8: Auden’s Temper

AUDEN

Earlier:

The doors of the Lonie compound slammed shut, and the silence inside my SUV became deafening. I sat there in the idling vehicle, staring through the sheets of torrential rain obscuring the iron gates. My knuckles were stark white against the steering wheel. She is eighteen. She is my daughter's former best friend. It was a lapse in judgment, I repeated the cold mantra in my head.

I needed to force my pulse down and drive back to my own life. I reached across the center console to grab my phone from the passenger seat, but my fingers brushed against a small, hard object instead.

I picked it up. my eyes narrowed as I read the prescription label. It was an amber plastic bottle filled with her medication.

A sharp spike of unease hit my chest. I remembered when her biological mother passed away years back; Mireya had developed severe, crippling anxiety attacks that left her completely breathless and trembling. She had dropped the bottle on the leather seat during our heated argument.

She couldn't be without this. If an attack hit her tonight after everything that had happened, she would be completely defenseless.

Defeated by my own stubborn protective instincts, I threw the SUV into reverse, pulled a sharp U-turn, and drove right back toward her house to give her the medication. But as I approached the security perimeter, a modified sports car pulled up to the curb. The passenger door opened, and Mireya climbed inside.

Even from a distance, the sight of her made my blood boil with an unadulterated fury. She was completely drenched to the bone from her time standing in the storm. The freezing rain had plastered her clothes entirely to her skin, tracing the unmistakable outline of her body because her clothes were completely soaked through.

I balled my fists against the steering wheel, a dark, primal rage ripping through my chest as the sports car sped away.

Instead of driving back to my mansion, I followed the car through the city streets. I tracked them across town to a loud, underground warehouse party. I stepped into the shadows of the concrete venue, keeping my distance as I watched from afar. She was acting out, her movements frantic and reckless on the packed dance floor.

My jaw tightened to the point of pain as I watched those strangers and men touch her, their hands brushing against her waist while she danced.

I was absolutely furious, but just as I finally decided to step in and drag her out of that suffocating crowd, a man had already taken her by the arm and led her out into the back alleyway. I intercepted them near the exit, my towering presence sending the bastard running into the dark night without a fight. 

But now she was standing here in the freezing rain, looking up at me with glassy, completely unfocused eyes.

"Daddy," she giggled, her voice slurring  as she leaned her damp weight entirely into my chest. "You came."

Hearing that word come out of her mouth lost something completely inside my body. A volatile mix of intense shock, confusion, and anger flared in my chest. I didn't say a word. I dragged her straight to my car, opening the door and shoving her into the passenger seat before climbing into the driver's side.

"Why didn't you go inside your house?" I demanded, slamming my door shut and putting the SUV into drive. "What the hell are you doing out here, Mireya? Answer me."

She didn't answer properly. She just muttered nonsense under her breath, a stray comment about the noise, and laughed a hollow, brittle laugh. She was extremely drunk, completely out of her mind from the amount of alcohol she had consumed in such a short time.

Suddenly, before I could even react or pull out of the alleyway, she unbuckled her seatbelt. She scrambled across the center console, her damp clothes dragging across the gear shift, and climbed right onto my lap while I was actively driving the vehicle.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed, my heart leaping into my throat as I slammed my foot on the brake pedal, forcing the SUV to a violent halt by the side of the dark road.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, her eyes completely vacant and glassy as she looked down at me in the enclosed cabin. 

"Daddy... I want to ride you."

"Mireya, stop it! You are drunk!" I growled, my voice dropping into a harsh tone.

I didn't hesitate for a single second. I firmly grabbed her by the waist and moved her completely away from my lap, pushing her back over to the passenger seat where she belonged. The moment she was back in her own seat, the reckless, drunken smile completely vanished from her face. She collapsed against the passenger window, burying her face in her hands, and began to cry.

"Everything is just falling apart," she sobbed, her shoulders shaking as she pressed her face into her hands. "Everything is going completely wrong, and I’m just... I’m entirely alone, Auden."

"Mireya, breathe," I said, keeping my hands on the wheel. "Tell me what happened."

"She’s a devil," she choked out, her voice breaking as she looked at me with tear-streaked eyes. "My stepmother is a monster. She wants to bend me to her will. She’s threatening me. She wants to destroy Aura & Veil. She’s going to ruin my mother's luxury fashion legacy, and I can't stop her!"

I just sat there listening to the agonizing sound of her tears. She was clearly distressed and heavily intoxicated, but beneath the alcohol, I could hear the pure hurt in her voice. She seemed completely broken by her family. 

She was completely broken by her family, seeking shelter in the one place she knew she shouldn't be. Despite the rules I had laid down in the car earlier, seeing her like this shattered my discipline. My eyes traced her nipples prominently visible against her wet clothes, the elegant slope of her neck, and the desperate tremble of her lips. I couldn’t stop myself. The possessive wall I had built completely collapsed.

I bent forward, my hand slamming against the back of her head to anchor her to me, and grabbed her lips with my lips hungrily.