Page 50 of Melt For Us, Daddy (Big Daddy Energy #4)

Ivy

P oor Jacob. He looked about as comfortable as a deer who’d just wandered into a hunter’s camp.

As soon as he dropped down into the chair Cordelia pointed him to, Ivy slid onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “You okay?” she whispered.

“Yeah. Just a little overwhelmed.”

“Poor baby. If you need, all you have to do is say the word and we’ll go home.” As much as she’d missed all her friends and wanted nothing more than to catch up with them, her boy was more important.

“I’ll be okay, Ivy. But thanks.”

“Maybe we should get you something to drink. Loosen you up a bit.” She couldn’t help but giggle when his eyes widened with something akin to horror. “I’m just kidding. Daddy would have both our asses if I tried. No alcohol for us if there’s even a chance we’re going to play later.”

Now it was curiosity creeping into the pale gray. “Would she… you know. Punish us here? In front of all these people?”

Oh, my sweet, sweet boy . “She would absolutely punish me here, and has. But for you she’d probably wait until we got home, at least until you’re more comfortable with the public play aspect of things.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be comfortable with it.”

“And that’s okay, too.” She’d been looking forward to watching him writhe on a cross, but if it was a limit for him, they would respect that. “You don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for, baby.”

“Okay, so.” Lottie’s voice drew their attention to the end of the table. “Tell us everything . Holden was stingy as fuck with the details. Why were you at a safe house? Where’s Jacob’s father? Oh, and most importantly, how the fuck did this happen?”

She waved at Ivy sitting on Jacob’s lap, her expression full of a hungry curiosity that matched the other girls around the table. And the men, though they were doing a slightly better job at hiding it.

Reaching for the glass of water one of the other waitresses had brought them, Cordelia raised it to her lips, letting the silence stretch out between them.

A loud cry from the pit broke the silence and Jacob jumped, his head swiveling around to identify the source.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Ivy murmured, running her fingers through his hair. “You’ll get used to all the noise eventually.”

“Sorry.” Pink blossomed on his cheeks. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so… much.”

“Hmm. I know Braden keeps earplugs down at the front desk. If you want, I can run down and get you some. Help block out the noise a bit until you get used to it.

Glancing over at them, Cordelia frowned, worry drawing her brows together. “Are you okay, baby boy?”

“Yes, Ma’am. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me unless you’ve done something wrong.”

Annoyance pricked at the back of Ivy’s skull. “You don’t have to be so mean, Dee.”

The silence at their table took on a more expectant feel as Cordelia raised a brow. “Careful, blossom. I have zero qualms about putting you over my knee right here in front of all our friends.”

Heat rushed to Ivy’s face at the thought of being punished so publicly for her disrespect. “Sorry.”

“Try again, little girl. How do you address me?”

Nobody but Holden knew Cordelia was her Daddy, and this wasn’t exactly how she’d planned on dropping that particular bomb. But looking at the resolve in her woman’s eyes, she wasn’t being given much choice.

And it wasn’t like their friends were going to judge her, right? Every single one of them called their Dominants ‘Daddy’. So there was no reason for them to feel any differently about her using that title with Cordelia.

Still, it felt so… big. Bigger than it had back at the safe house, and she almost chickened out.

But then she looked into Cordelia’s eyes, saw the silent demand there in the dark green, and the thought of disappointing her Daddy was worse than any reaction her friends might have.

“Sorry… Daddy.”

Approval lit her woman’s eyes, and everything inside her settled. “Good girl.”

“Okay, seriously, you have got to tell us what happened at that fucking safe house,” Lottie demanded. “Starting with the Daddy thing, obviously, because we need to know everything .”

With her gaze still locked with Cordelia’s, Ivy grinned. “We should order some food. We’re going to be here for a while.”

Jacob

He was a big fat liar.

When Ivy had asked if he was okay and he’d told her he was a ‘little overwhelmed’ he’d lied through his teeth.

Everything about this night, from the way they’d prepped him for the club, to the protestors, and now sitting with their friends listening to Ivy and Cordelia tell them about their time at the safe house like it was all some big adventure instead of the most terrifying thing he’d ever lived through seemed to pile on top of him, threatening to suffocate him with every word.

And then there were their friends. Not that they weren’t all really nice, because they were. But seeing the way the other men in the group behaved, the way they commanded their women with just a look or a touch or a word…

Shouldn’t that be him? Shouldn’t he be Daddy instead of Cordelia?

