by Celia Crown
Simone
“Stay in the car.”
Aria glances between me and the man who had gotten up from the steps and begin to walk towards my car. His access to the passenger side of the door is unblocked, and I don’t like him being any closer to Aria than he is.
I jump out of the car and step towards the door with a frown on my face. It’s dark outside and this man has no business being here at an hour that isn’t appropriate for a man to be near a young woman.
Especially not my little girl.
“Who’re you?” he snippily asks.
When I don’t answer him, he puffs up his chest and cocks his head to the side. His eyes search into the black-tinted windows of my car; he narrows his eyes to see if Aria is in there, and I move into his vision.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask back, equally impatient with his haughty attitude pissing me off.
“I’m here for Aria,” he says, and his lips curl in displeasure. “You’re her boss, aye? I remember her saying you’re rich.”
At this moment I knew what kind of man this person is. He is a greedy fuck that wants to leech off of my Aria’s hard work. I don’t want this man anywhere near her; it seems that further intervention will need to be implemented.
“Who I am is not your concern,” I click my tongue at his pathetic glare, “Do not come here again.”
He snorts, cockily rolling his eyes. “This isn’t a place for rich brats like you. Get back to your fancy finger food and spoiled princesses.”
When he tries to go around me for the door, I put myself between him and Aria again. His face clouds with annoyance, but his irritation isn't matched with my fury as I show it on my face.
“Get the fuck out of here, rich boy!” He breathes and reeks of alcohol.
His drunk man is a threat to my Aria, but before I can get him away, the door opens and Aria pops out. Concern was written on her face, and she shuffles closer to me while trying to stop her body from going to the man.
I hook an arm around her arm and yank her to my side, and I drop it to be ready for any belligerent behavior a drunken man can have. Alcohol lowers self-assessing thoughts and this man clearly is inebriated to the point that he’s going to start swinging futile punches by the redden anger on his face.
He slurs as his hand jerks out to try and grab her, “Aria!”
She jumps in shock beside me, holding the back of my shirt for a human shield. Given her reaction to this behavior, I can hazard a guess that this is the first time she had seen him drunk or violent.
If she had been a victim of drunken abuse, I would have known about it. I have not found any imperfection on her body when I would take her measurements every day, and I’m glad that it had never happened or I would have killed this man for putting his dirty hands on what’s mine.
“Is that how it is?” the man sways on his feet, the alcohol taking a stronger effect on him as my eyes find the empty alcohol bottles on the doorsteps.
I didn’t see them before because there is no porch light on her apartment unit and it’s enough for me to decide that this is not going to be her home any longer. A young girl shouldn’t live alone without the strongest protection in her life, and those damn bolt locks aren’t it.
“I give you everything, and you pick him?” he snarls, out of his mind with anger.
Aria struggles to hold me back and hides behind me at the same time. She doesn’t want me to straight-up give this man a physical beatdown, but she doesn’t want him near her either.
“I make one fucking mistake, and you go spreading your legs to the first man that gives you attention!” he shouts, shrilling through the dark street.
She whimpers, “No! it’s not—Mr. Simone isn’t like that! This isn’t what it looks like!”
My Aria has no reason to explain to this man what our relationship is, and this man has no business of sticking his drunk ass into situations that don’t concern him.
“I’m a man!” he barks, huffing with unfocused rage in his hooded eyes. “I cheated one fucking time! I’m allowed that! I have a second chance, and you get back here right now!”
I have met a handful of hostile individuals in my life, and this man is by far one of the most entitled ones I have ever had the ill-fated experience of speaking to. I’m losing brain cells just by being in his vicinity because of how absurd this lunatic is.
Aria shuffles out from behind me and starts to go to him with frightened eyes. I had always told her that she needs to stick up for herself and put her foot down on something that she doesn’t want to do or she’s going to get taken advantage in life.
That’s fine. If she’s still learning how to become stronger, she has me to stick up for her. I’m not easily intimidated, and it’s going to take a lot more than a stupid man with intoxicated courage to win against me, who has ruled the world of cutthroat business.
“Stay!” My order has more influence on her as she stalls in mid-step before coming to huddle to my side.
“Oh!” he screeches, “You fucking slut!”
Aria chokes, eyes widen with vulnerable hurt in those blue hues that squeeze my heart. Anger wraps its scorching fingers around my neck, redness creeping in the corner of my vision as the swaying man stumbles forward.
Insulting my little girl means he is insulting me, and I take that very seriously.
“If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be a lonely, ugly fucking whore! Be grateful I gave you my time!” he screams on the top of his lungs.
“I said get over here now!”
She sniffles, holding back her tears when the man lunges at her. I swing my fist to his throat, hoping to aim at his larynx to break his damn neck. I can get away with premeditated murder if I want to but killing him would only further haunt the already distraught girl behind me.
The man falls to the ground, coughing and holding onto his neck. I’m not looking at him because his action had been so big that he had frightened Aria. She had taken a step back and slipped on the curb of the sidewalk, falling on her ass and hitting the back of her head on my car.
