Page 25 of Double Daddies (Dirty Daddies Anthologies #8)
Chapter Twelve
Double D Acquisition’s private plane
Elle
Drake caught her around the waist within moments. Elle instinctively twisted against his grip as she tried to break free. His grip was firm and warm against her skin.
“Enough.” The curt order cut through the air. Elle froze, and all the fight dissipated from her from that one cold word.
“The one thing I’ll never tolerate from you is running from us, Elle.
We’re your Daddies, which offers you the courage and freedom to talk to us.
I know this has been a harsh kickoff, but the quicker you adapt to being our Little, the easier it’ll be.
” He brushed a tender hand over her cheek.
The gentle touch was at odds with his earlier dominance.
“Talk to me, babygirl. Why are you running?”
The warmth of his palm lingered on her skin, sending tingles down her spine.
His shift from stern disciplinarian to caring protector made her head spin.
Her throat tightened as memories of his commanding presence during her punishment flooded back.
She drew in a shaky breath but kept her eyes lowered.
“I can’t do this.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “This is... it’s too much, and from what I saw on the internet, this isn’t even half of what you’re going to expect from me. Just now… Amanda… I... I just can’t.”
“Amanda is your nanny, babygirl, and we trust her implicitly. She would protect you as fiercely as we would when in her care.”
“That may be, but she just… you just made her…” Elle swallowed the words as visions of how her body had responded to her newly appointed nanny flooded her mind. “I’m sorry… I can’t. It’s too much.”
Drake’s fingers curled under her chin to prod her face up. With an enigmatic expression, he watched her with an intensity that made her pulse quicken.
“Do you want us to turn the plane around, Elle?” His voice carried a dark undertone that contrasted with the patience in his gaze.
She jerked in surprise as she stared at him with wide-eyed disbelief and hope fluttering in her chest.
“You would do that? After all the effort to get me here... you would just take me back and let it all go?”
“That’s not what I said. I asked if you wanted to go back to Texas.” His jaw tightened, drawing Elle’s gaze to a muscle ticking beneath his skin. “Unfortunately, returning without honoring the agreement you made does carry consequences.”
“Yes, Elle... the vandalism isn’t going to dissolve into thin air.” Damian’s voice cut through the tension, coldly and matter of fact, as if sending women to jail was an everyday occurrence to them. “Of course, it would also mean Elle’s Delicacies will close its doors at the Texas Tower.”
Her mouth fell open as the brief flicker of hope extinguished in a heartbeat. Heat rushed to her cheeks as anger and frustration surged through her.
“You would really do that? How cruel can you be? Dangling the possibility of returning in front of me, only to yank it away with more threats!”
“No threats, Elle. Reality. Vandalizing our property to the repair value of almost a million dollars was your own doing. The bakery and Texas Towers... that’s all business.”
Her shoulders slumped in defeat as the burden of her actions pressed down on her. She had sealed her own fate… with buckets of fucking pink and silver paint . She wrapped her arms around herself, seeking comfort that she knew wouldn’t come. Not here, and definitely not from the Double D Duo.
“No... I don’t want you to turn around.”
“At this point, we need assurance from you.” Drake’s voice held no anger, only disappointment. She was caught off guard at how his reaction caused the ache in her chest to intensify. An unfamiliar urge to erase that disappointment from his voice and please him scared her.
“I don’t understand,” she hedged, attempting to buy time while her mind raced to process this new reality.
“We need your full commitment that you will reform to our expectations... as our Little.”
“Since I still don’t know what it really entails, all I can commit to is that I will try,” she said after a pause, but couldn’t keep her voice from trembling.
Drake’s steady gaze pinned her in place as his voice deepened with warning. “For now, that’s good enough.” The message was clear. Keep that commitment or face jail time.
Forcing herself to meet his eyes, she felt her pride crumbling like sand through her fingers. “Thank you, Drake.”
“Daddy, little baker. For the next three months, it’ll never be Drake or Damian. From this point, you will only call us Daddy. Do not let me remind you again.”
She blinked, and her tongue darted out to wet her suddenly dry lips before whispering, “Yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl,” Damian praised as he pressed a tender kiss to her shoulder.
The two words sent an unexpected shiver down her spine as tears welled in her eyes. Only, she had no idea why.... except that this time, it wasn’t because of despair.
Drake
Drake’s fingers tightened on Elle’s waist as disappointment carved through his chest. He had anticipated resistance to their lifestyle, but her fear of opening herself to the life of a Little struck deeper than expected.
Each attempt to run from them reopened old wounds and memories of being abandoned, unwanted, and discarded.
His gaze met Damian’s across the cabin, finding the same shadow of understanding in his friend’s eyes.
Their shared past had forged an unbreakable bond, built in empty dormitory halls during endless school breaks.
Two boys with platinum credit cards but no parents to call, packing their bags each holiday to maintain the illusion of having homes to return to.
