DADDY ISSUES: A SINGLE DAD ROMANCE

by Morris, Liv

  “Lucas,” I interjected. “That sum is pure insanity. Nannies don’t make that kind of money in New York City.”

  “You dropped everything in your life to help me out in an emergency. Plus, you showed me how to open my heart to my child. I probably owe you way more than what I’m paying. Consider it a bargain.”

  Lucas and I resided in two different universes. Ten thousand dollars to me was like ten dollars to him.

  “That kind of money will last me a long time, but not forever. And who will take care of Esmé at night?” My stomach rolled as different scenarios spun in my head, all of them taking me farther away from saying yes and being with Lucas.

  “I have something top secret to tell you.” Lucas leaned forward in his chair, his voice lowering as he spoke. “Using the information is considered insider trading.”

  “I’m a vault.” I crossed my heart and pretended to zip my lips.

  Lucas laughed at my gestures. “I guess you’re worth the gamble. After Friday, I’ll no longer be working at Iron Gate.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “My father wants to sell the company, but I’ve blocked him. I’m making a deal with him so we both get what we want.”

  I wondered what Lucas got in the bargain with his father. He didn’t expand on it either.

  “So I’ll be able to take care of my daughter when you’re not there. Together, we can even find someone to help out on the weekends. We can reevaluate everything in two weeks. Call it a trial situation.”

  He waited for my response as I mulled over my options, which in the end were only two: walk out the door, parting ways with Lucas and Esmé, or stay with him and follow my heart.

  “Of course, Peaches will help you, because Maggie just quit.” Lucas exhaled deeply, shoulders relaxing, lips curving upward.

  “You had me worried.” Lucas stood up from his chair, rounding the table, and held out his hand. “Dance with me.” His blue eyes turned the color of midnight.

  I took his hand, and in an instant, he pulled me toward him, wrapping me tightly in his arms. I laid my ear on his chest, hearing the comforting sounds of his steady heartbeat. For the first time in New York City, I found a place where I belonged.

  33

  Lucas

  I’d fantasized about holding Maggie for weeks, craving the feel of wrapping my arms around her, but what I imagined didn’t come close to the reality. She was warm and soft, her petite form molding perfectly to mine. Her cheek rested against my heart, and for the first time, I wanted to share it with a woman—not any woman, but this woman. Something I’d never felt in my life. I wanted to give her anything she desired, but most of all, I wanted to make her mine.

  The bass vibrated through the air. We swayed to the rhythm until she glanced up at me with dreamy eyes.

  “Oh, Maggie,” I moaned.

  She tipped her head back, licking her lips in an invitation, one I couldn’t deny. I grabbed her hair in my fist, pulling it gently, descending toward her to take what was mine.

  When our lips met, our kiss didn’t build into something passionate. Instead, we burst at the first touch, lips pressing, teeth nipping, tongues talking in their own language, asking for more. I drew her tighter into me, wildly clinging to her. I was practically wearing her as my skin.

  “Lucas, I want you now.”

  Maggie pressed her stomach against my erection, making me hiss at the pressure. Her body, her smell, and tiny moans were driving me mad. I itched to touch every hidden part of her, lose myself inside her, but a quick fuck in a VIP room wasn’t going to work. Once I started, I wouldn’t be finished for hours.

  “I booked a room for the night.” She pulled back and squinted at me, a mischievous grin on her face.

  “When did you have time for that?” she asked.

  “I called on the drive over. The manager was waiting in the lobby with the keycard.”

  “What if I didn’t come up here? Or I had left…well, with my date?”

  “There was no escaping me tonight. I was the hunter. You were my prey.” I growled like a crazed man, trailing kisses from her lips to the soft place behind her ear. She melted against me with a throaty sigh. I’d found her first erogenous zone, with many more to hopefully follow.

  “Well, you caught me. Now, take me to bed. You did mention ruining me,” she singsonged, teasing me to make a move.

