She raised her eyes back up to Kassim’s.
“Good girl.”
The praise eased some of her panic.
She could do this. She’d flown before. Nothing bad would going to happen.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
None of that was working.
The plane started to rattle.
Oh God. Oh God.
I’m going to be sick.
Tavi had his hand wrapped around hers. “Squeeze as tight as you need to.”
She was such a wimp. So she squeezed his hand tight, hoping she wasn’t hurting him. But if she was, he didn’t say anything.
“There’s not enough air,” she gasped.
“There’s plenty of air, tamiya,” he soothed. “Do you think I would ever allow you to do something that would be dangerous? Stop worrying. That’s my job. Your job is to do what you are told.”
She snorted at that. Wouldn’t that make his life easier?
“Yes, it would make my life infinitely easier,” Kassim said.
Whoops. She’d said that out loud?
“So you must get started on doing that right now, understand?”
“Arrogant,” she muttered. But strangely, his arrogance was starting to cut through her panic.
She still clung to Tavi’s hand. She couldn’t seem to make herself let go.
“I’m probably hurting Tavi.”
“Tavi is a big boy. You don’t need to worry about him. All you need to do is keep breathing nice and slow for me. That’s my good girl. After this turbulence is over, you can go lie down in the bedroom. We’ll find you something comfortable to wear that you can relax in.”
She tensed. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“Nobody said you were going to be alone. In fact, I doubt you’ll be getting any alone time for the rest of the flight,” he said dryly.
That was okay by her.
“I want Cranky,” she muttered.
“You can have him as soon as the turbulence stops,” Kassim reassured her. “We should have gotten him out before now. Is he in your hand luggage?”
“Yes, but if I get him out the others will see. They’ll know.”
“So?”
“You really don’t care?” It still felt weird to expose that part of herself.
“I do not,” he said firmly. “And whatever you need, I will provide. I don’t care what it is or who knows it. However, if it makes you uncomfortable, then you don’t need to reveal your Little to anyone but us.”
“I’d rather keep it between us.”
“Then we will.”
Simple as that, huh?
The turbulence stopped, leaving her with a slight headache and a funny tummy. There was a ding then the pilot’s voice telling them they could move around.
“Aric, get Pippa’s hand luggage,” Kassim ordered. “We’re going into the back room.”
Tavi let her hand go and she whimpered. He gave her a startled look then a smile. “It’s all right, little one. I’m not going far.”
Good. She wanted them with her. All of them.
Kassim unbuckled them then stood with her in his arms. Matek moved into their space, leaning over her.
“She’s all right, Matek,” Kassim told him. “Go back into the room and you can hold her.”
Matek nodded and turned without a word.
“You frightened him,” Kassim explained.
“I know,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hush,” he told her. “No more apologies.” He carried her into the bedroom. She looked over to find Matek already on the bed. Aric stepped in behind them, placing her hand luggage on the bed. He opened it and drew out Cranky. She practically lunged out of Kassim’s arms to grab her crocodile.
“Easy,” Aric said, leaping forward to support her other side.
“Sorry,” she muttered, holding Cranky close. She chewed at her lower lip, still feeling her nerves eating at her stomach.
God, she hated being like this.
“I told you nothing would happen to you, tamiya,” Kassim told her.
“Even you can’t stop a plane from crashing.”
“Can’t I?” He raised one eyebrow arrogantly.
Hell. If anyone could stop a plane crashing, it was Kassim. And Batman. Then there were her other men as well.
Her men.
Holy. Hell.
Kassim set her on Matek’s lap. He gathered her in close, holding her so tight that it nearly hurt. But she didn’t care. She could see the tension on his face. She hated that she’d worried him.
“I’m all right, Matek.”
“You wouldn’t unlock the door. Why?”
“I was in a panic. I’m a little bit scared of flying.”
“More than a little bit,” Tavi replied, coming up to sit beside them on the bed. He drew off her sandals and cupped her feet. “She’s freezing.”
“I packed her a onesie. Here it is.” Aric drew out a onesie she’d never seen before. It had pictures of superheroes all over it. He threw it over to Tavi, who started pulling off her skirt.
“I can do it. I’ll go into the bathroom and do it.” As soon as she thought about going in there on her own again, she felt ill.
Tavi pushed her hands away with a frown. “No. You won’t.”
“No going in the bathroom alone,” Matek told her.
“What?”
Matek just stared back at her.
“Matek, you can’t come into the bathroom with me. Kassim, tell him.”
“No going into the bathroom alone again,” Kassim ordered.
She just gaped at him. Then she turned bright red. “You can’t make those sorts of demands.”
“We make the rules,” Tavi reminded her.
“Yes, but I have to agree.” She glared at them all.
“Yes,” Kassim nodded. “Unless it’s a health or safety matter. Then it’s majority rules. All in favor of the ‘no going into the bathroom alone’ rule, raise your hand.”
All of them raised their hands. Her mouth dropped open. “No fair! You’re ganging up on me.”
