“I’m her guardian,” I remind her. Or am I reminding myself? Because when Vivian let me feed her, when she moaned, hell when she just fucking existed in the same space as me–I couldn’t look away. I can’t seem to think straight when she’s near.

  My phone buzzes. I pull it out and scroll through several emails concerning one of the big deals I’m working on. Nothing pressing. Not yet, anyway. The landscape has changed now that David and Laverne are gone. It’s going to be tricky to reassure certain partners that their business is safe in my hands.

  I switch my phone to silent and pocket it.

  Mrs. Putnam notices, but she doesn’t say anything. I can already hear her thinking He never turns his ringer off. Ever.

  “I’m just going to go–”

  “Go upstairs and apologize for being a stuffy weirdo.” She disappears into the kitchen.

  “I wasn’t being a stuffy weirdo,” I grumble as I climb the stairs. But it’s not like I’m taking advice from Mrs. Putnam. I was going to follow Vivian anyway. I can’t seem to help myself. Wherever she is, I suddenly want to be. I’m not a stuffy weirdo, I’m an obsessed stalker.

  I pause in front of her door and lift my hand to knock, but then I hear a sniffle inside. Is she … crying? Not on my goddamn watch! I open the door and find her in the kitten enclosure.

  “Griff?” She sits up, and that’s when I see the tears running down her cheeks. I’ve always hated when people try to shorten my name to Griff. With her, I enjoy it.

  “No.” I go to her and lift her from the pen, then put her on my lap as I sit on her bed.

  “No what?”

  “No tears, Viv.” I wipe her cheeks. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She shrugs. “Everything. I don’t know.”

  “Is it because of your parents?”

  “I think it’s just a lot. My parents. Moving here.” She sighs.

  I realize she’s exhausted. She has to be. And she has a point–maybe she didn’t particularly enjoy boarding school, but being ripped away from the only home you ever knew can’t be easy.

  “I’m sorry.” I kiss her forehead.

  “You don’t have to apologize.”

  “I know that.” I kiss her again, loving the feel of her soft skin. “And I generally never say those words, but with you, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it better.”

  “I’m already better.” She snuggles against my chest.

  “Did you get enough to eat? I can bring a plate up here for–”

  “I can’t eat another bite … Until tomorrow.”

  I hold her tight and rock her a little. “I know it’s a lot. I get it. I’m not an easy person to get to know. At least, that’s what people think, and I rather like people believing that about me.”

  “Why? To keep them away?” She sounds drowsy, her body relaxing in my hold.

  “Exactly.” I’ve never thought about it with any sort of direct clarity. But she hit it right on the head. I don’t want anyone to get close to me. Having someone really know me is a weakness, a mistake. It’s something I’ve never even considered. But with Vivian, I find I want her to know me.

  “I feel like I’ve learned a lot about you today.”

  I scoot back, keeping her in my lap as I pull the blanket over us. “I want to know everything about you. More about school and your plans for the future.”

  “No one’s ever asked. I mean, my mom would sometimes ask me what I wanted to do for a living, but I have no idea. And then she would change the subject to whatever it was she and my father would be doing next–skydiving, scuba, some sort of hike to a Hawaiian volcano. At first, I held their disinterest against them, but then I learned to live with it. It’s just how they were, you know?”

  “You should never have to learn to live with that, especially when you were still a child. You deserve parents who love you and show it.”

  “But you didn’t have that either.” She breathes out on a sad sigh.

  “No.”

  “You deserve that kind of love, too.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “I do.” Her voice grows stronger, and she leans back and looks me in the eye. “Don’t ever doubt that, Griff. You deserve love, the sort that’s unconditional and unbreakable.”

  Fuck, why do I feel a goddamn tingle beneath my ribs? Right where my heart should be. She’s so earnest, her eyes like pools of truth. I want to believe her, but she doesn’t know me. Not the darkness and the bad deeds. All she’s seen is me as her guardian. Whatever tales she’s heard of my ruthless business tactics aren’t even the half of what I’ve done.

