Chapter 2

2

Damian

Control yourself.

It’s easier said than done when I’m finally, finally, holding Arya in my arms. Watching her in that blue bikini from the rooftop’s shadows was hell on my cock. Although truthfully, my body has been in a constant state of turmoil since hers started changing. Since her tits grew a little too big for her B-cups, but she kept right on wearing them. Tormenting me.

I would love to put her on the edge of her idiotic father’s desk and make him watch as I untie her bikini top and suck on her nipples. Make her whimper again. Entice her thighs to open, welcoming me home. Make the fucking fool who didn’t guard Arya well enough watch as we lose our virginity to each other.

He’d deserve it. For not recognizing the treasure that was his daughter.

Six attempts on her precious life—six—before this motherfucker decided she was valuable enough to keep her under lock and key.

Even if her life wasn’t in constant danger because of her father’s profession, I would have watched her, though. As obsessive with this girl as I am, I had no choice. As soon as I had the means, I bought a condo right across the street from their home, my bedroom window directly facing Arya’s, so I could track her movements closely, be aware of the rare times she left the building. And if that failed, if I happened to be out on the rare occasion she left, the tracking device in her phone would have signaled me.

Call it wrong, call it illegal. I don’t give a fuck.

She’s been mine since she handed me that orange eleven years ago—and I’m about to officially claim her. Finally. I’ve waited so long to share my home with her. To have her shaking and moaning beneath me. To see her smile before the sunrise. So goddamn long.

The way she went soft when she realized my true identity, the boy from the subway steps, will knock the breath out of my lungs forever. Every time I think about it.

Up ahead, I see some bodies lying motionless near the poolside. “Put your face in my neck, sweetheart,” I say quietly, gratified when she does as she’s told.

With my men following us closely, weapons ready just in case, I carry Arya down a flight of stairs and into a private corridor that leads to her parents’ penthouse, not bothering to wait for an invitation before striding inside. The idiot mother and father are in hysterics, shouting at a police operator, who is on speakerphone. I nod at one of my men and they divest Arya’s mother of the phone, smashing it against the wall. The rest of them leave to search the penthouse for any remaining guests that aren’t dead or didn’t flee to safety.

“Hey!” Arya’s mother screeches, the giant diamonds quivering in her ears with indignation. “What…who are you? Please don’t kill us! Please! We have money!”

“Oh, Arya,” her father says, looking green. “Thank goodness, you’re okay.”

“Why weren’t you out there looking for her yourself?” I ask through my teeth. “After all, it was one of your enemies that showed up to the party with a rifle.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” he complains.

“Yes, I do.” He’s about to find out that I make it my business to know everything that could possibly touch his daughter. “Let’s speak in your office.”

“Thomas,” her mother says, backing away from my men nervously. “Why is he holding our Arya like that? Tell him to put her down. Make them leave.”

Before I can speak, Arya responds for me. “This is my guardian angel, mother. I told you he was real. And he just saved my life.” She nuzzles her face against my shoulder and sighs. “Again.”

“I told you to stop spouting that nonsense,” Thomas blusters, but his mouth snaps shut when I spear him with a look. “What do you want to discuss in my office?”

“The fact that I’m taking your daughter home with me. Where she belongs.” I jerk my chin at the door located on the right side of the corridor and he pales. That’s right, I know where your office is. I know every room in the house.I know every hair on her head. “After you.”

Thomas’s throat bobs and he stomps off toward the office.

“Don’t let her make any calls,” I say, referring to the mother. Then I step over the broken pieces of her phone and follow Thomas, Arya’s sweet body still locked in my arms. I’m not letting her out of my sight ever again. Where I go, she goes. End of story.

Arya’s father takes a seat behind his desk and I settle us into a chair facing him.

“Am I to understand that you know who was responsible for the…the…” He uses a handkerchief to mop the back of his neck. “The massacre that just took place on my goddamn roof?”

“You’ll find out eventually. The bodies upstairs won’t have any identification on them, but you’d piece it together.” I shrug. “Or I could make your job easier, tell you now. As long as you don’t try and stand in my way when I take your daughter.”

He scoffed. “I can’t do that. You and your associates are criminals, too, just like the men lying dead above our heads.”

I incline my head. “That is true.”

“And acknowledging that, you think I’d willingly relinquish my own child to you.”

“In a minute you won’t have a choice, so I’m advising you to think carefully.”

