Daddy's Girl

by River Laurent

  “I can make the decision of who I want for myself,” I said softly. Lifting my head to meet his gaze, I placed a hand on his chest. I could feel his heartbeat pick up beneath his shirt, but a split-second later he stepped away from me again, leaving my fingers hanging in the air where he had once stood.

  “Of course, you think that. You don’t realize the consequences,” he snapped.

  I knew my refusal to see his point of view was pissing him off. Well, when he gave me a good reason, I would accept it. “I don’t understand why you are making something so simple so complicated?” I cried.

  “You can’t…shit, you can’t see that it wouldn’t be fair, can you? I have my own life, my own world, Madison. You’re so far away and you’re young. You’re so young. I don’t want you hung up on me when you could be off enjoying yourself and taking the world by storm.”

  I clenched my fists at my sides. “I don’t care about any of that. I just want this. You. I need you, Quinn.”

  He closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. I wondered if he had to fight as hard as I was to keep his hands off of me. My fingers dug into my palms, and the pain was the only thing keeping me from grabbing for him once more.

  “I want this,” I murmured. “I want you. I want to feel your tongue between my legs again, Quinn.”

  When I said his name, he seemed to react to it. It was like an incantation on my tongue, and he finally looked up at me. He blinked twice, slowly. Then he ran his tongue over his bottom lip, and I saw that he was having trouble coming up with a good excuse to throw in my direction. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. I parted my lips and stepped toward him. We were so close. I knew he intended to kiss me again.

  Both of us jumped when his cell rang in his pocket. Reaching into his blazer he pulled out his phone. He glanced at screen, looked up at me, then back at the screen. He paled.

  “It’s your father,” he muttered, and turned his back on me to take the call.

  I felt a wash of panic. Could Dad somehow have instinctively sensed our conversation? I hugged myself tightly. I needed to keep my cool. I loved my dad, but I was in love with Quinn and nothing was going to keep me away from him.

  11

  Quinn

  “Kevin,” I greeted as calmly as I could in the circumstance. His daughter had just chased away my date and attempted to seduce me. “Good to hear from you. How’s it going over there?”

  “Fine, it’s good,” he replied, sounding oddly distracted.

  “Everything alright?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder to check on Madison. She was leaning on the rail of the balcony, staring out across the vista below us with a half-blank expression on her face. I knew she was listening, so I lowered my voice and continued my conversation with Kevin.

  “I completely forgot about Madison’s birthday,” he confessed.

  I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise “What?”

  “It’s Madison’s birthday tomorrow,” he explained quickly, and I heard him pacing back and forth across the floor of what I assumed was his hotel room. “I was meant to be there, but…hell, with everything going on I forgot to tell you. I’m so sorry. I was out the door before I had a chance to even think about that.”

  Her birthday? She hadn’t mentioned a thing to me about it. I saw her ears prick up, but she didn’t turn to face me. Why would she have kept this to herself? It seemed like the kind of thing she would have mentioned at some point over the last few days.

  “Oh, shit,” I muttered.

  “I have a booking at that fancy French place across town,” he replied vaguely. “I forget the name now.”

  “Maxine?” I said slowly.

  “Yeah, that’s the one. It was meant to be a surprise for the two of us, but now that I’m not there…”

  “You want me to…?” My voice was heavy, but how could I say no.

  “If you wouldn’t mind,” he replied, his voice careful. “I’m sure I could find someone else if you really don’t want to do it, but since the two of you are already together and she doesn’t know that many other people in the city-”

  “It’s fine, Kevin, really,” I cut across his guilty babbling. He had a habit of going off like this when he thought he was being an asshole. The only way to stop it was to convince him that he wasn’t asking much at all. Besides, I was the one who should have been feeling guilty. I shuddered at the thought of him knowing about the conversation I just had with his daughter. He’d have torn my guts out with his bare hands, and I wouldn’t have blamed him.

