The Billionaire (4 page)

At lunchtime I made my excuses and headed for her
tree, today I will be bringing her lunch.

I didn't even want to think about why she hadn’t been
eating anything the last time I saw her. If I found out his neglect went
farther than just being careless with her feelings, like he was abusing her in
any way, I will put a fucking hurting on him the likes of which this town has
never seen. I clenched my fists at the thought of her being hurt. Put it away
Gideon don’t go borrowing trouble.

I watched her for a few seconds before exiting the
car, so beautiful, so innocent. It was amazing that she could be this, after
dealing with what she must've been dealing with behind closed doors her whole
life.

She looked around as if sensing my eyes on her and it
made me smile. Yes, I wanted her as attuned to me as I was becoming to her.

I climbed out of the car after telling my driver to
stay seated. In my hands were her lunch and a bunch of flowers. They were a
chaotic blend of beauty in shapes and color that reminded me of her. No boring
roses for my girl, they weren't exotic enough, her lips alone called for more.

"Gideon..."

She jumped off the table where she’d been sitting
reading one of her classics and ran to me. She did this as if she had been
doing it for a long time, so natural. On her face was the widest, brightest
smile and it went right through me. Damn she packed a punch.

I caught her to me and kissed her brow while running
my hand softly through her hair.

"Hello beautiful, I've come to share lunch with
you."

She blushed; I wasn't sure if it was because of my
attention, or because I had figured out that her piece of shit father hadn't
sent her to school with lunch or any way to get something to eat.

I let it go for now, there will be plenty of time for
that later right now I wanted my complete focus on her. I wanted to see her
smile again. Her face does amazing things when she smiles, not to mention what
it does to me.

I'd gotten us Caesar salads with grilled salmon, fresh
fruit salad and water to drink.

I watched to make sure she was eating before I began
to tell her of my morning's activities.

"I saw your father today."

I kept my eyes on her watching closely for her
reaction. Was the fear that entered her eyes the normal fear any teenaged girl
would have in this situation, or was it something more?

Tread carefully Gideon, do not push, not yet, no
matter what has come before, you're here now, just see to it that her life is
better for having you in it. I had to repeat that shit to myself when the fear
on her face grew palpable.

"What happened?" Her voice was so soft,
so...fearful, one day soon I will take that all away.

"He gave us his blessing."

I saw the disbelief in her eyes when she finally
picked her head up to look at me. Fear mixed with hope, a sad combination in
one so young. She made me want to weep. What is this? Was she my penance? How
could she make me feel when I never had before? Why her, why now? This whole
situation felt beyond my control, which was never a favorite of mine.

"He...Are you sure?" For fuck sake Gideon
you can’t pick her up and sit her on your lap with a schoolyard full of teens
walking around. They’re probably wondering
who
the
fuck you are in the first place, no need to make a spectacle of yourself and
her. But that hopeful sadness in her voice pierced me to the quick.

"One hundred percent, in fact I'm picking you up
from school this evening and you're going to spend some time with me before I
take you home later. Would you like that?"

"Oh yes please."

So innocently eager to be with me; please don’t let me
fuck this up.

"Go ahead, finish your lunch Blossom, we'll talk
later. Just know that your dad knows about us, and although he was a little
worried in the beginning, I guess that had more to do with my age than
anything. He came around in end though, you can call him and check if you'd
like."

I held out my phone to her but she refused.

"I believe you."

Now she's back to blushing and ducking her head. I
lifted her head with a finger under her chin.

"Why so shy?"

She just shook her head and blushed even harder. I
wanted to kiss that amazing mouth of hers, but not here. Too many prying eyes,
last time I'd forgotten myself not today. There will be plenty of time for that
later,
I'll make sure of it.

When lunch was over I had her stand in front of me so
we could talk. It was almost
time
for her to return to
classes but there was one more thing before I let her go.

"Look at me little Blossom."

She looked up at me, so fucking beautiful, damn. Will
I ever get used to it? I hope not, I hope I never lose this feeling of awe
whenever I look at her.

"I need to know, need to hear you say it, do you
want this, with me?"

She bit into her lip in that way that was bound to
make me crazy before long, before nodding her head.

"No baby, say it."

"Yes, I want...this with you..." Done deal,
the last hurdle crossed. Now I can forge full steam ahead.

