You didn’t do anything. I fucked up.But the words stuck in his throat, so he kept his silence until he found an unoccupied classroom. He pushed into the room and shut the door behind them.
When he turned, she was still watching him with those wide, worried eyes. “Daddy?”
He should tell her. Technically, he hadn’t done anything wrong. And word would get out soon enough that Julia had been fired. But he couldn’t make himself say the words, so he settled for shoving her up against the wall and losing himself in the taste of her. The scent of her, the feel of her, all of it helped to soothe the guilt-ridden beast inside of him, but it still wasn’t enough.
“Desk,” he growled, pulling away and pointing toward the large oak desk at the front of the classroom.
She didn’t move at first. For what seemed like eternity, she stood there, lips swollen and bruised, her eyes searching his face.
And then the corner of her mouth twisted up and she crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”
It was, in those dark and twisted places inside of him, exactly what he’d wanted to hear. Wrapping a hand around the back of her neck, he jerked her toward him, ignoring her gasp of surprise. “What did you just say?”
“No. I don’t want to,” she added, her voice prim, but a little breathless.
The primal need to take, to conquer coursed through him and he used his grip on her neck to drag her over to the desk. He let go of her just long enough to yank her leggings and panties to her knees before placing a hand on her back and bending her over the gleaming wood.
At some point, he wanted to see her with cane marks neatly lined up all down her bottom. For now, he needed the skin to skin contact of his palm on her ass, so he lifted his arm and brought the flat of his hand down across her pale flesh. The force of it pushed her onto her toes and she squealed, but she didn’t try to move.
He let the heat of it sink in before giving the opposite cheek the same treatment. “You do not,” he laid down another matching pair of swats, “tell Daddyno.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy! I didn’t mean it!”
Four perfect, crisp handprints had bloomed a beautiful shade of pink on her bottom. Unable to wait another second, he pushed his own uniform pants to his knees and sank into her with a single thrust.
Pinning her to the desk with a hand on the back of her neck, he leaned down to growl in her ear. “Mine.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she moaned, her eyes fluttering closed.
“Your body, your sweet little pussy – all of it belongs to Daddy, little girl. Mine. You hear me?”
God, he prayed she couldn’t hear the desperation in his voice. Working a hand between her hips and the unforgiving wood, he found her clit and gave it a hard pinch. She clamped down around him, her muscles spasming with the force of her orgasm, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. In an embarrassingly short amount of time, he thrust into her one final time.
The sound of their ragged breathing filled the classroom and for several long minutes, neither of them spoke. When he finally let her up, she turned and wrapped her arms around his neck before drawing him down for a slow, sweet kiss.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” she asked softly when they pulled apart, her eyes once again searching his face.
“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to see you.”
She knew it was a lie. He could see it in the flicker of hurt in her eyes before she forced a smile. “I missed you, too.”
They fixed their clothes and he walked her back to the event hall. In front of the doors, she turned to him and laid a hand on his cheek. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it. I love you, Chef.”
“I love you too, jellybean.”
With another sweet, simple kiss, she disappeared back into the hall. As he made his way back to the kitchen, he could only pray she was right.
Unfortunately, luck didn’t seem to be on his side. When he walked in the kitchen, Julia was at her usual station, working on the dinner prep. The look she shot him when he walked in was so full of defiance, he knew anything he said to her was likely to turn into a public scene.
Fine. He’d just wait and speak to Derek the first chance he got and get the ball rolling on her termination.
Chapter 12
The momentshe returned to the event hall, Hayleigh made a beeline for Sadie. She didn’t even make it to the table before Sadie was up and out of her seat and hurrying to meet her in the middle of the room. For the second time that day, Hayleigh found herself being dragged out of the hall, though Sadie’s grip was significantly gentler than her Daddy’s had been. There was no doubt in her mind she’d have bruises tomorrow morning. Which she wouldn’t have minded if it hadn’t been so blatantly obvious that Connor was majorly upset about something.
“What the heck happened? Are you okay?” Sadie asked as soon as the doors shut behind them. “Did you get in trouble?”
“No. But something’s wrong with Connor.”