My Ward My Woman Read online

  I’d given her the run of the show with the help of a kick ass planner and mom as overseer of course. I’d planned to drop in in the middle of the festivities, stay long enough for her to cut the cake and then leave her and her crowd to it. I’m sure they didn’t want an old man hanging around cramping their style. The guards I had planted on her twenty-four seven would be there, so I had no fear of anything going wrong.

  I’d shown up straight from a late night meeting, still in a business suit, my tie long gone and the first three buttons of my shirt undone. I was tired and just a little angry because the shit I wanted done was going to take a little longer. I’d been accused lately of becoming a veritable ogre at work. I had to work off what the fuck was going on in my life somehow, and since I wasn’t about to tangle with her hormonal ass they were it.

  I walked into the noise den, my eyes peeled for her in the crowd of about a hundred dancing screaming teenagers. I don’t think I’d known twenty people when I was her age. Leave it to my girl to be this popular. How could she not be? She was smart and sweet; kind, with a heart I sometimes marvel at.

  Until she had turned into my main source of torture and torment, she had been the one constant in my life. That one last bit of innocence that I myself had lost a long time ago. When I looked at her I saw all that was good and pure in the world. I knew her inside out and the girl was a total fucking gem.

  I saw mom standing near a wall by the windows with a few other parents who were there as chaperones, but I hadn’t seen my Alex. Then mom caught my eye and pointed and I followed her gaze across the room. I didn’t know who the beauty in the too short dress was at first. There was a familiarity, but I couldn’t place her. Though my heart knew before my mind accepted.

  The face was round with a touch of baby softness left. Her eyes were wide deep pools of blue-grey, which I couldn’t see that well from that distance. Her hair was parted down the middle and caught at her nape with something that let it fall gracefully at the sides of her face before flowing down the middle of her back.

  She wore some sort of chain around her hair that rested on her forehead with some kind of gem in the middle. That’s when I remembered the theme was Cleopatra or some other Egyptian thing she’d blabbed on and on about for the past month.

  She turned back to her friends, she hadn’t seen me, and that’s when I realized who she was. I was moving across the room, my jacket off and in my hands ready to throw over her shoulders, when mom met me halfway.

  “Don’t do it Sol, don’t embarrass her in front of her friends.” I looked at her as if not seeing her, her words barely penetrating the haze. The music piped through after the ringing in my ears stopped and I gritted my teeth. The room was full of teenage boys, half of which seemed to be in her vicinity or thereabouts.

  I nodded my head slightly at mom to let her know I heard her before walking the rest of the way to Alexandra. Her friends saw me first as I approached, and the one, Cindy I think the name is, just stared up at me. Damn girl always went dumb deaf and blind when I walked into a room, why should this be any different?

  I stopped behind Alexandra with my hands behind my back so that I didn’t take the jacket off again and cover her the way my mind was screaming at me to. I looked over her head at the opposing wall and after the first hint of her scent, held my breath until I got myself under control.

  “Alexandra.” She gave a little yelp and flew around, flinging her arms around my neck. My hands automatically went to her waist to hold her since she had to get up on her toes and I looked down into those pools of unusual beauty and my heart stopped.

  I pulled away as if burned but she seemed not to notice. I couldn’t tell you what she said then; something about thanks I think. My world had just stopped and restarted like an old record that had got stuck. That night was the first time I accepted that my little doll had grown up. It’s when I realized that something had shifted between us and things will never be the same again.

  3

  Solomon

  “She was supposed to spend the night at a friend but she wasn’t there when we checked in.” Ralph’s voice penetrated my trip down memory lane. I looked at him without seeing for a few seconds as the memory of that night slowly faded away.

  “Friend’s name and number.” He held out his phone to me with the number already dialed as I headed for the door. A young girl picked up on the other end. “This is Solomon Magna, where is Alexandra?”

  “I already told those other guys I don’t know, she never showed up.”

  “Where is your father?”

  “He’s here, why?”

  “Put him on the phone.” It took him two minutes and by then my nice meter had burned the fuck out.

  “I’ll be at your door in ten minutes, if Alexandra isn’t there or you don’t have an answer as to where I can find her, I’ll slit your fucking throat.” I pressed end and passed the phone back to my soon to be dead head of security.

  Outside, I threw myself into the back of the Rolls and Ralph gave the driver directions before heading for his car with the rest of my detail behind me. I calmed myself and tried not to think the worse.

  She had the best security, nothing can go wrong. That might’ve been true in the past but lately she’s taken to conning them and she’s good at it. I’ve switched around her detail a time or two but no matter how I try, I can’t keep anyone on her that doesn’t fall for her little girl act.

  She’s always had a team of one-man one woman, until a few months ago when I noticed the change. For some reason, after that night I changed her detail for the first time in about four years. She now had two women on her. I wasn’t taking any chances. Sometime in the last year when I hadn’t been looking my doll had turned into a desirable young woman and if I had noticed so would others.

  She’s needed her security a lot more lately because I’d started staying away from her. Before that I always made sure I found time for her. I was still doing my best to be there in the evenings when she came home, but that time had grown later and later the older she got; what with all her after school crap. I think she signed up for all of them.