Split between pummeling the man to a bloody pulp and taking her to a safer place, I decide that he can be dealt with later. I pick up her in my arms and swing my shoe to the door. It smacks against the metal, and a voice command from me has the door lifting up by itself.
I place her in the passenger seat and thread my fingers through her black hair. She whimpers wetly when I find the small bump on the back of her head from the fall, and she moves away from me with a small plea to not touch it.
I wipe a fallen tear from her cheek; it’s all I can do to sate the fury raging in me. She takes my hand when she sees the darkening expression on my face. Aria shakes her head and takes a shuddering breath.
“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I’m okay.”
She isn’t okay. She’s hurt and in pain. The man on the floor groaning in his own pain is going to feel more than the need to hold onto his windpipe because without Aria here to stop me, I would have stomped him to death like a damn cockroach.
“Please don’t,” she hastily says, yanking my hand down to her cheek.
I press my knee to the rocky sidewalk and stroke her soft cheek; the discomfort on my shin means nothing as compared to the pain in her small body.
How dare this foolish man sign his own death certificate by hurting Aria?
“You are not safe here.”
This neighborhood isn’t safe for her. This man is a danger, and she simply needs me by her side. It’s decided in my head a long time ago that my master bedroom is going to be her room too; she doesn’t need a guest room when she belongs next to me.
“Come home with me.”
Aria’s eyes flutter shut for a moment. She blinks the remaining tears away and nods slowly. She’s unaware of the permission she had given me to strip away another layer of her freedom. I’m a bastard and a vile man, but I don’t regret it.
“Okay,” she whispers.
Standing up a
nd casting a disgruntled look to the coughing man on the ground, I leave him to fend for himself in this unsafe neighborhood. He is not my concern; the only goal I have in mind is destroying everything he loves.
The drive back to my home is long, and Aria stays quiet the whole time, casually glancing at me with admiration in sparkling blue eyes.
My chest swells as I reach over to take one of her smaller hands into mine. She’s warm and soft under my unyielding grip; Aria makes no move to pull away while she clenches her tiny fingers over mine.
It’s an exhausting day, and I had not planned this night to end like this. I am not thankful for that man for pushing this luck for me to bring Aria home with me. I would have found a way to get her little ass into my den without an act of violence.
I park the car at my multimillion-dollar mansion and pick up the tired girl into my arms without her struggling in her usual meek demeanor. Aria plops her head against my chest and obediently lets me take her into a place foreign to her.
Her trusting nature runs too far, and it pleases the damned beast in me, but the logical part of me wants to scold her for going into a man’s home with no precaution.
There is no one in my home, not housekeepers or employees, and there are no guards walking in my home without my permission. My privacy is mine alone, and I do not share the same view as other homeowners with a team of employees to keep the house clean and running.
I do things myself, and I will only let the team of house cleaners into my home once I find that it needs a good cleaning.
“I’m sorry,” Aria murmurs, eyes downcast and shy when she peeks at me. “I’m troubling you.”
I set her down at the massive bathroom connected to my bedroom. “You never trouble me. You’re hurt on my watch; it should be me that is the one troubling you.”
She cocks her head, confused and willing to listen as I pull up a bath. I do quick showers, and there is not a single flowery-scented thing in my bathroom for her, so I dump the entire bottle of body wash into the bathtub for the water to create bubbles with.
I need her to relax and take her time showering because I need to take care of something too dark for her precious little innocence to know.
“That’s too much!” she giggles behind her hands, blue eyes curving with brightness.
I don’t care about the overflowing bubbles popping on the sleeve that’s wrapped around my elbow; her smile is so breathtaking that I’m blessed to be able to see such a gorgeous sight.
“You’re only supposed to put about five pumps and not the whole bottle to make bubbles that would fill up the entire room!” Aria breeches the quietness with another round of giggling.
She’s too beautiful, so unreservedly delectable that I want to eat her up.
“I want you in here until I come in to get you.” I point towards the bathtub, and her cheeks go red again.
“No, you don’t have to!” she squeaks, “I’ll be fine by myself!”
It’s not that I don’t trust her to shower and take a bath herself, but I want to make sure she stays in the bathroom to prevent her from hearing anything from the phone call that I would be making.
“I know you will,” I say while smoothing down her hair and avoiding the small painful bump at the back of her skull.
That car needs to be crushed. As unreasonable as it sounds, I still want it gone because it had harmed her.
“You have disobeyed me,” I say to see a flash of realization hitting her blue eyes.
She fidgets and murmurs under her breath. It’s likely another apology when she closes her fist into the shirt that I had let her borrow.
“Daddy doesn’t like it when his little girl disobeys a direct order.”
Unwilling to disappoint me, Aria breathes in deeply. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”
Whether she came out to stop me from teaching that man a lesson or stop that man from putting his hands on me, I find her thought process to be foolish. Aria just needs to get it into her naïve mind that I don’t need her to protect me; she’s the one who needs the protection from me.