  She settles back against me, her breaths becoming slower until I’m certain she’s out. Her body goes lax, and I ease her next to me so she’s resting comfortably, her head still on my chest. I run my fingers through her soft hair as mama kitty jumps onto the bed. She looks at me with the same burning reproach I’m used to from Mrs. Putnam.

  “I’m not going to hurt her,” I whisper to the feline. “Ever.”

  She gives me a look as if to say “You better not, bitch,” then returns to her kittens in the enclosure.

  I keep stroking Vivian’s hair. It seems I can’t keep my hands off her. She sleeps peacefully, and I let her. I won’t move until she’s gotten all the rest she needs. Because she deserves the same sort of rock-solid support that she just described to me.

  While I realize I’m not the kind of man who’s capable of nurturing anyone, I feel like maybe Vivian is the exception to that rule. At least, I hope she is, because she’s quickly become the center of my world.

  10

  VIVIAN

  Warmth surrounds me. It’s everywhere. I want to burrow down deeper into it and never dig my way out. I’ve never been more comfortable or content in my life. Something inside me has settled. I don’t dare move, in fear that it will all be taken away.

  I drift in and out of sleep—or maybe I’m never actually awake and it’s all a dream. Griff slowly strokes my hair. If I was a kitten, I’d purr loudly so he’d know to never stop. At some point I shift, rolling to my side and wrapping my arms around his waist to ensure he can’t go anywhere now.

  “Sir,” I hear someone say. I think it’s Vinnie. He was one of the men that helped with some of my boxes. I think he is in charge of security for Griff. I noticed he was the one always giving the orders to the men in black.

  “You don’t ever come into Vivian’s bedroom,” Griff growls, the sound rumbling through his chest. I keep my eyes closed and don't point out that a few people had been in my room yesterday.

  “Sorry, we’ve been trying to get hold of you. I think your phone isn’t working.”

  “I turned it off. Leave,” Griff orders.

  “Sir, it’s important.” The room grows quiet, and Griff strokes my hair again.

  “I’ll come down to my office shortly.”

  A moment later, I hear the door close. I expect Griff to move, but he keeps stroking my hair for a few more minutes before he finally shifts me. He’s handling me so delicately. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at how slowly he slips out from under me.

  Then he tucks the blankets all around me and places pillows next to me on each side. Does he think I’m going to roll off the bed or something? I reach out, grabbing on to one of the pillows and pulling it closer to me. I wrap my arms around it, loving that his smell lingers on it.

  I assumed he left the room since it grew quiet, but then his mouth brushes across my forehead. He pauses, his breath tickling my skin before he kisses my cheek next. His fingers start stroking through my hair again, gently petting me. I have no choice but to drift back to sleep again. The lure of comfort is too strong to resist.

  I wake suddenly. My eyes flutter open to a completely dark room. I sit up, my body feeling heavy. There’s not even a sliver of light, and I’m unable to see anything. “No,” I whisper. Fear threatens to overwhelm me. I almost panic as my mind searches to remember where I am. My light. Where is my light? I always leave it on. I reach for my nightstand but find nothing. “Where are the lights?” I start to get a bit frantic.

  “No, no, no no,” I say over and over again. What did I do? Why am I here? My mind spins as I try to remember. I must have broken some rule. But I don’t think I did. I’m always so careful not to break any of them because I hate punishment.

  Griff. My mind pulls him to the surface. I run my fingers through my hair. I have Griff.

  “Griff?” I call out into the darkness, but there’s no answer.

  “Anna?” I call out to my roommate next. “Please turn on the lights!” I beg. She must have forgotten and turned my light off. I put my hands over my face. Anna wouldn’t forget. Which tells me what I need to know: I’m stuck. Again. I’m not in my dorm room. I’m in the quiet room. “Please, turn on the light.” I pull my knees to my chest and start to rock. “I’m in here!” I shout. “Don’t forget me!” I scream. Not again.

