by Jane Henry
Up until recently, that was me.
And now…
I shove the doubts out of my mind and take the book I picked up at the store today out of my bag. He told me to rest, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than right up here on his porch swing, with Murry curled up beside me, his little tail tapping the wooden stair. I can hear the water running in the kitchen while Levi loads the dishwasher. When the dishwasher begins whirring, the screen door squeaks and Levi stands in the doorway, barefoot, faded jeans slung low on his waist, his black t-shirt snug and form-fitting. My heart does a completely somersault.
“What’cha reading?” he asks. I go to sit up and but he gently pushes me back down, shifts me over so that he folds onto the seat and nestles my head in his lap. He looks at my book in my hand.
“It’s historical romance,” I say. “My favorite. I haven’t read one in a few weeks, but this just came out.” He raises a brow at the blonde woman in a pretty blue gown, standing in front of the setting sun, and reaches out a hand to take my book.
“Levi, don’t,” I say, waiting for him to tease me about it, but once he’s got something on his mind, he doesn’t even think twice. He plucks it out of my hand and fans it open.
“Daddy,” I plead.
He cocks a thick brow at me and I stop protesting. “You’re on chapter eight?” he asks, noting my bookmark. I nod.
“Relax,” he says. I relax into him and close my eyes. It was a long a day. I was up early, worked hard, and now, sitting here on this porch swing with my head in his lap, I feel the tension seep out of my body. And then he reads. Damn, he knows how to read. His deep voice rises and falls with a natural cadence. He doesn’t mock or tease but reads like I’m his little girl and this is my bedtime story. I smile, the setting sun basking me in warmth, and listen to him read.
I don’t know I dozed off until I wake a while later when he lifts me up and cradles me against his chest. I sling my arms around his shoulders and he hushes me. “Shh, baby,” he says. “Let’s get you to bed.” He strips me, lays me down in his huge bed, and tucks me in. No one’s ever tucked me in before. My parents were standoffish and busy. This is nice. I sink under the covers and when he crawls in beside me, I fall into a deep, restful sleep.
I wake the next day with a start. Suddenly, I remember I had a job to do that I completely forgot about the day before. Levi’s already up and in the shower. I knock on the door, stark naked but really needing to get in that shower.
“Daddy! I need to come in.”
“Come in, then,” he yells over the sound of the pounding water.
The bathroom off the master room is large and spacious and just slightly old-fashioned. The shower’s huge to accommodate a guy like him, though. I don’t want to smell like masculine soap all day, but I have to do my best. I don’t have time to get to my place. And why would I think to bring my things to his place when we’re only so short term?
“Can I come in?” I ask.
“If you don’t, I’ll spank your ass,” he responds.
Well that got a good vibe skitting right down to my pussy. I tentatively pull back the curtain and step into the shower. Even though it’s warm, I shiver when I see him large, muscled, naked body all lathered up with soap.
“Well good morning,” I murmur. Suddenly my urgency to get in and out fades from my mind. I need to touch him.
I reach for the large bar of white soap he has in his hand and take it from him. He bends down, cups my face in his hand, and gives me a hot, heated, wet, good morning kiss. When he pulls away I soap up his back and chest, letting my hands roam along the hair on his chest, the muscles on his arms, and flat, hard planes of his chest. I look him in the eye when my hands roam further. His thick cock lengthens in my hand while I soap him up.
“Jesus,” he groans. “Well good morning to you.”
He’s clean and so damn ready, I fall to my knees.
“May I, daddy?” I ask, as the warm stream of water hits my back and ass. The heat’s so relaxing as it skates down my back. But the sight of him like this, our vulnerability naked and wet in the shower, has my body already teeming with a pulse of need. I lick my lips and swallow. I want his cock.
He fists my wet hair in his hand and leads my mouth to his full erection.