  I wanted to throw her over my shoulder. At my height, I could hardly get through the door as it was, so I dragged her out of the club by the hand. She ran to keep up with me until we reached the VIP elevator.

  I hit the down button and brought Maggie to me, my hands slipping under her dress, grabbing ahold of her ass. Squeezing her firm, round cheeks, I lifted her up as she wrapped her legs around my hips. Her softness perfectly fit my hardness, just like I knew it would.

  “God, how long does it take for the elevator to get here?” She peppered kisses over my jawline, licking the scruff and sucking down my neck.

  Thankfully, the doors opened before I could answer. I carried her inside the elevator, pressing the button with PH stamped on it.

  “Just two floors.” I eased my fingers under the lace of her panties, making contact with her slick flesh. “You’re so fucking wet.”

  “Touch me, Lucas. Please. I need you.”

  Holding her body against the elevator’s wall, I was able to move my hand between us. Maggie dropped her head on my shoulder as my fingertip circled her swollen clit. I licked and sucked the sweet spot behind her ear until her legs began to tremble.

  Fuck, if she wasn’t falling apart in my arms even before we traveled two floors down. I held her tight, continuing my movements, until her body collapsed lifeless against me.

  “One down, so many more planned,” I whispered into her ear as I exited the elevator, turning toward the penthouse suite with her still in my arms.

  “I’ll never survive,” she bemoaned, but I felt her smile against my neck.

  I tightened my hold on her boneless body. “I love how responsive you are to me.”

  “I want more, Lucas. You. Me. Together. Please give me more.”

  “Once we’re inside, I’m going to give you everything, Peaches.”

  We reached our room, and I slowly released Maggie to her feet. She leaned against me for support. She had to feel how much I wanted her.

  “I’ve dreamed of being with you since I fell into your arms.” She gazed up at me with a lazy smile.

  She was too relaxed, almost lifeless. I needed to prepare her for what was about to happen behind the doors. She had no idea what I had planned. It sure the hell wasn’t a good night’s rest.

  “Get ready. Once I carry you inside this room, you’re mine.”

  Adrenaline rushed through my veins, making my hands shake as I pulled the keycard from my back pocket. Holding it over the sensor, I heard the lock release and turned the handle.

  “We’re in.” Scooping Maggie up in my arms, I crossed into the suite, scanning the dimly lit living room for the nearest flat surface. My body raged, desperate to mark Maggie as mine. Waiting wasn’t an option.

  A long dining room table sat a few feet away. The kind used for formal dinners. I strode to it and kicked the end chair aside, making it fall over.

  I placed Maggie down on the table, a low growl rumbling in my throat. I wanted to tear her dress into shreds and devour every inch of her.

  “Remove your dress for me. Now.” I held my hands firm at my side, not trusting myself. My heart raced. My breaths were uneven and shallow.

  Painfully slow, she untied the straps at her neck, then released them from her fingers. They fell to her lap, exposing her perfect breasts. Round and firm. Pink nipples pebbled. I needed to touch and taste them.

  Unwilling to wait a second longer, I eased her backward onto the table, my mouth closing around a nipple, causing her back to arch. Each of my hands cupped a breast. I switched from sucking one peak to twisting the other. Maggie cried out, writhing u
nder me.

  “I’m just getting started,” I whispered as my lips trailed upward to her throat, my fingers still pulling at her nipples. I nipped the soft spot behind her ear, making her hips press forward, demanding more.

  “Please, Lucas. I need you now.”

  It took everything I had to rise up from the table and not bury myself deep inside her, but I was greeted with a sight I’d never forget.

  My green-eyed goddess bare from the waist up, black hair splayed over the blond wood of the table. Her pale skin flushed with desire. A wanton look of hunger burning from within her.

  Wanting to see all of her, I slipped her dress over her hips, hooking my fingers into her panties, easing them down her legs, and letting them fall into a pool at my feet.

