Page 45 of Daddy's Muse
Outside, the world could roar and threaten all it wanted.
Here, in this dark, tangled quiet, he was safe.
With me.
Forever.
The next morning, I woke to the soft rise and fall of Colby’s chest against my side. His hair was a tousled auburn halo across my arm, and for a brief moment, I just watched him breathe—so fragile, so perfect, somine.
He was still hesitant, still skittish about the outside world, but every time he reached for me, every time his fingers found my skin or his voice whispered my name, my resolve grew fiercer.
I began to map out the boundaries—what he needed and what I was willing to do to make sure no one else could take him from me.
And when he texted me later that day, trembling over the smallest things, things I hadn’t even had a hand in—the flicker of a shadow on campus, a stranger’s glance that lingered too long, a classmate sitting next to him in class when those seats were usually empty—I told him I’d come over.
I needed to keep him close, keep him under my gaze.
When I arrived, I took his hands in mine, the same hands that shook as he reached out for me. I looked into those wideeyes and promised, “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll watch over you every second.”
But the words felt too small, too simple.
Because I couldn’tjustprotect him—I wanted toownhim. To be the only person who saw him like this: vulnerable, soft, needing.
I made sure he never slept alone. The nights when he was alone in his dorm, I stayed on the phone until his breaths slowed, then sent texts every hour to “check” he was still safe. I knew it was more than comforting him—I was building a cage, but one he would never want to leave.
Still, part of me thought about the future—about what it would mean to have him living with me, away from prying eyes and the dangers lurking in broad daylight.
I pictured my cabin hidden in the woods, how quiet it would be, how safe. Just me, him, and the silence that only we would share.
But then, darker thoughts crept in. What if I never let anyone else see him? What if I wrapped him up so tightly he belonged to me alone, forever?
The idea thrilled me and terrified me in equal measure.
When he lay in my lap again, I whispered, “You’re mine, kanin. No one else needs to know you. I’ll keep you safe—no matter what it takes.”
His soft sigh was the only answer I needed.
And as I traced lazy patterns across his skin, I knew I was crossing a line.
But for Colby, for us, I would cross any line.
Because I was his Pappa.
12
Colby
I sat stiffly in the chair across from the campus security desk, my fingers laced so tightly my knuckles ached.
The officer—a middle-aged man with a thinning hairline and a polite but detached expression—flipped through the clipboard I’d filled out about filing a complaint.
“So, you’ve noticed someone outside your window at night?” he asked, tone neutral.
“Yes,” I said. “And… I’ve gotten notes under my door. My things have been moved around—I think someone’s been inside my room when I wasn’t there.”
His pen scratched across the paper. “Any signs of forced entry?”
I hesitated. “No. But—”
