Daddy's Game: A Dark Daddy Romance Read online

  Daddy’s Game

  A Dark Daddy Romance

  Daddy’s Little Series

  Book Three

  Copyright © 2020 by Felicity Brandon

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: [email protected]

  This book is entirely a work of fiction. The author does not condone, nor endorse any of the acts in this book.

  First edition March 2020

  Cover design by Eris Adderly

  Editing by Personal Touch Editing

  Download your FREE Felicity book here.

  https://felicitybrandonwrites.com/

  Chapter One

  Jared

  In the end, it was easy, simple—a game Jared was always going to win.

  Still, it was amusing to watch Sophie dash up the hill, racing for the trees in only the burgundy shirt she’d stolen from his utility room. A grown woman with bedraggled pink ribbons in her hair, running from her Daddy.

  Jared sighed, watching her futile pursuit, and for a moment, time protracted as her figure became smaller.

  “I see you, Sophie,” he hollered, smiling when her limbs paused on command.

  Just like they always had. Just like they always would.

  “I’m coming for you!”

  He watched a moment longer as Sophie began to run again, her form moving up the curve of the grass toward the woodland. Jared waited a moment longer, just long enough to make her believe she had a decent head start.

  Just long enough to make Sophie believe she had a chance.

  Then he was after her.

  Jared’s legs sliced through the early evening air with ease, his limbs powerful and gaining on Sophie’s scrambling form with every stride. He ran regularly, and when he didn’t have the appetite for that, he lifted weights at the gym ten miles from his home. It had kept him fit since his days of martial arts training had ended and meant Jared was strong and fast—more than a match for his little girl. As he started the uphill gradient, he allowed his mind to drift to the penance he was going to enact on her for this disgraceful behavior. Jared’s eyes slipped closed briefly at the thought. Soon, that spectacular backside of hers was going to be the same color as the shirt she wore with such stylish ease. It was going to be a rainbow that perfectly demonstrated her insolence, but there would need to be more than that… much more. Enough to hammer home the message that little girls who ran paid a high price for their foolishness.

  Sophie would pay dearly.

  That reality emboldened Jared, pushing him onward, his stride increasing in pace when Sophie finally reached the trees. There was never a part of him that worried he would lose sight of her, never any genuine concern Sophie would slip away—that she could hope to win this game he’d cajoled her into playing. Jared rarely doubted himself. He was more physically capable than most of the people he met, and he certainly had few issues keeping up with them intellectually, but more than that, he was just plain arrogant. It was a character flaw he was well aware of, yet it rarely caused him disquiet. Jared’s unwavering self-belief had made him bullet-proof over the years and was always there to buoy him, just as it was in this moment—propping him up and giving him the certainty that, in the end, things would work out just the way he’d planned.

  Except now, things would be even sweeter.

  After Sophie’s reckless performance, it was going to be Jared’s absolute pleasure to bring her down—overpower her, contain her, and ultimately, bring her to her knees. He would crush her for this—pulverize her and take her down so low, Sophie would need a map to find her way back to the surface. Glancing up, he caught sight of her racing between two giant oaks, but it didn’t matter. He closed the distance between them with each pace, and even with the added obstacle of the trees, he calculated he would be on her in a matter of moments.

  What had she been thinking—running away from him?

  What part of her mind had concluded this would be a good idea… a success? Sophie had never stood a chance of escaping him, and while he admired her unceasing fortitude, Jared knew now was the time to squash it altogether. It was time for Sophie’s hope to end. There could be no more silent aspirations, no more dreams of home and fleeing there.

  It was time for all of that to end.

  Chapter Two

  Sophie

  Sophie’s heart was fit to burst, the organ hammering so fast, it might have been enough to throw her into panic had she not already been on the edge of sanity. Jared was closing in on her. She didn’t have to turn back to know it. She could hear his pursuit, each time his boots slammed hard against the earth, each breath he took. Hell, Sophie had become so attuned to the man, she could just sense him—the urgency radiating from his body and the passion with which he would take her back. He would contain her, punish her…

  What little oxygen was reaching her lungs seemed to catch in her throat at her verdict.

  Jared was going to punish her. Hell, the man was going to bloody annihilate her.

  “Sophie!” he shouted, the volume reinforcing the notion he was close, yet the stress was gone from his timbre.

  Sophie’s feet stumbled onwards, the broken twigs and roots scratching her bare feet as she forced them forward. Even though she knew it was futile—Jared was going to catch her—she couldn’t give in.

  She couldn’t surrender.

  “Stop now and make it easier on yourself.” Jared’s voice bounced around the ancient branches, seeming to echo from every direction. “If I have to actually catch you, little girl, you’ll be strapped to your bed for days to come while Daddy thinks of more delicious ways to correct you.”

  She paused momentarily, reaching for a large trunk to support her as finally, she risked a glance over her shoulder. There he was, larger and bolder than she remembered, only a few feet away.

