“Don’t touch her!” I yell at Andrew, my security. He’s been my right-hand man since I left the Marines five years ago after my father died and I was called home to take over the family business. I’m not sure if he’s following her or me. Either way, I don’t want anyone’s hands on her. Her smart mouth is all mine. My cock, already hard from having her little body pressed against mine as she tried to wiggle free, grows even harder at the thought of having to chase her. It’s almost barbaric, making my blood pump as if I’m in battle.

It’s like if I catch her I can take her to the ground and claim her as mine. I push through the crowd, getting closer to her. She turns, our eyes lock, and she stumbles into the street. I see a cop yell at her and take a step in her direction. If he touches her I swear to fuck I’ll have his badge along with some of his skin.

Her head whips around in the other direction as someone calls out. Her blonde hair swirls around her, green splatters of paint shining in it. I follow her gaze as she runs toward the man who called out to her. Jealousy takes over all my emotions.

I push harder, trying to get to her. When I break free onto the street, the man is holding his hand out to her, pulling her up onto the float. Music is blasting from the float as the parade moves on at a slow pace. He twirls her around to the music before dipping her, then plants a kiss on her lips.

My vision goes red as I storm toward the float. A cop grabs my arm, trying to stop me, and yells at me to get out of the street. I turn and look him dead in the eyes. He raises his hands in surrender and croaks, “Sorry, Mr. Shade, didn't know it was you.” I turn back to see my girl staring at me with wide eyes. The man lets her go and she turns, jumping off the other side of the float and disappearing into the crowd on the other side of the street.

“Fuck,” I grit out. I lost her.

“Sir?” the cop asks me. He clearly wants to help and is probably scared I might get him in trouble.

I point to the man who just kissed my girl on the float. “Him. Get his information. I expect it within the hour.” The cop nods. I turn back to see Andrew standing there with his arms over his chest looking at me like I lost my mind. Maybe I have, but I don’t really give a flying fuck at the moment.

“Don’t,” I warn him, knowing he's going to say something that might just piss me off more. I’m already on edge as it is. We push back through the crowd. I’d completely forgotten it was St. Patrick’s Day. Not that it would have mattered anyway. To me it was just another Friday, with work to be done. I glance down at my suit. I’m covered in green paint. Her small handprints mark the front of my suit jacket.

I shake my head as I think about how she threw the paint on me. How something like that could turn me on, I have no freaking clue. But there was something about her. I was about to let loose a string of curses when I first tripped over her crap, paint splattering everywhere. Then I looked down and the greenest eyes I’d ever seen looked up at me through thick eyelashes. Before I knew what I was doing I was lifting her up and pulling her to me, wanting her closer to see if she was even real. I don’t like to be touched or people to be in my space, but with her that wasn't there. She looked like a little glass doll that I needed to protect.

I want to chase her, but I don’t think I’d find her. The man on the float called out her name. Charlie. He has to know her. Either way, I’ll find her. Even if I have to call in some favors and have video surveillance pulled. Whatever it takes. I’ll find her or I’ll rip this city apart until I do. I’m not worried. I always get what I want. Though I’ve never felt this attraction for someone else, this magnetic pull.

I bend down and pick up the big notepad she left behind. I make a mental note to have my assistant get the rest of this cleaned up.

“I need a shower,” I tell Andrew as he opens my car door. “I’m canceling my meeting.” I slide into the car, pull out my phone and send a text to my assistant about the change of plans. Andrew hops into the driver seat.

“You’re really not going to your meeting?” Our eyes lock for a moment in the rearview mirror. I know what he’s thinking. I never miss a meeting. I never miss anything when it comes to work. It’s how I’ve been since I came back home after my father's death. He’d left the company a mess. It was drowning and it had taken a few years to not only pull it back but make sure no one knew what he’d done. Especially my mother. I don’t want her to know the wreckage he caused and left behind. Nor do I want her to know I have a feeling it’s why my father had a heart attack. Too much pressure.

I never understood the drive to keep making more and more money. If I could have, I would have walked away from all of it after my father died, but the company wasn't in a place to be sold. Not to mention if I’d just outright shut it down, thousands would be without a job. I needed to clean up the mess. The mess was now cleaned, but still here I was working day and night. I’d even gone with the plans my father had for this building.

It wouldn’t take me long to run home and jump in the shower and just invite Senator Jones over to my house for a drink instead of meeting him at the Alibi Room. We have a standing meeting there every month.

I scratch his back with money and he makes sure I always get what I want when I ask. When you have as much money as I do no one seems to stand in your way.

Though Charlie wasn’t like everyone else. The little spitfire threw paint at me. Even after she knew who I was. I’d seen her reaction to my name on her pretty face when Andrew said it. The Shade name wasn’t only known in Colorado but all around the world as a result of our hotel business. It was a name associated with luxury and decadence.

“I have other things that need to be taken care of. More important.” I pick up the notepad Charlie left behind, running my hand over the binding of it before flipping it open. I pause when I see the Shade building. It was what she was painting. I flip through the pages and see she’s painted it many times. Each picture is as perfect as the last. Jesus, she’s talented.

“Important like a tiny, light-haired hellion?” I hear the teasing note in Andrew’s voice, but I ignore it.

“Something like that,” I mutter. She is tiny. Worry for her starts to creep up my spine. Maybe I should have tried to push through the crowd to find her, though I’m pretty sure it was a lost cause.

I don’t like the idea of her running around the city by herself. She’s small and precious. The glare she shot me before she launched her paint at me has me questioning the precious part, though.

No, she is precious. She just has some fire to her, which has my cock’s full attention. No one in my life has ever dared treat me the way she did, especially after knowing who I was.

I’m easily three times bigger than her. She stomped on my foot and shoved me, catching me off guard. I was more pissed that she fell. She could have hurt herself. Maybe she did. My worry only grows that she might do something like that again to someone who doesn’t have the same intentions with her as I do.

I pause for a moment. What are my intentions? Make her mine, repeats through my mind over and over again.

“Drive faster,” I tell Andrew, knowing he likely won’t. He’s always about safety. I’d fire him if he wasn’t so damn good at his job, along with being my closest friend. I know everything he says to me is truth, not what I want to hear.

“Your phone,” Andrew says, pulling me from my worried thoughts about Charlie. I hadn’t even heard it ring. I see my assistant’s number flash across the screen. I ignore the call.

“Not going to answer that?” Andrew asks. The phone rings again. I clear it, then shoot him a text to stop calling unless it’s about the email I’m waiting for about the man on the float.

I slide my phone back into my pocket. “You sure you’re all right?” Andrew asks.

“No,” I answer him honestly. I don’t know what the fuck is going on with me. All these strange feelings pumping through my body are like nothing I’ve ever felt before, and I’m pretty sure the feelings won’t calm until I have Charlie pressed against my body again.

I don’t think that will be easy. I smile. There is nothing I love more than a challenge. Particularly when it’s something I need.