Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance)

by Caitlin Daire

  I headed out to Bobeche Bar and Bistro with Greg, who let out a low whistle when we stepped inside.

  “Check out the talent tonight,” he said, nodding toward a group of women. They were all dressed to the nines in tight dresses with Chanel purses and Louboutin shoes, and while I had to admit they looked enticing, I longed to see Vanessa instead, with her faded old pink or purple t-shirts, jeans and white sneakers. She was supposed to dress casually for her job—running around after kids wasn’t exactly conducive to five inch Louboutins—but I had a feeling she was just as sweet and casual in her usual life, too. She didn’t strike me as the kind of girl who cared for designer threads and two thousand dollar shoes, although I would’ve loved to spoil her with some, just to give her a taste of the life she could have with a man who wanted nothing more than to take care of her.

  Fuck. Why couldn’t I stop?

  Greg and I whiled the night away over martinis with conversation about old times, and before I knew it, it was ten o’clock. Not that late, but late enough that Vanessa was probably starting to wonder if I’d ever come home.

  I said goodnight to Greg and headed home, and when I arrived, I padded softly upstairs to give Tommy a goodnight kiss and check up on him. He was snoring peacefully in his bed, and my throat tightened as I saw Vanessa in the big armchair next to the bed. She had a storybook open on her lap, so she must’ve fallen asleep reading to him a couple of hours ago.

  She was dressed in a floral sundress with a simple white cardigan over the top, and my cock stiffened as my eyes roamed over her lithe body. The dress was nipped in at her tiny waist, giving her body a lovely hourglass shape. So fucking beautiful.

  I managed to hold back my urges to reach out and stroke her soft skin, and I gently shook her awake instead.

  “Vanessa,” I whispered. “It’s time to go.”

  She moaned, but aside from that she didn’t stir, so I sighed and picked her up in my arms. She was so light; hardly weighed more than a feather, although I suppose that made sense considering she was barely above five foot two and probably only weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet.

  I carried her down the hall, trying to decide which one of my many spare rooms to put her in for the night. I settled on one I’d had decorated for a young girl a few years ago when my brother was still alive. He and his wife had been trying for another baby when Tommy was about four, and they were hoping it would be a girl.

  The room had never been used, for obvious reasons.

  Even though it had been designed for a much younger girl, I thought Vanessa would appreciate the soft white faux-mink throw rug that lay over the sheets and the muted pastel pinks that covered the walls. I knew she loved the color pink, judging by some of the things she wore to work, and she deserved to have pretty things surrounding her.

  So she wouldn’t be confused when she woke up, I wrote her a little note explaining how she’d fallen asleep, and then I went and hunted down her purse so she could have it next to her along with her phone. I located her things in the home office, where she’d obviously been doing some college assignments earlier while keeping an eye on Tommy, judging by the stray toy dinosaur on the floor. I smiled and picked up her purse and phone.

  As I made my way back up the stairs, the phone began to vibrate in my hand. I looked at the screen out of sheer instinct, and I saw that it was a private number. In fact, now that the screen was lit up, I could see a notification in the top left hand corner of the screen, alerting Vanessa to six missed calls.

  I wondered who would be calling her this late at night, and from a blocked number, too. Had she given out her number to some musclebound college meat-head? She didn’t strike me as the type of girl who would be easy to pursue, judging by how pretty she was, but that didn’t mean guys weren’t after her. Of course they were. She probably made every guy on her campus drool as she walked around.

  The phone stopped ringing, but then it immediately started up again ten seconds later. I decided to answer. Either it was some sort of emergency, or it really was some uncouth prick trying to get a late night booty call. Vanessa wasn’t that sort of girl; I’d already figured that out from our interactions in the past, and I’d be damned if I let some guy try to treat her like a piece of fresh meat.

  “Hello?” I said stiffly.

  There was no answer, just heavy breathing.

  “Hello?” I repeated.

  More heavy breathing, and still no words.

