The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The First Collection by Frost, J (great novels .txt) 📕

“Uh-huh. She was also twenty years older, had a hundred lifetimes more experience and taught me everything I needed to know about how to flip a woman’s switches.” I run my hands over her hair to get rid of the excess water, rinse myself off and turn off the spray. I help her out, onto the bathmat, before I rub her dry. “We’re going to have to skip the lotion ritual, baby doll, or we’ll be late for lunch.”

“It’s okay, Daddy. Should I go get dressed?”

“No, sweetie, I have a dress for you, and you’re going to wear Morris for lunch as well. Bend over the sink for me.”

Without another word, she folds over the sink, resting on her forearms. So trusting. So obedient. I praise her as I ready Morris and slide it into her without any trouble. She’s adjusted to the plug. Hopefully, she’ll like the next size up as well, which I plan to give her this afternoon as part of our game.

After I smooth T-Relief over her backside, I dress her in one of the baby doll dresses I brought. This one is a soft pink with white lace and ribbons at the neck, sleeves, and hem. Even with her hair falling in damp tangles around her shoulders, she’s gorgeous. Just like a little doll. Cheeks rosy and eyes bright, her lips are parted as she looks up at me. I lean in to take that soft mouth and kiss and nip it until her lips are as red as her thighs.

“You’re stunning, sweetheart. Put on some knickers and shoes and do your hair and we’ll go.”

“Do you want my hair up or down?”

She wants me to pick her hairstyle? Definitely not something any of my subs have offered before. What a doll. “I like it down so I can run my fingers through it.”

She grins at me before skipping off to her own cabin. I watch her go. She’s skipping with a plug in. It’s definitely time to bump up a size. Grinning to myself, I pull on my own clothes: a white button-down, black cargo shorts and sandals. Hopefully the look is sufficiently “headmaster on holiday” to turn Emily on.

She’s back a few minutes later with her dark, damp curls bouncing around her shoulders, topped by a white sunhat with daisies embroidered around the crown. What a cutie. Over her shoulder, she’s carrying a straw bag containing her tablet and a towel.

“I thought I’d go straight to the pool to meet Vashi after lunch,” she says.

“Good thinking.” I tap the tip of her nose. “You’ll stay in the shade, right? Daddy’s the only one who gets to make you red and stingy.”

She grins. “I brought sunblock, but I’ll stay in the shade. Promise.”

“Good girl.” I take her hand and lead her out of my cabin. To reward her for doing so well with the plug, rather than making her struggle down the stairs, I steer her to the elevator.

In the sunlit restaurant, Michael and Teresa are already seated. Michael rises and shakes my hand while Teresa and Emily trade cheek kisses. They’re at a four-seater table, so it’s just us for lunch, which should put Emily at ease. She doesn’t even look at the menu once we’re seated; she just smiles at me.

“Feel like seafood for lunch?” I ask her.

“Always.” She nods. “Five hundred calories, Daddy.”

“Good girl.” I run my hand up and down her back. A small reward for giving me such trust.

There are quite a few choices on the menu, which helpfully lists the calories for each dish. The salmon and mango ceviche looks good and leaves a hundred calories for something sweet to finish.

“How was the DJ last night?” Emily asks Teresa.

I smile to hear her chatting so easily.

Once the waiter comes and the ordering is out of the way, I turn to Michael. “I met with Dan Reyes this morning. Something he said got me thinking.”

Michael lifts his eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Dan mentioned that large quantities of liquids are brought aboard. Any chance that our subject of interest could be stored in liquid form?”

Michael shrugs. “It’s a salt, so it could be dissolved, but it would be foul-tasting, hard to swallow, and have a strong, fishy smell. In liquid form, it would be like gammahydroxybutrate—GHB. That’s known as liquid ecstasy and is sometimes used as a date rape drug. One of the reasons GHB is so dangerous is that it’s hard to calculate dosage accurately in liquid form. Drinking this stuff would be just as likely to make you nauseous or sleepy or cause a seizure as it would be to create arousal and euphoria. It’d be easy to overdose.”

“Could that be what happened to our unfortunate friend? He drank too much and overdosed?”

Michael shakes his head and takes a sip of what looks like an amber beer. I haven’t been drinking much while I’ve been with Emily, both because she doesn’t drink and because I want my head clear to top her. But there’s no reason I can’t have a beer with lunch. I flag down a waiter and order a lager with lime.

“If our friend had overdosed, he’d have shown symptoms immediately and probably needed emergency medical attention. Drugs in solution hit fast, five to fifteen minutes, depending on the stomach contents. I’ve checked the health center records. None of the five sought medical attention while they were on board.”

“If they all took a liquid dose, what’s the chance one of them would have overdosed?”

“Hard to say because we don’t know how or by whom the subject of interest, good phrase, by the way, is being administered. If it were a medical professional giving them the dose, I’d say the chances are low. We’re trained in measurement and dilution. Assuming it wasn’t, and they got minimal directions as to dosage and use, then pretty high. Undiluted, this stuff would be extremely potent. As little as thirty milliliters could be fatal. That’s a shot glass,