All Chapters of Groomed By My Steamy Daddy : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

LILY’S POVFor the next few days the only thing sitting in my head was that stupid conversation with Samantha and the way she laughed when I told her I was seeing someone powerful, because the way she said it kept replaying in my mind over and over again while I was brushing my hair, while I was eating, while I was lying in bed at night staring at the ceiling and thinking about how easy it would be to prove her wrong if I just showed her something real.It started affecting everything without me even meaning for it to happen.Dante noticed before I realized how obvious it was.One evening he had me pressed against the mattress with that heavy focus he always had when his attention was completely on me, his hand holding my wrist above my head while he studied my face carefully, and suddenly his expression changed slightly as if he could see something in my eyes that did not belong there.“Where are you right now,” he asked quietly.“I am right here,” I replied quickly, trying to sound

SAMANTHA’S POVI was sitting on the couch in my apartment with my legs tucked under me while Geneva walked slowly around the small living room like she owned the place, picking up random things and putting them down again as if she was bored and looking for something interesting to do, and I was pretending to watch something on the television even though my attention kept drifting back to my phone on the table because ever since I sent that video to Geneva the day before there had been a small uncomfortable weight sitting in my chest that I could not ignore.I kept telling myself that Lily deserved it.Every time that guilty thought tried to creep up, I remembered my boyfriend’s face when he confronted me about the video and the way he spoke to me after that as if I had betrayed him somehow even though he never asked what really happened, and every time that memory came back my stomach twisted with anger and I reminded myself that Lily started all of this when she decided to release t

LILY’S POVGeneva’s eyes dropped to the table beside me where my phone was lying and before I could even react she reached for it casually like she was picking up something unimportant, and I felt a sharp pull of panic in my chest as I watched her turn it over in her hand slowly, studying it for half a second before tossing it onto the floor without warning.“No,” I said immediately, my voice cracking as I twisted against the ropes.She did not even look at me as she lifted her heel and brought it down hard on the screen, the sound sharp and final as glass split beneath her shoe, and I felt something inside me collapse because that phone had been the only thin fragile hope I had been holding onto since waking up in this place.“Stop,” I whispered desperately.She pressed her heel down again, grinding slightly, then stepped back and finally looked at me with a small satisfied smile.“You were counting on that,” she said calmly.My throat tightened and tears burned my eyes as the truth

DANTE’S POVI was standing in the center of the control room of my private security headquarters and the hum of computers and monitors was like a background pulse I could not ignore because my mind had been racing ever since I found out that Lily was missing and the room itself felt too small and too quiet for the chaos I felt pressing down in my chest as I stared at dozens of screens stacked on top of each other showing feeds from every camera on the property and beyond, but every time I looked at one I saw nothing I needed, nothing that gave me the slightest clue, nothing that made sense, nothing except empty rooms and static air and the faint shimmer of time passing too slowly and my fingers curled into fists at my sides because every second she remained missing made the panic grow a little more inside me.I swore under my breath when I realized the feed from the east gate had been cut and jumped hours ahead, leaving only the image of a black SUV leaving the premises and then nothi

DANTE’S POVI walked through the penthouse slowly that night with no destination in mind, every room feeling empty even though nothing had changed physically, and the quiet pressed against my ears until it became impossible to ignore my own thoughts, which had been circling the same memories again and again since Lily disappeared.I stopped in the hallway outside her room and stared at the door longer than I should have, my hand hovering near the handle before I finally pushed it open and stepped inside, letting the door close behind me as I stood there breathing in the space she had occupied for months, and I sat on the edge of the bed without turning on the lights because I did not need them to remember her.“She was acting strange,” I said aloud to no one, my voice low and rough.I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, my hands clasped together tightly.“She was quiet,” I continued, “always distracted, always somewhere else.”The more I replayed it, the heavier my chest felt, because