  “Thank you,” he replied, his voice bubbling over with relief and gratitude. “I’ll have my secretary pass the booking details on to you. I know you’ll look after her. Are you guys getting on okay?”

  “Yeah, sure.” I shot another look in Madison’s direction. It was as though I couldn’t keep my eyes off her, no matter how hard I tried. The look on her face, completely unreadable, sent an avalanche of emotions rumbling through my system: guilt, lust, concern, desire. I had no idea which one was going to come out on top after all of this was over.

  “Good,” Kevin said. He sounded satisfied. “I’ll call you later this week, and we can talk about the deal then.”

  “Sure.” I closed my eyes, wishing he could walk through the doors that instant and take his girl off my hands before I did something I would regret.

  “Great thanks,” he said happily. He had solved his problem. “Er…is Madison around?”

  “Yeah. Hang on.”

  I walked over to Madison and held out the phone. Silently, she took it from me and put it to her ear.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  I tried not to listen to her monosyllabic replies, but it was impossible even when I moved to the kitchen.

  “Goodnight,” she said finally, and hung up. She handed the phone back to me, and I dumped it into my pocket.

  Her mouth quirked as if to say what now?

  “Your father told me it’s your birthday tomorrow,” I said, cocking an eyebrow at her.

  She shrugged nonchalantly and gazed back, her face impassive, but I saw that she hurt somewhere deep inside.

  “How old will you be?” I asked, knowing I didn’t actually want to hear the answer to that question.

  “Twenty.”

  I stared at her curiously. She was going to let a milestone birthday go by without mentioning anything to anyone. “Your father booked a table for the two of you at some fancy restaurant. He hoped he’d be back in time-”

  She shrugged. “It’s okay. It really doesn’t matter.”

  “But since he can’t, he wants me to take you,” I finished, looking at her intently.

  “Really?” Her eyes widened with a child-like excitement, and I suddenly remembered the conversation we had when she was a child. When she asked if she could come and live with Kevin and me. I had felt sorry for her then and I couldn’t help feeling that some part of her was still that same neglected child of a workaholic father and a mother who had no time for her because she had just found a new boyfriend. She pretended to be rebellious and bratty, but it was a just a façade she had put up to deal with her situation. Poor thing. She had come all the way out here to see her father only to be left alone on her birthday.

  “Yeah,” I nodded and smiled. “And we’re going…if you want.”

  “I do. Very much,” she said eagerly. Then she glanced at her feet, and the conversation we’d been having before her father called, lingered unspoken, between us, but I didn’t want to carry it on. I wanted to get the fuck to bed before either of us did or said anything we couldn’t take back.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smiled, and started walking backward. “I’ll pick you up from here around seven. Dress up nice, it’s a black-tie kind of place.”

  “Okay,” she said, her face lighting up with happiness. She looked like an angel.

  I turned away from her.

  “Goodnight,” she called after me, but I didn’t turn or look back.

  My heart swelled over with
something close to affection for her, and I didn’t want my damn stupid feelings to get in the way of doing a favor for my friend. I closed the door to my bedroom, stood against it, and ignored the tantalizing sounds of her footsteps in the corridor outside as she went to her bedroom.

  I had survived another night.

  Quickly, I stripped down and stood under a cold shower, cold enough to make me shiver. Then, I got into bed, closed my eyes and waited for sleep to come. It came in the early hours of the morning.

  12

  Quinn

  Kevin had already sent the booking details of the restaurant to the office by the time I arrived at work the next morning. We’d been to it a few of times, celebrating new investors, or big clients. It wasn’t exactly the kind of place you could go for a date, because your date would automatically assume you were going to propose, or some shit like that. It was that pricey. But I’m not surprised Kevin had picked it out for his daughter’s birthday.

  She was special.

  I had asked my assistant to bring down one of my nicer suits for the event and it hung in the executive suite for me. As I changed into my suit, there was a fluttering in my stomach that hadn’t been there when I had organized my date with Victoria.

