Rugged Daddy (Dark Daddy Doms Book 2)

by Ava Sinclair

  Zane’s face grows hard. “Go on.”

  “One of the researchers lost the signal on the collar and went up to check. He was hoping to replace it while the bear was still in torpor, but he found the bear gone and the collar cut off. He called the station and we started checking other dens. We found two other collars—both with a signal, but they’d been cut off, too. We think they’re the same poacher. Pretty sure they didn’t mean to damage the first collar. They had to know that the loss of a signal might cause someone to check.”

  “Any leads on how they’re finding the bears?”

  “This is the most shameful part of the story. A ranger was just charged with giving up the locations of the dead bears. But he won’t say to who, no matter how hard we lean on him. It’s like he’s scared to say.”

  “Zane,” I say quietly, and he looks at me. We both know it’s Workman, but when he shakes his head, I fall silent, puzzled.

  “You two wouldn’t have happened to see anything out this way by chance?”

  “No, not out here,” Zane says.

  Joel rises. “Well, keep your eyes peeled, eh? So far, they aren’t getting much out of that ranger. He’s pleaded innocent to all charges.”

  After a little more small talk, Joel leaves. I’m impatient as I wait for Zane to come back in. He’s obviously anticipated what I’m going to say, because the first thing he says when he shuts the door is, “Let me explain.”

  “I’m listening,” I say, crossing my arms. “And it better be good, because we both know it’s your stepbrother. We could stop this, Zane. Now.”

  “Could we?” He runs his huge hand through his dark hair and turns away. He says nothing for a moment, and then turns back. “And just how are we going to do that? Produce a flash drive of illegally obtained names? You’re right; they could track the poachers down through that list, but any good defense attorney could get their client off if they were discovered through stolen information. And then there’s the money you took.” He shakes his head. “I know you were angry, but that was a bad move. You’re as at much legal risk as anyone else.”

  I put down the cocoa mug I’ve been washing and walk over. “Zane,” I say gently. “I know you love me, but I wasn’t your first love. This land, those animals… those are your first love. That’s what got you into teaching, and it’s what you retreated into when the outside world betrayed you. That ranger may break, but if he doesn’t, more animals are bound to die. Even if Workman lays low and waits instead of leading his hunters to those dens, come spring those bears will be out and on the move. The rangers can’t protect them all. Workman’s paying hunters that will track them down, Zane. More bears will die.” I pause. “Can you live with that?”

  He rounds on me. “We can send an anonymous tip.”

  I shake my head. “It’s not a certainty,” I say.

  “Well, I know what is certain. You want out of here. You want to go back to town life, and now you have your excuse.”

  His bitter tone takes me aback. “Is that what you really think, Zane? If so, then fuck you, and don’t you dare think of punishing me for saying that, because the way I see it, the man I thought I knew was stronger than the man who just accused me of being that self-serving.”

  I walk into the other room and fetch my boots and my sweater. I put them on and walk back through the living room and head to the door. “I’m taking a walk,” I say. “And I’m not asking permission. I won’t show you that kind of respect until you prove you’re the kind of man who can earn it back.”

  I walk out the door, the chill of what’s just happened matching the cold of the pristine wilderness air.

  He doesn’t follow me, this man who punished me the night before for going out without his permission. And we both know why. Something has shifted in our relationship. By attacking my motives, he’s broken my trust. If he’s to be daddy to my little girl, that requires trust. But I’m wounded now.

  I don’t walk far. I know that even if he’s not following me, he’s likely watching, especially after what happened with the coyotes. But he also likely knows they’re too afraid now to come back, or else he would have made me stay inside.

  There’s a large boulder between the equipment shed and the little building where Kali is probably curled up in her log. I climb to the top, mindful of the slick surface and sit facing the mountains beyond, wondering where I’d be right now if I’d not decided to lash out at my boss. My mother used to say everything happens for a reason, and when I ponder the curious chain of events that have put me here, it’s hard to fault her belief in Fate. But why would fate bring me here to drag me so low?

