I’m openly staring now, but I can’t seem to make myself look away. Especially when she bites her lip and frowns at the screen. Just that frown as something dark and protective tightening my chest.
I force myself to look away. It’s the only sane thing to do.
I give up on reading emails and start scrolling through the news, hoping the sorry state of the world will be enough of a distraction for me. But it’s not. I can’t stop thinking about the girl I knew—sweet, uncertain, soft, warm—and the woman she’s become. There’s a confidence in the way she carries herself, a fiery edge buried beneath the softness that’s still there.
She’s become everything I knew was possible. And the fact that I might’ve played a role in that…fuck if that doesn’t make me feel a bit possessive. Like she’s mine.
I close my laptop and take a long sip of my coffee. I’m staring at Camryn again. I can’t seem to stop, and I’m not a man who normally struggles for control. In anything.
She shifts in her seat and sighs, still chewing on that lip. I have the insane urge to reach out and tug it free with my thumb.
I cannot be thinking this way about her. It’s wrong. It’s taboo. She used to be my stepdaughter. She’s twenty-six years younger than me.
I’m still staring.
She takes a sip of her coffee, and I watch her pretty throat work as she swallows, and suddenly I’m wondering what it would feel like to press my lips there, right in the dip of her collarbone.
I force myself to stand up from the table and move away from her. But when I look back, her frown has deepened and she’s still got that plump lip caught between her teeth.
“Everything okay?” I hear myself ask before I even realize I’ve opened my mouth.
She sighs, her shoulders slumping as she continues to stare at her phone screen. “The building manager just sent an update. The flooding was even worse than they thought. They’re saying I won’t be able to get back into my apartment for at least two months.” I can practically feel the tension radiating off of her. She swallows thickly, her fingers tightening almost imperceptibly around her phone.
I study her, marveling at how composed she is—another reminder of how much she’s grown up. She’s still a young woman, but she’s not the trembling, uncertain girl she used to be.
“Two months,” she says again, setting her phone down and leaning back in her chair. “What am I going to do?”
“You’re going to stay here, for as long as you need. I meant what I said yesterday. Your old room is yours, for as long as you need it.”
She looks up at me, a watery smile on her face. “It was one thing when I thought it was gonna be like, a couple of weeks. But we’re talking months now.”
“You’ll stay here for as long as you need,” I repeat, my tone sharpening and leaving no room for argument.
Her eyes hold mine, as if she’s searching for some kind of reluctance on my part. She won’t find any.
“Okay. Thank you.” She blows out a long breath and some of the tension leaves her body.
“What’s your schedule like today?” I ask.
She blinks at me, caught off guard by my abrupt change in subject. But as far as Camryn staying here goes, the matter is settled.
“Uh…I have classes all morning. I’m done around one.”
“Good. I’ll pick you up on campus. We’re going shopping.” I slide my phone out of my pocket and fire off a quick text to my admin, telling her to clear my schedule for the afternoon.
Camryn stares at me, eyebrows raised. “Shopping?”
“Your things were damaged in the flood. You’re not going to get by for two months on whatever’s in that small bag you brought. You need new clothes.” I pocket my phone and adjust my cuffs, straighting them and aligning the cuff links.
She opens her mouth like she’s going to challenge me, and I shake my head.
“No arguments. We’re going shopping. My car will meet you at the front gates of campus at one.”
Her mouth curves up in a small smile, something warm glinting in her eyes. “Well, okay then. I’m not going to argue with a man who seems eager to spend his money on me.”
The laugh comes from somewhere deep inside me, and I turn away before she can see the satisfaction in my eyes. I can’t have her—not in the depraved way I want, as much as I might try todeny it—but I can take care of her. And she doesn’t need to know how much I’ll get off of that.
I set my coffee mug in the sink, gather my things and then turn back to Camryn.
