by B. B. Hamel
“Declan, you’re fired.”
He frowns a little. “You’re joking, right? The board is voting to fire you, Mason. They wouldn’t sign off on that.”
“They already did.” I pick up a piece of paper from my desk and hand it to Hazel. “Take that over to him, Hazel.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she says with a sly little smile. A thrill runs through me.
Declan looks horrified. “What the fuck?”
Hazel walks over and hands him the paper. He snaps it from her hand and reads it as she returns to her position behind me.
His eyes stare into mine. “This has to be fake.”
“It’s not fake, Declan. You realize that the board was hand-picked by me years ago, right? I chose them for one single trait: undying loyalty to me, no matter what.”
“Why would they lie to me?” he asks softly.
“Because you’re a stupid piece of shit and I told them to.” I grin wickedly. “I wanted this to be a surprise. It’s better this way.”
He stares at me, hands trembling. I can tell he’s trying to make a choice. He knows he’s through, but he can do one more thing. He’s thinking about attacking me, coming at me, trying to kill me.
I welcome it. I really, really do.
Instead, he turns away. “You bastard. You fucking piece of shit.”
“Get out of here, Declan. Consider yourself lucky.”
“Lucky?” He shakes his head. “Fuck you.”
“I’m not pressing charges, but if I hear anything about you ever again, I will. I have plenty of evidence to make sure you rot in prison for a long, long time.”
He glances at me and sighs. “Go to hell, Mason.” Without another word, he leaves my office.
Silence descends on the office. Hazel comes around to the front of my desk and sits down.
“He’s gone,” she says.
I nod. “He’s gone.”
“And now you have full control again.”
“Some people loyal to him may leave, but yes, I have full control again.”
She smiles huge. “I’m so happy for you.”
I take a deep breath and let it out. “There’s one more thing I need to do.” I stand and come around the desk, kneeling down in front of her. I take her hands in mine and look into her eyes. “Five years ago, my pregnant wife died in a plane crash.”
She doesn’t react. That’s public knowledge. I’m sure she did a cursory Google search for me, and found that little tidbit out.
“After she died, I couldn’t face the world,” I say softly. “The truth is, I blamed myself.”
“Why?” she asks. “It was an accident.”
“I was supposed to be on that flight.”
She looks confused. “You were? I mean, I didn’t know that.”
“Nobody does,” I whisper, barely able to choke it out. “We were going to Ibiza for vacation. A last hurrah, I guess, before the baby. But something at work came up, and I told her to get on the plane, don’t wait for me, I’d meet her there the following evening. She said she didn’t feel like flying alone, but I convinced her to go anyway.” My voice is choked in my throat as the words spill out.
“She got on the plane. She never wanted to. She wanted to wait, to be with me, but work was more important to me back then. I pushed her away… to her death. She died, along with the baby she was carrying. After that, I came here, and I haven’t left since.”
Hazel stares at me. I can’t read her expression. I don’t want to read it. I’m a horrible man for what I did to Marla and my baby. I’m a horrible man for what I did to my brother. I’ve broken everything in my life. I’m a cancer, and Hazel should run away.
Instead, she cradles my head and pulls me against her. She hugs me tight. “It wasn’t your fault,” she says softly. “You poor, poor man.”
I hug her, and part of me thinks I should be crying, but I don’t have any more tears for the past. I feel light as she hugs me close and I realize that I’ve been holding on to that story for a long time now.
It’s been keeping me down, locked in this place. It’s the reason I can’t see the world beyond my own desk, my own bed. I can’t see the world past my own nose, because I’m too afraid I’ll kill someone else.
“It’s not your fault, Daddy,” she whispers. “I promise, it’s not your fault.”
I take a deep breath. I pull back and kiss her.
She kisses me back. It’s a sweet moment, nearly a perfect one. I feel all of my energy, my dismay, my horror, my fear, all of it evaporate into the air. It floats away, leaving me lighter, leaving me free.
Marla is gone. Her ghost is gone. I finally feel free.
I kiss Hazel one more time. “I love you,” I whisper to her. “I won’t ever leave you.”
“I love you too,” she whispers back.
My heart leaps in my chest. Joy slowly floods back into me.
I haven’t heard those words in a long time. I haven’t said those words, either. But now, it’s right.
I never felt like this with Marla. I never felt like this in my entire life.
Hazel is bringing me back from the edge, back from the dead.
“I love you,” I whisper again, kissing her. She laughs and kisses me back, and now the moment is complete.
Now, the moment is perfect.
21
Hazel
One Year Later
I walk into my bedroom and it takes my breath away.
It always does. I walk slowly around the perimeter, staring at the priceless paintings hanging all over the place. I’ve added a few over the last year, with Mason’s approval of course, but he’s been giving me more leeway.
Apparently, he trusts my taste.
