Page 285 of A Vicious Love

“We are,” I said.

Sienna waited until Celeste was out of hearing before she looked up at me. “You are impossible. I can’t believe you told her my shot was prettier.”

“It was.”

“You didn’t see it. You were watching me.”

“Yes.” I lowered my mouth near her ear because her family had already been given enough access to my thoughts for one afternoon. “You have a very nice ass, baby. Daddy can’t help it.”

Her whole body went still against mine.

Then the blush came.

Slow at first, a soft pink along her cheekbones, then deeper until it reached the tips of her ears. She looked straight ahead at the shooting field as if the next clay launch held answers to every spiritual problem she had ever had.

“You cannot say things like that.”

“True things?”

“Jamison.” Her voice had gone breathless at the edges, which made my hand flex at her waist before I could stop it. “My family is right there.”

“Yes. Which is why you’re going to keep standing in front of me.”

She turned her head just enough to look at me. “Why?”

I let my gaze drop to her mouth, then back to her eyes. “Because that blush is doing terrible things to my cock in public, and Daddy needs you where you are.”

Her lips parted.

For one second, she only stared at me, outraged and flustered and far too pretty under the pavilion shade. Then her mouth pressed into a line that failed completely because she was trying not to smile.

“You’re dreadful.” Her hand tightened over mine. “And impossible.”

“You said that already.”

“I’m saying it again because you keep proving it.”

I felt the change in her as she said it. Tiny, but there. The girl with polished manners and careful smiles had begun letting something sharper peek through with me. A little attitude. The Sienna who looked at me now as if she might be embarrassed, but she was no longer afraid to answer back.

My girl was finding her voice with me again.

Deeply fucking satisfying.

I bent closer. “Careful, baby.”

Her eyes narrowed. “About what?”

“That tone.”

“What tone?”

“The one that says you’ve forgotten I can do something about it.”

She drew herself up as much as she could while standing trapped between my body and my arm. The effect was undermined by the fact that she was still blushing, leaning back against me, my hand stay spread over her stomach where everyone could see.

“I have no idea what you mean,” she said.

Brat.