Page 108 of Melt For Us, Daddy
He started to tell them it was nothing, but Cordelia’s admonition from the day before had stuck with him. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Cordelia smiled, and his heart fluttered the same way it did when she verbally praised him. “Good boy, letting us know you’re not ready to talk. But if there’s something bothering you, we want you to tell us when you are ready. Okay?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Her gaze shifted upward just a fraction. “Ivy, I’m going to take Jacob into the living room to talk for a bit. Can you handle breakfast on your own?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Let us know when it’s ready.”
Unease churned in his stomach as he followed Cordelia out to the living room. She pointed to the couch and he immediately sat, earning him another of those heart-stopping smiles of approval as she took her seat next to him.
“Do you remember yesterday when we were talking about rules and limits and I told you that one of mine is not being touched?”
How could he forget when everything in him wanted nothing more than to feel her skin beneath his hand? “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Ivy thinks I should tell you why I have issues with that kind of intimacy. I will, if you want me to, but I want you to be very aware that it has to do with your grandfather. And that the truth will be difficult for you to hear.”
Already, his heart was breaking for her. But he wouldn’t chicken out now, no matter how much the truth might hurt. “I want to know.”
“Okay. If it gets to be too much, just tell me. Use your safewords if you need to. There’s no shame in needing a break.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I will.”
And so she told him. About how young she’d been, how rebellious. How she’d been married off to his grandfather in an effort to tame her.
She told him about her so-called wedding night and the women who’d held her down as his grandfather had raped her.
He knew that word from the documentaries he’d watched. An ugly word for an ugly act, and as he’d expected, his heart shattered for her.
Through it all, she didn’t cry. But she didn’t bother to hide the pain in her eyes, either. And although it felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest by the time she was done, he didn’t cry, either.
“I’m so sorry, Cordelia,” he whispered when it was done. “I’m so fucking sorry. I wish… I don’t even know what I wish. That I could fix it, make it better somehow.”
Reaching out, she placed a hand on his arm and squeezed, her eyes blazing now with righteous fury. “You fix it by making sure he and the other prophets can never do this to another little girl again. When the time comes, you get up on that witness stand and you testify. You tell the world what you’ve seen, what you’ve experienced. I’ll do the same, and with any luck, so will your sisters. And we’ll fucking bury them with the truth.”
“I can do that.”
Chapter 36
Cordelia
Two more weeks passed with them holed up in the safe house, and Cordelia was beginning to worry both her charges were on the verge of a blow-up. Ever since yesterday afternoon they’d been snipping at each other, and nothing seemed to ease the tension. The spankings she’d given both of them last night before bed, followed by forcing them to pleasure each other orally had helped for a little while, but this morning they were right back to arguing like children.
And she was over it.
“Ugh, I hate this game! It’s stupid.”
Rolling her eyes to the ceiling at her babygirl’s third such outburst of the morning, Cordelia prayed to whatever gods might be listening to grant her patience. “Then find something else to play.”
“There is nothing else. We’ve played every game in this stupid house a hundred times.”
Exaggerate much, babygirl? “Then let’s find a movie to watch.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it was the wrong suggestion. “How the hell can I do that when you won’t let Jacob watch anything!”
It wasn’t so much the question as the attitude behind it that finally had Cordelia setting aside the thriller novel Kestrel had picked up for her during his last trip to the grocery store. He’d made it a point to pick up something for each of them, which had helped with the cabin fever a bit.
