Page 71 of Melt For Us, Daddy
“Good girl. I’m going to go clean. You two… learn something.”
As Cordelia turned to walk away, Ivy looked over at Jacob and deliberately rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. The gesture earned her a laugh from the man in front of her.
“All right, Jakey. Let’s go ‘learn something’.”
Chapter 22
Jacob
“Wait. You’re telling me dinosaurs are real?”
Staring down at the book in front of him that Ivy had unearthed from one of the boxes in the basement, Jacob ran his fingers over the photographs on the page. Real, live photographs of people digging up bones from the ground.
“Yup. And some of them are still alive today, in a way.”
“No way!” Excitement pumped through his veins. “Which ones? Can we go see them?”
Giggling, Ivy flipped through the pages to a picture of a chicken. “Pretty sure you have. Birds are descendants of dinosaurs. And there are lots of animals alive now that are pretty closely related, like crocodiles and sea turtles and sharks. When we get home, we’ll go to the aquarium and you can see some. There’s an even bigger one in Georgia we can make a trip to as well, if you’d like.”
“An aquarium?”
“Yeah it’s like…” She hesitated, seemingly searching for the words to explain. “A zoo, but for fish. Giant tanks of water where they keep different species of fish and sharks and other underwater creatures so we can learn all about them.”
“Isn’t it sad for the fish to be locked up like that?” The thought of so many animals never getting to be free, to explore the world sat in his stomach like a rock. He knew what it was like, being kept somewhere, isolated from the wonders outside his cage.
“Maybe. But most places have conservation programs too, so they can help injured animals be released back into the wild. They’re not perfect places, but they do a lot of good.”
“I see. Kind of like what you and Cordelia are doing for me. Helping me learn so when the time comes I can go out on my own in the real world.”
His observation was greeted with silence, and when he looked up, Ivy’s eyes were wet. But she smiled brightly for him and gave his arm one of those reassuring squeezes she was always giving him. “Yeah. Something like that. Um… okay, so, what else can we learn about dinosaurs?”
They spent the rest of their morning ‘school’ time going through the dinosaur section of the book, with Ivy occasionally frowning and muttering about trying to teach with twenty-year-old material.
“If I could just get online I could show you so much,” she said with a sigh.
“Don’t even think about it, little girl.”
Looking up, he found Cordelia leaning against the doorframe, her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised as she pinned Ivy with a look. “The internet is firmly off-limits until we get back home.”
“I know, I know. But half this stuff is either flat out wrong or just out of date. I’m going to have to go back over all of it when we get home.”
“I’m sure you’re doing a fine job, blossom. And it’s time for your break, anyway. There’s stuff for sandwiches in the fridge if you want to set it out on the island for us.”
Everything about Ivy seemed to light up at the suggestion. “Yes, Daddy!”
Popping up from the couch, she hurried into the kitchen, leaving him alone with the sharp-eyed Cordelia yet again. His backside clenched, as if remembering how she’d spanked him earlier, and his forbidden parts jerked in his pants.
“How are you feeling, Jacob?”
“Um. Fine, Ma’am.”
A slow smile curved her lips. “I enjoy hearing you say that. Probably more than I should.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that I know you don’t fully understand the weight of it. You’re saying it to be polite, but to me… god, for me it’s the sweetest fucking music. This beautiful, sweet boy calling me Ma’am. Especially after having had you over my lap, it’s just intoxicating.”
“It… pleases you?”
