Page 68 of Daddies' Holiday Toy

My eyes burn before I even feel the tears gather.

I blink hard, quickly, refusing to let them fall.

If I cry now, it’s game over, I’ll lose whatever shred of control I’m still holding onto.

Jack exhales through his nose, and when he speaks again, his tone is softer.

“He never should’ve touched you.”

“Don’t.” I shake my head once. “Don’t do that. Don’t rewrite it to make it fit your narrative. It was two consenting adults making a deal. End of story.”

Jack’s jaw works for a moment, grinding down words before they can escape past his lips.

He steps closer, his hand lifting, not to grab this time but to rest on my shoulder.

“Sit down for a second. We all…should really talk.”

I want to argue, to tell him I’m done talking and done being cornered and picked apart like this, but the truth is, standing here like this feels way worse.

It’s suffocating, being the one put in trial.

So I let him guide me toward the couch.

His hand steady on my shoulder until I’m lowered into the cushions.

Only then does he take the chair across from me, settling in it and facing me fully.

“What’s really going on with you? Why do you need money that badly?”

I stare down at the carpet, tracing the worn fibers with my eyes so I don’t have to meet his.

“Holly,” he says again, reaching over to put a hand on my knee.

“Like I told Liam…my bakery isn’t doing well.” My fingers knot together in my lap, knuckles whitening as I keep talking. “I’ve been working my ass off for years, and I might lose it all anyway. Everything I’ve built could be gone, and I…”

The words jam up, cutting off mid-sentence.

My voice catches, and I have to swallow hard before I can push the rest through.

Jack’s brows pull together, his lips parting slightly.

I cut him off before he can even get the first syllable out.

“Liam offered to give me money. No strings attached. We were joking around about me offering him something else in return, and then…one thing led to another. It was all consensual. I didn’t feel forced or anything like that. Like I said, I had a good time.” I shrug, my gaze flicking briefly toward Liam before falling away again.

There’s a pause—long enough for me to hear the tick of the wall clock behind me—before Liam finally speaks.

His voice is quieter than I expect. “You did?”

I lift my eyes, finding him watching me with something in his expression I can’t quite name. Weariness maybe? Or hope?

But then Reece speaks, his tone maddeningly calm like he’s just posing a business question.

“Is that the kind of arrangement you’re looking for? A…some kind of sugar baby situation?”

My head snaps toward him. “What?”

“Reece,” Jack cuts in sharply, his voice cracking like a whip. But Reece doesn’t flinch, and I’m still locked on him anyway.