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

every other relationship. This is why I need her so much.

“Once upon a time, there was a Dom named Logan.”

She gives a breathy giggle. “A knight, Daddy. A dark knight.”

“Ah, right. Logan the Dark Knight lived in a big city that had lots of clubs and parties where he liked to play naughty games. He got a certain reputation.”

“Uht-oh,” Emily coos. “A bad reputation?”

“Probably,” I admit. “He was known for two things: flogging and one-night stands.”

“Naughty dark knight.”

“Yes, he was very naughty. Now, one night he’d been playing games with a certain saucy wench—”

“Was her name Miranda?”

“No, a different wench. We’ll call her Saucy Wench, because I’m not sure I remember her name.” At her giggle, I nip her nose. “The knight had been playing with Saucy Wench for over an hour and she was a very happy wench. There was a good-sized crowd watching, including Saucy Wench’s Master, who didn’t like to flog her himself, but was happy to fuck her for aftercare, and a wicked enchantress, who we’ll call Miranda.”

“The Mir-Witch,” Emily murmurs.

“You better not call her that, little girl.”

“Of course not, Daddy.”

I can hear the grin in her voice, little monkey.

“The Mir-Witch was very bold and interrupted the knight’s scene to demand that he flog her, too.”

Emily huffs. “Rude.”

“Uh-huh. The knight thought so. So instead of doing a scene with the Mir-Witch, the knight clapped her in irons and left her there until the club closed.”

“Serves her right.”

“Yeah, the knight had the right idea. Too bad he didn’t stick with it. Saucy Wench went home with her master, who got the benefit of how worked up Saucy Wench was, and the knight was left very horny. So, when he released the Mir-Witch and she begged him again, he took her back to his castle. Not the knight’s best idea.”

Emily giggles. “Was the knight thinking with his little head?”

“Speaking of saucy wenches.” I flick her ear. “Anyway, it should have just been a one-nighter, particularly after the knight found out she was Mrs. Mir-Witch. But the Mir-Witch was persistent. She came to the club again and pestered him for scenes and went home with him and the knight found it harder and harder to say no to her.”

“Wow, that was some spell the Mir-Witch cast on the knight.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, it was. So that’s how the knight met the Mir-Witch. Not the most auspicious beginning, huh?”

Emily wriggles against my side. “No less auspicious than meeting at a kink expo.”

I slip my hand under her chin and tip her face up so I can capture her mouth. When she’s breathless and wriggling, I let her settle back against my shoulder. “Most auspicious beginning ever.”

She giggles into my neck. “And I didn’t even have to cast a spell on you.”

“You have definitely cast a spell on me, little girl.”

“Expelliarmus, Miranda,” she murmurs.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, Daddy.”

“No, I don’t think I’m going to let you get away with that. Tell me what that meant.”

Emily shifts around against my side for a minute, until I poke her in the ribs. She sighs and says, “It’s that spell Harry Potter always used to take his opponent’s wand away.”

“I remember,” I tell her, when her pause stretches. “What’s that got to do with Miranda?”

“I keep wishing I could just wave a wand at you and knock Miranda right out of your heart—”

My sweet little girl.

“Let’s be clear, Miranda is not in my heart. The more time I spend with her, the more I kick myself for ever allowing her a place in it, but she’s definitely not in my heart anymore.”

“The pain’s still there,” Emily murmurs.

“Yes, it is,” I admit. “She’s not making it any easier, either. You know when she was going on about Maine lobster at dinner? We had lobster the weekend after Thanksgiving last year, at some little bed and breakfast in Kennebunkport where we holed up for three days while it snowed. Now I know she’d already had her IUD taken out. I could have gotten her pregnant that weekend. I hate every memory from that weekend now. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat Maine lobster again.”

“Daddy,” Emily breathes, sliding her hand up my breastbone and rubbing gently.

I close my hand over hers. “Sorry, baby girl. I shouldn’t unload all over you. We’ve had a good night, haven’t we?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about deep stuff.” She squeezes my fingers. “If she’s hurting you, I want to know so I can make it better.”

She lifts herself on her elbow and leans over me, her face a pale oval in the darkness. She plants kisses on my chin and jaw, before pressing her lips to mine.

I let my little girl kiss it better.

* * *

Ten scimitars digging into my right foot wake me. I jerk upright, nearly throwing my poor baby doll off the bed. A shadow pounces from the end of the bed onto my left foot. There’s a second’s delay before my damaged nerves register another ten tiny needles puncturing my flesh.

“Sable!”

The cat freezes in the act of impaling my foot. Then he dives off the bed and disappears with a flick of his white-tipped tail.

The ringing silence that follows is broken my little girl’s giggle. “Sorry. I must have left the door open when I went to the bathroom.”

“I notice he didn’t skewer your feet.” I flop back onto the bed with a groan.

“Yours are bigger targets,” Emily observes, snuggling back against my side.

“Don’t get comfortable,” I grumble. “You’re in the doghouse for leaving the door open. Possibly literally, once I have the use of my feet again.”

“What if I give you a good-morning blow job to show how really, really sorry I am?”

I’d forgive her pretty much anything for a good-morning blow job. Fuck, I love those. “Depends. What time is it?”

There’s a clock on the wall to my right, with slightly luminescent numbers, that I could probably see if I turned my head, but I’m too relaxed and