Page 43 of Daddy's Claim
Mikey
“Why do you look as though you just took a bite of something incredibly sour?”
At the sound of Adele’s teasing tone, I turned to glare at her. “You women are a goddamn mystery, you know that?”
Her eyebrows shot up toward her hairline. “Trouble in… ah, I forget the expression.”
“Paradise,” I provided begrudgingly. “And no. Or at least, there wasn’t. We were fine when she went to lunch with her friend. Then she gets home and she’s back to her old, sulky self.I’m tempted to track her down and blister her ass until she tells me what crawled up it.”
“I am not familiar with that saying, but I think I understand. You want her to talk to you, to tell you why she is upset?”
“Yes.”
“Men.” Sighing heavily, Adele rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Especially you DeCosta men. You always think a spanking will solve everything.”
“Seems to work for you.”
“Ah, yes, and since all women are exactly the same with no personality of our own, it must be the same for your Nora.”
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I turned back to the hallway Nora had disappeared into. “Cole said something similar the other night.”
“My husband is a smart man. Almost as smart as me. So perhaps you should listen to us, no?”
“You’re annoying when you’re right.”
“I know.” With a throaty laugh, she rose up on her toes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “You will get used to it, eventually.”
Adele slipped away, and the door to Cole’s office clicked shut just as the sound of high heels on tile echoed down the hall in front of me. Nora stopped short when she saw me, her face an unreadable mess of emotions. Misery seemed to be the most prominent, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever stop breaking my fucking heart.
“Come on.”
Turning, I headed for a hidden side door, pausing when I didn’t hear her following me. “Nora. Come here.”
She huffed loudly but didn’t argue. When she reached my side, I took her hand and silently led her through the door, into the cavernous garage that held a vast array of vehicles. From the sleek and sporty to SUVs that were as heavily armored as any tank, we had our pick. But one vehicle in particular stoodout among the rest, and Nora’s gasp alerted me the second she noticed it.
“Oh! My car!” Racing over to what several of the men had termed “the Barbie car,” she ran her hands over the reflective pink and purple hood. The damn thing practically had a mirror finish, and not for the first time I found myself wondering how it didn’t blind everyone within a fifty-yard radius on a sunny day.
“Thought you might like to go for a drive, maybe do some shopping.”
“Really?” Pure joy lit up her entire face, transforming her from gorgeous to absolutely fucking stunning in a heartbeat.
In that moment, I knew I would do whatever it took to keep that light in her eyes. More than her obedience, more than her respect, all I wanted, for the rest of my life, was to see her that fucking happy every day. “Yeah, really. I’ll grab the keys and we can go.”
For the moment, she was too distracted by the car to badger me about getting the code to the lockbox that held the keys for every vehicle in the garage, but I figured that wouldn’t last long. I’d have to figure something out, because as much as I wanted her to be happy, her safety came first. And I wasn’t entirely sure she could be trusted to have unfettered access to an escape plan at any given moment.
When I tossed the keys to her, her squeal of happiness nearly splintered my eardrums. And when she zipped down the driveway and onto the main road with a whoop of joy and a squeal of tires, I began to question my own sanity.
“Little girl, if you don’t slow down, you will be riding back home on a freshly welted ass,” I managed to grind out once my heart had dislodged itself from my throat.
“Spoilsport,” she said with a loud, happy laugh. “Don’t worry. I’m an excellent driver.”
To my surprise, she really was. Probably the best I’d ever been in the car with, even if her absolute disregard for speed limits was a bit concerning. “Where’d you learn to drive like that?” I asked when she whipped the little car into a parking spot in front of a row of ridiculously expensive-looking shops.
“One of Dad’s drivers taught me.”
Excitement still glittered in her eyes, and I already knew I’d go through another heart attack inducing ride as soon as she wanted.
“So, what’s next on our agenda?”