  Butterflies in a goddamn adult male. What the fuck?

  I shouldn’t have been getting anything close to this excited, but something about Madison, about the way she spoke to me, the way she challenged me. I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

  If she only knew how firmly wedged she was into my brain she’d probably get a secret kick out of it. It had occurred to me that this whole lets-seduce-Quinn game was her trying out her feminine wiles. Seeing how potent she could be. For all I knew her plan was simply to see if she could get me hung up on her. Well, if that was the plan it sure worked.

  I was so hung up, right now, even the idea of hanging out with another woman was unthinkable.

  I saw another side to her last night, and now I was even more interested and intrigued than before. I had accused her of acting like a brat toward Victoria, which she had, but I was convinced she had been acting out in front of Victoria for my attention. And when I really thought about it, I had to admit she had never behaved as if she was entitled to any special treatment from her father or me.

  She could so easily have twisted my arm, backed me into the corner of having to play nice and manipulate me into taking her out to celebrate her birthday, but she never said a word. If her father hadn’t called, there was a good chance the topic would never have come up at all.

  She would have gone through the whole day lounging around alone in my empty house, and waiting for me to get back, so we could have another lousy argument. Hell, she was probably coming on to me just because she was lonely. The problem was I wasn’t made of stone. I wanted to make sure she had a good birthday. I just had to keep it out of my mind that this wasn’t a date, and everything would be fine.

  I shot my cuffs, and made my way out. I caught the looks from some of female staff who were packing up their desks for the day. One of them gave a long, low whistle. They were all happily married, and it was all in jest. The other women laughed and I grinned at them.

  “Hot date, huh?” Sally, one of the secretaries, called out.

  “Nope,” I said, and sailed out of the building. I was doing Kevin a favor, that was all.

  My driver, Benjamin, was waiting in the parking lot. I slipped into the backseat of the car and closed the door.

  Benjamin caught my eye in the rearview mirror. “You look very smart,” he remarked, his eyebrows raised as we pulled out. “Going somewhere nice?”

  “Maxine’s,” I replied.

  “Very nice,” he said, with a nod of approval.

  I grinned at him. Even if the situation came packed with weird-ass sexual tension, at least, I still got to go to one of my favorite places in the city.

  “Are we going straight there?”

  “No, stop by the house first.” I lay back against the seat. “I’ve got to pick up my dinner companion.”

  Benjamin had been with me for years and I could see him biting his tongue to keep from remarking on the fact that I had never allowed a woman to stay around at my place long enough to pick them up from there. That’s what I liked about him: he knew better than to open his mouth about anything that didn’t concern him.

  We arrived a few minutes later, and I got out of the car, and went in.

  “Madison,” I called from the hallway. It was a really weird feeling. Actually, it was years since I picked anyone up from their place, let alone mine. There was something oddly intimate and delicious about knowing she would be coming back here this evening.

  “I’m coming down!” she sang in reply, her voice all kinds of light and airy.

  I had never heard her sound so carefree before, and I had to admit it made my heart beat a little faster. I had tossed and turned all night long obsessing over what we had said to each other, and it was wonderful that like a child, or an innocent animal she could completely forgive and simply be happy for the moment. What a wonderful way to be.

  She appeared at the top of the stairs a few minutes later, and damn, she was so beautiful, she made my heart ache. Her hair was loose and fell in shining waves around her breasts and arms. She wore a knee-length, black dress with thick straps that hugged her body snugly, and a pair of gold high heels that showed off her youthful calves as she made her way down the stairs.

  I knew she had waited for me to arrive before coming down the stairs.

  If there was anything Madison liked, it was making an entrance. She had been like that even when she was five years old. I gazed up at her. Yup, she had made herself the perfect opportunity to strut her stuff. My heart raced as she approached. She just looked…damn it…fuckable. All the resolve I had built up since last night vanished into nothing. I took a deep breath to regain my composure.

