storage area. My heart sank when I saw seven missed calls, all from William. He had never called
when I was at work. My mind jumped to all sorts of worst-case scenarios as I hit the call button and
waited for the damned phone to connect. Cell service was shit back here, but I couldn’t use my phone
on the sales floor, and thanks to the jerk who couldn’t even bother to call and say he wasn’t coming
in, I couldn’t step out back.
“Don’t worry, I have everything under control,” William said as soon as he answered. I probably
should have checked for messages, so I had the faintest clue what he had under control.
“Are you okay? Did something happen? Why are you calling me at work?” I kept firing off every
question that popped into my head without giving him time to answer.
“Corey,” he barked out. I frowned. He was using his Daddy voice, but something felt off. “Sit
down and take a few deep breaths for me. Can you do that?”
If I wasn’t freaking the hell out again, I would have laughed at him echoing the words I’d
imagined earlier.
I peeked my head out to make sure no one had walked into the store. “Yes, Daddy.”
“Thank you.”
No telling me I’m a good boy?Even though he couldn’t see it, I stuck out my bottom lip. I wanted
to be his good boy. That’s what he said when I did what he told me.
“Before anything else, I want to make sure you hear this,” he said in a stern voice. “Everything is
under control. Do not freak out.”
“You do realize that’s one of the quickest ways to guarantee a freak-out, right? It’s the last thing
you should tell someone if you actually want them to stay calm.” And okay, so maybe I was being a
bit dramatic, but people really needed to think before saying shit like that.
“Corey,” Daddy growled.
“Fine. I’ll try to stay calm, but you have to admit I’m right,” I argued. I wasn’t going to concede
easily.
“You had a visitor about an hour ago,” he explained. “I was on my way out when they came up to
the door, which is probably a good thing because I wouldn’t have answered if they’d knocked. I know
you’re not ready for the world to know about us, so I would have kept quiet.”
My heart sank, feeling like concrete settling in my stomach. I didn’t have visitors. I could count on
one hand the number of people who came to my apartment, and yeah, now I was totally freaking out.
