Page 6 of Daddy in Disguise

Tears sting my eyes. “Why are you being so cruel?”

There’s no point in sticking around for the answer. I turn on my heel and run down the hallway to the emergency exit, pushing it open. I stumble into the alley behind the club and drop to my knees, crying from my brother’s humiliation.

4

Carter

“What the fuck is wrong with you,” I yell, once Sparrow is out of sight. Thatcher might have caught me off guard with his punch to the gut and then the blow to my jaw but my head is perfectly clear now.

“Me? What’s wrong with you? How could you fuck my sister? In my club?”

“Because I’m in love with her!”

He laughs but the sound is humorless. “You’re in love with her? Do you always treat women you love like they belong at The Opal House?”

I roll my eyes. “So that’s what this is about?”

Six months ago, I decided to become a member at one of Los Angeles’s most exclusive clubs, The Opal House. The membership fees are exorbitant, but it pays for something I value more than anything: privacy. I want the freedom to explore the darker side of my desires without having to worry about judgement.

The minute I confided in Thatcher, he started to distance himself from me.

“If you want to live out your perverted fantasies, do it somewhere else and with someone else. My sister is not some fuck toy you can chain to your bed and abuse.”

“If you think I’d abuse your sister or any other woman, then you don’t know me at all.” I wiggle my jaw one more time. It hurts, and tomorrow there’s going to be a bruise, but I’m not concerned about it. “I need to go check on Sparrow.”

I turn and head down the hallway toward the emergency exit. The door is still slightly ajar and when I push it open, I see her and my heart breaks. One of the street lights illuminates her, like a sad spotlight. Her ruffled skirt is fanned out around her, and her dark brown ringlets shake as she sobs.

I approach her slowly but the sound of my footsteps crunching in the gravel echoes in silence of the night.

Sparrow’s hands drop and her back stiffens.

“It’s just me,” I call out. “I came to check on you.”

“I’m fine,” she says harshly. “You can go.”

My head shakes and I place my hands on my hips. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

She stands quickly and spins to face me. “Didn’t you hear my brother? I’m a whore.”

“I heard what he said, and I choose to believe differently.” I take a few steps toward her. She looks up at me with a defiant, angry scowl I want to kiss. “Let me make myself clear, little bird, you’re coming home with me. Do you understand?”

The leftover anger inside of me simmers and transforms me into the dominant man who knows what he wants and takes it.

She closes her eyes and sighs. Her body sags and I’m quick to slip an arm around her waist. “Yes,” she says at last.

“I didn’t hear you. Do you understand?”

Her eyelids flutter open and there’s a flash of recognition in her gaze. “Yes, Daddy, I understand.”

“Good girl,” I purr, running my fingers along her chin and lifting her face so she can see how much her acquiescence pleases me. I want to test her, push her limits to see how far she’s willing to go for me but she deserves a reward for her answer. “Let’s go.”

I call the car service to come and pick us up. We wait for them on the corner and we’re both quiet. We should talk about what happened with Thatcher, about what he said, and what he revealed. However, if Sparrow is feeling like I am, which is a bit disjointed, then we both could use a distraction.

“Before the car arrives, we need to discuss something,” I tell her.

She rolls her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about Thatcher, or what happened.”

I chuckle and place a finger under her chin, pressing it up until our gazes meet. “We will talk about that . . . tomorrow. But we have unfinished business, little bird, and you don’t get to have Daddy’s cock inside you again until we talk about rules.”