I headed around to the Rubio house at five to seven with a bottle of Riesling in my hand. Craig had always enjoyed a nice white, so I hoped that would set us off on the right foot.
When I knocked, he answered the door, and for a second he looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Jackson,” he finally said, extending a hand and pasting on an awkward smile. “Er…Lily told me you’d be coming. I wasn’t sure if you actually would.”
“Of course,” I said. “Can’t say no to a home-cooked meal. Don’t exactly get many made for me these days.”
Craig’s smile faded, and I regretted saying those words instantly. It wasn’t what I meant at all, but it vaguely sounded as if I was rubbing it in that I no longer got meals made for me since his wife murdered my girlfriend, who used to love cooking.
“Because I’m always just so damn busy,” I hastily added to try and fix the gaffe. “Usually just get something quick and easy near the office or City Hall.”
“How is it working there, anyway, Mr. Big Council Man?” Craig asked, his face relaxing into an easy smile again.
And there it was. The ice had almost broken. He stepped aside for me to come in, and I handed him the bottle of wine before stepping into the dining room. The house hadn’t changed a bit since I was last here. The same photos and decorations hung on the walls; even the furniture was exactly the same. It was like stepping into a time warp, and for a second I almost expected to see Karen walk out of the kitchen with a pot roast.
Of course, it was Lily who stepped out instead, holding a big dish.
“I made a French thing,” she said proudly. “It’s a red wine, beef and mushroom stew.”
“Guess I brought the wrong type of wine to go with it, then,” I said.
Craig snorted. “Who cares?” he said. “I guess you were always a bit of a wine snob, though, eh?”
“And you were always kind of a dick,” I replied with a sardonic grin.
He was silent for a second, and then he began to chuckle. “You haven’t changed much,” he said. “Still got a sense of humor.”
“Likewise.”
His personality might be the same, but Craig had changed appearance-wise. It’d only been six years since we were in such close proximity, but he looked as if he’d aged about ten years or more. Grey hairs were beginning to set in around his temples, and his eyes had deeper crow’s feet around them than I remembered. He still seemed to be the same old Craig aside from that, though.
Lily looked nervous yet excited as she dished up our food, and Craig leaned across the table. “So you’ve been riding my daughter pretty hard, haven’t you?” he asked.
I almost dropped my cutlery. “What?”
“At work. Been keeping her busy as hell. She’s almost working as much as me these days. So many late nights; really burning the candle at both ends.”
Christ, I’d almost had a heart attack before I realized what he really meant. For a second I thought he was onto us, knew that I’d been fucking his daughter for the last month or so. Then again, we were doing a lot more than fucking. Lily meant something to me. Something special.
That didn’t mean now was the right time to tell Craig, though. Fuck no. He’d probably leap across the table and sock me right in the jaw.
“She’s a great intern,” I said. “Lots of work to do, and she does it well. Better than the other interns and even some of the permanent staff.”
Craig nodded. “I’ll bet. That’s my girl. Always worked hard, taken care of herself,” he said. “Guess her mother wasn’t exactly gonna do it,” he added softly.
I pressed my lips into a thin line that resembled a smile. We hadn’t discussed the elephant in the room—Karen—yet, and I wasn’t sure we were even going to tonight. But Craig’s comment had opened the door, and before I knew it, the floodgates had opened too. As we tucked into our food, he spoke up and apologized for the last few years, for everything that’d happened, for everything his wife did.
“It’s not your fault, Craig,” I said when it looked like he was nearly done. Half my dinner had already been demolished; he’d talked for that long. “Things were hard. It would’ve been pretty much impossible to maintain a friendship directly after what happened.”
“I guess. But we still live so close, and obviously I’ve seen you around, you know. I’ve always wanted to say something but I wimped out. Guess it’s a good thing we have Lily in common now.”
Oh, if only you knew the half of it, I thought. “Yeah, I suppose she’s brought us back together.”
“Cheers to that.”
We clinked our wine glasses together, and Lily began to clear up our used plates. “Dessert should almost be done,” she said. “I’ll go check.”
“Let me help,” I said, standing up and taking the plates and cutlery from her. “It’s heavy.”
I followed her into the kitchen and set the dirty dishes down on the counter. When I turned around, Lily was bending over in front of the oven to pull out some sort of apple pie or tart, judging by the smell. I stepped over to her and put my hands on her hips, and she gasped and nearly dropped the dishcloth she was holding as she jerked upwards.
“You better be ready for what comes next if I keep catching you bending over like this,” I growled softly near her ear.
“Careful,” she said with a nervous glance toward the kitchen entrance. “If dad comes in here…”
“He won’t,” I replied. “But don’t worry. I’ll let you get away with it just this once.”
She smiled and leaned back down to get the dessert dish out. “Tarte tatin,” she said as she put it down on the counter. “Dad’s favorite.”
“You’re a good daughter to your dad,” I said with a nod as she began to slice it up. “Making his favorite stuff.”
She shrugged. “I guess so. Although I hardly ever get to do it. He’s just never around. Honestly, sometimes I feel as if we’re more like roommates than family.”
“You know why, though.”
