Daddy's Secret Sin

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Call We Shouldn't Take

Aria didn’t sleep that night.

Every time she closed her eyes she saw Victor’s face in Ryan’s kitchen — the exact second recognition hit him. The way his jaw tightened. The way those gray eyes darkened with something that looked a lot like hunger even while the truth settled between them like a loaded gun.

Ryan’s father.

The man who had bent her over a hotel bed and f****d her until she couldn’t remember her own name was Ryan’s father.

She sat on the floor of her apartment with her back against the wall, knees pulled to her chest, the tote bag of clothes still untouched by the door. Her phone stayed face-down. She had blocked Ryan again the moment she got home. Maya’s number had already been deleted.

At 1:17 a.m. an unknown number called.

She stared at the screen until it stopped.

Thirty seconds later it rang again.

Aria’s thumb hovered. She knew. Somehow she already knew.

She answered on the third ring and didn’t speak.

Victor’s voice came through low and controlled, the same voice that had ordered her to come for him two nights ago.

“It’s me.”

Silence stretched.

“I got your number from Ryan’s phone while he was in the shower,” he continued. “I won’t apologize for that. We need to talk.”

Aria’s laugh was short and bitter. “About what? The fact that I let my ex’s father come inside me?”

There was a quiet inhale on the other end. When he spoke again his voice was rougher. “Yes. About that.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“There is everything to say.” A pause. “I’m downstairs.”

Her heart slammed so hard she felt it in her throat. “What?”

“I’m parked across the street from your building. If you tell me to leave, I will. But I’d rather you come down. Or let me up. Your choice.”

Aria closed her eyes. Every logical part of her screamed to hang up and never speak to him again. The rest of her — the part that still ached from the way he had stretched her open — was already standing.

“Five minutes,” she whispered. “Then you leave.”

She hung up before he could answer.

The black town car was exactly where he said it would be. Victor stood beside it in the same charcoal suit from earlier, the night air cool enough to show the faint mist of his breath. When she stepped outside he didn’t smile. He just opened the back door and waited.

Aria hesitated only a second before sliding in. He followed, closing the door. The driver partition was already up. The moment the door shut, the air inside the car turned thick.

Victor turned toward her. In the dim interior light the silver at his temples looked almost white. His eyes moved over her face like he was memorizing every detail.

“I didn’t know,” he said first. “I need you to hear that. I had no idea you were Ryan’s girlfriend. If I had known, I would never have touched you.”

The words should have been a relief. Instead they felt like a loss.

Aria stared at her hands. “But you did touch me.”

“Yes.” His voice dropped. “I did.”

The memory hit her without mercy — his mouth on her throat, the weight of his body, the way he had held her hips still while he buried himself deep and made her take every inch. Heat flooded low in her belly even as shame burned her cheeks.

“This is f****d up,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“He’s your son.”

“I know that too.” Victor’s hand flexed on his thigh. “I’ve been divorced from his mother for twelve years. We share a last name and occasional paperwork. That is the extent of our relationship most days. But none of that changes the fact that I was inside you two nights ago.”

Aria’s breath caught at the bluntness. She finally looked at him. “Why did you come here?”

“Because the second you walked out of that apartment I couldn’t stop thinking about the sounds you made when you came on my cock.” His gray eyes were almost black in the dark. “And because pretending it never happened felt worse than facing it.”

The crude honesty punched the air from her lungs. She should have been disgusted. Instead her thighs pressed together.

Victor noticed. Of course he noticed. A muscle jumped in his jaw.

“Tell me to leave,” he said quietly. “Say the words and I’ll get out of this car and you’ll never see me again.”

Aria opened her mouth. The right words were right there.

Leave.

This is wrong.

I never want to see you again.

What came out instead was softer. Broken.

“I still feel you.”

Victor went completely still.

“Every time I move,” she continued, voice barely above a whisper, “I feel where you were. I wake up wet from dreaming about it. And I hate myself for it, because he is your son.”

Something dangerous flickered across his face. He leaned in slowly, giving her every chance to pull away. His hand came up, fingers brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. The touch was light. It still sent electricity down her spine.

“I hated myself the entire drive here,” he murmured. “Then I saw you walk out of that building and all I could think was that I wanted to take you somewhere private and finish what we started.”

Aria’s pulse thundered. “We can’t.”

“I know.”

Neither of them moved back.

His thumb traced the edge of her lower lip. She let him. The air between them felt combustible. One more inch and their mouths would meet. One more second and the line they were both trying to hold would snap.

Victor’s voice was almost a growl. “If I kiss you right now, I won’t stop at kissing.”

Aria’s eyes fluttered shut. She could already feel the shape of the decision forming — the same reckless, hungry decision she had made in the bar two nights ago.

Then a car horn blared somewhere down the street and reality crashed back in.

She jerked away, breathing hard. “I can’t do this.”

Victor’s hand dropped. He sat back against the seat, jaw tight, visibly fighting for control. For a long moment the only sound was their uneven breathing.

Finally he spoke, voice rough. “I’ll give you space. But this isn’t finished, Aria. Not for me.”

She reached for the door handle with shaking fingers. “It has to be.”

She stepped out into the cool night before he could answer. She didn’t look back as she walked into her building. She didn’t look down from her window either, even though she felt him still sitting there in the dark car long after she had locked her door.

Her body was still humming.

Her mind was a war zone.

And the taste of almost hung in the air like smoke.

Some sins, once started, refused to stay buried.

And Daddy’s secret sin had only just begun.