They would check into hotels, ordering room service and pretending the ache in their chests didn’t exist. Their parents’ solution to unwanted children had been simple.
Throw money at the problem and expect it to disappear.
The irony wasn’t lost on Drake. Here they stood, two of the most powerful men in acquisition banking, their combined net worth in the trillions, yet their deepest scars came from nothing money could heal.
Walking away from their parents after graduating, they had clawed their way to the top, driven by a desperate need to prove their worth.
Damian’s uncanny ability to spot undervalued companies paired perfectly with Drake’s ruthless negotiation skills.
Their partnership had been inevitable, both in business and life.
Their path to becoming Daddies grew from that same wounded soil. The desire to provide the guidance and protection they had never received and to create a caring family neither of them had known. Each Little they had cared for had helped heal another piece of their broken past.
Elle... Elle was different. Her fierce independence masked a vulnerability that called to him on a primal level.
“I can't do this,” she whispered. Drake’s heart contracted as he heard the echo of his own childhood fears in her voice, of the terror of not being enough, of failing to meet expectations.
He gentled his grip as he turned her to face him.
“The one thing I will never tolerate from you is running from us, Elle. We’re your Daddies, which offers you courage and freedom to talk to us.
” The words carried the echo of promises he had made to himself years ago.
He would never abandon those who needed him or ever become the cold, distant figures his own parents had been.
Her resistance tore at him, but underneath it, he sensed a desperate yearning that matched their own.
Each trembling “Yes, Daddy” that fell from her lips sparked hope in his chest. She might fight them, but deep down, she craved exactly what they offered—to belong and the yearning for unconditional love.
When Damian pressed that gentle kiss on her shoulder, Drake watched tears well in Elle’s eyes.
He recognized the moment. That first crack in the walls and the first glimpse of surrender.
His chest tightened with an overwhelming need to shelter her, to prove that, unlike his own parents, he would never walk away.
“Good girl.” Drake heard decades of shared understanding in the two words Damian uttered.
They had built themselves from the ground up and transformed their pain into purpose.
Now, they had the chance to give Elle everything, like them, she had been denied since her parents died—stability, guidance, and, most importantly, love that came without conditions or price tags.
“Damian, our Little has had quite an introduction, so I believe she needs a little nap. Perhaps you need to sing her a lullaby and stay with her.”
“A lullaby? You can’t be serious?” Elle’s instant response wasn’t unexpected.
Drake watched her face scrunch in defiance.
Her immediate resistance both irritated and charmed him, stirring an unexpected warmth in his chest. The corner of his mouth twitched, but he forced his expression to remain stern.
Her spirited reactions were already working their way past his carefully constructed walls.
“I’m starting to tire of your constant remarks, Elle.
You admitted to doing research about being a Little.
Questioning or scorning everything we do or say isn’t going to end well for you.
You just committed to staying and being our Little…
” He paused, letting his words sink deep.
“I suggest you don’t forget it because once we’re home, my patience is going to wear out rapidly. ”
His chest tightened as she toed the carpet while clasping her hands in front of her.
The sight of her, head bowed and submissive, awakened a fierce protectiveness he had buried deep for years.
Her soft “I’m sorry, Daddy” nearly undid him.
He wanted to gather her close, to shelter her small frame against his chest, and prove that surrendering to being their Little didn’t mean weakness.
“Hmm,” he grunted instead, studying her closely. He couldn’t tell if her compliance stemmed from genuine submission or calculated manipulation. “Go, Damian, or our Little might talk herself into another punishment before we land.”
Drake’s attention fixed on Elle’s face as Damian guided her toward one of the private bedrooms with his hand firm on the nape of her neck.
When she smiled at whatever Damian whispered in her ear, her entire expression transformed.
The radiance of that smile punched straight through Drake’s defenses. His heart stuttered in his chest.
That glimpse of joy—that was what they had been searching for.
A Little who would not just accept their guidance but thrive under it.
Someone who would let them create the family neither man had known growing up.
His throat tightened as he imagined their future with Elle’s laughter filling their home and her trust in them growing stronger each day.
Eventually, the patter of tiny feet to complete their family circle.
He pressed his palm against the window and watched clouds drifting past below.
For years, he had locked away his yearning for connection, burying it beneath acquisitions and power plays.
But Elle... her presence cracked open those sealed chambers of his heart, releasing hope he had thought long dead.
Three months stretched before them. It was more than enough time, he prayed, to show her that being their Little would lead to freedom and that their control meant protection.
Most importantly, their love came without conditions or price.
The smile playing at his lips had nothing to do with amusement now.
It carried years of unspoken longing and dreams he had never dared voice, even to Damian.
Dreams of morning cuddles and bedtime stories, of teaching their Little to trust and be trusted, and of building the family they had all been denied.
For the first time in decades, Drake let himself believe those dreams might become reality.