Daddy's Pet

I saw him first. I knew him first. I loved him first, but here he is being introduced to me as my new step-dad. How could this happen? How could he end up married to my mother, the one person I can't possibly steal him from and yet... Now that I'm no longer an eighteen year old child and he isn't my teacher, lines are beginning to cross. What do I possibly do with this desire and guilt that keeps overlapping and why is it when I try my best to keep my distance he keeps pulling me in? It feels so wrong and yet it feels so right, will I be able to ignore this longing or will I want him to hold me tight?

Chapters

Chapter 3

Rue

"A Trip?"

My voice comes out much louder than I intended it to, and when a few pairs of eyes come to rest on my mother and me, I give an apologetic smile.

"Rue, honey," my mother sighs. "Is it really that hard for you to go on a vacation with us?"

"Of course not," I tell her, but inside I'm screaming yes. "It's just that I have my internship and..."

"And you're on spring break right now." My mother counters, stopping me before I can even make an excuse. "And the vacation is only for five days. We are going to a paradise island that Leo's family owns."

"His...family..." I hiss, eyes widening. "His family owns it?"

When I was in high school, I heard rumors that Mr. Owens came from a very well-off family, but I didn't necessarily believe it.

I mean, how could I when he was working as a teacher?

If he really was born with a silver spoon, then wouldn't it be better for him to go and work for the company that kept his family rich?

"That's right," my mother beams. "Everything has already been taken care of, from lodgings to our flights. We just need to bring ourselves and enjoy."

"Mom," I sigh, wishing that I didn't even hear this. "Wouldn't it be better for the two of you to go without me?"

I mean, wouldn't this be considered their honeymoon?

Even as I picture them sleeping together in a room beside me, my heart feels like it is breaking into a million pieces.

How could I bear such a thing?

It was bad enough having to watch them be lovey-dovey here and now, but to see them all over each other while we vacationed as a family was just...

"It would be a good thing." My mother pushes. "Leo has already said that he would like to bond with you since we are a family now."

"We aren't family."

The words leave my lips before I can stop them, and when my mother's smile falters, I regret them.

"I mean..." I try, wanting to just disappear. "I'm an adult now, so it isn't like he has to act like a father toward me."

I didn't want that. I absolutely didn't want that because the thought of being in love with a man who was supposed to be my father left me uneasy.

But being in love with your mother's husband doesn't? The small voice in the back of my head counters.

Fuck. How was it possible all of this was happening?

Why him?

Why me?

Why her?

Fate was such a fucked-up thing.

What did I spend all those years doing now that there was no way that I could actually win over the man that I was secretly chasing?

"Rue, please," my mother says, and I see a desperate plea in her eyes. "Please, do this for me."

For a moment, I don't speak as I try to stop the torrent of emotions that are rushing through me, and when I swallow, I know that I'm going to regret the choice that I'm about to make.

"Okay," I sigh.

And that's how I ended up on a plane two days later with my mother and Mr. Owens sitting beside me.

Of course, they are all over each other like the happy new couple that they are, and that just makes me wish that I didn't agree.

The flight is long and torturous, and by the time the plane lands, I'm rising from my seat like it is on fire. And when my mother and Mr. Owens look at me, I simply shake my head.

"Stiff legs." I tell them, smiling. "I've never been good with long travels."

"That's true," my mother agrees, and I'm thankful that she can't hear what I'm thinking. "Even as a kid she was always whining about how much longer till we got where we were going."

"Mom," I hiss, flushing. "Could you please..."

"No," Mr. Owens says, smiling. "I'd actually quite like to hear more about your past."

Eyes widening, I stare at the man in front of me as he smiles, and once again I see that strange look in his eyes that I saw at the wedding.

"And since she doesn't do well with sitting still for too long, how about we start disembarking?" He continues, rising. "The sooner we reach the resort, the sooner our vacation starts."

"That's true," I agree, appreciating that he was at least humoring me. "Let's get going."

"What to do first?" My mother murmurs as Mr. Owens grabs our carry-ons and starts to carry them off the plane. "We have the pool, the beach, and oh, I heard that they teach people how to snorkel!"

"No need to rush," Mr. Owens laughs. "We can do it all within the time we have."

"You're really spoiling me." My mother sighs, throwing her arms around Mr. Owens's arm and snuggling in.