  “Meow.” Soft fur brushes against my arm.

  I gasp as everything comes flooding back to me and I’m thrown into reality. My eyes start to adjust to the darkness, and I notice a sliver of light peeking in under the thick curtains that cover the window. The room suddenly floods with light as I grab Mama and pull her into my chest.

  “Vivian.” Mrs. Putnam stands in the doorway to my room. “What happened? Are you okay?” She rushes over to the side of the bed. “Look at me.” She cups my face in her soft warm hands. “Did you have a bad dream?” Her thumbs swipe at my cheeks, wiping the tears away. I hadn’t even realized I was crying.

  “It was dark,” I manage to get out. My heartbeat is finally starting to slow down.

  “Are you afraid of the dark?”

  I nod.

  “Have you always been afraid of the dark?”

  “No,” I whisper.

  “You want to tell me what happened to make you scared of it?” She drops her hands from my face.

  “It’s fine.” I shrug, not wanting to get into the details of my past. “I forgot to unpack my light. I usually keep it on my nightstand. When I woke up, I was a little disoriented.” It must be in one of the boxes still. When I’d gone to bed last night, I’d left the bathroom light on and the door open. I glance over and see the door is still open but the light is off. “Did Griff sleep here?” Or had that been a dream also? I’m just grateful that I’m at Griff’s house and not back in that dreaded room at boarding school.

  “He was here for a while.” She smirks. He must have turned the light off. “We’ll get your light out of the box, but I’d still like to know why you’re scared of the dark. I heard you shout. You said ‘Don’t forget me.’”

  My eyes fill with tears again.

  “Oh sweet girl.” She pulls me in for a hug, squishing Mama between us, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

  “I got in trouble a few times at school. Anna, my roommate and I liked to talk a lot. A few times we were talking in class so I got sent to the quiet room.”

  “The quiet room?” She releases me from the hug.

  “It was a stupid little room they put us in when we would get into trouble. Usually it was only for a few hours, but one time they forgot about me.”

  “How long did they forget about you?”

  “A while. It was a Friday when I got in trouble, and Anna, my roommate, had gone home that weekend so no one was there to remind them to get me out.”

  “Vivian, when did they come and get you?”

  I close my eyes, hating to think about it. The room was so small and had nothing in it. I remember begging for someone to let me out. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. I remember going to the bathroom on myself. I’d been so ashamed.

  “I don’t know. Pure darkness came twice, I think. Then I woke up in the hospital, and it was Monday, I think. I stayed at the hospital for a few days before I went back to school.”

  “Did your parents know about this?”

  I shake my head. They’d been out of the country on some trip at the time.

  “You didn’t tell them?”

  “What’s the point?” I shrug. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “All right.” She stands from the bed. I let out a breath, happy she’s going to let it go. I always feel ashamed when I think back to it.

  “How about we make breakfast?”

  I’m grateful Mrs. Putman changes the subject. “Together?”

  “Yep. Are any of those recipes you have for breakfast items?”

  “Yes! There’s one for funnel cake pancakes.” I have a whole pile of recipes for breakfast, but that’s at the top. “Has Griff eaten? I can make them for him.”

  “I think he’d love that.” She smiles as I spring from the bed. All my thoughts are now focused on Griff, the darkness all but forgotten.

  11

  GRIFFIN

  “What is so goddamn pressing?” I storm into my office.

  “Sir–” Vinny holds up a hand.

  That’s when I see Charles sitting on my couch, a drink in his hand.

  “You’re dismissed,” I bark at Vinny.

  He closes the door behind him as he leaves.

  I sit at my desk.

  “Want one?” he asks.

  “I don’t drink.”

  He snorts a laugh. “What a gripping life you must lead.”

