The Diva and his Daddy Read online

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE Nick

  CHAPTER TWO Jeo

  CHAPTER THREE Nick

  CHAPTER FOUR Jeo

  CHAPTER FIVE Nick

  CHAPTER SIX Jeo

  CHAPTER SEVEN Nick

  CHAPTER EIGHT Jeo

  CHAPTER NINE Nick

  CHAPTER TEN Jeo

  CHAPTER ELEVEN Nick

  CHAPTER TWELVE Jeo

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN Nick

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN Jeo

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN Nick

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN Jeo

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Nick

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Jeo

  CHAPTER NINETEEN Nick

  CHAPTER TWENTY Jeo

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Nick

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Jeo

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Nick

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Jeo

  Note from Author

  About the Author

  Books by Rebecca James

  CHAPTER ONE

  Nick

  I hurried from the elevator toward the garage entrance of Lux, heart beating double time and sweat beading on my forehead and upper lip. I told myself not to be so dramatic; I was fine. But the pain in my arm and the memory of feeling like I couldn’t get away propelled me toward the exit. It was stupid, so stupid. But I just couldn’t get over that unsafe feeling.

  “Mr. Chambers!” The deep voice stopped me three feet from the door to the underground parking garage, and I turned to see one of Lux’s bouncers standing behind me, breathing a little hard for a man in such great shape. I realized that, in an attempt to catch up with me, he had taken the stairs.

  “You don’t have to run after me, sweetheart. I’m more than willing to stop for you,” I said flirtatiously.

  The big man actually blushed. “Mr. Roman sent me to see if you were all right. You seemed upset when you left the top floor.”

  Embarrassment flooded me. Leo Roman was one of three brothers who owned Lux, the exclusive gay club my ex belonged to. The man must have seen me bolt from the event. I felt like an idiot.

  “Tell Mr. Roman I’m fine, thank you. I just remembered somewhere I needed to be.”

  As calmly as I could, I walked out the door into the cavernous, dimly-lit parking garage. God, I didn’t belong in a place like Lux. Without Royce with me, I felt like an imposter. I didn’t know what Royce had been thinking.

  Against my protests, my ex had bought me a year’s membership, saying it would be easier for me to find another Daddy there—specifically, on the kink floor—and that he would be able to keep an eye on me and let me know if there was anyone I should stay away from. Unfortunately, he’d had a previous engagement that evening; but tonight was Daddy/boy night, and I’d wanted to try it out.

  I wished I’d stayed at home.

  I climbed behind the wheel of my black Hyundai Santa Fe and sat for a moment, rubbing my sore arm. I glanced at the clock on my phone. It wasn’t even ten yet.

  Sighing, I started the car and pulled out of the space to follow the exit signs, looping my way out of the darkness and into the lit-up city. I didn’t want to go home to my empty apartment so early, knowing I’d lie awake for hours thinking about a million and one things I couldn’t do anything about. I’d recently moved into the Winters Corporation building, and I loved my apartment, but it was fucking empty at night. I’d never thought I’d miss hearing my neighbors at my old place fighting at top decibels and then making up just as loudly, but I definitely did when faced with the blanket of silence that enveloped the building after business hours and on weekends. So far, I was the only resident, although Cane had said that wouldn’t be for long.

  Without much thought, I passed the turn that would take me home and headed for FDR Drive, rolling the window down to enjoy the cool night air. I didn’t care if it messed up my perfectly arranged hair—I was no longer out to impress.

  What if a certain, sexy Brazilian biker is at the clubhouse? My traitorous heart asked. A scowl pulled at my lips. I had no need to impress Jeovanni Mendoza. I might have once thought him sexy as hell, but spending time around him had effectively killed that crush.

  Liar, liar pants on fire.

  Thirty-five minutes later when I pulled up outside the Hedonist clubhouse in Clinton Hill, I shot a text to Tony.

