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J ameson held open the door to the hotel room for the three of them.

After her father left them, Maggie had basically collapsed. Their ride had arrived and Ian had carried her over to it. The driver had even asked if they wanted to go to the hospital.

When they’d gotten at the hotel, he’d taken care of everything so that Ian and Jack could take care of her.

Jack paced back and forth as Ian sat on the sofa with Maggie in his arms.

Jameson didn’t like how still she was. She was getting overwhelmed. And with good reason. Her family were awful and he knew a thing or two about terrible families.

“They’re the reason that being called a disappointment is a hard limit,” Jack said.

It wasn’t a question.

“Uh, yeah. We never had a lot. We were okay, but we still had to watch what we spent. Anything spare went into my skating. Lessons, outfits, equipment. All of it was a sacrifice. And I know it because they told me all the time. It’s the reason that my brother and sister don’t like me much. They resent what they missed out on. It wasn’t cheap, but it was all meant to be worth it. Because I was going to be so successful, famous. And then I selfishly threw it all away. Their big chance at being something. All the things they’d given up for me. I failed.”

She paused as though waiting for their agreement.

“Exactly how did you throw it away, Little Misfit?” Ian asked in a soft voice, his finger brushing her cheek.

They all knew about her car accident, but that’s all it was, right? An accident?

“Isn’t it obvious? I got into that car. I shouldn’t have been at that party, but I snuck out of home. I wasn’t supposed to go to parties.”

Jameson frowned. “Weren’t you around twenty?”

“Yes, but . . . I still lived at home. I didn’t have a job. And I agreed to the rules, it’s just . . . it was starting to feel like I never had fun. Skating was all I’d known for so long. Anyway, the car crashed. I broke my hip, and bye-bye went my chances at the Olympics. Everything down the drain.”

“Was the crash your fault?” Ian asked carefully. “Were you speeding? Drunk?”

“What? No! I wasn’t even driving. My boyfriend was driving too fast for the conditions. My mum had discovered I was out and had started texting me. He was trying to get me home as quickly as possible. He wasn’t a bad guy. He came out pretty unscathed. But . . . I shouldn’t have been in the car in the first place.”

“Little Misfit,” Ian said, tilting her face back with his finger under her chin. “It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault. And you are allowed to have fun. Do you ever think that maybe if your parents had let you do other things, you wouldn’t have had to sneak out? If she hadn’t been texting you, urging you to get home that he wouldn’t have sped? Not that it’s any excuse for taking risks when he had precious cargo in the car.”

“I guess . . . maybe.” She frowned, looking bewildered.

“It was an accident.” Jack kneeled in front of the two of them. “They have no right to make you feel bad for something that was out of your control.”

“It’s not like you wanted to get into an accident, shatter your hip, and give up your chance to go to the Olympics,” Ian said harshly. “The way they talked to you . . . it was unacceptable.”

“I want to ruin them,” Jack said, his hands curling into fists.

“No! No, Jack. Please, just . . . just leave them alone. I think it’s better this way. For me to cut all ties. Every time they call or text, I get so anxious. I think that’s part of the reason I pull my hair out.”

“I fucking hate that they made you feel this way,” Ian snarled.

Jameson walked over and crouched next to Jack. “Hey, sweetheart.” He took hold of her hand and she latched on hard. He kept his voice calm. That’s what she needed right now. “I know a thing or two about shitty parents. We are going to get you through this. You have people around you who are on your side. Understand?”

She breathed out a sigh, giving him a tremulous smile. There were dark rings under her eyes despite her nap earlier on the plane.

“I think you might need a time-out.” Jack picked her up and held her against his chest. One arm held her to him, while with the other hand, he lightly patted her bottom. He gave Jameson a nod of respect.

Ian followed him into the bedroom. But he gave patted Jameson’s back on his way.

The hotel just had one bedroom so he’d sleep on the sofa. But even though he was on the wrong side of the door, he felt like he was starting to fit in with the three of them.

