Page 134 of The Daddy’s Girl

Much like they do on nights like these, our large booth has grown crowded. No one knows us, not really. But everyone wants everyone, and it’s exhilarating to be a part of it.

The thing I love about this place is that it’s really about so much more than sex. This is where people come together. Where they feel liberated. Where they can take on new roles and try on new personas.

There is nothing quite like it.

“Peekaboo.”

Quickly, I turn toward the source of the deep voice to find a man sliding into the booth next to me. His voice seems familiar, and when he lowers his mask and shoots me a wink, I gasp. Geo.

He chuckles. He’s leaning his back against the booth with a drink in his hand as he watches men and woman fawn over the flirtatious man across from us.

“What is wrong with young men these days? A beautiful girl like you sitting here alone, and none of them have the balls to come talk to you.”

“I don’t like young men…or haven’t you figured that out yet?” I tease, making him smile with his lips against the rim of his glass.

“I have noticed. So what’s he doing all the way over there?”

Stifling my own smirk, I reply, “This is fun to watch.” Matis is out of earshot on the other side of the large square booth, and with the music bumping, he can’t make out a word we’re saying anyway.

Geo’s brows hop up with surprise. “You like to watch your man flirting with others?”

At this, I turn and look into his eyes. “I don’t know. Do you think I’m weird?”

His face lights up with warmth. “No, I don’t think you’re weird.”

“I love him,” I confess out of the blue. I’ve only had one drink tonight, but still I feel as if my lips are looser than normal. Maybe it’s the exhilaration of finally finding myself. “I’ve had a crush on him since I was old enough to know what crushes were. And I think, in some way, it’s because I love him so much that it turns me on to think about him with other people. Like getting to appreciate something beautiful from a new angle.”

A grin slowly morphs across Geo’s face. “And it doesn’t make you jealous?”

“Jealous of what? He loves me.”

He shoots me a tilted glare.

“Okay,” I admit with a laugh. “I did get a little jealous on the dance floor when some woman was touching him mostly because I could read her mind. She thought for a second that she had a piece of him. But then I scared her away and took him back, and that turned out to be very hot.”

With an appreciative look, he grins. “Do you have any idea how many people I’ve watched fall head over heels for that man? He doesn’t know his own strength, truly. He is charming and kind and sexy as hell, and everyone he meets adores him. But…” As his voice trails, his eyes find me. “He loves you.”

My heart beats harder in my chest as a sense of power and adoration floods my bloodstream. He does love me. He could have anyone in the world, and he picks me.

“Maybe we’re perfect for each other. Because I don’t want to change Matis. I want him to always be the sexy, flirty Casanova he’s always been.”

Geo chuckles. “I think you two are definitely perfect for each other. If you truly appreciate him in his element, then I think he has found the partner of his dreams.”

With that, I smile to myself. Taking a sip of my drink, I pray that I truly am the partner of Matis’s dreams. In so many ways, I fear I’ll never measure up. I’m just a young, naive woman, and he’s been taking lovers longer than I’ve been alive.

Glancing across the booth, I see one of the women currently talking to him try to pull him toward the dance floor. Politely, he shakes his head with a smile.

He’s refusing them for me.

“Geo,” I say with an idea blossoming in my mind. “Would you do me a favor?”

He clears his throat, wearing a mischievous expression as if he knows that what I’m about to ask is going to be naughty. “Yes.”

“Will you go over there and kiss him for me? Tell him I said you could.”

He takes another sip of his drink. “Just kiss?”

“Let me see how I feel about that first,” I say after taking a deep breath. “If I don’t come over there and stop it…and he says it’s okay…you can do more.”