Aria is learning. She’s becoming my good little girl.
Someone would diagnose me as a predator, manipulating a young girl and grooming her into something that she isn’t, but that is an outsider's observation. I know Aria, and she has this innate ability to obey me, follow every given instruction by Daddy, and perform it to the best of her ability.
She needs my guidance, and I’m willing to take that label of a predator than let her go. I’m a grown-ass man who is at least ten years older than her, but age is just a number when being in love means sacrificing things.
My image has never been a big problem for me. My Public Relations team is a bunch of rancorous vultures ready to demolish any words that put a dark spot on my reputation. I hire them for one job only, and if they can't perform that to perfection, then they will have no use for me.
“Be a good girl for Daddy and wait until I get back.” I press my lips to her forehead, and she weakly nods.
Maybe if she hasn’t been so shaken up with that drunken incident, she would have been more guarded against my ministration and put distance between us. That is not what’s happening right now, and I believe that this is the chance for me to push the boundaries of professionalism.
It’s laughable. Aria and I are beyond that, I have never seen her as an employee or a student that wants to learn from me. They were all excuses for me to be closer to her and have her under my protection while allowing her the last tastes of her freedom.
“Everything in here can be used,” I tell her.
She’s the type of girl that will never do anything without permission. She won’t use the towels, the robes, or any hygiene products in the bathroom unless I specifically tell her it is hers to use. I would not be shocked to come back in here and see her shriveling up in the cooled water because she didn’t know what to do after soaking in hot water.
“You’re not imposing. Everything Daddy owns is yours.”
Giving a kiss to her cheek, I boldly murmur her name affectionately on her skin. She mewls gently and whispers her answer with my name.
“Okay, Daddy.”
I didn’t believe I could get her to accept me as her Daddy, but circumstances beyond my control had gotten her into the mindset already. It is benefiting me as it lessens my work to slowly sink her down to that space where I am the only source of life she needs.
No matter how reluctant I am to admit it, I am glad that foolish drunk made an ass out of himself.
I walk out of the bathroom and close the door behind me. I wait until I hear her small giggles echoing through the door and water splashing to pull out my phone.
Dialing a number to my security at the company, I only have to wait for two rings before the head of security picks up. He’s been with my company since the beginning, and he does his work with efforts beyond what I ask for.
“Get rid of the trash at Miss. Sawyer's home.”
The man on the other end receives the order clearly while asking if there is any further instruction from me. No one in my company signed up to be working for me to eventually have to do something illegal, but that is exactly what I am thinking.
The only one I trust to do this is the man on the phone.
“Find out everything about him and have it on my desk by tomorrow.”
The man politely takes my orders, and I hang upon him. I toss the device to the side, not caring if it landed on the bed or the floor. I tug out a shirt from the closet and a pair of sweatpants from the drawers for my Aria to wear.
I knock on the bathroom door, and she answers back hastily before she fumbles with the doorknob. She steps out, with hair dried from the hairdryer and smell of mint soap. She smells of me, and it would be perfect when she wears the clothes that I hand to her.
She accepts them without question and shyly shuts the door again. Good thing that I’m in the right mind as of now, but I don’t know how I will control this cloud of lust w
ith her in my grasp.
That desire becomes a sinful obsession when she comes out again, dressed in my clothing and naked underneath. She folds her arms around her chest to block her perky nipples, and I can guarantee that she doesn’t have panties on when she clenches her thighs together.
I bite my tongue. “Get on my bed and go to sleep.”
I don’t trust myself in the same room as her.
“I will be next door from you.”
Chapter Five
Aria
I haven’t been home for the last two weeks. Simone won’t let me near there; he had given me the reason that my ex-boyfriend is still roaming around. I have been grounded in his home and his office; he’s with me every minute of the day unless it’s bedtime.
My ex-boyfriend had never been violent with me, never raised his hand towards me like that night. I was truly scared of him; his eyes were bulging out as if he hadn't believed that I brought Simone home even if he was just dropping me off, and the way his lips had curled in disgust when my boss protected me.
I didn’t understand why he had called me those names. I have never been physically intimate with anyone, and when we were in a relationship, we didn’t kiss or even hug. He just didn’t like touching me, and I was fine with it, I hadn't felt any compulsion to touch him as I have with Simone.
It hurt me deeply when my ex-boyfriend had called me those derogatory terms. I don’t want Simone to think of me as someone who isn’t pure and good for him. I want, desperately and hopelessly, to be the best girl for Simone.
Standing up from the floor, I rub my butt that I had fallen on as the stool wasn’t stable and toppled over. My butt had just healed after coming in contact with the concrete floor two weeks ago with that incident, and now I’m bruising it again.
I huff at the can of beans that is mocking me with its perfectly placed position after it had slipped out of my hands. I wouldn’t be in pain if it wasn’t for this can of beans, but I have no one to blame for my clumsiness than my own two feet.
“Ow,” I yowl involuntarily, rubbing the tender flesh with a wince.