Back to being the girl who ran from the Sanctuary in the middle of the night with nothing but stolen money and desperate hope.
But today?
Today I let myself mourn the girl I used to be.
The girl who believed in escape.
Because that girl is gone.
And I don't know who I'm becoming instead.
CHAPTER FOUR
Vaughn
I can't focus.
That's unusual for me.
I built an eight-billion-dollar empire on focus.
On the ability to shut out everything except the task at hand.
To make decisions with coldness, precision, and execute them without hesitation.
But right now, sitting in my home office with quarterly reports spread across my desk and a conference call waiting on mute, all I can think about is the woman upstairs.
Eden.
She's been here four days.
Four days of watching her move through my house like a trapped animal.
Four days of silent breakfasts and tense dinners where she picks at her food and won't meet my eyes.
Four days of her exploring the library like it's a sanctuary, curling up in that leather chair by the window with whatever book she's currently devouring.
Four days of wanting her so badly I can barely breathe.
I close the laptop.
The quarterly reports can wait.
The conference call can be rescheduled.
Right now, I need to think.
Need to figure out what the hell I'm doing with Eden Finch.
When I bid two million dollars for her at that auction, I didn't have a plan.
I just knew I had to have her.
Knew that if anyone else won, if anyone else touched her, I'd lose my mind.
The obsession was immediate. Irrational. Completely unlike me.
I don't do things that are irrational.
