The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The First Collection, Frost, J [famous ebook reader TXT] 📗

this weekend. Luisa, my former submissive, now happily married to her new Dom. Mac, my former unit commander in the Navy, who retired over the summer and is in the process of moving to New York but accelerated his plans by several weeks to come to our ceremony. But the person I’m most looking forward to seeing is on the other side of the heavy wooden door in front of me.

Although Niall left a key for me, I knock, just in case they’re in the middle of something. Niall’s deep voice, heavy with an Irish burr that twenty year of living Stateside hasn’t erased, calls to me to come in.

When I open the door, I see that their room is much the same as our suite, although with more chintz and less pink. Their room has two things my suite lacks: a submissive bound to the bed and a Viking in blue jeans and a black T-shirt stretched across his fifty-inch chest lounging in a chintz-covered armchair watching his bound submissive squirm.

When I enter, the Viking rises. “Wanker.”

“Gobshite,” I respond before he wraps that huge frame around me and slaps me on the back. I return his hug. “I thought you weren’t coming in until tomorrow?”

He chuckles. “Yeh still underestimating the persuasive power of submissives? Vashi got our flights moved. And upgraded.” He rolls his shoulders. “She wanted me fresh for th’ arm wrestling tomorrow.”

I slap his huge biceps. “I’ve got a tenner on you. Don’t let me down.”

There’s an arm-wrestle battle royale tomorrow over who is going to officiate the collaring ceremony. Four of my close friends offered within a few days of each other and an arm-wrestling contest was all I could think of the prevent an all-out war. Javier thinks he should do it because he’s Javier. Mac thinks he should do it because he was my C.O. and he introduced me to kink. Warrin thinks he should do it because he’s a daddy. And Niall thinks he should do it because he’s been my friend two minutes longer than Warrin. I’ve put my money on Niall because he’s taller than the rest of them and built like a Viking, but I think Javier wants it more and he’s a sneaky bastard so he might sabotage the others to win.

“Yeh got time for a drink now?” Niall asks. He knows Emily’s bedtime routine almost as well as I do since he frequently calls to read her a bedtime story.

“Sure,” I say. “Just let me poke my head across and let Emily know we’ll be a few minutes.”

“Shaan,” Niall calls to the third member of his trio, who I’m guessing is in the bathroom by the sound of running water. The water goes off and Shaan pokes his half-shaven face around the door on the far side of the room. “Logan and I are getting a drink. Vashi has five more minutes at that speed.” He nods to their gagged and bound submissive who looks back at him with pleading eyes.

“Yes, Sir,” Shaan replies.

Niall and Shaan have a complex power exchange and it’s rare to hear Shaan speak so respectfully to his Dom. Either he’s coming off a punishment or trying to avoid one.

Niall follows me out into the hall while I let Emily know she has free time for fifteen minutes before her bath. She’s already settled in the bed with several teddy bears and her laptop, so I don’t think the delay is any hardship.

When I close the door to the suite, Niall starts down the staircase. I’m a little puzzled as I follow him until I remember that there’s an honor bar on the ground floor across from the breakfast room.

The bar’s like the snugs in pubs from my childhood and after Niall pulls two beers out of a glass-fronted beer fridge and writes our room numbers down on a clipboard next to the fridge, we settle into leather wing-back chairs. Niall pulls a folded square of paper out of his pocket and tosses it onto the table between us. I lift an eyebrow at him as I pick up the paper and unfold it.

“Bloody Brickie Construction Group, a New York corporation,” I read off the paper.

Niall drowns his wide, white grin in a sip of his beer.

“What’s this?” I ask.

“Going bi-coastal. First project breaks ground after Thanksgiving.”

“You’re opening a branch in New York?”

Niall nods. “Promised Vashi we could start spending six months a year here by Easter.”

“You’re—”

My throat clogs. I blame the beer. Can’t be that I’m overwhelmed by a rush of emotion for a man I’ve known for less than five months.

“Yeh knew we wouldn’t be happy with video calls fer long.”

“I’d planned to visit in the spring. Once Livvy’s a little older.”

Niall lifts one, huge shoulder. “Tough to travel with a baby. Now you won’t have to.”

The idea that Niall and his family will be living close by within six months fills me with a rush of warmth. “Have you started thinking about where you’d live?”

“Aye. Doubt it’ll be the East Village, but we won’t be far away. First project’s an urban reclamation in Flatbush.”

I nod. “Take a look at Gowanus. Safe neighborhood. Lots of townhouses. Easy commute for you.”

“I will.” He nods at the paper. “Turn it over.”

I do and there’s a small picture of woods and a real estate listing for an acre of land in Katonah, New York.

“What’s this?”

“Labor of love. It’s got access to a lake. Two hours from the city. I want to build a cabin. Place for us to spend the summers with the wee ones.”

“Wee ones?”

Niall grins. “Vashi’s gettin’ broody.”

Emily might be, too, given all the time we’ve spent talking about Olivia over the last few weeks.

“Looks ideal,” I say.

“Come in with me on it. It’s an acre. I can build big.”

I rub my hand over my chin. The idea appeals to me on so many levels. “How big?”

Niall shrugs. “Big as yeh need. Plannin’ more than one?”

“I want—” I don’t even know how to