  Jesus. I ran greedy hands up her thighs, cupping them under her ass. I pulled her body forward and fell on my knees, spreading her wide. My mouth aligned perfectly with her hot sex. Kissing the tender skin of her thighs, I worked my way up.

  “Lucas,” she moaned in panted breaths, then tried to reach down for me. “Don’t stop. Please.”

  Like hell. Our eyes met as I tasted her for the first time. I closed mine as her sweetness touched my tongue. Fucking ambrosia. My lips and tongue learned what she liked—the places almost too sensitive to touch.

  “Please, Lucas. I need you.” Her fingers weaved through my hair, lightly caressing the side of my face. “I want to feel you moving inside me.”

  Rising off the floor, not bothering to fully undress, I unzipped my pants, and let them hang at my hips. I drew my aching erection out of my pants, running it up through her wetness and back down again.

  “Is this what you need, Maggie?”

  “God yes. Please.”

  I pulled a foiled packet from my pocket, tore it open with my teeth, then lined myself up at her entrance. One of my hands braced Maggie’s shoulder and the other went under her knee. I brought her leg up higher and thrust forward into her warmth, making her cry out from the invasion.

  “You’re so fucking wet.” I spoke through gritted teeth, dipping my eyes over her body, working toward a punishing rhythm.

  “More,” she cried out, and I was more than happy to comply.

  Unfamiliar sensations flooded through me. They were not the usual carnal feelings, but something deeper. I was making love to her from my soul. My eyes gazed into hers, speaking words I never thought I’d say.

  “Are you close, Peaches?”

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  I wrapped her legs around my hips, freeing a hand so I could touch her—bring her with me over the edge.

  Thrusting harder into her, I worked her swollen clit with my finger, then bent forward, taking a nipple between my teeth, grazing it with the lightest touch.

  Finally, she clenched around me, giving in to the pleasure. I captured her lips, kissing her as we released together. The world stopped around us, nothing existing but this—us.

  Catching my breath, I rose up, resting on my forearms, our faces inches apart. She stretched her hands above her, smiling in complete contentment.

  “Oh my God. I had no idea it could be like that.” She ran her hands through my hair, twisting the strands. “You’ve ruined me.”

  I stared down at her. Face flushed. Lips red and swollen. I never wanted to see anyone but her underneath me. Nothing could compare.

  “Lucas. I’ve never had a man look at me this way.” She glanced away, then back at me again. She read the thoughts in my eyes.

  “I’ve never had sex like this,” I confessed.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked in a scoff.

  “With someone I truly cared about.”

  “You’re scaring me. Making me hope for things way too soon.”

  “These feeling are new for me too. Let’s be scared together.”

  34

  Lucas

  The early morning sun filtered through a crack in the closed curtains. Maggie lay asleep peacefully in my arms, her head resting on my shoulder as our bodies molded together like pieces of a puzzle. I tried not to wake her, barely moving my chest with each breath. I wanted to hold her a little while longer before our day began, protecting the bubble we created in this room last night.

  Daylight shone on a different version of me. I opened my eyes with an overwhelming sense of happiness. Contentment. I never dreamed it would be possible for a man with my past, and all the secrets and lies I shrouded in silence for years.

  I stared at the ceiling, knowing I had to make a choice today. Close my heart and return to my familiar life of meaningless relationships, growing bitter and old all alone. Or unearthing the secret I’d buried and finally tell my sister what really happened. Maggie needed to know the truth too. I could never erase the memories or damage I caused, but I saw no other way to free myself from the weight of my past.

  The thought of actually telling them the truth, seeing their reaction and possible rejection in their eyes, scared the fucking hell out of me. Fear had kept me quiet all these years, but I couldn’t live a life of happiness if I was filled with shame. The darkness would win. It always did.

  For two decades, a continual track of self-hatred looped over in my mind. If people knew what you did to your mother, they’d despise you too.

