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“ I mmy! What are you doing up?”

Unicorn poop.

She’d thought everyone was out of the house. Turning, she saw Jenner standing by the kitchen island.

“I woke up and I was thirsty.”

“Then why didn’t you call for me?” he asked, walking over and taking the soda out of her hand.

He put it back into the fridge and instead, drew out a carton of orange juice.

Nooo.

She didn’t want orange juice. She wanted soda.

“I didn’t think you were here. Aren’t you supposed to be at the studio?”

“I postponed that until tomorrow.”

“You did? Was that okay with everyone else?” she asked.

He just shrugged as he put the orange juice on the island. Then he picked her up by the hips and placed her on the counter. “Looking after you comes first.”

She sighed. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Yes, it does,” he said firmly. He half-filled her glass with juice and then held it up to her lips. “Open.”

“I wanted soda.”

“Soda isn’t good for you. Juice is. Open.”

“You say that to me a lot.”

“I say what a lot?” he asked.

“Open,” she said in a deep voice.

“Is that supposed to sound like me?” he asked, his lips twitching.

“It sounds exactly like you!”

“Not even close. You sound like a constipated chipmunk.”

She gasped. Loudly. “Well, maybe that’s what you sound like.”

It wasn’t. He sounded like caramel apples. Sweet on the outside and a bit tart and sharp underneath. Complex and delicious.

And now she wanted a caramel apple.

Instead, she took the glass from him and sipped on orange juice that she didn’t even like.

“I don’t like orange juice.”

“I know,” he said. “But you need the vitamin C so keep drinking. I’ll make you some breakfast.”

“I’m not hungry.”

He shot her a look. “You’ve barely eaten the last few days. You look like you’re feeling better so you’re going to eat. Or I’ll call Eric.”

“Hey! That’s not nice.”

“I bet he knows a way to get some food into you. I think they can put stuff through a tube into your stomach. They probably go through the butt.”

“They do not!”

Well, she didn’t think they did.

However, it was probably best that she didn’t find out.

“Fine. I’ll eat a tiny bit.” She watched him move around the kitchen and fought the urge to take over. Truthfully, she was feeling weak enough that she wasn’t sure it was a good idea for her to attempt to use the stove.

He scrambled the eggs and only had to fish out some egg shell twice. Which was pretty good for him. Then he buttered some toast and added it to the side of the plate.

Immy glanced down at the plate of food as he lifted her onto a stool. “Thanks, yummy.”

“Do you need me to feed you?” Jenner asked.

Yes.

No.

She had to stop relying on them all so much so she picked up the piece of toast. “No thanks. Um, you should go to your rehearsal. You’ve got another small tour coming up. How far away is that?”

“It’s this weekend.”

“What? Oh, unicorn poop. What day is it today?”

“Wednesday.”

“You need to get to the studio.”

“I’m right where I need to be,” he countered.

“Jenner! You need to go.”

“No.” He gave her a stern look. “And stop trying to get rid of me.”

“I’m not trying to get rid of you. But this is important. How much practice have you missed? Shoot. I need to go shower and check your messages and stuff.”

“Penny has been taking care of things.”

“Penny?” Penny had been fiddling with her system? Oh God, who knew what mess it was in? Penny generally just took care of the fan mail and the merch shop. And, honestly, she didn’t always do that great a job of that. “This is so bad. How many days have I been sick?”

“About five,” he told her.

“Unicorn poop and cupcakes,” she grumbled as she attempted to get off the stool. “Where is Abe? And Sampson?”

“Don’t even think about getting off that stool,” he told her. “You haven’t eaten any eggs.”

“I can’t! I don’t have time for food.”

“Immy! Sit your butt down.”

“What’s going on in here?”

She turned to see Tobias walking into the kitchen. Unfortunately, the room chose that moment to start spinning. She had no idea why. Rooms did what rooms wanted to do.

But she very nearly fell off the stool. She might have if Tobias hadn’t leaped forward and caught her.

“Shit. Cherry, you okay?” he asked as he righted her back on the stool.

“Yeppers. The world just started to spin a bit. I don’t know why. Stupid world. Stay still.”

“Or maybe you got dizzy,” Jenner suggested, rushing around with a bottle of Gatorade in his hand. “Here, you need to drink.”

“I don’t wanna,” she grumbled.

“Immy, drink,” Tobias said from behind her.

She blinked.

Okay. How had she ended up in one of her fantasies? Jenner in front of her, Tobias behind her.

Of course, in those fantasies, she wasn’t dressed in a pair of pajamas with wizard hats on them, with her messy hair in a bun that hadn’t been washed in days, and Jenner wasn’t trying to ply her with Gatorade.

But, hey, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Immy, open.”

Oh. My. God. This is what had happened in her dream! Only Jenner hadn’t been trying to get her to drink.

