“Russell,” he says my last name like something’s finally clicking into place. “That’s why I knew your name. You been in the paper.”
“A few times,” I confirm with a smirk.
“Did you really pay to have the water in Ford, Missouri cleaned up?”
“Someone had to do it. Clearly the government didn’t give enough of a fuck to bother.”
“That’s…” He stares at me in awe for a few seconds. “Wow, that was a kind thing for you to do for all those people. I bet they were real grateful.”
“I don’t need anyone to feel grateful. It’s enough for me to know they have safe drinking water again.”
He gives me a warm, shy smile, and his foot bumps against my leg under the table like he subconsciously wants to touch me but isn’t ready to just reach for me yet. I ache to reach over and pull him into my lap.
One day.
Hopefully.
Chapter 6
Sterling
If I thought Barrett was out of his dang mind to ask me on a date in the first place, this just confirms it. There’s no way on God’s green Earth that a man with enough money to fix an entire city’s water crisis and sweet enough to worry about the way the hostess stared at me couldn’t get anybody he wanted. And anybody who could get whoever they wanted, wouldn’t choose me.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, reaching across the table and putting his hand over mine.
“Nothin’,” I lie. “This is just perfect.” That part’s true at least. I couldn’t a dreamed up a better first date if I had a whole lifetime to try to do it. And our food hasn’t even come yet.
“Are you sure? You looked kind of worn down when I got to the bar yesterday too.”
“Oh, that.” I reach for the sweet tea the waiter dropped off and take a sip, trying to decide how much to tell him about the situation with my mama. I suppose that’s the kind of thing you do on a date, but maybe this is too heavy for a first date? I meet Barrett’s eyes and see genuine concern in them, which loosens my lips. “It’s nothin’ really, just that my mama ran off with some man I ain’t never met.” His brows furrow, so I rush to reassure him. “It’s fine, she does this. She’ll be back eventually. I tend to worry when she’s gone, and it gets a bit lonely, but it always works out okay.”
He studies me for what feels like forever, and I fight the urge to squirm in my seat.
“What would you say if I asked you to come back to Vegas with me?”
“What?” A startled laugh bursts from me. He can’t mean that. “Why would you do a thing like that? You don’t even know me.”
“I know plenty about you. I know about your favorite foods and your family, I know about the stray cat you snuck food to when you were eight, and that you don’t like wine.”
I shake my head, looking away from Barrett. “You know trivia, that don’t mean I should drop my entire life and follow you to a whole different state.”
“I know that town doesn’t deserve you,” he continues. “And I know that I want to learn everything else there is to know about you.”
I drag my teeth back and forth over my bottom lip, trying to get my thoughts in order. “You’re cracked. You know that, right?” I ask, finally looking at him again.
He chuckles, never taking his eyes off of me. “I’ve been told I can be a bit eccentric, yes. The thing is, I know what I want, and I’m relentless until I get it.”
“What do you want?” I ask warily. What’s the catch I’m missing? Because last I checked, handsome billionaires don’t often waltz into backwoods towns and sweep ugly bartenders off their feet.
“Right this second, I want you,” he answers, and the qualifier makes me feel a touch better. He’s not saying anything crazy like he’s fallen madly in love with me in the course of two days or that he’s going to keep me forever. He’s offering me a way out of this town, and then who knows what. When he eventually gets bored with whatever all this is, at least I’ll be somewhere new with different opportunities. This could be my chance to start fresh. I just have to be brave enough to take it.
“I have a lot of loose ends to tie up,” I tell him, in case he has some idea about driving straight to Vegas once we finish our dinner. “I’d have to quit my job, pack my stuff, leave a note at the house for mama so she knows where I went when she gets back into town.”
“Okay,” he agrees easily.
I swallow and straighten my silverware, just to have something to do with all of this excited energy suddenly coursing through me. “Okay,” I echo, sitting up a little straighter.
Our food is delivered, which gives me some time to process everything that just happened while the two of us take our first few bites. I don’t have the first clue what’s on my plate, but it tastes like heaven. I chew slowly, trying like hell to organize my thoughts and sort out if this is all real or if I’m about to wake up in my own bed to realize Barrett never existed in the first place.
“There is one thing you should know before you agree to come with me though,” he warns, and all of my excitement dies down in a snap. Here comes the catch. I brace for his next words, pretty sure they ain’t gonna be something I want to hear. “Have you ever heard of Daddy kink?”
I blink at him, trying to make sense of the words and coming up short. It only takes a second for me to panic that he might be about to confess to me that he’s my own danged father who left when I was born. The math don’t make sense since he told me yesterday he’s thirty-six, which makes him only eleven years older than me. But my panicking brain ain’t too worried about that logic.
“I swear on my gran’s grave, you’d better not be about to tell me you’re my worthless daddy.”
Barrett lets out a startled laugh and then shakes his head. “No, definitely not that,” he assures me, and I let out a relieved breath. “It’s more of a…a lifestyle I guess would be the right word.”
“A lifestyle?” I repeat.
“Sterling.” The way he says my name feels oddly like a caress. I like it more than I should. “When I date, I don’t have boyfriends; I have boys. I like to take care of my partners in every way I can, in every way they need me to, and I like it when they call me Daddy.”
“How do you take care of them?” I ask, my stomach dancing with nervous excitement. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but maybe whatever he’s into doesn’t sound too bad. It certainly puts a new spin on the charitable way he’s been acting.
“It depends on the boy and what they need. I love buying them nice things, picking out their clothes…spankings when necessary.”
Heat rushes through my body like a wildfire, and I lean forward without even meaning to. “Spankings?”
Barrett
That got his attention.
“Yes,” I answer, leaning forward to match Sterling’s body language. “For pleasure or for punishment, depending on the circumstances.”
“Punishment?” he repeats, his tongue darting out to wet his lips, his meal all but forgotten.