“Yeah, baby,” he says. “Jesus fucking Christ, she asks permission,” he mumbles to himself. I eagerly take him in my mouth, closing my eyes and moaning around the silk-sheathed steel of his cock. When he groans I feel arousal drip down my legs. I bob my head, needing so desperately to please him, to let him know how much this means to me, all of it. No one’s ever taken care of me the way he does. No one’s ever been so fierce and protective. He needs to be as happy as I am.
I suckle him hard, then draw the top of my tongue along the veins of his swollen cock. He groans and curses, then thrusts into my mouth. I brace myself by holding onto his strong, sturdy legs, taking him as he plunges into me. I can tell he’s close by the way he tenses and the grip on my hair tightens. When he shoots into my mouth I swallow. I want every bit of him. I need this.
“Motherfucker,” he moans, when I finally get to my feet in the shower. He pulls me to his chest. Steam rises between us. He holds me, his heartbeat thudding against my cheek. “God, baby. Jesus, God, baby, that was fucking amazing.” He kisses the top of my hair. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I reply, a warmth flooding my chest. “I like to please you, daddy. But I have to go.”
“Go? Where?”
“I have a job to do,” I say, not able to meet his eyes. “I told you my work was flexible, and it is, but sometimes things come up that need my attention.”
I wonder if he’s going to ask questions. Does he want to know? Do I want him to ask questions, or is better if he doesn’t? After a beat, he just says, “Okay, baby. But tonight, we’ll have dinner wherever you want, and you give me details about this job you’re doing.”
That gives me a little time to think of how I want to approach this.
“Yes, daddy. So, do you have any neutral-smelling soap?”
He laughs, spins me around, and slaps my ass, which hurts like hell when my skin is all wet like this, but my pussy throbs with need. I don’t have time, though.
“Got more than neutral-smelling soap,” he mocks. He pushes the curtain aside and reveals a pale pink bottle of body wash and a light blue razor.
“For me?” I ask.
“Babe, I don’t use pink body wash and I sure as fuck don’t use a razor.”
Giggling, I take the soap. “Well, thank you,” I tell him. “That was thoughtful of you.”
He doesn’t reply but pulls me to his torso. He runs his hands along my breasts, takes the soap out of my hands and soaps me up. “I don’t have time for this, daddy,” I groan. “Oh, God, I wish I did.”
“You sure, babygirl?” he asks, running his hands along my thighs. His thumb circles my clit with a gentle push that makes me jerk my pelvis. “Daddy has time for you if you can spare a few minutes.” I want to. I so fucking want to. But I have to go, and I’m not sure I can really spare any extra time. Then he bends his head down, turns me to face him, and pulls my nipple into his mouth while he fingers my clit.
That does it. Fuck the time.
I throw my arms around his shoulder and my head lolls to the side. He strokes and fingers my pussy, lips and suckles my nipples, and soon I’m soaring into my release, my climax shattering me.
“Jesus, it’s beautiful when you come,” he says. “I could fuck you all over again. But you’ve gotta go.” After we finish washing and my legs are shaved, he shuts off the water, steps out, and wraps himself in a towel. Next he helps me out, then wraps a huge, fluffy blue towel around me. He kneels, towel-drying me off.
“Is this what a daddy does?” I ask quietly.
He nods.
“I don’t know much about daddy things. Like in a relationship,” I stammer. “But I maybe googled a little.”
He nods and con
tinues to towel me off. “To tell you the truth, baby, I don’t give a shit what other people do. I know there’s shit like daddy doms at kink or sex clubs, and they can do whatever the fuck they want. That doesn’t have to be what we do.”
“This doesn’t surprise me,” I say with a giggle. He finishes toweling me, then hands me my bag of clothes. As I get dressed, he sits on the bed and watches me. I talk to him about what I read.
“So I guess daddies like to take care of their little girls,” I say. “They have rules and consequences and discipline.”
“Yeah?” He stands, reaching to his dresser and taking a pair of jeans and a t-shirt out of his drawer. “How do you feel about that?”
“I have no idea. I mean, we don’t even have a safeword.”
He scowls. “What the fuck’s a safeword?” he asks. “Sounds like a waste of time to me.”
