. Reid’s running their business really well apparently, though he’s stubborn about his ways. We’re technically competitors, but it’s a friendly competition.
“Dad!” Felix calls out. “Dad! Swings!”
Declan sighs and puts his arm around me. “Duty calls,” he says.
“Better go. You know him.”
“Takes after his mother.”
I laugh. “Funny, I was about to say the same thing.”
He kisses me again and stands up, striding out to see his son.
I smile to myself. During the day, Declan works hard and takes care of Felix. They’ve grown so close these past two years, and Declan always makes him a priority. He works hard, but not too hard, and keeps normal hours. He travels the bare minimum. He says he doesn’t want to miss a single second, not after missing the first two years.
And as for us… well, I thought things would fade. I thought maybe the intensity and the passion would ebb and we’d fall into a comfortable family routine.
Instead, it only got hotter. He still ties me up, although very simply ever since I got pregnant. We practice new positions and situations, and every night ends with an intense orgasm, each one better than the last. He kisses me, calls me a good girl, and we fall asleep in each other’s arms.
It’s the happiest I’ve ever been. He’s still my Daddy, he still takes care of me. But now we’re building a life together, a family and a business, every part of our lives fully intertwined. And I couldn’t ask for more.
Declan gives me everything, and I give him everything I can in return. That’s how we make each other happy. We’re honest and we give freely. We have our ups and down, our fights and disagreements, but they never last. We always make up.
He’s always my Daddy. He takes care of us and makes our lives better. Felix loves him just as much as I do, and that to me says everything.
We’re a family. A growing family. Soon, we’ll have a little girl together. And the world better watch out.
We’re coming. We’re changing everything, him and I. We’ll do it our way, uncompromising.
With him, my days are one perpetual smile, and I never want it to end.
Possessive Daddy: A Dark Romance
Prologue: Sydney
When my Daddy slips into my room in the middle of the night, I know I’m going to get it, and get it rough.
I feel the light sweat on my skin as I kick my comforter off. It’s not that warm in my room, but I keep thinking about him, about his hands on my body, and I can’t seem to get comfortable.
The light from the pool flashes in through my bedroom window, making patterns like the bottom of the ocean on my ceiling. He’s outside of my door, somewhere in the house, and I could find him so easily. I’m only wearing a pair of boy shorts and a tight black tank top, I think he’d like to see me like this.
But I can’t get out of bed. I’m afraid of what it means, that I keep thinking about him like this.
As I stare up at the ceiling, willing myself to stop thinking about him, I hear a sound. I pause and listen hard, and there it is again. It’s the sound of the floorboards in the hallway.
I glance at the clock. It’s three in the morning and someone is moving around in the hallway.
My heart starts beating faster, because I know what this means. I can pretend all I want, but this is what I’m waiting for. It’s this moment that I really want and need.
I stare at my door as the knob slowly turns. I’m afraid I’m going to cry out as the door opens a crack and a shadow slips into my room.
I watch as he comes closer, his eyes locked on mine. It’s too late for me to pretend to be sleeping, and anyway, that wouldn’t’ stop him. When he comes in the night like this, there’s nothing I can do. I have to just give myself to him, or else he’ll simply take away the things I really need.
Not like I’d ever dream of saying no to him. Truth is, he’s what I need, even if that’s so incredibly wrong. Sometimes, I’m shocked and ashamed of myself and the way I act around him. It’s wrong, maybe even sick, but I can’t stop it, and he doesn’t seem to mind one bit.
He stops at the end of my bed, a wicked grin on his lips. He’s twenty years older than me, I shouldn’t be doing this. But slowly, he pulls the blankets from my body and I sit up slightly, staring into his eyes as he looks at my body. I feel a thrill run down my spine.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I say softly.
“You’re right. I really shouldn’t be.” He takes my ankle and pulls me toward him. I gasp, his grip strong, as he pulls me all the way to the end of the bed. He’s down on his knees before I can stop him, mouth between my legs.
“This is wrong,” I gasp, pleasure flashing through me.
“Stop me then.” His grin is so wicked, so wrong, so messed up. It drives me absolutely wild with arousal. “That’s what I thought.”
He goes back to his dirty work, licking at me, lapping at me, before sliding my panties all the way off and tossing their useless cotton aside. He slides two fingers deep inside of me and I toss my head back, losing myself to the night.
“Go ahead,” he whispers. “Say the words. I know what you want.”
“Please,” I beg. “Don’t make me say it.”
“Say it.” He’s so commanding, so strong, and his fingers slowly slide in and out of me.
“Don’t,” I beg. “Don’t make me.”
“Quiet,” he whispers, harsh and smug. “You wouldn’t want to wake your mother up, would you?”
