“Why can’t you work later? I’m bored.”
He tapped his fingers on the desk. Another warning sign she should heed. But Eden wasn’t known to step back from a challenge.
“You have your dolls to play with.”
“They’re boring too.” She crossed her arms over her chest, fully prepared to sulk. She even flung Betty down on the floor.
Oh. Oops. She regretted that as soon as she did it. She regretted it even more as Zeke slowly stood, a thunderous look on his face.
“Little girl, throwing a tantrum when you don’t get your way is very naughty behavior.” He walked over and picked up her doll. “Poor Betty, what if you hurt her?”
Immediately her lip wobbled and she reached for her favorite doll. “Give her to me.”
“Excuse me?” his voice deepened. Uh-oh.
“Please?”
“I don’t think you deserve to have Betty right now. She’s going to sit up on the mantel until your behavior is more acceptable.”
“That’s not fair!” That lip continued to tremble.
“What’s not fair is Daddy having to interrupt his work to deal with a naughty little girl having a tantrum.”
Guilt flooded her. He was right. What had she been thinking? After everything he’d done for her this is how she paid him back? What a bitch.
Silent tears ran down her face. “Hey, little one. Hey.” Concern filled Zeke’s face. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t deserve him.
“I-I’m sorry. D-do you w-want to l-leave me now?”
His eyes widened. “What the hell? Of course not.”
“I always make a-a mess of e-everything.”
“You do not make a mess of everything. Baby, you threw a little tantrum. It’s nothing that’s not expected. You’re cooped up inside, dealing with a lot of stuff. I’m not truly angry at you.”
Fuck. Idiot. You’re overreacting. Get yourself together, Eden.
Right. Right. She was probably scaring the shit out of him.
“Eden? What’s going on?”
This time when he reached for her, she let him pick her up. He stood and turned, sitting in her seat with her on his lap. He rubbed her back soothingly.
“Sorry, Daddy,” she told him quietly.
“I don’t want to spend time working when I could be doing things with you, princess. But there’s things I have to get done that can’t wait.”
“I know. I understand.” Logically, she did. Emotionally, it was a different story.
“Just because you misbehave, doesn’t mean I will reject you. Is that what you thought? That I would leave you because you had a little tantrum? That’s so silly. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of tantrums in the future, but I won’t ever turn away from you.”
“I know.” And she did. That wasn’t the type of guy Zeke was. Loyalty was something he lived and breathed. It would be up to her to cut things off.
And fuck, that was going to hurt.
He wiped her tears from her cheeks. “Okay, I’m going to go do some more work. You can sit in the chair across from me and write a hundred times, I will not throw a tantrum when I don’t get my way.”
She groaned. “Do I gotta, Daddy?”
“Well, I was going to give you a spanking and put you in time out. But I don’t think that you need time to think right now. When you think is when things go wrong.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
Zeke had to fight against laughing as they stepped out of the punishment room. He’d known that one would shock her. They’d already visited the pet room, which had made her eyes bug out as she took in the room that was set up for a kitten, puppy, or even a pony. Complete with toys, outfits, feeding bowls, and soft baskets large enough to hold a sleepy kitty.
The next room had made her blush. The harem room with its enormous round bed, mirrors on the ceiling and large, plump floor cushions was just made for orgies and voyeurism.
But it was the punishment room that he could tell truly had her speechless.
“So, when someone is locked in the stocks, that contraption with the ahh, dildo, it goes in. . .”
“Their ass, yes. Or pussy,” he told her.
“Wow. That makes what we did seem really tame.”
He pushed her chair up to the next door. He wasn’t certain she’d like this one all that much. But then again, they were just looking.
“This one is the medical room. Do you want to see inside?”
“Really? It’s a room where you pretend to visit the doctor?”
