by Golden Angel
Immediately, Peggy’s expression hardened again.
“But I get to choose who lives in my apartment, and as long as you’re dating him, that’s not you.” Peggy’s chin went up stubbornly. She gestured at the pile of clothes. “If you’re going to choose some perverted sicko over your best friend, you can’t live here.” Even though she was staring challengingly at Melody, her green eyes flashed with triumph.
It hit Melody then that Peggy fully expected her to fold. She had brought all of Melody’s clothes out to show how serious she was, but she hadn’t packed them. Everything about her body language screamed that she thought she’d already won. Because that’s what happened every time they disagreed about something. Peggy would make a big scene, and Melody would fold.
And there was no reason for Peggy to change, because she held all the chips. This was her apartment. She had invited Melody to live there, but Melody hadn’t been put on the lease when she’d moved in. At the time it hadn’t seemed to matter. Melody had come to feel like the apartment was hers as well, but it wasn’t really, which was why she’d always let Peggy have the final say.
She hadn’t gone on the lease, because it was easier. She didn’t fight with Peggy, because it was easier. She didn’t upset Peggy, because it was easier. But the reason it was easier, was because Peggy made it so hard. It was her way or the highway.
I can’t live like this.
When Kawan’s phone rang, it was a welcome distraction from the loneliness of eating alone. Normally he didn’t feel all that lonely when he was having a meal on his own, but tonight he felt Melody’s absence. Her presence had made his house seem cozier, less empty. Warm happiness suffused him when he picked up the phone and saw her name.
“Hey, baby,” he said, answering.
A sniffle greeted him in response and Kawan immediately stood up, all of his instincts shouting at him that something was wrong and he needed to fix it. It took a supreme act of will to force his knees to bend and sit back down again. “Melody? Baby girl?”
“Hi. Sorry.” Her voice was small, watery, and she sniffled again. “I probably should have waited to call you. I’m a little upset. I should have calmed—”
“No, sweetheart, I’m glad you called me if you’re upset.” He interrupted her but kept his voice low, soothing, even as anger began to build inside of his chest. It didn’t take a genius to know that she must have fought with her roommate again. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“She…” Melody’s voice hitched. “She kicked me out.”
Kawan froze. He felt like he was at war inside of himself. His Daddy instincts demanded that he run to her rescue immediately, bring her back to his home, pamper her, and claim her for his own. But those instincts were being shouted down by his more cynical side, the one that remembered how often he’d run to Krissy’s rescue, how he’d done everything he could to make her feel cherished, special, and loved, and how she’d turned on him when he realized he needed to rein her in because she was draining him dry, emotionally and financially.
Melody kept talking though, not seeming to realize there was anything wrong on his end of the phone.
“I’m on my way to the hotel, or I’m about to be. I’m in my car, but I just thought I should call and let you know, since I forgot to call you this morning, and I said I’d call you after I went home today to let you know how it went and—”
She was babbling, obviously upset, but Kawan’s brain finally caught up.
There was no request for rescue, no manipulation to convince him to come help her, she was just… following his orders. Relief swept through him, followed quickly by an inner demand to get off his ass and do something.
“Did you say hotel?”
“Yeah, oh, I guess I should tell you which one, huh?” She was still sniffling, but her voice lifted slightly like, she was trying to make a joke out of it.
“No, baby,” he said firmly. “You’re not going to a hotel.” He stood up again, the urge to get up and do something propelling him forward. “You’re coming here.”
“Oh, thank you for the offer, but I don’t want to impose and—”
“It’s not an offer, baby girl, it’s an order.” Despite the situation, Kawan had to work to keep his amusement out of his voice. It wasn’t amusement at her, it was amusement at himself, for thinking—even for a moment—that she might be anything like Krissy. She obviously hadn’t even thought that he might help her out, despite the situation.
Then again, their relationship was very new. It was probably a good thing that he’d told her to call him tonight or he might not have found out about this until later.
“Oh… I… thank you?” Her voice held a note of uncertainty. “But you should know, I don’t intend to try and fix things with her. I’m going to take off work tomorrow, pack up my stuff and put it in storage until I can find a new place.”
“And where are you going to stay until you can find a new place?”
“Um… well, that’s why I was going to a hotel.”
With the stipend she received from her program, Kawan didn’t even want to think about what kind of hotel she would end up at. She’d probably have to find an incredibly cheap one and it was doubtful it would be anywhere near the university.
“No. You’ll stay with me until you find a new housing situation.” His tone brooked no argument.
“But—”
“No arguing, little girl,” he said sternly, letting his Daddy Dom side slide into his voice. “You’ll stay with me until we can find you somewhere safe and affordable, and that’s final.”
There was a long moment of silence and when she finally responded, he could tell that her tears had started again. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart. Are you okay to drive here? And be honest; if you get here and I don’t think you were okay, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”
This time when she sniffled, she also giggled, and some of the worry in Kawan’s chest unclenched. “I’m okay to drive. I’ll be there soon.” The relief and gratitude in her voice was palpable.