"Good, now is there anything you need before I
leave you? I'll be back to get you later, should I meet you here?"

"Here's fine, and no, I don't need anything,
just..."

"Just what baby?"

"Don't hurt me."

Fuck, those words in that soft, hesitant almost
tearful voice was my undoing. How could someone hurt such a thing of beauty?

"Come here Ashley."

She came to me without hesitation, head down looking
at her feet. I wonder if I should work on that or if that was a big part of her
appeal? I didn’t want her to be this way with anyone else though. As my woman
she would be queen of the fucking city. I didn’t want her being shy and meek
with anyone else. The sharks I swam with would see that as a weakness and go
for the jugular. Then I’d have to get blood on my hands and that’s never good.
There you go again getting ahead of yourself Gideon. You’ve lost all sense of
propriety and what little bit of civility you had seems to have disappeared
entirely. Well that’s what happens when a lion has to protect his mate. I
imagine that’s exactly how the king of beast feels.

"Look at me, you have nothing to fear from me, I
will never hurt you, not in any way, and from now on no one else ever
will."

She swallowed deeply and I knew what she was thinking.
Okay then Gloves
off,
begin as you mean to go on. I
didn’t plan on keeping anything from her, and
ain’t
that a kick in the head? Me Mr. Tight-lipped Thorpe wanted to be transparent.

"I know...do you understand?" I spoke the
words softly trying to take some of the sting from them. I didn’t want to
embarrass her after all, far from it.

She’d looked into my eyes fearfully when I said I
know. She knew what I meant it was evident by the sudden tears that sprang to
her eyes. Fucking bastard, I should just make him pay for the hell of it.
 
As it stood I'm tempted to go back on my word
for the first time in my life.

I don't think I will be leaving her in his house after
all.

Chapter 6

Gideon

I spent the time between leaving her and the end of
the school day pondering my next move. If I'd thought for one second that she
was ignorant to her father's true feelings towards her I would be able to leave
her there, but the knowledge in her eyes was my deciding factor.

It felt as if I was walking a minefield, I knew
without a doubt that my Blossom would be the kind of girl who wanted the love
of her father. She wouldn’t want to just walk away from him and everything
she’d known; so how do I come between the two of them without losing her in the
process? How do I get her to see the danger without becoming the enemy in her
eyes?

I'd started out wanting her body yes; it was her
beauty after all that had first captivated me. But there was something else
there. That softness of hers was drawing me in, that sweet air of vulnerability
had me wanting to wrap her up and keep her safe for always. This was more than
lust this was so much more than anything I’d ever done before. I’d never once
wanted to protect, to own to consume. Everything about her just made me want to
be everything she could ever want. Fuck I’m in trouble here.

She wasn't something you possessed for a time she was
a treasure you cherished for a lifetime. That much I knew and I was determined
to be the one to do it. No one else will ever tap into all that sweetness. I’d
kill the motherfucker who tried.

Her youth gave me pause but only for a moment, it's my
intentions that should bear scrutiny. If I meant to go forward with this, it
must be more than a momentary fling, it must be...forever.

Could I do forever? Forever is a long fucking time,
I've never wanted forever before. Somehow with my Blossom I think I could do
two lifetimes and still not have enough. So yes, the answer is yes, I most
certainly can do forever. I could feel the lock click into
place
as I got ready to say goodbye to my freedom. Somehow I always thought there
would be panic and fear associated with that thought but, nothing. I felt
nothing but excitement at what was to come.

That was one burden lifted, now to the other.

By the time I was waiting outside the school for her I
had a course of action in mind.

I had already called her dad to say that I will be
keeping her after school before returning her to him after dinner. To say he
was displeased would be putting it mildly but I could care less, he was lucky
he was seeing her again at all; the dumb fuck. I’d hung up on him when he
started his bullshit, there was nothing he could do or say to stop this. If he
knew what was going through my mind he’d shut the fuck up or find a hole to
hide in.

I’d made up my mind how I wanted to do this now all
that was left was for me to work on getting her use to the idea of living with
me permanently. How would she react to such a thing? The interest was there
yes, but having lived such a sheltered life, having only known me for a handful
of days how would she react? Fuck Gideon since when do you think like this?
She’s the most important thing in your fucking life you’ve gone after lesser
things with more fire don’t punk the fuck out. Just
do
what you always do, take shit.