I smile to myself and run my fingers down the front of a Jackson Pollock. I love touching a priceless piece of art like this, even though I know it’s damaging the work ever so slightly.
There’s something beautiful about that. Ruining it because you love it so much.
I adjust my dress and turn as the door opens. “Knew I’d find you here,” he grunts as he steps into the room.
Mason looks handsome in his tuxedo, perfectly tailored and fitted to his muscular, tall frame. I walk over to him and he kisses me with a little smile.
“You look good,” I say.
“You look better.”
“I know that.”
He smirks as I step away from him. “Are you ready for tonight?”
“Of course. Are you?”
“Always.” He stretches and flops down on the bed. “Although I’d rather stay here.”
“Oh, yeah?” I sidle up next to him and kiss his neck. “Why’s that?”
“You know why,” he says, and grabs me, pulling me on top of him.
I laugh as he kisses me and rolls over, pinning me to the bed.
“I’d rather stay here and fuck you in every way imaginable,” he says.
“Sounds very degrading.”
“It will be.”
“Promise?”
“Of course.” He smirks and kisses me before letting me go. He sighs and walks over to the mirror as I sit up and get to my feet. I adjust myself and make sure he didn’t ruin my hair.
“We might as well get going,” I say. “No use sitting around in here.”
“I know.”
“But you’d rather stay around here, brooding all night long?”
He glares at me, but smiles. “You know I don’t do that anymore. Haven’t for a while.”
“I know that. You just want to keep me all for yourself. Not that I blame you.”
He grins bigger and turns to come after me. I scamper away from him as he grabs for my hips and I hurry into the other room with him right behind me, laughing as I run. We tumble into his office together, well, our office now.
His desk is in the same spot, but there’s a second desk up toward the front where I do most of my work. I’m still his assistant technically, although I have more duties than just fetching him coffee.
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Mainly though, I’m tasked with keeping my Daddy happy, and I’m happy to report that I’m very good at my job.
He catches me and drags me over to the little couch, pushing me down onto it. “Mason!” I say as he kisses me. I groan into his touch and wish we really didn’t have to leave at all.
Finally, though, he pulls away. “You know, I like to hear my real name on your lips sometimes.”
“Not as much as you like it when I call you Daddy.”
“Not nearly as much.” He grins and pulls me up to my feet, his arm around my waist. “Come on, little Hazel.”
“Yes, Daddy,” I whisper, kissing his neck.
We walk out of the office together and take the elevator downstairs. Rogers is waiting in the car for us, smiling as we climb into the back.
“Ready, you two?” he asks.
“Take us away, Rogers,” Mason says.
We ride together and I put my head on his shoulder as we glide through the city. Mason stares out the window, and I bet it’s still a little hard for him.
Ever since we made this official between us, he’s been getting out more and more. It was little stuff at first, just around the office, attending board meetings, that sort of thing.
Then it was going to meetings outside of the office. Then it was movies, dinner, dancing, all that stuff, until here we are. One year later, going to some big, fancy charity thing together.
I never pictured this in a million years. I intertwine my fingers with his, holding his hand tightly in mine. He smiles at me, kisses my lips gently.
We don’t have to talk. Sometimes, we spend all day without saying a word, although we rarely go more than an hour without touching. It’s little touches, a hand on a shoulder, lips brushing a neck. They say more than anything else.
It reminds me that he loves me and I love him.
We pull up out front of the hotel where the event is being held. Rogers nods as we leave, joining the throngs of well-dressed people.
Several men greet Mason as he moves through the crowd. It’s almost like he didn’t disappear from society for five years, although of course nobody can ignore that. There are whispers, comments, rumors, that sort of thing.
None of it matters. He’s my Daddy and we love each other. That’s all I need.
He squeezes my hand and smiles. We find a little corner of the room and he sips some champagne. I decline a glass, which makes him raise an eyebrow.
“I want to tell you something,” I say.
“What’s wrong?”
I glare. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s a good thing.”
“Is that why you dragged me out tonight?”
“Maybe. I wanted an excuse to get dressed up.”
“You wanted an excuse to see me in a tux.”
“That too.”
He laughs. “Okay, what do you want to tell me?”
“I’m pregnant.”
He stares at me. For a second, I think he’s going to be upset. I know he lost a baby when his first wife died, when she was pregnant.
I know that still haunts him sometimes, but less every day.
But his face breaks out into a huge smile. “You’re joking.”
“No, I found out this morning.”
“You’re pregnant!”
He scoops me up in his arms and hugs me tight. He doesn’t seem to care that everyone’s staring at us.
I don’t care, either.
Let them stare. I couldn’t be happier than I am in this moment.
I’m pregnant with his baby. We’re going to be together, raising a child together. This is more than I ever dreamed of.
