Because you want to do this right. For once.
Jared sighed at his silent verdict, knowing it was accurate. He’d spent so long following Sophie online and in person, so long thinking about her, dreaming about her, longing for the one who got away, he was petrified at the prospect of losing her. If he overstepped the line, or if she even suspected as much, that was a real prospect.
Sophie had tried to run from him twice when she’d been his captive, and on the third occasion, she’d achieved it, leaving him for dead. He snorted at the idea as he glanced out of the window at the passing traffic. A part of him still couldn’t believe she had done that, although he could understand it. Jared had been a complete arsehole to Sophie back then. And he’d loved it.
They both had.
Then there was the fourth time she’d walked out on him—the final time he’d seen her before last week.
He blew out a breath. He and Sophie certainly had a long and volatile history to overcome if this was going to be anything more than lunch.
A tap on the passenger window broke his internal musing, and he turned quickly, expecting to find the antagonistic face of a traffic cop about to issue him a ticket. He was shocked to see Sophie’s expectant expression instead. She offered him a small smile, sucking her lower lip between her white teeth, the way she did when she was nervous.
Unlocking the door, he gestured for her to enter. He could see the conflict in her eyes as she considered the option, her hand eventually reaching for the lever and pulled the door open.
“I thought we were meeting in the café? Not that I mind you taking another ride with me first.” He grinned at her, and watched as a satisfying blush filled her cheeks,
“I just recognized the car,” she explained, “and noticed you were still inside.”
He nodded, checking the clock. There were still five minutes before they were due to meet, but he’d intended to be at a table in the café by now.
“I lost track of time.”
She smiled. “You’re not late.”
“Shall we go in together?” Jared arched an eyebrow at her. “Assuming you still want lunch.”
She sniggered as she leaned in through the open door. “Lunch is good, Jared. Thank you.”
Grabbing his wallet, he slid out of the vehicle and wandered around the car to greet Sophie properly. She rose to her full height at his approach, shutting the car door as he gazed down at her.
“Good to see you again.” He wanted to kiss her, grab her arse, and pull her into a hard embrace. “You look fantastic.” His gaze traveled up and down the length of her outfit, taking in the cut of her skirt just visible beneath her coat. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you.”
Her eyelids flickered at his admission. “Me too, but I’m on my lunch break, so I don’t have long.”
“Let’s get inside,” he murmured. “And out of the cold.”
It was March, but apparently, no one had told spring it was time to wake up, and the wind whipping around them still had a genuine chill.
“I’d like that.”
“Is it too soon to take your hand?” It killed him to have to ask, but it was what he’d promised to do—not push, take things at Sophie’s pace.
She glanced up at him with large eyes, and Jared swore he could sense the salacious need in them.
“It’s not too soon,” Sophie breathed the words up at him. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want more.”
Jared’s heart raced at her verdict, but he fought to compose himself as he offered her his palm. The same palm that had held her, colored her backside, and brought her to shuddering orgasms. Time protracted on the busy street as she slowly accepted it, his much larger hand enveloping hers.
“I’m pleased to hear it.”
He tugged her along the path in the direction of the café, feeling like a lovestruck teenager as he struggled to think of something to say.
“So, how has it gone?”
Ironic it was Sophie who broke the silence.
“How has what gone?” He held the door to the café open for her, waiting as she skipped passed him into the warmth of the bistro.
She glanced over her shoulder at him while they joined the queue to be served.
“The whole not surveying me plan?”
Jared smiled at the way she put that. “It wasn’t easy,” he confessed as his eyes scanned down the length of the specials board. “But it’s what you asked for, so…” He redirected his gaze to her chocolate brown eyes. If he thought hard, he swore he could still remember the way they looked when she climaxed, the memory doing nothing to calm his growing excitement. “So, that’s what I did.”
Sophie pressed her lips together as though she didn’t believe him. “You really didn’t try to follow me at all?”
“Not. At. All.” He met her stare head-on, knowing, for once, he was telling the truth and hoping his sincerity conveyed.
“I’m glad, Jared. Thank you.”
“What do you fancy?”
She blinked up at him. “Pardon?”
“To eat.” He bit back at the urge to laugh at her concerned expression. “We’re next to be served.”
“Oh.” Relief spread over her pretty features as her focus flitted to the board behind the counter. “Just turkey and salad on wheat, please. I’m trying to good.” Her mouth parted, hands flying reflexively to her lips as though she hadn’t meant to reveal the final piece of information, and Jared’s gaze narrowed.
“You’re trying to be good?”
He’d spoken to Sophie on more than one occasion about her desire to starve herself, and glancing down at the curve of her breasts now, he wondered how often she deprived herself of food to maintain her weight. A spike of displeasure pulsed through him.
He didn’t like to see his little girl eating unhealthily, although he couldn’t query her choice for lunch.
“I just mean, I’m eating three proper meals a day.” There was a bloom of heat in her cheeks again, telling him she was lying, and his brow rose at her answer.
