Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 113717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
All in due time; I had a lot to do as well, now that I’d found her. My one last stumbling block was getting her away from Marion.
I knew that the trip to L.A. and Europe would take care of that temporarily, but it wasn’t in me to knowingly leave her at the mercy of someone who bore her no true love.
Although she knew nothing of my intentions, she was mine; mine to protect and shield from everyone and everything.
I hadn’t come up with a way to do it yet though. I didn’t necessarily want her living on her own in the city, but neither could I just move her in with me right away; or could I? we’ll see how it goes. Either way, I wanted her where I could get to her whenever I wanted to, and her present arrangements were not ideal for that.
“Are you finished with your lunch Kitten?” shit, I hadn’t meant to call her that, not yet anyway.
“Why did you call me that?” What should I tell her? that she was my pet, that already in my mind I was her master and she was my little kitty? Yeah right! She’d think you’d lost your fucking mind, which you very well might have.
“It’s your hair, it reminds me of this tabby cat I once owned as a child.” At least that much was true.
The answer seemed to please her; then again everything seemed to. I had the sudden hope that she would never change, that all the fuss of the upcoming weeks and her entrée into the limelight wouldn’t change one iota about her. What was I thinking? It was up to me to see that it didn’t, and I was more than up to the job.
***
I hated like hell leaving her at the end of the day, but at least I’d made progress. She was so attuned to me already, to my touch, that when I ran my little experiment on the way out of the restaurant, she’d fallen nicely into my trap. I’d purposely kept my hand away from the small of her back.
I didn’t miss the way she looked for it, or the crestfallen look on her face when she noticed I had it stuffed in my pants pocket.
Phase one was well on the way; and when I kissed her forehead right before the elevator doors opened on her floor, she was almost a puddle at my feet. “I’ll see you later sweetheart.”
The stunned but pleased look on her face as she looked back through the closing doors was all the evidence I needed.
I smiled all the way to my office, before work beckoned. I had to clear some things so that I could devote the next couple of weeks to her training. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, I would have free reign during the day when I was following her from one appointment to the next, but the nights were going to be a problem.
I cleared my mind, or tried to as I looked over spreadsheets and proposals. I’d studied engineering in school because of my love of cars and racing, and anything that had to do with them. But because I knew the old man had designated me as his heir apparent from birth, I’d minored in business.
Over the years he’d kept me in the loop whether I wanted to be or not. I’d been guilted into more board meetings than I cared to count, when all I’d wanted was to be behind the wheel.
I’d lived fast and hard in my thirty-one years and didn’t regret a one of them; but now it looked like my life was moving onto phase two.
***
I was deep in concentration going over the numbers for the last quarter when the phone rang and I answered it absentmindedly. “Yes?”
“Uh sir, there seems to be some sort of disturbance on the eighth floor. Ms. Jones has asked that you appear immediately.”
The eighth floor? That’s where she was. My heart went into double time and I dropped the phone as I headed for the door. Robyn Jones was one of my spies for lack of a better word. For her to be calling could only mean one thing. Whatever was going on, involved Kitten.
I was tempted to take the stairs in my haste to get there quickly, but reason won out and I waited the few seconds it took for the elevator to get there. I paced the confines on the ride down until the doors opened and I blew through them.
I could hear the loud voices and crying as soon as I cleared the door to the room. There were people standing around and what looked like a file cabinet had been turned over, its contents littering the floor.
I overlooked all that in my search for her and found her cowering in a corner while someone from security stood in front of her, protectively it seemed.