Riley was sitting on a weathered old bench at the edge of the property. The spot was level and slightly uphill from the main grounds of the estate where the party was in full swing. Her back was turned to the festivities and her eyes were cast down, her face half obscured by the long, silky strands of chestnut brown hair dangling in front of her. She looked up briefly to meet her father's eyes as he approached, but then back down again almost as soon as he made eye contact.
"I've been looking all over for you," he said as he crossed what was probably once a garden and sat on the bench about an arm's length from her.
"Sorry. I should've let you know where I was going, but I didn't really know myself. I just found this just by accident."
"It's nice up here."
"Yeah."
"Away from all the people."
"Yeah. Sorry to keep you away from your friends," she said quietly.
"They're not my friends. Just business associates. I guess I spend too much time working to have any real friends," he told her, realizing how pathetic it probably sounded.
"Okay. They all seem to really like you, though."
"That's only because I make them lots of money."
She was still looking down, as if it were painful to look at him. Her spine was ramrod straight and her shoulders squared off, left bare by the ruffled top of her little black dress. The ruffle made her tits look smaller than they were, although they were proportionately round and thick as her entire body. Her legs were bare, too. They were crossed and mostly exposed by the tight hem as it rode close to her hips.
The ripe curves of her body looked very tightly packed into her dress. The moment Chance had seen her wardrobe choice earlier in the company's hotel suite, his fascination for his daughter reached a new level. Between her subtle makeup and sexy yet elegant dress, along with her outward veil of calm, she immediately came off as being older than eighteen.
"It's okay, Riley. We can go if you want to. I'm sorry if I made you feel pressured to come. I didn't mean to."
"You didn't."
"Okay, good."
"I could tell you'd be disappointed if I hadn't, though."
Chance thought a moment. "Not disappointed. Something else. I probably wouldn't have bothered coming without you, but I didn't want to influence you," he said.
"It's okay, I'm fine. Really. I don't mind staying. I just felt like walking around a while."
"Sure." He nodded, looking at her sideways. Sometimes it was like her skin was talking to him, whispering delicate secrets. "I don't want this to sound bad, but I guess I wanted to show you off," he finally admitted.
She looked at him without instantly glancing off the way she usually did. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Lots of reasons."
"You'd be the first."
"I find that really hard to believe."
"Why? I mean, I'm not the kind of thing anyone wants to show off."
"You just don't see yourself the way other people do. Especially a proud father."
"Proud? Really?"
"Very," he said. "More than you can possibly imagine."
That brought a smile to her supple lips, even if it didn't last too long. Still looking at him, her expression turned to one of curiosity mixed with a touch of confusion. It was the longest she'd held eye contact with him since he first picked her up at the airport three weeks before. He could tell she was thinking about something, and he gave her all the time she needed.
"There's something I want to ask you," she finally said, looking back at the ground. "But I don't know if I should."
Chance sighed. "I hope you know you can always ask me anything. Or talk to me about anything."
"Easy to say."
"True."
"How do you see me?" she asked after waiting a short while longer.
Chance made an attempt to organize his thoughts before saying anything, but his mind wouldn't cooperate.
"I'll just be perfectly straight with you, whether you think I'm nuts or not," he said after a pause. "I've never seen anything like you. Never anything so beautiful or so...so...perfect. You took everything I thought I knew about love and beauty and tossed it in a blender. Just by showing up and saying hello."