“Okay, drive safely, baby girl. I’ll see you soon.”
Rather than sitting back down to eat the rest of his meal, Kawan sprang into action. He’d need to call out tomorrow as well if he was going to help her pack up. And he needed to put the guest bedroom together in case she didn’t want to sleep in his bed. And put a plate together for her in case she hadn’t eaten.
Even as he wanted to shake Melody’s roommate for upsetting her, he had to admit that right now this felt really, really good. He was a Daddy again.
Chapter 16
By the time Melody arrived at Kawan’s house, she was feeling a little calmer, and she knew it was because she was here instead of the hotel she’d originally planned on finding. The whole sum of her plan, before calling Kawan, had been to drive to the closest, cheap place she could find, and then spend tonight looking for an even cheaper one that she might be able to afford for a week or two. She’d thought about calling her parents for help, but she already knew they didn’t have extra money to help her out either. They’d try though, if they thought she needed it, but Melody refused to be responsible for them emptying out their retirement funds. She’d figure something out even if she had to sleep in her car.
She was still a little worried that Kawan didn’t realize what he was offering. It was probably going to take her a while to find a new place. They’d have to talk about it. But for right now, all she really wanted was a hug.
Peggy had turned into a screaming mess when Melody had finally nodded and said she’d find another living situation. She’d demanded that Melody get out now. She’d only taken long enough to dump her clothes back in her room, throw some of them in a bag, and then she’d practically run out of there. The whole time Peggy had been ranting about what a shitty friend she was, how she was throwing their friendship away over a man—a pervert—and how Melody would regret this.
Pointing out that Peggy
was the one throwing away their friendship, because she was the one who had laid down the ultimatum, didn’t go over well. She’d gotten all red in the face, screamed at Melody that she was a pervert too, that she was sick in the head, and Peggy never wanted to see her again. Then she’d said if Melody wasn’t out of there within ten minutes, she was calling the police.
Before leaving, she’d knocked on Peggy’s door and said she’d be back for the rest of her stuff tomorrow. Melody had even managed to be a bit of a hard ass and tell Peggy that she’d better not touch any of her stuff since her perverted new man was a lawyer. She didn’t like to think that Peggy would do anything crazy to her things, but at the moment she had to admit that she didn’t really know.
She wouldn’t have expected Peggy to do any of this… and yet, she had to admit that she wasn’t shocked either. Somewhere in the back of her head, she thought maybe she’d always known that Peggy could be this controlling. The only reason they hadn’t had it out before was because Melody had allowed Peggy to control her pretty much from the moment they’d become roommates.
As soon as she pulled into Kawan’s driveway, she saw his front door open and he came hurrying outside. Just the sight of him, and the concerned expression on his face, made her tear up again.
She was so glad she was here and not at a motel.
Before she could open her car door, he was already there, opening it for her to scramble out and straight into his arms.
“Hey, baby girl, come here.”
The hug was a balm to her tattered emotions, and the tears she’d been holding off with varying degrees of success finally broke free. She clutched at the soft fabric of his shirt as a sob ripped through her chest. All the hurt, all the anxiety, all the negative emotions that she’d buried because she hadn’t wanted Peggy to see her cry, came bubbling to the surface now.
He held her firmly, stroking her hair and making a gentle shushing noise. Just like a Daddy. Caring. Comforting. Protecting. She could practically feel the tension melting away, knew that she could rely on his shoulders to carry some of the burden. It wasn’t that she wanted him to, it was that he was taking it upon himself.
Without a single word, he made her feel like everything was going to be okay.
After confirming that Melody hadn’t eaten, Kawan sat her down at the table and heated up a plate of food for her—reheating his own dinner as well. Thankfully he’d made a big batch of salad, spaghetti, and meatballs, figuring that he’d have leftovers for lunches this week, so there was plenty of food to go around. As she was still upset, he tried not to grin over the fact that she was still wearing his hoodie. He liked the way she looked in it though.
“You know,” he said conversationally, somehow managing to keep his temper even after she’d told him everything that had happened when she’d gone home to face Peggy. “She can’t actually force you to leave, even though you’re not on the lease. You still have rights because of the length of time you’ve lived there.”
“That sounds awful,” Melody said, frowning down at her plate. She stabbed a piece of lettuce. “I can’t imagine it would make for a pleasant living situation and… honestly, I’m not sure I trust her not to do something completely crazy. I’ve never seen her act like this before. But I’ve never really challenged her on anything before either.” She looked up and gave him a tight smile, but her eyes were sad. “Don’t worry, I won’t need to be here too long, I’m sure I can figure something out.”
“Melody.” He reached out, putting his hand over her free one as she shoved the forkful of salad into her mouth with the air of someone forcing themselves to eat. “That’s not what I’m saying. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you need, in fact I’ll insist on it. I’d rather have you here than anywhere else while you’re looking. I just want to make sure you know your rights, in case you wanted to force the issue with her.”
