“What?” Ben said.
“Daddy!” she said.
“Or you can go home now, Ben,” I said. “Prove to me you learned your lesson.”
Ben and Zoey looked at each other. Then Zoey looked at me. “Deal.”
“Zoey?” Ben said.
“We’ll win!” she said. “Two against one.”
I shook my head. I was honestly shocked. “You two… fine. Deal, babygirl. Let’s get this over with.”
Zoey got the deck and did the shuffling. I was watching her hands. When she offered me the cut, I took it. Then she dealt each of us a card face down and another face up. I had 20.
“Hit me,” Ben said, looking at his top card, a four. Zoey gave him a Queen and his eyes spread open. “Stand.”
She looked at me. “Daddy?”
“I’ll stand.”
“Okay,” she said, looking down at her seven. “Dealer takes a hit.” She gave herself a ten. She was biting her lip. “I’ll stay.”
“Show ’em,” I said.
Ben flipped over his hidden card. He had a total of 24. “Bust,” he said.
I looked at Zoey. “Me?” she said. She turned over 19.
Ben laughed. “All right, nice.” He looked at me and his smile fell as I showed him 20. “Okay, best two out of three?”
I shook my head. Zoey was chewing on her lip.
“Daddy, I…”
“Take your punishment, Zoey.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”
I stood up, looking at Ben. “Now, I think you’ve learned your lesson, Ben. Come along, Zoey.”
“O-Okay, let me just talk to Ben for a moment.”
I smirked. “I’ll meet you in your room, door open.”
I left Ben’s downcast face. Out in the living room, I paused. What the hell was I doing? Well, I would just scare Zoey a little, teach her how boys took advantage of girls. I’d climb into her bed, cuddle with her for a moment, and explain to her what could happen if she wasn’t careful. I certainly wasn’t going to kiss her, or touch her, or rub myself up against her.
I swallowed. Why did that appeal to me so much? My little girl was sexy as hell. I could see how much she’d grown up, how much she’d filled out, the way her clothes clung to her tight little body, the way she moved, her enticing scent.
I shook my head. Come on, best not think about this. I was trying to teach my daughter a lesson in responsibility here, and somehow this was turning me into a pervert who was thinking nasty thoughts about my own daughter. Maybe it had just been so long since I had touched a woman that even touching my daughter appealed to my masculine senses.
It was just a little cuddling. No big deal. Hell, I’d done that with her a hundred times during a hundred summer storms when she was growing up. Oh, how she’d cry into my chest and beg me to protect her from the thunder. She wasn’t that little girl anymore. No, she had definitely blossomed into a sexy young lady.
As I stood there contemplating all this, I could hear her and Ben arguing.
“It was your idea,” Zoey hissed at him.
“You said you were good at Blackjack!” Ben said.
“And you said you could count cards!” she shot back.
“Well, I can, but not on the first hand!”
“Look, he’s my daddy. He’s not going to do anything. I’m sure he’ll just lay in bed with me and lecture me.”
“Like how he lectured your tongue yesterday?”
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