fifteen
Monroe
Iordered Alec and Cara into the bath once we could move again. Alec hadn’t taken it easy on her, but the way she’d writhed on his dick like she needed to be completely owned by him was the hottest thing I’d ever seen—until they’d licked up my cum, feasting on it.
I cleaned up the room-service dishes, stacking them neatly outside the door, and remade the bed. Now I had a phone call to make that was overdue. I’d spoken with Zali about Cara before, but we weren’t a thing then. I wanted to be more than that with her now.
She picked up after a couple of rings. “Hi, Dad. Having fun in Brissie?”
“Yeah, it’s great. You got a minute? There’s something I want to speak with you about.” My heart was pounding in my chest, nerves making my palms sweat.
“Of course.” There was hesitation in her voice, a concern that she tried to bury, and I loved her for it.
Zali was a bit of a loose cannon, never believing that the rules applied to her. She did what she wanted, when she wanted andwas never afraid to rock the boat. I think that’s what made her so good at what she did—she was a police cyber investigator by day, but that wasn’t all. No one on the police force ended up with millions by the time they were eighteen and probably hundreds of millions by their midtwenties.
I’d turned a blind eye to the shady shit she got up to, not because I didn’t care, but because I knew I’d drive her away if I tried to stop her. It had taken a fuck-tonne of therapy to stop myself from wrapping her in cotton wool and smothering her with my protectiveness. I’d struggled to give her the leeway she needed to thrive. I hoped that our relationship was solid enough to make it through this.
Zali was thirteen when Ezra had come along. He’d been ready to arrest me, but then realized it was her who’d hacked into a telecommunications provider to get revenge for them failing, over and over again, to remove my late wife’s name from our telephone bills. Ezra and I had become close, and our friendship had solidified over the next decade. He hadn’t hesitated to recruit her. I hadn’t wanted him to, but he promised that he could supervise and guide her to do whatever it was she did the safe way. He hadn’t once taken any risks with her wellbeing.
Now, twelve years later, he was one of her boyfriends.
I’d known immediately that he would do whatever it took to protect her, including risking his job to avoid arresting her. He’d proven over and over again that he was genuine. I trusted that he would have stopped her if she risked putting herself in danger.
He’d burn the world down to protect her and his men.
Zali may be headstrong and independent, she may be stubborn and more driven than any other person I’d met, and she may do things that were probably illegal in a dozen countries, but she had a heart of gold. She was loyal to a fault and would move heaven and earth for the people she loved. Sheand I had a bond that couldn’t be broken, one that had been forged in the fires of the hell we’d walked through together.
At least I hoped so.
Best case scenario, she’d say she was happy for Cara and me. Worst case, I’d have to remind her that she’d slept with my friend first. Talk about being a hypocrite though. I’d been so angry with Ezra. I’d accused him of being a creeper, grooming her from when she was a teenager. Like I’d taken issue, she might have a serious problem with Cara and I being together.
“Talk to me, Dad. What’s going on?”
“I like Cara.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, and I swallowed hard.
“Likelike or like?” she asked after far too long.
“I… don’t know what that means.” I laughed at the ridiculousness of what she’d said despite my very real worry she’d chew my head off.
Zali chuckled, the sound husky and warm. “Do you like her as in wanting to date her, or as a friend?”
“I want to date her. Iamdating her,” I confessed. “I know we’ve spoken about her before. I told you that I was coming on this trip to help her out and that she seemed lovely. But I neglected to tell you that I’m—” I huffed out another laugh, this one filled with nerves. “—I’m smitten with her, Zali. She’s something else.”
“She is,” Zali agreed. I could hear the smile in her voice but that was it. She didn’t say anything more.
“Say something. Please,” I begged.
“Oh, were you waiting for my blessing?” Her tone was teasing, and her laugh buoyed me from fear to hope. “You don’t need my blessing, Dad, but you have it. I saw the way you looked at her the night you two met. Cara is beautiful and she deserves the best.You’rethe best.”
I blinked back the sting in my eyes and smiled, thanking the heavens that my daughter thought so much of me.
“And as for you, I want you to find someone who’ll love you without reservation. I want them to be genuine and kind and have a gentle soul. Cara’s it, every one of those things. She has the biggest, most beautiful heart of anyone I know.”
“I love you, Zali,” I whispered. My voice cracked with emotion, and I sniffed back the tears. “You’re all those things, too, you know.”
Zali barked out a laugh. “Hardly, Dad, but I’ll take the compliment.” She was quiet for a moment, and then she sighed. “Dad, I don’t want to be alone tomorrow. Can you come home?”