While he’s sputtering, I give in to my need to check on Arya, tucking my jacket in around her so she stays warm in the air conditioning. Her cheek is pressed to my shoulder, her beautiful doe eyes serious, maybe even a little nervous over the nature of the discussion I’m having with her father. But she stays in my arms, trusts me, doesn’t try to leave me—and her loyalty twists my stomach into a pretzel. God, I love her, I love her so much it burns.

“You’re mine now,” I whisper, leaning down to kiss her soft mouth. “You’re mine now and everything is going to be okay.”

She nods trustingly. “I knew you’d grow up to be brave,” she whispers.

Christ, now I can’t swallow. Is it going to be like this all the time now?

It was hard enough keeping a semblance of composure when she was across the street or nearby in public. Holding her, having all that sweetness at my disposal twenty-four seven is going to fucking kill me. At least I’ll go with a smile on my face.

Unfortunately, I’ll need Arya to understand that I might worship the ground she walks on, but I’m not a good man.

I’m a very bad man, actually. I kill people when necessary, I extort, I make deals with the many devils in this city. It’s how I built my empire, so I’d have something to offer her. A place to keep her safe. I worry what she’ll think about me, if she’ll change her mind once I’ve laid everything out bare, but that’s a tomorrow problem. Her father is today’s.

“Here’s a better question, how did you know these men would be attempting to assassinate my daughter tonight? Maybe you’re responsible.”

It’s kind of amusing how proud of himself he is. “Any time you lock someone up or sanction one of the crime families in this city, I find a mole. Whether I pay one of them to talk or insert somebody myself, I find a way to get information before it’s even available. For instance, I know you’re two steps behind every single one of your conquests. But not me.” I let my fingertip travel over Arya’s knee, slowly up the outside of her thigh. He watches me, his cheeks puffing out, but he correctly senses he can’t stop me. “I can protect this girl a thousand times better than you can. I have been for years.” I lean down and kiss her mouth, licking the seam of her lips slowly until she starts wiggling around in my lap. “Understand me when I say that I allowed you to keep her until she finished high school and turned eighteen. But it’s over now. She’s going to be my wife as soon as I take my edge off.”

“You’re vile.” His face is mottled red now. “How dare you talk like this to me about my daughter! Arya, get off his lap immediately.”

I run my thumb back and forth on her inner thigh. “You’re going to pack up everything you own, Arya,” I say without taking my eyes off her father. “You’re not coming back here.”

“Will I still be able to run my dog adoption website?” she whispers up at me.

“Of course you will,” I assure her. It’s remote, requiring no actual contact with real life people who could do her harm. I’ve watched her run the operation through the window of her bedroom for years, my pride in her almost melting me.

“This is outrageous!” Thomas explodes, picking up his phone. “I’m calling the police.”

With a sigh, I take an envelope out of my pocket and slide it across his desk. He eyes it warily for a moment, then picks it up. When he sees the pictures inside, the blood drains from his face. They are photos of him barbequing with the secret family he has stashed away upstate. A wife and two sons. Just another thing to distract him from protecting my future wife, like he should have been. I have no sympathy.

“Don’t try and stop me from taking her. If you do, or if you try and lay a finger on my organization, those will find their way to every news station in the city.” I stand with Arya in my arms, giving in to a little temptation by settling her butt on the edge of the desk, fisting her hair and tilting her head back. I slide my tongue into her mouth and French her perfect little unkissed mouth while letting her father know with my eyes, in no uncertain terms, who she belongs to now. Who she’ll belong to forever. “Mine,” I growl, rocking against her pussy once, before scooping her back off the desk. “After we leave, Thomas, you’ll wait five minutes, then call the police. Tell them the gunmen turned on each other. The cameras have been out for hours, so when you tell them I was never here, they’ll have no choice but to believe you. And your daughter is perfectly safe at a friend’s house. Do I need to repeat anything?”

Thomas clears his throat, still staring at the pictures. “No.”

I turn and walk out.

Holding her in my arms, knowing she’ll sleep beside me tonight, I feel whole for the first time in my life. But there’s one component to claiming Arya I didn’t anticipate.

Now that I’ve made her mine, I’m terrified out of my mind of losing her. Or her being hurt in my care. And a million other little things. It’s like my heart is suddenly walking around outside of my body and I can’t sew it back in.

No. No, she’ll never be hurt on my watch.

I won’t allow it.

But what if the universe doesn’t care about my rules?