few more seconds before finally nodding. “I’ll go back in with you.”
Reaching for his hand, I twine our fingers together and pull the door open. He might not care about whatever Rhett said to him, but I want to make it perfectly clear that Sterling is mine now, and he’s not to be fucked with. Sure enough, as we make our way back over to the table, I spot my former boy watching us. I scowl in his direction, and then put him out of my mind for the rest of my life.
“There you are. Is everything all right?” Kiernan asks when we reach the table.
“Fine, but we have to take our leave early,” I inform them.
“The night’s barely started,” Alden says.
“Yes, and Gannon can handle anything that’s required at this point,” I answer, tightening my grip on Sterling’s hand when he tries to pull it away, no doubt feeling guilty again, another thing I’ll need to make perfectly clear to him when I get him home and strip him bare for me. I can tell Alden is planning to argue with me, so I level him with a look that lets him know this isn’t up for debate. He glances at Sterling and then back to me before giving an almost imperceptible nod.
With that out of the way, I pull my phone out of my pocket and send a text to Kane to tell him to bring the car around to the back entrance so we can avoid the paparazzi out front. Sterling’s hand stays firmly in mine as I lead him quietly out the back door and into the waiting car.
He scoots all the way in, leaving me plenty of space, but the last thing I want is space.
“Come here,” I say gruffly, patting my thigh.
He grins and crawls over to straddle my lap. “Is this safe while we drive, Daddy?” Sterling asks playfully, all hints of insecurity and pain blessedly gone, at least for the moment.
“I assure you, Kane is an excellent driver.” I slide his suit coat off of his shoulders and toss it onto the empty seat beside me. He wiggles on my lap, no doubt feeling my cock hardening as it tents my pants and presses between his legs. Unbuttoning the top few buttons on his shirt, I drag my lips along the column of his throat, savoring the taste of his skin, the warmth and softness of it begging me to find more places to kiss. “You’re such a beautiful, sweet boy,” I murmur, gently nipping at his collar bone.
Sterling makes a sound that’s somewhere between pleasure and protest, his own fingers toying with the buttons on my shirt without actually loosening them. He’s uncomfortable with my praise, but craves it at the same time, and I plan to fill him with it until there isn’t a single inch of him that questions his worth…to himself or to me. Running my hands up his slim thighs and around to his perky little ass, I squeeze his cheeks and grow even harder imagining how he’s going to look over my lap with his red ass in the air.
“Daddy?” he says, barely above a whisper, his fingers tightening on my shirt.
“Yes, little rabbit?” I murmur my response against his Adam’s apple before pressing a kiss there.
“Am I pathetic?”
I still, not sure I heard him right at first, and then lean back as I process his question. It only takes me a few seconds to realize that this must have been an idea Rhett put into his head.
“Do you know why I came back through Billow after my meeting in Dallas?” I ask, and he shakes his head. “It wasn’t because I thought you were some pathetic boy who needed saving. I came back because I couldn’t stop thinking about the fire in your eyes when you crumpled up the tip I tried to leave you and threw it on the ground. You are the farthest thing from pathetic I can imagine. You’re strong and feisty and independent. I don’t want to take care of you because you can’t do it yourself. I want to take care of you because you deserve it.”
A slow smile spreads over his lips, his eyes warming with trust and affection, tells me maybe I’ve managed to loosen a few bricks in the wall around his heart.
The car slows to a stop, and I look out the window, surprised to see we’re already home. I squeeze Sterling’s ass again, my cock