“I guess we’ll have to get married now,” he says, grinning huge.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Seriously,” he says, kissing me softly, holding me close. “We’re getting married.”
“Okay,” I say, giggling like an idiot.
“You’ll be my wife, and I’ll be your Daddy,” he whispers in my ear. “Can you do that, forever?”
“Yes, Daddy,” I whisper back, and kiss him slowly and deep.
My Daddy, my husband. Father of my child. This is what I’ve always wanted from my life, what I didn’t even know I could have.
It’s perfection. I have no other way of putting it. Sheer, absolute perfection.
I stay in his arms as he holds me close and I don’t want to go anywhere ever again. I can be a recluse in his arms for the rest of my life and always be happy.
THE END
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Doctor Daddy
1
Ruby
I take one last quick look back at my grandmother lying in her hospital bed, give her a quick smile, and hurry from her room.
I’m late for work. I knew stopping in to visit her early in the morning was a bad idea, but I also knew nobody else would. My mom, her middle child, died ten years ago in a car accident. Her oldest son lives out in California, and her youngest son never bothers to come around.
As far as I know, I’m her only family in the area. I feel a little responsible for her, especially these last few years as her health has slowly declined.
My mind’s full of worry as I rush into a stairwell and start down. I keep my eyes on the steps, not paying attention to where I’m going, too preoccupied with my worries to notice anything going on around me.
That’s when I run into him.
I come around a corner, moving way too fast, and smash right into a big, broad chest. I stumble back and trip over the stair, turning my ankle in the process.
“Oh, shit,” I gasp, stumbling down onto my butt. “Ow, oh, shit.”
“Oh, damn it,” the guy grunts. “You need to be more careful.”
I glare up at him, ready to tell the guy to fuck off. I’m not in the mood to take shit from someone right now, even if he is totally right.
But instead, my words die in my throat. Staring down at me is the handsomest doctor I’ve ever seen in my life.
He’s older, hair starting to gray slightly, but still thick and full on top. His eyes are piercingly blue, and there’s a well-groomed and trimmed beard on his handsome, square jaw.
His body is muscular and the way his shirt fits against him only accentuates his build. The lab coat, clipboard, and stethoscope all tell me exactly what this guy is.
He’s freaking Doctor Sexy.
“Uh, I’m sorry,” I manage to say after staring at him for an awkward amount of time.
He sighs. “Are you all right?”
“I think so.”
He reaches out and helps me up. His grip is firm but his hands are rough, like he’s used to touching things.
I get to my feet but as soon as I put weight on my ankle, I wince in pain.
He frowns at me. “That hurts?” he asks.
I nod. “It’s nothing. Just twisted.”
“Come on. We’d better look at it.”
I’m trying to object, but he’s already tugging me in through the door onto the second floor. His hand is firm on my arm, supporting my weight as he half drags, half leads me down the hall.
“Really, this isn’t necessary,” I say finally, finding my voice. “I’m totally fine.”
He grunts in response. Finally, he finds an empty room, throws the door open, and steers me inside.
“Sit,” he says.
I frown at the bed. “I don’t think so. I really need to go, I’m late for work.”
He glares at me. “Sit.”
I hesitate. Dr. Sexy’s eyes stare into mine and I feel a chill run down my spine.
“Your bedside manner sucks,” I say as I climb up onto the bed.
“I know.” He kneels down in front of me and gingerly slides my shoe off. I wince a little as his fingers probe my ankle. “How bad?” he asks.
“I don’t know. Four, maybe.”
He nods and stands. “Get undressed.”
I blink, surprised. I watch him for a second, heart hammering. “Uh, undress?”
“Take off your clothes,” he says, as if his phrasing is the issue.
I don’t know what he’s getting at. I mean, clearly he wants me to get naked, and I’m really tempted. Calling him Dr. Sexy is probably an understatement. He’s the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in my life, and I think I’d be willing to undress for him anytime, anywhere.
But I really am late for work, and this guy’s a total stranger.
“I need to X-ray your ankle,” he says finally, realizing that I’m not moving.
Understanding floods me, understanding and a little disappointment.
“Right, of course. Okay. But seriously, I have to get to work.”
He grunts again. “We’ll skip the line. Just strip.” He walks over to a little cabinet and pulls out a hospital gown, tossing it over to me. “Put this on. I’ll be back in a minute.” He leaves the room without another word, shutting the door behind him.
I get up and hobble over to the curtain, pulling it around the bed before taking off my clothes. Dr. Sexy may be gorgeous, but he’s definitely an asshole.
As I pull on the gown, I wonder how the hell I ended up like this. I mean, I know I was barreling down those stairs way too fast and not paying any attention at all, but I don’t know how I let this doctor pull me into this room. And now he’s getting me naked, or at least mostly naked. I leave my underwear on as I close and tie the gown shut.