Hayes
six
I’ve been thinking about Paige all day.
The innocence of her, the softness, the quick humor she uses to mask who she really is, and most of all, the way she embraced me. It wasn’t just a hug. That girl clung to me like I was a lifeline and it made me feel ten feet tall instead of six-two.
Feeling her warm body against mine and her breath against my chest nearly undid my restraint.
I wanted to bend her over the Chesterfield and fuck her raw.
Instead, I did the honorable thing, for maybe the first time in my life, and sent her back to the party.
Then I took an icy shower and jerked off thinking about her red lips on my cock until I was the one feeling raw.
I’m not what she needs in her life. This is an absolute truth that I know, logically.
She should be exploring who she is as an adult post-college, making strides in her career, and dating boys her own age. She doesn’t need a cynical and ruthless old bastard like me lusting after her youthful freshness.
I was running from my demons and fantasies of what I could do with someone as impressionable and perfect as her when the blue Cobra parked across from the club caught my eye.
You don’t see them much, especially not in the winter when their lack of a roof means they are always open to the elements.
I slowed down to appreciate the automotive beauty designed by Carroll Shelby in the sixties and caught the raven-haired woman rubbing at her eyes.
I knew it was her before she even turned her head when I called her name.
Now her car is parked under The Abyss and I’ve got her in the elevator heading straight to the third-floor apartment.
The elevator opens to my flat and I cross to the only door she hasn’t been through.
I hesitate for a fraction of a second before I unlock it and hold the door open for her.
Letting her into my private apartment feels wrong because it would be too easy to get comfortable with her in the intimate space.
Having her in my office was one thing, but my apartment? It was safer having her in an area meant for business deals than one with more surfaces to imagine fucking her on.
I want to stay the honorable person who sends her away, not the lecherous old man who wants her naked.
“So this is where you live, huh?” she asks, looking around warily.
I watch her fingers flex like she wants to touch everything as she walks into the open flat.
The kitchen is separated from the living space by a large island, a sofa and flatscreen TV define the small living room, and a massive bed takes up the wall in the far section of the space.
It’s about five hundred square feet, so by no means is it cramped, but it’s not the five thousand square foot Buckhead mansion I’m used to in Atlanta.
“My turn for questions.”
I place my hands on her hips and lift her, nearly smiling at the squeak of surprise she lets out. I sit her on the granite island where I can stand in front of her at eye level.
“Who did this to you?”
Her eyes snap and her surprise at being lifted is erased by the fury that springs up. “Like I said, it’s nothing you can help with.”
“There is very little I’m incapable of doing,” I threaten. “Now spill before I resort to creative interrogation techniques to get the answers I want.”
I swear her lips pinch into the hint of a grin and if that doesn’t make me want to devour her, I don’t know what would.
“I’m not a patient man, Paige,” I warn, instead of stealing the grin off her face with a searing kiss.
The smile fades and I hate myself for erasing it. She looks away from me, toward the window that overlooks the river.
“My parents cooked up some crazy idea they want me to go along with and I can’t do it. It crosses a line I didn’t even know I had when it comes to them.”
“What could they possibly want you to do?” I ask, searching for plausible options while I wait for her answer.
“This is so stupid I can’t believe I’m about to say it.” She hides her eyes with a hand. “They want me to marry an awful man to merge our family businesses.”
I’m irritated more than I should be. The idea of her being married off grates my nerves.
I pull her hand away from her face and see the tears welling in her jade eyes.
I keep her hand in mine and squeeze it, hoping to be reassuring when what I really feel is anger that they came up with the idea before I could.
“Marriage isn’t the worst thing in the world, or so I’m told. What makes the idea so repugnant to you?” Her parents are shrewd when it comes to their business, pinning a merger on a marriage. I like it.
“It’s who they picked.”
Her face scrunches up and she looks away as fat tears leak down her cheeks.