He came around to crouch in front of her. “Yep. Think about it. You could be an adult, called to the doctor’s for a full examination. He orders you to strip down. Then he starts examining every inch of your body. He commands you to put your feet in the stirrups. He plays with different areas of your body to see what reaction your pussy has. He might even give you an enema—”
“Whoa, an enema, really?”
“Really. It cleans you out nicely so he can examine your bottom very thoroughly.”
“Ohh.” She was bright red by now. “Got to say, I’m glad Doc’s never done that.”
“What about if I was playing doctor and you were the patient?”
She chewed her lip. “Well, the orgasm thing sounds fun, but no way am I letting you give me an enema.”
He winked at her. “We’ll see. Want to go in?”
“All right.”
Zeke moved behind her, and wheeled her into the room. In the middle sat a table that looked very much like what you might see in a doctor’s office. At one end of the table were some normal looking monitors for heart rate and blood pressure. As she got closer, she noticed some differences, though. Doc’s table, for instance, didn’t have cuffs or straps that were obviously used to hold naughty patients down.
There was a wooden table against one wall and a doctor’s lab coat was laid over the back of the leather chair.
“Would you like to play, baby girl?” Zeke leaned over to whisper in her ear.
She wasn’t sure. Both trepidation and excitement filled her. “Yes.”
Okay, she was kind of surprised that she so quickly agreed.
“All right, while we’re in here, you will address me as Doctor. Understand? And as usual, you are to use your safeword if you need it.”
“Yes, Doctor,” she replied quietly.
“Very well. Hello, Miss Eden, how are you feeling today?” As Zeke spoke, he put the doctor’s coat on. She might have felt a little silly if he hadn’t so easily slipped into his role.
“Fine, Doctor.”
He frowned. “Fine? That’s not what I’ve heard. Your daddy said you haven’t been eating your vegetables.”
She chewed at her lip. “They’re yucky.”
“Well, they are healthy for you. If you don’t eat your veggies then you get sick and you end up in here, visiting me.”
“Yes, Doctor. I’m sure if Daddy gave me ice cream when I ate my veggies, I’d eat more.”
“Tut-tut, young lady. You do not get to decide when you have ice cream. It’s a treat, not to be given out every time you eat your vegetables, which you should do anyway. Right, I can see we are going to have to give you a full examination to make sure your lack of proper nutrition isn’t affecting your health.”
He strode over and picked her up, carrying her to the exam table. He sat her down and stripped off her dress. She wasn’t wearing any underwear, so she was soon naked, her butt sitting on the cold table. Despite the fact that Zeke had seen everything, she felt the urge to cover herself.
“Little girls don’t have any reason to hide themselves. From their daddies or their doctors,” he told her as he gently moved her arm away from her breasts. “Let’s lay you down and make sure you’re secure. I don’t want you wiggling around and falling off.” He pulled her hands up above her head and placed them in the cuffs at the top of the table. A strap was set around her waist then her legs were moved apart.
“I’ve put your feet in the stirr
ups to support them,” he told her. “You can look in the mirror to see what I’m doing.”
Sure enough, there was a mirror on the ceiling above her. Holy crap.
“Now, let’s listen to your heartbeat first.” He grabbed a stethoscope from the shelves by the exam table. Then he placed it on her chest. She gasped at the cold feel. Her nipples grew hard.
“These are very hard, aren’t they?” he said, toying with one nipple as he moved the stethoscope around. “Tell me, does nipple play turn you on, young lady? Does it make your clit throb? Does your pussy grow wet when I do this?”
Shit. He didn’t really expect her to answer, did he?
“Young lady, when I ask you a question, I expect an answer. Your daddy told me that you’re a very good girl. But he also said that if you misbehave you will get a very sound spanking when he returns to pick you up.”
Her eyes widened. “Um, yes, Doctor. It turns me on.”
“Yes? What does it do to you?” He replaced the stethoscope on the shelves and then placed a little clip on the end of her forefinger. A familiar beep-beep-beep sound filled the room. For some reason, unease filled her.
