Page 39 of Temptress

I’d scrubbed the kitchen clean after we got home last night, but I could still smell the char from my first and only attempt at baking fucking cookies. Never again. That was all I had to say about that.

“What are you feeling tonight?” she asked as she held up a variety of take-out menus. Subs or pizza?”

I gave her selections some thought before deciding, “Subs. But you have to get lettuce on yours so I can tell your mom I’m at least attempting to make you eat healthy every now and then.”

She giggled and tossed the menu for the sandwich shop on the counter. “How about I get a salad too? Will that make you feel better?”

I shot her a wink, one corner of my mouth curving up in a smirk. “Much obliged, baby girl.”

I looked out the kitchen window and noticed Sloane’s car was parked in the driveway, and a thought hit me. I hadn’t been lying when I told her earlier that I wanted to see her again. I would have loved nothing more than to sink my cock deep inside her again, but I’d settle for the three of us sharing a meal together if it meant I got to be close to her, at least for a little while. “Before we order, how about you head over and ask Sloane if she wants to eat with us.”

Darcy’s head came up, her eyes big. “Really?”

I attempted a casual shrug, hoping I pulled it off. “Sure, why not? I mean, it’s the neighborly thing to do, right?”

I’d been an Army Ranger, for Christ’s sake. I’d managed to hold up under some of the worst interrogation tactics imaginable, not once coming close to breaking. Yet it was taking everything I had to keep from squirming under the scrutinizing focus of a fourteen-year-old girl. If my old team could see me now, they’d laugh at how goddamn weak I was when it came to my own daughter.

“Yeah, okay,” she finally said after a handful of the tensest seconds of my life. “I’ll go ask her. Be right back.”

She moved out the back door, choosing to use the gate in the fence between our two backyards instead of going around to the front. And the moment the door closed behind her, I let out a sigh of relief, my shoulders slumping inward.

And as I watched her climb Sloane’s porch steps and knock on her back door, I grabbed my phone and shot off a text.

Me:Darcy’s coming to invite you over for dinner. Say yes.

Those three bubbles popped up at the bottom of my screen, and I waited for her reply to come through.

Sloane:Not fair, using your daughter to your own advantage when you know I’m not capable of telling her no.

That was exactly why I’d done it. And I didn’t feel the slightest hint of shame.

* * *

Sloane

I would have been lying if I said the sound of my phone pinging hadn’t filled my stomach with a million flapping butterflies. The instant that chime echoed through my kitchen, I felt like a giddy schoolgirl. I hadn’t looked at the screen, yet somehow I knew it was from him.

My thoughts raced back to earlier in the studio, to how he’d held me gently after fucking me hard and rough. That softer side of him had a been a surprise, to say the least, a very pleasant one. His embrace made my belly feel floaty, and as much as I wanted a repeat performance of what went down in front of that mirrored wall, I also wanted that gentle side again.

I looked down at my phone, tapping the screen to see a message from Silas who was saved in my phone as Neighbor From Hell. I probably should have changed it, but it made me laugh.

Neighbor From Hell:Darcy’s coming to invite you over for dinner. Say yes.

So bossy. And I loved it.

A moment after that message came through, a knock sounded on my back door. I looked up and smiled. Sure enough, Darcy stood on the other side, dressed in her cheer practice clothes.

She waved at me through the glass, and I waved her in as I responded to the man next door.

Me:Not fair, using your daughter to your own advantage when you know I’m not capable of telling her no.

But something told me that he already knew that and was exactly why he’d sent her in the first place.

That floaty feeling grew even more intense. If it kept going at this rate, I worried I’d have trouble keeping my feet on the ground.

“Hey sweetie. What’s up?”

“Dad sent me to invite you over for dinner.”