  Every success I achieved, every dollar I earned, happened because my father hid the truth. He decided it would keep our family’s polished reputation from being tarnished by his careless son. I was ordered to keep my mouth shut and feel lucky he’d covered my ass. All I wanted was his forgiveness, but it never came.

  Maggie stirred alongside me, her lips humming against my skin. I brushed a strand of raven hair from her face, letting my fingers trail down her back. She gazed up at me wearing nothing but a blissful smile, eyes reflecting a hazy high from sleep.

  “Morning.” I dipped down, kissing her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

  “Grateful.” She moved on top of me, chest to chest. Her soft curves flowed over my hard body.

  “Is that right?” I asked, softly touching the exposed sides of her breasts. The skin was as soft as spun silk.

  “Let me show you how much.”

  Maggie’s lips and tongue traced a hot path down my chest. Her fingers encircled me along with her mouth. I closed my eyes, throwing my head back against the pillow. Every cell in my body had come alive in pure fucking ecstasy.

  “Best damn wake-up call ever.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’m an expert at room service. Years of helping my mother at her bed-and-breakfast.” Maggie peered up my body, a vixen’s fire in her eyes.

  * * *

  Maggie and I showered before we left the hotel room wearing the clothes we had on last night. The desk clerk asked if we needed help with our luggage, and Maggie raised her purse to the counter and winked at the guy. The young man’s face resembled a tomato. We walked through the lobby, hand in hand, in a shared walk of shame.

  My driver pulled up to the curb in a black sedan. I helped Maggie into the car.

  “After you,” I said, opening the door for her as she climbed inside. I got a wonderful view of her ass, the extra benefit of being a gentleman.

  “I have my ten o’clock call with Coco—or Erin—this morning.” Maggie squeezed my hand, moving closer to me on the back seat. She didn’t seem jealous of Erin or my past with her. She just embraced Esmé as if she were her own.

  “What are you going to say to her?” Good question.

  “I don’t have a clue. I’ve imagined confronting Erin a few hundred times over the last few days. Most of my words started with the letter F. But now, faced with actually speaking with her about our daughter, I feel like I need to behave like an adult. What do you think?”

  “My college advisor had a poster in his office. He said the world would be a better place if people practiced the words on it. It said, ‘Talk little. Listen much.’”

  “How did you get so smart?”

  “I listen with my ears and my heart. So
far, I can’t complain.” Me either. I pulled her into my lap, kissing her wise lips. Running my hands through her silken hair, wondering how a jerk like me could be so lucky to have her.

  When we arrived back at my apartment, Esmé caught sight of Maggie and started flailing her little arms. “Looks like someone missed me as much as I missed her.”

  “From the looks on both your faces, I assume you worked out your differences,” Chloe said with a quick lift of her brows.

  “We did. Want to hear the details?”

  “No?” She plugged her fingers in her ears and hummed.

  I pulled her hands away from her face. “I never kiss and tell, but I would like you to stay for a while.” She tilted her head. “I want to talk to you after my call with Esmé’s mother.”

  “Okay. Those details I want to hear.”

  I cringed thinking about the secret I was going to share with her. It would be the last thing she’d expect to come out of my mouth, but the time had come for her to know the truth.

  I walked into my office and shut the door, locking it behind me. My stomach was one big knot as I paced the floor, hands sweating and heart racing. I didn’t know how to handle this conversation with Erin. I mean, who abandons their own baby? But like it or not, Esmé connected Erin and me together in this life, and I knew firsthand how strife and division could destroy a child’s sense of belonging and love.

  Esmé deserved a life of happiness and it couldn’t happen unless I tried to work things out with Erin. Starting now, before she even called. I would do it for the sake of my innocent child.

  I sat at my desk and took a couple deep breaths when a thought came to mind. I had to forgive Erin too. How could I ask for forgiveness from my sister for what I did, if I couldn’t give it to others? With my elbows resting on the desk, I buried my head in my hands.

  When my phone buzzed, I sat up straight and cleared my voice before hitting the screen to receive Erin’s call.