Daddy PI: Book 1 of the Daddy PI Casefiles Frost, J (acx book reading txt) 📖

“He look wet to you?” I ask Emily.

She freezes the image and enlarges it. His skin’s gleaming, and there are dots of something—water, sweat, or maybe oil—all across it. He’s flushed, the mottling apparent even under his California tan in the close up. And there’s a big, red suck-mark on the back of his neck.

“That’s a man who just got his rocks off,” I observe.

“Should I put, Black returns, wet, no rocks?”

I pinch her bottom so she squeaks. “No, you should not. Black returns alone, sweaty, flushed, thank you. What a little monkey you are.”

Emily giggles as she types. “Sorry, Daddy.”

She really sounds it. I love the playfulness she brings to everything. So much more fun than working with Mir, or even my business partner, Manny. “Looks like Olsen knew her bottom. He definitely broke some rules while he was alone.”

“He had sex with someone else?” she asks in a small voice, and I mentally kick myself. I don’t want Black’s infidelity to trigger her.

“I don’t know if he had sex with someone else, sweetie,” I say, hoping to take the sting away. “He could just have done a scene and gotten off.”

“But that was still being unfaithful. To Chrisjean, if not his wife.”

I stroke my hand down over her hair. “Yeah, it was. The guy lived a complicated double life.”

“Do lots of people you investigate?”

“Some,” I admit. “It’s hard to commit crimes without duplicity, and once you have one big secret, it’s not that much of a leap to have others.”

“Is that why following the rules and being honest are so important to you?”

The big eyes are out again. They should be weapons-classified; she’s sure killing me with them. They make me want to wrap her in my arms and reassure her that no one is going to hurt, or even disappoint, my baby girl ever again. But the world doesn’t work that way, even if I’m going to do my damnedest to shield her from the world’s worst from now on. I settle for stroking her hair. “That’s a big part of it.”

She turns in her chair and throws her arms around me. “I’m so sorry I started off things between us with the lie about my name when we met at the expo, Daddy. I was just really scared, but it won’t happen again. I promise. I’ll be super brave. Wonder Woman brave, promise, and I’ll always be truthful with you.”

“That’s my good girl.” I cuddle her close. “I’ve forgiven you for that lie, Emmy. I understand why you did it, and while I don’t condone lying, I have forgiven you. And I’m proud of you for being such a brave girl.”

“You are?”

The big eyes hit me full force, over-bright with emotion. I thought sucking cock was Emily’s super-power, but I was wrong. Her super-power is right there in those eyes. Those eyes that make me want to be her hero.

“Yes, I am. Now stop distracting me while I’m working, little girl.” I give her a smack on the hip that straightens her in her chair with a gasp and a giggle. “Another half-an-hour and we’ll take a break to pump some iron and climb some hills with Niall.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

Whether he’s tired out, or just takes the longest shower known to man, Black doesn’t emerge again while we watch. I turn the video off after twenty-five minutes to give us time to put the laptops in my safe and change before we head to the gym. Emily rises from her chair and stretches, extending her arms over her head.

“Had enough exciting detective work?” I ask her as I pack up the laptops.

She grins and shakes her head. “I’m not used to sitting for so long.”

“No? I’d have thought you did a lot of sitting while you write.”

“I used to. Then I got a standing desk and some dictation software. I move around a lot as I write now. Motion creates emotion.”

I peg that quote immediately. One of my subs had a Vin Diesel fixation and I think I’ve seen each of his movies at least a dozen times. “Boiler Room. Lotta bad words in that movie, little girl.”

She gulps. “But I think it was still PG. Maybe PG-thirteen?”

“You sure?”

“No.” She bites her lip. “There wasn’t, like, any gore or anything, but there were some sexytimes, but the sexytimes weren’t with Vin Diesel, so that doesn’t count, right? Sexytimes with Giovanni Ribisi should be, like, rated G for gross.”

Her logic makes me chuckle, and it looks like my former sub wasn’t the only one with a Vin Diesel crush. Maybe it’s a subbie thing?

“I think you might be busted again. When we get back from the gym, you can look it up, and if it’s rated R, that’s another bare-bottomed spanking for you, wearing Stanley.”

Her lower lip trembles. “I thought—I thought we were having a day off?”

She must be really sore. “I did say that. Should I keep a tally of deferred spankings?”

“No, Daddy. Please? I’ll be super-good.”

I flick her nose. “Baby, you’re already super-good. Workout clothes, chop-chop, and when you’ve changed, bring me your shoes and I’ll tie them for you. That’s too big a job for a little girl with a sore bottom.”

Her grin is brighter than the morning sunshine. “Yes, Daddy.”

I leave the door between our cabins open while we change so I can see and hear her. She moves around her room, hanging up the little dress she wore to brunch, pulling on her workout gear. She’s humming a song I don’t recognize, possibly because she’s a little off-key, but she sounds happy.

When she returns, dark curls caught back in a bouncy ponytail, eyes bright, wearing an oversized black tee with an outline of Kylo Ren captioned, “Don’t be afraid, I feel it, too,” I ask her about the song.

“What were you humming?”

She bites her lip. “It’s Nickleback. ‘Figured You Out.’ I know it’s a naughty song. That’s why I wasn’t singing the words out loud. But