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But he’d been on his way out the door to head to the club, and he’d found himself drawn to their front door by some invisible force he couldn’t name.
Well. The force had a name. He just wasn’t quite ready to admit that the reason he was ringing the doorbell to his closest friend’s home was just to get a peek at his daughter.
It took three rings for the door to swing open. But instead of Abigail, the housekeeper who had been running the Duvall home and answering their door for longer than Braden could remember, it was Charlotte who yanked the door open, a lopsided smile plastered across her face.
“Another visit so soon? To what do we owe the pleasure, Mr. Elliott?”
The slight slurring of her words was enough to dampen the thrill of pleasure he’d gotten from seeing her. Narrowing his eyes, he stepped over the threshold, grabbing her arm to steady her when she stumbled back. “Are you drunk?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. And if you’d be so kind as to let go of me, I’d like to go get another bottle of wine so I can stay that way.”
“No.”
Even wasted, she managed to raise an eyebrow in that haughty, spoiled-princess way that made his palm itch. “I don’t remember asking for permission.”
She hadn’t. And he had no right to deny her, or to give orders. But fuck if he wasn’t still tempted to drag her into the parlor so he could wear his hand out on her gorgeous ass for being a defiant brat. “You’ve obviously had more than enough, and it’s not even four in the afternoon, Charlotte.”
Instead of jerking out of his grasp or scowling at him as he’d expected, a slow, sultry smile curved her lips and she leaned in. “Have I been a naughty girl, Daddy?”
Heat flashed through him at the sound of his title on her lips. Before he could stop himself, he’d hauled her against him, her lips a hair’s breadth from his own. “You’ve been very naughty, little girl.”
“Yeah?” He didn’t think he was imagining the flush on her cheeks or the way her pupils widened at his words, but he also couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just the alcohol. “What are you gonna do about it?”
Spank your ass and then put you to bed, so you wake up thinking of me and remembering how naughty you were.
That was what he wanted to do. More than he could remember wanting anything in a very long time. But it was beyond wrong to want those things with her, so he pushed her away, gently but firmly. “Go take a nap, Charlotte. Sleep off the alcohol.”
Now she did jerk away, her bottom lip puffed out in a pout that nearly had him hauling her back to him so he could kiss it away. “Fuck you. You’re not my Daddy.”
“It’s a good thing for you I’m not, or else you’d be going down for that nap with the taste of soap on your tongue.”
Her eyes widened at the threat, and she stumbled backward before scurrying off to the kitchen. Probably in search of another bottle of wine.
Ignoring every instinct he had, he stalked past the kitchen to go track down his friend. And to see if he knew why the fuck his daughter was absolutely blitzed in the middle of the afternoon.
6
MEETING MASTER O
LOTTIE
The alcohol had done its job. She couldn’t remember much of anything from the last twenty-four hours, other than a hazy memory of Mr. Elliott coming to the door and looking very stern about her drinking. But then, Mr. Elliott often looked stern about one thing or another. She’d had a fleeting worry that perhaps he was angry because he’d found out about her putting herself in the auction, but if that had been the case, she had no doubt he would have raised holy hell with her father. And since neither of them had approached her about it, she figured it was safe to assume he hadn’t discovered who ‘Ladybug’ actually was.
Overall, she was left feeling mostly numb about everything, thanks to the alcohol and whatever self-preservation mechanism her brain had engaged to keep her from actually thinking about what the evening would entail. Numb enough that she was able to get ready for her… date? Appointment? Whatever the fuck you called it when you met a strange guy in a club and handed over your virginity in exchange for an obscene amount of cash, she was no longer feeling anxious about it. In fact, she wasn’t feeling anything really, though some distant little voice in the back of her head was telling her she should be worried about the fact that she wasn’t worried.
Whatever. Worst-case scenario, she could talk through the whole mess in therapy after she got her dad’s debts back under control. Every poor little rich girl had a therapist on tap to help them through all of life’s little inconveniences, and Lottie’s would have an absolute field day with this whenever she went back.
Imagining her therapist’s expression when she explained the whole sordid ordeal kept Lottie occupied and amused the entire car ride to the club. The auction had sent a car over, and while it wasn’t as nice as the service her dad used, it wasn’t shabby, either.
The club was a lot nicer than she’d expected it to be, too. Well, she honestly wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, seeing as how she’d never actually been to a sex club before. But while the outside was rather unassuming with its plain dark brick exterior, the interior was stunning. Every surface was either gleaming wood or padded leather, and the whole place was lit with dark red lighting that managed to be sexy and mysterious rather than cheesy. Overall, the entire atmosphere whispered of wealth and privilege, which she supposed made sense considering one of the club’s members had shelled out nearly half a million dollars for her virginity.
Across the expansive lobby, a woman with rainbow-colored hair smiled at her from behind a sleek desk as Lottie approached. “Hi! You look a little lost. Are you here with someone?”
“I’m supposed to be meeting someone.” Lottie had never considered herself the type of person to get easily embarrassed, but heat rushed to her cheeks and she had to swallow several times before she could get the words out. “I’m, ah, here with… Master O?”
The woman’s eyes went wide. “Are you sure that’s the right name?”
Before Lottie could second-guess herself, a deep rumbling voice answered. “She’s sure.”
