2

ZEKE

My shoes click on the marble floor of the passage leading from the employee quarters to the main house. It’s only minutes after my phone rang, the voice on the other end inviting me to join him in his office. It might be well past midnight, and I might’ve already been in bed when he called, but I know better than to keep the boss waiting. Besides, I’m used to these last-minute emergencies. I doubt I’ve slept deeply in years.

Mr. Morelli is in his office, in the east wing of the house. The mansion is bigger than anything I ever imagined living in back in the day. Though it’s not mine, and it never will be. I’m a hired hand. My position is still one of the elite ones in the Morelli family, but it’s also the most precarious. One false step and I’m out on my ass.

And that would be a best-case scenario kind of thing. Worst case, and probably closer to reality? They’d find me somewhere with half my head blown off, my teeth and fingers missing to make identification more of a challenge. Because if there’s one thing the boss values more than anything, it’s his daughter—even if he barely gave a damn about her until a year ago. Some guys my age can fuck up at their jobs and get a slap on the wrist, or at worst, they’ll have to find a new company to work for.

I fuck up, and I’m dead.

He’s pacing in front of the windows, the way he usually is when he has something on his mind. I rap against the heavy wooden doorframe before stepping into the room.

I catch something moving next to his desk, almost reaching for my gun until I realize it’s just one of his girls. I call them girls because they are barely old enough to be called women. The half-naked blonde with her tits spilling out of her little schoolgirl uniform glances up at me but quickly lowers her eyes back to the floor, where she is kneeling the way he likes it.

Ignoring her presence, I step deeper into the room. A wave of his hand tells me to close the door. That’s something I had to learn to get used to pretty quickly when I first came to work for him. He won’t waste time using words when a hand gesture will do.

“What can I do for you, sir?” I stand at ease, hands clasped behind my back, feet shoulder-width apart. Ready for anything.

“You can pack your things.”

His words are like a vise around my heart. I conceal my features, keeping them cold and uninterested. “Excuse me, sir?” A hundred different excuses come to mind, though I’m not sure what I’m excusing myself for. What did I do? How did I fuck up? He couldn’t know about that night back in June, no way. If he did, I wouldn’t be standing here now.

His lips twitch, and I realize he’s screwing with me. Asshole. “What I mean is, pack your shit because you’re moving to Blackthorn.”

Blackthorn? Maybe I’m a little slow on the uptake in the middle of the night, but he’s not making any sense. “College?”

“Yes, and I managed to secure a position for Mia there.”

Now it makes sense. I could offer a bunch of comments here. I could point out the fact that Blackthorn is much farther away than some perfectly fine schools in the area. Since he guards his daughter’s life so carefully, I would think he’d want to keep her close by.

But I know the man. After working for him for years, I know how he thinks. From what I understand, Blackthorn Elite is the cream of the crop, a school for kids in Mia’s position whose parents have a ton of money. They’re a higher class of students over there. He probably figures she’ll be safer going to school with a bunch of trust fund babies.

Why wouldn’t he want his daughter there?

When he turns to me, there isn’t a hint of humor in his dark eyes. Not that I expect there to be. This is not a man who spends his days enjoying the empire he’s built. He’s too paranoid for that. And when push comes to shove, he’s not above going to extreme measures for protection’s sake.

This is where I come in—at least, I did before I got assigned babysitting duty over a year ago.

“I don’t need to tell you how important this is.” His voice is flat, almost hollow. I’ve heard him sound this way before. The last time was when he ordered me to eliminate another member of the organization who he discovered going behind his back. Flat, no-nonsense. Only a fool would argue with him.

“No, you don’t.” Even if I have to bite my tongue against dozens of reasons this is a huge mistake. Why he should choose anyone other than me to travel to Blackthorn and guard his daughter. But doing that would end up causing more harm than anything else, and even though that girl puts me through more torture than she’s worth, I couldn’t do that to her.

Especially when I know he would take it out on me, would find some way to make it my fault that his daughter threw herself at me the night of her graduation party. A night I’ve replayed more times than I would admit, even to my closest friend if I had one. I’m not proud of myself.

“Does she know yet?”

He shakes his head. “I’d planned on speaking to her tomorrow after I broke the news to you. I know I can trust you with this.”

I only incline my head, smiling briefly. The message is clear. Fuck this up, and you’re a dead man. “She’s safe with me. You don’t need to worry.” Though even as I say it, my hands close into fists behind my back. I have to hold it together until I’m alone. Good thing I have so much practice hiding my true feelings around virtually everyone.