I groan, head tipped back, and I know what I have to do if I want him to give me what I need. It’s so simple. All I need to do is say a few words, that’s all, but what I’m so afraid of is what those words mean.
“Say it,” he whispers, fingers deep inside of me, curling up along my walls. My knees shake with pleasure. “Say it,” he repeats.
“Fuck me, daddy,” I moan, giving in to him.
Those are the magic words, the dirty words, that unlock everything else. He stands, unbuckles his belt, and makes me pay for my impatience.
1
Connor
As soon as I pull up to the house, I get a strange feeling in my stomach. It’s the feeling I got out in the field back when I was a SEAL, that odd premonition that something is about to go very wrong.
But there are no terrorist commandos here, just some woman looking for private security help. I
shut off my truck’s engine and sit there for a second, trying to understand why I feel this way.
I haven’t been out in the field as a SEAL for a long time. It’s been nearly ten years since I left and went into the private security world, but those instincts and all that training never goes away no matter how long you’re away. I may be an ex-SEAL, but I’ll still always be part SEAL, if that makes any sense.
I take a deep breath and release it, calming myself, and then I step out of the truck. The house is pretty damn large, obviously one of the most expensive houses on this block, and it’s immaculately kept.
That makes sense, given what I know about the client. Julia Hall is a few years older than me, and is the CEO of Rydell Electric, a company that manufactures computer components. It’s one of the last computer manufacturers on US soil, and Julia Hall is known as a very competent and ruthless CEO. Or at least she is in the press.
I don’t know how she got my contact info, but it doesn’t much matter to me. I’ve been working the security thing for a while now, ever since I left the SEALs, and my big clients have always been rich ladies with too much time on their hands. Julia Hall doesn’t seem like my usual over paranoid socialite that needs someone to babysit her at Coachella, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve had hard jobs with real high stakes and I’ve had easy ones, and I always prefer the fucking easy ones.
Less chance of getting killed on the easy jobs.
I head up the front walkway and ring the bell. I have to wait a minute before the door slowly opens and Julia Hall herself smiles out at me.
She’s an attractive woman with an intense look to her. Short, dark hair, and full lips, she smiles when she sees me.
“Mr. Powell?” she asks.
“Call me Connor,” I say. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Hall.”
She smiles. “Julia.”
We shake hands and she brings me into her kitchen. Right away, I’m assessing the premises from a security standpoint. It’s pretty weak, which shouldn’t surprise me, considering she lives in such a nice neighborhood. She probably never thought about security before in her life.
But it’s a nice house, and the kitchen is spacious and modern. She offers me a drink, which I decline, and we finally end up sitting at the island.
“So, Julia,” I say. “Before we get started, I’m just wondering. Who recommended me?”
“Ah,” she smiles slightly. “It was a friend of mine. Jessica Byron.”
I grunt and nod, remembering Jessica very well. I still refer to her as crazy Jessica, the one-night stand that just wouldn’t stop calling for almost a week straight until I told her outright that I wasn’t interested.
It’s surprising that she’d recommend me. We didn’t end things on good terms. She was a client at first, but I ended up fucking her nice and proper in the back of my truck after her pissed off ex-partner tried to throw a brick through her window. I break the guy’s tibia and she sucked my cock like it was the last thing on earth.
We had a nice time, but I’m not the type to get close. I never needed to. I like my job too much to risk getting myself stuck rooted in one place. I get to travel around, meeting new people, fucking who I want when I want to, and that’s enough for me. Crazy Jessica wanted more, and I can’t blame her, but it just wasn’t happening. Better I was straightforward than to string her along.
“Well,” I say. “Tell her I said thanks.”
“I will. She spoke very highly of you.”
“Good, I’m glad. That was a tricky case.”
“Not just your security skills.” Julia smiles big at me and I can’t help but think she’s flirting, which isn’t so bad. She’s an attractive woman, after all, although not exactly my type.
“Let’s get down to business then, shall we?” I say, changing the subject. I don’t want to mix business and pleasure right now. Maybe after the job is done.
“Okay then.” She stands up and walks over toward the window looking out the back. I notice someone sitting out by the pool, but I can’t really make out whoever it is. Julia turns back toward me. “How much do you know about my family, Connor?”
I frown at her. “Julia Hall. Brother is Evan, father is Mitchell. Mother deceased. Your father still owns Rydell Electrics, and your brother is jockeying for your job. Fairly aggressively, if the business tabloids can be trusted. How’s that?”
She smiles big at me, shaking her head. “I see Jessica wasn’t exaggerating.”
“I like to be prepared.”