  “Look, you little bastard,” I said. “I don’t know who raised you and led you to believe you can just disrespect girls like this, but she’s not going to answer her phone at this time of night and cater to your whims. Lose Vanessa’s number.”

  “So this is Vanessa’s number?” a male voice on the other end of the line finally said.

  My heart sank. I’d fucked up. Obviously Vanessa hadn’t intended for this little prick to have her number, whoever he was, but he’d gone ahead and found it somehow anyway.

  “Who is this?” I asked.

  “An interested party.”

  “Like I said, lose her number, frat boy,” I said. “She can do better.”

  Then I hung up. Fucking college kids. Vanessa really could do better.

  Like me, a small voice in the back of my head told me.

  Chapter Six

  Vanessa

  “Did you finish the assignment for our educational linguistics class yet?” I asked Emma as we sat down with some cocktails.

  It was a Saturday evening, and we’d headed out with a few of our other friends for some sneaky drinks. We were all underage, but Emma knew of a bar that didn’t card, and after the last few weeks of constant work and study, I thought I deserved to blow off a bit of steam.

  Emma rolled her eyes. “Please don’t ask,” she said. “I am sooo sick of college already.”

  “Really? I love it,” I said.

  “Of course you do,” she said with a grin. “You’re such a little goody-two-shoes. Always study hard and get good grades.”

  I smiled. “Meanwhile back in school you always sat in the back and threw balls of paper at the teachers.”

  Emma and I were very different, but we’d always gotten along well. Opposites attract, I suppose. We liked to tease each other in a good-natured way, and neither of us were ever offended by it. We always knew it was all in good fun.

  Her grin grew wider. “Oh, I graduated from paper balls a while ago.”

  I giggled. “Emma!”

  She stuck her tongue out. “You’re such a priss.”

  “I’m not!”

  “Oh yeah? So you’ve sucked on a guy’s…”

  I clamped my hand over her mouth, and she giggled under it until I let her go.

  “Don’t worry, no one will hear us,” she said. “This place is loud as hell.”

  At that moment, our other friends joined us with the drinks they’d been up at the bar waiting for, and one of them turned to me; a petite brunette named Leah.

  “I heard you’ve been working on the college gossip column,” she said. “I’m thinking of signing up. Is it easy?”

  I nodded. “It’s okay. You just have to write one piece a week. None of mine have been published yet, though. Jaina says they aren’t ‘spicy’ enough.”

  “Jaina?”

  I sighed. “She’s the deputy editor. She thinks she owns the place and can just tell us what to do all the damn time. And if the editor-in-chief wasn’t around, she would.”

  Leah snorted. “It’s just a little college paper thing. It’s amazing how such a small amount of power can go to someone’s head. Anyway, how’s work?”

  I smiled at the thought of my nanny job. “It’s great. I can fit my schedule around it pretty easily, because all my lectures are at eleven. I have to skip the Monday and Tuesday ones, though, for Boci, but they’re available online.”

  “You should totally just quit Boci and only do the nanny job. Maybe ask for more hours so you can be there more often. I hear your boss is quite the h
ottie.”

  She raised her eyebrows at me, a mischievous gleam in her eyes, and I turned to Emma again. “Hey!” I said in a scandalized tone.

  She laughed and held up her hands, palms facing me in surrender. “Sorry!” she replied. “But you did say that. Don’t worry, though, I didn’t tell them who it was.”

  It wasn’t illegal for me to disclose who I worked for—the NDA I’d signed simply prohibited me from talking about Jacob’s life and home—but I still felt like I should be discreet, and so Emma was the only person I’d told so far.

  “Who is he?” Leah pressed. The other girls all leaned in as well.

  I shook my head and took a long sip of my creamy cocktail before replying. “I can’t say.”

  “How mysterious,” Leah said. “At least tell us something. Age? Height?”

  A small smile played on my lips. “I’ll give you a ballpark, but that’s it. He’s in his thirties, and he’s about six foot three, I’d say.”

  “Hair?”

  “He has hair, yes.”

  Leah pouted. “You know that’s not what I meant. I meant hair color. But hey, a guy that age who still has all his hair….that’s pretty good, right?”

