Dad's Best Friend: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 83) Read online

  “You know you’re the only one I’ve got left,” he says.

  “I know, dad. I know.”

  Since my mom passed a few years ago my dad’s been more emotional and even sentimental with me. It was weird at first, but it makes sense now that I’m getting older. As much as I love being his little girl after what happened tonight it makes me realize that what I have with Damian is only going to be that much tougher when the time comes to tell my dad.

  “What happened to you after the party?”

  I’d never lie to my dad, but this is one of those times I don’t think he needs to hear the whole story either. Not to mention that although technically Damian and I didn’t have sex. I can’t exactly say we didn’t do anything either. That would be the understatement of my entire life.

  “After the scuffle I went to the ladies’ room and when I came out everyone was gone.”

  My dad blinks a few times and looks at the clock on the wall. “That was hours ago.”

  “I took my time getting home. I wanted to check out the view from over there.”

  “It must have been a good one because I couldn’t get a hold of Damian either and he lives right over there.

  “He does?”

  “Yeah, you know that. I go over there a few times a month.”

  “I guess I never really paid that much attention since I wasn’t the one going over there.”

  “Well you know I’m paying attention to you…a lot of attention. So let me know when you’re going to be out late, okay kiddo?”

  “Yes, dad,” I say and he kisses my head again and then smacks me on the behind with the cover on the couch like he used to do when I was a kid and he playfully chased me off to bed.

  “Hey!” I say.

  “Just like old times,” he says.

  I give him a smile and head up the stairs. The last thing I see before I go in my room is his silhouette in the light from the TV as he picks up a picture from the mantle above the TV. I know what picture it is. It’s the one we took not three months before my mom got diagnosed with terminal cancer and it took her before we really even had time to process what was happening.

  I try not to tear up, but it’s no use. I slide into my room and look at my phone.

  There are missed calls and messages from my best friend, Lisa.

  Sorry, I didn’t see your messages until just now.

  I put my phone on the nightstand and sit on my bed. I hike my dress up and run my finger along the dried gift he left all over the inside of my legs.

  I bend forward and take a sniff from a few inches away. Jeez, I can smell it easily. I’m surprised my dad didn’t smell it, or more likely if he did there’s just no way he would think it’s possible that his angel would enter the house that way. Come to think of it I can hardly believe it myself.

  But then again I can hardly believe that something happened between Damian and I.

  My phone vibrates and I reach for it. No way Lisa is still up.

  What happened? Saw some stuff on social media.

  Or maybe she is.

  ?

  Something went down at the party you were going to. Is Damian okay?

  I stare at her message. All these years I’ve tried to deny I feel anything towards him, at least to her. She’s the only one who even has a clue but I was never going to put fuel on the fire.

  Are you okay? she adds.

  Yeah. Thanks. Just a scuffle. Party got cancelled though.

  Bummer. Did you two have your own party instead? lol

  If only she knew.

  I’m not interested in him. I told you a thousand times.

  Riiiiight. And the pope’s not Catholic.

  I roll my eyes and try not to laugh.

  Just saying hi. Going to go back to sleep. Sweet dreams. Likely of him I’m guessing, but I won’t ask.

  I send her an exasperated face emoji and then a hand waving and a moon.

  And then I put my phone down and run my hand over his dried up claim that’s practically a part of my body now.

  I pull my dress up and over my head and look at the door to my bathroom which is wide open.

  I always always always take a shower before bed.

  But tonight it’s time to break that streak.

  Because I want to remember this night forever. And when I wake up in the morning I’m going to run my hand over the inside of my thighs again making sure this all wasn’t a dream.

  Because this…him…it’s too good to be true.

  And then I remember…I accepted a position at his company so I’m going to be working with him.

  Or underneath him.

  Or preferably both…all the time.

  But now it’s time to go to bed, even though I don’t want this night to ever end.

  And next time I lie down to sleep I have a feeling something else will have ended.

  My life as a virgin.

  Because I’m ready to become a woman…his woman.

  CHAPTER 9

  Damian

  I look out over the bay from my home.

  It’s the dark of night but I’ve never been able to see so clearly.

