All Chapters of What Daddy Left Behind: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

133 Chapters

Can I come in?

~ Stellan’s POV"What was true?" I asked, my voice low, challenging him to say it.Graham set his tablet down on the mahogany table with a soft click."The distraction," Graham said calmly. "The irrational irritation with the Operations team. The way you’ve been checking your phone every three minutes during a hostile takeover meeting. I’ve worked for you for ten years, Stellan. I’ve seen you weather indictments, market crashes, and personal tragedy. But I have never seen you... unmoored. Sure I have seen you with a boundless partner, but I don’t see you behave the way you behave with Thea to them.”Which was true. Those females were too fake to rile an emotion from me other than sexual release.Graham gestured to the empty chair where I had been sitting."I thought it was stress," Graham continued. "I thought it was the burden of Richard’s legacy. But watching you tonight... watching you wait for her text, or watch how jealous you become when she is with someone... it all makes sense

I need you

~ Thea’s POVThe wind and rain were torn away from me the moment Stellan grabbed my arm, his grip firm and desperate, and yanked me across the threshold. He kicked the heavy oak door shut behind us, sealing out the storm, the night, and the terrifying reality that I was being stalked and followed.I dropped the handle of my suitcase. It hit the marble floor with a dull thud, but I barely heard it."Thea," Stellan breathed, wrapping his arms around me instantly.He pulled me into his chest, burying his face in my wet hair. He was warm, so incredibly warm, and he smelled of soap and rain, fresh from a shower. I collapsed against him, my legs finally giving out as the adrenaline evaporated, leaving only a cold, shaking exhaustion."You're freezing," he murmured, his large hands rubbing up and down my back, trying to generate friction through my soaked coat. "You're shaking."I was. I couldn't stop. My teeth chattered, and my whole body vibrated with the aftershocks of fear. The message

A Confession

~ Thea’s POVHe didn't wait for a response. He didn't need one. My body was already screaming its answer, a desperate, silent plea for him to erase the last few hours of terror.He lowered his head, his mouth capturing mine in a kiss that tasted of rain and ruin. It wasn't the punishing kiss from the foyer; it was deeper, slower, a drowning kind of kiss that swept me under. His tongue tangled with mine, while his large hands moved from my face to my shoulders, sliding the wet straps of my bra down my arms."Cold," he murmured against my lips as he peeled the damp lace away. "You're so cold, Thea.""Warm me up," I begged, arching into him. He obliged.He pushed me back gently until my bare back met the plush softness of the rug. The fire in the hearth cast dancing shadows across the high ceilings, painting his skin in shades of gold and amber as he hovered over me. He looked like a god of old, powerful, sculpted, and utterly focused on his offering.He shed his sweatpants in one f

Pinky Promise

~ Stellan’s POVThe words left my lips and hung in the space between us. I had never said those words to a woman. I had never even thought about them. For thirty-five years, my vocabulary had been built on acquisitions, leverage, and control.But looking down at Thea, her skin flushed, her chest rising and falling in rapid, shallow breaths beneath me, the words felt like the truest thing I had ever spoken.She went completely still.The frantic, beautiful energy that had possessed her moments ago vanished. Her eyes widened, the pupils dilating until they were almost entirely black. She stared up at me, her lips slightly parted, but no sound came out. She had blanked out. The shock of the confession had short-circuited her brain.A cold spike of fear wedged itself under my ribs. Had I pushed too far? Had I terrified her with the sheer weight of what I was offering?It wasn’t fair for her if I had offered her to make the only thing between us only sex, but now, I was turning that in

You went on a date?

~ Thea’s POVI looked at our intertwined hands wrapping around my delicate pinky. Stellan Vaughn, was looking at me with the raw, unguarded terror of a boy afraid of the dark. It surprised me too much.Was this the same man I knew?"I promise," I whispered, the words sealing my fate.The breath he let out was shaky, a profound release of tension that seemed to deflate his entire massive frame. He pulled our joined hands to his mouth, kissing my knuckles, my fingers, and finally, my lips.The vulnerability of the moment didn't last long before we continued our night’s exercise. He carried me upstairs to the master suite, where the charcoal sheets became a canvas for his obsession. He didn't just make love to me; he worshiped me, mapping every inch of my body until I couldn't remember even my own self.When I finally drifted into unconsciousness, the sky outside the window was already bruising with the purple hues of dawn.The next time I woke up, I felt like I shouldn’t have.As a ma

Ought to punish you!

