Page 70 of Shadow

They’d played with no toys tonight other than their bodies, wrestling and clawing at each other on one of the giant floor mats in the corner of the dungeon. Now, the Daddy in him wanted to scoop her up and keep her safe. These two sides to him were complicated when they both wanted to play.

“I want to make sure you’re OK when we’re done with a scene like that. We had the dungeon monitors a little on edge with how rough we were playing. One of them would have stepped in, but Gage stopped them.”

Olivia gasped. “Really? I was so lost in the moment, I didn’t notice any of that. And it was rough, but it didn’t feel any rougher than usual.” She shrugged. “I’m happy. You’re happy. We play rough but safe. Don’t overthink it, Daddy.”

He nuzzled his face in her hair. “Working on it. Just let me take care of you.”

He didn’t want to sound weak, but he felt an overwhelming need to take care of her and pamper her. He wondered if he should take her out to the hot tub. After the way they were pinning each other on the mats, her muscles were sure to be sore.

“Want to go soak in the hot tub with me?”

She glanced up at him with a disgusted look on her face. “Do you know how many orgies happen in that thing?”

“Yeah, but Gage makes sure it gets cleaned every night.”

She wrinkled her nose. “No, thank you. It squicks me out. Especially if there are other naked people in there.”

He tossed his head back and laughed. “You’re ridiculous, baby girl. You were rolling around naked on a mat that other people and their bodily fluids have been on less than twenty minutes ago.”

“Yeah, but those get cleaned in between people. The hot tub only gets cleaned once at the end of the night.”

He chuckled. “OK. No hot tub.”

She ate the last of her chocolate and shifted so her head was in his lap.

“Do you think we’ll be in danger forever because of your past?”

It was a question he’d been thinking of since Vegas. “Forever? Probably not. But it could go on for a while. I would understand if you didn’t want to be with me.”

She frowned. “Stop that. I was angry with you when you first came home, and I still wanted to be with you. I’m not going to bail just because someone wants you dead or… what exactly do they want?”

Ripley lifted one shoulder. “It’s hard to say with people like this. Probably revenge for something. Could be someone I put away has a son or daughter coming after me to get payback. Or a case is going to come to trial soon and someone wants to make sure I don’t talk now that my legal name has been leaked.

“Could be that grand jury documents got leaked even though when it pertains to someone like me, they’re supposed to be sealed for a certain amount of years. Or it could be a dozen other things.”

Her brows drew together as she processed his list. “That’s a lot.”

“It is. Thanks for not bailing on me.”

“Were you really worried about that?”

She’s not your mother,Ripley, he reminded himself, brushing hair away from her face. “No, baby girl. I’m not worried. Just letting you know I understand that we’re dealing with some heavy stuff.”

The thing Ripley wasn’t telling her yet is that he was all but convinced now that the fire at her bar was more about him than her because of the wiped security footage. Someone like Mario didn’t have that skill in him, and probably wouldn’t even know where to look to find the person who did.

No, that fire was set by a professional who knew to clear their tracks and disappear.

Some of his contacts were putting out feelers to see who was coming after him. But it turns out when you leave a job like his, people close ranks and shut you out pretty fast. It didn’t matter how many lives he’d saved. He was on the outside now, and that meant he didn’t have as many allies as he thought he might have.

“Why are we talking about this?” he teased, tickling her until she smirked. “We’re supposed to be relaxing for the night. Tomorrow I’ll hit the ground running to put this behind us. But for now, I want to enjoy a night with my girl and our friends.”

“You’re right. Let’s go hang out. I’ve had enough cuddles for now.”

She sat up and moved to stand, but he stopped her with a hand in her hair and brought her close for a deep kiss.

“You were perfect tonight, babe. Thank you for always giving me so much of yourself.”

She gave him a shy smile. “You give just as much, Daddy. It’s why we’re so good together.”

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