  This is usually the time I’m deep asleep preparing for another day of winning the corporate game.

  But why?

  What is it all for?

  To leave a pile of cash to some random charity when I die?

  I’m all for giving and helping others, but it’s time to help myself to what I want more than anything.

  And help her achieve all of her dreams in the process.

  I take a sip of my whiskey, my second of the night, but it does little to stop my pulse from its heightened state.

  Two drinks are more than I’ve had in the last six months, but tonight is all about the differences in life.

  Hell, I even smoked a damn cigarette for the first time ever.

  But nothing can calm me and as much as the way I’m drawn to her should scare me it doesn’t.

  It only excites me more and more as I think about it.

  But that’s the thing. I don’t think about it. I don’t have to. I feel.

  I’m a thinking man. It’s who I am and who I always thought I would be.

  Someone who is just as calculated in life as he is in business.

  Until that self-perception gets quickly shattered.

  Where has being Mr. Calm Cool and Collected gotten me?

  To a point where I didn’t even recognize her after not seeing her for a few years.

  My best friend’s daughter and I don’t even recognize her.

  And now? How could I ever miss her?

  She’s been right there under my nose this entire time. Sure she was much too young until recently, but those days are long gone.

  And my days on this earth…the days I was always excited to wake up to because I thought they were perfect? Well, now I know they were anything but.

  There’s a saying in business that goes something like this. “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”

  I think Mark Twain said it and like a lot of things he was spot on with his observation.

  I always knew, with one hundred percent certainty, that my life was perfect. There was literally no way to improve on it one bit or make it better.

  Yeah…that’s what I “knew.” Until she came along and showed me I actually knew nothing.

  But it’s better late than never and now I’m going to make up for lost time.

  And that starts by having her by my side twenty-four seven…or at least as much as possible until I can come up with a plan that doesn’t endanger my friendship with her father.

  But I’m not going to put too much time into it, because I can’t wait. I have to have her and have her soon…preferably now.

  Life is short and I want to spend every second of it with her.

  And I will.

  And that starts first thing in the morning.

  CHAPTER 10


  Delilah

  Although we didn’t have an official work agreement yet I know Damian is a man of his word, and the most famous tech company leader in all of Silicon Valley.

  I’m not going to waste one second for him to come to me. I’m going to show him I’m eager to work and to learn and that I’m hungry for this job just as I would be any other.

  But I know that there’s no way I would be this excited about anything else than to work with him.

  Damian is legendary for arriving to work early so after nothing more than about one hour of light sleep I get ready and take an Uber over to his corporate offices, not sure whether he’ll be working from home today or from the company campus.

  But what I am sure of is that it was strange to wash off where he claimed me. In a way I can’t believe I left it on there that long, and in another way I can’t believe I ever washed it off.

  And now all I can think about is him marking me again.

  But this time not my skin. My womb.

  At twenty years old and with my entire life in front of me it sounds absurdly crazy to even consider having a child right now. But it’s even crazier to think that I’m currently with the most desirable man in the entire Bay Area and the only man I’ve ever wanted.

  It’s like something inside me, something very primal, is telling me to mate with him and to do it now. And I’m not about to challenge the way those thoughts are guiding me.

  And right at five I see a red Ferrari prepare to enter the lot, stopping for just a second at the ticket machine which is just next to the main entrance of the building.

  But the traffic arm doesn’t go up, and his passenger side window does go down.

  “Get in,” he says. “I’ll show you our private lift.”

  I move towards his car and suddenly the door tilts up like I’ve seen on Lamborghinis but not Ferrari’s.

  “Good morning,” he says. “I see you’re hungry to learn and to earn.”

  “Good morning,” I say stepping in.

  He reaches across me and pulls a seatbelt out of I don’t even know where and buckles it into some tiny slit that I would have never found.

  “I like your car.”

  “Thank you. I made some tech mods to it myself so your comment means a lot to me, as everything about you does,” he says.

  He takes the ticket and we take off into the underground garage. My eyes move right worried about the car door, but it’s already down.

  I didn’t even see that. And I don’t even see how he’s driving the car.

  “Is this a self driving car?”