She nodded. “Of course. His business. He’s just trying to support us. But…” She bit her lip before going on. “Sometimes he honestly feels like a friendly stranger, more so than a dad. He’s been like that for years now. You know, I never even had a curfew when I was younger, like other teenagers did. I guess it’s nice to have someone around who acts more like a real daddy,” she said. “Someone who gives me rules…”
She arched a playful brow at me.
“You better stop talking like that or I’m going to pull your panties down and fuck you right here,” I growled.
“Maybe I want you to,” she replied breathily.
“Naughty girl.”
I grinned and took a plate of dessert out to Craig. If I stayed in that kitchen a second longer, I wouldn’t be able to resist bending Lily over the counter and slapping her ass till it was pink before fucking her senseless.
She joined me and her father at the table a moment later with our plates of apple tart, and I felt her foot sliding onto my ankle a moment later, dipping right under the leg of my pants as she slowly and tantalizingly moved it upwards. Jesus Christ…
She was being very naughty tonight, and she was definitely going to get a visit to my special toy room when dinner was over. She was practically begging for punishment.
“You heard about this so-called City Hall scandal thing?” Craig said, gesturing with a nod to an open newspaper on the far end of the table as he dipped his spoon into his dessert. “Was just reading about it earlier before you arrived. Figured you might know who it’s about, seeing as you work there.”
My eyebrows furrowed into a confused frown. “What is it?”
He reached over and grabbed the paper before sliding it over to me. “Just there,” he said, pointing to the local city gossip section. “Some blind item. No names, but apparently some source told them they’re certain that a high-up guy at City Hall is having some sort of inappropriate relationship with a young girl.”
Now I could’ve sworn I was actually hav
ing a heart attack. “I haven’t heard about it,” I said, keeping my voice calm as I lowered my eyes to the paper.
I didn’t dare look at Lily, but I knew she was thinking exactly what I was thinking. The blind item was about us. It had to be. It went on about how a certain handsome city councilor was allegedly sleeping with a teenager, but no names could be given till more proof was obtained.
“Hope it’s not you hanging out with one of those old bastards,” Craig joked, looking over at Lily. Her face was ashen, and she shook her head.
“Of course not, dad,” she said softly.
“Some of these pricks in politics you hear about….Christ, they’re pushing seventy and still going after eighteen or nineteen-year-olds,” he went on.
“Mm,” I said with a nod. At least I wasn’t seventy. Thirty-nine wasn’t even old. It was just old compared to Lily, that’s all.
“At least you always went for women your own age,” he said, nodding toward me across the table.
Guilt racked me. Sure, I’d dated women my own age in the past, but if he knew what I’d been doing to his daughter almost every night…fuck, he’d damn well murder me.
That thought made something else occur to me. Who the hell went to the gossip journalists for the city rag about Lily and me? Who the hell knew? We’d always been damn careful. We never touched each other in the campaign office during workdays, or even after hours. Not even in my private office with the door locked. I wasn’t exactly the best at remembering to lock the door, even when I thought I had, and all it would take was one person seeing us together for us to be toast. One person for my entire damn career to be over. The public wouldn’t exactly react well to a candidate in the US senator’s race being caught with a nineteen-year-old girl.
Perhaps it was just a rumor. After all, they said they had no hard proof. Yes, that had to be it, then. Just a silly rumor. Breathing slower now, I returned my attention to Craig and changed the subject to something completely different. I didn’t dare look at Lily again for the rest of the night, until it was time to leave.
“Lily, I’ll see you bright and early at the office tomorrow morning,” I said. “Thanks for dinner. It was wonderful.”
“Yes, it really was,” Craig said.
Lily gave me a questioning glance. “I thought you needed my help re-filing the cabinets in your home office after dinner so we can find those fundraising stats from last year,” she said. “Before the meeting with Bonn tomorrow.”
There was no such meeting, and I’d never asked Lily to help me with anything after dinner. She was just making an excuse to come home with me now. I couldn’t exactly say no, though, not when she looked so earnest and Craig looked so happy to see his daughter being so dedicated to her work.
“Right. I forgot about that. Craig, you don’t mind me stealing your little girl for an hour or so?”
“Course not. Gotta do what you gotta do,” he said, patting his stomach. “I’m so stuffed I might fall asleep right here. Have fun, kiddo.”
He stood up and hugged Lily before shaking my hand firmly, and I nodded at him. “It was good to see you, Craig. Maybe we can do this again soon.”
“Sure.”
I thought I detected a slight hint of frostiness in his voice despite his seemingly keen attitude to see me again, but I had no idea why. Maybe it was because of our previous topic of conversation—when he mentioned how I always dated women my own age, that surely brought up memories of Jenna all over again. The frostiness wasn’t aimed at me, it was aimed at that whole time period. All those difficult memories.
“Night,” I said before turning and stepping out of the house. Lily followed closely behind me, and I didn’t turn around to look at her just in case Craig was watching us from the back window to make sure his daughter got to my house safely.
When we were finally inside, I narrowed my eyes and stepped close to her. “You’ve been a very naughty girl tonight, Lily Rubio. Rubbing me with your foot under the table when your dad was right there, then making an excuse to come over when you know it might arouse suspicion. You know what happens to bad girls in this house.”