“I’m glad to hear it,” he whispered into her ear. “Daddy wouldn’t like to think of you going hungry.”
Sophie’s eyes widened at his response. “I don’t,” she assured him before she drew her lip back between her teeth.
“Good.” He reached down and squeezed her hand as the server asked for their order.
Quickly, Jared rattled off the list of their requirements, ordering Sophie a pot of hot tea to accompany her sandwich. He glanced down, expecting her to protest his choice, but she didn’t. Her face was still flushed from their earlier exchange, her lips quiet until it was time to pay.
“Let me get this,” she murmured, reaching into her purse with her free hand. “I still owe you for the ride home the other night.”
Jared shook his head with a smile. “No, you don’t.” He pinioned her with the full weight of his stare. “And lunch is on me.”
“But—”
He released his grasp at her hand. “No, buts. That’s an order.” Jared winked at her as he reached into his pocket for his wallet.
“Seems like a good deal to me,” interrupted the young server from behind the counter. “I’d go with it if I were you.”
He smirked while he waved his credit card over the reader, glancing at Sophie to see her blush growing.
“Thank you,” she mumbled into her chest.
“That’s all gone through,” announced the server again with a smile. “We’ll bring your drinks over to the table.”
Jared returned her smile as he ushered Sophie away. “Where would you like to sit?”
Her hand closed over the back of the nearest chair. “Here is good.”
His smile widened. “Sure you wouldn’t like to go somewhere a little more private?” His gaze landed over a table in the far corner of the café before returning to Sophie’s crimson face.
“If you like.”
“It’s your choice.” He wanted to make that completely clear. Ja
red hadn’t compelled her into any of this. She’d come because she’d wanted to. She ate what she liked, and she could sit wherever she chose. He was only trying to save her future blushes.
She sighed, turning toward the table as he’d suggested. “But I like your choice.”
Sophie paced away in the direction of the far corner, and he grinned as he slid his wallet back into his pocket.
So far, so good.
Daddy was enjoying this relaxed and acquiescent version of his little girl.
Long may it last.
Chapter Six
Sophie
The conversation was surprisingly easy and the food tasty, but as she swallowed down the third bite of her turkey sandwich, all Sophie could think about was the look in Jared’s eyes.
She knew that look. She’d seen it before, and she knew what it meant.
He was enjoying himself, steering her and paying lip service to the things she had asked, and still, she could feel the tables turning. She sensed him taking back control, and the worst of it was, she didn’t even think she cared. It should be fundamentally disconcerting to cede power to a man who had previously ruled with coercion and manipulation. So, why wasn’t Sophie running from the café?
Why had she come at all?
“So,” he paused, the deep timbre of his voice breaking her train of thought. “Have you thought about me since we met last week?”
Sophie reached for her teacup, wrapping her hand around the warm ceramic.
“Of course, I have.”
Bloody hell, aside from the kids, she’d barely thought of anything else.
“That’s why I’m here, Jared.” Daddy.
She inhaled, aware of how close she had been to adding that final word.
“I thought about you, too.” Jared put his chicken wrap down on his plate. “I think about you all the time, Sophie.”
Those devastating blue eyes seared into her, burning through her camisole top and branding her flesh. At least that’s how it felt as she flicked her hair over her shoulder.
“Your hair has grown.” He smiled at the observation. “I like it.”
Sophie ran her fingers through her tresses. “Yeah, I’ve meant to get it cut, but I never got around to it.”
“Don’t.” His tone was soft as he leaned closer across the small table, but it was a command, no doubt about it.
“I mean, it suits you, that’s all.” He chuckled at his own conciliatory tone, and for a brief moment, he almost looked embarrassed.
Her lips curled. He was doing it again—resuming influence over her—and she should absolutely resent it, yet as Jared fumbled to find the equilibrium between them, she was conscious of how her body responded to his authority. Squirming in her seat, she knew there was arousal pooling at her sex.
She liked it.
Sophie liked it a lot.
And that was the reason she was here.
It was also the reason she’d dreamed about Jared for months and why no amount of counseling was ever going to resolve things in her head.
She needed this in her life.
She wasn’t sure why, but she did.
Someone to take control of certain aspects. Someone to be in charge. It was just, in the tsunami of Jared, Sophie had been swept away entirely, and for a while, she almost lost herself.
She couldn’t let that happen again.
“Thank you.” She ran her finger over the remainder of her sandwich. “I can leave it long… if you prefer?”
Jared grinned, his natural ease recovering in a matter of seconds.
“I prefer, but… it’s not my place to tell you how to wear your hair.”
“I remember when you did.” She lowered her gaze, hardly believing what she’d just said until the words registered in her brain.
“Mmmm. So do I, little girl.”
Her gaze darted back to his knowing one. “I remember the awful little ribbons you used to put in it.”
Jared smirked at her. “Why were they so awful? You looked amazing.”
Sophie exhaled, smiling in spite of herself, and inside her camisole, she could feel her nipples beading at the memory of the pigtails he’d ensured she wore.