His entire life he’d been taught that it was a woman’s job to submit. And yet, here he was, wearing the clothes they’d picked out for him, his cock in a cage and a plug in his ass, sitting silently by while they spoke for him. Soft, submissive, the way a woman was meant to be.

Every now and then, Ivy would shift on his lap, the soft weight of her pressing against his cock and he was reminded yet again of how much control they really had over him. How much control he’d given them, of his own free will.

What kind of man did that?

The same tightness he’d felt after seeing his mother in the street wrapped around his chest. Pressing in on him as the conversation around him faded to nothing more than a noisy buzzing.

He couldn’t have another one of these panic attacks—as Cordelia had called them—in front of everyone. That would be more humiliation than he could stand.

Pushing Ivy off his lap, he shoved to his feet. The conversation around him stopped completely as everyone turned to look at him and the band around his chest tightened even further.

“Jacob.” Though Cordelia said his name quietly, there was no mistaking the authority in her voice and his gaze was drawn to her instinctively, a moth to a flame. “You okay, baby?”

“Yeah. I, um, just need the bathroom.”

Ivy smiled up at him, so brightly it nearly hurt to look at her. “No problems. I’ll take you.”

“I’m not a child, Ivy, I can go to the bathroom on my own.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he wished he could take them back. Not just because he’d certainly just landed himself in hot water with both of his women, but because Ivy looked so… hurt. Emotion darkened her eyes and her bottom lip trembled slightly.

Unable to bear the pain in her eyes, pain he’d put there, he spun away from the table and strode away, completely ignoring Cordelia’s furious voice when she called for him.

Heart pounding, lungs burning from lack of oxygen, he wound his way through the crowd, desperately searching for somewhere to hide. He needed a minute, just a minute to get himself under control.

Relief flooded him, nearly driving him to his knees when he spotted the sign for the restrooms. Behind him, he could hear Cordelia calling for him, her voice drawing closer and closer, and he ducked into the safety of the bathroom before she reached him.

It was empty but for a single man washing his hands at the row of sinks. He looked up, his eyes an even brighter green than Cordelia’s and lit with curiosity. “You look like you’re being hunted for sport, son.”

“I sort of feel like I am.”

His expression changed, ever so slightly. The curiosity remained, but there was something else in the green, almost like pity but more… genuine. “You want to talk about it?”

“Yes. No.” A bitter laugh slipped past Jacob’s lips as he ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t know.”

Before the man could respond, the door behind them swung open and Holden walked in, his expression a mix of worry and amusement. “Delia sent me in to fetch you. You okay, Jacob?”

“I don’t know,” he repeated, shame heating his cheeks as he dropped his gaze to the floor. How was he supposed to look any of them in the eye after the way he’d acted?

“Give us a few minutes, would you, Holden?” the man at the sink said. “I’ll send him out to the lovely Cordelia once he’s had a chance to calm down a bit.”

“She’s not going to like that, Killian.”

The other man laughed, sounding surprisingly cheerful about the news. “Oh, I know. And I have no doubt she’ll find a way to make me pay for my sins.”

“Do you want to stay in here with Killian, Jacob?”

Did he? He sure as hell wasn’t ready to face Cordelia’s wrath, and something about Killian seemed… safe.

Unable to speak past the humiliation gripping his throat, he nodded, and Holden sighed. “All right. But I’ll only be able to hold her back for so long, so keep it brief.”

“Noted,” Killian said, again with that same cheerfulness that seemed so out of place in the current situation.

Holden hesitated a moment longer before turning on his heel and heading back out the door.

“You all right, son?” Killian’s tone was gentle, soothing, and the band around Jacob’s chest loosened even further as he nodded.

“Good. Let’s have a seat on this couch over here and chat for a bit.”

Jacob let himself be guided over to the deep leather couch in the corner of the bathroom. When they were both seated, he finally gathered the courage to force his head up, meeting Killian’s calm, understanding gaze. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

A wide grin stretched across Killian’s face. “I’m not sure anyone’s ever called me nice before. But to answer your question, you looked like you could use a friend. Especially since you seem to have pissed off the one woman in this club even I wouldn’t take on.”

Worry churned in Jacob’s stomach. “That’s not really helpful.”