  “It can be completely self driving, but I’m operating it in a hybrid fashion at the moment.”

  “What’s it like?”

  “A self-driving car?”

  “Yes. I’ve always been curious about them.”

  “I’ll let you drive this one sometime…or not,” he says.

  We both laugh at the self-driving tech joke that I doubt other people would find funny, but we do.

  “But to answer your question, I think this car is both the future and the present…just like us.”

  I can’t help but smile at his words.

  “And I’ve got a present for you, in the future. The future being later this morning, but first I want to show you the office and what we’ll be working on…when we’re not working on each other.”

  I swallow hard at the thought of finishing what we started in the chair in his house last night, but this time inside the massive company he started. I feel like many times in life power gets abused, but the idea of feeling his power, the power of a very powerful man, from the seat where he makes decisions that the rest of the tech world quickly mimics or follows, sounds like the kind of power I can definitely sink my teeth into.

  If he doesn’t sink his teeth into me first.

  CHAPTER 11

  Damian

  By nine o’clock I’ve already run her through a tremendous amount of company orientation necessities, gotten her situated with a desk close to mine, and have her keycard and access to the building established.

  I’d never do something like this for a regular hire, but she’s so much more than that. She’s both my succession plan, my future plan, and my current plan.

  In other words she’s my everything.

  And after four hours of non-stop information thrown her way, which she’s very impressively soaked up like a sponge, I think it’s time to take a break for awhile. The brain can only be “on” at a high level for so long and I know we’re pushing the limit as it is.

  And nothing gets me refreshed as much as the smell of an ocean breeze.

  Until now. Today will be the first time I get to compare my favorite smell in the world with my new favorite smell…her.

  And I hate to tell Mother Nature, but for the first time in history she’s not going to come out on top.

  Because nothing is better than my woman.

  I guide her to the rooftop where our helicopter is waiting. Just a few minutes later we’re getting dropped off at Alcatraz Cruises, the only company authorized to take passengers over to the island.

  And what’s better is we’re the only ones on the boat I specifically chartered for the two of us.

  The boat moves quickly as does everything in my life. I’m not used to waiting, especially when it’s something that I want or in this case an experience I’m going to share with the woman I want.

  We arrive on the island and the tour guide takes us around showing us a lot of interesting things I never knew. After an hour or so we take a break and the guide steps aside.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “You just did,” I say and we both laugh. “But sure. You can always ask me anything and I promise to answer truthfully.”

  “Why did you choose to bring me here? Of all the places in the Bay Area I’m surprised you chose this one.”

  “I’m surprised you’re surprised.”

  “I don’t get it,” she says.

  “After we parted ways last night I went back to my house and thought about everything that happened…and everything that’s going to happen between us. And then I thought about everything I know about you and about me and about our lives coming together.

  I’ve spent my whole life in technology and you have dabbled in it, studied in it, and as of today you’re employed in it too. And not just technology, but also design.

  Alcatraz is the complete absence of technology, order, and design…or is it?

  It’s designed to keep people away and in a way all these years I’ve used technology as a wall to keep people out. But after last night I realized that all I’d really done is create a prison for myself.

  The real world is out there, across those strong currents of the one and a half miles of the San Francisco Bay.

  And now that I realize what I’ve done and I can see the error in my ways I know that there’s nothing…not this rock, these walls, the currents of the bay or even the sharks that lurk in them that could keep me away from you.”

  She gets closer to me and I can’t help but pull her in tight and feel her close to me, knowing my walls have crumbled because of her.

  I kiss her for the first time publicly and the crisp ocean breeze and her soft lips are the perfect compliment that can make me feel alive more than any amount of coffee or energy drinks the world has to offer.

  And with her there is no crash…only soaring to new heights.

  “And there’s something else. Something more personal.”

  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  “You should know. You have the right to know what you’re getting into with me.”

  I take a deep breath, readying myself to tell her what I’ve never told anyone.

  “We saw the cell where Robert Stroud stayed.”

  “The Birdman of Alcatraz?”

  “Yes. Did you catch what the guide said?”

  “That he ran away from his abusive father at the age of thi
rteen?”