“Tell me what happened?” Her voice is a whisper of sweetness and innocence.

I don’t know why I come here every day, but I can’t help myself. She’s become an addiction. Just to see her is something that plays on my mind. And when I leave her at night, I miss her. It’s ridiculous. She’s a child.

“She told me to let her go. I had to turn the machines off and walk away.” The truth burns my throat like a poison. Raquel ordered me to let her go. The letter the lawyer delivered two days ago was her last request. She didn’t want to be kept alive by a machine, so she signed her life away.

I’m a widower. My wife is gone and I’m seeking solace from a girl who’s too young for me.

“Why do you feel guilty?” she asks,

Snapping my gaze to hers, I meet the pretty dark eyes of Riley. Her name is so fitting, a tomboyish blonde with a smile that eases my pain.

“I’m… I shouldn’t be here, yet I can’t stop myself from coming every day.” It’s the truth. I’ve tried to stay away. To focus on work, on other friends, but none of them understand. Not that she does, but what she does understand is loss. That feeling of having nothing left, and having to go on. People expect you to mourn, but they only want you to do it for a certain time. You’re only allowed so many days, that many months. Then you’re expected to move on, to smile again, to be happy.

“I’ve tried to ignore you, but you keep coming back,” she informs me cockily.

Chuckling, I sit back and regard her. She told me her psychologist is happy with her progress and I wonder if it’s partly because I’ve given her some sort of will to live. The same way she’s given me a reason to smile. To laugh, one that isn’t forced or fake.

“If I didn’t come back you’d miss me.” My words startle us both. Mainly because I feel them, from my mouth down to my core. I’m in a fucking storm with this girl and she’s dragging me into the depths. I need to go to Sins tonight to work out this frustration.

The BDSM nightclub I frequent is the only place I feel normal. But it’s the only place I want to see Riley. I want to tie her up and make her cry. I want to spank her ass, her tits, and her clit. To mark her and make her cry out my name. Every woman I’m with when I go there is not what makes me find pleasure. They don’t make me come. It’s her pretty face I picture when I’m torturing the willing toys.

Oliver says I’m working out my anger on other women because my wife asked me to let her die. I disagree. I think it’s because this little girl sitting on the grass is the reason behind me needing a toy. Someone to play with because deep down, I want her. I want to be her Daddy, to care for her, make her happy, but I also want to be her Dominant. A role of the Daddy Dom is unique from others. It’s even more intoxicating than I thought. The need to care for her, spoil her with pretty gifts, and to punish her when she’s sassy and cocky.

“Perhaps I will miss you,” she finally answers. Then she turns her gaze to me. “But, sometimes I wonder if it’s because you’re a friend, or if I want you to touch me again. Would you want to do that?”

“I’ll always want to touch you.” Brutal honesty. Rough and raspy, my voice gives away a clear indication of what she does to me.

“Good. Let’s go inside, a storm is coming.” Her words are ominous and she doesn’t know how right she is. The darkness that will soon envelop us is not only in the sky, but also in our lives. I have to make a choice soon. I can’t do this to her anymore. A forever with me is not something I can offer her, she needs that. To have someone who can be there through it all.

---

“Mr. Draydon.” My name being called drags me from the memory of Riley and how much I wanted her that day. How I wanted to kiss her in the rain and show her men didn’t always hurt girls they loved. But I didn’t. We walked inside the hospital and I made sure she was safely in her room before leaving for the night. I made a beeline for Sins that night, I had two beautiful girls willing to do anything I wanted, but the only face I saw in my mind’s eye was Riley.

Lifting my gaze at the door, I notice the man standing there with a smirk on his face. I meet the eyes of my new client. I rise and offer a fake smile. “Mr. Fredericks, my apologies, it’s been one of those days. Come inside, let’s see what we can do for you.” As I close my office door, I catch a glimpse of Giana talking to Oliver. Her giggle is enough to set me on edge. Jealousy is new to me, a foreign emotion that seems to take hold every time I’m near her. Or at least, every time she’s near my best friend.

