CHAPTER SIX
Candace
I don’t want Rick to leave, but of course, he will. Why wouldn’t he leave? He barely knows me, and my father, the five-star general, is here. Rick stands up and takes me with him, sliding a hand under my hair to my neck and kisses me hard and fast. “Go let your father in. I’ll make a pot of coffee.”
I blanch. “You’re going to stay?”
“We haven’t talked, fucked, nor have I convinced you to see me again, so hell yeah, I’m staying.”
I blink in surprise. “You know you want to see me again?”
“I just told you I’m going to make you fall for me, baby. I can’t do that and not see you again.”
“I thought you were just talking in the moment.”
“I don’t say shit to get laid. That’s not who I am.” He strokes my hair. “Go get your father off the porch.”
“It’s covered.”
“You’re the only one who needs to be wet tonight.” My cheeks heat and he laughs. “Go get your father.” He kisses me. “I’ll make that coffee.” He rounds the coffee table and walks toward the kitchen, this big, gorgeous man I barely know daring to stay and face my father.
He can’t know what that means. “Rick!” I call out.
He turns at the entryway to the kitchen. “Yeah, baby?”
God, why does him calling me baby do such crazy things to my stomach? “He’s a five-star general who protects his daughter.”
“Good. He should.” And with that, he disappears into the kitchen and my stomach is fluttering all over again. Oh God. He’s already doing it. He’s making me want to like him. He’s making me want to see him again.
The doorbell rings again and I head toward the front foyer, promising myself that no matter what happens with Rick Savage, I will not fall for him. I open the door. My father’s standing there in full uniform with a box in his hand. “Your favorite chocolate cake. Millie made it.”
Millie being his housekeeper, who I’ve known most of my life, and who I both love and adore. “It’s crazy outside and it’s late,” I say. “I can’t believe you brought it by tonight. Come in, dad.” I back up and he enters, pausing to kiss me.
“I want as much time with my daughter as I can get before I deploy.”
He enters the house and I shut the door, only to find him charging toward the kitchen. “Any chance you have coffee made?” he calls over his shoulder.
“Dad!” I call after him urgently, my heart lurching. “Dad!”
He ignores me and I rush after him, only to hear, “And who exactly are you, young man?”
“Dad,” I pant out, catching up with him and grabbing his arm. “This is—”
Rick salutes my father. “Sir.”
My father stares at Rick. “At ease, son. You’re military?”
“Yes sir,” Rick confirms, but he doesn’t offer his name.
My father glances at me. “Something I need to know?”
“He made coffee,” I offer.
“Should be done any minute,” Rick adds, standing tall and straight, allowing me the ability to fully appreciate his size and physical condition, which is as stunningly tip-top as it gets.
My father sets the cake on the counter by the fridge and then steps across the kitchen to the end of the counter where Rick is monitoring the coffee pot. They are now face-to-face as my father asks, “What’s your name son?”
“Rick Savage, sir. My father is—”
“I know who your father is,” my father snaps back. “And you aren’t dating my daughter.”
I gasp. “Dad! What are you doing?”
“His father—”
“Is a prick,” Rick supplies. “An arrogant prick. What does that have to do with me?”
My father doesn’t miss a beat, still on the attack. “Born from the same blood, son.”
I tug on my father’s arm, but he won’t look at me. “I can’t believe you’re doing this, Father.”
“It’s okay,” Rick says, but he doesn’t look at me. He remains focused on my father. “With all due respect, sir, you don’t get to decide who your daughter dates.”
My father’s temper snaps in the air, a live charge. “You underestimate my wrath if you believe I can’t control you seeing my daughter.”
Most men would cower, but Rick doesn’t. “If you judge me by my father,” he says, “and in turn dictate to your own daughter what she can and cannot do, your adult daughter, I might add, then perhaps the real problem here is how much you’re like my father. In which case, I’m more determined to be in her life than ever because she needs me.”
No one talks to my father like this and I’m now officially terrified that Rick is going to be punished. “Dad, please. I beg—”
“Don’t beg,” Rick says, his gaze falling on me. “Ever, to anyone. Do you want me to leave? Because if you do, I will, but I don’t want to leave.”