As though he had his place.

Twenty minutes later, the bedroom door opened, and Ian and Jack walked out. He raised his eyebrows. “How is she?”

“Asleep,” Ian said. “She takes too much on, internalizes it. She was bloody well going on about how she’s worried about us.”

“Mostly him.” Jack nodded at Jameson.

“Me?” he asked, shocked.

“Yeah, about you being back in London and it bringing up bad memories for you.”

Fuck. She was too sweet for her own good.

“Anyway, we’re heading out,” Jack said in a casual voice.

Um, what now?

“So you’re looking after our girl.” Ian frowned as he said that. As though it didn’t make him happy. “Don’t fuck it up.”

“Or else,” Jack added.

“Are you two joking right now?” he asked.

“No,” Ian bit out.

“I never joke.” Jack grinned at their glares. “Joking. I’m joking. Sheesh.”

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To get anything we can salvage from her apartment that we can salvage,” Ian said, holding up a key with a fluffy zebra head keyring.

“I’ll go do that,” he said quickly. “One of you should stay here with her. She might wake up and need you.”

Ian shook his head. “If this Billy is watching the place or has someone there, we’re better able to protect ourselves.”

“I’m not completely helpless,” Jameson said.

“But you’re not as good as us,” Jack told him. “And if she wakes up, you’ll be here.”

“Take good fucking care of her,” Ian warned. “Do not fuck this up. There are no second chances.”

Right. Of course. No second chances.

No pressure then.

He tried to settle down and watch something. Fuck. Nothing would settle his nerves. He hated being back here. And it was ridiculous. He wasn’t going to run into anyone he knew.

His father was gone and his mother was off with her new husband.

And even if he did, what did he care?

No . . . that wasn’t the reason he was on edge. It was to do with her. Making sure that she was looked after, protected. It had him on edge.

He’d never felt this level of responsibility for someone before. Not even with Elizabeth.

He let out a deep breath.

A cry made him jump up. What the hell?

This time, a scream filled the hotel room. Fuck! He raced into the bedroom to find Maggie thrashing around on the bed in the middle of a nightmare.

Fuck!

He moved over to her, trying to shake her awake. “Maggie? Sweetheart?”

She stopped thrashing, her eyes opening to stare up at him. Then, suddenly, she started to cry.

Holy fuck.

She was killing him.

Without thinking it through too much, he gathered her into his arms and held her tight. What could he do to help her?

Then he remembered Jack soothing her. He picked her up and started bouncing slightly with her in his arms, patting her bottom. Seeing Ziggy on the bed, he gathered him up and put him in her arms.

But she just wouldn’t stop crying. And she was killing him.

“Hush, precious girl. Please?”

God. He sounded so unsure. He needed to be more confident. For her.

“I’m so sorry. I c-can’t stop. You can . . . y-you can just leave me.”

Yeah. Like fuck that was happening.

Enough of this, arsehole. Do what she needs.

“I will not be leaving you,” he told her firmly. “And that’s going in your notebook.”

“It’s b-back in Escana.”

“No, it’s not. Ian packed it.”

She kept crying and he couldn’t take it.

“That’s enough now. You’re going to make yourself ill. Hush, now. Hush, precious girl.” He kept his voice firm, but kind.

She slowly got herself under control, her sobs dying off.

“You can put me down now.”

“Nope. I’m not ready to.”

Leaning back, she blinked up at him as though she’d never seen him before. “Is this bad Dom? Is good Dom going to come in?”

She was referring to the other day when Ian had come in after he’d broken through the numbness she’d pulled around herself?

“No, it’s just me, I’m afraid,” he said lightly.

“Just you is more than enough.” She gave him a small smile.

His tension eased. Until he realized that she still appeared miserable. She was just trying to hide it. To make him feel better.

She bit her lower lip as she reached up to tug at her hair.

He tugged her hand away. “No.” Again, he kept his voice firm but kind. “That’s not happening anymore.”

She took a deep breath. “You’re very bossy. Very Dommy.”