Tavi grasped hold of her chin. “We just want to take care of you. You had a panic attack in a locked room all on your own. Matek nearly broke the door down to get to you. You could have been harmed. That won’t happen again.”
She swallowed heavily.
“It’s only for the plane ride,” Aric soothed.
“This is crazy.”
Tavi gave her a firm look. “Just lie there and let us take care of you for once.”
“What are you talking about? All you’ve done these last few days is take care of me,” she said as he drew the onesie up her legs.
Ooh it was so soft.
“When you let us,” Tavi replied. “But you fight our care every chance you get.”
“I don’t.” Did she? Maybe. She looked around at all of them before Tavi pulled her T-shirt up over her head. “I’m just not used to having people take care of me,” she explained, covering her bra-clad breasts with her arm.
Matek leaned her forward so he could undo her bra. She squealed, but he pushed her arm aside to draw off her bra and pull on the onesie.
“You shouldn’t be allowed to gang up on me,” she complained.
“All we want is to look after you, Poppet,” Aric said, sitting on the edge of the bed and reaching over to cup her chin. “Is that such a bad thing?”
Kassim watched on quietly from the end of the bed.
She sighed, feeling ungrateful. “No. It’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, I really do like when you take care of me. It just takes some getting used to. Especially some things. I was the one who always looked after my father, not the other way around.”
“Which means it’s time someone looked after you,” Tavi pointed out.
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
“You could never be a burden,” Kassim told her. “Not when you are part of our souls.”
She blushed. Jeez, talk about bringing out the big guns.
>
“That silenced her,” Aric teased. “I didn’t think there was anything that would make her speechless.”
She lunged for him. The jerk. Matek held her back, though.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were scared of flying?” Kassim queried.
“Because you wanted me to come to this meeting and I want to go to London. I want to travel. I have all these pictures of places I want to go and plans and I can’t ever go because I’m so damn scared all the time. I’m tired of being scared. I thought I could do this without freaking out. But turns out I’m too much of a wuss.”
“That’s ten,” Kassim told her.
“What? Ten what?”
“Ten smacks on your ass for calling yourself a wuss,” Tavi told her in a quieter voice. “Kassim must be going easy on you because you look like you’re going to pass out or puke. He probably also feels guilty that he didn’t know you were scared of flying. As the oldest, Kassim feels responsible for all of us, but especially you.”
“I thought I might have gotten over it.”
“How? By wishing really hard?” Aric asked.
“Maybe,” she replied, closing her eyes in mortification. “I just want to be brave.”
“You are brave,” Kassim said.
She opened her eyes to see him crouched in front of her.
“I’m not, though. I can’t even fly without panicking.”
“What worries you?” Tavi asked. “Is it that you’re scared of heights? Is it that you’re afraid of crashing? Do you feel claustrophobic?”
“I don’t know. All of it, I guess. I just, I think about how high in the air we are and then I think about how far it is to fall if we crash and then I worry about there being enough air.”
“This jet is the safest on the market,” Kassim told her. “It is thoroughly safety checked every time before we use it by people I trust.”
She didn’t want them to think she was only worried about herself. “I don’t want anything happening to any of us.”
“And nothing will,” Kassim soothed. “I’m in charge of this family, tamiya. Nothing happens in it or to it without my say so.”
She shook her head. His ego was so big, it was a wonder that he could get onto the plane.
She glanced around at their worried faces. “I want to be strong and adventurous, but then I start worrying about everything and I just . . . it overwhelms me. I’m so terrified of something going wrong that I never seem to do anything. I guess it has something to do with my parents dying. Especially my mum.”
“How did she die?” Kassim asked.
She let out a deep breath. “She was hiking. She loved hiking. She used to take me all the time, but this time she left me at home because I wasn’t feeling well. They think she fell, breaking her leg. When they found her, she was already dead. But I . . . I don’t know how long it took for her to die.”
“Oh, little one.” Tavi cupped her face with one hand. She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning against him. Then she forced herself to look up and stare around at them all.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell any of you. I hoped I would be all right.”
“Our job is to see to your health, safety and happiness,” Kassim told her. “But you need to communicate with us. Unfortunately, we can’t read minds.”
“Really? There’s something you can’t do,” she teased.
“I know, it shocked me too,” Kassim replied with a serious face.
Somehow, she found herself giggling.
“Is there anything else that would help your anxiety?” Tavi asked her.
“All of you being here helps. Not that you have to stay if you need to work,” she added for Kassim’s benefit.
“Unfortunately, I might have to leave so Judd can attempt to lecture me on protocol. Normally I value his dedication to sticking to the rules, but . . .”
“Sometimes rules need to be broken,” Aric said cheekily.
Kassim grimaced. “It seems so.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Enough saying sorry, Miss Jones,” he said sternly. “Or we’ll make your punishment twenty.”
She gaped at him. But he had turned to Tavi. “Punishment will wait until we’re on firm ground and Miss Jones is rested.”
Tavi nodded. “Of course.”
