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 5

[Rue's POV]

My head spins and my vision blurs, but even then, I still sip on a drink while Mr. Owens orders our meal for the evening.

Once he is finished, he shifts his gaze to me, and when he opens his mouth, I brace myself for what is to come.

"You should really slow down."

"I'm fine," I assure him, plastering a smile on my face. "The room is just spinning and I feel like my brain is filled with helium. Am I floating?"

"Rue," he hisses, and I feel my heart squeeze. "That's enough."

"Oh, leave her be," my mom murmurs. "She's just enjoying herself."

"There is a difference between enjoying yourself and making irresponsible choices."

"Hey," I growl, slamming my glass down on the table. "Who the hell do you think you are to say such things to me?"

Dammit. Shut up, Rue!

"You aren't my teacher anymore."

Shut up before you say something you regret!

"And you aren't my dad!"

"Rue," my mother gasps, her eyes widening. "What are you even saying? Of course he is your fat..."

"HE ISN'T!" I yell, drawing the gazes of those around us. "He isn't my father! My father died many years ago, and he...he..." I continue as those damned complex feelings of mine come rushing in despite the alcohol in me. "He... forget it."

Feeling at a loss and completely defeated, I stand and grab my purse from the table beside me.

"You know what," I say slowly, knowing that I needed to get out of here before I said something that I would certainly regret in the morning. "Since I'm clearly ruining the evening, I'm going to leave."

"Rue!" My mother gasps. "Where are..."

"Enjoy your meal."

It's the only thing I say before I start to move, each step sloppy, through the restaurant and out into the night, where a cool sea breeze hits me.

"Fuck." I growl, realizing that instead of making myself feel better about everything, I only made myself feel worse. "What the hell am I even doing?"

Shaking my head, I look around, taking in the city around me, and when I find myself not wanting to enjoy the vibes that the night has created for it, I start moving.

I don't have a destination in mind as I walk, but at least the seabreeze is starting to clear the fuzziness that I'm feeling, and by the time my drunken stupor turns into a buzzed feeling, I realize that I've gone too far and I don't remember the way back to the resort that we are staying in.

"Well shit," I huff, dropping onto a bench and pulling out my phone in hopes of getting the address from my mother, only to find that it has a dead battery. "Not only did you ruin the evening, but now you're going to have everyone worried."

But would I?

Would they really give two shits about an adult going missing for a night? Especially when they were on their honeymoon.

I doubted it, and that alone leaves me feeling so damn empty.

Sighing, I lean back on the bench that I'm sitting on and then try to come up with a game plan, but before I can, I hear the sound of laughing.

Going on alert, I turn my gaze in the direction that it came from to find four college-aged-looking guys heading toward me.

"Great," I grumble, standing and deciding that maybe it was better that I at least head back in the direction I came. "This night just keeps getting better."

"Hey!" One guy calls from behind as I start to move. "Are you just going to up and leave?"

Of course I am. I think inwardly, knowing that if I stuck around and allowed them to approach me, then things would certainly get ugly.

"Hey!" The guy yells again when I don't respond. "Are you ignoring me?"

I am.

"Come on, don't be like that, baby." Another adds, and a burst of laughter escapes the guys. "We just wanted to talk to you."

As they speak, I keep my gaze fixed ahead, taking in the dark street around me while hoping beyond hope that I will find a store or even a person who can help me. However, luck isn't on my side, and with each step I make, the guys grow closer to me until a hand wraps around my wrist and pulls me.

"Hey," the one who grabbed me says, his face angry. "Don't you know it is rude to ignore someone when they are talking to you?"

"Yeah," another chuckles. "Is this your way of flirting? Playing hard to get?"

Who was playing?

I really wasn't interested in these guys, and I didn't want anything to do with them.

"Let go," I say slowly, trying to keep my voice even. "Now."

"Or what?" The one holding me asks, leaning closer. "Hey, beautiful, have you been drinking?"

"I haven't," I snap, trying to move back.

"You sure?" He continues, his buddies closing in on me. "You know, if you're up for another round, then you can..."

"I SAID LET GO!"

My voice echoes around us as I pull as hard as I can, but instead of breaking free of the guys' hold, I end up stumbling and then crashing to my knees.

Hissing, I try to ignore the pain that shoots through me as asphalt and rocks rip at my skin.

"Oh, isn't that a lovely position." The guy holding me laughs. "It's perfect for..."

He doesn't get to finish his words before a fist appears and slams into his nose, and when I turn to see who has come to my rescue, I find Mr. Owens towering over me.

"What the hell is going on here?" He growls, shifting his gaze to me. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," I snap, hating the accusation in his voice. "I think it is pretty clear what is happening here."

"It is," he confirms, taking in the three that glare on silently. "But I'm wondering exactly who it was that pushed her down."

As he speaks, Mr. Owens moves his gaze along the three, and when it meets the eyes of the guy who is still clinging to my wrist despite his broken nose and bloody face, his eyes turn almost black with rage and his expression turns scary.

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 5

You may also like