Granted, it was my fault for sharing her, but I needed to know how she felt about me. Their friendship seems to have grown over the past month and I wonder if she still wants him. Even though he’s started seeing her best friend, I feel an underlying current of desire when she looks at him.

“It’s good to meet you, Mr. Draydon, my father couldn’t make it today, and since I’m his partner in the business, he’s asked me to come in his place. He’s been detained in Los Angeles with work. I trust that’s not a problem?” The man watches me for a moment, but something about him seems off. I don’t like it, but I nod. I’m not sure what it is about this man, but I’ll find out soon enough.

“It’s no problem at all. Please, have a seat and let’s get down to business.” Shutting the door, I stroll over to my desk with both my mind and my perception in disarray. Business first, then I’ll sort out my little toy.

When my office door flies open three hours later, I glance up to find my little toy staring at me with annoyance. “What’s got the panties you’re not meant to be wearing in a knot, baby girl?”

She doesn’t respond. Instead, she stalks to my desk in her four-inch heels and I’m hard as fuck at her display. Slipping onto my desk, she crosses her legs and pins me with a heated stare. “When were you going to tell me?” Her words drip with anger, which has me furrowing my brows.

“Tell you what exactly, Toy?” My voice takes on a dominant tone, causing a shudder to travel over her delicious body. Scooting back, I cross my arms over my chest and wait for it. The action closing myself off to whatever’s coming because if she found out about the little secret I’m hiding, I’m sure I’m in for the wrath from her pretty pink lips.

“You’re on a man hunt for my uncle?” Her voice raises in frustration and her body is shaking with fear. I realize my cover is blown. How am I going to get my balls out of her tight grip now? “I told you what happened to me and you took it on as a personal vendetta. It’s not your life to play with here. If you ever find him, he’ll know where I am. Why didn’t you tell me?” she hisses and I know I have a choice to give her complete honesty, or lie. 

However, there has been too many lies between us. Too many secrets and I’m done with them. As much as I want to calm her down, I know she needs to let out the anger before she can accept that I want her. 

Her past is filled with too much pain and I promised myself when I was truly ready, I would take her, I would own her, and I would protect her from any harm that comes her way. In that moment, as I watch my beautiful toy, I realize I cannot be one of those men who hurt her in the past. Nothing in our lives is black and white, but there’s nothing stopping me from just giving her the truth. Showing her that she can trust me, I reach for her, taking her hands in mine, and I’m grateful when she doesn’t pull away. 

“Yes, I am looking for him. And you know why? Because I am your Dominant. I’m meant to protect you, keep you safe from monsters. That is exactly what I will do. So, I’d like you to sit the fuck down and let me explain because you storming in here and shouting at me is not something I want to deal with when the whole office can hear us.”

I’m inches from her. She’s so close I can practically taste her. But before I even get to that, she’s going to have to calm herself down. I need to explain, but I also need her to listen calmly, not in the agitated state she’s currently in. 

“I’m… I want to save you, the same way I did all those years ago,” I tell her.

“Save me?” Her words are incredulous. “I didn’t need saving.”

“No?” I release her hands. Pushing to my feet, I lean in, crowding her with my larger frame. My hands are on either side of her body, pressing into the wood of my desk. I’m barely holding onto restraint, because all I want to do is spank her ass until it’s red raw. “And you didn’t enjoy it when I came to your room to talk? You didn’t seek me out so I could finger your cunt every day?” My questions cause her to flinch. “Answer me!”

“I-I had to.” Her confession spills like a poison, seeping into my mind.

“What do you mean you had to?”

Her gaze drops as she sighs. “She asked me to be there for you when she was gone.” Her words slam into me with a force so violent it knocks me to my ass in the office chair. Our gazes are locked in confusion and confession.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” My words are an angry growl.

Slipping off the desk, she settles herself in my lap, curling up like I’d just admonished her and she’s seeking my approval. “Raquel,” she whispers. “She told me to do it, to be yours. Gave me her dying wish that day, telling me that once she’s gone you’ll be lonely and she didn’t want that for you.” Her explanation makes no sense. My wife never once spoke of the girl she once pointed out at the hospital. I remember her words so clearly as if she’s right beside me murmuring them in my ear.

