Page 145 of Daddy, Take Me Away
“A Daddy,” Savannah all but purred. “He treats you like you're a naughty treasured babygirl and he’s a Daddy Dom. That’s how he treats you.”
I scoffed. “I can see how you’ve been spending all your spare time up in North Carolina. Reading dirty books. Maybe I’ll ask you for book recs since I'm going to stay home and be bored out of my mind.”
“Girl. Don’t. You. Dare. If you don’t take this trip, I swear I'll spank you myself.”
I glared at my phone. “And if I go and wish I hadn't? What then? Do I get to spank you?” I laughed so she would know I was joking, but she didn’t seem to care.
“Sure,” she agreed. “If that's what it takes to get you to take this once in a lifetime opportunity, I'll gladly bend over and let you get a few whacks in. That’s how sure I am that I'm right. And even if I'm not… sounds kind of hot.”
I shook my head, but I was grinning and the knot in my chest wasn’t as big or tight as it had been when I’d dialed her number. “You’re deranged.”
“And you love me. So… does that mean you’re gonna go?”
I unzipped my suitcase, flipped it open on my bed and stalked over to my dresser where I opened the top drawer, tossing in a handful of underwear and socks. “Fine. I guess. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Savannah screamed.
I held the phone away from my ear. “If it sucks, I'm hopping on a plane to North Carolina the second I’m home and I'm bringing a hairbrush with me.” I knew it was an empty threat but Savannah didn't seem to care.
“Deal.” She smacked her gum in my ear. “Now go get packing. And text me updates every day. I want to live vicariously through your hot forbidden romance.”
“God, you’re ridiculous,'' I said as I ended the call.
Pausing for just a moment to question my sanity, I straightened my shoulders, pulled my door open and stalked out to the kitchen where my brother and Cas were still standing. They’d each cracked open a beer and were huddled over a bag of chips and a bowl of salsa.
I marched right up to Cas until we were standing almost toe-to-toe. “Fine, you can go with me,” I said as if it wasn’t a condition of my being able to go in the first place.
Then, before he could respond, I flounced away, and back to my room, stopping just short of slamming the door behind me.
Chapter Three
Cas
I’d actually been surprised when Polly agreed to let me crash her road trip. As a grief-stricken teenager, she’d pretty much hated me and now, as an adult, she barely tolerated me. Her agreeing to spend weeks in a car with me had not been on my bingo card.
Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, though. She’d been meticulously planning this trip for ages and it was her birthday plan, not something she could just easily move around.
And damn Jared anyway. I actually understood his plight, because there was a big merger at his job, and they had been good to him, but Jared was the type to put work over everything, and it wasn’t one of his admirable qualities, though he did have many.
When he’d told me he was going to have to cancel the trip, even though he’d put in for the time off over a year ago, knowing how devastated Polly was going to be hadn’t sat well with me.
Before I could stop myself, I’d volunteered to take his place, despite not having spent any extended amount of time alone with Polly ever and knowing she basically hated my guts. I didn't hate her though, and the more Jared told me about the trip, the more I found myself getting excited. I’d never done anything like that before and it sounded fun. I’d even added in a few route changes to surprise Polly with.
And even after all that, I really hadn’t expected her to say yes. And she’d barely spoken to me since her huffy agreement. But today was the day.
I’d woken up at the crack of dawn, went for a run, came home, showered, gassed up my truck, put the canopy on and gotten an oil change, had the tires checked and rotated, stocked a cooler with cold drinks and a pile of road trip snacks, and headed home to wait for my passenger princess to show her face.
It was after noon when she finally showed up in the kitchen. To her credit, she appeared to be showered and ready for a long day on the road, even if we were getting a late start. It was a good thing I’d added a surprise detour she didn’t know about that was actually a really short drive. Still, if she thought this lazy late start was going to be the norm for the trip, she’d have another think coming.
“Morning,” I said when she appeared, lifting my coffee mug as if to toast, even though I’d long stopped drinking from it.
“Morning,” she grunted, shuffling over to the coffee pot and glaring when she found it empty. I don't know what she expected when she slept half the day away. She popped a k-cup into the other side and stuck a mug underneath it, silently watching it brew. When it finished, she topped it off with an ungodly amount of creamer and leaned against the counter, sipping it while she glared daggers at me over the top of the mug.
“You know hotels make you check out by eleven and if we are making stops along the way and driving eight-hour days, we’ll need to get an early start.”
“I know, I know.” She groaned and shuffled over to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting across from me. “I couldn’t sleep. I kept wondering if this was really a good idea or not.”
“It is.” I rapped my knuckles on the worn wooden tabletop. “Not just a good idea, but a great one. You get to keep your plans and I get to see a bunch of states I’d never have gone to otherwise and see how real people vacation.”