  Making friends with a bunch of bikers had never been something I’d seen myself doing, but when my cousin Julianna had merged her company with Hard Time Productions, owned by Blaze Harrington, leader of the Hedonists motorcycle club, that’s exactly what had happened. The guys were great: tough and more than able to beat the ever-living shit out of a person, but also good at heart. As most had done their turn in the porn business, they were also all hot as fuck.

  I winced as I shut the door of my car, having forgotten about my sore arm. That bastard I’d been with needed to learn the difference between Daddy sternness and abuse, like yesterday. I skipped up the steps of the small house, and by the time I’d raised my hand to knock, Tony was opening the door.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked as he stood back so I could walk in. “Thought you had a thing at Lux tonight.”

  “It was a colossal flop.” I held up my hand when Tony started to respond. Over the year I’d worked with Blaze at Hard Time, Tony and I had gotten close, but I wasn’t ready to get into my crappy evening right then. “I’ll tell you the grisly details later,” I said, looking around. The front room was empty, but I could hear voices from the dining room at the back of the house.

  “Poker game,” Tony said, pushing his blond hair from his eyes. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, his feet bare. “I wasn’t playing, though. I’m glad you’re here. Come sit with me. You want a beer?” Tony started toward the kitchen at the back of the house.

  “You don’t have anything a little frillier, do you?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Sorry, princess. If you want, I could pour it in a glass and stick one of those tiny umbrellas in it that Ax brought home from The Yellow Banana.”

  I shook my head. “That’s okay. Bottle’s fine. I don’t suppose you have light beer?”

  “Of course we do. Lake lives here.”

  Blaze’s boyfriend Lake was always watching his weight because he was a pole dancer at the Yellow Banana.

  I settled on the couch. Led Zeppelin thrummed through the speakers on the table against the opposite wall, but not loud enough to make conversation difficult. When Tony came back with the beers, he curled up beside me and clinked his bottle with mine before drinking.

  “Anything new besides an awful night at Lux? Are you sure don’t want to tell me about it?”

  “Nothing very interesting. I didn’t want to go home this early. And, no—it’ll just sour my mood.”

  Tony looked curious but didn’t push.

  “The building must seem pretty empty at night. Once Cane really gets to know his employees, he’ll offer leases to others, and then you won’t be there all alone.” He lowered his voice. “I’m kind of hoping we’ll move in ourselves eventually. It’s a little difficult to get any privacy here.”

  Shrugging, I said, “I’m getting used to the quiet.”

  I took a long pull from the beer bottle and tried not to wrinkle my nose at the taste. Light or not, beer wasn’t my preferred drink.

  A loud chorus of voices from the other room drowned out whatever Tony said next. A second later, I heard the bathroom door open, and Caleb appeared from the hallway.

  “Hey,” I greeted him, trying to act natural, but I was surprised to see him there. It looked like Axel was slowly getting his boyfriend accustomed to the chaos at the clubhouse.

  “Hi.” Caleb smiled shyly and sat in the chair. In his early
twenties, Caleb looked like he should be walking around the campus of some university rather than sitting in the clubhouse of a motorcycle club. Seeing him and Axel together was even weirder, as Ax was huge and scary-looking, although since the biker had grown in his hair to cover the tats on his scalp, he looked a little more approachable.

  “Caleb and I have been sitting here talking about the animals at the shelter.”

  At the mention of animals, I realized Pepper, the group’s adopted dog, hadn’t greeted me at the door. I asked where she was.

  “She hurt her paw. She’s staying the night with Hugh.” I knew Hugh was the vet who made special calls to the animal shelter on Dante and Isaac’s property where Axel and Caleb lived.

  Caleb spoke quietly but seemed at ease with me, which made me feel good somehow. Not that my willowy five-foot-seven frame in a pair skinny jeans and a sparkly silver top could be all that threatening, especially considering Caleb slept with a man built like a mountain. After spending years gaining Caleb’s trust, the big man had finally won the traumatized boy’s heart. I leaned closer and took a moment to admire the engagement ring on his finger.

  “Gorgeous,” I said. “When’s the wedding?”