  “Oh God…” Her voice slipped away, just like her hope.

  Jared was right there, even now, pacing in her direction.

  She should run—she knew she should run, yet, somehow, she couldn’t persuade her legs to move—now that they had halted, now that she had seen the disappointment in his eyes, it was impossible to go again.

  Jared was going to win—he was always going to win. How had she ever believed it could be different? Sophie inhaled, watching as he closed the remaining distance between them, and suddenly, the answer she sought came to her.

  She had never believed it—not really.

  Escape had been nothing more than a pipe dream—a dream she simply had to follow once the opportunity presented itself.

  “Not quite, Sophie.” Jared towered over her, his blue eyes burning into her flesh. “But I am a God as far as you’re concerned.”

  “Don’t…” She reached out for his chest as he pressed himself against her—one final pathetic act of resistance as their bodies tumbled against the unrelenting trunk.

  “What was that?” Jared’s hands pinned them both to the tree, his large palms planted on either side of Sophie’s face. “What did you say, little girl?”

  Her throat dried at the ferocity in his tone. She’d known Jared would be pissed at her performance, but the timbre suggested she had somehow underestimated just how much.

  “Please, Daddy.”

  In the end, she was perturbed by how easily the word he desired came to he
r lips, but she wasn’t sure why. Had she not spent the last day or more feeding the monster in him that demanded she called him Daddy? Why was it a surprise to her at this point?

  “That won’t work this time, little girl.” Jared shook his head, though his brow relaxed at the small concession.

  She gasped at the way he made that sound—so dark and so ominous—and already knew he had the will and capability of actioning any nefarious plan which came to mind. Her hand, which had become trapped between their bodies, fought to rise and quick as a flash, his palms shifted, capturing both of them and restraining them against the bark.

  “You know better, Sophie.” Searing blue eyes scorched her skin, and right on cue, a hot blush bloomed at her cheeks.

  “Please, I didn’t mean to, Daddy,” she lied. “I just woke up and fled. I didn’t think.”

  Jared leaned in closer, his lips now only a few inches from her mouth. “And that’s the problem, little girl,” he told her in a stern voice. “It’s not an excuse.”

  The strength in her legs faded under the weight of his scowl, and if he hadn’t had her pinned against the tree, Sophie thought she might have folded altogether.

  “What are you going to do to me, Daddy?”

  Her voice was a pathetic whimper, a shadow of the woman who only a few days ago had roared at her husband with indignation. Jared had changed her, and Sophie knew it, but those contemplations were for another moment.

  This one was all about survival.

  Now that he had her again, she had to survive, and even though the corners of her mind were threatening to collapse at the prospect, that meant enduring. Enduring whatever he did as revenge for her escapade and whatever twisted schemes he had in mind for their so-called life together.

  Endure until she could think… until she could plan.

  Next time, she had to do things properly. There could never be another failed attempt.

  “Now, now.” The deep timbre of his voice stirred her from her desperate internal musings. “You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”

  She shook her head, forcing herself back against the trunk in a futile bid to avoid the lips which hovered in her line of sight.

  “What’s the answer, Sophie?” His dark eyebrow rose with the question. “Tell Daddy.”

  She blinked at him wildly. “I d-don’t know.”

  Jared looked bemused at her reply. “Wrong answer,” he responded dryly. “Every time you give me a wrong answer, Daddy is going to add another punishment to the already significant one which awaits you back at the house, little girl.”

  Oh, fuck.

  “Please!”

  Sophie wanted to cry. Hell, she’d have dropped to her knees in the dirt and begged him if she thought there was any chance it would help her plight, but the dark glint in Jared’s eyes conveyed the truth. There was no hope. She had handed him the perfect gift—as if he needed it—an excuse to rebuke her until he’d pounded every last ounce of her, which fought to resist.

  “Please, Daddy. I don’t know what I should say.”

  His lips curled, lighting his expression in a sinful way. Around them, the light of the day was slipping away fast, though the intensity of his gaze ensured Sophie scarcely even noticed.

  “It’s not a test, Sophie.” His eyes flashed at her, telling her what she already knew to be true—those words were a complete farce. Of course, it was a test. Everything was a test in Jared’s distorted world, and Sophie kept running right through the stop signs, failing each one in a new and spectacular way. “Just tell me what Daddy will do.”

  She gulped, tearing her gaze from his face, and for the first time, she noticed just how dark the evening had become. It was just about possible to see the lights of the house from here, the small building goading her as though, it too, was looking forward to her forthcoming torment.

  “D-Daddy,” Sophie stammered. “You’ll do whatever you like.”

  Just like he always did.

  And there it was—the truth.

  In all its bleak reality.

  Jared would do whatever the hell he liked with her. He’d cage her in that awful construction he called a playpen. He’d strap her to the bed or in the chair he’d adapted for mealtimes, and use and humiliate her however he saw fit… and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

  Nothing.

