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“Such a fucking brat,” I groaned, and she grinned.

“You like that, though. Don’t you, Daddy?” She slipped into her role as easily as I knew she would. Too fucking easily.

“Fuck,” I cursed. Her cool fingertips slipped under my shirt, and I trembled at the feeling of her hands on my bare skin.

“Such a damn brat,” I cursed, and she giggled. The sound surrounded me and held my heart in a tight grip, one I never wanted to lose. I wanted to hear that sound every day for the rest of my life. I forced myself to pull my mouth off her.

“You wanna touch daddy, little girl?” She nodded with unabashed excitement that made my head spin. I pulled my shirt up and over my head, letting the material fall on the chair next to us.

“Wow,” she whispered. My body immediately held itself taut. Her hungry green eyes soaked me up as she licked her kiss-swollen lips.

“Rox—“

“You’re… wow.” The awe in her voice was genuine. She wasn’t performing to feed my over-inflated ego. “I mean—“ She licked her lips. “I knew you were, you know, all built and stuff, but… wow.” I felt like a goddamn peacock, my chest puffed out as she admired my body. “You guys should really play shirtless. I mean, if you wanted to sell out the stands and stuff.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I rasped. She kept touching me. Looking at me. A body I’d thought I’d spent a lifetime building to play the game I loved so much. But maybe without knowing it, it had all been for her. For the day when we’d find our way to one another. All of it for Roxanne to look at me like she was right in that moment. Like I was the only man who ever fucking existed.

“You like what you see?” I asked, unable to mask the vulnerability I felt. There was something about the way her green eyes met mine that made me feel more exposed than I’d ever felt around another human being.

“It’s… decent.” She winked, obviously teasing me, but for some reason, I couldn’t pull an entire breath into my lungs.

I’d never needed validation from another living person, yet standing in front of the girl who turned my life upside down and inside out, I needed to hear it from her. I might see the appreciation in her gaze, but I needed her words to confirm it.

“Decent.” I frowned, trying to focus on the woman in front of me and not the way her fingers traced every line of every ab. Or the way my blood kicked up a couple of degrees in heat as they moved up and through my dark chest hair.

“Hmm?” she asked, almost like she had somehow been distracted.

“You think I’m just…” Her fingers came up between us and landed on my lips.

“No.” She shook her head, her eyes locked on mine, “You’re more than decent to look at, Dave. I think you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.” Her voice was steady and sure.

“Roxanne.” I swallowed, not sure of what I wanted to say but needing to say her name.

“Hmm?” she hummed, obviously trying to make me lose my ever-loving mind with her touch that never seemed to stop. Putting me on sensation overload, lighting every nerve ending to life, making it hard for me to even remember my damn name as the tips of her fingers explored quietly.

“You’re strong.” Her soft, steady tone cut through my heavy breathing. Her green gaze dropped to my chest as she doodled random patterns over my pecks. “Steady, even if you’re a little bossy and a slight bully to get your way.” Her eyes rose. “But thankfully, your bark is definitely louder than your bite.”

“I haven’t bitten you yet,” I rumbled, the promise clear as day between us.

“You’re right.” She straightened her back and sighed.

“I feel this,” she admitted, and my heart, the fucking thing I thought only beat for baseball, was about to leap right out of my chest. “I think it’s why…” The apples of her cheeks turned a bright pink. “I think it’s why any time you talked to me before the accident, I pushed you away as far as I could. The pull I feel when it comes to you…” She swallowed hard, and I nodded because I understood completely.

“I know.” The words vibrated in my chest.

“I want to explore this. I want to… do the whole roleplay thing.”

“Daddy/little girl,” I corrected, and she nodded, not looking anything but genuine.

“But you have to know that’s behind closed doors. Out there,”—she pointed to the windows—“I’m not the kind of woman you will ever be able to tell what to do. I’m not submissive.”

“Other than with me?”

“Maybe?” She shrugged, worry in her eyes, and my brows bunched together.

“Maybe?” Was she keeping a hand up between us to try and protect herself?

“Sometimes there are things we want to explore that sound great on paper or look hot on a screen, but when we try it out… we’re not really into it. Like… choking.”