Negotiation: Daddy P.I. 0.5 by E Frost (e ink ebook reader .txt) 📗

The men growl and bark while I help Emily onto the back of the talkative hound. Once she’s seated, with me still holding her hand for balance, Ryan whips his hounds again, snapping the thighs and ass of the man Emily’s riding but carefully avoiding my girl’s tender skin. Ryan really is a master of the horse-whip.

“Since you’ve lost the fox, you imbeciles, turn around and head back the way you came. We’ll try to pick up her scent,” Ryan says, between whip-cracks. The group shuffles and bumps as they about-face. I hold Emily’s hand and walk beside her. She giggles and slides on the hound’s sweaty, oily back. She grabs a handful of his hair and, at my urging, kicks him with her Mary Janes as though she was applying spurs to a horse. Her hound curses colorfully but scrambles a little faster and I release her hand once it looks like she has him under control. I fall back a few steps to enjoy the show.

Once he has the group turned around and headed back up the hallway, where the “fox” doubtless will be waiting for them, Ryan falls into step beside me. “Good to see you, brother. You in town for a while?”

I shake my head. “Just until Thursday.”

“Shame. When’re you back? Tania was just saying that we haven’t seen you in months. She wants to feed you.” He snaps his whip almost lazily across the back of one of the hounds, sending the man sprawling and the rest of the group stumbling. Emily squeals and giggles as her hound struggles to stay upright. “You’re welcome to bring your girl. Tania would love to meet her.”

I chuckle. “You don’t have to bribe me, Ry. We’re back on the nineteenth. How about Thursday of that week?”

“That’s a date.”

“How’s Tania doing?”

“Eh.” Ryan shrugs, and cracks his whip again. “Third trimester’s no fun for her. She’s swollen and cranky and constipated. Great for me, though.” He gives me a grin that has brought countless of our house subs to their knees. “The titty fairy has come again. You know I love that, and Tania’s unbelievably horny. I have to peel her off my dick just to go to work. I’d keep her pregnant all the time if I could.”

Since this is their third child in four years, he’s not doing so badly in that department.

“How are Ellie and Elise?” I ask, referring to his daughters.

“Great. Leese announced yesterday that she’s going to be the first American princess and sit on the throne in Washington.”

I chuckle. “You’re so screwed, Papi.”

“Don’t I know it?” Ryan snaps his whip again and shouts to the hounds as the “fox” appears from between two busts of illustrious founding members, shakes her tail at us, and prances away down the corridor. The pack begins baying, and scrambling, and slipping.

Ryan shakes his head and lets the pack pull a little distance ahead of us.

“Is Tessa going to let them catch her?” I ask.

“Doubtful. You know what a tease she is. These guys can’t get it together for ten whole feet. I’ve already told the girls in the spa to be ready to give them the royal treatment. Their knees aren’t the only thing that’ll be blue by the end of the hour.”

I chuckle. “Who are they?”

“Bunch of ad execs who want to play at kink. Alan told me to make sure they had fun but nothing too crazy, so I thought we’d hunt Tessa. If they manage to catch her, which I doubt, she’ll be happy to show the winner a trick or two while I send the rest of them to the spa.” He snaps his whip at a straggler, catching him across the backs of his thighs, which really gets him moving. “Tell me about your new girl. Give me the deets, as Tania would say.”

“I only met her yesterday. This is our first real date—”

“You brought her here on your first date?”

I shrug. “Rick Errol called in a favor.”

Ryan scowls. “Look, I know he’s a good client—”

“Don’t.” We’ve argued about Rick before. I know Ryan voted against his membership. I’ve tried not to let it affect our friendship. “Does Emily look like she’s having a bad time?”

I wave my hand at my little girl, who is whooping and giggling as she rides her hound.

“No,” Ryan concedes. “Is she a slave?”

I shake my head. “She’s a little.”

Ryan raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize you were into that. Daddy Logan, huh?”

Hearing it from Ryan doesn’t feel nearly as good as hearing it from Emily, but I shrug off the weirdness. It’s still new. “I might be into anything she’s into. The Daddy-Dom thing? Blows my mind. Everything clicks.”

“Good, great. That shit after Christmas? I know it was really rough. I’m glad you’re dating again.”

I clap him on the shoulder. “Thanks.”

Ahead of us, the hounds skid to a jumbled halt. Emily applies her heels to her mount like she’s riding the Kentucky Derby, but the hound can only slip around a few feet, hobbled by his ankle chains.

“They’ve lost her again,” Ryan says, shaking his head.

“Niche behind Fowler’s portrait?” I ask, referring to one of the many hiding places in this part of the gallery.

“Air vent under the Hues bust, I think, but they’re so slow, she could be anywhere. I’ll get them past the statue of Teigan and then turn them around again.”

“Okay, good luck. Emily and I are going to head on to the library.”

“Are you doing a scene? Fuck, I’m sorry to miss that.”

“Just a taster tonight. There’ll be plenty more when we get back from L.A. Little girl says she needs heavy play.”

Ryan rolls the whip handle between his palms. “Damn, I know a man who can give it to her.”

“So do I, brother, so do I.” I clap him on the shoulder again and go to retrieve my girl.

Emily bounces on my arm all the way to the library. If she didn’t have a plug in her