24. A Heart to Heart… To Heart

Maybe Killian was good for one thing at least. She'd been a cop's daughter long enough to know abusers didn't often get what they deserved. Worse, domestic calls were incredibly dangerous for responding officers. If she took the thought a little further, maybe he was doing the world a service.

Doesn't mean I have to like the jerk.

"Huh." Tania turned to face the fireplace again and chewed on her thumbnail. "I believe you and Desmond weren't dirty cops, but I'm still on the fence about Victor."

For a very brief moment, she considered asking Mandy, but changed her mind almost as quickly. It was better to allow Mandy to hold on to those illusions and let Bee grow up thinking her father was a hero.

Desmond pulled her hand from her mouth before she could do too much damage to her nail. "Honestly, maybe you should be. Victor was one of our closest friends, but we just don't know. If he was doing things he shouldn't have, he didn't involve me or Bastian."

"That's something, I guess." Although her butt still hurt from her punishment, she returned to the couch and tucked her legs under herself in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. "Can we stop talking about Killian and my father now?"

Mostly, she didn't want to think about what Killian had said immediately following her spanking. Maybe he'd been guessing about why she'd reacted so badly to him, but everything he said hit too close to home. She especially didn't want to think about the note of fondness she'd heard in Killian's voice when he spoke about Victor. It was like they'd been friends.

"Absolutely," Bastian said. "Do you want to have your thinking time on the beach now? We packed you an overnight bag."

"Um… why did you pack a bag for me?"

"We thought you might want to change into comfortable clothes after visiting the club," Desmond replied. "It's gotten chilly outside, so I'll loan you a jacket if you still want to sit on the beach."

She considered the idea for a few seconds, then shook her head. "No. Mostly, I wanted to figure out how to ask if I'd put my faith in the wrong men."

"We're glad you decided to trust us," Desmond replied quietly. "We know how it must have looked—especially when the situation forced us to defend Killian."

"Yeah, I get that." Knowing she owed them an apology, she added, "I'm sorry I put you in that position."

"But you're not sorry about being rude," Bastian said.

"I'm sorry for being rude to Damian and Braden. I'll apologize to them next time I see them." She lifted her chin and met his gaze. "I'll also walk away if Killian tries to talk to me again. That's all you're getting."

Bastian let out a breath, then sat next to her. After pulling her into his lap, he chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Hearing you say you'll ignore that asshole is the best gift you could have given us, babygirl."

"We want you to promise us something, sweetheart." Desmond squeezed next to them on the couch. "Promise you'll talk to us before you have another meltdown. Let us in and let us help you work through it."

What they asked sounded so easy on the surface, but she'd kept her feelings bottled up for so long…

Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to try—at least with them. They'd already proven they wouldn't run when her feelings got tangled and messy.

"I promise, Daddies."

"Good girl." They held her without saying anything more for several minutes, letting her relax in their embrace.

She yawned, hiding her face against Bastian's chest. "You know what the really weird thing is? I was totally willing to throw down with a mob boss, but I can't seem to do the same thing to Dr. Pappas."

"Well…" Desmond kissed her temple. "Might have something to do with him being able to affect your grades and ability to graduate. Killian doesn't have that kind of power."

"Maybe." She hesitated, then decided to do what her Daddies said and talk to them. "Killian told me not to be afraid to use my words, and that Victor would be proud of me for standing up for myself."

"Really?" Bastian snorted with laughter. "He actually said something productive? Shocking."

"I know, right?" She smiled at Bastian's amusement, then sobered. "But maybe he had a point. Why am I letting Dr. Pappas disrespect and threaten me? I shouldn't need bodyguards to make that creepy little fucker behave."

"No, you shouldn't," Desmond replied, "but we're still escorting you to class."

"Okay, Daddies." She yawned again, belatedly covering her mouth. "Sorry. I'm just really tired all of a sudden."

"Unsurprising. You've had a busy day." Bastian eased her into Desmond's arms. "Let's get you tucked into bed."

"And it's definitely a bed big enough for all three of us," Desmond added.

"Ooh." She let Desmond help her up and grinned. "Is it big enough for shenanigans?"

"I thought you were tired," Bastian said.

"Not that tired."

Bastian laughed as they led her upstairs and down a hallway dimly illuminated with a brass wall sconce, making her wish she could see their house in the daylight. She'd been too busy drooling over her Daddies to remember much from her prior visit when she was nineteen, but Mandy had raved about their decorating.

He opened a door at the end of the hall, then walked inside to turn on a lamp. Decorated in shades of warm terra cotta and peach, the suite was easily as large as her apartment. Thick cream carpet cushioned her bare feet as she inhaled the scent of their aftershave mixed with laundry soap and furniture polish.

A huge sleigh bed covered in a burgundy comforter sat across from expansive French doors leading to a deck overlooking the beach, and matching dressers flanked a large window on the other side of the room.

"Wow. This is beautiful."

"You haven't seen the best part." Bastian opened a pocket door and turned on another light to reveal a massive ensuite with a huge shower stall and a sunken whirlpool tub almost the size of a lap pool.

"Oh, my god."

"Exactly." Bastian untwisted her hands from the blanket and let it fall to the floor. "And that tub is definitely big enough for shenanigans."

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