"Only the best for my lady."

Grimacing, I try not to watch the two in front of me too closely because if I did, I knew that I would end up breaking, but when we reach the resort and are led up to our lodgings, I find that instead of having separate rooms, we have a large condo with two bedrooms.

"Dammit," I growl as I move across my own room and slam my luggage on my bed. "What are the chances that something like this would actually be happening?"

Swallowing, I try to ignore the sound of movement just beside me as I realize that if Mr. Owens and my mother did anything, I would certainly be able to hear it.

I was going to have to buy some earplugs while I was out to ensure that didn't happen, but before that, I needed to find a way to escape so that I could actually enjoy this vacation without them.

Sure, I agreed to come because of my mother's pleas, but that didn't mean that I had to spend the whole five days with them, right?

It was normal that we all went out and did our own thing.

If I could fill my schedule with activities and avoid the two of them for the entire vacation, then I could go home and start getting over the man that I pined after for so long. And eventually move on to another love that wouldn't be so out of reach.

Continue to next part

After an exhausting fourteen-hour flight, Katia returned to her Upper East Side penthouse, expecting the quiet comfort of the life she had built. Instead, she found a pair of familiar red stilettos in the foyer and her fiancé, Caleb, tangled in their bedsheets with his twenty-two-year-old assistant. She didn't scream or cry. She simply took off her three-carat engagement ring, threw it at his bare chest, and demanded he buy out her half of the penthouse by Friday. Seeking to numb the sickening disgust, she got blackout drunk and crashed at a luxury hotel, accidentally stumbling into the wrong suite. Thinking the imposing man inside was a high-end escort hired by her friend, she threw him over her shoulder and spent a wild night with him. The next morning, she left five thousand dollars on his nightstand with a lipstick-stained note. "Good Job." For six years, she had funded Caleb's dreams and built his startup from the ground up, only to be treated like a lifeless ATM. With ruthless precision, she spent the next two months systematically bankrupting his company, cutting off his venture capital, and erasing his life's work. She felt no heartbreak, only a cold, calculating need to cleanse herself of his betrayal. But when Katia finally returned to corporate headquarters to co-lead a massive merger, she literally crashed into the new Vice President. Strong arms caught her waist, and the sharp scent of cedarwood and whiskey hit her like a freight train. "You came back," Jackson whispered, his eyes burning as he stared at the woman who had treated him like a cheap gigolo.

Billionaire Modern Romance

8.9

Claimed By The Husband's Ruthless Uncle

8.9

Audrey Fletcher was forced to marry the notorious playboy Julian Sterling to save her family's sinking company after her sister ran away. On their wedding night, her new husband threw a $100,000 check at her face, told her they would be strangers in private, and abandoned her in the bridal suite. She thought being trapped in a loveless, transactional marriage was the worst fate possible. She was wrong. To protect herself, Audrey hung a pair of men's boxer shorts on her balcony to fake a lover's presence. Instead of deterring her husband, the ridiculous ruse brought Alistair Sterling—Julian's terrifying, powerful uncle and the true puppet master of the family. He stormed into her apartment with a legal team to catch her cheating, and later even offered her ten million dollars to divorce his nephew. When she refused out of fear of her own family's ruin, the situation escalated. Forced to attend a charity gala, Audrey was tricked by staff into wearing a scandalous, backless gown and sent to a dark penthouse suite to beg her husband for peace. But the man waiting in the shadows wasn't Julian. It was Alistair. "Does the thought of seducing your husband's uncle give you a special kind of thrill?" He didn't listen to her desperate explanations. Instead, he pinned her arms behind her back and crushed his mouth against hers in a brutal, punishing kiss. Trembling with terror and revulsion, Audrey bit his lip until she tasted blood, shoved the billionaire away, and ran for her life. She couldn't understand why this powerful man was so dangerously obsessed with destroying her sham marriage. But as she fled into the cold city night, she realized the terrifying truth: the real game was just beginning.

