Page 6 of Melt For Us, Daddy (Big Daddy Energy #4)

Cordelia

“ H ave you heard anything from Frankie?” Cordelia asked as she climbed into Holden’s giant SUV.

“Not a peep, but I try not to bother her when I know she’s with the girls.” Pulling away from the curb, he glanced over at her. “Still no word from Ivy?”

“No. And she’s never gone this long without contact. Something's wrong, Holden, and I can’t fix it if she won’t fucking talk to me.”

“What was your fight about?”

“That’s just it. We didn’t really have a fight.

Last night she was clearly upset over the Jacob stuff, but she said she was tired so we agreed to talk about it in the morning.

Then today she was making breakfast and we started fooling around and the next thing I know she’s crying and yelling her safeword and then she just left . ”

“She safeworded on you?” Surprise colored Holden’s tone.

“Yeah.” And the fact that she hadn’t been tuned in enough to realize that her babygirl’s demands to ‘stop’ had been very real and not just play, ate at her. “She’s never— I’ve never given her a reason to need her safeword before.”

“Sometimes it’s not about anything you’ve done. It’s easy for a scene you’ve done before to—pardon the pun—hit wrong.”

“That’s just it. We weren’t in a scene. I was just going to eat her out. All I did was touch her.”

“So it was emotional distress versus something physical.”

“Yes. Which is worse, as far as I’m concerned. Especially because I don’t fucking know why .”

“You will.” Reaching over, Holden clapped a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Give her some time, let her talk things over with the girls, and she’ll come to you when she’s ready.”

“Yeah. You’re right, I know you’re right.”

“But?” Holden prompted, and she turned to glare at him.

“Don’t pull your ‘Daddy knows all’ bullshit on me, Holden Prescott. I’m not your babygirl.”

“Sorry, can’t help it. It’s my job to read people and you’re basically an open fucking book right now, Delia.”

“Fuck.” Blowing out a breath, she let her head fall back against the seat.

“ But this feels different. It’s not like we’ve never fought before.

But today was… it wasn’t just that she safeworded, Holden.

I told her to sit down so we could talk and she refused.

Told me no . She never tells me no. And she walked out of the house in her pajamas.

” She had to swallow hard against the ball of emotion lodged in her throat.

“She left without her collar. Two years, and not once has she left our apartment without letting me put her collar on, even when it meant one or both of us would be late for work.”

Holden let out a low whistle. “Do you have any idea what she could be so upset about?”

“None. I mean, I figured the Jacob thing had us both spinning out a bit but…” Trailing off, she let the night before play over in her mind. Running into Jacob outside, sending Ivy to get help, Jacob telling them who he was. Her telling everyone she knew his grandfather…

“Oh, fuck. I’m an idiot.”

“How so?”

“It’s not about Jacob. It’s about Silas. My past has always been very off-limits, even with Ivy. I’ve told her some of it, but I haven’t told her everything.”

“And does ‘everything’ include the fact that you have a husband?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

Holden let out a low whistle. “Then I’d say Ivy has every right to be pissed at you. Honestly, it’s probably in your best interest to let her cool down a bit before you grovel.”

“I don’t grovel. I’ll apologize, but I don’t grovel .”

“I dunno, Cordelia. A fuck-up of that magnitude deserves a good grovel.”

“Would you grovel?”

“Would and have. Beckett’s a master of the grovel if you want pointers. But that’s going to have to wait.” Turning into a reserved parking space right near the front door of a tall, well-kept building, Holden put the vehicle in park. “We’re here. You going to be okay up there?”

“I can handle my shit just as well as any of you, Holden.”

“Never said you couldn’t. But handling your shit is hard when you know your babygirl is off somewhere, hurting because of something you did.”

“I know. And I guess I appreciate your concern. But I’ll be fine.”

“All right, then. Let’s go.”

Jacob

The pants Zach loaned him were heavier and scratchier than he was used to.

Not to mention at least a size too big. But Zach had managed to find him a belt to wear to keep them up, and the plain black t-shirt was long enough to hide how baggy the pants were.

It was a far cry from the perfectly pressed suits he was used to, but it was…

fun, he decided with a final look in the mirror before heading out to the kitchen.

As always, Zach greeted him with a smile. “Hey! They’re not too horribly baggy on you after all. Coffee just finished brewing. You want a cup?”

Caffeine of any kind was forbidden in the church. But his mothers had also hammered into him from a young age that it was rude to turn away an offering from your host, so he nodded. “Coffee would be nice, thank you.”

“Awesome. How do you take it?”

“Umm. In a cup, I suppose?”

Zach blinked, then threw his head back and let out a roaring laugh that Jacob couldn't help but join in with. “No, man. I mean do you want cream and sugar in it or just black?”

“Oh.” It seemed wasteful to add anything to a drink he was just going to dump out later. “Black is fine.”

“You got it.”

When Zach placed the steaming mug in front of him, Jacob leaned in, closing his eyes as he inhaled the strange aroma. If coffee tasted half as good as it smelled, he’d obviously been missing out on something amazing.

Or was this just another indulgence the world offered to lure him away from the Almighty?

Before he had time to dwell too deeply on that question, there was a heavy knock on the front door.

And in an instant, Zach changed. His smiling, easygoing friend disappeared, and in his place stood what Jacob could only think of as a soldier.

Taller, straighter, harder somehow in ways he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, Zach tapped the screen, his posture relaxing a bit at whatever it was he saw there. “Holden and Cordelia are here. Gonna go let them in.”

