A Daughter's Love Ch. 03

Elise Michaels couldn't believe this was happening. Not to her. She was a good person. Why would this happen to her? The limousine sped down the highway toward Microprose, Incorporated. It was three in the afternoon. Her father would probably be in a meeting. She wasn't looking forward to this confrontation. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe their careers and their lives could still be salvaged.

She knew she was already too late when the driver drove in the large driveway and saw all the reporters standing outside blocking her way to the front door. Damn it! She put on her pair of one hundred dollar sunglasses and tucked her long hair into her pink baseball cap.

"Please let the press be here for some other reason." She whispered to herself as she quickly got out of the car trying to ignore the flashes of the cameras and the random questions from reporters.

She could barely hear the questions and was grateful. She couldn't have answered them now even if she wanted to. She had no idea how to fix this mess. Francine Carver had ensured no one would believe her if she protested.

She hurried past Barry, the heavyset security guard who was talking to two women she knew were notorious gossips.

"I can't believe he'd fuck his own daughter."

"He's probably doing it to get a promotion. It's a well known fact old man Culver has been married for twenty years to his daughter."

"Come on." Barry chuckled. "Have you seen her? I'd fuck her even if she was my daughter."

Elise felt her stomach churn and tears fill her eyes as she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor. This was a frickin' nightmare! There was no way her father was going to forgive her for this. Absolutely no way.

The elevator reached her father's floor too soon to her mind. She had no idea what she was going to say. Her heart ached painfully. Her father was her best friend. It had been the two of them since her mother had left when she was five years old. She couldn't lose him.

She stepped onto the floor hoping no one recognized her, relieved when she saw no one was around, and she quickly headed to her father's office. She opened and closed the door quickly locking the door behind her so no one would interrupt them. Her father sat behind his desk; his head in his hands. The jacket of his black pin striped suit was hanging on the back of the chair. The sleeves of white button down shirt were rolled up to the elbow.

"Dad?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

She took off her sunglasses and baseball cap putting them on one of the leather chairs in front of his desk as she approached him. He let out a sound that was between a sigh and sob. He held up one finger.

Elise stopped where she was tears pouring down her face. This wasn't fair. He didn't deserve this. God damn, Francine! Her father took a deep breath and lifted his head to look at her. A hurt, confused, worried look was on his face; his deep blue eyes were filled with tears.

"Why?" He whispered as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.

"Dad..." Elise began.

"Why in the hell would you say we are sleeping together?" His voice raised angrily and he stood up quickly.

Elise took a deep breath and prayed he would understand.

"I didn't exactly say..."

"They have you on fucking tape, Elise!" He roared. "They play it over and over and over again! It's the only thing anyone in the office can talk about!"

"I didn't mean it the way it sounded, Dad!" Elise argued back, her own temper rising. "Francine Carver invited me out to lunch to celebrate my winning the RWA Romance Writer of the Year award. I had no idea she had recorded our conversation. I didn't just blurt out I fuck my father!"

"You said..." He started pacing back and forth.

"What I described was a fantasy." Elise swallowed hard. "Francine admitted she had been having dreams of having sex with her father. I assured her most girls do. She actually went so far as to describe her fantasy which was more than a little disturbing let me tell you. She asked if I had ever had such a dream and I'm sorry but you are a very attractive man and I had a fantasy, one little fantasy, when I was in high school. She asked me to describe it since she had; the way she had and that is what was released to the public."

Silence descended. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Her father continued pacing; a frown on his handsome face. Elise sighed and watched him as he paced.

He was six foot five inches in height with broad shoulders and large muscular arms. His chest was just as muscular and toned tapering down to his waist. He worked out every morning rain or shine. He'd made one of the guest bedrooms into his gym. Most people thought he was younger than his fifty years.

His face was rugged and soft as the same time with aristocratic, patrician features that reminded her of the dark warrior lords she created as the heroes in her romance novels. His eyes were a piercing blue that sometimes made her feel as if he could see into her soul.

He had wavy, dark black hair; a shade darker than her own interspersed with patches of gray. He had a broad forehead, large neatly spaced eyebrows, a long slightly pointed nose, and firm thin lips. He was always clean shaven. He'd never worn a beard. He had always said he hated them.

In high school, she had felt cursed to have such a handsome man for a father. It was all any of the girls in her school could talk about. How muscular he was. How large his arms were. What did he look like in a bathing suit? Did he wear boxers or briefs? How big was his dick?

And they had actually asked her all these questions. She had always responded with disgust and she had been, but it hadn't stopped her from noticing certain things. A burgeoning curiosity had bloomed and filled her until she had to know. She had even gone so far as to measure her father while he was sleeping. She had been impressed when she had studied it. She hadn't dared touch him, but she had been curious.