  She was a cheerleader, captain of the debate team and she took dance class three times a week. Damn kid had more energy than I’d ever dreamed of. Mom usually took over when I couldn’t be there. Both of us still very conscious of what she was missing and doing our best to fill the void.

  She had a habit of looking into the stands when she was cheering or into the crowd at one of her plays or whatever it was she was doing on any given day, and I would move heaven and earth to be there, cheering her on. Until this shit started, I was always there; now, I leave her care in the hands of others.

  My mind strayed to everything but what could be happening to her right this minute. I refuse to think the worst until it’s proven. So instead I thought about the months since that fateful night.

  I think I’d shut myself away from her, avoided her, for the first few days after. She’d put a stop to that right quick in her no nonsense way. No beating around the bush for my doll, she always let me have it with both barrels. That’s the way I’d taught her and I would’ve been proud, if she wasn’t using that shit on me.

  “Are you avoiding me Sol?” I noticed in the last few weeks the ‘uncle’ had dropped. I missed it, felt a slight pain in my heart in fact when I noticed, but now it downright scared me. Was it my imagination or was she doing some kind of drawling shit with my name?

  Whatever, I had bigger worries than that. Like the fact, that since that night my dick had a nasty habit of going on the scent whenever she was around.

  “No little one, I’ve just been busy.” Like hell! I’ve been finding shit to do at the office just to avoid her, which made me feel guilty as hell, but what could I do? She was eighteen fucking years old. I’d raised her, and now each time I look at her I want to get inside her. Sick!

  She moved around my desk and I held my breath praying she didn’t throw herself into my lap the way she
used to. She hadn’t done that in a while, not since she was twelve or thirteen, but lately I’d noticed a comeback. When I asked her if she didn’t think she was too old to be sitting on my lap she’d just batted her lashes at me and told me not to be an old grump.

  This time thankfully, she just came around behind my chair and put her hands on my shoulders. As if that wasn’t bad enough she’d leaned to the side, the tee shirt she was wearing pulling away from her chest as she looked at the screen in front of me.

  I held my breath and stared straight ahead as she chattered on about what I was working on. Unlike her dad, she had a real head for business. No fritting away her youth this one. She was all business. Her grandfather, who adored the living hell out of her, was practically grooming her for a place in the business. And from his words, she was a fast learner.

  I was happy that her dad’s family had finally taken an interest in her, thanks in huge part to mom who’d worked them like a pro. I didn’t mind so much in the beginning. Now I just saw them as usurpers who could take my girl from me.

  I was losing my fucking mind. I needed to keep her at arm’s length, and yet the thought of her being taken from me filled me with anger and dread. I didn’t want her to grow up and yet…no, better not go there.

  That day in my office I’d resisted looking down her shirt, had tried not to inhale her new womanly scent. Where the fuck had she learned to entice a man with perfume? And where had this flirtatious siren come from?

  Try as I might, I couldn’t resist temptation and she’d caught me staring at her cleavage. Our eyes had met once I realized I’d been caught. Neither of us had said anything, but from the look in her eye I no longer had any doubts as to what she was up to.

  That’s when the tug of war really begun. I tried to separate the man who’d raised her from the man who now looked at her as a woman. I tore myself apart with my wants, knowing they were wrong. But I couldn’t get them out of my head once they were planted there. And she was no fucking help.

  After that day she’d seek me out, never letting too much time go by without seeing each other. If I hid out at the office she’d call, or her new thing now was Facetime. But now instead of the wild unhinged chatter about her day and what she got up to, she was more poised, more serious, and the conversations seemed to get longer and more intense. Scared the fuck outta me.

  While I was struggling to convince myself that she was a young innocent and I was a sick fuck for wanting her, she seemed to be doing everything in her power to prove otherwise.

  I waited for her to come right out and say the words, that way I could shoot her down once and for all. But she seemed wise to my ploy and never went too far in her torment of me.

  Everything was subtly done. If she bent over in front of me to pick something up off the floor, her shorts showing her ass off to perfection, what could I say? If she leaned too close or held my arm too tight against her side, pressing it into her tit, with that innocent smile and those wide little girl eyes. How could I accuse her?

  We were playing a game of cat and mouse I knew. One that would come to a head eventually. I just didn’t know as yet which side of the line I’d come down on. Would I remain her uncle Sol, or would I cross that line that was now stretched so tight I could feel the strain?

  4

  Solomon

  We reached her friend’s place in ten minutes and I held my hand up for my men to stay put while I took the steps to the front door two at a time. Before I could ring the doorbell, the door was flung open and it looked like a welcoming committee was standing there.

  I recognized her friend Sonia, and I’m guessing the man and woman flanking her were her mom and dad. I stared the man down while ignoring his wife and kid. I’m pretty sure he knew I meant every word of my threat and could see the knowledge written in the fear in his eyes.

  “Where is she?” He nudged his daughter who always seems a little skittish in my presence and now was outright scared. “She went downtown.”

