Page 25 of Black
CHAPTER 5
Baby
Cia
I was happy to be out of the neutralizer room but felt completely naked without my armor of black.
Therese walked me over to cabin number five, as if she was afraid I would run away… not that I wasn’t tempted, but where the hell would I go? I was beginning to understand why this place was so isolated.
“Just go right in,” Therese instructed. “Your daddy is inside.”
I arched a brow, not understanding what she was talking about but feeling confident I wouldn’t find Brent inside the cabin. I was right.
I found Gabriel lying on a bed, reading.
“Hey,” I said and if I hadn’t felt stupid and naked already, I certainly did after the way he stared at me as if I had grown an extra head.
“Wow, you look so… different,” he said and sat up.
I had seen myself in a mirror and knew I looked like a bloody sixteen-year-old with my girl-next-door look.
“At least we’re in the forest so no one will see me like this,” I said grumpily.
“You’re blond now,” he pointed out and took me in from head to toe in my sweatpants and t-shirt with a printed logo that said Camp TRC – which I had been told by Therese was short for “The Regression Center.”
“So the beauty markisreal,” Gabriel said and pointed to my mouth.
“Yes, it’s real, why wouldn’t it be?”
“I thought that maybe it was a tribute to Madonna… you know, the singer... she used to paint on a beauty mark and she…”
“Yes, I know who Madonna is,” I cut him off and pointed to the pile on the bed. “What is that?” For some reason it made me nervous.
Gabriel put his book down and got up from the bed. “I think you better sit down for a minute,” he said.
“Why?”
“Bruce gave us the first assignment and left it to me to explain it to you. Come sit down.”
I got on the bed, leaned my head against the headboard, and tugged my feet up under me. “I’m ready, so what is it?”
Gabriel was rubbing his forehead and giving me a troubled look.
“How bad can it be? Just spit it out,” I demanded.
Five minutes later when he was done explaining, I was pacing the room, ready to kill someone.
“If you think that I’m going to allow anyone to dress me up in a baby jumpsuit and sing me lullabies, then you must be out of your mind. I can call you Daddy if I have to but that’s as far as I’ll go.”
He swallowed hard. “Well, actually, that’s not the worst part.”
I narrowed my eyes and clenched my jaw. “Then what is?”
“That as your father I have to give you a bath and feed you.”
“No!Absolutely not!” I shrieked.
Gabriel shrugged. “I’m only doing it to help you and I promise there will be nothing sexual about it.”
