The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The First Collection Frost, J (good beach reads .TXT) 📖

from the start that I’ve fallen too fast. It’s only Logan’s constant reassurance that my feelings are fully reciprocated that’s kept me from freaking out entirely. Hearing that the long string of women he’s been involved with before me also fell for him, and that he gave them the same reassurances, claws at my heart with talons sharper than the ones Miranda’s digging into my arm.

“I’m not being insulting when I say you’re just the latest thing, and of course, you made yourself indispensable when he was injured. But now that he’s better, he’ll get restless. I bet he’s already topping other submissives, isn’t he?”

My heart seizes and I stop trying to pull away from her.

Miranda smiles, and pounces.

“Of course, he is. That’s just what Logan’s like. I’ve seen it many times. Don’t take it personally, Emily. He’s just not a one-woman man. And, forgive me for saying so, you seem too needy to share.”

I flinch, and my heart tears further.

“You see, that’s why our relationship lasted for so long. I’ve never had any problem sharing him.” She rubs her free hand over her belly. “But I don’t think that will be an issue in the future. He’ll be too busy being a father. He’ll be a wonderful father, don’t you think?”

I do, actually. Somehow, I manage to croak, “Yes,” through the bile filling my throat.

“I know what the paternity test is going to show,” she says, smiling and smiling like a Shakespearean villain. I want to stab her. She deserves to share Polonius’s fate. “I’ve always known. I made a huge mistake not telling Logan, but I’ve learned my lesson. Once he’s forgiven me, he’ll see that we should be a family. I can give him what he needs and I’m the mother of his child. You’ll understand, of course, that we don’t need a maid. Particularly not as incompetent a maid as you are.”

She casts a harsh glance over the room, which isn’t at its best, I admit, since it’s been several days since the housekeeper came and I’ve been busy. Still, how rude is she to point it out?

“So, don’t you think it’s time for you to leave? Go back to Syracuse. Before you get in any deeper and he breaks your heart? Forgive me for saying so, but you seem rather too fragile to handle heartbreak well.”

She finally releases my arm and puts both hands on her belly, smiling, waiting for me to break down or bolt. God, I want to. But both would mean she’s won and there’s no fucking way I’m giving her that satisfaction.

Instead, I firm up my stance and wait, because that’s what I do best, as my ex-husband would say. Did say to anyone who would listen. I wait until the smile slips off her face and her eyes turn glacial.

“Is that all?” I ask.

“You do know he asked me to marry him,” she says. No smile now. Her glare is pure razors and brass knuckles.

I nod, despite the hurricane that’s whirling inside me. “Yes, he told me.”

“You understand that all this—” She waves her hand, presumably referring to me keeping house for Logan. “Is nothing more than a game. An extended role-play. You don’t know him. I was with him for five years. I know what Logan needs. It isn’t you. He’s ready to settle down. That’s why he’s asserting paternity. He’s ready for a family. You are a diversion, designed to make me jealous. Nothing more.”

I swallow hard and force my voice to sound cool and unconcerned. “Is it working?”

“What?” she spits.

“Am I making you jealous?”

She lifts her hand and I step back out of striking range. She’s built like an Amazon and pregnancy hormones make women crazy. I’m not standing still for her to smack me.

“I’m trying to be nice to you,” she snarls. “I’m trying to spare you the heartache I’ve seen his other subs suffer when he dumped them. I actually believe in sisterhood, you ungrateful little cow.”

I wonder how many of Logan’s other subbies she tried to “spare” in the name of sisterhood. What a fucking bitch.

“How silly of little me to question your motives,” I say. “Sister to sister? I think you’re full of shit.”

I turn on my heel, heading for the stairs, to take Logan’s flogger up to the bedroom and put it away in his toy bag. I’ll explain to him later why it ended up there. At least I won’t get punished for taking care of his flogger the way I would have for locking Miranda in the basement, as satisfying as that would have been.

As I turn the corner into the hallway, the door of Logan’s office catches my eye. It’s partially open, which is strange. Logan never leaves his office door open when he’s out. He has client files and all kinds of confidential stuff in there.

I cross the hall to pull the door closed.

“Five years,” Miranda snarls behind me. “I was with him for five years. You think that counts for nothing? He waited for me all that time. Once my divorce is final, there won’t be anything keeping us apart, except you. Do you know how fast he’ll toss you aside?”

In a nano-second if she has her way, but I’m not sticking around to listen to any more of her cruelty. Logan said I could ignore her and I’m about to ignore her in the biggest way possible as I lock myself in my little room.

As I reach for the door handle, I glance into the office to make sure nothing’s been disturbed.

Logan’s leaning against the edge of his desk, with his arms crossed over his chest. He lifts his head and I meet his dark, furious eyes.

Oh, fuck.

I’m so shocked that I start to pull the door closed without thinking, before I can fully process his presence.

“Emily,” he growls.

I open the door again quickly, tangling the flogger strap in the handle in my haste. “Daddy, I—”

He shakes his head and points to the floor at his