  I lose track of how long I sit. When I hear footsteps behind me, I don’t have to look back to see who it is. It’s just the two of us out here in our private world, and besides, I’d know the sound of his steps anywhere.

  Zane climbs up on the rock and takes a seat beside me. It’s not as cold today. The sun is playing hide and seek behind passing clouds. Occasionally, a clump of melting snow falls from one of the firs.

  “Talk to me, Eva,” he says.

  I shift on my bottom, still tender from the night before as I think of what I want to say.

  “You’re not the only one with trust issues,” I say. “I haven’t been betrayed, but I’ve never really trusted until you.” I pause. “I’ve trusted you to bring me pain when I deserved it, but you never really hurt me until today.”

  “I know,” he says. “I know. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew. I didn’t have a damn right to say any of that stuff to you. You’re right. I’m hiding out here. Like a… coward.”

  “You’re not a coward,” I say. “You’re a good man. A strong man. But you’re not strong enough to stop the world from turning. No one is. Out there, life is going on. And you have too much to contribute to put yourself in exile.”

  He sighs. “When everything went down with my job, I felt so out of control. Out here, I’m in control. And then when you came along… the perfect woman, a woman who responded to that control… I guess I’m afraid to risk the first happiness I’ve had in a long time. But what I did to you in there made me realize how selfish being alone has made me.” He looks over at me. “I’m sorry, Eva. I promise I’m not trying to keep you captive. I’m just afraid of seeing you in any situation where I can’t protect you.”

  I reach out and slip my hand in his. “Apology accepted,” I say. I lean my head against his shoulder and he wraps his arms around me. “It takes a strong man to say he’s sorry.” I rub my cheek against his sleeve. “But there’s one more thing I’d like to make it complete.”

  “What?” he asks.

  “Call me your little girl?”

  A big grin brightens up his bearded face. “It would be my honor, little girl. What do you say we go inside?”

  I’m all too happy to comply. Back in the cabin, I realize that I’ve not had breakfast, but Zane is eager to satisfy other appetites.

  “You know,” he says as he removes my dress. “I’m thinking it might be nice to take you shopping for a tight pair of jeans I can shimmy down over those hips. Maybe a lacy bra, some matching panties…”

  “Yeah?” I grin. “Of course, there’s times when I might want to wear some footie pajamas. Can I have some of those, too?”

  He’s naked now himself and sits down on the end of the bed, lifting me so that I’m straddling his cock. I sink down slowly as he groans with pleasure. “Little girl, you can have anything you want.” His hands slip under my ass, squeezing. I whimper and squirm as the heady mingling of pain and pleasure washes over me. His mouth finds mine and he kisses me deeply as I move up and down on his cock. This time, he lets me set the rhythm, and I marvel at how his expressions change depending on how I move. He’s relinquished control to me, showing trust. I push him back so that he’s lying down. I lift myself off his cock. He moans again, this time in frustration before uttering a surprised gasp when I run my tongue up his shaft. I can taste my own musky arousal
. It’s primal, like our relationship. I pull down his foreskin and slip my lips over his cock head, nursing it before tongue-flicking the sensitive spot below his glans. Zane’s pelvis comes off the bed. He fists the covers.

  “Damn, little girl.”

  I smile to myself and get down to business, rolling his heavy balls in my hand as I work his shaft with the other. My mouth does the rest, sliding up and down until his groans become moans and he comes with a cry. I latch my mouth onto him, feeling his seed hit the back of my throat. His fingers are in my hair as I swallow, feeling pleased at bringing him off.

  Of course, he returns the favor. And on this day, we stay in bed in a tangle of sweaty limbs and tangled bedclothes, only taking breaks for food. We savor every moment of the private world we’ve created, one in which we seamlessly flow between father figure and his adoring little girl and lovers gentle and voracious. We live each one to the fullest, because we both know that things are about to change.

