Sweet Seduction Shield(54)

"But when you come back, can Deetetiv Pierce be my Daddy instead of Rick?"

Both Pierce and I stared at her, mouths hanging open. Where the hell had this come from?

"Um," we said together, then quickly swung our heads to stare at the other's face. He looked as stunned as I felt.

"Daisy," I began as Pierce said, "Not a bad idea," offering me a wink. Trying to lighten the moment.

And my five year old daughter added, "That's settled, then," in a perfect imitation of her Mum.





Chapter 16


Including The Guy Who Had Started It; The Detective Called Harvey Stone

"Just because you have bamboozled my daughter into thinking you're the best bet to keep me safe and therefore a prime candidate for fatherhood, does not mean she knows what she's saying," I said to Pierce in my bedroom.

We'd not mentioned a word of our conversation with Daisy over lunch, and strangely neither had she. It was as though she was content to keep it our secret, although she kept flicking glances at Pierce and I as we sat side by side across the table. Some of them rather pointed, especially when Ryan's arm slipped off the back of my chair in order to pass a dish to one of the others eating lunch with us. As soon as his arm returned to my chair back, he'd give Daisy a wink and she'd beam.

He was playing her. He knew he had an in with my child and he was milking it for all it was worth.

"We've known each other a handful of days, she has no idea how relationships form. Hell," I added, pulling clean clothing out ready to change for our trip to retrieve the ledger later tonight, "I've never even introduced her to a boyfriend before. She probably thinks I'm useless at finding a man for myself and you're just the best bet."

"I am the best bet," Pierce said from his recline against the closed door to the room. He'd shut it as soon as he followed me in here and no amount of furrowed brows and glares from me had made him move.

"Pfft," I inarticulately argued. "You've shown her five seconds of attention, the first male attention she's received practically her entire life, and she's sold on your being 'the one'."

"I am 'the one'," he said reasonably, a smirk gracing his lips. "Daisy has good taste."

"No," I replied, pointing a finger at him, which ended up making the shirt I held in the same hand flap around in the air. "You're just convenient. Right place, right time. And your ridiculous promise of keeping me safe, when you know damn well that you can't guarantee that, is what sealed the deal for her. You're attentive, a good protector, and you're available - although I'm sure that last one wouldn't have stopped her from placing you at the top of the list."

"I am attentive," he said, stepping away from the door. "And a good protector," he added, taking another step towards me. I backed up to the bed, realising I'd made a fundamental and strategic mistake. I should have had this argument out in the lounge. That had two different exits running off it. "And I am available," he conceded. "But is that all I am to you?"

"What do you mean to me?"

"Marie," he said coming to rest right in front of me. His fingers tracing my jaw and running down my neck before I could stop him. "I'm all of those things, Daisy is right. But that's not all I am to you, is it? Be honest, your daughter has seen what you're refusing to acknowledge right now."

"Don't be ridiculous," I breathed as his head dipped and his lips trailed over my skin, from my shoulder up to my ear. I shuddered, making him chuckle, his goatee tickling with the movement.

"I know it's only been a few days," he murmured against my skin. "I know a lot has happened in that time, a lot of external and internal things, to throw your world out of whack." A hot lick of his tongue against my heated flesh, the touch of his fingers into the dips above my rear, pulling me closer. "None of it matters," he whispered, his lips coasting over my neck and throat, bringing his attention to the other side of my face. "Because I already know," he finished.

"Know what?" I rasped, as he gently sucked my skin into his mouth, his tongue laving the slight bruise he created.

"I know I'm not letting you go. I know I'm not letting you face this alone. I know I want to explore this electric sensation that arcs between us whenever we're close. I know that the beauty I see inside you reaches deeper than I can ever envisage. I know that I've already lost myself to you and I haven't even had a taste yet. And I know once I do, there'll be no going back, because I imagine you taste utterly divine."

His body quaked against me, as though the picture he was painting inside his head affected him deeply.