Page 97 of Break Me, Daddy

Pushing to his feet with a sigh, Beckett held out a hand to his babygirl. “On that note, I’m going to take my naughty girl down to the pit. Come on, Ruby Red. There’s a new paddle in my play bag with your name on it. Literally.”

Cheeks blazing red, Ruby took his hand and allowed herself to be led away and down to the pit.

Seeing her opening, Cordelia nudged Ivy off her lap. “I think we’re heading home. We’ve both got an early morning.”

Across the table, Lottie rolled her eyes. “You know nobody ever buys that line, right? We all know you’re just leaving so you can take Ivy home and?—”

“Charlotte, you’re being rude.”

With a wink for her friend, Cordelia grinned. “She’s fine. Besides, she’s right. I have every intention of tying Ivy to our bed and making her come so many times she passes out.”

Beside her, Ivy bounced on her toes. “Oh, goody. Bye y’all!”

Laughter rang out at Ivy’s exuberant farewell, and Cordelia just shook her head as her girl tugged impatiently on her hand. Making a mental note to give her girl a lesson in patience when they made it home, she followed Ivy out the back door, the warm spring air greeting them as they stepped outside.

“Oh, shit.” Stopping short, Ivy groaned. “I left my purse at the table.”

Turning, Cordelia pinned her with a mock-stern look. “Go back and get it. And that's ten when we get home.”

Ivy’s bottom lip pushed out in an adorable pout that just begged to be kissed. “You can’t punish me for leaving my purse behind!”

“No.” Sliding her hand around the back of Ivy’s neck, Cordelia watched in pleasure as her girl’s eyes widened with that delicious awareness she loved so much. “But I can, and will punish you for making me wait to get my hands on you. So that’s an extra ten for the time it took us to have this conversation.”

“Y-yes, Ma’am.”

God, she loved the way her babygirl’s voice took on that softer, more breathless quality as she slid even deeper into her submissive role. Two years together and she still hadn’t tired of the way Ivy reacted to a single touch, a single look.

And she hoped she never did.

With her hand still gripping the back of Ivy’s neck, she leaned in, her gaze locked on Ivy’s wide, brown eyes as she lowered her head to nip at her full bottom lip.

“Excuse me.”

Biting back a sigh of annoyance, she turned to address their intruder. “Can we help…”

But the rest of the words faded on her tongue. The world around her fell away, and from a distance she could hear Ivy’s worried voice, but the actual words were drowned out by the ringing in her ears.

He couldn’t be here. Couldn’t have found her. She’d left, changed her name, her hair, everything she could to make sure they couldn’t find her. And yet, here he was, her own personal nightmare staring her in the fucking face.

Someone shook her arm, hard enough to snap her out of the odd trance she’d found herself trapped in, though the panic still gripped her lungs, holding on tight.

And now she could see it wasn’t him. But goddamn if the man in front of her couldn’t have been Silas Redding’s twin, at least from the pictures she’d seen of him when he’d been younger.

Much younger. Whoever this was standing in the back alley of her club, he couldn’t have been more than twenty.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Holding up his hands, the man took a step back, glancing nervously over his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just, I-I need some help.”

Without taking her eyes off the man in front of her, she spoke to Ivy over her shoulder, deliberately keeping her voice as calm as possible. “Blossom, run inside and get Braden and Holden, tell them I need them to come outside.”

“I am not leaving you out here with some strange dude, Dee.”

“You will if I say you will.Now, Ivy Mae,” she added with a snap in her tone when Ivy didn’t move.

“Fuck,” Ivy muttered, but she did as she was told and slipped back inside, leaving Cordelia trapped in the alley with someone who looked far too much like he’d stepped straight out of the world she’d left behind for her comfort.

Where the fuck was the guard? According to Holden, there was supposed to be one out here at all times when the club was open for business.

---