As right as can be.
It seems that being a Daddy is about dominance and sex and care. A romantic kind of tenderness. Protection and fulfillment.
But I meant what I said on the way out of her trailer today. She’s been taken advantage of by too many men. Men I’d be very happy to kill with my bare hands. That’s the only reason my ugly ass looks like a viable option. She’s confused. Aching for the male figure she didn’t have growing up. What kind of sick fuck would I be if I filled that role for her knowing it came from an unhealthy place?
My phone vibrates in my pocket.
Sighing, I take it out and look at the screen.
My friend Zander is calling.
“Yeah,” I answer, hearing the stress in my tone.
“Penn!” It’s loud in the background, which means he must be working. Zander does logging work for me on a freelance basis, but he also bartends a few nights a week at the local watering hole. Theonlylocal watering hole. “Bunch of LA folks here tonight, and boy oh boy, they can’t shut up about you! Ruined their little photo shoot this afternoon, did ya?” He lets out of peal of hysterical laughter. “Good for you, buddy. Good for you.”
I grunt as something occurs to me. Something that flips my stomach over like a pancake. “Is she there?”
“If by ‘she’ you mean Jenna Fairchild, yes. She’s definitely here.” He whistles long and low. “Never seen anything like her in my life. I didn’t believe in angels until tonight, I tell ya. The local boys are foaming at the mouth.”
My pulse is hammering violently in my neck. “Is someone hitting on her?
“The LA visitors just arrived a few minutes ago, but I reckon it’s only a matter of time before one of the locals shoots their shot with her.” He clucks his tongue. “Poor girl is crammed up in the corner, holding a Diet Coke like a weapon. It’s like she knows they’re all about to descend on her like wolves.”
I come very close to putting my fist through the wall.
In fact, I would have, if my daughter wasn’t in the next room.
Of courseJenna is terrified. She’s in a strange place with people who don’t have her best interest in mind, unless it makes them money. Why are they bringing her to a bar when she’s apparently uncomfortable being in one?
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, Zander. Don’t let anyone approach her.”
“What? How the hell am I going to do that?”
“Tell them Penn Holland said she’s off fucking limits.”
Again, he whistles. “That ought to put the fear of God into them.”
Nice to know my reputation around here carries the weight it should. “Good.”
“You aren’t…interested in this girl, are you, Penn? She’s half your damn age.”
As if I need reminding.
I like that you’re older.
Her confession from this afternoon has been whispering itself through my mind forhours. How she’d said it with thatlittle pout, nudging the new, dangerous instinct inside of me. She wants a Daddy. She needs one as we speak. And I can’t seem to stop myself from being that for her. Just for now. Just for tonight.
I won’t let myself take it any further than that.
Hanging up on Zander without answering, I dial Raleen, Erin’s sometimes babysitter who lives closer to town. Thankfully, she answers right away. “Raleen? Mind if I drop Erin and a pepperoni pizza off for a few hours? I’ve got something to handle in town.”
CHAPTER 5
Jenna
I’m trying to keep a smile on my face because yeah, people are not being very covert in snapping pictures of me on their phones. My back is to the wall and my Diet Coke is sweating in my hand, a lot like me. The music is too loud, the bar is too packed. My manager, agent and the entire crew are pissed off at me for not bending to their will today, so they’re pointedly ignoring me. Loneliness weighs me down. So far down.
There is a group of men on the other side of the bar making no mystery of their interest. One of them looks directly at me now and adjusts his crotch, and my scalp prickles with apprehension. How many times can I be put into these kinds of situations before something irreversibly bad happens? At least when I’m in Los Angeles, I have bodyguards, but they didn’t come on this trip. Being in a remote mountain town, Dustin didn’t think they would be necessary.