I stifle a giggle. He’s adorable when he gets all irritated.
“You say it when you don’t want to do something,” I try to explain, but already know it’s a waste of time. Levi doesn’t play by the rules. He doesn’t do what he “should.” He does what he wants to. And hell, if I’m honest, it’s kind of what I like about him.
“Your body tells me if you don’t want to do something,” he says. “And if I somehow miss that clue, babe, you tell me with your own words.”
I know it’s a little more complicated than that, but I don’t want to waste my time telling him. What we have is maybe a little different than what others do, but it’s what I like about it.
He comes up behind me, dressed in just his jeans, his bare torso pressed up against me as he wraps his arms around me. He smells clean and fresh, and I love the feel of his strong arm around me as he holds me. “There are things daddies can do,” he says, “and things this daddy can do. I like the idea of having rules for you, but not just for the sake of having rules. I’ll have them and I’ll enforce them if it’s how I can take care of you. It feels good and right with you.” He nods against my hair and inhales deeply. “Rules and accountability and discipline? Yeah, baby. Daddy likes that.”
I remember how he read to me last night, how he tucked me in. Today in the shower how he lathered me up and toweled me off.
I nod. I like this. Levi doesn’t need anyone to tell him how to do things. He’s a natural.
He bends down and kisses my cheek, then lets me go to finish getting ready. I wonder what he’ll have in mind. Levi is Levi. He’ll growl, “get the hell to bed” when I’m tired and expect me to do what he says. I don’t see anything formal or structured in our future, though.
Do we have a future?
It makes me feel warm and tingly inside, though. I like that. I like it a lot.
But my phone buzzes and I’m distracted, trying to pull on clothes and towel dry and talk to Levi all at once, so I don’t look at who’s on the line.
Damn, it’s my agent.
“I have to take this,” I tell him. I feel a little guilty not telling him who’s calling after the intimacy we’ve shared. He has no idea what I do. “Let’s talk later?”
He fastens his belt and nods. “Later.”
I scurry out to the kitchen and walk to the porch. My car’s still on the street. It feels weird holding things back from him, even though I really have only known him for a few days. I’m even a little disappointed he doesn’t push ask more questions. Does he care? I have no idea what I want from him myself.
“Hello?” I ask, sliding into the driver’s seat. I haven’t even done my hair or makeup but it doesn’t matter, since they’ll fix all that at the studio.
“Tanya, where have you been? Girl, we got a proposition you would not believe.” Blaise, my agent, chatters on and on and I’m only half-listening because honestly I get “propositions I would not believe” on a fairly regular basis. But at the word classic car I almost crash the car.
“Say that again, Blaise?”
“Baby, this magazine is the best of the best. And you wouldn’t believe the money they’re offering.” He tells me my advance I feel my jaw go slack.
“What do they want?” I ask.
He lays out the job, and it’s not that different from other ones I’ve done.
“Only one condition, Tanya.”
I sigh. He’s led me on, told me the offer, and now he’s giving me the rest of the story.
“Yeah?”
“Full face this time.”
I do hand photo shoots, body photo shoots, back and ass shots even but I do not put my face in a modeling shoot. It’s a point of pride and my niche.
“Think about it, Tanya. You’re beautiful, and I think this would work well for you.”
The problem is, this is something that might end up under Levi’s eyes, and I can’t stand the thought.
“No,” I tell Blaise, cringing. It’s the biggest job offer I got this year, and I’m crazy to turn it down. And why do I care what Levi thinks? He’s my boss-with-benefits.
“Are you crazy?” he asks. “You haven’t gotten an offer like this in so long, Tanya, and I have to remind you, as your very honest and upfront agent, that you aren’t getting any younger.”
I grit my teeth together so I don’t say something I regret. And honestly, when I do a job like this it’s easily four to six months before the pictures even hit the press and by then…my stomach drops and my throat gets all clogged. By then it won’t matter what Levi thinks because I’ll be long gone. Still, I don’t like the idea of him seeing me in a magazine or something. I flush when I think that even if they only did a body shoot, he might know it was me.
