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Chapter Twenty-Four
Cosima
The next few days were a blur of pleasure and debauchery, as if they were making up for the past month or so of celibacy. Daddy and Papa barely let her out of bed, and when they did it was to bathe her or to administer her enemas. They even fed her in bed which was decadent, made her feel lazy like a cat and spoiled.
With all the time they were spending together, she did wonder if Ryker was lonely. But he probably wasn’t. He was probably relieved he didn’t have to see her. She had not a small amount of worry that she’d upset the balance between the three men but when she asked Ian or Hudson about it, they told her not to fret, everything was fine.
But if everything was fine, why did she feel like a wedge that had been hammered in between them and was splitting their relationship apart?
Although she didn’t have all that much time to think about it during their hedonism marathon and then finally Hudson and Ian (mostly Hudson, she thought) decided they should be responsible daddies and actually have her up and about and not just secreted away in their bedroom. She liked it, but she knew they worried about being like him—like Judah, even though that just wasn’t possible.
But she did as she was told and truthfully, she did enjoy it when they dressed her in her pretty clothes and she got to go out to the big room of the loft. Not to mention being strapped into her highchair…
After Papa fed her breakfast and got her cleaned up, he unbuckled her from her highchair and lifted her out, set her on her feet.
“I thought we could go for a walk today.”
“A walk? To where?”
Her breath started coming short and hard but her papa seemed occupied with other things. Ian shrugged while he tidied up the kitchen, rinsing out the glass jars he’d fed her from, putting her special spoon in the dishwasher, and tossing her bib and the washcloth into the laundry bin under the sink.
“Just around the block. Not far. But I thought it would be a good idea for you to get to know the neighborhood and get outside.”
Outside… She hadn’t been outside in years. Well, sort of. She’d been on Master’s land, out at the cabin, and in cars a couple times to go to appointments over the past several weeks, but for realsies outside? With strangers in the big, big outside? That sounded scary.
“No thank you,” she said, tugging at the hem of her dress, pretending she could breathe just fine instead of seeing black stars bursting in her vision.
Ian looked at her, his bronze brows crunching and she closed her hands into fists in her skirt.
“Come on, Coco. Getting a little exercise would be healthy and— Whoa, whoa.”
She’d felt herself start to sway but she hadn’t realized exactly how close she was to collapsing until Ian grabbed her under her arms and lowered her to the floor, cradling her head in his lap.
“Coco, baby? Are you okay? Can you talk to me?”
He stroked her hair and her cheeks and she wanted to answer him so he wouldn’t worry but the words wouldn’t come. She closed her eyes in an effort to get her shit together and she heard Ian yell for Hudson.
But the arms that scooped her up weren’t Daddy’s. Strong like his but too lean, and the smell was all wrong to be Papa. Not woodsy and green. And not bad, just not familiar. More like juniper and cedar and maybe the beach? It had been so long since she’d been to the ocean…
“What happened?” demanded a low, deep voice.
“I asked if she wanted to go for a walk. She said no thank you and then passed out.”
“Jesus Christ, Ian. You probably scared her half to death. She’s like a bunny, you gotta be careful.”
Then she was laying on the big bed, a blanket being pulled over her.
“Talk to her. Tell her she’s going to be fine, there’s nothing to worry about. Hudson’s downstairs, I’ll get him.”
It was only a minute of Ian petting her hair and holding her hand, talking to her quietly before Daddy was there too.
“Cosy? Teapot? Can you talk to me, sweet girl?”
It took a lot of effort and her lashes fluttered in kind of a funny way but she managed to open her eyes and see Daddy and Papa right there next to her. And then Papa was laying a cool cloth on her forehead that felt so good, helped her clear the cobwebs that had taken over her brain, made her feel calmer.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, babygirl. Daddy’s right here, and Papa’s here too.”
