Daddy's Girl: A Daddy Issues Novel by Rebel Wild (books to read for 13 year olds .TXT) 📕

with my indulgences by now. This is usually about the time I want them gone, but having her at arm’s length is abhorrent to me. I want her near, but at the same time, I know it’s wrong. So, I’m fighting with myself to keep her away.”

“Have you bothered to stop and ask yourself why?”

“Because it’s wrong,” I repeat it to him.

“Granted, it was wrong in the beginning, but she’s of legal age now, so why is it still wrong?”

“As I said, it’s complicated.” I plop back down in the chair, looking everywhere but at him. He waits with his hands steepled to his chin for me to continue. “I let her use the library,” I finally tell him.

“The one that has all of your father’s movie memorabilia immortalized for him?”

“The very one. She likes to read, so I let her use it.”

“Tristan, she clearly means something to you. You’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you push her away. You do realize that?”

“I’ll be doing her a disservice if I allow her to get too close to me and you know damn well why.”

“Yes, because you’re an evil pedophile with no heart or conscience like your father.”

“Exactly,” I say, glad that he finally gets it.

“Then what are you protecting?”

“Her. I’m protecting her heart. It’s too good for the likes of me.”

“But yet, you’re the one whom she’s choosing to trust. Even when she was younger, she’d hang out with you alone in your office. Never once did she feel unsafe. I’m sure if she felt you ogling her, she would have told her father.”

“Make no mistake, I ogled the fuck out of her. I told you, she’s too trusting.”

“But not gullible,” he tells me, and I shake my head. She’s nowhere near gullible.

“I need to put a stop to it,” I tell him.

“You can’t stop it now. The snowball is already rolling too fast down the hill. You have no choice but to let it crash into you.”

“I can always step out of the way.”

“And where will that leave you?”

“It’s not about me, it’s about her. What kind of man takes a girl’s virginity, knowing she’s only doing it to help her father?”

“One that has been wanting to since before the father was in trouble. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing your behavior. We can both agree, you’re no saint, but you’re not the world’s worst either.”

“She deserves better than me.”

“Why are you forcing yourself to bear the brunt of this mess you’ve stumbled upon?”

“I didn’t stumble upon it, I created it. I’m the one who fired her father, then I had him arrested.”

“People get fired every day, and he got himself arrested by committing a crime.”

“I could have refused to press charges. I could get the charges dropped, suppress evidence—”

“Then, why didn’t you? Or better yet, why won’t you? It seems like the perfect solution.”

“Why do you ask me questions you already know the answer to? I’m using it to keep hold of Sydney.”

“True, but you just said, you need to put an end to your involvement with her. Dropping the charges would do just that, but you won’t, so make it make sense.”

“That’s what I overpay you for.”

“Regardless of her father’s situation, Sydney made her own choice to take the deal you offered her. Good or bad, it was hers, and are you purposely overlooking the fact that she wanted to sleep with you? Unless you’re telling me that you forced her.”

“Of course not, but there’s another side to it, Martin. I want to corrupt her. I want her to like the down and dirty and the more she resists it, the more tempted I am to persuade her. I crave her, even though I know I shouldn’t.”

“She’s not a fallen angel, Tristan. She might surprise the hell out of you. She’s doing a bang-up job of it so far.”

“No, I shouldn’t allow it.”

“For someone without a heart, you certainly care an awful lot about hers.”

“Yes, and that is the problem.”

“I don’t see it as a problem and quite frankly, I find it faith restoring that this young woman has gotten under your tough skin with just a little wag of her pinky finger.”

“I’m glad you’ve found your faith in humanity again, Maloney,” I say to him, pissed off at the notion that any woman has me wrapped around her finger. “But it doesn’t do shit for me.”

“You came here for my expert opinion, so here it is: Give her a chance. Let her show you that it’s okay not to be in control of every situation. Let her show you that the world won’t fall apart and end in tragedy as it did with your father, or that you won’t end up like him.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

I get up to leave, not wanting to hear any more of this bullshit.

I ride the elevator up to work feeling tense and wound up. That fucking Maloney didn’t help at all, and I don’t even have the benefit of a good morning fuck to help take the edge off my mood.

My phone buzzes and I see that it’s my first report on how Sydney is doing. I can’t go home and fuck her, but I can stalk her ass all day.

“Hold my calls,” I say as I pass Mona on my way to my office to check my computer.

There are several photos of Sydney enjoying her day. She’s chatting it up rather animatedly with her old friend Leslie. She used to bring her around the office. I like her. I grin at how much they’re enjoying themselves. As I scroll down, I come across one picture that has me seeing red. She’s sitting on a bench talking with some boy and they seem rather friendly. They’re too close for my comfort. Any closer, she’d be on his damn lap. Who the fuck is he?

Chapter Twenty

“I can’t believe this shit,” I say as I stare at the picture