  She winked at me. “You look wicked.”

  I cleared my throat. “You don’t look too…bad yourself,” I responded, and hoped my voice was neutral enough for her not to jump to all the right conclusions. Oh, who was I kidding? She would have to be blind to have missed me gaping at her like a brain-dead zombie. Still that was the point of her daring outfit, after all.

  I opened the front door for her with exaggerated flourish and she smiled at me, fluttering her lashes the way starlets from my grandmother’s time used to do. I laughed and so did she. I liked it when she laughed. I wanted to grab her and kiss her.

  We walked to the car in silence. Gallantly, I opened the car door for her and she climbed in. I was happy as I made my way around the other side to join her.

  “Ready to go?” Benjamin asked. His brown eyes twinkled.

  “Yep,” I said, fixing my eyes on the road ahead of us. I did my best to keep my attention off Madison even though all I wanted to do was get Benjamin to roll up the partition so I could take her on the back seat. This was Kevin’s daughter. Kevin, my best friend and business partner. The dirty thoughts scampering through my brain were just that. Random thoughts.

  13

  Quinn

  The traffic was light and it didn’t take long for us to arrive at our destination. Madison climbed out of the car, and I thanked Benjamin as she stood in front of Maxine’s entrance with an awed expression on her face.

  “This place is amazing!” she exclaimed.

  “Shall we?” I said, offering my arm.

  She tucked her hand through the crook of my elbow, and the feel of her delicate fingers resting on my arm even through my suit jacket was enough to send a sharp shiver of awareness down my spine.

  “This way, please,” the hostess said, and lead us into their fine dining room.

  As soon as we were seated the staff brought out a bottle of champagne, compliments of Kevin. Kevin must have been feeling really bad about missing his daughter’s birthday. I could tell from the look on the face of the waitress who brought the bottle champagne to us it was insanely expensive. Wi
th a wry smile, I watched Madison take a mouthful of bubbles. How wonderful to be so young and carefree. The whole world was your oyster.

  “This is amazing,” she said, closing her eyes, and sighing with satisfaction. She opened her eyes, caught me staring, and asked, “What?”

  I covered up my discomfort by raising my glass to her. “Happy birthday, Madison.”

  She smiled mistily and clinked her glass against mine. “Thank you, Quinn.”

  I beamed back at her, unable to contain my joy at seeing her actually have a good time.

  “To many more.”

  “To many more,” she echoed mildly, but her eyes flashed with something, something I couldn’t quite describe. Something deep and more adult than the way I viewed her. The thought bothered me. Maybe that was the problem with Madison, I could never be sure precisely what she was going for. I prided myself on being able to read people like articles in the in-flight magazines, but her…no, she defied explanation.

  The waitress returned with the menus.

  “Thanks for bringing me here tonight,” she said as she opened her menu.

  “I don’t know. When I was your age, birthdays were an excuse to go out and do outrageously fun stuff with no thought as to what was coming the next day. It seems a shame you’ve missed out on that and have to sit down to dinner with one of your dad’s friends instead.”

  She stared into my eyes. “I’m not missing anything, Quinn. I wouldn’t change this for the world.”

  I stared back at her. “Why didn’t you say it was your birthday?”

  “I didn’t want to make a fuss.” Her eyes slid away from mine. “Dad was away a lot for my birthdays as a kid so I never…I, uh, never really put too much stock in it.”

  I frowned and tried to remember. Had Kevin really been missing for enough of her birthdays she had grown accustomed to not getting her hopes up at all? I stared at her over the top of my menu. I hadn’t really paid much thought to the fact that all those long nights at the office and hours spent putting our business together could have coincided with her birthdays. Obviously, a few of them must have. It kind of broke my heart to think of the little child Madison learning not to expect a fuss on her birthday. Now, I sort of understood why she was so desperate for my attention.