“You’re right, more or less,” she says, and comes back over to sit down at the island. “My brother does want my job, and my father still owns the company. But he’s sick, Connor, very sick.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say.
She shrugs. “I’m not, not really. He’s an old bastard.”
I raise an eyebrow, smiling slightly. “Okay then. Maybe I’m not that sorry.”
“Good. I’ll be frank with you, Connor. My father doesn’t like me very much, and I don’t really care for him.”
“I can see that.”
“But he has all the power,” she continues. “As much as I despise it, I have to play his games. Right now, my father prefers my brother, mainly because he sees my brother as a more traditional choice.”
“Why is that?” I ask, beginning to understand the job. She wants me to protect her from her brother, or at least that’s my guess.
“I’m a single mother,” she says. “My daughter, Sydney, was born when I was only eighteen, and my father has never forgiven me for it.”
“Is her father in the picture?” I ask, doing some quick mental math. That makes her daughter nineteen.
“No,” she says, laughing. “Her father was some drunk frat boy I fucked while out visiting colleges.”
“And he saddled you with a baby,” I say.
“More or less. I love Sydney, she’s the best thing in my life, but my father has always hated me for her. Evan, meanwhile, is happily married and a father of three beautiful babies all born within wedlock. Not to mention he’s a man.”
“And yet you have the CEO job,” I point out.
“That’s true. Mainly because I’m older and more competent than Evan is. My father may dislike me, but he can’t argue with my results.”
I nod, understanding that. “So how do I fit into all this?”
She gets a bashful smile on her face, which surprises me. Julia Hall doesn’t strike me as a woman to feel bashful, and yet I can tell she’s hesitating, rethinking what she’s about to say.
“I need to make... changes, Connor. I need to make some life changes, or at least appear to. Do you understand?”
I frown at her, shaking my head. “I’m afraid I don’t.”
She takes a deep breath then meets my gaze, level and cool. “I want to marry you, Connor.”
I stare at her, totally taken off guard. I can tell that she’s being completely serious, but it sounds like a joke. How could she want to marry me? She doesn’t know a damn thing about me, and besides, I wasn’t exactly kind to her friend. She must know that I’m not the marrying type.
“You’re going to have to elaborate on that,” I say to her simply.
She smiles and nods. “Of course. What I’m proposing is not a marriage, exactly, but a business arrangement. You’ll marry me, help me get total control of the business from my father, and pretend to be my husband. In exchange I’ll give you a very large sum of money. Something in the range of one million dollars.”
I stare at her, totally shocked. In all my time as a security guy, I’ve been asked to do some fucked up and shady shit before, but this is by far the weirdest.
“How?” I ask her, totally at loss.
“The business alone will be worth billions,” she says. “I can find an extra million to pay you for your time. We’ll be married for a year, maybe two at most, and then we’ll divorce and that’ll be that. My father’s cancer is aggressive and spreading, and the doctors don’t think he’ll last
longer than six months if he’s lucky.”
“This is insane,” I say to her, shaking my head. “I’m not the marrying type. You talked to Jessica about me, right?”
She laughs softly. “That’s actually why I want you, Connor. You won’t get attached. You’re handsome, qualified, skilled in certain areas. You’ll be an asset to me, and when it’s all over, you’ll be ready to walk away without any messy emotions getting in the way. When Jessica told me about you, I knew that you’d be perfect. When you came here and I actually saw you, well, I wasn’t disappointed.”
I can barely understand or believe what I’m hearing. This woman wants to actually marry me and then she wants to pay me a million dollars to do it.
That’s a lot of fucking money. It’s more than I make in a year, hell, it’s more than I make in three years. I do pretty good, but I’ve never really been a money motivated kind of person. That’s just not what gets me off.
Still, it’s very tempting. I don’t know the first thing about pretending to be her husband, though. “Wouldn’t an actor be a better choice?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “You’re ideal. Evan will get aggressive as my father gets worse, so you’ll provide some security help as well. Plus, you’re a military man, and my father is a sucker for that sort of thing.”
“Military man,” I repeat, totally mystified.
This is crazy, absolutely crazy. I can’t believe what I’m hearing, much less that I’m actually sitting here and considering it. I have no interest in marrying someone, even if it’s a fake marriage. I don’t want to spend a year or two locked down in one place, lying to the world, pretending to be in love and married to this woman that I don’t even know. There are just so many unknowns and so many things that can do wrong, the risks are just too great.
I can’t do it. I shake my head at Julia and stand. “Thanks for thinking of me, but I’m not—”
Just then, the back door opens. My attention is drawn over to it as a woman steps into the room, still slightly damp from sitting out in the sun, wearing nothing but a bikini.
