I wasn’t sure who I was expecting to see after I heard my name spoken in a low, masculine tone, but it definitely wasn’t Harrison. The night I’d spent with him had been the best of my life, but it had cost me. A lot. Pretty much everything.

“No,” I groaned, flashing a quick look at the van from the group home to see how much time I had before it pulled up to the curb. With the buses still idling at the curb, I had at least a few minutes. It wasn’t a whole lot of time, but it would have to do since I had to be on that van before it left...or else.

“You can’t be here,” I hissed at Harrison.

My anger didn’t seem to bother him as his dark eyes swept over my body like he owned it. I felt my cheeks heat as my body responded to that look. Damn my stupid hormones.

“You’re wrong,” he disagreed, prowling towards me. “I think you’ll find that I can be anywhere I damn well want to be.”

“Maybe you can, but I can’t.” I turned my head and caught sight of the van nearing the curb. The clock was ticking down quickly. “We’re not all billionaires who only answer to themselves.”

“No need to be bitter, honey. You’ll be one, too,” he retorted. I shook my head, not understanding what he meant. I’d never be a millionaire or billionaire, or whatever. I’d barely be able to afford college, even with the state paying my tuition. But I didn’t get a chance to tell him that before he confused me further…and pissed me off. “You don’t need to answer to anyone but me.”

“You?” I sputtered, practically seeing red. “You’re not the boss of me.”

It wasn’t the best comeback in the world. In fact, I wished I could snatch it back out of thin air the second the words spilled from my mouth. It made me sound even younger than I was—and if he’d hunted me down at school, then odds were good that Harrison had already figured out exactly how old that was. I felt my cheeks grow warmer, but in embarrassment this time.

“Boss of you?” he chuckled, one corner of his mustache kicking up in a smirk. “It’s not quite how I would have put it, but it’ll do.”

He took my hands in his own. When I tried to yank them away, his fingers tightened.

“What do you mean by that?” A horn beeped, and I turned to see where the noise came from. The van from the group home was at the curb, and the irritated look on the driver’s face made it clear that he was the one who’d honked. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t have time to deal with whatever this is. I have to go.”

I frantically yanked on my hands again, and when that didn’t work I tried to step away. It didn’t do any good because he refused to let me go. “Not so fast.”

“I have to go,” I cried. “I’m already in enough trouble as it is. If I’m not in that van when it pulls away, it will only get worse.” I shuddered, thinking about the consequences at the group home for breaking the rules.

“Whoever put that scared look in your eyes is going to fucking pay,” Harrison growled tugging me forward and wrapping his arms around me. He shot a glare towards the driver of the van. His eyes were full of fury, and it was scary enough to make the driver peel away from the curb.

“No!” I yelled, struggling against Harrison’s strong, warm body as he guided me towards his car. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I have to get...home.”

His eyes softened, filling with tenderness as he looked down at me. “Of course you’re coming with me, Felicity. I’m your new guardian, which means your home is with me.”

“Wha—” I gasped. I couldn’t think straight. I was stunned. Completely and utterly floored. Shocked speechless.

“Get in the car, and I’ll explain everything.” He yanked the door open and helped me in, bending low to buckle me in. Even though I was beyond irritated with him, I still shivered as his masculine scent hit my nostrils. I released a deep sigh, trying to pull myself together while he rounded the front of the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

He didn’t say anything, didn’t even look my way as he started the engine and drove out of the school parking lot. We both remained silent during the ten-minute drive to his home. I was busy trying to wrap my brain around his announcement. And Harrison...he just kept his hand locked around mine like he thought I was going to try to jump out of the car. A part of me wanted to, there was no denying it. I was afraid to hear what he had to say. Scared of my reaction to whatever it was—just like I was frightened of how he made me feel.

But another side of me wanted to hold on tight and never let go. It was the struggle between the two which kept me silent right up until the point when he’d pulled up in front of his house and helped me out of the car. “I never thought I’d be here again,” I whispered, but not softly enough.

“You shouldn’t have left in the first place,” he chastised sternly.

“I had to,” I insisted as he led me inside.

“You had to sneak out of my home in the middle of the night?” His eyes flashed with emotion. Oddly enough, it looked they were filled more with pain than anger. “You left me alone in my bed, thinking I’d wake up to you. That you were safe in my home, right by my side. When in reality, you’d run off instead.”

“I’m sorry! It’s not like I knew how to handle the morning after—” I trailed off, uncertain how to word it.

“After you became mine,” he filled in for me, his expression softening a little.

It was a good thing he’d led me into the living room and got me settled on the couch because my legs turned to jelly at his raspy words. “Just because you took my virginity doesn’t make me yours.”

He raised a single black eyebrow. “How about being named your guardian today? Does that make you mine?”

“Why would you do something like this? You’re you”—I gestured up and down his length as he stood over me—“It’s not like you can’t easily get other women.” It hurt so much to say it that my voice caught at the end. The idea of Harrison with someone else hurt. So much. My mind should have been focused on survival over the last week since I’d been kicked out by my foster parents and placed in a group home. Instead, I couldn’t get him out of my head. He was the reason for my sleepless nights; not my new living arrangements.

“You left,” he answered simply, dropping down next to me. “Anything could have happened to you, and I wouldn’t have been there to protect you. That’s unacceptable to me.”

“It isn’t your job to do that!” It hadn’t been anyone’s job but my own for too long.

His eyes glinted as his jaw firmed. “That’s where you’re wrong, honey. You are mine, and that makes it my job to take care of you, to make sure you’re happy, to provide you with anything that will make you light up with your gorgeous smile.”

“Harrison,” I sighed, running my hands through my hair. “Do you feel guilty for taking my virginity? Because you shouldn’t. It was my decision to give it to you.”

“A gift I will always cherish. And you paid a steep price for that choice.” A muscle in his jaw jumped, and his eyes were back to burning with anger. “Kicked out by your foster parents and put into a place you shouldn’t even know exists.”

“It’s not that bad.” I squeezed his leg without realizing I’d reached out for him until my hand was already there. He didn’t let me yank it back to my lap and pressed it against his thigh with his palm. “There’s worse places I could have ended up.”

“Your place is here, with me, now. You don’t have to worry about where you’ll live. Never again,” he vowed.

“You really did it? You convinced the state to put me in your care?” It was almost impossible to believe. There was an insane amount of red tape to cut through to qualify as a foster parent and have a minor placed in your care.

“I did.” His dark stare burned with intensity.

I didn’t really know how to respond; it boggled my mind. I shook my head. “But how did you even find me? Especially since—”

“Especially since I thought you were older?” he interrupted.

There went my cheeks again, filling with heat. “Well, yeah.”

He reached out a hand and grasped my jaw firmly. “I’m a man who’s used to getting what he wants, Felicity. I wanted to find you. So I did.” The possessive look in his eyes made it clear that what he wanted was me.

“And set yourself up as my guardian?”

He flashed me a smug grin, and his hand shifted to cup my cheek. “It got you out of that group home and into mine, didn’t it?”

“You do realize that a guardian shouldn’t lust after their ward, right? If my case worker has even the slightest reason to suspect something sexual going on between the two of us, she’ll yank me out of here so fast your head will spin.” It was a lesson I’d learned in the foster home before my last one, when one of the other foster girls had fallen for our foster parent’s son. The second their relationship had come to light, she was out and placed in a new home in another town and they were forbidden to have any contact with each other.