Page 9 of Vegas Daddies (Forbidden Fantasies #17)

ALLIE

P hysically, I was sitting in Kara and Brandon’s living room, waiting for it to be my turn in the game of Candy Land we were all playing at Daphne’s request. But mentally, I couldn’t escape the memories of a hotel room in Vegas five years back, and damn it if my body wasn’t responding to those memories with just as much heat as they had back then. Damn it, damn it, damn it .

“It’s your turn, Mommy,” Daphne reminded me sweetly from my left.

I blinked myself out of the reveries, nodded a little too frantically, and geared up for my turn in the game.

We all knew Daphne would win, whether through her own wits or because none of us could deny her any small joy in this life, but we had to put on a good show until then.

It would make her victory all the sweeter.

It wasn’t a sufficient distraction from my chaotic thoughts, but it was all the distraction I had.

Even more than the lusty fantasies, my head was swimming with uncertainty about my own reactions ever since that day at the coffee shop.

Why the hell did I think it was a good idea to try and jumpstart my long-shelved dream of a music career by basically blackmailing Gavin Ratliff?

On the one hand, it was almost nice to know that my youthful recklessness hadn’t completely disappeared since I had Daphne.

Kara and Brandon were always telling me to be more selfish, to let myself be young while I still was, and I was too concerned with being a good mother to listen to them.

But on a much more real level, I was now mature and level-headed enough to realize I should have just cooperated in the annulment stuff without conditions.

It would have made things easier for everyone.

One thing was for sure though. I knew that at least one tiny part of my motivation had been a subconscious desire to see the men again.

I was still a woman, and there was no way I could be confronted with the guys who had sustained my every sexual fantasy for the past five years without quietly hoping for some kind of encore.

My body had felt that strong pull toward them from the second I realized who they were.

My brain wasn’t strong enough to fight it.

And if I was honest with myself, I didn’t want to. It was so nice to be attracted to someone again, even if that someone was three someones, and one of them was unknowingly Daphne’s father.

Daphne needed a potty break, which interrupted the board game. I used the opportunity to slip away into the kitchen under the guise of needing a drink. I found Kara already in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. The look on her face told me she’d been waiting for me.

“Okay,” she said, the moment I stepped inside. “Spill.”

I sighed, grabbing a glass from the cabinet. “Spill what?”

She scoffed. “Oh, don’t play dumb. You know exactly what.

You’ve barely been here all night,” she pointed to her own temple to indicate my brain, “and you told me nothing about the hot guys at the diner. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were avoiding me because you’re just such a good friend and you don’t want to make me jealous about your three hot new boyfriends. ”

“Definitely not,” I laughed. “If that was the case, I would have told you right away.”

“Girls’ night is as good a time as any to spill tea,” Kara pointed out.

That was what we called these dedicated Allie-Kara-Daphne nights we penciled into our calendars as often as possible, even though Brandon’s inclusion made it more of a coed situation.

I leveled a look at her and she gave up with a huff. “Then what is it?”

I filled my glass with water and took a slow sip, trying to gather my thoughts.

“The guys…they were there to see me,” I admitted.

I didn’t hide things from Kara, and I might as well let my best friend do what best friends were for, since I wasn’t going to be able to stop obsessing over the guys and the marriage on my own.

“Well, I could have told you that,” she mused. “My bestie is a hot, single MILF in the area. The stuff of every man’s dreams, according to the ads I get online.”

“That worries me about your browser history,” I shot back.

“But…do you mean you actually know them?”

I nodded. “Remember that wild weekend in Vegas I told you about? From before we met?”

Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God. The sexy foursome.”

I shushed Kara, peaking around the corner to make sure no one else at game night had heard her too-loud exclamation before I went on. “Yes. But don’t get too excited. They’re not back for a replay or anything.”

“A damn shame,” Kara lamented. God, true. “So…what brings them around if not another roll in the hay?”

I grimaced before I explained the extra bit. The marriage bit, which shocked her as much as I knew it would. Kara knew I wasn’t the poster child for committed relationships, and she even teased me about my fear of marriage.

Kara let out a low whistle. “Damn, girl. I mean, I knew you had a thing for adventure, and we all know you’re not a monogamist. But I didn’t realize that you had it in you to make one commitment when it comes to men, much less potentially marrying three dudes at once.”

I sighed again. “And I don’t even know which one of them I actually married.”

Kara blinked. “Wait, what?”

“I was drunk, Kara. We all were. And I got rings from all three of them. So…none of us know which of the marriages stuck, if any of them did.”