“His name is Garrison. We have… history,” she pauses and clears her throat. “He… he got me drunk and tried to rape me in high school.” She whispers through the pain and obvious shame. Her shoulders bunch up toward her ears with the admission, and she half turns away from me.
I let go of her hand and slam both of mine flat on the granite on either side of her, making her jump.
It doesn’t matter that she said tried. This asshole wanted to violate her and that’s as good as the deed itself.
I want to kick one of the barstools out from under the island, throw a chair, flip a damn table because I’m so mad that anyone wanted to hurt her in that way.
The innocence she exudes is precious and some entitled asshole wanted to rip that away from her? I’ll kill him.
The possessive streak in me is blown wide and she’s not even mine to protect, but damn if I won’t destroy anything that even threatens to hurt her, now or anytime in the past.
“Do they know?” I demand close to her face, my voice a snarl. “Your parents. Do they know what he did to you?”
Her nod is almost imperceptible, but I’m close enough that I can see each individual eyelash that sits against her wet cheeks through the slight motion.
“Mama knows,” she says softly, her words catching on a hitch.
I do kick the stool now. It sails across the room and clatters against the heavy wood footboard of the bed. I stalk toward it like I’ll kick it straight out the window next.
“Why would your mother even allow that?” My chest heaves with the anger coursing through me. “No, fuck that. Why would your parents want you to marry someone who tried to rape you?”
I have too many questions and enough anger to ruin anyone who wants this fate for her.
I want to throttle her father for even entertaining the idea, whether or not he knows the full story.
He should know. He should be the one angry and hell-bent on making the sonofabitch pay for what he did to Paige.
The drawn-out way I want to hurt the guy who did this is savage and could have me labeled a psychopath if it ever became news.
“Why are you so angry?” she asks, surprising me. I spin and stomp back to the island, pushing my hips between her knees and placing my hands on the granite to lean into her space. She doesn’t pull back, but her eyes widen.
“Why aren’t you?”
“I am angry!” she shouts in my face. “Why do you think I was parked out there? I was too angry to be driving, but I needed to get away from my family and their insane business dealings.” She shakes her head and returns her eyes to me.
“Having my future decided for me is one thing. Being told who to marry because it’s fortuitous for the family business is a whole new level of screwed up.
But maybe it’s the only way they think they can get what they want.
” The sad tone her voice takes lends itself to acceptance and I’m not about to let her roll over and allow them to use her like that.
“What kind of deal would they get from selling you off like chattel?” The energy of her anger crackles between us when I speak, and I encourage it.
“You’re valuable, so they better be getting something good for this kind of fucked up trade.
What does an heiress like you fetch on the marriage market?
A couple million? A private jet? Some nice new vacation home? ”
The sting of her slap comes as no surprise after my taunts. The burn on my cheek is refreshing, and I wish she could feel that incandescent truth for herself, without the physical pain.
“How dare you!” Her chest heaves against the green silk of her top and I want to send buttons flying when I rip it off her.
Instead, I smile cruelly. “Stay angry, Paige. Maybe you’ll clear that pretty little head of yours and realize how fucked your family is to even consider this. You’re not a bargaining chip for a business deal, honey, you’re the whole damn pot.”
The righteous indignation leaves her as she shrinks into herself.
“My family is unusual, and so is the way they do business. They don’t see anything wrong with arranging marriages to make a profit or invest in the family business.
The way my legacy is passed down is to a married heir, so I can see why they’re making me get married, and having it be good for their own ends as well. ”
She blows out a breath and looks anywhere but in my eyes. I want to grab her cute little chin and force her to look at me. I curl my fingers around the edge of the island instead.
“My parents had an arranged marriage to join two powerful empires, just like generations of Fairchilds have done before. To them, it’s normal to want to marry me off to another family that would be an advantageous match when it comes to vertical integration.”
“Stop it. You’re thinking way too rationally about something completely irrational. Listen to yourself, for fuck’s sake! Getting married for advantageous vertical integration? This isn’t the boardroom, it’s your life.”