  “Is there a reason for this visit?” I lean back and get a better look at him. Disheveled. Bloodshot eyes. And beneath that, there’s true sadness. He’s lost his parents, after all. Even if they were absentee at best, they were still part of his and Vivian’s life.

  “I want my sister, and I want my share. After that, we don’t have to see each other.”

  I steeple my fingers and consider him. “I know we haven’t spoken much, if at all. But I have to say I’m somewhat puzzled by your hostile tone.”

  “Listen, I know what kind of man you are, Griffin. My sister doesn’t belong here with you. She belongs with me. The company does, too.”

  There it is. What he wants. He’s too foolish to realize a real player never tips his hand.

  “You think the company should belong to you now?”

  He nods and finishes his drink, then rises to pour himself another. “Why does an asshole who never drinks have liquor in his personal office?”

  I let him finish pouring and take a drink before I respond.

  “Well?” he asks as he retakes his seat.

  “Because when I have business guests who think they can gain some advantage over me, I prefer to give them just enough rope to hang themselves with. Alcohol is included in the rope part of that analogy.”

  He holds his glass out and stares at it. “Is it poisoned?”

  “No more than regular alcohol is just that, a poison.”

  He drinks anyway, then coughs into his palm. “Long story short, the business is mine. I already have some partners who are ready to hit the ground running on a revamp and new lines of–”

  “What partners?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “Just business people, ones with good reputations.”

  His glancing insult is amusing. “Anyone in business with a good reputation is absolute shit at business.”

  “I don’t need any double talk from you. Just hand over my sister and agree to cut ties with the business, and we’ll be fine.”

  “Why the interest in Vivian? You didn’t seem to care that she was locked away at boarding school for years on end.”

  His eyes widen. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I think I do. I think now that there’s a large inheritance at play–and I’m well aware they left her the lion’s share of the money based on your many, many bad habits and untrustworthy behavior–you want to keep her close to you until she comes of age.”

  “Let’s get one thing straight, asshole. I love my sister. Maybe I wasn’t there for her when Mom and Dad put their lives ahead of ours, but I can be there for her now. She shouldn’t be locked away anywhere–not at that school and not here with you prowling after her.”

  He’s right about one thing: I’m definitely prowling after his sister. How could I not? She speaks to me on an instinctual level. I want to protect her, but I also want to hold her in my hands, her body and soul in my possession.

  “I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time coming here today, Charles.” I stand and let out a sharp whistle.

  The door opens, and Vinny steps inside. “Mr. Shelby, right this way.”

  Charles glances at Vinny, who’s almost as tall as I am and built like a particularly angry linebacker. “You don’t want to do this, Griffin. My partners aren’t the kind of people who take kindly to insults or refusals.”

  “I thought you said they were good people?” I’m going to have to get in touch with some of my contacts to find out who exactly has Charles by the balls.

  “They’re better than you. Let’s just leave it at that.”

  “That’s not saying much, now is it?” I smirk.

  “At least let me take Vivian.” He puts his glass on my desk. “I’d be doing you a favor taking her off your hands.”

  “No. Vivian stays with me.” I flick my gaze to Vinny.

  He takes Charles by the elbow and pulls him from the room.

  “You can’t do this!” Charles yells as Vinny shoves him through the foyer and out the front door.

  A few of my guards reach for their weapons.

  “No. He’s harmless. Stand down.” Is he, though? I think to an extent, Charles is impotent and certainly doesn’t have a leg to stand on regarding the business, but if he’s gone and gotten himself mixed up with the wrong sort of people–this could get messy. I send a message to Linn, my secretary, to put a few feelers out. She’ll know who to contact, who owes me favors.

  I turn and stride down the hall to the kitchen.

  Vivian’s already looking up when I walk in. “Was that Charles? It sounded like Charles.”

  “He stopped by for a chat, but he had to be on his way.” I smile. It’s not a lie, but it’s not quite the truth either.

  “Oh, I wish he would’ve come to say hello.” She grabs a spatula and flips a pancake.

 

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