Page 17 of Break Me, Daddy

Shooting off a text to Braden telling him to ask about that, he shoved his phone back into his pocket and returned to the bedroom to check on his sleeping babygirl.

Braden could handle the protestors. For now, Holden had one job and one job only.

Figure out what the fuck was going on with Francesca Legare.

Chapter6

Frankie

She spent nearly three days lying around Holden’s house, clad in nothing but the t-shirts and boxers she stole from his drawers. Over the course of those three days, he’d forced her to tell him about getting put on probation, which apparently one of his employees had snitched to him about. Unable to deny it when he had the proof right in front of him, she’d broken down and cried as she confessed to getting in over her head and lying to all her friends about it. To her surprise, he hadn’t punished her for all the lies, he’d simply held her until the tears passed and told her they’d figure things out together.

After that, he hadn’t brought it up again. He’d spent the rest of those three days spoiling her and pampering her like crazy, to the point she was beginning to wonder why she’d ever dumped him in the first place.

The morning of the fourth day, however, she woke to a heavy hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake.

“Time to get up, little siren.”

“Don’t wanna,” she mumbled, pulling the blanket over her head. She’d gotten so used to sleeping in and just waking up whenever she felt like it, and now he wanted to drag her out of her warm nest of blankets before she was ready.

Hard pass.

“Baby, we have things to do today. Rise and shine.”

“Don’tcare.” Somewhere in the hazy recesses of her mind, she was aware she was acting like a spoiled brat, but she couldn’t quite muster the energy to be embarrassed by it.

“Francesca.”

Uh-oh. There was that Daddy tone. The one that usually meant her backside was about to become intimately reacquainted with her Daddy’s palm. But he’d said multiple times over the past few days that he wouldn’t spank her, so maybe she could get away with ignoring him at least a little while longer.

“All right,” he said with an exaggerated sigh, and triumph surged through her veins. “I guess I’ll have to go get your clothes out of your storage unit myself. Which means you’ll be stuck wearing whatever Daddy chooses for you while you stay here.”

Tossing the covers back, she glared up at him through narrowed eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Would you like to test me?”

That bratty, push-all-his-buttons side of her absolutely wanted to test him. But for once, her self-preservation kicked in and she pushed herself up in the bed. “You’re mean.”

“Very. And as you’re well aware, I can be very creative when the situation calls for it. Now, are you going to get up and put some clothes on or am I going to ransack your storage unit all by myself?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she grumbled, slipping from the bed and stomping off toward the bathroom.

Where she realized, with a sudden jolt, she had nothing to wear but his clothes. Everything she owned was either dirty or packed up in her storage unit.

“Um, Daddy?”

“The clothes you wore home from the hospital are on the bed,” he called back, a hint of amusement in his tone.

“How the hell does hedothat?” she asked under her breath as she used the toilet and washed her hands. Were all Doms born with the ability to read minds or was that something they were taught along the way?

Her annoyance wasn’t at all helped by the smirk on his face when she made her way back out to the bedroom to get dressed. Or the fact that he watched her like a hawk as she yanked each piece of clothing on.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” she snapped when she looked up and found him still staring at her.

One silver eyebrow rose, and her bottom instinctively clenched. Her ass obviously hadn’t gotten the memo that he’d promised not to spank her until she was feeling stronger.

Closing the distance between them with a single step, he gripped her chin between his fingers, tilting her head back, studying her with those dark, unreadable eyes. “Someone needs breakfast. What would you like Daddy to make you?”

Of all the reactions that had run through her mind, that one had never even occurred to her. “I’m not hungry,” she replied automatically, more out of habit than anything. Because if she was being honest with herself, her stomach did feel a little empty.

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