Kara stared at me for a long moment before bursting into laughter. “Oh my God. This is bananas.”

“Yeah,” I groaned.

“But also, kind of amazing.”

“You would think that.”

She grinned. “Hey, I’m just saying! You managed to live every spicy romance novel heroine’s dream, other than…

” Kara’s sentence trailed off, her eyes growing wide again.

I could hear the end of her sentence without her having to say it.

Other than the pregnancy. “Oh my God, Al. One of them is Daphne’s dad, right? ”

I almost wanted to cry when I nodded. I almost did cry when Kara immediately wrapped me into her arms, giving me a real girl’s-girl squeeze that seemed to erase the trauma of so many wasted years with female “friends” who called me a slut.

All of those so-called friends, so-called “sisters” in my sorority, had acted like my pregnancy was a fitting punishment for me being too promiscuous.

Kara had only ever cheered me on, rooted for me finding my own happiness, my own pleasure.

“Well, you need to get a paternity test,” my best friend decided with a sigh as she let me go. She tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, softening the blow of her stern expression. “Like, yesterday. I’ll help however I can, you know that.”

I thought back to when I first met Kara.

I had been about six months pregnant, finally done feeling like I was going to throw up all the time.

Which was how I found myself standing outside Marv’s Diner, staring at the old-fashioned Help Wanted sign while trying not to burst into tears.

Jobs weren’t easy to come by when you looked like you were about to take maternity leave, but I’d mooched off my parents long enough, and I wanted to start building a real future for my daughter.

“Thinking about applying?” a voice had said beside me, and I’d turned to see the coolest looking woman I’d ever met before or since.

Covered in tattoos, curvy and tall, Kara Garber looked like a clear badass even while wearing the old ruffled version of the server apron, which she and I had campaigned against once I joined the staff.

The kindness in her gaze, the subtle smile on her lips—which had been painted black, as was Kara’s then signature look—told me this was someone I could grow to love.

I had no idea at the time that she’d become the best friend I’d ever had.

“Yeah,” I had admitted. “But, uh, I’m kind of in a…unique situation.”

“Don’t worry,” the cool girl smiled. “Marv’s a softie, and he’s batshit scared of me. I’ll put in a good word, and I think you’ll fit right in.”

That small moment had changed everything.

Later, Kara had been there when I set up Daphne’s crib, helped me buy secondhand baby supplies, and reassured me that I wasn’t completely screwing everything up during the ever-stressful newborn phase.

She and Brandon both had been there for me when he eventually joined our little found family, and now, my life would be a lot worse without them.

“I’m kind of terrified to know which one it is,” I admitted in a whisper. “I don’t know any of them, besides knowing they were amazing in bed.”

“ Amazing ,” Kara emphasized, raising one eyebrow. “ And fine as fuck.”

“Yeah,” I admitted, my blood heating. “But that doesn’t mean any of them would be good fathers.

And…I don’t know. I’m afraid of their reactions being bad.

” Or too good. “As it stands, they think they’re just here for an annulment.

They don’t even know I’m a mom, much less that one of them is a dad. ”

“I get it,” Kara nodded sagely. “You’ve done everything on your own for our girl, and it’s terrifying to think about letting someone else in. But…what if one of them actually wants to be there for her?”

“Daphne is mine,” I said immediately, a little coarser than I intended. Kara squeezed my hand.

“She is, hon. That’s always going to be true.

But other people can love her too. Like…

maybe her father.” She took a second to think it over, then her face lit with mischief.

“Hey, maybe all three of them will want to step up, genes or not. If you get to hook up with all three of them again, you’ll be doubly my hero. ”

I bit my lip, the half-joking suggestion unraveling something inside me.

For a moment, I let my mind wander to a ridiculous, impossible fantasy.

Me, Daphne, and the three men who had unknowingly altered the course of my life, all together in a big, chaotic, unconventional family.

Daphne with three doting fathers who adored her.

And in this fantasy, all three of them loved me too—enough to give me repeats of the hottest night of my life again and again. It was absurd. It was perfect.

And it would never happen.

I forced the thought away. “I’ll get a paternity test,” I said finally. “But no matter what, Daphne is mine.”

Kara gave me a sad smile, another squeeze on my hand. “I know. And the bright side? I bet you’ll have amazing drama to share at our next girls’ night plus Brandon.”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I squeezed her hand in return, then the two of us headed back to the living room, where Daphne was still destroying everyone at Candy Land.

And as I watched her giggle in victory, I found myself searching for traces of Luca, Cade, or Gavin in her face, trying to see who she might belong to besides me.