I had no doubt I could possibly force the issue in a
roundabout way, but I needed her to want it, to want me, to want us. She’s not
a business acquisition I can’t approach this situation the way I did everything
else. And that was my fucking problem and what about her? This was still so new
to her. I’ve had weeks to deal with my obsession she’s had days. But something
inside me screamed that I had to move and move fast. There was something way
the fuck off about Clifton Sanders and waiting for the report to be completed
was
gonna
drive me nuts.

The thought of him hurting her in any way destroyed
me. How could anyone seek to crush a Blossom? How could her beauty, both inner
and outer, not sway him? Was the man fucking blind, or was his hatred of his
own daughter so deep he couldn't see reason? I was afraid the latter would
prove true, and it was that fear that had knots in the pit of my stomach. By
coming on the scene the way I had, I had escalated something, how would he
react? How would he handle my existence in her life? And if he couldn't will
she pay the price?

I saw her as I waited in the back of the car. Rolling
the window down I beckoned to her as she drew nearer.

That smile, only for me, always for me, I will make it
so.

The driver got out and let her in as some curious
onlookers tried to get a glimpse of me. She was in and in my arms in seconds. I
couldn't resist; all day she had plagued me, I had hardly looked at the
spreadsheets still covering my desk, my only thoughts were of her, and us, and
our life together.

"Gideon, you came."

"I said I would." I smiled at her exuberance
as I kissed her forehead. As she pulled her head back to look at me I noticed
her lips were a bit chapped. "Where's your lip balm sweetheart?" I
ran my thumb gently over her lower lip. She hung her head and blushed, why
would such an innocent question cause such a reaction unless, shit...

"Blossom, I'm not insulting you sweetheart, I
just wondered..."

"No, no, no, it's not that, it's just that...my
dad doesn't like it." She wrung her hands together while looking down at
her lap, so she didn't see the frown that crossed my face.

"What do you mean? Doesn't like what?"

"He doesn't like me to wear lip balm or things
like that?"

"Why ever not?" This wasn't making any sense
to me at all it was such a little thing after all. I thought all teenaged girls
were into that silly stuff.

And then I remembered my reports, she didn't have any
friends, so she didn't do the teenage girl thing. For some reason that made me
sad. Cliff Sanders was a total fuck, he meant to rob her of everything that was
good in life, meant to put out any light or joy she could find in the already
mundane world he had made her life into.
 
We'll just see about that, cock-sucking bastard.

I kept a mile on my face so she wouldn't guess at my
intentions, or of the rage that was beginning to boil inside me. I rolled down
the window between
us and the driver
.

"Change of plans instead of taking us straight to
the office we need to swing by the shopping district."

"Yes sir." I rolled the window back up
before turning to her.

"How would you like to go shopping with me?"
She looked down at her uniform.

"Don't worry about that, your dad already knows
that you're with me, you don't need to be home until after dinner."

"I still don't understand how you got my dad to
agree to this..."

"That's not for you to worry about, just know
that when you're with me we can do anything you like, like go shopping for lip
balm and anything else your little heart desires.

"Really...that's...oh no wait, I can't..."
She was back to gnawing at her lip and I subconsciously pulled it out from
between her teeth with my thumb.

"Why not?"

"Because then you might think that's the only
reason I like you."

So shy and so fucking innocent; I wish to always keep
her this way, I'll do everything in my power to make sure she stays this way
for as long as possible. Which meant getting her away from my new number one
enemy before he had more of a chance to fuck her over.

"Don't worry about such things Ashley, I want to
take you shopping, I want you to have all the things you've ever wanted but
could never have."

"Really, but why?"

"Simply because I want you to, for instance, do
you have a cell phone?"

She shook her head no while pulling at the hem of her
skirt. Let me guess dear old dad didn't like that either. Well fuck him, from
now on I will see to it that she had all the things a young girl could need or
want. Cliffy boy could roast on a spit in hell for all I cared, fucking
bastard.

"Well then, that will be our first stop, how am I
supposed to keep in touch with my best girl if I can't even call her huh?"
I tried to make light of the situation, but she knew that I knew about her
personal hell.

Hopefully I can use this to get her away from that
despot.