Page 18 of Vegas Daddies (Forbidden Fantasies #17)
ALLIE
“ T ake this next turn,” I urged the rideshare driver the second I climbed into his modest sedan. I tried to keep my tone less frantic and pissed off than I was, but it still came out a little sharp. “It’s a short cut.”
I was hoping to beat Gavin back to the beach house.
Petty, sure, but despite the mind-blowing sex we’d had not long ago, I didn’t want to see him again, even just to pick up my car.
The rage was vibrating through me still, and by the time we pulled up to the modestly fancy rental house, I was on edge, looking forward to scream-singing to angry girl music on my drive back to my apartment, to my little girl, who I prayed wasn’t related to Gavin Ratliff.
But before I could climb into the used SUV I’d gotten in lieu of a mom van, Luca appeared in the doorway of the house, and then he was crossing to meet me in the driveway.
“Hey,” he called, stopping me in my tracks. His tone was even and calm, his face soft with concern. “Hey, Allie. I, uh, just talked to Gavin. He said you’d be…pretty upset.”
“Understatement,” I snapped, digging for my car keys in the little impractical bag I’d brought out with me. “Did he tell you what he accused me of?”
Luca winced. “I…gathered. But listen, I’m sorry—Gavin’s been through a lot in the past year or so, but that was uncalled for. You didn’t deserve that.”
“No, I didn’t,” I agreed, deflating the tiniest bit. Luca continued to prove himself as a sweetheart, and maybe it was perfect that he was the one to meet me now.
“You don’t have to talk to him,” he went on, “but you shouldn’t drive home when you’re upset. Will you take a walk with me instead? We can go down by the water. It’s nice out.”
Logic told me not to go off with this guy I barely knew, reminding me of the true crime documentaries Kara and Brandon loved.
But my gut said that Luca was safe, the safest of the three guys who had reappeared in my life so suddenly, and he was probably right that I shouldn’t drive right away.
I’d had a couple of drinks too, and though I felt almost entirely sober, the longer I could let my body process the liquor, the whole night with Gavin, the clearer my head would be.
“Alright,” I agreed. “Lead the way.”
Luca gave me a second to swap out my heels with the more sensible flip-flops I kept in my car.
Then the two of us walked down the little gravel path beside the house, following it until it turned to sand beneath our feet.
The moon was shining against the gentle ocean waves, the dark of the night illuminated only with that silvery glow and the light pollution of Southern California.
“So what’s your daughter’s name?” Luca asked me quietly, almost drowned out by the roar of the water.
“Daphne,” I answered. It was almost nice to finally be able to talk about her.
After a long pause, I filled the space between us with an explanation he didn’t ask for.
I felt he deserved it anyway. “I…I didn’t want to share her with anyone.
I still don’t. And I know it sucks that I didn’t tell any of you about her, but I hope you can understand why.
It wasn’t…like, malicious. I’m just protective. ”
“A mama bear,” Luca nodded, understanding.
“Yeah. Plus, it was embarrassing, not knowing who…” I trailed off, my face turning red, though he thankfully couldn’t see in the cool dark of the night.
“Who her dad is, I guess you mean,” Luca finished for me. I let out a breath I was holding from the tension.
“Right. And anyway, it’s not like I know any of you well enough to know what kind of father you’d be. It’s good for me to be cautious, at least in this. I haven’t always been so careful in the past, but Daphne changed all of that.”
“Well, you can at least count me out of the paternity question,” Luca commented blithely.
I blinked, stopping our slow trek through the sand in my surprise.
Luca took a second to realize I’d stopped, so he turned back toward me from a step or so ahead.
His eyes were too dark in the moonlight to see their hazel-green color, but they sparkled anyway, only amplifying how truly pretty he was. “What?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you and I didn’t…have sex.” He shrugged, and I practically sensed the blush that graced his cheeks, though I couldn’t quite see it. I gaped at him.
“We … what do you mean?”
“I mean, we had sex,” he backtracked. “In the sense that we, uh—we did things for each other. But you and I didn’t do anything that could have…gotten you pregnant.”
I was stunned into silence, my fuzzy memories of that night flashing through my head in a sexy montage.
Luca’s head between my legs. Luca’s erection springing free from his pants.
Me taking the hard length of it into my mouth.
Warmth flooded through me, combatting the ocean chill as my body longed to relive the night.
Had I really just…assumed Luca had been inside me?
Wishing for something that hadn’t happened yet?