Page 33 of Sugar Daddy (Sugar Bowl 1)

All of life is filled with doubt. All of us make calculated risks in our choices, and while I'm not one to second-guess myself, I fully understand that Sela might be having some difficulties in accepting what's going on between us. It's okay though...I'm a patient man.

I'm not going anywhere.

"Beck?" Sela asks softly.

"Yeah?"

"You're the first man I've brought home to meet my father."

I'm not surprised by this, but I am deeply flattered. Still, I know this is a big deal for her, but she's far too serious in this moment. I don't want this to be stressful on her, so I joke, "I won't embarrass you, I promise."

"You couldn't," she assures me, the joke bouncing off her shadowed eyes. "I'm not even quite sure why you're with someone like me."

I tilt my head, squeeze her hand, and admonish her, "If this is a shameless attempt to get me to extol all your virtues, we're going to be very late to dinner for me to take the time to do that."

She laughs softly, places her other hand over the ones we already have clasped. "No, it's just...sometimes on its face it's hard to see us together, you know? Different backgrounds, life choices, paths. I mean...think about it. You are so out of my league, Beck. If we hadn't met at that Sugar Bowl Mixer, chances are you and I would have never had the opportunity to even cross paths."

"And I certainly wasn't looking for a Sugar Baby," I tell her with a chuckle. "And I'm the one out of your league."

"But I was looking for a Sugar Daddy," she reminds me primly, refusing to debate league status.

"You got way more than you bargained for." I lower my voice so it sounds ominous, "I've enjoyed corrupting you, Miss Halstead."

She snorts and releases my hands, grabs for the door handle. "I suggest you don't go saying shit like that around my father. He has guns in the house and he's just itching to play the role of overprotective father."

Laughing, I get out of the car and follow her up the sidewalk.

--

William Halstead is a good man. I figured it out from the minute he met us at the door and pulled Sela into a bear hug, rocking her back and forth and cooing, "There's my baby girl."

It was confirmed when he finally released her and gave me a hearty handshake, clasping my hand with two of his and pumping it vigorously while smiling at me as if I was a knight in shining armor. Sela wasn't kidding...I'm the first man she's ever brought home, and this apparently made her father very, very happy. It again makes me wonder how this smart, beautiful creature went so long without any real relationship. With regard to me, it's a no-brainer. My parents were terrible role models for what a healthy, loyal relationship should look like. But you can just tell that Sela grew up in a household with a lot of love and respect.

Perhaps, maybe like me, she was just waiting for the right one to come along.

--

I'm relieved that the conversation flowed easily throughout dinner. Sela's dad is a gregarious man and a natural-born storyteller. His girlfriend, Maria, is more reserved, but that could simply be because William tends to dominate conversations. I wonder if Sela's mom was that way as well.

"Can I get anyone anything to drink?" Maria asks as she walks into the living room. She had insisted on doing the dishes so we could all retire in here to talk and hang out for a bit before we headed back to the city.

"I'm good," I say, and Sela chimes in with, "I'm good too."

"I'm good, honey," William says as he reaches out to touch his hand to Maria's with a soft smile before she plops down onto the couch next to him.

Sela's body tightens next to me, barely perceptible, but I'm very in tune with her mood since we got here. While she is open and friendly with her father, she's a bit more reserved around Maria, and I know that has everything to do with the fact Sela fears this woman is replacing her late mother in her father's affections. She's not said much about it, but I can tell in the careful mask she keeps in place whenever she interacts with Maria.

"So tell me more about your business," William asks me, his hands folded casually over his stomach. William Halstead is a big man, in height and girth. Sela told me he heads the janitorial staff for the local high school and has been working there for nearly thirty years now. I do believe he's the first janitor I've ever known in my life, a thought that actually humbles me a bit.

"It's primarily a Web-based dating site that focuses on pairing wealthy men with women," I say, holding his gaze steady. Didn't think it would be this hard to tell Sela's dad what I did for a living, but I brace for censure.

"And it's called the Sugar Bowl?" Maria asks with a polite smile on her face. "What's that mean?"

Sela coughs slightly, and as she sits next to me on the love seat, I can see her from my peripheral vision put a hand over her mouth to hide a smirk. I think she's enjoying my discomfort a bit.