  “Alone?” The word came out as a shout. My gut twisted at the thought of my innocent girl alone in the city this time of night without her security. “Where?” The girl stuttered out an answer and I turned and left without another word.

  My men were waiting when I came out and I told them where we were headed as I moved to the car. They all looked at each other with disbelief. They would know since they’ve been with me for a long time that she had never done this before.

  I never let her go anywhere alone, least of all the cesspit of a city. I really am going to tan her little ass when I get her home to safety.

  What was this about now I wonder? She’s been pushing the envelope more and more lately, as if she were waiting for me to cave one-way or the other. I can’t give her what she wants, what she seems to be asking for. Though she hasn’t come right out and said it, last night was the closest she’d come to telling me she wanted me to fuck her.

  She’d found me in the office as usual, pretending to work when all I was really doing was avoiding her. It was getting harder and harder to be around her and not have her, and it hurt to stay away. For her sake, I was trying to do the right thing, but a man can only take so much.

  She’d walked into the room with that smile that could make me do anything and I’d looked at her as if starved for the sight of her. “There you are. It’s time for our movie, aren’t you coming?” I swallowed hard and looked away from her. At least she was covered this time but she wore her nightshirt under a robe.

  There was nothing new in that, she’d always dressed that way on movie night because more often than not she’d fall asleep and I’d take her up and tuck her into bed. But that was before I found it increasingly harder to walk away after laying her between the sheets.

  “I had some last minute stuff to take care of. You go on ahead and start I’ll be there.” She’d pouted and walked around the desk, this time plopping her ass down in my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. My arms automatically went around her middle. The robe fell apart and it was then I saw that beneath the short silk robe she wore a matching negligee.

  I almost threw her off of me but the movement only brought her higher on my lap. My lap that was holding the hard-on that had sprung up as soon as her scent hit me when she walked through the door.

  We looked at each other and I’ll never forget the look of innocent wonder on her face as she stared into my eyes. She pressed herself against my cock and I’m fucked if her eyes didn’t say what her lips didn’t. I saw need, desire, and lust. All the things I’d been fighting myself were right there in her eyes and I almost caved.

  I closed my eyes and moved her off my lap and her soft ‘why’ had dispelled any and all doubts. I couldn’t answer her. I knew that whatever I said then would change our lives forever, so instead I shook my head and left the room and the house.

  I found the place without any hassle but did a double take once I walked inside. As was the norm, whenever I entered any place with my team shadowing me, everyone stopped what they were doing.

  Of course I walked in like I owned the place. I probably did since I owned a lot of real estate here, but I wasn’t sure and wasn’t interested at this particular moment. I looked at the different stalls and workstations but didn’t see her. I was about to give up when Ralph indicated a curtain at the very end of the room.

  I moved toward it and pulled it back and my heart almost stopped.

  “You put holes in her I’ll skin you. Get the fuck away from her.” I put myself between her and the tattooed asshole that was leaning over her. “Cover yourself Alexandra.” I pulled the shirt she had rucked up beneath her breasts down to her waist and turned to throw the asshole into the wall.

  “No Sol, stop it. He didn’t do anything wrong I asked him to.” She jumped off the table and grabbed my arm. I snatched her bag up from the chair and took her hand, dragging her from the room and outside into the cool night air.

  I didn’t say a word to her as I helped her into the car and w
alked around to the other side where the driver was waiting to let me in. She kept giving me looks from beneath lowered lids but I ignored her. I was too pissed to talk for the first five minutes as we drove through the busy streets to the outskirts of town where our home was.

  My body was strung tight and my heart was halfway to my lungs as I looked away from her. Words of anger burned a hole in my tongue and it took massive control on my part not to yell at her for being so fucking irresponsibly stupid. Did she have any idea the danger she’d been in? Or had I shielded her so well all these years that she really was that innocent?

  “What were you doing in that place Alexandra?” My voice was very well contained, not giving away even a hint of what I was feeling inside. “That place was filthy.” I clenched my fists and looked out the window away from her again.

  I didn’t trust myself any longer. A few months ago I would’ve given her the riot act and got her promise that she wouldn’t go there again; now I’m not sure what the hell to expect. She’d snuck out to go there, which meant she knew I wouldn’t approve. That meant she was outright disobeying me, defying me even. Unacceptable.

  “I was just going to get a navel piercing what’s the big deal?” I know that voice. The little shit knew exactly what the problem was; she knew I would never have agreed to that shit in a million years.

  Now I did turn my gaze on her. “How did you find that place?” She swallowed hard because now some of what I was feeling seeped out in my words. “Jessica mentioned it.” I looked at her in surprise.

  “Jessica?” Jess was one of my many exes, one I hadn’t spoken to in weeks. In fact, since the night of her birthday party, I’d given Jessica and everyone else a wide birth.

  Until then, Jessica had been what I guess you would call my main squeeze. I’d even given serious thought to asking her to marry me. She was suitable enough, I guess. And though I bore her no great love, she was from a good family, good breeding and it was way past time I settled down and started a family. At least that has been my mother’s favorite refrain for the past three years.