Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 5

  There was no response. I got out my phone and checked her location, but apparently she had turned that feature off. Frowning, I knocked again, and sent her a text.

  No response to either. After a few minutes, I gave up, disappointed and annoyed. I headed back to my wing and went up to my room, loosening my tie, getting ready to change into workout clothes.

  When I got into my room, I stopped short, a smile spreading across my face.

  Attached to the headboard were handcuffs, set up just like in my fantasy. On the pillow there was a note. I walked over and picked it up.

  Put these on. I’ll be there soon. – E

  I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as I undressed, carefully laying my suit down over a chair. I climbed into bed and hooked the handcuffs up to my wrists, wearing nothing but black boxer briefs.

  I didn’t have to wait long before I heard the door open and shut.

  “There you are,” I said, excitement coursing through my veins.

  Emily walked into the room wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She raised an eyebrow, smiling at me.

  “So you can follow directions,” she said.

  I nodded. “But apparently you can’t.”

  “Oh, I can. But only when I went to.” She took out the phone and took a picture of me.

  “What’s that for?” I asked. “A little something for later?”

  “Oh, no. Just a little extra blackmail in case all this fails to pan out.”

  I blinked and slowly figured out what was happening. “You naughty girl,” I said.

  She smiled and did a little curtsy. “Thanks.”

  I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing, and that only made her smile a bit more confused.

  “I don’t know what’s funny,” she said. “You do realize that I’m not letting you go, right?”

  That only made me laugh harder. I had to hand it to her, the girl was fucking funny, and apparently was very good at pranks. I was going to have to be much more careful around her from here on out.

  She looked confused and finally laughed a little bit her, shaking her head. “You’re crazy, you know that, Carter?”

  “I know,” I said, getting a hold of myself. “But you do realize that I’m going to get you back for this.”

  “I’d expect nothing less.”

  Without another word, she blew me a kiss and left the room.

  I leaned my head back, grinning to myself, picturing that Snap she sent me again. Fortunately, the phone had voice control, so all I had to do was call out and command it to send someone to release me, but I was going to savor this moment for another few minutes.

  It wasn’t every day that someone got one over on me. Apparently, I had my hands full with Emily, and I fucking loved it.

  9

  Emily

  The look on Carter’s face both confused and excited me in ways that I didn’t expect.

  I assumed he was going to be really pissed. I figured he’d yell and maybe threaten me, the usual stuff. Instead, he seemed genuinely amused and excited by the whole thing, which seemed totally crazy to me. On the other hand, he looks so damn attractive handcuffed to that bed that I did nearly forget my plan and give in to temptation. I could have easily gotten him hard and then rode him to my heart’s content, but I had to resist that urge.

  Still, the way he reacted showed me that he wasn’t just some immature playboy asshole. He could take a joke, and apparently he liked a challenge. That excited me and intrigued me more than I would have guessed.

  The next morning I did feel a little bad about leaving him there. I sent him a quick text.

  “If you’re still cuffed to the bed, don’t respond to this message.”

  A few minutes later, he got back to me. “I was free ten minutes after you left. Although I think I owe this poor housekeeper a very large raise.”

  I grinned to myself and felt a little bit better, but still. It wasn’t cool to trick him like that, and maybe I should consider apologizing.

  Then again, I doubted he would apologize to me.

  I had some breakfast, got into my bathing suit, and headed down to the pool. So far, living at Carter’s place hadn’t been nearly as awful as I assumed it would be. I thought it would just be months of Carter being an insufferable ass while surrounded by stupid and absurdly expensive paintings. Instead, I just lounged around the pool, enjoying my summer vacation. The whole plan was still extremely stupid and ill conceived, but at least I was having fun so far.

  About an hour into sunbathing, I heard a weird whining sound. Frowning to myself, I looked around, trying to spot whatever was making that noise, but couldn’t see anything. I assumed it was just some weird gardening thing, like maybe nearby sprinklers, so I decided to ignore it.

  But the noise got louder. I grabbed my sunglasses to protect my eyes from the sun’s glare and looked up, trying to spot what the heck was making the noise.

  That was when I spotted it. Hovering maybe fifty feet above me was a drone. It was one of those models with the four helicopter rotors with the big camera on the bottom, and I could tell that the camera was directed right at me.

  Chills ran down my spine. I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around myself before swiping through my phone, trying to find someone to call. At the bottom of my contacts was a listing for someone named “Security Cox.”

  I called the number and a man answered on the third ring.

  “Security,” he said.

  “Uh, hi,” I said. “This is Emily. There’s a drone hovering above me—“

  “What kind of drone?” he asked, business-like and direct.

  “One of those helicopter things with the four spinners. And a camera at the bottom.”

  “Quadcopter,” he said. “What color?”

  “Silver. With some blue trim.”

  “Not one of ours,” he grunted. “Where are you?”

  “Out by the pool.”

  “Be there in a second.”