  Chapter Nine

  When it comes to actually going to law enforcement with what I’ve done, it’s harder than I realize. But I have no choice, not if there’s any chance of stopping Ken Workman. Zane asks Joel and two of his supervisors to sit in on the conversation I have with the sheriff.

  I produce both the money I took, along with the flash drive, and offer a confession of how I took the money and why. The sheriff, a rotund man with a white handlebar moustache, listens to my story.

  “This is what you took?” he asks, looking at the stack of bills. I nod. He leans back in his chair and calls to his deputy. “George, call over to the PD in Black Rock and ask if any local businesses have reported a theft.” As his subordinate hurries to comply, he leans forward and picks up the flash drive with a sigh. “Now, this… it’s not a crime to copy computer files unless you plant to do something with them. Your employer could sue you, I guess, if he knew you did it. But from what I can tell you figured he was up to no good with his outfit and wanted some proof. Unfortunately, the way you obtained them means they couldn’t be used as evidence anyway.”

  The deputy, George, knocks on the door. “I called,” he says. “No one reported any money gone missing.”

  “Hmmm.” He seems to mull this over before looking at Joel’s supervisors, a man named Gary and a woman named Jane. “What do you guys think?” The pair was keenly interested in what I had to say, and were especially eager to ask whether I’d met Mr. Chang. When I tell them I hadn’t, they tell me why they’d honed in on this particular contact, and what I learn makes my blood run cold.

  The same day Joel came to our house, the body of a bear was discovered not too far from Black Rock. It was identified as one of the ones killed in hibernation, and the way it was butchered indicated that the parts had been sold on the Chinese medicine market, which pays top dollar for black bear parts purported to have curative properties. Joel tells us that he’s sure that’s why the ranger is remaining mum. Illegal hunting is one thing, but this kind of poaching carries serious penalties that could put the perpetrators away for a very long time.

  “Is a tip enough to go after him?” Zane asks.

  “It’s not enough to get a warrant,” Joel says.

  “But it is enough to launch an investigation,” says Jane. She looks at me. “Would you be willing to wear a wire?”

  “No,” Zane says. In the interest of full disclosure, he’s filled everyone in on his history with his stepbrother, and what happened. “I don’t want her getting hurt.”

  “She can make up her own mind,” says Jane, and I almost laugh to see how Zane bristles. But she’s right. I can make up my own mind.

  “I’ll do it,” I say, and turn to Zane. “Look. Since I’ve been with you, I’ve seen a side of nature I never appreciated. All that hiking and yeah, I’ve seen a lot of animals. But I never really got to know them. I think… I think I’d like to maybe do what you do one day. I’d like to study them.” I smile. “You’ve taught me so much, Zane. I want to learn more, but I have to make things right first. I need to face Ken Workman, and if I can do it and get information, then that’s even better.”

  They tell us they’ll let us know, and I walk out of the police station a free woman. It’s a relief. I’d convinced myself I’d be charged with something, but Zane now thinks his stepbrother had so much money coming in that he didn’t miss what I took. The trade in poaching is big money, he says. Five hundred dollars is like spare change.

  Zane has gotten us a room at a nice hotel. We couldn’t leave Kali behind, so we smuggle her inside in a pet carrier. She’s not happy, and appears to personally blame me, chattering angrily whenever I look inside.

  “She’s never going to accept me,” I pout, and Zane just laughs.

  “Forget her,” he says. “Check this out.” I follow his voice to another room and squeal with glee. I’ve never been so glad to see a bathtub in my life. Even though Zane has laboriously filled the washtub three times a week, hot running water at my command feels like some exotic luxury. Even the little bars of scented soap and shampoos fill me with glee. Zane laughs, but I can tell he’s enjoying himself.

  “Hello, darlings,” I hear him say, and crane my neck from where I’m relaxing in the tub to see him talking to the tiny bottles in the mini bar. When I finally force myself to leave the tub, he’s stretched out on the bed drinking a tiny bottle of vodka.

  “I didn’t know you drink,” I say, pulling my hotel robe around me as I hop on the bed beside him.

