A father-daughter talk

You check the time again as you walk upstairs. It's still not midnight. Your talk with Mia felt like forever, but in reality, it was only a few minutes. You sigh. The poor girl has missed so much in life. You decide to help her, where you can. To be someone she can depend on. Count on.

Thoughts of how to better support her flitter through your mind as your pass the door to your daughter's room. To your surprise, you hear faint music emanating from within. Wasn't Karina asleep?

You gently knock on the door, the sound barely audible, but you still hear rustling noises on the other side of the thin door. Light spills into the upstairs hallway as Karina opens the door, her face peeking out from around the frame. The pale twinkle of Christmas lights fills her room, the strands of lighting over her bed the only illumination.

"Daddy?" she asks, then opens the door fully and motions you inside. "I didn't know you were home, or I would've come to see you."

You step into your daughter's room as she closes the door behind you. "I was talking to Mia, downstairs," you begin. "I need to talk to you too, Karina. It's important." You can't risk Mia being the one to talk to Karina about this. It needs to be you. Now.

"Okay," she murmurs, but then you feel her hands on your waist, snaking through your arms from behind, and coming to rest on your chest. She leans into your back with a sigh. You feel the warm mounds of her breast press into you, and your heart stutters. Damn, these girls.

Her hands leave you. She appears beside you, walking back to her bed. Her hair is bound in a ponytail, the long blonde streaks falling straight against her back. She wears a set of sage green satin sleepwear. It looks like silk, but you know your family couldn't afford that. A loose-fitting top hangs from her shoulders on spaghetti straps and her flowing shorts barely seem to be held up by anything; the outfit covers her body, but just barely.

She hops onto her bed, twisting in the air to land on her rear, and leans against the wall with her legs crossed. She pats a spot beside her and smiles. "Let's talk."

You nod, but pause. "Don't be alarmed," you warn your daughter. She arches an eyebrow at you, but it flattens as you pull the pistol from your waistband and set it on the bedside table.

"Why do you have a gun?" she asks, her tone more curious than you expected.

"That's what I want to talk to you about."

You join Karina on her bed and lean against the wall beside her. Her head rests against your shoulder, waiting.

"I...had to talk to Mia about this before I came upstairs, and I thought I should talk to you too." You look down at your daughter, leaning into you. Her shoulders are scrunched in, loosening the satin around her chest and causing it to fall open. With a gulp, you realize you can see almost all of her right breast. The skin is smooth and inviting. You avert your eyes, though. You need to do this. "Karina, I have been working a lot. For a long time. I've tried to get ahead, shit, I've tried to just stay even. I can't do it, though. My job isn't enough. My extra jobs aren't enough. We simply need more money." You pause, waiting. Karina simply nods her head. "You know our family has ties back to Russia. You know about the Organization. I decided to join them, Karina. Your uncle Ivan has always offered the work to me, but I refused it. Some moral sensibility was stopping me, I suppose. But I can't do it anymore. I can't continue to go to work, waste away my day and night, and never see you. Never see Mia. Nadia. Ana. I need more time with you all. I need to be here for you, to support you. I've tried everything I could think of, and this is the only option I had left.

"So I work for Ivan, now. Not all of the time. But I'm learning. Learning how to do the things he needs doing, so I can make some real money and get us out of this hole. So I can both pay for your school and be able to come to visit you. So I don't have to disappear for another eighteen years."

You breathe.

"And that's it. The bottom line is, that I'm going to have to do bad things. I'm going to have to keep that gun on me, to protect you and the others when you need to be protected. To keep you from harm. I have to do this, or I'll risk losing everything we've built together."

Karina looks up at you, her eyes sparkling but not from tears. The overhead lights twinkled within them. She wouldn't cry. "I understand," she said. Her voice was firm and steady.

You expected some argument from her, but maybe you shouldn't have.

"Daddy, I support you. You know I do. I told you I would be here for you, no matter what, and I meant it. That means anything. If you need to do this, I'll be here for you when you come home. I'll even stitch you up if you need me to. Whatever it is, daddy, I'm here. Especially if it means we get to spend more time together."

You feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders, one you did not realize was ever there. Everything is in the open, now. Ana and Nadia already knew the truth, but now so do Mia and Karina. You trust them not to tell anyone. They might be young, but they grew up in rough areas and know what happens to snitches. You can't protect them from that.

"Thank you for trusting me," she continues. Her head rises from your shoulder, and she looks into your eyes. "Did you want to talk about something else?"

And like that, the discussion was over. She had taken it in stride without blinking an eye. Her father becoming a criminal, and all she says is okay. You feel you should be worried about that, but you know it is only out of love for you. She said as much.

"No, dear, that was all. Things may start changing around here. I'm working on improving our lives, the best I can."

Karina smiles, her brilliant teeth revealed through her soft lips. She darts in for a kiss, leaning up to your face and planting a tender peck on you. She turns her chest to you, her hand sliding across your own, while she nestles back into the crook of your shoulder.

"I love you," she says.

"I love you, too," you say back, kissing the top of her head. "By the way, why didn't you stay downstairs with Mia?"

"Oh, she needed some alone time. She got into a big fight with her mom when she was moving out. Her mom said some really...hurtful things. I'm surprised she even wanted to talk to you."

"She didn't mention it," you mumble. Poor girl.

"She doesn't like to talk about it. You know how her mom is. I know she's just happy to have us, and somewhere to live."

You think back to your kiss with Mia and the words of love she shared.

"I like to think so, too."

Karina's hand traces a line down the center of your chest and draws circles on your abdomen. "You know, we both appreciate everything you're doing. The effort you're making with us. I appreciate it." Her fingers drift lower, onto the black denim of your pants. Across the zipper and up to your button. With a deft twist of her hand, the button comes undone.

"Karina..." you mutter, but she ignores you. She unzips the metal zipper, then slides away from you.

"Lose the pants," she orders, a fox-like grin on her face.

You think to protest, but you know there is no point. She wants to do this, and you want her to. You're past protestation. You lift your hips, leaning against the wall, and push your pants down to the floor. Only your boxers are left to protect you from your daughter's advances.

"Much better," she teases, then places her hand back onto your groin. The tips of her fingers land directly on the back of your cock, and you feel it quickly hardening to full size at her touch. She sits back onto her shins, facing you, with a mischievous look in her eyes. As always, you are struck by your daughter's beauty. Her sensuality. The curves she earned through so many years of hard work at the gym. The effort she puts into herself, every day.

"You're a beautiful woman, Karina."

"I know," she winks back. "I feel bad about how I acted this morning. I was being a brat, I know. I want to replace those memories with something better. I...did some research, and I have an idea. I want to play a game... something I read about online. Do you want to play with me?" She runs her fingers along your cock as she asks the question, as if you need convincing.

"Anything you want, dear," you breathe.

"The game is simple. It's called, 'Don't Touch Me.' I will touch you and do things to you, but no matter what, you can't initiate touching me. If you do, we stop and you have to leave. And I mean it, daddy. No touching. I want this to be fun for both of us, so you have to play by the rules. What do you say?"