  He hung up the phone and I frowned, looking up at the quadcopter. It hadn’t moved, despite the fact that I noticed it and made a phone call. Clearly it had been spotted, but whoever was flying it didn’t seem to care.

  A few minutes later, a large man came out of the house. He was older but in very good shape with a close cropped haircut and intense eyes. He was holding a rifle in his hands and looked up at the drone like he wanted to strangle it.

  “Miss, are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “This thing just keeps hovering over me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Sometimes the paparazzi get too aggressive.”

  “They’re spying on me?”

  “Probably. Mr. Green’s marriage is a big tabloid sensation, as they say.”

  Just then, there was a noise over by the house. “Cox!”

  We both looked over and saw Carter striding out toward us. He was dressed in his workout clothes again, though he wasn’t sweating and fortunately he wore a shirt this time.

  “Sir,” Cox said. “You don’t need to worry yourself about this.”

  “Are you sure? I was running on the roof track when I spotted this piece of shit. Why is it still here?” Carter demanded.

  “I don’t know who it belongs to, sir.”

  “Give me that.” Carter took the rifle from Cox and put it against his shoulder, aiming it up at the drone.

  “You shouldn’t do that.”

  “Cover your ears,” he said to me and looked back at the drone. It suddenly began to fly away.

  I covered my ears and watched Carter take aim, licking his lips. He took a deep breath then pulled the trigger.

  The gun was loud as hell, even with my hands over my ears. I looked up and saw the drone dip, rise, and then plummet down to the ground.

  “Good shot, sir,” Cox said.

  Carter grinned at him, handing back the rifle. “Don’t worry about the legal fallout, Cox. They were trespassing anyway.”

  He nodded, face impassive.

 
Carter looked at me. “Well. Shall we go see our kill?”

  I laughed. “Sure. Lead the way.”

  Carter waved to Cox who nodded and headed back toward the house. He took me by the hand and led me across the lawn toward the drone.

  “Where did you learn to shoot like that?” I asked him.

  “Everybody should know how to shoot a gun. Just in case.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “I’ll teach you one day.”

  “I’m afraid of them.”

  He grinned at me. “They’re just machines. Nothing to be afraid of if you know what you’re doing.”

  We reached the drone and he kicked it over. There was a bullet hole right through the center of it, and the rotors were still trying to gyrate.

  “Piece of shit,” he said. “It’s still broadcasting.” He slammed his foot down, breaking the camera into bits.

  “Who sent it?” I asked him.

  “Hard to say. We get them every once in a while. Cox tries to catch them, but I prefer just shooting them down.”

  “What happens when you catch them?”

  “Makes it easier to sell them back. Or sometimes I’ll hijack their programming and turn it into my own little anti-drone.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “It’s a pain in the ass.” He kicked it, shaking his head. “Fucking scum. The paparazzi have been up my ass for years.”

  “Must be hard, living like this.”

  “Yeah.” He looked at me. “Sorry to drag you into it.”

  I nodded but didn’t say anything. I was suddenly intensely aware that I was mostly naked underneath my towel, just a small bikini covering my body, the same body that I had shown off to him the day before. He looked good in his running shorts and tight blue shirt, his eyes staring at mine.

  “About yesterday,” I said.

  “Don’t worry about it.” He grinned. “Getting handcuffed to the bed was more than worth that picture.”

  I blushed a little bit. “That can’t be true.”

  “I mean it. You’re fucking gorgeous, you know that?” He stepped toward me.

  “You shoot down one drone for me and suddenly I’m supposed to throw myself at you?”

  He grinned, seeing right through my lame attempt at deflecting the situation.

  “Don’t act like you’re not dripping wet. There’s nothing sexier than a man with a gun.”

  “I didn’t realize you were a caveman.”

  “Cavemen didn’t have rifles.”

  “Good point. But you know what I’m saying.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with wanting a man to take care of you,” he said. He was inches away from me. “You can pretend all you want, but we both know you want me to press you up against a wall and fuck your brains out.”

  “No,” I said softly.

  “Yes,” he said, and took my cheek in his hand. “That’s exactly what you want. You want to be respected while at the same time fucked and dominated, treated like the dirty sexy fucking girl you really are.”

  I bit my lip and tried to look away, but I couldn’t. He was just too intense, and his face was inches from me, and fuck, he was right.

  That’s what I wanted. No, it was what I needed. I needed a man like Carter to throw me down, fuck my pussy deep and rough, treat me like his own fuck doll. I wanted him to want me so badly that he just took me.

  Which was why I couldn’t stop it when he kissed me.

  His lips pressed against mine, crushing them in an intense and powerful kiss. He arms wrapped around me, pulling me against him, his tongue entering my mouth. For half a second, I thought about pulling away, but I quickly melted into his embrace.

  Desire, hot and electric, tingled down my spine. It was like everything that I’d been desiring for the past few days was coming together in that moment, and it was driving me insane. Carter tasted good, so damn good, and as much as I hated it I really liked that he shot down that drone for me.