Horror Modern Romance

9.5

His Obsession, My Baby's End

9.5

Eight days after my c-section, my husband left me and our hungry, premature newborn alone. He rushed to his manipulative ex-girlfriend, Cassidy, who was faking another one of her "panic attacks," just as he always did. His obsession with "saving" her had already caused our son's premature birth. This time, it got him killed. In a jealous rage, Cassidy slammed her car into us, and my baby was gone. But when I woke up in the hospital, Kevin was protecting her, not me. He told me it was an accident, that her diagnosed mental illness made her not responsible. He even had our son cremated without my consent, erasing all the evidence. He begged me to forgive them, to let it all blow over so we could be a family again. I looked at the man who had destroyed my life and smiled. "I called the police, Kevin," I said, showing him my phone. "And that medical certificate you're holding? It's a fake."

Modern Romance

7.6

Kaitlynn and her two children

7.6

Top DEA agent Kaitlynn Bruce woke up to a heavy, chemical lethargy, only to realize she was trapped in the body of a weak, abused war widow. Before she could even process her new reality, she heard her sister-in-law counting cash, selling her unconscious body to a local thug for a measly two hundred dollars. The thug dragged her new seven-year-old son, Cason, into the bedroom. "Mommy!" When the boy reached out, the man brutally kicked his small body into a wooden doorframe, leaving him gasping and bleeding on the floor. Memories flooded Kaitlynn's mind. Her predecessor was a pathetic doormat whose husband's military pension had been bled dry by these greedy in-laws, leaving her children to starve and suffer endless abuse. But as Kaitlynn looked at the bleeding boy's dark, unnervingly alert eyes, a chilling piece of DEA intelligence clicked in her mind. Cason Richmond. The name, the town, the abusive aunt—it all matched the classified files of the "Director of the Hive," the most ruthless and feared cartel puppet master in the criminal underworld. How could this battered, starving child be destined to become the ultimate monster she used to hunt? The original widow's tragic death was supposed to be the catalyst that pushed this boy into total darkness. But Kaitlynn Bruce was not a victim. Adrenaline burning through the drugs, she cracked the thug's neck with a brass lamp and choked the sister-in-law against the wall. Looking down at the boy who was supposed to become a global nightmare, she made a vow. She was going to rewrite his script, even if she had to burn the whole world down to do it.

Action Mafia Modern

8.9

My Baby, My Strength, Our Future

8.9

The mangled car teetered on the cliff's edge, my leg crushed, gasoline fumes thick in the air. My husband, Holden, stood safe on the highway, directing the rescue – but not for me. He was saving her, the woman in the passenger seat, leaving me and our unborn child to the ocean below. I woke trapped in the crushed Maybach, leg pinned. The cliff loomed; the driver's seat was empty. Holden, safe outside, directed paramedics past me to Giana, his "most valuable asset," ordering her rescue first. I watched him comfort Giana, oblivious, as the car slid. My baby barely viable. Holden offered a black card for silence; Giana gloated. Ten years of devotion, a cruel lie. Rage fueled me: how could he abandon his wife and child? I swore a venomous oath: never again an accessory. I flicked his card away, shielded my pregnancy, and promised my baby escape.

Action Modern Romance

8.2

Pregnant With The Ruthless CEO's Heir

8.2

My ex-boyfriend of three years, Axel, married a perfect wealthy heiress. I attended his wedding, not to mourn our relationship, but because he had spent the last three years bleeding me dry. He left me with absolutely nothing but a final notice from the hospital for my dying brother's life support. Instead of feeling guilty, Axel cornered me in the church hallway, crushing my wrist. "I'll set you up with an apartment. You won't have to work another day in your life." He thought he could buy my silence with spare change, while leaving my seventeen-year-old brother, Julian, to die when his treatments were cut off the very next day. When I refused to be his dirty little secret, Axel used his power to utterly destroy my acting career. He had my talent agency terminate my contract under a fake morals clause, publicly humiliated me on set, and blacklisted me across the entire industry. I was shoved out into the freezing rain, left with a torn dress and absolutely no way to pay the five hundred thousand dollar medical bill. He actually believed he could step on my brother's dying body to build his own fake empire. He thought I was just a weak, pathetic victim who would eventually crawl back to him on my knees. But he forgot about the one monster he was absolutely terrified of: his legitimate, ruthless billionaire half-brother, Jace Bauer. Looking at the three positive pregnancy tests hidden in my drawer, I stepped right in front of Jace's armored Maybach. "Marry me, and I'll give you the heir you need to secure your empire."

Billionaire Modern Romance

Daddy's Pet

Chapter 3

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