She snorts and when I turn around, I see her powder blue eyes are trained on her computer. “It’s fiiiine.”
“It’s not fine,” I growl at her, hoping she gets the message that I’m pissed. “You have practice tonight, don’t you? You hate having class when you’re running on no sleep. Your bitchy ballet teacher won’t get off your back for sloppy ronde de jambes…your words.” I wave my hand dismissively as I recall her ranting.
“Competition class is canceled, so I’ll come home after and take a nap before later, happy?” She looks at me from over her computer, testing me. Provoking me.
Okay, Madeline, I’ll bite.
“And what’s later?” I ask her. Maddie and I have dinner together on the nights I don’t have to work and the social butterfly doesn’t have plans. She became rather popular after her therapist and I pushed her to get out there and start actually enjoying high school instead of just going through the motions until graduation. Up until she was about fifteen, she rarely left the house and spent all of her free time with me. Something I did miss if I was being honest with myself. She’d grown up from the little girl I rescued that night; I was pleased that I’d had the front seat and maybe a hand in her transformation. Now she was an intelligent, charming, young woman who I’d grown to love more than anyone.
“I told you. I have a date.”
I cross my arms in front of my chest and stare down at her. Maddie has dated a few guys here and there but it was never serious. I’d made sure Aria had the talk with her when she’d come to me with tears in her eyes that she didn’t know how to use a tampon. I’m fairly certain my look of shock and horror matched hers before I managed to get Aria on the phone.
I’d been forced to grow up a lot quicker than I expected, bringing in a child and raising her, but I had zero intentions of doing it again anytime soon. At least not until I got Maddie off to college. So, Maddie knew the deal about dating and boys. Everyone had to be cleared through me and preferably while I was holding my gun.
“Did you? It’s a school night.” I raise an eyebrow at her. I wonder if she’ll call me out on the fact that it’s not necessarily a rule. Maddie gets good grades and does more than what I ask of her—not that I ask much, so I basically let her do what she wants within reason. I’m not sure where the line of disciplinarian is, but I thank every God there is that Maddie has given me little to no troubles. I keep waiting for her rebellious phase. For her to miss a curfew or skip school or shoplift, but nothing. The most she’d done is drive too fast and swear like a sailor, both of which I’m certain she learned from me.
“You seemed fine with it earlier this week when I mentioned it. And it’s hardly a school night when Thanksgiving break starts the day after tomorrow. Give me a break. Tomorrow is going to be a joke.”
“No.”
She looks around the room before finding my gaze and a smirk finds my lips, as I think about how rare it is for me to tell her no. “No, what? It’s a Thursday. You’ve never told me I couldn’t go out with my friends during the week before.”
“You heard what I said, Madeline. No.”
She slaps the table. “Are you kidding me right now?! That is so not fair!”
“Life’s not fair, sweetheart,” I tell her as I take another sip of coffee. “And besides I may have agreed at some point, but that was before Turner told me you were
flying through town like you didn’t have any sense yesterday.” I was pissed when one of my subordinates told me he’d pulled a cherry red Volkswagen over yesterday because it was going 50 in a 25. I almost called her and made her ass come straight home.
“Ugh, snitch,” she growls. “Snitches get stitches.”
I roll my eyes at her comment. “You’re lucky he just let you off with a warning.”
“Right, like he would have given me a ticket. Isn’t he one of your little pets? That would have just been a waste given that you would have made it disappear.” She flutters her eyelashes at me and I narrow mine. In the past ten years, I’ve flown up the ranks at work and now I’m the Chief of Police across three counties.
“Next time you’re pulled over, I’m taking your keys.”
She snorts. “Good one.” She grabs a carton of eggs from the fridge and a bowl to begin her morning breakfast regimen that’s usually only reserved for weekends. “Pancakes okay with you?”
“I’m serious, Madeline.” I use her full name so that she knows I’m not fucking around. And I hear her mumble under her breath in response like she always does. “The car is in my name, therefore it’s mine. I just let you borrow it. If you can’t adhere to the law, I’m taking it.”
“You can’t take my car, you bought it for me.” She pouts, letting her bottom lip jut out.
My cock twitches slightly and for a second, I let my guard slip and allow myself the thoughts I try to avoid at all costs. The thoughts that slip through the cracks. The flashes that appear out of nowhere and throw me off kilter. The ones that I suppress and hide in the deep dark crevices of my mind.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Abort mission.
I feel my cock rising in my shorts, as my mind begins to proceed with the fantasy of her on her knees in front of me.
Time. To. Fucking. Go.
“I can take the keys if you’re out there being a menace to society,” I call over my shoulder as I trudge out of the room. Even with my shorts and sweatpants, my dick is far from small and with the way it’s rising, you’d be able to pitch a tent underneath it in no time.
I didn’t need her seeing that.
By the time I’m back in the privacy of my room, my dick has deflated. I turn on the shower and step into the scalding hot temperatures, wishing I had the balls to turn it to freezing to allow the pelting ice water to turn my dick flaccid.