“Dad doesn’t suspect a thing,” she replied, pouting. “You heard him—he thinks that gossip piece was about some seventy-year-old councilman. And it probably is. I bet plenty of them have affairs with interns.”
I ignored her words for now. “Maybe this is my fault for not making all my rules clear at once,” I said, taking another dangerous step toward her. “That’s on me. But here’s my final one—I won’t tolerate being argued with. And it sounds like you’re arguing, Lily.”
“I’m not arguing!”
“Now you’re arguing about whether or not you’re arguing,” I said. “You’re treading on very thin ice, young lady.”
She pouted again. “I’m just saying, no one thinks it’s us. No one could. How could anyone know? You haven’t told anyone, and neither have I, aside from my therapist.”
My brows shot up. “You told your therapist about us?”
She brought her left hand to her mouth and nervously worried her lower lip with two fingers before replying. “Um…is that bad?”
“You silly, silly little girl,” I growled, rounding on her. “You’ve really done it now.”
“Done what?” she asked, voice trembling.
“You’ve broken the rules. Badly.”
I could see her trying to hide a little smile. I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder, and she squealed as I carried her upstairs. “You’ve been curious about this room for a while, baby girl,” I said, holding her safe with one arm as I reached into my pants pocket with the other. I retrieved a key, jiggled it in the lock of the door we’d stopped at, and then I kicked it open. “You’re about to find out what happens in here.”
“What is it?” Lily asked, her voice nervous yet tinged with excitement. “What’s in here?”
I smiled. “Welcome to my toy room.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lily
“Welcome to my toy room.”
Jackson’s words echoed in my ears as he put me down on the plush carpeted floor before turning on the light. I was still standing upright, but my legs felt like they might cave under me any minute as I gazed around and took everything in. The lighting was soft and subtle, and the walls were a deep and rich purple, save for one feature wall which was a purple and silver damask pattern. The entire ceiling was one giant mirror, and a huge mirror also hung on one side of the room, reflecting the enormous bed that dominated the space. On the bed sat something which I couldn’t identify; some stuffed leather-lined piece of furniture in the shape of a wedge. Beyond that, there was no proper bedding—just a silvery satin sheet covering the mattress and a stack of matching satin cushions at the head.
Opposite the bed was a large and ornate cabinet, which hung open, displaying everything that sat within its depths—handcuffs, feathery items, ropes, and an enormous assortment of colorful silicon toys, much like the one Jackson had delivered to my house a while ago. Vibrators, rings, all sorts of things. Each sat in its own little section.
I turned to him, mystified. His expression was unreadable, and I knew he was waiting for my reaction to seeing his toy box for the first time.
“Is this…is this like some sort of Christian Grey sex dungeon?” I asked, voice shaky as I remembered the handcuffs and ropes.
He chuckled, deep voice reverberating around the room. “Not exactly. I’m not a sadist. I just like to play. And I’d like to play with you, Lily. I’d like you to be one of my toys.”
I gestured toward the cabinet. “All these…are they…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish my question, but Jackson seemed to instinctively know what I was thinking.
“All the toys that can go inside you are new, Lily. Just for you. We’ll get to try all of them at some point.”
“I’d like that,” I said, gazing at a purple toy which seemed to have two shafts. I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to use it, but with a
sexy teacher like Jackson around, I was desperate to learn.
“But that’s not why we’re in here right now,” he went on, voice growing firmer. “You need to be disciplined, Lily.”
His eyes had turned steely, like he was done with all my nonsense. So done. My cheeks began to heat up, and I knew they were bright pink. The mental image of Jackson bending me over his lap and leaving similarly-pink handprints all over my ass made me tingle like mad, just like it had all those weeks ago when he first brought up spanking me for my attitude. I couldn’t wait for him to take me over his knee.
But that wasn’t what he did.
Instead he reached for the cabinet and opened a compartment I hadn’t seen yet. From that he pulled out a white lacy thong and something small and black.
“Strip, then put these on,” he commanded, handing the panties to me.
I did as he said, watching him observe me as I followed his orders. I haltingly took off my clothes, and when I was naked save for the thong, Jackson smiled and held up the small black implement that seemed to accompany them.
“This is a controller for the panties,” he said. I immediately realized why he’d had me slip into the thing—it was vibrating underwear. “Now get on the bed. Bend over the spanking horse.”
He gestured toward the stuffed wedge object I hadn’t been able to identify earlier, and I tentatively stepped over to the bed. Now that I knew what it was, it made sense. It was the perfect shape for me to bend over in a doggy-style position. The perfect shape for me to be spanked on…
“You understand what has to happen,” Jackson said, his voice deep and commanding as he stepped closer. “And why. I made it very clear from the start that your actions have consequences.”
He had, and I knew exactly what those consequences were. We’d both fallen into this relationship without really talking a lot about the things we liked and wanted, but we both somehow knew from the very start. I’d read some of my friend Alexandra’s romance novels about kinks before, and in those books everyone said that couples needed contracts and safe words. We were doing it wrong, according to all of that, but everything we’d done had only ever felt right.
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