“What about this?” Aric held up a pacifier she hadn’t seen before. Had he ordered that for her? It had a Batman symbol on the front and she had to hold herself back from snatching it out of his hands.
She grew red, not wanting to look at Tavi or Matek.
“A pacifier?” Tavi asked.
“It helps her with anxiety.”
There was some shifting on the bed but she didn’t look up. What if Tavi was horrified? For some reason, she didn’t think Matek would care.
“Little one, look at me,” Tavi told her firmly.
She shook her head. Nuh-uh, she didn’t want to.
There was a knock on the door and she breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was a reprieve.
“I will deal with that,” Kassim told them, leaving the room.
“Little one, eyes. Now.”
Uh-oh, that was his ‘obey me or you won’t be sitting comfortably’ voice. Considering her bottom was still a bit tender from earlier she wasn’t much in the mood for another spanking.
“Do you know that there is a drop seat on that onesie, brother,” Aric said conversationally. “And I have the perfect sized butt plug. It’s a beginner one, but it’s still likely to create an impression.”
“Excellent,” Tavi replied. “Matek, why don’t you lie her over your lap and open the drop seat. Then if you could part her butt cheeks so I can work the lube in.”
“What? No! That’s not happening.” She squirmed to get away from Matek.
“Little girl, no fighting,” Tavi warned. “You won’t win and you might hurt yourself which will make Matek feel guilty.”
Shoot. She froze and glared up at Tavi. “You’re all meanies.”
Tavi raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“Uh-huh. You’re not putting a plug in my bottom.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You said you were interested in anal sex, remember?” Aric asked.
They’d spoken to her briefly about her limits and punishments for breaking the rules earlier that day.
“Aric, get out the naughty notebook, will you please? We need to add the punishment for Pippa calling herself a wuss and another one for not looking at me when I told her to.”
“You could just put her in the corner with her bottom on display,” Aric suggested.
She gaped at him. What? No fair.
“I don’t want her standing by herself right now,” Tavi said. “Not after a panic attack.”
“She could lie over my lap with her bottom bared,” Matek said. “I could tease her without release.”
“Hmm,” Tavi said.
“What? Hey, no fair, Matek. You’re meant to be on my side.” She pouted up at him and he tapped her lip.
“Put that away,” Matek commanded. “And I’m always on your side.”
“Then you shouldn’t be letting them punish me.”
“You were naughty,” Matek pointed out. “When you break the rules, you get punished. The rules are there to keep you safe.”
“And Matek puts your safety above all else. Even your cute little pout.” Tavi tapped her lower lip.
“But I didn’t break a rule,” she muttered.
“Are you supposed to communicate all of your feelings and not hide them?” Tavi countered.
Oh, shit.
“When I ask for your eyes, little one, it’s so I can get a gauge what you’re feeling. So I can ensure that you’re all right. It’s not just so I can stare into those pretty blue eyes of yours. Understand?”
“Yes, Daddy, I understand.”
Tavi froze and for a moment she didn’t understand why. Then she realized what she’d called him. She looked up at him appreh
ensively.
“You called me Daddy.”
“Is that okay?” she whispered. Did he not want to be her Daddy?
Leaning in, he kissed her gently, his hand wrapping around the back of her neck. “It’s better than okay. It’s perfect.”
She smiled up at him gently.
Then he seemed to remember that he’d been in the middle of scolding her. He held up her pacifier. “Do you want this? An honest answer this time, please. No hiding.”
“I . . . I . . .”
“Matek,” Tavi said.
Suddenly she found herself rolled onto her tummy then the drop seat of the onesie was lowered and her ass was given several stinging smacks.
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop!” she cried before the drop seat was pulled back up and she was rolled over. The spanks stung and she glared at Tavi who had spanked her.
“Well,” Tavi said, holding up the pacifier as she sulked and rolled onto one hip to rub her poor bottom.
“No rubbing,” Matek told her, settling her back on her butt.
Meanie.
“Nobody is judging you, Pippa,” Aric told her gently.
“Is that what you were worried about?” Tavi asked.
“I guess so. Is that silly?”
“Yep,” Tavi replied. “Very silly. I happen to think you’d look cute with your pacifier, all curled up in your onesie, cuddling into Cranky.”
She smiled with relief. “Yeah?”
“Yes. And if you need anything to help with anxiety or feeling better or just because you want it then you are to let us know, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy.”
She reached for the pacifier, but he wouldn’t let her take it, instead he popped it into her mouth. She sucked on it, her lingering anxiety starting to dissipate. She was now sitting between Tavi and Matek while Aric grabbed out her crocodile slippers, putting them on her feet.
Ahh, that was better. She leaned back against the headboard as Tavi turned on the television. He and Aric started talking about what sort of video game they wanted to play. She then realized Matek hadn’t said anything. She drew her pacifier out and turned to look up at him.
“Matty?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“Do you want to be my Daddy too?”
She realized that the other two had stopped talking. But she wasn’t sure why they were paying them such close attention. Unless . . . did he not want to be her Daddy? She started to tense.
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