Cherry cries in the car for the entire ride home. It breaks my heart that I can’t do anything to help her father. Gerald may not be on good terms with our family or Knights capital, but he’s still one of Dad’s oldest friends. Business is business, but he’ll never stop being like family to us. It kills me to feel this powerless to help Cherry as he approaches death. I’ve been there, with my mother. It’s one instance I can say I know exactly what she must be going through.

No matter what, I’m here for her.

“I have no one,” Cherry says to me as we get to my place and head up to my bedroom. “I feel so numb…so empty.”

The pain in her eyes causes me to pull her tight to my chest for a few moments, then pull her handbag from her shoulder and back her up to the bed, giving her shoulders a shove to make her sit.

“You know better than that, kitten,” I growl. “Once you cross that threshold, there’s no talk, no resistance, nothing but what I tell you.”

“Yes, but I’m so…this can’t be happening—”

“Stop. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” she breathes out in a whisper, staring up at me with those blue-green eyes that have more power over me than she’ll ever know.

“Then no more talk…not unless I say.”

She nods her understanding.

“Good.” I fold my arms and give her a moment to settle down. “I know what you’re going through, Cherry. But you don’t have to worry. In here, and now out there, I’m your daddy now.”

She nods with understanding.

“Say it,” I order, squaring my stance.

“You’re my daddy now. Please. Please help me forget.”

“That’s right,” I tell her, gently running the back of my hand down the side of her sweet face. This is where gentle ends and rough begins. Because she needs to feel it rough now more than ever. “I own you, kitten.”

“You do…you own me.”

I tilt her head up and bend forward, gripping her strawberry blonde locks and wrapping a handful around my fist. She moans as I crash my lips to hers for a kiss she won’t forget anytime soon.

“And I’ll protect you,” I rasp against her lips. “But first, I’m going to have you. Whichever way I want. As rough, as dirty as I please. And you’ll take it. You’ll do as I say. You won’t be numb after I’m done with you. I’ll make you feel again, until you’re so sore you won’t remember what it’s like to be numb.”

I bend forward and kiss her on the cheek. As my lips touch her skin, I pull her to lean all her weight against me. This is one night she needs to know she doesn’t have to handle anything alone. There’s an audible exhale she seems to have been holding in all evening, and when I cover her lips again for a more tender kiss, I take all of that away. Cherry ends the pretense that she’ll be strong for me, for everyone including her father. Every muscle in her body relaxes against my chest as I reach my arms around her and lift her up toward me.

Soon she starts to get into what’s right in front of her, pressing her tongue past my lips for more. I’m no one’s distraction, but for this moment, I’ll be anything Cherry needs me to be. I deepen our kiss, craving more of her than she’ll know, urgently needing to consume her the way I’m sure she wants.

I pull from our kiss but leave my mouth hovering less than an inch from hers.

“Get on your hands and knees, kitten,” I whisper, and she moans with desire.

She leans back for a second, studying my face. Pressing her hands into the bed, she lifts her ass in the air and balances her weight on all fours for me.

My hands travel across her body to her midsection, feeling along the waistband of her skirt to find the zipper. With a tug, I peel away the fabric, taking her panties with it until they form an inhibiting bundle at her knees. I shove her shirt and bra up her body in the same way, pushing them past her head until they too restrict the movements of her arms at her wrists.

Fuck. She’s gorgeous any way I look at her, from the round curves of her ass to her slim waist, to her full, round, soft breasts that I can never get enough of. Cherry bends at her hips, angling herself so she can look back at me. Her mouth parts and she slowly glides her tongue over her top lip, like an invitation for me to touch her sweet wetness.

Fuck

I’m hard as slate from that one suggestive move. My aching cock can’t wait to get up inside of her, but I take a moment to part her ass cheeks with my thumb, my dick throbbing as I admire her bright pink center for a moment before I drive my tongue inside her. She pushes her ass back into my face, whimpering through her pleasure. I can go on tasting her like this all night if it weren’t for the fact that Cherry needs her rest tonight. She’s had a long day, and I’m sure she’ll want to get back to the hospital the second her eyes open in the morning.

Then she moans out a plea for me, begging me to take her hard.

I can’t get my dick out fast enough as I pull my belt off and pants down. Our needs have long been a two-way street, but it’s at times like these that I get that reminder.

“Tell me what I want to hear, kitten,” I growl, positioning my rigid erection at her ass.

“I need you, Daddy. Please fuck me,” she softly says.

Her sweet, submissive tone sets me off. I’m like an animal working on instinct as I grip her hips and sink every inch of my cock into her in one sharp thrust. Cherry hisses out from desire, her entire body jerking forward from the force that I enter her. My fingers dig into the tender flesh of her hips as I push her apart from me most of the way, then drag her back to me, burying deep inside of her heat.

This time she calls out my name in a whimper as her hips roll, driving up the friction each and every time I pound into her. My hands travel down the outside of her legs, and back up past her waist to the swells of her breasts as I piston in and out of her. I want every thrust to drive her reality of tonight further away, and for every inch of pleasure to remind her that she’s all mine and she won’t ever be alone again.

Cherry’s breathing changes to short, sigh-like cries, which tell me that she’s about to cum. I plow into her from behind, burying my whole length inside of her, pumping into her and out again with a bed-shaking force. I slide one hand up to the back of her neck and push her head down to the bedsheets to adjust the angle the way I know she fucking enjoys.

The result is almost immediate.

She lets out a muffled yelp into the mattress, and her body begins to shake from deep in her core, rippling out to her thighs and legs. She cums with a wicked force, her channel clenching around my shaft in a way that practically milks my own orgasm from my cock. A few aching pumps later, my teeth clench, my fingers flex, and the pressure behind my balls is too much to hold back as I cum too.

As our shaking and heavy breathing begin to subside, I stretch out our bodies and we lie sideways on the bed, her back against my chest. Cherry turns just her head back to me, silent but mouthing the words “Thank you,” before resting her head on the pillow.

Cherry.

My kitten.

“I’m here for you,” I groan at her ear, wrapping my arm around her waist to pull her closer. “You know how much I love you. That won’t ever change.”

I nuzzle my nose against her neck and she sighs. “I love you too, Jace.”

We drift off to sleep, but it appears like this is the night that’ll never end. Cherry gets a late-night phone call from Vernon. The time reads one thirty on my clock on the night stand phone as I force my eyelids to open.

“Vernon, is something wrong?” she asks into the phone after clicking the call answer button. “Hang on, let me put it on speaker.”

“Apologies for the rather late phone call,” Vernon says to her. “There’s something you should know. Miss Kiki is here. One of the cleaning ladies who liked her while she was married to your father must have given her the alarm system codes, and Miss Kiki let herself in.”

“What is she doing there?”

“She’s in Mr. Buchannan’s office trying to open his safe.”