  “It’s not like he’s sixty,” I said. “Thirty-eight isn’t that old!”

  “A-ha! Now we know his exact age,” she said.

  I clamped a hand over my mouth. “Oops.”

  “Thirty-eight is old,” she continued. “Like, my dad is only thirty-seven!”

  “Yeah, but your parents were nineteen when they had you,” Emma interjected.

  Leah shrugged. “I guess so. But I just prefer guys my age.”

  “Same,” chorused the other girls.

  Emma leaned closer to me. “Don’t worry, that just means there’s less competition for you.”

  I frowned. “There’s no competition. I’m not going to try and seduce my boss.”

  “Gotta swipe that V-card somewhere, babe.”

  My cheeks were quickly heating up, and I hurriedly changed the subject before she realized how much I really did want to seduce Jacob. How would I even go about such a thing, though? I didn’t know how to be sexy. I didn’t know how to seduce a guy, let alone an older, experienced guy. I’d never even made it past first base with a guy, if I was being completely honest.

  Maybe Jacob could teach you, a sly voice in my head said. I tried to ignore it.

  “Speaking of older men, that guy’s been staring at you for a while now, Vanessa,” Leah said, peering over my shoulder. “The one at the bar.”

  I turned around. “Which one?”

  “He just walked away. Dammit. He was actually pretty hot for an older guy.”

  My heart skipped a beat. What if Jacob actually felt the same? Maybe he’d somehow followed me here and….wait, how ridiculous. As if that would ever happen.

  “What did he look like?” I asked, still wishfully thinking there was a snowball’s chance in hell that Jacob was here.

  “Blond, I think either blue or green eyes. Couldn’t really tell.”

  My heart sank. Jacob had dark hair. But I already knew it wasn’t him anyway, so why was I disappointed?

  “Emma, how’s Jack going?” Leah asked, leaning in. “I hear you guys are getting pretty serious.”

  Jack was the guy Emma had been dating for a few months now. They’d met at the start of our most recent summer break, and Jack seemed like a sweet guy. He obviously liked Emma a lot, so as long as he treated her with respect, I was super happy for her. She deserved a nice guy.

  The night went on, and several rounds of cocktails later, I was feeling quite giddy. I didn’t go out very often, and I certainly didn’t drink alcohol very often, so it was hitting me quite hard. The frequent lack of sleep recently wasn’t helping, either. My body was probably completely worn down.

  I yawned, and as I covered my mouth up with my hand, my mind flashed back to an incident at work last week. I’d stayed late to look after Tommy while Jacob was out, and I ended up falling asleep reading Tommy a bedtime story at seven-thirty. When I woke up the next morning, I was in a wonderfully-soft and comfortable bed in a beautifully-decorated room.

  It was the exact kind of room I’d always dreamed of having—big bed, plush velveteen chaise sofa on one side of the room, and a white French-style dresser with a matching white chest of drawers and wardrobe arranged around the other walls. A comfy-looking pale pink beanbag chair also sat near the window, which had a gorgeous view of the terrace outside.

  Perfect.

  I’d been confused to not wake up in my own bed in my shoebox apartment, but Jacob had written me a note explaining what happened. My heart raced at the idea of him picking me up like a doll and carrying me to the bed, but no doubt he’d simply done it to be kind after seeing me asleep. There was nothing sexual about it; no intent.

  But I wished there was.

  “You guys look tired,” Leah said. “I am too. I think I’ll head off.”

  Some of the other girls murmured their agreement. We said our goodbyes with hugs and kisses on the cheek, and soon Emma and I were the last ones at the table.

  “Is Jack still picking us up?” I asked. Emma’s head lolled forward slightly, and I realized she was a lot drunker than she’d let on. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded slowly. “Yeah…can you…can you call him for me?” she said, voice slurring. “I’m too drink to dial. Drunk. I meant drunk.”

  “Sure.”

  I had his number in my phone, so I scrolled down my contacts list and looked for it, trying to blink away the tiredness in my eyes. Jack’s phone rang twice before he picked up.

