Saved by her dads best f.., p.1
Saved by Her Dad's Best Friend,
p.1
Also by Alyse Zaftig
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The Bad Boy's Pregnant Bride
The Reformed Bad Boy's Baby
Chased by the Dragons
Galapagos
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Her Dad's Best Friend
Working for Her Dad's Best Friend
Paying Off Her Dad's Best Friend
Fake Marrying Her Dad's Best Friend
Seduced by Her Dad's Best Friend
Saved by Her Dad’s Best Friend
Spying on Her Dad's Best Friend
Protected by Her Dad’s Best Friend
Falling for Her Dad's Best Friend
Guarded by Her Dad's Best Friend
Sleeping with Her Dad's Best Friend
Tempting Her Dad's Best Friend
Imperial Draka
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Tonight Only
Billionaire's Assistant
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An Heir for the Billionaire Werebears
The Volleyball Coach's Surprise Baby
SAVED BY HER DAD’S BEST FRIEND
ALYSE ZAFTIG
Copyright © 2022 by Alyse Zaftig
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
1. A Dozen Roses
2. Notes and Trinkets
3. String Bikini
4. Candy Box
5. Babysitter
6. Towel
7. Dom Perignon
8. Meal
9. After Lunch
10. Dead Bird
11. Phone
12. Surveillance
13. Sailboat
14. Teddy Bear
15. Work Ethic
16. Uncharted Waters
17. Video Feed
18. Darkness
19. Time Skip
20. Doomed
Epilogue
A DOZEN ROSES
Maya
I beamed at my TikTok. My latest video already had over 10 million views, which was higher than ever. My follower count was going up every day.
“Good news, sweetheart?” My dad slid into the seat across from me. We always sat at Table #81 in his favorite Italian restaurant. “How did you do on the accounting test you just took?”
I winced a little. “Um, not as well as I wanted to.”
My dad raised one brow.
“B-.”
My dad touched his chin. “If you want to excel as my intern this summer, you’re going to have to do better than that. I want to hear about you getting an A next time.” I knew he was giving direct feedback One-Minute Manager style.
We let the silence sit there for a few moments. We both knew he wanted me to take over his business when he felt like retiring.
“I have my own business.” It was a sole proprietorship, but still.
“Being a social media influencer is not a real business.” He rolled his eyes. “I know that you aren’t worried about the psychological impact of social media on young girls, but I am. You’re still my daughter even if you are 19 years old now.”
My dad and I had always been close because he was my only parent, so I was a little crushed by his lack of acceptance for something I sank a lot of time and effort into.
“What if all I want to do with my life is make funny videos?”
“You can do that as a hobby.” He shrugged. “Did you think your old man never had any dreams of his own?”
“Dad, TikTok didn’t even exist when you were my age.”
“It eats up too much of your time,” he countered. “Obviously you need to spend more time studying.”
I had never been the best student, despite Dad throwing money at tutors for every subject I needed help in. He had high expectations for his only daughter.
I didn’t want to dwell on my test. “Tell me about your day.”
Dad launched into a story about these budding entrepreneurs who had pitched him for funding, and I listened to him recap the funny parts of the presentation and the more serious parts about their metrics. I nodded at the appropriate parts. He segued into another story about one of his managers trying to turn a team’s productivity around. Because of the nationwide labor shortage, a manager needed to use the carrot rather than the stick. Dad didn’t try to compete on compensation for most of his companies, because it was an easy battle to lose. Instead, he tried to make sure all of his portfolio companies were healthy places to work over the long term. He wanted management to invest in the workers and have a healthy corporate culture.
It was Dad’s idea for me to get a degree in business administration. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, but at least I got to live at home in LA. I knew a lot of my classmates looked forward to living apart from their parents, but I had moved into the guesthouse when I hit puberty while still spending tons of time in the kitchen, office, and breakfast nook whenever I wanted to. Dad and I had regular movie nights on Fridays when we were tired from our weeks. We gave up invitations from his business associates and our friends to Spend time together. It was an unconventional arrangement, but it worked for us.
We ordered our usual dishes. For me, it was always cheese ravioli al forno with marinara and spinach artistically drizzled across the top. For my dad, it was generally a shrimp fra diavolo. He liked the spicy kick. When I was younger, he mentioned something about endorphins being released because of the capsaicin in food.
At the end, we shared spoonfuls of tiramisu, which was always a little sad. My mom had loved tiramisu, so my dad always looked very serious while he ate it. He tried to keep her memory alive constantly. He hadn’t dated much since her death, opting instead to spend all his non-business time raising me to the best of his ability. My grandma, while she was alive, had made sure I knew most of the things she thought I would’ve learned from my mother.