  But shit, he was a stepfather. He was my damn mother’s husband. I knew logically that they weren’t really in love and that their relationship was a total sham for the public, but it was just still so damn wrong.

  When I had that thought, the most messed up thing of all happened.

  It only made me want him more.

  He was forbidden. He was bad. He was all wrong for me, but he still made me feel so damn incredible. Carter was a total ass, the opposite of what I usually wanted in a guy, and yet I found myself pushing deeper into his kiss.

  Just as quickly as that desire came, it was quickly replaced with a paranoid feeling that someone was watching. If we got caught, even by just one person, everything was over. Carter would lose everything and my poor mother would be humiliated.

  I pulled away gently, using up every last ounce of my willpower. He looked at me for a second, a small smile on his face.

  “Tell me that isn’t what you wanted,” he said softly.

  I disentangled myself from his embrace and turned away. “I have to go.” I held onto my towel to make sure it didn’t fall.

  “Sure. Go run away.”

  “I’m not running.” I started back toward the pool and knew I was definitely running away.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he said. “I’ll have you calling me daddy soon. I’ll have you begging for more.”

  I clenched my fists as anger welled up inside of me, but I didn’t look back.

  I wasn’t angry because he said that. I didn’t expect anything less from Carter Green.

  I was angry because I was starting to think he might be right.

  10

  Carter

  I couldn’t get that fucking kiss out of my mind.

  She was slightly damp from lying in the sun. I could taste sweat on her lips and feel it on her warm body. Sure, she had a towel wrapped around herself, but she was still mainly naked. My cock was instantly hard as I pulled her against me.

  Maybe shooting down the drone wasn’t the best idea. Cox sure as hell didn’t approve of that move, but it was totally fucking worth it. We hadn’t figured out who sent it yet, but I knew Cox was working on that. Besides, it led to finally tasting Emily, even if it was just a kiss.

  Just a kiss with my stepdaughter.

  I groaned, alone in my office. My cock was hard again just remembering the kiss, and that drove me insane. I knew it was totally stupid to get hung up on her, considering all of the fucking danger that came with it, but I genuinely couldn’t help myself.

  I fucking needed her.

  I needed her lips wrapped around my cock. I needed her legs wrapped around my back. I needed her pussy grinding against me, her mouth hanging open, begging for more, more. I’d give it to her, deep and slow, look her in the eye, tell her how fucking gorgeous she was, how perfect her pussy felt. I’d make her moan, bite down on my skin, squirm and groan with pure bliss until I finally pushed her over the edge.

  “Fuck,” I said out loud. What the fuck was I doing, picturing Emily like this?

  “Something wrong?”

  I nearly jumped out of my fucking seat. Evelyn stood at the door, eyebrows arched in a questioning look.

  “Evie. Didn’t see you there.”

  “I’m sure. You looked lost in thought. Busy day?”

  “You know it is.”

  She nodded, a small smile on her lips. “About that. The Kenyan ambassador canceled for later. Also, the Chinese aluminum company called about negotiating the contract.”

  “Fine,” I said, nodding, willing my erection to go down. I was just picturing her daughter writhing beneath me, after all.

  She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. “Is everything okay?”

  “It’s fine,” I said.

  “There has been a lot of media coverage about us. Not all of it has been good.”

  “I haven’t been reading that shit,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Reconsider that. The whole point of this marriage is to make you look better in the
press, not worse.” She sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

  “What are they saying?”

  “Oh, mostly calling me a cradle robber. And accusing you of being sexist for marrying your secretary.”

  I laughed. “How’s that sexist?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It just is, apparently.”

  “Well, I’m not sexist. But you’re definitely a cradle robber.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t find it funny.”

  “Relax, Evie. The initial press will be bad, but if we stick it out, they’ll get over onto our side.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “We just need to show them a united front, so to speak.”

  “About that. There’s a charity gala event coming up, and I think we should go together.”

  I sighed. I hated those fucking things. They were just an excuse for rich assholes to get together and pretend like they were doing good for the world while really just making new business deals that fucked over the little guy.

  “Do we really need to?”

  “Yes,” she said. “And an interview with the press. Sooner rather than later.”

  “Fine. Gala first, then interview.”

  “Fine.” She wrote something down on a pad then nodded to herself. “One more thing.”

  “Please, god, not another media thing.”

  “No. It’s about Emily.”

  I froze for a second, staring at her. Did she know about what happened yesterday? I was positive that nobody saw us, not out there behind an outcropping of trees. She wasn’t anywhere near us, unless there was another drone flying around, but that was crazy. Evelyn couldn’t fly a drone if her life depended on it.

  “What about her?” I asked innocently.

  “I know you’ve been looking at her, Carter. I can see it happening between the two of you.”

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  She held up a hand. “You’re both adults. Just be very careful. If I had it my way, you would stay away from her completely.”

  “I won’t mess this up, Evie,” I said softly.

  “I hope not. This isn’t just about your reputation anymore, Carter.” She nodded to herself, and I got the sense that she got something off her chest. She stood, arranging her papers. “That’s all.”