What I didn’t anticipate were the ancillary injuries for which I was completely unprepared. The physical components and pain in my body parts are by far the easier to manage.
He lifts the receiver on the desk phone and punches a button. After a pause, he speaks. “Send her in.”
My heartbeat speeds. No fucking way did I plan to be taking on an adolescent orphan right now. As a matter of fact, my plan was to recoup somewhere on the beach in a fucking hut and have as little human contact as possible. Instead, I’m about to become some sort of pseudo-father for a girl with no one else.
“This is crazy,” I mumble, doing my best to hide the struggle as I stand.
Gerald lumbers from behind his desk toward the office door. I’m big, but he’s a mountain of a guy, standing several inches above my six-foot-five, and he has at least a hundred pounds on me. I put on a good twenty in pure muscle working out while I’ve been away the last few years and I was no joke to begin with.
I run my hand down my chest smoothing out the wrinkles in my denim shirt. Wondering if I should have dressed more the dad part. My olive-green cargo pants are threadbare around the hems, and my black boots haven’t been polished since I got home. I’m a little scary looking truth be told.
“I’ll let her in, then I’ll leave you two to get acquainted.” Gerald turns the knob and the dark wooden barrier swings open. “Try to be nice, okay? She’s had a damn rough time too. You do remember her name is Brinna, right?”
“Yes, I know.” I grouse glaring at him then turning to see what is waiting for me behind the door.
She stands just on the other side, teeth pressing into her bottom lip and arms crossed over her chest like she’s afraid she may fly apart at any moment.
The world around me instantly evaporates. The ringing in my ears turns to a violent thunder as my muscles twitch. With my next breath, I fight the reaction from below my belt, filled with crazed guilt.
Looking back at me are the same eyes that pleaded with me from under the black veil. The sight of this girl with the same golden irises shakes me back to that dusty street and nearly drops me to my knees.
“Brinna, this is Ace.” Gerald eases her into his office with a guiding hand. “Your new guardian.” His words echo in my head, but all I see are the eyes of the girl that not only just stole my heart but somehow found my soul.
She’s too young. And she’s just lost everyone she cares about. This is wrong. I’m wrong. How the fuck am I going to do this?
“Hi.” Her soft voice and plump lips do nothing to ease the ache she’s broken open inside of me. “Um, nice to meet you, I guess. I mean, I wish it was under different circumstances, but I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to let me stay on at the house and...” Her voice trails off, her eyes darting from side to side and I see the glint of tears she’s fighting to hold back. My heart almost breaks. “I just...have no one else. I promise I won’t be any bother to you. I’m quiet and clean. I can cook. I’m a good girl.”
The sorrow and catch in her words make me want to pull her into me and keep her safe from the world for the rest of her days. There is a glow around her like I’ve never seen around a person before and I wonder if I’m the only one that sees it.
I’m momentarily frozen. Her eyes remind me of sunflowers. Huge and round with feathered, golden edges outlining deep brown rings and black pupils. Something about her binds her to me in that instant, and it’s more than just those papers I signed. It’s more than the fact that she reminds me of the young girl who would still be alive if not for me.
She’s mine, legally yes, but in another way, I’d not before considered.
Her hair falls down in a split over her shoulders, silky straight and the color of chocolate diamonds. The contrast with the faded green Mountain Dew tank top, along with white shorts that hug curves fit for a woman, not a girl, have my eyes devouring every underage inch of her.
I grit my teeth and draw a long breath through my nose, inhaling a scent that is swirled with pure innocence and the first hint of spring.
Gerald disappears mumbling something about leaving us to it, and the door closes behind him, leaving me here with my filthy thoughts about a girl that is now in my care and custody.
I will do right by her.
I vow at that moment never to touch her.
To shove down into the depths of my pain all the wrong and depraved things that are playing over and over in my mind right now. To use her to right the wrongs that leave me afraid to sleep, lest the nightmare faces of those that I let down visit me over and over.
What would her lips feel like on my cock? Heaven, I’m sure of it.
Stop. I’m a depraved monster.
She swipes the back of her hand across the tear that crests her lower lid. “I’m sorry. I’m just—"
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m nervous too. I’m sure we’ll figure it out as we go. You call me Ace.”
Her eyes twinkle, and a sad smile brushes across her lips as she speaks. “Yeah, I guess calling you Daddy doesn’t quite work.” She forces a laugh, and I note the cross hanging on a delicate chain just above the rounded cleavage where I shouldn’t be staring. The pendant isn’t new. It’s elegant, rose gold, and expensive looking; encrusted with what looks to be emeralds and I wonder if it was from her Grandmother as it glimmers, resting against her olive skin.
The pain in my leg and head that’s been my constant companion since the explosion is suddenly gone. Or maybe it’s just masked by the flood of other, before unknown feelings that have me on the verge of cumming in my pants and erecting walls and towers around her, so the rest of the world knows to whom she belongs now—and that they better stay the fuck away.
“Guess not.” I step forward, shoving my hands into my trouser pockets, hoping to casually adjust my hard-on so as not to send her running to CPS within the first minutes of our meeting.