After my dad added the meal to the tab we had, we walked out to our limo. He slung his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me. “Thanks for staying in school,” he joked. My dad had started but not finished his computer science degree in the nineties. He left to chase opportunities. He had some weird hangups about not having a bachelor’s degree, so he emphasized that I was definitely getting one. I knew he was disappointed in my accounting grade, but he would be even more disappointed if I dug in my heels and refused to study business anymore. “You know I’m not going to live forever, so it’s important to me that you know what you’re doing.”
I leaned into his embrace and said, “I know, Dad.”
My dad came to a halt as we got to our limo. “Why are there roses on my car?”
Just then, the driver, John, came from around the corner. He had probably taken a smoke break. He came to an abrupt stop as he saw the roses sitting there.
“Why did you let someone leave gifts again?” asked my dad, his tone ominous.
“I didn’t see anyone.” John’s shoulders slumped. He didn’t smoke next to the car because too much cigarette smoke made my dad cough. They were old friends, though. Dad trusted him and allowed him this habit.
The roses, though.
Lately, it was a pattern to find gifts on our car or at our front gate. Seeing them now, meant someone knew that John smoked and left the car momentarily unattended. They would have had to stand around and wait for a long enough period that they wouldn’t be seen.
Dad trusted John so much that I doubted he would ever fire John unless there was a serious reason. Judging from the look on his face right now, though, I worried that the roses were a sufficiently serious reason.
“Dad, it’s not a big deal.”
“I’m assigning you a security detail from now on.”
“Dad, we’ve talked about this.” I crossed my arms.
“I’ve let you have your way before. You said you wanted to be normal. But I’m telling you, it’s not normal to deal with this barrage of gifts. You’re getting security, and that’s it.”
I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to convince him that the regular anonymous gifts didn’t mean I had to give up my freedom.
“I’m going to have Carter come and talk to you tomorrow to set up your security.”
I shut up.
NOTES AND TRINKETS
Carter
“You rang, master?” The gatekeeper had let me in when I’d driven to the estate. The butler had made sure that I was greeted at the door and ushered into Paul’s home office. Wearing a pretty white dress with flowers on it, Maya gave me a tight smile from the overstuffed chair that she normally used at her own desk in the large office. Even when he was working, he liked Maya to be around if he was at home.
“That bastard left roses on my car,” roared Paul. The bouquet of roses was sitting on his desk, where he regarded them as if they were poisonous.
“And it is a pattern of behavior at this point.” I took a look at the roses myself. They looked innocent.
“I don’t understand it. The sheer gall of this guy. And where was my own security team? They should have caught him while she was with me. But he’s like a ghost.” My employer started to pace like a tiger in a cage behind
Maya looked a little confused. “What do you mean, Dad?”
Maria came in the door, flour still on her apron. “Carter!” She leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek and got flour on my suit, but I didn’t mind. She had no romantic connection with Paul, but she was the person who made his house a home. She was a surrogate mother for Maya and had raised her while her dad was getting his first business off the ground.
Before she spoke in sepulchral tones, she pulled a calendar out of a filing cabinet. “I’ve been keeping track.”
“Maria, you shouldn’t have to do that.” Maya was clearly horrified.
“Nena, you shouldn’t have to do it, either.” Maria shook her head before she started to pull small gifts out of the filing cabinet. Maya hadn’t kept them, but she also clearly had not asked where they had disappeared to. An unassuming cabinet in her dad’s office held them all.
“All the notes are in this expander. We have photocopies, so you can take the originals.”
Maya was shaking her head. It was clear that her father and Maria had been far more concerned by the pattern of gifts and notes than she had.
“It’s going to take a while to sort it out. I already know exactly whom I’m going to call for the investigation. I need to find out if he has the time right now to take this on.”
“I’ll pay for the best.” I knew it before Paul said it, but he was verbalizing it for his own comfort more than to communicate it to any of the people in the room. “I wish I wasn’t scheduled for all those meetings around the conference in Paris.” Paul sighed a little bit. “Maya, I’m putting your safety in Carter’s hands.”
I took it seriously. “Maya, nobody is going to hurt you on my watch.”
Maya didn’t say anything for a minute as I looked at her. She had really filled out when she went to college. She had been just a skinny kid, and all of a sudden she was a buxom girl with a heavy TikTok following. There were plenty of social media influencers who dressed provocatively and shot close-ups of their body parts to get more followers. She could afford any clothing she wanted, but she was a good kid and didn’t push any boundaries with her dad. She definitely could if she wanted to. Having such a close relationship with her father meant that she hadn’t been very rebellious as a teenager. Moving into the guesthouse had probably helped. I wouldn’t tell Paul, but I had been one of her first TikTok subscribers.
It was highly possible that one of her stalkers was among the millions of people who had watched her videos.
