My muscles contract and sweat forms on my brow, my body vibrating with anger as I escort her out of the room. What the fuck was she thinking? She better have a good goddamn answer for what she did. I’m about to redden her ass so badly she won’t sit for a damn week.
I never should have brought her here. Never.
Thankfully, no one follows us as we make our way to our room. And what a fucking waste. I found out literally nothing in that little private party than I knew before I came. Has this entire visit to the ship been in vain? We should’ve flown straight to Moscow.
But if I hadn’t brought her here… my mind goes back to that scene we shared before she left, and hell, my dick’s hard again just thinking about it. Would she have done what she did?
Daddy.
I shake my head and open the door to our room. I don’t care how sweet that moment was or how sexy, I have rules for her, and for good reason, and this little girls in big fucking trouble.
I drag her in the room and slam the door.
“Stefan,” she begins, but a swift slap to her ass has her quickly amending herself. “Daddy!” We are not on equal footing here and we might as well get that cleared up.
I spin her around and pin her against the door before I grasp her shoulders. I want to pound this door with my fist, until it splinters and shatters, find that motherfucker who came near her and knock his fucking teeth down his throat. “What were you thinking?” I say, my voice taut with anger. “You disobeyed me. You risked your safety. Christ, Taara, if I hadn’t come in there right then—” I want to shake the truth out of her before I take her across my lap for the spanking of her life.
“I had to,” she says. “Please. Listen to me. I’ll tell you everything. Please, daddy.”
My cock hardens and instead of punishing her, I frame her face in my hands and bring her mouth to mine. I give thanks for this moment, that she’s safe with me, that I found her in time, and that no one hurt her. Her soft, sensual mouth melds with mine, her hands wrapping around my waist as if to steady herself. She moans, and one lone tear falls down her cheek. With great reluctance, I pull my mouth away from hers and whisper in her ear, “Why, Taara?”
“She had answers for me,” she whispers back. “I have the location and time we need.”
I close my eyes. “It wasn’t worth the risk to your safety,” I tell her. “If I wasn’t so angry with you, I’d take my belt to your ass for this. Hell, I still will. You’ll learn that daddy says what he means.” I kiss the softest part of her cheek. “Always.” I can’t believe she has the power to make my anger evaporate so easily. A moment ago, I wanted to throttle the girl for what she did, but now, I want to wrap her up and tuck her away. Take her to a place where no one will ever find us. Strip her clothes off and make sweet, lazy love to her until she comes beneath me, then falls asleep beside me, her body one with mine.
There’s no use denying what’s between us anymore. I’ve never allowed myself to have feelings for her. She was too young, too innocent. But now that we’re alone in this… the two of us thrown together in a situation where neither can back out now… I have to accept the truth. I’m falling in love with this woman.
“I—I believe that you meant what you said,” she says in a soft voice, the sound skittering along my skin like fairy dust, almost, almost weaving me into its magic. “And I knew you’d be angry. But please listen to me, daddy. I had to do it.”
“Like hell you had to.”
“I did,” she says, and a fire lights her eyes when she looks at me. “And I’d do it again.”
That does it.
“Oh, really?” I ask, pulling away from her and standing her in front of me. “Would you?”
This is not okay. Not at all.
And that little firecracker puts her hands on her hips and flashes those beautiful eyes at me. “I would. Because it’s important. And because I need to prove to you that you can trust me!”
“By disobeying me?” I ask, reaching for the buckle of my belt.
“Yes!” she says. “Well… I mean…” and then her gaze travels to my hands, and she watches in wide-eyed fascination as I unbuckle my belt and tug it through the loops.
“By helping you,” she says.
“Go on,” I say, folding my belt into a loop and giving it a good, hard snap, which make her jump.