Chapter Five

The convoy rolled through the city for a long time before the buildings thinned and the roads grew quieter. I kept my face turned toward the window the entire ride, watching streetlights blur past, trying not to feel the heat of his body so close on the leather seat. Every time the car took a corner his thigh brushed mine and a fresh, unwanted pulse of awareness shot straight between my legs. I pressed my knees together harder and stared at the glass like it could save me.

When the vehicles finally slowed I saw the gates first—tall, black, ornate, swinging open without a sound. Then the long driveway lined with trees, and beyond it the house. It wasn’t a house. It was an estate. White stone, wide windows glowing with warm light, the kind of place that looked like it belonged on the cover of a magazine. Across the front, set into the stone in bold dark letters, was his name. Large enough to read from the road. My stomach tightened. I had always known he had money. The monthly transfers, the school fees that never bounced, the quiet way everything I needed simply appeared. But seeing his name carved into the estate made the power of him feel real in a way the bank deposits never had.

The SUVs stopped in a wide circle of gravel. Drivers moved quickly, opening doors, lifting my single suitcase as if it weighed nothing. He stepped out first, then held a hand toward me. I ignored it and climbed down on my own. The night air smelled of cut grass and something floral. Somewhere in the distance water was running—fountains, maybe. The heat of his gaze stayed on me the entire time.

He led me inside without speaking. The foyer was all marble and high ceilings, a staircase that curved upward like something out of a film. My footsteps sounded too loud. He didn’t give me a tour. He simply walked me up the stairs, down a long hallway lined with closed doors, and stopped at the last one on the right. He pushed it open and stepped aside so I could enter first.

The room was enormous. A four-poster bed dressed in white linens took up one wall. Heavy curtains framed a set of tall windows. There was a sitting area with a low couch, a desk, a flat-screen television mounted opposite the bed, and soft lighting that made everything look expensive and calm. Fresh flowers stood in a vase on the dresser. My suitcase had already been placed at the foot of the bed. It looked small and shabby against all that space.

I turned in a slow circle, taking it in. The word *mansion* felt too small. My pulse was still too fast. Every time I breathed I caught the faint scent of him on my skin from earlier—cologne and sex and the memory of his mouth.

He closed the door behind us with a quiet click. I heard him move closer but didn’t turn around yet. My heart was beating hard enough that I could feel it in my throat.

“You’ll stay here,” he said. His voice was the same steady tone he’d used in the restroom, the same one I’d heard on short phone calls over the years. “Anything you need, you ask. Clothes, books, whatever. This is your room now.”

I nodded, still facing the windows. Outside, the grounds stretched dark and wide under the security lights. I could see the shape of a pool, the edge of a garden, the high wall that surrounded everything. My reflection in the glass looked flushed, lips still slightly swollen from his earlier kiss.

He came up behind me. Close. I felt the heat of him first, then the solid press of his body against my back. His hands settled lightly on my hips. And then the unmistakable hard length of him, already half-interested again, resting against the curve of my ass through our clothes. The contact sent a sharp, helpless jolt of heat straight through me. My breath caught. I stared harder at the window, at my own faint reflection, while my body betrayed me—thighs pressing together, nipples tightening under my top, that low familiar ache starting up between my legs all over again.

“There’s one more thing,” he said, voice lower now, near my ear. The warmth of his breath ghosted over my skin and made me shiver. “While you’re under this roof, you call me Daddy. That’s who I am to you. Your daddy.”

The word landed heavy and intimate. I had called him uncle in my head for years, the distant provider who signed the checks. Hearing him claim the other title—after what we had done in that restroom, after the way he had been inside me only hours earlier—made something twist low and hot in my stomach. I didn’t answer. I just kept looking out at the dark lawn, feeling the steady pressure of him against me, the slow rise and fall of his chest against my back, the way his thumbs stroked once, almost absently, over the curve of my hips.

His hands slid forward a little, not grabbing, just holding, possessive. His mouth brushed the side of my neck, testing, warm and slow. When I didn’t pull away he turned me gently with those same hands until I was facing him. The room felt smaller suddenly. His eyes searched mine for a long second, unreadable in the soft light, but the heat in them was unmistakable. I could feel how hard he still was, pressed against my lower belly. My own body answered with another pulse of wetness.

Then he leaned in and kissed me.

It was slow. Deliberate. No rush, no force—just the warm press of his mouth against mine, the faint taste of the wine he’d had at dinner, the careful way his lips moved as if he was learning the shape of me all over again. One of his hands came up to cup the side of my face, thumb stroking once along my cheekbone. The kiss deepened by degrees, his tongue brushing mine, and I felt my body answer despite every complicated thing sitting between us. The ache between my thighs flared back to life, stronger this time. My fingers curled against the front of his shirt without permission. A soft sound escaped me into his mouth.

He kept the kiss unhurried, almost tender, while the hard line of him pressed against my lower belly and the word *Daddy* still echoed in the quiet room. Outside the window the estate lights glowed steady and distant. Inside, everything had already changed—and the worst part was how much I already wanted more.