But that was silly. It was just her heartbeat.
“It, um, it makes my clit throb and my pussy grows wet.” Her voice went very quiet as she spoke. But she wasn’t sure if it was due to embarrassment or unease. Suddenly, she wondered if this was a stupid idea.
She’d had check-ups with Doc before and never had an issue. Although she did her best to avoid visiting him and she never breathed easy until she left his office.
“Very good. That’s a very normal reaction.” Zeke placed a blood pressure cuff around her upper arm as he spoke. Then it started to inflate as her heart raced.
Zeke frowned and looked at the heart beat monitor.
“Young lady, are you. . .”
“I want to stop,” she blurted out. “Please. Venice.”
His eyes widened. But without a word, he undid her restraints and took off all the monitors. “It’s okay, baby. You’re all right,” he said to her soothingly as he grabbed a soft blanket from the shelves and sitting her up, wrapped it around her.
“C-can we get out of here?”
He picked her up and carried her out, leaving her chair and clothing behind. She shook in his arms, unsure why she’d reacted like she had.
Stupid. Stupid.
He entered the nursery and moved sit on the bed, holding her on his lap.
“Eden, what happened?” he asked worriedly.
She tried to give him a reassuring look. Pretty impossible when she was fracturing inside. What was wrong with her? Why the hell did she just freak out? Zeke was only trying to give her what she wanted and she’d ruined it all.
Beep-beep-beep.
The sound of the heart monitor had freaked her out. But that had never happened before. Why then?
“Eden? Are you all right? What happened in the medical room? Why did you say your safeword? Were you in pain?”
You should lie.
No. No, she’d promised. He never lied to her.
Beep-beep-beep.
It was the first sound she remembered after her accident. The beeping of the heart monitor. The smell of antiseptic. Feeling woozy. Out of it. The sound of her brothers talking to each other. Someone crying.
“Eden? Jesus, baby. Talk to me.”
She stared up at Zeke, saw how blurred he appeared.
“I’m crying.”
“You need to tell me what happened,” he urged.
She licked her dry lips as he wiped away her tears. He pulled her onto his lap, holding her close.
“I don’t know why. . .it just, I’ve been to the doctor since, and the hospital, and that never happened to me before.”
He grew stiff. “What is it? What happened?”
“I was thrown back into the past. Just for a minute,” she whispered. “I don’t know why.”
She killed them. All her fault.
A sob ripped out of her.
“Christ, Eden. I’m so sorry. I should have thought about that being a trigger for you. But if it hasn’t happened to you before. . .maybe it was because you felt vulnerable. You had your shields down.”
She wasn’t protecting herself. She’d worked hard at keeping people away. For their sake more than hers. Lowering her shields had let the memories in.
“It’s my fault my parents died,” she whispered.
“What? No, it’s not. You were a child. They were hit by a drunk driver.”
“My fault. They wanted to leave earlier but I threw a tantrum because I wasn’t ready to leave the city. We were on a shopping trip and I wanted to find the perfect dress for Emily Matthews’ birthday party. If I’d just left when they wanted to then we never would have been hit. They wouldn’t have died.”
Her voice sounded odd. Strangled.
“Baby, baby, no.” He rocked her back and forth. “You were just a child. You didn’t know. No one knew.”
“I killed them. I ruined my brothers’ lives. And mine. I took away our parents. And then Clint was forced to come home to take care of me.”
“Baby, you can’t think he resents you because of that.”
“How can he not?” she wailed. “Who wants to be lumped with a crippled ten-year-old? It wasn’t fair.” She looked up at him. “What if I do that to us? What if I do something to ruin us? What if I make a decision that hurts you? You should stay away from me.”
“That’s not happening, baby girl.”
“You don’t understand. This can’t go on. I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep up my shields around you, you’re sneaking through them. Soon I won’t be able to let go.”
“Good. That will put us on an even par. Because you’re part of me. And I’m not letting you go.”
