Page 6 of Owned

Now, though, here was Rowan, in fucking Arcadia, the last place in the entire goddamn universe I would have expected her to turn up.

And not only that, she’d just watched me have sex with Tina.

And I was still hard.

Jesus Christ. What a shit show.

It wouldn’t have been such a drama if it had been some stranger watching me from behind that curtain, but no. It was my fucking ex-stepdaughter and that was a problem, because it had not escaped my notice that Rowan James was not sixteen any more.

Gone was the freckled teenager with the stringy black hair she always kept tied back, who was straight up and down and as flat as a board. Her eyes had been a specific shade though, blue in some lights, grey in others, and violet when she was mad. Which was often.

But that stringy black hair was now glossy and shining and swept back into a bun on the back of her head, and the features that had once seemed too big for her face, now fit. Pert little nose. Full mouth with the sweetest cupid’s bow. Sharp, determined chin.

Not her eyes, though. They were the same. They were violet now, a sure sign of intense emotion, and framed by thick, sooty black lashes. And, fuck, I couldn’t help myself. I kept right on going, looking down the line of her body, marking yet more changes.

She wasn’t straight up and down anymore. Hourglass figure, just like her mother, and there was nothing flat about the generous breasts that made her white shirt pull tight. The kid was a woman now, and she was gorgeous, which I shouldn’t have noticed and was pissed that I did.

“Rowan,” I said flatly. “What in the living fuck are you doing here?”

“I…I.” She stuttered, clearly horrified to find me standing on the other side of the curtain, as well she might given what she’d just witnessed. “I’m looking for my boss.”

“Really?” I demanded. “Well, clearly he’s not in here.”

She glanced away, unable to meet my eye, straightening her jacket and smoothing her skirt with restless hands. Her cheeks were flaming. “No,” she muttered. “Clearly not.”

I was an easy-going man — never saw the point of getting too het up about shit — but that didn’t mean I wasn’t pissed as hell right now.

I didn’t know what had happened to Rowan and Cait in the past eight years, but one thing I did know was that Arcadia wasn’t the kind of place for young women like Rowan.

It wasn’t a sex club, though sex went on, and there were sexually themed evenings every week, the virginity auctions for example. It was a great club, private, exclusive and very discreet. Whatever you were into, as long as it wasn’t illegal, you could get here, and while Caleb vetted the membership ruthlessly, there were some unscrupulous motherfuckers around. Men who preyed on young impressionable women just like Rowan.

Men like my father. Not that I wanted to think about that asshole right now.

“How did you get in and what the fuck were you doing behind the curtain?” I didn’t bother masking my annoyance.

“The club was expecting me.” She smoothed hair that didn’t need smoothing. “I’m only here to deliver a file to my boss, that’s all.” She lifted her chin slightly, her eyes darkening in a way I remembered from her tantrums years ago. “I thought he might be in this room, so I came in to find him and then when you and…”

“Tina.”

“You and Tina came in, and I thought I shouldn’t have been in here so I hid.” This time she didn’t stumble over the words and her gaze was direct. “What about you? Why are you here?”

I ignored that. “You didn’t think to announce your presence? Not even when Tina took her clothes off?”

She flushed an even deeper red. “No. I thought it would be too embarrassing for all concerned. Anyway, I didn’t look, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Little liar. She had looked. That’s why she was blushing so intensely.

“Oh, I’m not worried,” I said. “I don’t give a shit if you saw me. But you have to know that wandering around here unattended can have consequences. Consequences that you may not like.”

“Such as watching my ex-stepfather have sex with some woman? Yes, I see your point.”

Her tone was acerbic as hell and as familiar. Her shooting little barbs at me, trying to get a rise out of me. Maybe she hadn’t grown up as much as I’d thought.

“Listen, kid.” I purposely injected a patronizing note in my voice, just to show her I hadn’t forgotten her teenage years. “The whole point of coming into an empty room and shutting the door is to have some privacy. It’s not my fault you got more of an eyeful than you bargained for, embarrassment or not.”

“Yes, and I apologize for that,” she said stiffly, her jaw set, fingers playing nervously with the strap of her voluminous black purse. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

“Which one? About what I’m doing here? Having tea and fucking scones. What do you think?”

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