"It's a play on the words sugar daddy," William says with booming voice. "I read an article online about it."

"What's a sugar daddy?" Maria asks, turning to look at William.

Sela nearly chokes and her dad shoots her a sly wink. He also saves me from having to explain by telling Maria, "Sugar daddy is a term used for a man who pays for everything for his woman."

Maria turns her brown eyes my way. She's an attractive Hispanic woman who made an amazing carne adobada for dinner and seemed to dote on Sela's dad. You can tell she's seriously in love with the man, but I could also tell that William holds something in reserve, sort of the way that Sela does with me. I wonder if Sela notices that and it makes her feel any better about him being with her.

"So, it's like Match.com, but it focuses more on economic factors?" she asks me, turning my way.

I nod and smile. "That's a good way to think of it."

Maria snorts and says, "Well, I can just imagine what those women have to do to land them a rich Sugar Daddy."

Sela chokes again, a snicker pops out, and she then lunges up off the couch, mumbling, "Excuse me. I need to use the restroom."

All three of us watch her walk away, and yeah...my eyes flip down to her retreating ass for a moment. Luckily, when I turn back to face William and Maria, they're still looking at the hallway where Sela just disappeared.

William slowly turns his face to me and says, "Well, it all sounds very impressive. I saw the net worth of your company."

And that embarrasses me a bit, making me feel slightly uncomfortable. I don't want Sela's dad to judge me on the merits of my bank account.

"She's an amazing girl," William says thoughtfully of his daughter. Maria reaches over and takes his hand, giving it a tiny pat of agreement. "She deserves nothing but the best."

"Agreed," I say.

"But she's also set in her ways," he continues, and this piques my interest. "She views this world in a

certain way and sometimes has a hard time believing in the good of it. Be patient with her. Sela has a lot to offer anyone who has the pleasure of knowing her, but she can sometimes withdraw into herself. You ever catch her doing that, you pull her right back out again, okay?"

A sense of foreboding hits me, and a tiny spark of fear pulses within. William's words are so serious and at odds with the jovial dad of just a few minutes ago that was thrilled to have his daughter involved with a man for the first time in her life.

"I'm pretty sure there isn't anything I wouldn't do for Sela," I tell William solemnly, because I feel that he wants that type of promise. "I'll take care of her."

"Like a sugar daddy?" Maria asks, blinking innocent eyes at me.

I stare back at her completely stunned, my mouth hanging open. Then she starts laughing and points a finger at me while patting William on the leg. "You two need to lighten up. Sela's a strong girl and doesn't need a man making things right for her."

I suppose that's true, but as I look across the living room to William, I don't see him laughing along with Maria. Instead he pins me with a direct stare, conveying silently to me that he expects me to do exactly what I just promised him. And the look on his face says that if I don't, I will see a different side to Sela's dad.

Chapter 23

Sela

I slip on the Tag Heuer that Beck surprised me with last weekend when we spent a day shopping around San Francisco. After Caroline and Ally left, the apartment was almost stifling in its stillness, and he suggested a day out and about. It included a stop at an upscale jeweler where he insisted on buying me this stainless-steel beauty with a white ceramic face and diamonds around the edge, as well as twelve on the face for each hour. It's beautiful and so me; not too delicate, a little bold, and not the slightest bit ostentatious despite the high price tag. I put up an argument against his getting it for me, but Beck shut me up with a simple statement.

"Don't take this away from me. I've never had anyone I could buy jewelry for."

Checking the time, I note I have about ten minutes before I have to get down to the lobby so the doorman can hail me a cab. Tonight's the big dinner with JT and my nerves have been vibrating all day. Beck got called into the office about three hours ago, something I didn't quite understand. He's the freakin' owner of a multimillion-dollar business and yet he was spending his Saturday at the office helping programmers with some meddlesome code. Beck explained to me that they were launching a new platform at the beginning of the year, and while that was still thirty days away, the work was round the clock to meet the deadline. When the programmers got stuck, Beck was the big cheese, and this was his baby, so he went in to work. He took a suit with him, since we were dining in a very fancy and posh restaurant, and gave me a long, sizzling kiss to help ease the sting of ditching me today.

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