“You should befriend her. She looks lonely. Perhaps when I’m gone, she can be your new toy.”

My wife knew me well. She knew my needs and wants. The thought of her pushing me to a young girl in the hope that I wouldn’t be alone when she’s gone grips my heart painfully. I’m lost in my confused thoughts when Giana continues. “She would tell me about you. Confess your darkest desires. I told her I wanted them. I wanted to be consumed by a man who would love me. I was her patient since I was ten, until I turned sixteen.” It’s then that my Toy looks up at me from under her dark lashes with a knowing glare. Sixteen. A year before I met her.

Something clicks then and I realize that Giana, or Riley, has always been in my life. A connection that she sought for so long she saw in me. And I recall the day I first saw a ragged little girl. I was at my wife’s office. She ran a private psychiatric office in town. I was fucking Raquel on her desk, my hand wrapped around her throat tightly, lost in the pleasure of her body when the door cracked.

I was met with eyes filled with inquisitive awe. I didn’t stop, I continued fucking my wife while the girl watched me. I wanted it. I wanted them both on the desk writhing in pleasure. My desires always ran dark, and that day I was dragged into the abyss that was Riley.

The teen watched as I spilled my seed inside my wife. Her lips were parted in shock, a beautiful O. I shut my eyes and allowed Raquel’s whimpers to bathe me in their purity. When I opened my eyes again, the girl had gone. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen or sixteen. But it was her innocence in the way she watched my animalistic behavior that made me need more. From that day, Raquel and I would go to Sins and have voyeurs watching us. I came harder than I ever had before.

“You were at the door that day,” I mumble, furrowing my brows at her.

She nods slowly, trailing her finger down the buttons of my shirt. “I was. I watched you fuck her, and even at sixteen I knew I wanted you. My body responded to you. Then I found out she was taken to hospital not long after that day and I went to visit her. She told me you had a complex for saving innocent girls. That I… I would be your weakness.”

“She knew me very well. Always did.” The realization dawns on me. My wife planned my future without me knowing. She sent me a girl she knew needed what only I could deliver, but what she didn’t know was the road of depravity I would delve into once she died. Giana’s mind had been broken by her past, but I could heal her. Or would I end up breaking this shattered girl further?

“She did. I told her all my darkest secrets. And she knew that you’d want me because of my troubled past. The one I ran from on a daily basis. She was my therapist for far too long not to realize that somehow, two people never meant to meet, can find solace in each other.”

“You’re so broken, little Toy.”

“I am. I fucked up most of my life. I did things I’m not proud of.” Her deep brown eyes meet mine and she smiles wryly. “The only thing that ever meant anything to me was you. After you left me I thought I’d be able to fix myself, but then I was taken. A man walked into my room and explained that he could help me. Instead, he didn’t only break my mind, he shattered my soul. I had nothing. He kept me in a cage. I was a pet to him, nothing more.” Her confession hurts me in ways I can’t fathom.

“What?”

“I was owned as he called it by a man who called himself a Master. But he was sadistic. Things he did to me…” she trails off with her words and I know that if she told me anything more, I’d lose my shit and kill someone.

“I’ve got you now, Giana. Nothing and no one will ever hurt you again. You have to always tell me everything. Honesty is the only way this will work. Okay?” She nods.

“I found you again and I don’t want to lose this. To lose you. I’ll never be able to survive that. It’s strange how when I got the job at the coffee shop just to see you, it changed me. My nightmares didn’t come anymore. The memories seemed to ease their torment. I found Sins because I needed what you gave me so long ago, and I was in awe the first time I saw you walk in that night. I made sure that I was in your path every day.” Giana shrugs as if it’s normal. As if her mind isn’t as broken as her words portray.

“Look at me,” I order a little too harshly. “I want you in my life. Never be afraid to ask me or tell me anything. Understand?”

I realize I’m repeating myself, but I can’t have her disappearing again. This is it. I’m never letting her go again.