We took a warm shower together, where I cried a little more and Daddy made sure to wash the tears away with the shower head. He lathered and rubbed my body clean with a loofah and a strawberry scrub, and I cleaned him too. It was one of my privileges in this world to see him completely naked, exposed, find all the areas I could tickle with the loofah and make him twitch and wiggle. Nobody else would ever see him like this, it was all I needed in life.
Him. Daddy Santo.
As we dried ourselves with the big, warm, expensive, hotel-type fluffy towels, Daddy turned to me. I watched in the mirror, his face turning slightly serious. My stomach was dropping. I didn’t want to cry any more today.
“I’ve got something for you, tomorrow,” he said and my heart raced. “Which means you’ll have to dress all nice for Daddy, and you’ll have to come outside.”
“Outside?” My voice was shaky.
“I’ll be with you the entire time,” he said. “I promise. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
I trusted him, believing every single word he said. And it would have to happen eventually, leaving this lavish penthouse and getting my phone back to see all the missed calls from people I’d called friends throughout the years—doing their once a month, “I remember you exist” texts.
“You’ve got your bracelet on,” he said. “That keeps track, and control. Nobody will ever dare touch you again. If they do, I promise you’ll see them die.” His eyes were wide, staring right into my soul, and I knew he was telling me the truth.
“What if I—”
“I’m going to protect you as much I think you’ll need, but if someone lays a hand on you, they lose that hand, and the right to ever touch anyone else,” he said, and his words were... scary, but they comforted me.
“Thank you,” I said, swinging my arms around him in a hug, my wet hair sprinkling him as I shook my head. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said, both hands on my face, centering me to look at him so he could kiss me on the lips. “And I’ll be there, every step of the way.”
I reached up to the cross he wore on a chain. It was a fancy design. “I always wondered what this meant,” I said. “It’s not religious, is it?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s a Bianchi dagger,” he said. “When my great-grandfather came over, he brought with him a dagger that looked like this. It wasn’t functional. It was made completely of gold. His entire net worth. And on it, there were diamonds too. He melted the gold to sell it, and the diamonds are now on my mom’s finger.”
“Wow.” I stared at it, rubbing the small gold dagger between my fingers. “I was always scared to ask in case you were religious.”
He chuckled. “Well, it doubles as a cross. My family are religious, Italian immigrant families usually are, but I—well, I never found God, or any reason to believe in him. I believe in myself, and through me, I can do whatever I want.”
I giggled. He exuded power and warmth, even right now, while completely naked. He was justpower.
“Let’s get you into something comfy. I’ve restocked the chicken dino nuggets,” he said. And he really should’ve led with that because as though I were a sleeper agent, dino nuggets was a phrase that had me bright-eyed and ready to please on my knees whoever I needed to get them. “Just for my good boy.”And that was the second phrase. He put me in my happy space—it was right next to little space, except with fewer teddies and more of Daddy’s body.
***
Daddy had laid my entire outfit out for me on my bed. It was easily done since we’d slept in his room last night. He even included a new pair of briefs, they had the day of the week on them. Tuesday. I didn’t know if that was right, though. And on the nightstand, my phone was plugged in to charge. I stared at the setup of the room and soon enough, Daddy arrived behind me, his hands around my waist and his lips at my cheek.
“You’re gonna be there, right beside me,” I whispered.
“Every step,” he repeated. “It’s just something I’ve got to show you. And we need to get going. It’s kinda like a show.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I got dressed and Daddy sprayed me with cologne. He even grabbed my phone for me, reminding me not to get overwhelmed. “I’ve also been thinking, maybe I want to get back to work too.”
“Whoa,” he chuckled. “We’ve not even left the apartment yet. You might hate it out there. You might want to stay in here like my little prince, locked at the top of a tower.”
I giggled. The idea was fun, to be treated like a prince, to have everything I wanted or needed right at my fingertips. It was almost a dream, and if it was, please don’t wake me.
“But if you do want to get back into working, there’s going to be a job going at the LGBTQ center,” he said. “As soon as construction is done.”
“Won’t that go to one of the—associates, or whatever they’re called.”
He laughed, straightening out the shirt fabric on my shoulder. “Like a capo, or captain, probably should, probablywould’ve, but I think if you do want a project, that’s something you can think about. It’ll mean making loads of new friends, and I saw online, people do thesemeets, where likeminded people go.”
“Really?” I asked. “Do you think we would’ve met there if I hadn’t applied to be your assistant.?”
His smile dropped slightly, and then became wider. “Fuck, I think we might’ve,” he said. “So, what you’re saying is, you think—”