I hang up the phone after giving Blaise some excuse about things to do and a poor connection, and drive toward the shop. I grab a cup of coffee at a drive through, and the entire time I’m thinking about what to do. I can’t really afford to be turning down too many offers, and Blaise is right. I’m not getting any younger. This is a seasonal job and won’t always pay the bills, but hell if I’ll work for my father.
I shove all my worries away. I don’t have time to think about this now. With a sigh, I circle around looking for a parking spot and finally find one in the back on the street. It’s a little ways away from the entrance, but close enough. I shut my car door and see Grease and Spade standing near a pile of tools they’re cleaning.
“Told Levi I’d keep it a secret,” he says. My ears perk up but I keep walking. I shouldn’t eavesdrop. This is a stupid choice, and yet I can’t help myself. “But dude, gotta tell someone.” The way he talks, he’s about to divulge something really juicy. What a douchebag. He sounds like a high school girl.
“Yeah?” Grease says, rubbing a rag on a tool. “You think Levi’s cool with that? Don’t be an asswipe.”
Good man, Grease. He likes the muffins I brought in the other day. I make a mental note to bring them in again.
“Dude, I was talking to Mandy, though.”
Mandy, Mandy…where do I know that name? Oh! The blonde Barbie from the other day. I freeze behind a bush with my coffee suspended in mid-air. It’s scalding my hand and I’m switching it from one to the next, but I need to hear this. Spade leans over and says, “She’s pregnant, man. And she knows exactly who the father is.”
“No shit,” Grease mutters. “Levi?”
Despite my scalding hand, my body goes numb and cold when Spade confirms this suspicion. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t fucking matter I tell myself. He’s nothing to me. He’s less than nothing to me. He’s a guy I slept with, and he’s fixing my father’s car. That’s it.
I’m here to get this done, then I am so out of here.
On impulse, I pick up my phone and call Blaise back.
“Offer still on the table?” I ask. “I’m considering it. Not decided yet, but maybe…”
I can practically hear him clapping his hands in glee.
Chapter Ten
Levi
Jesus, the girl’s got my head so in the clouds, I’m a full thirty minutes late to work. I walked the dogs and go
t them set for the day, then head into the office. It sucks that she’s not here that much longer. Walking into the shop with Tanya no longer there seems dismal. I love the way her face lights up when I walk in. And hell, the place looks so much better now that she’s here.
It isn’t just her at the shop I’ll miss, though. It’s just…her. This morning, the way she just gave herself to me like that. And last night, the way she fell asleep when I was reading that book to her, all little-girl like with her hair tousled in the wind and her arm across her chest, she’s doing things to me I can’t help control. I like taking care of her. It feels natural and right.
I want more of her. My thoughts are running to all things Tanya.
So when I come into the shop and she shoots me a frosty glare, I’m taken aback. What the hell is this?
“Hey, baby,” I say, coming up to her and kissing her cheek.
But she pulls away.
What the fuck is that about?
“Tanya,” I warn. I don’t know why she’s giving me the cold shoulder. We were good this morning. But the door to the shop opens and Spade walks in.
“Morning, boss,” he says. He nods and shoots Tanya a wink. “Tanya.”
Heat curls in my gut. I don’t like him fucking winking at her.
“Morning,” I grit out. “How’s that paint job coming? And did you get the parts for the Corvette?”
We talk about the various jobs we’re working on, then he leaves.
“How’s my father’s car coming?” Tanya asks me, not meeting my eyes. The phone rings just as I answer, and she picks it up, turning her back to me. I frown, watching her. Someone’s gonna get her little ass spanked if she thinks the she can go all frigid on me without recourse. When she’s done taking the message, she hangs up the receiver. I push it away from her, then swivel her chair around to face me. I stand on either side of her legs, caging her in. “Tanya,” I say. “What the fuck is going on? Spill, babe.”