“I just want to get this over with,” Maya eventually said.
“I’ll get started on it right away.” In my arms, I gathered the materials that Maria had put together. Paul’s security team had been conscious of the stalker, but what we’d done on our own was insufficient. It was time to take it to the next level.
“I want you to move into the main house while I’m gone. I already told Maria to prepare a guest suite for your use. Maria chose the one closest to our security center. And Maya, the cameras will be on while I’m out of the country. So no sneaking any boys in. And do all of your homework.” Paul was wearing his sternest face.
Maya Wilkerson didn’t date. She hadn’t had her first boyfriend yet, and I didn’t blame the high school boys she had been exposed to. Paul Wilkerson was a celebrity in certain circles, if you were a tech geek. He didn’t have to clean a shotgun to intimidate young men. None of her current business classmates seemed to be pushing for a closer relationship with Maya, either. Paul kept a closer eye on Maya than she was aware of, but she was content to focus on TikTok and school for now.
“Whatever, Dad,” Maya replied. He walked over and kissed her forehead.
“Goodbye,” I said, glancing at my watch. “I need to go home and pack. I’ll move in tomorrow.”
“That’ll work.” Paul gave me a nod, clearly dismissing me. I took a last look at Maya. The sun shining through Paul’s office window made her mocha skin and dark hair glow. She looked very young and innocent. I knew Paul had tried his hardest to keep her protected up to this point, but now she was a beautiful young woman. And there were plenty of threats for her out there.
I thought about a profile for her stalker as I drove myself home through cutthroat LA traffic. Because Maya’s beauty wasn’t glamorous, she was much more of a girl next door type. For some men, that approachable demeanor pressed the right buttons.
It did for me. There were women who dressed a lot more provocatively on social media and seemed to emulate the Kardashians. Maya wasn’t like that, and she hadn’t exactly been born into the wealth that they had now. Her dad could’ve retired years ago, but he didn’t want to. The only work that he did was stuff he enjoyed, so I wondered how critical the conference was to make him cross an ocean while his daughter was being stalked.
I was definitely taking her security seriously. My personal interest in her could never be expressed, but I had my notifications set so that I saw every new TikTok video.
Most of the time, Maya was fully clothed in her videos. As I got closer to home, I was ashamed to think of some of the videos where she was in a swimsuit. She had gone with a bunch of her high school friends to Malibu to a house belonging to one of their parents. She was laughing as someone tossed a Frisbee to her. The video didn’t get that much attention.
As soon as I stepped through the front door, I shucked off my clothes and tossed them into my hamper. I headed for the shower, to do something I hoped Paul never learned about. I turned on the hot water, which would never run out because I had a tankless water heater, and I thought about her smile on the beach as I gripped myself.
“You’re so big,” Maya said to me as she saw me for the first time.
“Don’t worry,” I soothed. “Come over here.” As I gave Maya her first kiss, I tasted how inexpertly she moved her lips and tongue. I slid my hand down from her natural waist to her hip and onto her thigh. Sometime in the last few months, she had turned into a man’s wet dream. And plenty of men had noticed.
I positioned her on top of me, letting her grind against my erection as she took the kiss deeper and deeper.
“Let me taste you.” She slid down my body to take the head of my cock in her mouth. I moaned as I felt her wet heat engulf me.
Unable to hold on, I came with a shout.
Breathing hard, I let the water wash away the evidence of what I’d been thinking about. I thanked my lucky stars that she would be living in the guesthouse at night. I would be able to control myself, and Paul would never know that any inappropriate thoughts had ever crossed my mind. He was ultra-protective of his only daughter. If he knew how I felt, I’d be out of a job without a reference. We were close in a way that people who had worked together for a very long time were. I kept his secrets. And I hoped I could keep my own.
STRING BIKINI
Maya
THE NEXT MORNING
Dad was in his actual office by the time that Carter showed up to move into the main house. I was sitting by the pool. I had a textbook next to me, but that was just cover in case Dad came home and found me laying out. I was also supposed to be on campus heading to class at this point, but I was sipping the balanced smoothie that Maria made me for breakfast instead. I’d gained a ton of weight in a short period of time. I’d had to replace some of my main wardrobe. I still kept the cutest stuff in my spare closet. I was working through Harley Pasternak’s diet, which I’d found out about from an article on Jessica Simpson’s transformation after her third kid. I didn’t know if I’d stick with it for life, but the food didn’t taste bad. It wasn’t like I was doing the actual leg work. Maria made sure that all the food he listed to buy was always at hand, including the fresh produce. She was generally the one cooking the soups, blending the smoothies, and making anything else I needed. Maria never made me feel bad about my body, but when I told her I wanted to lose weight, she had immediately supported whatever I wanted to do.