That was when she had started fantasizing about him. Every night for six months she would dream he came to her in the middle of the night. He'd kiss her like she had seen men kiss the women they loved on the television shows she watched. She had dreamed of him touching her; caressing her in ways a father was never meant to touch his daughter. She had woken up gasping for air every night; had touched herself for months upon waking every night.

Alec stared at his daughter in frustration. He was torn between protecting her and what he had been ordered to do by his bastard of a boss. If he succeeded, she would hate him forever. If he didn't do as he was asked, her writing career was over and so was his job as well as his reputation and respectability.

Culver was a bastard. He pulled at and rearranged the strings of people's lives until they danced for him like a puppet. Culver was watching them right now.. He had forced him to sign a paper stating he could never tell her they were being set up.

Damn Culver!

She was an attractive woman. She was five foot eleven inches in height with a slender, petite waist. Her face was soft, round, and angelic. It was perfect; flawless from her delicate forehead to her perfect shaped eyebrows, her pert nose, her full, luscious lips, and her stubborn chin.

Long dark hair fell in graceful waves to her waist. She wore a tight black peasant top that accentuated the outline of her large, round breasts. More than enough to fill a man's hand. Her tight jeans showed how firm her ass was. But damn it she was his daughter. He had never thought of her in that way. And now he not only had to think of her that way but he had to...he couldn't say it much less think it.

"You have no idea what this has caused." Alex bit out angrily playing his part to perfection using his anger at Culver.

"I tried to call you." Elise wiped the tears from her cheeks only to have them replaced with fresh tears. "I came right over when I found out. Leslie is trying to figure out some way to fix it."

"There is no way to fix this, Elise." Alec sat back down on his black leather swivel armchair with a sigh trying to ignore the pain in his heart. "More damage has been done by this than you know."

Elise walked over to him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He sighed and grabbed her by the waist pulling her to him so she couldn't see the pain in his eyes. He rested his head against her stomach. She had always been able to see more than he wanted her to see.

"I heard some things when I was on my way up." She said softly. "Is Culver what you mean?"

"Yes." He said, after a moment, closing his eyes knowing he was going to hell for what he was about to tell her. He looked up at her; knew she could see the pain and torment in his eyes.

"It sounded like he would understand about the situation."

"He more than understands the situation." Alec smiled wryly and he leaned back in his chair. "He approves. He thinks its true."

"You didn't...?" Elise stared at him in shock.

"I couldn't." He shook his head at her. "He played what you'd said for me. I was in shock and I figured there was a reasonable explanation. He took my silence as admission. Everyone here knows he is married to his daughter. Hell, he has children by her."

"I don't understand..." Elise began, feeling a ball of ice forming in the pit of her stomach.

"My job is on the line now, Elise." Alec wanted the words out. God damn, Culver. "If he finds out it's not true, I'll be fired without pay and without severance."

Don't worry, Alec. I'll tell you what to say. Either way it won't be you lying to your daughter. It will be me.

This is wrong, Culver. My relationship with my daughter is not like that.

By the time I'm done, your relationship with your daughter will be.

Elise let out a little cry and took a step back. Fired? After all the years he had put in. The countless hours he had spent working himself practically to death not worth a damn because he had a normal relationship with his daughter?

"What...what do we do?" She let out a shaky sigh.

"I don't know." Alec whispered, softly as he stood up and walked to her, praying she wouldn't fall for it. "I just don't know, baby."

She allowed him to gather her into his arms. She closed her eyes and sighed as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I hate Francine." She murmured.

"She's off my Christmas list." He chuckled sadly.

Culver's secretary, Charlotte, buzzed him on the intercom. He reached over and pressed a button, knowing the moment was upon him. Culver had sent everyone else home hours ago.

"Yes, Charlotte."

"Mr. Culver is on his way down to see you."

He stiffened. That was the sign. Elise could feel his heart race in his chest.

"Thank you, Charlotte."

He pressed the button again. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and let out another deep sigh. He couldn't do it. He loved his daughter, but he couldn't do this to her. She was a sweet, wonderful, imaginative woman who went out of her way to help out other people. He couldn't use her in this way.

"Goodbye job." He said to himself.

Elise frowned and stepped back from him.

"Why goodbye job?" She asked, her eyes searching his.

"He's probably coming down because he heard you were here." Alec replied with a sad smile. "The man has eyes and ears everywhere. He's probably coming to see if its true. To see if he can catch us in the act."

Alec knew the truth. There was an office cam in every office including his.

"What would we have to do to convince him?"

Alec stared at her for a long moment. She couldn't be serious.

"Elise..."

"What would we have to do?" Elise became more and more determined with each passing second. "Francine has already destroyed my life. I won't let her destroy yours."

"It's...he...rumor has it he has sex with his daughter anywhere and everywhere. I guess he'd have to walk in on us doing something." Alec replied, dumbfounded.

"Fine."