At least, not to drink Gatorade.

But she’d drink from his cock all day long.

Wait. That sounded wrong. She’d suck on his cock all day long.

Better, Immy. Better.

Wait.

She wasn’t talking out loud, was she?

She turned her head slightly toward Tobias. “I’m not talking out loud, am I?”

“Um, you mean right now?” Tobias asked.

“No, I meant before.”

“No. But now I want to know what you were saying.”

“Best not to ask,” she advised.

Whew.

“Open, Immy. You’re likely dehydrated. Unless you want me to call Eric,” Jenner said in a low voice.

“I think I might be understanding why I have an Eric aversion,” she muttered.

“You have an Eric aversion because you think that he’s always trying to stick stuff up your butt. Which, by the way, he could do to get you hydrated.”

Oh, heck, no.

“That is not happening! I will put slime in his shoes. Or a dead rat in his glove box.”

Yep.

That would be hilarious. If only she had a dead rat, access to his glove box, and an industrial suit so she could touch said dead rat.

“Immy, open your mouth and drink your drink like a good girl,” Tobias told her in a low voice. “Or I’m going to have to put you on my lap and feed you the drink like a bottle.”

Immy froze.

Oh heck no.

Had he really just said that to her?

Jenner gaped at Tobias.

Had he really just said that to Immy? Was he insane? Immy was adamant that she wasn’t a Little. Although he was certain now that she was. But she got upset when they talked about it.

So they’d stopped talking about it.

Only, she wasn’t getting upset right now.

In fact, she was looking strangely interested in what Tobias had just said. What was going on?

Had she decided to embrace her Little side? Or was it that she wanted Tobias to be her Daddy?

Do not.

You are not jealous. You have no right to be jealous.

Then she opened her mouth. And made a strange noise.

“Uh, man, you gonna give it to her?” Tobias asked.

Give it to her?

Yeah, he’d like to . . . oh wait, he was talking about the drink. Jenner placed the nozzle of the drink bottle in her mouth. She drank some down, closing her eyes tiredly.

“You’re exhausted, aren’t you, Cherry?” Tobias said gently. “You shouldn’t even be out of bed.” He raised accusing eyes to Jenner.

“I found her down here. I was going to get her back to bed after she ate something.”

Tobias stared down at the scrambled eggs. “Dude, she eats that and she’s gonna get food poisoning.”

“What? Why?”

“Because half of the eggs are raw. And is there still shell in it?”

Jenner grimaced. “Cooking isn’t my strong point.”

“I can see that,” Tobias replied. “How about I cook some breakfast?” He picked up the plate and walked around to the garbage bin, dumping the food.

“Who taught you to cook?” Immy asked.

“Self-taught. My mom used to work fourteen or sixteen hour days. When she got home, I wanted her to have something decent to eat. Also, I was a scrawny kid and I wanted to bulk up. It was kind of a necessity in the neighborhood I lived in.”

“You were scrawny?” Immy asked, sounding shocked.

“I didn’t come out looking like this, Cherry,” Tobias replied, sounding amused. “This took work.”

“It’s hard to imagine you as scrawny,” she told him. “Was your mom a good mom?”

“She was.” He gave her a strange look.

“Was?” she repeated quietly.

“Hmm. She died when I was nineteen. Got hit by a car as she was crossing the road.”

Immy gasped, tears filling her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was a while ago now, Cherry,” he said gently as he started cooking some eggs. “But I do miss her.”

Immy nodded. “I wonder if I ever loved my mom. Maybe before the cult, perhaps then she was a person and not a shell.”

“A shell?” Tobias asked. “What do you mean?”

Jenner could tell that Immy didn’t know how to explain her mom.

“Immy’s mom is basically a parrot,” Jenner said. “Whatever would come of her dad’s mouth, her mother repeated. She was a complete shell. No personality. No thoughts of her own. It was kind of freaky.”

Freaky was one word for it.

“She would never go against him,” Immy said. “At least, not as far back as I can remember. No matter what he did.”

“What he did?” Tobias asked in a quiet voice.

Tobias’s soft tone fooled her into thinking he wasn’t that concerned about what she was saying. That he was calm.

Turns out, she should have paid closer attention.

To him and to Jenner.

That’s what happened when you were recovering from the flu, though. Sometimes, you didn’t guard your words as closely as you should.

“He was always berating me for being a child. Saying that I should grow up. Stop being so dumb, so stupid, such a child. I don’t remember ever having a toy.

I knew about them from what the others told me.

Sometimes, the Deity would take one of the kids into town with him.

But never me. Oh, except for the time we snuck into town to watch a movie.

Jenner spent most of the movie with his hands over my eyes.

” She turned her head to give the other man a mock-glare.