  Sophie’s eyes fluttered at the thought, the weight of it falling over her like a brick wall. Nothing—there was nothing she could do. He was stronger, faster—always one step ahead of the game—and at that moment, Sophie realized that’s what this was. Maybe it was all it was to him—a game.

  A sick, cruel game in which he plucked Sophie away from the life she’d known, away from her precious children, and indulged her with every perverted fantasy he’d conjured. In her innocence and marital boredom, she knew she’d inspired it. Sophie had been the architect of her own doom—she’d instigated the relationship with Jared—and unknowingly, she’d left a trail of breadcrumbs for him to follow. A trail that led directly to her front door…

  “That’s right, little girl.” His hands shifted on either side of her head until those large, powerful fingers slid between her own. “You do remember.”

  Sophie shivered, the intensity in his eyes reminding her of all the debauched and delicious things he had already done to her. Yes, the guy had taken her without her consent—there was no doubt about that—bound her, fondled her, and torn pleasure from her unsuspecting body without Sophie’s permission. Yet there had been pleasure—intense, raw desire. The likes of which Sophie had never known before. The likes of which she had only read about in paperbacks and would have sworn belonged only in those pages—a fairy tale, just like the notion that she could ever be satiated without Jared.

  Oh God…

  Her gaze fell to his collarbone as their fingers interlinked. The feeling of being pinned by him was so consuming. But even now, as terror cascaded through her body, she recalled how good it had been to succumb to him—to be his good girl, to give in and receive the hedonism.

  Would she ever see that pleasure again, now that she’d run and let him down so badly?

  “I remember, Daddy.”

  The answer slipped from her lips just before Jared’s mouth crashed onto hers. His tongue slid inside, her own mouth relenting as though he’d instructed the gesture, and as the kiss deepened, her eyes fell closed.

  She shouldn’t allow this. She shouldn’t want it, shouldn’t relish the way his tongue claimed her or the way heat tightened at her core. Yet that was what happened as he held her against the tree. She could feel the slick arousal pooling at the apex of her thighs and the way her nipples tightened at his touch. There was no resisting passion like this. Of course, it was easy in the hard light of day to reason the rights and wrongs of Jared’s course of action, simple to criticize his methods. He should never have abducted her, should never have drugged her, or orchestrated any of the messed-up things she’d been forced to endure since she’d woken in the little house down the hill.

  But none of that recognized this electricity between them—the imperceptible, yet burgeoning chemistry—and how that translated into passion as their bodies combined. It didn’t matter how often she tried to reason with herself about him. Yes, she should get away. She needed to return to her children. She needed to be free of the monster inside him that needed to control and humiliate, but at moments like this, it was impossible to deny the connection they shared. The heat he inspired, and the way her body reacted to him, betraying her, just as it had from the first words—the first touch.

  Jared drew away. “What were you thinking, little girl?” He sounded almost sad.

  Sophie pulled in a breath, the deed nearly painful. “I have to get away.” She implored him with her eyes, needing to make him understand.

  “Your children?”

  Apparently, her gaze had conveyed her reasoning. “Yes, Daddy. They need me. More than you do and more than I need this.”
br />   His jaw tightened. “You don’t know that.”

  She gulped back on the rising passion. If Sophie allowed that heat to overcome her, it would cloud her judgment again and make any prayer of escape folly.

  The flames would consume her.

  “I do.” Her words were a hoarse whisper in the cold, evening air. “I do, Daddy.”

  Sophie saw the moment the shutters came down, the light in his gaze morphing from the passionate heat of their shared caress to the cold glint she identified only too well.

  “It doesn’t matter.” He practically spat the words at her. “You’re mine, Sophie, and now, it’s time you came home with Daddy.”

  Chapter Three

  Jared

  After such a dramatic performance, Jared may have expected the final act to have been a greater display of fortitude and fight. He may have anticipated his little girl putting on a show as he released her wrists and scooped her up into his arms. Maybe he’d envisioned tears, screaming, and possibly even shouting when he brought her back down the hillside toward her fate. As it was, those things didn’t transpire. Jared wasn’t certain if it was defeat or merely exhaustion, which fell over Sophie, but something shifted in her, reminding him of the first night he’d left her bound to the bed. The way she’d wept, wailing until her face was red, and his head pounded, and he’d been forced to give in and offer her the one thing he’d urged himself not to concede—tenderness.

  He wanted to own her, to devour the woman, and consume her every waking thought, but he hadn’t intended for more than that. He hadn’t counted on developing any sort of affection for her. Feelings were not a problem Jared usually encountered. In the past, whatever he’d mistaken for them quickly dissolved into thin air as the initial bubble of lust burst around him, but things with Sophie were different. He’d engaged the woman long before actually setting eyes on her ravishing form. She’d engaged him, too—he knew that now. Her coy conversations and witty little comebacks online had made him smile, even though he knew he’d have spanked them out of her in real life. Jared had enjoyed getting to know Sophie, and he fucking relished the reality of having her here with him even more.