She immediately shook her head, like he’d suspected she would. But he’d wanted to make sure. If she’d had an attachment to the place she’d been living in, he would have fought for her right to stay there. Or even if she’d wanted to make Peggy grant her the rights she was due.
“I don’t want to live with her anymore.” Tears sprang back into Melody’s already red, puffy eyes. Kawan’s heart ached for her. “I guess I would if I had no other option, but I think I’d rather live in my car right now.”
“That’s definitely not going to happen, so put that out of your mind right now,” he said firmly. Her car? Hell no. Even if she didn’t want to continue exploring a relationship with him, he’d insist she stay with him rather than live out of her car. “You’ll stay here and look for a new place. In the meantime, we need to figure out how you’re going to live here.”
She blinked, startled, and he was reminded of the wide doe eyes she had when he’d met her in court that fateful day.
“How… what do you mean?” she asked in confusion.
“Well, we have a few options,” he said, keeping his voice even. He didn’t want to influence her decision or pressure her into anything, especially not while she was living with him and might feel beholden to him. “We’ve started exploring a relationship, but this is obviously an unsettled time for you, so I don’t want to push you into anything you’re not ready for, especially since we’re going to be living together for a bit. So while you’re living here we can just be friends and housemates until you find a new place, or we can keep things casual here at the house and play together at Black Light, or we can keep seeing where the romantic side of the relationship leads us.”
Melody nibbled on her lower lip while he laid out the options and then smiled when he finished. “You’re such a lawyer.”
“Guilty as charged.” He winked at her and she giggled before ducking her head back down to look at her plate. Swirling the spaghetti around with her fork, she seemed deep in thought, so Kawan concentrated on finishing his own dinner, giving her the time to think.
“You don’t have to decide tonight,” he told her gently.
When she met his gaze, her face was somewhat somber. “No… I think… I know what I want to do. I just also have some questions. I mean, I’ve read books and we played in the club a little bit, but how does a relationship like this actually work?”
“However we want it to work.” He smiled. “We can figure it out together. What works for one relationship might not work for another.”
“That makes sense.” She bit her lip again, popping it out from underneath her teeth. “I don’t know if I want to do the little girl thing all the time. I don’t even know how much of the little girl thing I want to do. I’m feeling very… overwhelmed right now.” She looked it too, with tense shoulders and a little crease across her forehead that said she was worried about what his reaction was going to be.
She was a pleaser, he was starting to realize, which was probably why she’d gotten along well with her former roommate. Unfortunately, rather than appreciating Melody for it, Peggy had used and abused that side of her.
Kawan wouldn’t.
“Well, we don’t have an official date until this weekend, so why don’t we settle in and just be ourselves this week without any pressure, and then this weekend we can explore more of the Daddy Dom stuff,” he suggested, and was rewarded when she immediately relaxed, her expression clearing and turning into a bright smile. Well, as bright as she could be when she’d had an extremely upsetting evening.
“That sounds good,” she said, almost shyly.
“We can also handle your punishment then.”
“P-p-punishment?” she stammered out the word even as her eyes lit up with interest. Kawan had to hide a smile.
“Yes, baby girl. For not taking proper care of your safety, going to Black Light and then my house without telling anyone where you were going, and then forgetting to text or call me when you went home this morning.”
Her mouth opened and closed, and a mutinous frown began to form. “I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here tonight eit
her.”
“Thank you for reminding me,” he said calmly. “We’ll add that to your tally, and as soon as we’re done eating, we’ll figure out who you can notify of your whereabouts.”
Again she started to say something and then snapped her mouth shut, apparently realizing that she was likely to just get herself into more trouble. This time Kawan didn’t bother to hide his grin. She looked very much like a rebellious little girl, and she didn’t look like she was thinking about her fight with her roommate anymore.
Kawan started making plans in his head. He hadn’t finished putting together his online order yet and there were a few things he wanted to add to it, now that he knew Melody was going to be staying in his house for a while. They might not be used, but he wanted to be prepared. And he had some plans to make for this weekend.
Sunday night, Melody decided she wanted to sleep in the guest bedroom. She just felt weird invading Kawan’s room when he’d already opened his home to her. Of course, when she actually went to bed, she wished she’d taken him up on his offer to have her sleep with him.
Not only did he take off of work on Monday, but what should have been an awful experience turned out to be fun. Kawan not only stayed home to help her, but he asked if she wanted some extra assistance as well, and when she asked if he knew of anyone available at short notice, he’d called Alexander. She’d ended up packing up her things with the help of Alexander and Sienna, and two more of Kawan’s friends, Connor and Ella. They were all so nice. Fun. And none of them asked why she needed to move out of her apartment at such short notice.
The only downside was that she felt even more resentful over Peggy being such a controlling be-otch. If Peggy were more like Sienna and Ella, then she wouldn’t be moving out right now. Or… well, who knew. She knew that Alexander and Sienna, at least, went to Black Light and were friends with Kawan, so she assumed they knew. But maybe they didn’t and they’d be just as horrified as Peggy had been. Melody seriously doubted it though.