The three of them were asleep, utterly spent.
Madison lay curled against my left side, one sleek leg slung possessively over mine, her slow, sated breaths warm against my ribs. Patricia was tucked into my right, face buried in the hollow of my shoulder, palm spread flat over my heart as if to be sure it was still beating for her.
At the foot of the bed, Sofia had collapsed in a boneless sprawl, limbs starfished, cheek pressed to the sheet, looking exactly like someone who’d been thoroughly, repeatedly wrecked--which, in every sense that mattered, she had).
Two straight hours of Dark Lord Mode with three women at once will do that to a person.
The master bedroom still hung thick with the scent of raw sex, expensive perfume, and that heavy, victorious languor that follows a war won in silk sheets.
I should have been unconscious.
Instead, every nerve felt freshly charged, new titles crackling under my skin like live wires I hadn’t yet learned to ground.
[Having trouble sleeping, Master?]
Taboo’s voice coiled through my mind--velvet and smoke, nothing like the System’s crisp, clinical alerts. This was her, the succubus who’d taken up permanent residence the day the Taboo System first ignited. Pure liquid sin wearing amusement like jewelry.
I’d long since learned the difference. Dark Seduction spoke like a user manual. Taboo spoke like she was already naked and laughing at the mess she’d made of you.
"Can’t stop thinking about the new abilities," I subvocalized.
[Mmm. The Daddy title and Motherfucker Halo.] She practically purred it. [You felt them snap into place during the reconciliation. Felt how instantly Sofia and Patricia reoriented around you. But you still don’t grasp what you’re holding, do you?]
"I read the descriptions."
[Descriptions are sterile, lover. Let me show you what you actually own now.]
Her presence thickened, lounging somewhere in the back of my skull the way a cat claims the warmest spot on the bed. I could almost see the slow curl of red lips, the lazy flick of a tail.
"Explain."
[Let’s start with Daddy.] Her tone shifted to something almost professorial, yet still dripping with delight.
[You already know what daddy issues are: the raw, bleeding wound left by fathers who were absent, cruel, or simply never enough. Little girls grow into women still carrying that hollow place, forever scanning the world for the man who will finally fill it with safety, worth, permanence.]
"Yeah."
[Your Daddy title makes you the event horizon of that wound. Women carrying father-trauma don’t merely find you attractive; they find you inevitable. You become the living answer to the question they’ve screamed into the void their entire lives: ’Where is the man who will keep me safe? Who will see me, truly see me? Who will never leave? Who would burn the whole world to ash if someone hurt me (just to keep me whole)?’]
"That’s beautifully fucked up. I like it."
[It’s power.] Her smile widened in my mind. [Picture Sofia. Eighteen years under a father who was physically present but emotionally vacant. Who treated her like a chess piece, never once asked if she was happy. Who sold her future to Jack for quarterly growth. She has been starving for a protector who actually gives a damn.]
[And now you are that protector,] Taboo crooned. [Passive. Constant. Effortless. Her defenses don’t just lower around you; they dissolve. She seeks your approval with a ferocity that bypasses every higher brain function. You could ask her for almost anything and she would give it; not because you forced her mind, but because, you’re her man now!]
[You’re supplying what was missing.] Her voice sharpened, for once, carried a razor edge. [Don’t go soft on me now, Master. You didn’t create the damage. Her father did. Jack did. You’re simply the first man who feels like the cure. Safety incarnate. The dragon who guards the door and breathes fire on anyone who tries to hurt her again. The voice that says, without words, ’You are enough. You are mine to defend.’]
[Always.] I could hear the wicked grin. [Because you’re not just safety, darling. You’re corruption wearing safety’s face. You are the shelter and the storm in one breath. The protector who teaches his little girls brand-new sins. They will trust you implicitly to keep them safe... and you will burn their old worlds to the ground while they smile up at you, hearts shining, whispering ’Thank you, Daddy’ as the ashes cool.]
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