Baby for Sugar Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance (Heartstring Dating Agency Book 6) by Lauren Wood (inspirational books TXT) 📗

“Hey, Daddy,” I smiled back, rushing over to kiss him on the cheek. My eyes darted across Jordan, but I made a point not to let them linger. He didn’t need anymore ego boosts from me.

“I see you and Jordan here have made tremendous progress on these contracts,” he noted, spreading them out on the table.

I swallowed hard as flashbacks from the other night came flooding back to me. As my father’s hand drifted over the papers, I knew my half-naked body was being pummeled by Jordan in that very spot not so long ago.

“Daddy! Yes, thank you,” I blurted awkwardly, shuffling him away from the crime scene as subtly and naturally as possible. “We have been working hard. I’m glad you’ve had a chance to look it all over. Any thoughts?”

“Just one,” he grinned. He broke free from my grip and leaned back against the table—once again in the very spot where my bare ass had been. He crossed his arms and flashed his eyes back and forth between us both.

“What’s that?” I asked, feeling suddenly short of breath. I wouldn’t let myself look at Jordan long enough to try and guess if he was as mortified as me.

“You two,” he replied, still not breaking his glaring eyes from me, then Jordan, then back to me. “Why didn’t I ever think to pair the two of you up before?” He shook his head and laughed. “Talk about a power couple! Hell, if you weren’t already wearing Drew’s ring, I’d have half a mind to suggest you…”

“Dad!” I blurted, stopping his words in mid-air while my cheeks turned bright red.

“I’m only teasing,” he defended. “I didn’t mean romantically…obviously. Come on, it’s Jordan. He’s practically family, and he’s ten years older than you!”

“I know that,” I smiled awkwardly as Dad came over to kiss me on the cheek. This time, I did let my eyes wander over to Jordan…mostly because I didn’t understand why he wasn’t doing a damn thing to help me.

I was pissed at him for the way he acted after we had sex, and I did kind of want to secretly punish him for it around the office. But not like this…not in front of my own Dad.

I would never really tell anyone. I was engaged, and Dad would kill Jordan. I knew nothing else could ever really happen between us, but that didn’t stop me from wanting more…or from wanting to make him pay for being such an arrogant ass.

But then I thought…since Jordan wasn’t doing a damn thing to circumvent the awkwardness with my Dad, maybe I could use the moment to my advantage.

“But you know…he’s not really like family,” I blurted suddenly. “Not to me. He was around, but we were never really close. And anyway, aren’t you and Mom like seven years apart in age?”

I glared at Jordan as I said it, wondering if this would be the moment that broke him. He was obviously tense, but he didn’t speak a word. Apparently, neither of us had gone far enough.

“Would it really be so bad if we ended up together?” I added, just to drive the point home.

Dad’s brow furrowed as if he was really thinking it over, while I could see Jordan cringing inside. Finally, he let out an uncomfortable, weird laugh that broke the rising tension in the room.

“What she means is…we make great business partners,” he scrambled to say, coming over to place a hand on Dad’s shoulder…as if to remind him what great pals they were and how he could never betray such a sacred line.

Dad seemed to buy it and eased into a smile. We all did. No one was getting ratted out or caught…not yet anyway.

“Were you coming or going?” I asked Dad, knowing he never stayed in one place long. Not these days.

“Going,” he said regretfully. “My day is jam packed with meetings. You know how it goes.”

“Not exactly, but I hope to soon,” I smirked. “Come on, I’ll show you out.”

I gave Jordan the cold shoulder as I led Daddy out to the lobby. We both stopped in front of the elevator to say goodbye, but I was surprised when he put both hands on my shoulders and flashed an intensely sincere smile.

“I’m proud of you, honey,” he said with a softness to his voice. “I always hoped you’d follow in my footsteps, but I never wanted to force it. And then even as I watched you take an interest in entrepreneurship, I was always half worried you’d lose interest.”

“Not with your blood in my veins,” I laughed.

He kissed my cheek and proceeded onto the elevator, leaving me to return to Jordan—who was mad as a hornet when I walked back into the conference room.

“My office,” he thundered. “Now.”

I would have defied him, but the sternness to his tone kind of turned me on. I was curious to see if he would end up caving into his desires again—once he got me alone, all mad and bothered as he was.

But when he slammed the door behind me, I had a feeling it was not that kind of private meeting.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” he barked, crossing his arms.

“Nothing,” I shrugged. “I was just talking to my dad. If you can’t keep up with our jokes, that’s on you…not me.”

“Jokes!?” he scoffed. “You were practically begging for his permission for…”

“For what!?” I snapped. “For us to work together? News flash, Ashford! We already are! He was the one who started implying things, not me. I was just trying to play it off and diffuse the situation. If I tensed up the way you did, you think he wouldn’t have picked up on the fact that something obviously happened between us?”

He started raking his hands through his hair again—the way he always seemed to do when he was particularly stressed. But this time, he paced as he did it. “My god, what did we do? This was a huge mistake.”

“Calm down,” I huffed, rolling my eyes.