  “Rarely,” he says.

  “I didn’t see any liquor at the cabin.”

  “Liquor and solitude are a bad pairing, little girl.”

  “I love it when you call me that,” I say. “Even in a place with running water and tiny liquor bottles.”

  He smiles. “Speaking of running water, I’m going to get a shower.”

  I almost offer to join him, but decide not to compete with the experience of the first shower he’s had in a very long time. I want him to enjoy it, to realize how much he misses it. The warm feelings I had for Zane returned with his heartfelt apology. I can see myself being with this man for the long haul, and he’s made no secret that he wants to be with me. And while I love the cabin, I feel like Zane is only there because he’s reluctant to face the world he left. Can I help him with that? Can I help restore his faith?

  Part of the reason I want to bring Ken Workman down is because of what he did to Zane. Of course, I haven’t told him this. I instinctively know he wouldn’t want me to go out on a limb, and if law enforcement does ask me to wear a wire, I suspect Ken has powerful friends who could make trouble for me. Zane won’t tell me not to follow my conscience to save the animals, but if he thought he factored into my motivation, I’m sure he would try to stop me.

  He emerges from the shower and I can’t help but laugh. He’s wearing a matching bathrobe, and has wrapped his hair in a towel, too. Laughter turns into a fit of giggles when he puts his hand on his hips and glares down at me.

  “Are you laughing at your daddy, little girl?”

  “Yes,” I say. “Daddy’s funny.”

  “Oh, really?”

  He sits down on the edge of the bed, pushes me to standing and undoes the tie holding my robe closed.

  “You know what happens to little girls who laugh at their daddies, don’t you?”

  I shake my head, but inside I have a pretty good idea judging by how wet my pussy has suddenly become. I grin mischievously and reach up to push the towel off his head. “Funny Daddy,” I say.

  He’s grinning back at me, and as he guides me over his lap, I realize that this will be a very different kind of spanking. Zane rubs my naked bottom with his hand, interspersing firm squeezes between the caresses. I part my legs and his hand moves to the under curve of my cheek. His fingers dips briefly between my parted thighs, and one brushes my labia and I hear him chuckle.

  “Well, well,” he says. “This is a surprise.”

  I look back at him wide-eyed. “What?”

&nbs
p; He smacks my ass then, and I gasp at the sting and moan as his finger moves back between my legs. “Something’s missing.”

  I moan. “Yes, Daddy. I shaved it for you.”

  “Smooth,” he says, slipping a digit past the outer labia and further past the slick folds. My hips follow the motion of his finger, and I dig my hands into the blanket.

  “Do you like it?”

  “Little girl,” he says. “I liked it before. But this is nice.” He pushes two fingers deep inside me. “Real nice.”

  Zane swirls his wet fingers across my bottom, teasing me with his touch. Then he begins spanking me, just hard enough to build the sting to a delicious ache. With each smack of his hand, a jolt of pleasure surges through my pussy. I hike my ass up to meet his hand.

  “Is my little girl is a wanton little slut?”

  I moan.

  “Say it.” He slaps my ass hard and shoves his fingers back inside me. “Say it.”

  “I’m a wanton little slut. I’m Daddy’s wanton little slut.”

  I come as I say the words that sound forbidden and taboo to my own ears. The power he has over me, of my body and my life, is a sweet addiction I cannot live without. I respond like a living instrument in his hands. A touch here and I whimper, a stroke there and I moan. He knows all my pleasure spots, all the right words to say, just the right amount of pressure to apply when he says them.

  When I’m wetter than wet and trembling with need, he places me on the bed face down and pulls my hips back toward him. He rams into me, taking me so hard and fast that I can’t move with him, plunging into me with such vigor that I can hardly catch my breath. I’m helpless and quivering on his cock, a toy to be used, and I love it. He slaps my ass as he comes, ending the slap with a squeeze that will leave faint bruises tomorrow.

  “I love you,” I say, and the room falls quiet save for our breathing and the faint, unusual sounds of the city outside.