  “That was quick,” I said cheerily. “It’s me.”

  “I can see that from the caller ID.”

  “You sound weird,” I said. “Sorry. That was mean. I meant you sound different. Anyway, are you still coming to pick us up like you said earlier? Emma is seriously wasted, and I’ve probably had a bit too much as well.”

  “Vanessa, where are you?”

  The male voice on the other end of the line sounded pretty pissed, and I suddenly realized why I thought ‘Jack’ sounded different tonight—because it wasn’t him. My finger must have scrolled one contact too far, and I’d accidentally called Jacob instead.

  Crap.

  “Oh my god. Oh my god….Jacob, I’m so sorry. I called the wrong number.”

  “Yes, I gathered that. Who is Jack?” he replied sharply.

  Was he… jealous? No, silly me, he was just pissed that I’d called him at eleven-thirty on a Saturday night.

  “He’s Emma’s boyfriend. He was going to come pick us up when we were done here,” I said. “Anyway, I’m so sorry. You must’ve been asleep.”

  “No, I was awake. Where are you? I’m coming to get you. I’ll take Emma home, and then I’ll drop you off as well.”

  What? Why on earth was he saying this? It wasn’t his job to come and collect me and my friends from our silly drunken night out.

  “You don’t need to do that, and you have Tommy, anyway. I’m really sorry I called you by mistake, I—”

  He cut me off. “Vanessa, you are my employee. I understand that you have days and nights off, but I would like to know that you are safe at all times. Tommy isn’t home; he’s at a sleepover. So stay where you are and give me the address, please. I’m coming to get you.”

  His tone was cool. No nonsense. He was mad at me.

  Somehow, the thought thrilled me. Maybe he would want to punish me for making him mad. Maybe he would even….dear lord. What was happening to me? My mind was strangely flashing to a movie I once saw at Emma’s, where a lawyer spanked his naughty secretary over his desk, and the idea of Jacob bending me over a table and slapping my ass hard for getting drunk made me feel all tingly and warm inside. And wet. I could feel that my panties were getting soaked from the naughty thoughts, and I squirmed in my seat.

  “Okay, daddy,” I finally said. It was meant to be a joke, because he was an older guy coming to pi
ck me and my friend up like I was some sort of wayward daughter or something, but the second the word ‘daddy’ was off my lips, I knew I’d made a mistake. Well….maybe not a mistake. But I’d set something in motion that I couldn’t stop.

  “Don’t move, Vanessa,” Jacob growled, sounding even more intense than before. “I’m coming. Right now.”

  Chapter Seven

  Jacob

  Daddy.

  She called me daddy.

  Nothing and no one had ever got my dick harder.

  After recovering from the sheer shock of my seemingly innocent nanny calling me that, I managed to wrangle a location out of her—Mojo’s Bar. I had no idea what the hell Vanessa was doing going out drinking like this, but it wasn’t safe. Mojo’s wasn’t exactly in the worst area, but it wasn’t the best either, and I’d heard a few horror stories about the place in the past.

  On the way there, I cranked the air-conditioning in my car to the highest setting even though it wasn’t even hot. I needed the cold air to knock some sense into me; needed it to calm down, because my whole body was pulsing with lust and need.

  The need to take care of Vanessa.

  The need to show her who the boss was.

  The need to own her.

  Be her daddy. Just like she said.

  I stepped on the gas after the next set of lights, and five minutes later, I was tearing into the parking lot across the road from Mojo’s. I could see Vanessa standing out the front, and my mouth dried up at the sight of her. She was wearing another one of her sundresses, only this time without a demure cardigan over the top. Jesus. She couldn’t be more beautiful if she tried.

  I dashed over to her, and she smiled, clearly even drunker now that twenty minutes had passed and her body had had more time to process all the drinks she’d consumed.

  “Hello, boss. You actually came,” she said, saluting me.

  I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore my raging hard-on. “Vanessa, where’s your friend?”

  “Jack ended up coming after all. So she went home with him.”