Page 56 of Daddy's Laws

“Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” Sliding his hand beneath hers on the table, he lifted her fingers to his lips. It was a smooth, obviously practiced move, but knowing that didn’t stop her heart from fluttering about madly.

“You have not. As I remember it, you were too busy ushering me out of the house to compliment me at the time.”

“In my defense, you took much longer to get ready than I was expecting.” His smile turned positively rakish, and the fluttering in her chest turned to pounding. “But you were worth the wait.”

Was it her imagination or was there something more, some deeper meaning hovering behind the seemingly innocent statement? “Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

“High praise, indeed,” he teased, drawing a laugh from her and settling her jumping nerves. “You really should be careful about stroking my ego, princess.”

“Somehow, I think your ego will be just fine.” But inspiration had struck. Slipping her foot from her sandal, she stretched out her leg, inwardly cheering when her toes met the smooth material of his khakis.

Across the table, her date for the evening froze, his glass of wine halfway to his lips. “Princess.”

The single word was a warning, one she had no intention of heeding. Sipping her own wine, she slid her foot further up his leg to his thigh. For once, she was grateful for her height so she didn’t have to slide down in her seat to reach him. “Yes?”

Leaning forward, Bryant lowered his voice for only her to hear. “What did I say would happen the next time you teased me in public, little girl?”

The memory of his hand gripping her ponytail as she sucked furiously at his cock sprang to mind, along with the promise he’d made. Was it worth pushing him? He wouldn’t risk them being caught in a place like this, would he?

“Perhaps you should consider that these tablecloths hide pretty much everything before you move another inch.”

It was her turn to freeze as she considered her options. There was something undeniably thrilling about the idea, the possibility of being caught in such a precarious position in one of the nicest restaurants in town.

But as exciting as it was, she wasn’t quite brave enough to take the chance, so she slid her foot back to the ground and slipped her sandal back on.

“Good choice, princess.”

“I was just joking around. Geez.” But she couldn’t deny the blossom of pleasure she’d felt at his praise.

“You were being a brat.”

“I thought you liked brats.”

“I do.” His grin flashed again, easing the sudden churning of her stomach. “I especially enjoy taming them.”

“Do you think you’ve tamed me, then?”

“Not in the least.” Cupping her hand in his much larger one, he ran the pad of his thumb over her palm, sending a shiver down her spine straight to her clit. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Brats are never really tamed. They can be mollified for a bit, and they’ll let you think they’ve changed their ways. But half the fun is wondering when they’ll get tired of being good and start challenging you again.”

“You sound like you speak from experience. How many brats have you been with?” It didn’t matter, really. Once they returned to their lives at the end of the week, everything would go back to normal. They weren’t building a relationship together, so his past wasn’t important.

And neither was hers, which was exactly how she wanted it. So why was she prying?

Before she could take the question back, he shrugged and shot her another devastating smile. “I belonged to a club for a while, so I’ve played with plenty of brats. They’re always entertaining for a scene or two.”

Her stomach clenched painfully, and she forced herself to take another sip of wine. “But nothing more serious?”

“There was a girl in college. But after graduation, she moved back home to Nebraska to become a schoolteacher and I moved on to law school. And if we’re being honest here, I’ve used work as an excuse not to pursue anything more than a casual fling here and there.”

Tears burned at the back of her throat, but she willed them back. A casual fling was exactly what she wanted, so there was no point in getting upset over him saying it out loud. The fact that she’d fallen in love didn’t change anything.

“What about you?” he asked, pulling her out of her pit of self-pity and back into the conversation. “Has anyone successfully tamed you in the past?”

“Like you, plenty of play partners,” she answered with a shrug. “Nothing serious.”

His eyebrows winged up toward his hairline in obvious surprise. “Really?”

“Yes. Is that a problem? Men aren’t the only ones who enjoy casual sex, you know.”

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