~ Thea’s POVThe words didn't come out as a shout. They slipped from Stellan’s lips like a blade unsheathing in the dark.I froze, the air trapped in my lungs. The comforting, intoxicating bubble we had spent the entire day building popped, leaving me shivering in the cold ruins of my own recklessness. I moved to hide my phone, a pathetic instinct to hide the evidence, but his hand shot out, his large fingers wrapping around my wrist in a vice grip.He didn't hurt me, but the restraint in his touch was terrifying. He took the phone from my hand, his eyes scanning Ethan’s message one more time before he tossed it onto the mattress."Stellan," I breathed, my voice trembling. "I can explain. It was before—""Before what?" he interrupted, his voice dropping an octave, vibrating with a dark, suffocating authority. He sat up fully, the muscles in his chest and arms pulling taut. "I was hurt!" I cried, scrambling to pull the charcoal sheet up over my bare breasts, suddenly feeling terrify

She is being followed.

~ Stellan’s POVA shudder racked Thea’s frame. Pinned between the cold plaster of the wall and the scorching heat of my body, she was entirely at my mercy. I could feel the frantic, rabbit-fast beating of her heart against my chest. My lower half ground against her softly, a deliberate reminder of the heavy, pulsing ache of my erection. The friction was agonizingly good, but her earlier plea was a hard boundary I didn’t wish to cross.I was a possessive bastard, a jealous tyrant who had just forced her to manipulate another man just to soothe my own territorial rage, but I was not a monster. I would never force her. I would never take from her when she was in pain.But I wasn't going to let her off the hook, either.I loosened my grip on her hips, sliding my hands up to trace the delicate curve of her waist. "Let's do something fun then," I whispered, lowering my head until my lips brushed the shell of her ear.Thea trembled. It was a physical manifestation of the sheer sensory ove

It's Me Stellan

~Thea’s POVThe master suite was very quiet after Stellan had left.And he had not been bluffing when he said he was locking down the whole place. I was entirely cut off from the world. Safe, but suffocatingly alone.I sat in the center of the massive, charcoal-sheeted bed, my knees pulled tightly to my chest, wrapped in the thickest duvet I could find. To drown out the oppressive silence and the frantic racing of my own thoughts, I had turned on the wall-mounted flat screen. I selected a romantic comedy Korean drama, desperate for something light, and entirely removed from my current reality.Bright colors and cheerful, melodramatic dialogue filled the room, casting a flickering glow over the dark furniture. And then, pushing through my relaxation, came the memory of Stellan’s voice, rough and desperate against my skin.I am madly, inconveniently, and irrevocably in love with you.On the screen, the male lead chased the heroine through a rainstorm, grabbing her hand and pulling her

If I wanted you to.

~ Thea’s POV"I'm scared," I sobbed, the words muffled against his chest. "Stellan, I'm so scared."He didn't hesitate. His massive arms wrapped around me instantly, crushing me against him. One broad hand cradled the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my hair, while the other rubbed slow, firm circles into my back."I'm here," he murmured, his voice a deep, vibrating rumble that resonated against my cheek. "You're safe. But why are you scared, little bird? This is my house. No one can touch you here. What happened?"I opened my mouth, the words someone was at the door, someone is following me dancing right on the edge of my tongue. I wanted to tell him. I wanted to unload the terror of the grey hoodie and the phantom footsteps. But my throat locked up. If I told him, he would unleash hell. The quiet, fragile peace of this room would be shattered by security protocols, interrogations, and violence. He had just come back to me; I couldn't bear to send him back into the storm.

Protecting Her

~ Stellan’s POVI had never asked that question of anyone, and I had certainly never laid my soul bare on the charcoal sheets of my own bed. My heart, a muscle usually reserved for pumping ice through my veins, hammered relentlessly against my ribs.Thea looked up at me, her wide, dark eyes blinking in the dim light of the bedroom. And then, a sound I entirely did not expect bubbled up from her chest.She laughed.It was a light, musical sound that completely shattered the intense, gravity-defying tension I had just built. She reached up, giving my bare bicep a playful smack."Stop joking around, Stellan," she giggled, shaking her head. "You can't just throw out a line like that because we were talking about when I was seven."My jaw clenched. The muscles in my arms locked tight as I held myself over her. She thought I was joking. She thought the Dragon of Wall Street, a man who measured every syllable he spoke to the exact decimal, was engaging in playful banter about marriage.A sud

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