  Caleb shrugged, gray eyes sparkling with a happiness that made me a little envious, but I knew with his horrific past, no one deserved it more than he did.

  “We haven’t made up our minds. Now that we’re living together and engaged, we aren’t in any hurry.”

  “He’s not in a hurry. I want to get married today.” Axel’s big frame filled the archway between rooms. He walked in and leaned down to kiss his fiancé. The way they looked at each other made me feel even lonelier than I had before.

  “When did you get here, Nick?” Axel plucked his boyfriend from the chair as though he weighed nothing and sat in his place with Caleb in his lap.

  “I’m not a doll,” Caleb said indignantly, but his eyes were laughing. He laid his head against Axel’s. “You finished playing?”

  “Had to fold,” Axel said.

  “That’s new,” I said, indicating Axel’s left hand, where he’d had Caleb’s name tattooed letter by letter over each knuckle.

  Axel grinned. “I’d have his face tattooed over my heart if he’d let me.”

  Caleb blushed and kissed Axel on the cheek.

  I asked about how life was out in the town of Henry, and Caleb told us about some of the animals they’d found homes for recently and about what new ones they’d taken in.

  “How do you like your new job?” Caleb asked me after he’d finished.

  “I like it a lot,” I said. “Especially living a few floors below where I work. No more subway or getting caught in traffic.”

  We chatted for a while longer, and then Caleb yawned, starting a chain reaction among us, and we broke into chuckles. Checking my watch, I was surprised to find it was after midnight.

  “I think we’ll head home,” Axel said, and he and Caleb got to their feet. After they’d left, I turned from the door to find Tony staring at me.

  “What?”

  “I’m worried about you.”

  Confused, I asked, “Why?”

  “You’ve been lonely since you and Royce broke up.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I am not lonely. For your information, I lead a very full and interesting life.”

  “Yeah? What do you do in your spare time?” Tony challenged.

  I thought. “Well, Monday afternoon I’m getting my ass waxed and bleached.”

  Something clattered to the floor in the kitchen, followed by another loud clang and a string of curse words. I recognized Jeo’s voice and stiffened.

  “Don’t go,” Tony whispered before I could make a move. “You don’t have to run from him.”

  I opened my mouth to give a tart reply but shut it again. Telling Tony about my crush on Jeo had been easier when he’d been divulging his equally hopeless feelings for Cane. But Tony’s feelings had turned out not to be so hopeless, and I didn’t like the reminder of how I’d opened myself up. Still, none of that was Tony’s fault.

  “It’s really late.”

  Tony arched a brow. “And? You have to get up early to file your nails?”

  I made a face, but before I could give a smartass comeback, Jeo sauntered into the room, faded jeans hanging low and black shirt unbuttoned to reveal his bronze, ripped chest.

  Shit. For a man in his early forties, Jeovanni Mendoza was fucking gorgeous. I wished he’d get a beer belly or lose some hair so he wouldn’t be so appealing. Lord knew his personality should take care of that, but I’d fallen hard anyway.

  Jeo leaned against the door frame, and I dragged my eyes from the trail of dark hair disappearing beneath the waistband of his jeans—and that awesome Adonis belt—up to his deep brown eyes. He winked at me, and I forced myself to keep eye contact with the sexy bastard. He was so damn full of himself. There’d been a time I flirted outrageously with him, but now I knew how deeply he could burn me.

  “Nick,” he said, dipping his head at me before drinking from the beer bottle that had been dangling between his long fingers.

  The air crackled with tension. Jeo’s eyes had a sleepy quality that was pure sex, and I was not as immune to them as I’d wished.

  Tony said something, jolting me from the daze I’d fallen into, and Jeo and I broke eye contact, both of our heads jerking toward Tony.

  “What?” I asked at the same time Jeo grunted, “Huh?”

  Tony shook his head and unfolded himself from the couch. “I’m going to take a shower. Nick, if you leave before I get out, see you Monday at work.”

  When Tony had gone, Jeo looked at me. “Why didn’t you ever call me back?”