“I’m just trying to make sense of things and see it from their perspective,” she snaps. “They have to have their reasons, and I want to be objective about it.”
“There’s nothing to be objective about with their nasty little plan.
They want you to marry a guy who was willing to rape you.
What do you think your relationship will be like?
Separate bedrooms and lives? No. He’ll take full advantage of the situation and your parents will want grandkids, so guess what, you’ll be getting raped whenever he wants to have you and it’ll be under the guise of your marital duties so you’ll have to take it. ”
Crass and cruel, but it’s the truth. Boys who think it’s okay to get girls drunk in order to coerce sex from them turn into men who are sick and twisted. I would bet my Maybach the fucker has tried what he did to Paige on others, and I want to hunt him down and trap him like the rat he is.
“I bet he was thrilled about his part of the bargain.”
She looks up at me, her big eyes brimming with tears again. “He was.”
The crack in her voice nearly brings me to my knees. I don’t want this for her, and she shouldn’t be forced into anything remotely this shitty.
“You can’t marry him.” It seems like the most obvious statement I can make, but it needs to be said.
“I never said I would.”
“You’re still trying to see things from your parent’s perspective, so that tells me you’re at least considering the pros and cons of going through with it. What happened to that line you can’t cross?”
“I was just blindsided, okay? I never imagined they would even suggest something like this, let alone have them spring it on me at Sunday dinner when everyone but me was in on it.”
“They’re something else.” I shake my head, feeling the righteous anger quelling as the need to comfort and protect her wells up. I need to help her through this in whatever way she’ll let me. I take a deep, steadying breath to push the anger out of my tone. “What do you want to do now?”
“Run away,” she says wistfully.
I straighten up. This I can work with. I have the means to send her anywhere she could possibly want to go.
Paris, Bali, Australia. If she names a town I’ve heard of, I’ll send the jet there in a heartbeat.
“If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?” I will make it happen with the snap of my fingers, but I don’t offer that information.
Her cheeks turn pink, and her mouth closes tight. She shakes her head, refusing to answer. What kind of answer would have her reacting like that? I’m more curious than ever about the inner workings of her incredibly sexy mind.
“Tell me, honey. What was the first thing that just popped into your head?”
“Somewhere with you.” Her whisper is so faint I have to play it over in my head to realize what she said.
“You can go anywhere in the world and you want to be with me?” I ask softly. I’m floored by the possibility that she feels even a hint of the attraction I do, that she could want me, despite our decade-plus age gap and our obvious differences.
“It’s stupid, I know, but you made me answer with what first came to my mind and for some reason, I decided to be honest. I take it back. I want to go to Turks and Caicos.”
I grin. “No takebacks. If you want to be with me, you’re getting what you want. You want to run away? Good. You’re coming with me to Atlanta.” I press a kiss to her forehead and saunter across the flat to the bathroom, leaving her stunned on the island.
“Where are you going?” she calls after a few seconds.
“I need a shower. Unless you want to join me, I suggest you get comfortable for the ten minutes it’s going to take me.”
Her gasp of shock is gorgeous, and I laugh as I close the bathroom door.
She’s really innocent. It’s hard to imagine that someone as stunning as she is would balk at being invited to shower with a man.
Granted, we only met twenty-four hours ago, and she’s just agreed to run away with me, but I had assumed she would be a little more experienced, or at least a little more confident with men.
I’m starting to think she’s untouched, and that spikes the possessive feelings in me to new levels.
If I were an animal, I’d pee a circle around her and fight off any males who dared come close.
It also makes me feel like a lecherous bastard.
I am way too old for her, and she’s far too innocent for me.
I do the next best thing to marking my territory.
I pull out my phone and send a message to my assistant.
I need more information about this Garrison kid and want to know about the Fairchilds’ interesting marriage clause in their inheritance practices.
I leave strict instructions to be discreet but thorough, then step into the shower.