“Dommy? Good.”

Her eyes widened. “I thought you didn’t want to be a Dom anymore. Well, a Daddy, I guess.”

“Apparently that was just me throwing a temper tantrum.”

Her lips twitched. “Did Jack tell you that?”

“Hmm. He did. Arsehole.”

She gave him a worried look. “It’s not . . . you’re not just doing it for me?”

“I am doing it for you.”

Her face fell.

“But I’m doing it for me as well. I’ve missed it. It’s a part of me that I’ve been neglecting, and frankly, for a long time the world has been gray for me. No joy. No fun. Not until a whirlwind of laughter and fun entered it.”

“Me?”

“Yes, sweetheart. You.” He bopped her nose.

She stared up at him in shock. Then she licked her lips and he groaned.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered.

“I really want to kiss you.”

“Then why don’t you?”

His eyebrows rose before he rearranged her weight so he could hold her with one arm. Then he cupped her cheek with his hand and lightly kissed her lips.

“More,” she demanded.

“Not yet.”

“I want to say thank you,” she told him.

“For what, precious girl?” As far as he was concerned, he was the one who should be thanking her for giving him a chance.

“For sticking up for me with my family.”

“Those people are not your family.” He sat on the side of the bed with her on his lap, facing him. “If I know one thing, it’s that you don’t have to be loyal to people who treat you like shit even if they are related by blood. Understand?”

“Yeah. I do. I’ve tried for so many years and I just feel like I fail time and again.”

“They are the ones who failed you, precious girl.”

“You’re right.” She stared at him nervously.

“What is it?”

“Maybe it seems like I’m moving too fast . . . but I feel like I know you. Perhaps we haven’t spent as much time together, but something about you and me. It just feels like it was meant to be.”

“I know what you mean.” He brushed her hair back off her face. It was a mess as usual, but he liked it.

It was just who Maggie was.

“So what if . . . what if I wanted you to Top me right now? I think . . . I think I might need that. I can’t get everything out of my head. There’s so much to do.” Her hand reached up to her hair again.

“No.” He gave her hand another firm tug away. “You’re not doing that anymore.”

“I can’t . . . I can’t stop. How am I going to protect Indie? What if there was damage to the apartment I can’t afford to fix? The landlord will likely kick us out. And what about Uncle Willy? What if he needs me? If he can’t work, then I don’t have a job and I feel terrible about worrying about that while he’s not well, but it’s still a concern. And what about if I can’t move to Escana and that’s where the three of you live . . . ”

“That’s enough,” he told her sternly. “Look at me. Right at my eyes. That’s good. You have nothing to worry about right now.”

“I do!” she cried.

“You don’t. Right at this moment, you have no responsibilities. You have nowhere to be and no one to take care of. It’s all right to break sometimes, precious girl. You don’t always have to be the strong one. Even the strongest of us need someone to take over now and then. I want you to give me your trust. To let me take care of you.”

“And that’s what you want?” she asked.

“Always so worried about everyone else. You’re so sweet. This is exactly what I want,” he told her.

“I might go into Little headspace,” she warned him.

As if he cared about that. “Then that’s what you need to do.”

She let out a deep sigh. “All right. I want this. I want you. And I trust you.”

“Such a brave girl. My very good girl. I’m going to take excellent care of you. Now, you’re going to take a nice bubble bath.”

“Where are Ian and Jack?” she asked. “I thought they must have just stepped out, but they’ve been gone a while.”

“They’re out checking your apartment.”

“Oh no.” She attempted to get away down. “I should be with them.”

“What did I just tell you?” he said.

“That I’m a good girl who needs a bubble bath?”

“I said that you weren’t making any decisions. And you don’t have any responsibilities. Understand? Now, you say, yes, Jameson. Or, uh, ‘yes, Daddy’ if you’d rather.”

She stared up at him with her mouth parted.

“That’s moving too fast. Fuck. We barely kissed. I?—”

“Yes, Daddy.”