Page 88 of Melt For Us, Daddy
“C-can’t.”
His voice hitched, and it hit her then that he was holding back tears. Shifting closer, she ran her hand up and down his arm as her mind raced, searching for just the right thing to say.
“Oh, honey.” Ivy cupped his face, her own expression growing more worried by the second. “It’s okay. You can cry if you need to.”
If anything, Jacob seemed to curl even more tightly in on himself. “Can’t. Not allowed.”
It took a moment for his words to register. And when they did, fury flared in Cordelia’s chest, burning bright and hot.
Those fucking assholes.
Shifting her gaze to meet Ivy’s, seeing her own fury reflected there, she gave a subtle shake of her head. There would be time to help him unlearn all the bullshit he’d been taught growing up, but her own gut instincts told her this wasn’t the time. And though she frowned, Ivy gave a small, hesitant nod of understanding.
“Can you roll on your tummy for me, baby boy?” Cordelia asked, deliberately keeping her tone soft, as non-threatening as possible.
After a moment of hesitation, he rolled, burying his face in the pillow as he stretched his limbs out between them. Laying her hand flat on his back, Cordelia rubbed in small, slow circles, the way she always did with Ivy after a spanking or when she just needed a good cry. Even if he couldn’t or wouldn’t let the tears come, at least she could offer this little bit of comfort.
Ivy joined in, too, running her hands through his hair just like she had during his spanking the day before. “Our sweet boy,” she murmured. “You’re safe now, baby. We’re here and we’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
A fierce sense of possessiveness she’d never felt for anyone but Ivy welled in Cordelia’s chest. They would protect him, because he was theirs.
It was as simple and as complicated as that.
Bit by bit, Jacob relaxed under Cordelia’s hand, until at last he let out a long, sad sigh and turned his head on the pillow, his eyes locking on Ivy’s face. “I’m okay. Sorry for being such a wimp.”
The palm of Cordelia’s hand physically itched to connect with his ass, and judging by the way Ivy’s eyes flashed, she was feeling much the same way. “You never, ever have to apologize to us for having emotions. Do you understand me, Jacob?”
She’d watched Ivy scene with countless others over the years. Watched her submit, over and over. But she’d never gotten to see the toppy side of her girl until now, and even though this was clearly a serious moment, she had to admit it was really fucking hot watching her get all bossy with their boy.
Pink slashed across Jacob’s cheek. “I don’t understand. I’m not supposed to… men aren’t supposed to be weak.”
Threading her fingers through his hair, Cordelia gently pulled his head back so she could look down into those pale gray eyes, so full of the emotions he was trying so desperately to keep locked inside. “Men are supposed to be whatever they want to be, baby boy. You aren’t less of a man for feeling sad or upset or whatever it is you’re feeling right now.”
“What about abandoning my sisters? Does that make me less of a man?”
There it was. The root of his meltdown, though she wasn’t even sure she could call it that when he was clinging so tightly to his emotions.
“You didn’t abandon them,” she reminded him gently. “You left to save them.”
“But I haven’t saved them.” Sorrow wound around his words, filling them with such heaviness they seemed to physically sit in Cordelia’s chest. “They’re still in there, living with him and I’m not doing anything to help. Instead, I’m here with you, and I’m?—”
He cut off, pressing his lips together and Cordelia tightened her grip on his hair until he whimpered softly.
“None of that, boy,” she murmured in a tone so deadly soft it had Ivy’s eyes going wide even though it wasn’t directed at her. “We have a rule. You start a thought, you finish the thought. What were you going to say?”
It took several long moments and another tug of his hair for the words to finally come, his voice trembling with his confession. “I’m here, with you, giving into temptation. Falling into sin. How can I expect God to help me, to help my sisters if I’m flaunting his word with every breath?”
“Oh, baby.” Tears shimmered on Ivy’s lashes as she dipped her head, pressing a soft kiss to his trembling lips. “God won’t abandon you just because you’re letting yourself be loved on.”
“You don’t know that. What if they never get rescued? What if something happens to them and it’s all my fault? Because I couldn’t resist you?”
The thought of never touching him again, tasting him again was like a knife in Cordelia’s chest. “Do you want to resist us?”
Craning his neck, he looked up at her, a million emotions swirling in the stormy gray of his eyes. “No. And I think that might be my worst sin of all. I know it’s wrong, but I don’t want to stop.”
“Baby, baby, baby,” she murmured, lowering her head to capture his lips in a long, slow kiss. “I know how hard this is for you. Letting go of all those bullshit rules they’ve filled your head with over the years. I had to do the same thing when I left. So much of what they taught you is either a truth they’ve twisted to support their own quest for power or it’s an outright lie. And there is one rule they never taught you, one absolute truth it took me years to understand and accept. Do you want to know what it is?”
All those emotions converged into a hope so bright and shining it threatened to blind her. “What?”