Cordelia. Sitting up straighter in his chair, Jacob tugged at the oversized shirt, suddenly feeling very aware of how large it was on him.

And how untidy he looked, overall. There wasn’t really anything he could do about it, but he still found himself smoothing the wrinkles to the best of his ability as Zach crossed over to the door and let their guests in.

Although Holden dwarfed everyone in the room and even the room itself with his size, all of Jacob’s attention went to Cordelia.

She wasn’t wearing a suit this time, but her outfit was equally scandalous.

Tight pants in the same material as his own clung to the curves of her thighs and waist. And the shirt she was wearing wasn’t any better.

Not only did it hug her body tightly, it dipped down in the front, revealing the generous swell of her breasts.

The white jacket she wore over it did nothing to hide her flesh, and Jacob could feel that part of him, that sinful, forbidden part swelling once more.

Jerking his gaze up from her breasts, he found her eyes—nearly the same shade of deep, shimmering green as her shirt—locked on him and his face heated with shame before he dropped his attention back down to the mug in front of him.

Cordelia settled into the chair across from him as Holden placed a white box in the middle of the table. “Donuts from my friends over at Rev and Roll. Thought we could all use a little pick-me-up this morning.”

“Oh, man, I love their donuts!” Practically diving onto the table, Zach opened the lid and scanned the contents. “What do you want, Jay? Looks like Holden got one of everything.”

“Umm… I’m not sure.”

“Yeah, I get that. Lots to choose from. Well, what’s your favorite?”

“Zach.” Again, Cordelia spoke in that low, firm voice. The one that somehow conveyed an expectation that she was to be obeyed without demanding obedience the way Jacob’s father did. “He’ll have the glazed, for now.”

“Nah, nobody actually likes the glazed ones. They’re too plain. How about?—”

“Anything else is too much sugar. I can tell you from experience that letting him gorge himself before his body is used to it will not be a pleasant experience. The glazed is more than enough for right now.”

“Oh. Wait.” Frowning slightly, Zach looked from him to Cordelia and back. “You can’t have sugar in the cult?”

Cult? He’d heard that word, in his father’s sermons.

They call us a cult. Tell the world we’re dangerous. Because we believe, and the strength of our belief is a danger to their sinful ways.

Had his father been right all along? Was the world really as sinful and broken as he claimed? Was the church his only refuge from the evil that crawled the Earth, looking for souls to consume?

“Fuck.” He heard Cordelia swear, though it sounded funny. Muffled somehow, as though someone had shoved cotton in his ears.

And then she was in front of him, the snap of her fingers banishing the roaring in his ears as he looked up at her.

“That’s right, Jacob. Eyes on me. Just on me.”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

Something flickered in the green of her eyes at his response, the same little flicker he’d thought he’d seen there last night.

“That’s good. You keep your eyes on me, and you listen to what I have to say.

” Bracing one hand on the table and the other on the back of his chair, she leaned in.

Until all he could see, all he could smell was her.

Until his whole world was nothing but the gorgeous woman in front of him and the righteous fury burning in her gaze.

“Whatever you’re thinking right now, I’m telling you it’s bullshit.

You’re not going to believe me, not at first. But all those things they told you about how evil the world is, how sinful everything outside the church is? It’s all bullshit. You hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” She was right. He didn’t believe her, at least… not completely. There were some things he knew deep in his soul were lies. Like his father’s reasoning for forcing him to marry little Ruthie. Or the deacons calling Hannah unclean when it hadn’t been her choice.

And if some of the things he’d been told all his life were lies… maybe it stood to reason that there were other lies hidden in there as well.

He just had to figure out how to tell the lies from the truth. Somehow.

“Good. Now, are you actually planning to drink that coffee?”

“Huh?” Glancing down at the mug in front of him, he shook his head. “No, ma’am. I just didn’t want to be rude.”

“You should try a bit. But not black, at least not at first. Here.” Plucking the cup from in front of him, she carried it to the fridge, where she poured milk into the coffee before adding some sugar. Leaning back against the counter, she took a long, slow sip, her eyes fluttering closed.

“That first sip of the day is always the best. Here. You try it.”

She sat the cup in front of him, and for a moment he could only stare at it. “Caffeine is poison,” he recited, though he didn’t feel it.

Maybe that was the difference between truth and lie, what he could feel in his soul.

“It’s not, though it can be a bit addictive. God knows I can’t get through the day without it,” Holden, the giant man Zach worked for said with a laugh. “But it’s not going to poison you. Look at the three of us. Do we look like we’ve destroyed our bodies with poison?”

“No, sir.”

“There you go. It might be a little bitter at first, but Cordelia likes hers with so much milk and sugar you can barely tell. Just try a sip and if you hate it, you don’t have to try it again.”

He couldn’t really argue those points. At least, not in a way that didn’t rely solely on the maybe-truths he’d been taught his entire life.

So he picked up the mug, and sipped.

It definitely didn’t taste as good as it smelled, which was a disappointment. But it wasn’t entirely bad, either. Sweet and creamy, with just a hint of that bitterness Holden had mentioned. He swallowed, then took another sip.

“It’s good. Different, but good.”

But when he tried to hand the mug back to Cordelia, she waved him off. “Keep it. I’ll make my own.”

“Go ahead and sit. I’ll pour us each a cup while you talk to Jacob.”

“Thanks, Zach.” Lowering herself onto the seat across the table once again, Cordelia pinned him with those deep green eyes. “All right, Jacob. You said last night you came to us for help. What exactly do you need us to do?”