  He’d tried to contact me several times since the bust on Cane’s cousin’s human trafficking ring had landed both Tony and my ex, Royce, in the hospital, but I’d never answered.

  “I didn’t want to talk to you,” I said.

  Jeo broke into laughter, and my heart flipped at the sight of his gorgeous smile.

  “You don’t mince words, do you?”

  I shrugged. “What’s the point?”

  “How come you’re so angry with me all the time? I know I wasn’t the easiest person to get up in the mornings, but that hardly warrants the wall of ice you’ve erected between us.”

  “You just wanted to say erected,” I accused, tingling all over when he laughed again.

  “It is one of my favorite words. Now answer the question.”

  My dick took notice of Jeo’s tone. Already a whore for an authority figure, the combination of that and Jeovanni Mendoza sent my libido into overdrive.

  Considerably taller, Jeo loomed over me.

  “I think you know,” I said.

  “You were pissed with me long before I volunteered your boyfriend to help take down Karl Bruder,” Jeo accused.

  “Is that why you were calling me?” I asked. “To apologize?” Jeo had been the one to suggest that Royce pose as a buyer to Bruder, a move that had almost gotten Royce killed. That wasn’t the reason I’d been avoiding him, of course, but it would do.

  “Yeah. I thought maybe it was what caused you two to call it quits.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t. You can stop feeling guilty.”

  I needed to get out of there. Jeo’s presence sucked all the air from the room, making me feel weak and inexplicably needy. I didn’t know why he affected me the way he did. He wasn’t right for me. Jeo was a player and not at all what I wanted in my life, yet my fickle heart insisted on doing jumping jacks every time he walked into the room.

  Jeo might be bossy, but he wasn’t a Daddy. He couldn’t control his own life, much less take on my needs. He’d done porn for years, belonged to a biker club, and seemed to have no real direction in his life despite his age. Recently, he hadn’t even been around for his club brothers. I wanted someone settled. Trustworthy. Steady.

  I’d had that with Royce. We’d been comfortable. The sex had been…nice.
He’d been generous with money and taken me on trips. But the trips had consisted of him working and me clubbing, and he’d never asked if I’d been with anyone else on those late nights, making me wonder if it’d been because he’d trusted me that much or if he just hadn’t given a damn. In the end, I hadn’t given enough of a damn to ask. Besides, however I might have come off to others, I’d never been looking for a sugar daddy.

  “I have to go,” I said, turning toward the door. Jeo reached out to stop me, grabbing hold of my arm, and even though he hadn’t gripped me hard, pain shot from my elbow to my shoulder. I cried out in pain, and Jeo immediately let go.

  “What the hell, Nick? What’d you do to your arm?”

  “Nothing,” I said, gripping it to my side and blinking back tears.

  “You’re such a child,” he said softly, stepping close enough to give me a good whiff of his aftershave. I imagined leaning into him. What would it be like to have his arms around me? I suddenly wanted that so badly, the tears spilled over and ran down my cheeks.

  “How did you hurt it?” Jeo asked softly as he gently lifted my arm.

  I licked my lips, trying to think of a plausible explanation.

  “I just moved funny and twisted it.”

  Jeo tugged at my light jacket, and my heart melted at how carefully he removed the garment from my sore arm. He ran his fingers over my flesh, making me shiver. “You’re bruised.” He looked closer, and my heart began to pound. “These are fucking fingerprints,” he said, dark eyes meeting mine. “Nick, who did this to you?”

  “Nobody. I mean, just a jerk I was with earlier tonight. It’s no big deal.”

  Jeo continued to run his fingers over my arm in a distracting manner as he examined the bruises until I pulled away and gingerly shrugged back into the jacket.

  He shook his head. “What kind of situation did you get yourself into?”

  I froze, anger gripping me. “What’s that supposed to mean? I didn’t get myself into any situation except that I spent some time with a guy who was a bit rougher than I preferred. Now stop acting like you care because you don’t!”

  Jeo opened his mouth to say something, but I didn’t stick around to hear it.