“I need you to take extra care with her safety—and her purity.”

I’m used to him firing off random things like that, but it still comes as a surprise. “Pardon?”

“Her purity. Come on, you’re a grown man; you know what I’m talking about.” When all I do is stare at him, he chuckles. “I know she’s untouched. Her doctor confirmed this for me after the first appointment I arranged once she moved in here, and you’ve kept your eye on her through just about every waking moment since then.”

“True.”

“No boys. Right?”

“Right, of course.”

“Well?” He shrugs with another chuckle. “I mean, it’s plain. She’s still unspoiled, and that’s the way I need her to stay. I can’t marry her off to an associate’s son if she’s already been used.”

This is the first I’m hearing of any of this. Sure, keeping her away from boys has always been the top priority, the way I would assume it would be for any father in a position like my boss’s. He doesn’t want her running around, pissing money away on parties and drugs the way some kids in her position do. Kids who fuck their way through their classmates. He wants better for her than that.

But only so he can get the highest possible price when he sells her in marriage.

“Well, I suppose you’ll want to get to bed before packing up your room… unless you want to have some fun with Melissa over here?” Mr. Morelli is all smiles as he waves toward the girl kneeling on the ground. “She might not be untouched, but she likes to pretend she is, and her pussy is tight enough to believe it.” He chuckles.

I glance over to the girl who’s grinning at me, her eyes twinkling with excitement. She pushes out her breasts, trying to lure me in, but there is nothing she could do or say that would get me excited. Only one pair of tits has my dick hard, and if her father knew about that, he wouldn’t be sending me to Blackthorn.

“Thank you for offering, but like you said, I better get to bed. Long day tomorrow.”

“Of course. See, this is why I trust you with Mia. You don’t think with your dick like most men.”

You have no idea.

He goes back to his desk, where he spends so much of his time. Deals are made and broken behind that desk.

The fates of many men have been decided there, too.

To think, I figured it was a lucky break. A promotion, even, working my way up the ranks. Going from just another one of the boss’s hired men to a cushy indoor job involving a teenage daughter none of us knew about until she was practically on the front doorstep. How very wrong I was.

And now, it’ll just be the two of us. Nobody looking over our shoulder. No excuse to check myself when the temptation to admire her ass or tits is too much to resist.

Right now, I feel worse for myself. I’m not the sort of guy who walks around complaining and blaming others for his own shit. That’s never been my way. But if I was in the habit, I’d be just about as depressed and disgusted now as I’ve ever been.

It’s bad enough having her around all the time here at the house, where there’s always the promise of being discovered holding me back. Holding us both back. What happens when we’re on our own, without the promise of being discovered? How strong am I supposed to be?

I was as strong as I’ve ever been that night by the pool—because never in all my life have I been tested the way she tested me. It was almost like she knew all the filthy, perverted fantasies I’ve had about her since her father assigned me to her care. Like she’d reached into my head and plucked a dirty thought out of the file. Dropping her clothes in front of me, offering her body up as a prize.

I deserve a prize for restraint. Only the very clear understanding of what would happen to me kept me from fucking her until we both passed out.

Since then, she’s been impossible to deal with. The girl was never quiet and shy to begin with, but now it’s like she’s determined to drive me out of my skull. Like she wakes up every morning and asks herself how she can test my self-control. Smarting off, rolling her eyes, slamming doors like a spoiled brat.

It’s better this way. I know I hurt her when I turned her down. I saw the tears in her eyes, and I’d have to be blind not to notice how she ran away up to the house. Some sick part of me wanted to stop her, too. I knew how humiliated and horrified she had to be. I’m not a monster. I didn’t want to hurt her.

But goddammit, I would end up being the one who got hurt if I did what any red-blooded man would have done in my position. She might as well have offered herself up on a silver platter. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, which is saying a hell of a lot since I’ve done a lot of things.

She doesn’t know. She can’t know. How she lives in my dreams, my fantasies. Sick, dark fantasies, most of them. The things I’ve done to her in my head… if she had the first clue, she wouldn’t want to come anywhere near me for fear of what might happen. How I would defile her tight, lush little body. She’s never been touched, not like that. What would it mean, being the man to break her?

I can’t think that way. It’s dangerous. Even if I tell myself I have no intention of following through on any of my fantasies, thinking about it makes the temptation worse. Practically impossible to resist. I can’t even let myself get in the habit of thinking this way.

Especially now that we’re going to be alone. Nobody watching over my shoulder.

How the hell am I supposed to resist her when the last thin barrier between us is gone?