Against All Odds, I Want Daddy!

003

Elysia didn’t slow down until the side door of the club shut behind her.

Only when the mansion’s garden gate of her house clicked shut did she finally pull the crystals and black lace from her face.

Inside, the house was silent. Everyone was still at their perfect party.

She locked her bedroom door, leaned against it for a second, then started undressing.

The black lingerie peeled away. That was when she felt it, slickness between her thighs, unmistakable, shocking. She froze, staring down at herself in the low light.

She was wet.

Being amazed didn’t even cover it. This was one of the first times her body had ever reacted like this, completely on its own.

She was still a virgin. No one had ever touched her, not really. If someone had told her that just the look of a man, just the brush of his mouth against her gloved hand could leave her this turned on, she would have laughed in their face.

Now the laugh wouldn’t come.

She sat on the edge of the bed, curious and almost angry at herself, and tried to touch. Fingers sliding carefully, searching for whatever had lit up so easily under Mikael’s gaze. Nothing.

The spark stayed just out of reach, stubborn, refusing to catch the way it had when he was standing in front of her.

Frustrated, she pulled her hand away.

A long bath helped a little. She bathed with hot water. By the time she climbed out and slipped under the covers, the ache had dulled into something she could ignore.

Somewhere across the city, Mikael Mikaelson was still awake, turning over the sound of her voice when she called him a fool.

Sleep refused to come.

She lay in the dark with her eyes open, the sheets cool against her skin, the earlier ache still hovering somewhere low and restless. After a while she reached for her phone, more out of habit than hope.

A new message lit the screen from an unknown number.

“I’m so sorry for earlier for treating you like a cheap girl. I really want to apologize in person. I’ll be happy if we can meet somewhere else rather than a club.”

Gosh, he must have bribed Luka into giving him my number.

She stared at the words for a long moment, then her thumbs moved. “Apology accepted, but no thank you I won't like to see you ever again.”

She locked the phone, but her mind had already drifted somewhere it had never gone before. Curiosity, leftover heat, the memory of his mouth on her hand, whatever it was, it pulled her open a private browser.

Within seconds she was searching for the kind of videos she had only ever heard about in whispers.

She watched. One video became another, then another. The hours slipped past without her noticing. Three full hours of bodies and sounds and things she had never imagined in detail, her face lit only by the screen, her body still and quiet while something restless kept turning inside her. She didn’t stop. She couldn’t quite stop watching, she loved what she was seeing.

Until the low growl of a car engine rolled up the driveway.

“That must be father.” She muttered.

Her heart jumped. She killed the screen, shoved the phone under her pillow, and forced her eyes shut, breathing slowly and even, pretending sleep had claimed her long ago.

The front door opened downstairs but she kept perfectly still until she finally slept off.

________

________

Morning light cut across the bed when Liana shoved the door open without knocking.

“Jesus, Ellie. You were moaning in your sleep.” She grinned, leaning against the frame. “Loud enough I heard you from the hallway. Are you having dirty dreams?”

Elysia sat up fast, face already hot. She forced a short laugh and shook her head. “You’re imagining things. I don’t even dream.”

Liana rolled her eyes, clearly unconvinced, but she left with a little wave and the click of the door.

The second she was gone, Elysia looked down at herself, she wet again.

She pressed her thighs together, angry and confused, and whispered into the empty room, “What the hell is wrong with me?”

The question had no answer. Only the memory of a dark-eyed man and three hours of videos she still couldn’t forget.

She dressed quickly and went downstairs, determined. If she could just talk to her father, really talk, maybe he would listen. Maybe he would postpone the meeting, give her time, anything.

When she got to the study door, it was half open. She could hear him speaking to someone on call.

“Yes, I’m sure.” A pause. Then a low, amused sound that was almost a smirk. “She’s brand new and untouched. You have my word.”

The man on the other end of the line spoke again, the words clear enough for Elysia to catch. “You’re certain she’s a virgin? I won’t allow my son to marry a second-hand girl.”

Her father’s reply came without hesitation. “I’m repeating with full confidence, she's brand new and untouched.”

Elysia stepped back, heart slamming.

What if she lost it?

The thought arrived fully formed, dangerous and bright. If she was no longer untouched… would the arrangement still hold? Would the perfect marriage her father had arranged simply fall apart?

She turned and walked straight back to her room. Her hands were steady when she picked up the phone and typed. “Mikael. Where should we meet?”

She hit send before she could change her mind. While she waited for an answer, she went looking for Liana.

Her stepsister was in her own room, scrolling on her phone, looking bored as usual.

“I need your help,” Elysia said, keeping her voice low. “I have to go somewhere. Can you cover for me?”

Liana’s eyebrows rose. “Somewhere? Do you finally have a boyfriend or something?”

Elysia scoffed. “That’s absurd. It’s a girls’ thing and dad would never allow it.”

Liana studied her for a long second, then smiled the slow, knowing smile that always meant she smelled opportunity.

“Fine. But I want the clothes Mum got you for Christmas. The ones you never wear.”

Elysia didn’t hesitate. “They’re yours.”

Liana’s smile widened. “Deal. Go do whatever you’re going to do, I’ll handle the rest.”

The reply for Vozinha came less than two minutes later. “Corner of 8th and Halston. A black car will pick you up in twenty minutes.”

Elysia’s pulse kicked hard.

She locked her door, pulled the hidden drawer open, and dressed with deliberate care. She put on a short body skimming dress that clung to every curve and left her thighs bare.

She wore heels that made her legs look endless. For the first time she was dressing sexy with no mask this time, she used only a pair of oversized sunglasses that hid half her face. She left her hair down, loose and slightly wild.

When she looked in the mirror, the perfect disciplined daughter was gone. The girl staring back looked like someone who had already decided to burn something down.

She slipped out the same hidden garden route she used for the club, with a racing heart, and walked the short distance to the corner of 8th and Halston. It wasn't that far.

A black car was already waiting, the windows tinted so dark she couldn’t see inside. The rear door unlocked with a soft click the moment she approached.

She took one breath, then another, and slid into the back seat.