“No. No. I’ll ruin you.”
“I’m fucking ruined without you. Don’t you get that? You are it for me. I warned you that because of my childhood that I hold onto what belongs to me. You are mine. Try to push me away all you want. I. Am. Going. Nowhere.”
“I don’t want to hurt you too.”
“Eden, you haven’t hurt anyone. It wasn’t your fault. And when things return to normal you can bet we’re sitting down with your brothers so they can tell you the same thing. And if you’re still not getting it, we’ll find someone professional for you to talk to. But through all of that, I’m going to be right by your side.”
She shook her head.
“I am not fucking joking around here, Eden,” he roared.
She blinked at him, shocked. “I’ve found the person who makes me whole, you think I’d fucking let her leave me?”
“You can’t just keep me,” she yelled back, starting to get mad at the obtuse idiot. Didn’t he know she was doing this for him? She was trying to protect him. And the ass wasn’t letting her. It was infuriating.
“I can.” He glared down at her.
“If I want to leave, I will.”
“That’s just it,” he whispered and somehow it was worse than his roar. “You don’t want to. Because I complete you too.”
“That’s just some bullshit from a Hallmark movie,” she told him. “People don’t complete each other.”
“They do when they’re both broken.”
She stared at him. Shook her head. “You’re not broken.”
He barked out a laugh. “Baby, do you think it’s normal behavior to be this damn possessive of someone? To know you absolutely will not let them go no matter what? What I feel for you is not normal. But screw normal. I am broken. I’ve been like that since Elise died.
“I know you have your demons, Eden. They tell you that you’re guilty of something you are not. They tell you that you’re not worthy of being loved. Of being happy. But those voices are liars.”
“Sometimes, it’s like I’m suffocating,” she whispered. “That’s when I have to leave the ranch, get away.”
“You’re running from your demons. I understand that bett
er than most. I joined the SEALs to get away from mine. Instead, I found your brother. And for some fucked up reason, he wanted me to fight for my life. And he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I can help you get out of that place, Eden.”
She licked her lips. “I’m not some jigsaw you can piece back together.”
“Who says I want to do that? Maybe I like you broken.”
She shook her head. “You don’t.” That wasn’t who Zeke was. He was the hero not the villain. He didn’t want her down and beaten. He wanted to make her better.
He did make her better.
“No, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m trying to remake you into what you were. That’s long gone. And I like the Eden that’s here now. I don’t always like what she says and thinks. She has some pretty negative views on herself, she does things that I definitely don’t agree with, especially when they risk her health and safety. But those are things I intend to address.”
She licked her dry lips. Nerves fluttered inside her.
“What if I said I wanted to merge my jagged pieces with yours?” he whispered. “Make two halves into a whole.”
“I’d say you were crazy. I’d say it can’t be done.”
“That a dare, baby?”
“No.” Was it?
“Oh, I think it was. And you know how I like a challenge.”
Oh, fuck.
“Please, Zeke. Please don’t let me hurt you.”
“Only way to hurt me is to try to keep me from you. It’s not going to work, but you can try and that will hurt me.”
It was the last thing she wanted. She rubbed at her chest, it felt like something was weighing her down, stealing her breath.
“What if I let you in and you change your mind? What if you discover I’m too broken? I’m not worth fixing?”
“Damn it, Eden. Stop saying you’re not worth anything. You. Are. Everything. My everything. I spent most of my life with nothing. I thought I was nothing. Now I have a family. I have a woman. I have fucking everything. You think I’m ever going to give all that up? Fuck, no. I’m possessive as hell, Eden. I promise, I will never leave you.”
His face was tormented. She was doing that. Her. She couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t hurt him. She was his. All his. There would never be anyone else for her. Something inside her broke, but in a good way. In a way that let him in completely. That allowed her to realize that no matter what she revealed to him, he would always stand by her.
Daring Daddy (Montana Daddies Book 5) Page 17