Page 33 of Daddy's Laws

Silence stretched between them as she nibbled at a cracker topped with some kind of fancy cheese that thankfully tasted a hell of a lot better than it smelled.

“We need to talk.”

Her stomach flipped and she carefully lowered the half-eaten cracker. “About?”

“Where we go from here. Our current arrangement isn’t going to work for me.”

He was sending her away? After he’d gotten past her defenses, made her feel Little and vulnerable, after he’d made her finally believe she could have everything she’d always wanted, he was going to just send her packing?

Well, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her beg. “Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

“What else do you want me to say, Bryant? If that’s how you want things to be, then fine.”

“What I want is for you to talk to me, princess. How do you feel about it?”

He really had the nerve to tell her he was through with her and then call her princess? “I told you, it’s fine.”

“Fine?” There was an obvious note of annoyance, or maybe even flat-out anger in his tone, but she told herself she didn’t care. “After all these months of you pushing me away, telling me and everyone else you don’t want a Daddy, all you can say is fine?”

“Yes. I’m a big girl, Bryant. I’m not going to fall apart just because you’ve decided you don’t really want me here.”

“Don’t want you—wait.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he blew out a breath. “I’m not asking you to leave, princess.”

“You’re not?” Confusion and hope tangled painfully in her chest. If he wasn’t asking her to leave, then what was he trying to say?

“Jesus, no. The opposite, actually. I want… more.”

“More what?”

“More than just you as my houseguest. I want you, Shannon. I want to be your Daddy.”

She froze, a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding vehicle. “Oh.”

“That’s more the reaction I was expecting,” he said, his lips twisting up in a wry smile.

What had seemed so simple and even obvious moments ago suddenly seemed like a horrible idea. “You don’t want me.”

“I do. But I expected that answer. So, I have a proposition.”

“That’s illegal in most states, lawyer-boy.”

He snorted out a laugh. “Brat. Not that kind of proposition.”

“What kind, exactly?”

“Give me the rest of the week to prove I can be the Daddy you need and deserve.”

Those long-buried parts of her shook with excitement. Outwardly, she merely lifted an eyebrow. “What would that entail, exactly?”

“We’ll sit down tonight and iron out the details, but basically, you spend the rest of our time here as my little girl.”

“So, more rules?”

“Yes.” When his grin flashed, it was full of promise. “And more rewards.”

“What kind of rewards?”

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