“You dressed my hair like I was a child.” Her tone was hushed, an accusation.
“And you didn’t like that?”
“You know I didn’t.” She sighed, glancing down to her lunch again. “It was too much, Jared. I would have been happy to do some of those things with you, but what you did… it was too much.”
Silence fell over the table at her assessment, and awkwardly, she lifted her cup to her lips.
“Okay, I get it.”
She watched him over the rim. “Do you? I mean, do you really?”
“I think so, yes.” Jared lifted his own cup and took a sip of tea. “So, why don’t you start by telling Daddy what you didn’t like?”
“That.” She clung onto her cup as though it was somehow going to protect her from the intensity of Jared’s stare.
“The Daddy thing?”
“Yes,” she admitted in a rush. “And no.”
Jared laughed softly, putting his cup down. “Take a deep breath and tell me, Sophie. Let’s have the conversation we should have had right from the beginning.”
“We never even discussed age play.” Her words were a low murmur, although Jared’s choice of table ensured there was no one nearby to overhear them. “You just took me and made me your little girl.” Sophie’s breath caught at the explanation, a potent surge of both shame and desire washing over her.
“I did enjoy some of it, you know I did, but…” Her voice trailed away.
“It was too much?”
She nodded. “It’s the best way I can explain.”
“It always seemed to me the things you said you loathed ended up making you the wettest.” He raised a brow at her, daring her to defy him on this one point. “Like the playpen?”
“That was a bloody cage!” she snorted. “And I can’t believe you made me go in that thing.”
A wicked smile lit up his face. “Admit how much you enjoyed it, though.” Jared reached forward, grasping her free hand away from her plate and squeezing her fingers. “Admit how much you loved surrendering all of that control to Daddy.”
“I did.” The confession escaped her lips in a barely audible whisper, and Sophie was conscious of her cheeks flaming. “It was horrendous at the time, but I did.”
He eyed her intently. “I remember how hard I fucked you after that.” His gaze danced at the salacious recollection. “I remember how wet you were for me, and how I took your arse.”
Sophie bit her lip, the swell of memories overawing her. “Please,” she implored. “Please, I can’t. Not here.”
Jared glanced behind him for the first time. “No one is listening, little girl.”
“I know, but still. It’s too raw. The memory… it’s intense.”
He nodded, patting her hand gently. “How about an easier question then. Tell me what you did like. What could you try again?”
She swallowed at that question, more than qualified to answer it after all the months of dark longing, yet still struggling with the concept of opening up in such a public place.
“It’s difficult to talk about.”
“Try.” Jared’s tone was even yet insistent. “Please, try for me.”
“Okay.”
She pulled in a shaky breath, noticing the way his large hand had virtually swallowed her own. That was what Jared did to her. He was warm, a protector, yet in no time at all, he would swamp her, and if she allowed it—he would take her over.
“The bondage. I liked being tied, although I did hate it at times.”
“Yes.” His voice was a throaty growl. “I do recall.”
Sophie managed a smile, though she couldn’t meet his gaze.
“And being spanked,” she went on. “And when you fucked me roughly and pulled my hair, but afterward, you held me and were tender.”
Chris
t, the words were spilling from her now, as though she was an open faucet she couldn’t restrict.
“Thank you, Sophie.” She lifted her chin to meet his eyes. “I know explaining that can’t have been easy.”
“No.”
It hadn’t been, but she was pleased to have said it—glad he knew. The man who had captured her rarely ever asked for feedback, and it had taken many years for her opinion to be heard.
Jared smiled. “You liked being humiliated. I remember that.”
Shit. Had he really just said that, sitting in the corner of her local café?
“I-I…” She tried to respond, but her words dried in her throat.
“That’s why you responded so well to Daddy’s rules and punishments. It wasn’t the age play you enjoyed, but the way it reduced you to less than what you really are.”
Jared leaned back in his chair as he spoke. It was as if the rationale was coming to him for the first time, but that was little conciliation. The way he’d managed to successfully summate her hedonism was more than perturbing—it was terrifying.
No man had ever understood her this well before.
No one had even tried.
“Yes.” In the end, it was she could manage. “I think so.”
“Can you live with the age play, though?” Jared’s expression shifted, his body straightening as though he had reached the matter with most personal significance for him.
“It’s important to you?”
Sophie could hardly believe she had to ask after everything he had subjected her to. This dynamic of transparency was new between them, and she wanted to foster it—she wanted to know.
Hard blue eyes pierced into her. “You know it is.”
She sighed. Was she really having this conversation with the man who’d taken and belittled her? “Yes.”
Jared’s fingers shifted over her hand, entwining with her digits.
“I’ll always be your Daddy, Sophie.” His expression softened at the concept. “Whatever you decide.”
She nibbled at her lip. Christ, he was right, wasn’t he? He would always be that person for her. It would never go away—this yearning.
This void which Jared had created, and only he could fill.
Daddy's Little Girl: A Dark Daddy Romance Epilogue Page 4