Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Even now, just thinking about it, I was getting all hyped.
I was almost bright and sunny. Until Fitz stopped the car.
No one deemed me ready, and to tell the truth, I hadn’t been. I was a mess, but who wouldn’t be? The world knew whose daughter I was, and then the world knew it’d been my stepmom who tried to kill me.
But there were good changes, too: my man and my family.
And all that brought me back to here, because I knew I wouldn’t be attending graduate school as simply Bailey Hayes, freak genius brain but cute repertoire. I wouldn’t be able to impress anyone with my saved file of memes. Instead, when I walked in there, everyone would know who I was. And not because of all that I just stated but because they knew who my father was, and two months ago I would’ve been salivating over the fact that Peter Francis had an illegitimate daughter. One who had his brain.
Except that girl was me, so there you go. My dilemma.
I liked being anonymous. No way was I going to be anonymous in there.
God. I sounded whiney.
No more whining. Check.
“You’ve been registered and everything is up-to-date. Your textbooks were delivered, along with your first week’s worth of notes.” Fitz kept talking, as if he knew what was bugging me.
Being new, everything was work. Usually I’d have to trek across a campus and make sure all my payments would be going through to pay for my school. I’d have to worry about getting a picture taken, getting my official ID. Textbooks, ’cause you had to be current with what the professor wanted you to have. Then there was the map of actually finding where you were supposed to go, or even just parking.
Kash and my security team went over my safety plan. I had a safety plan! I still couldn’t get over that I was someone who needed a safety plan. So I knew the second guard was already inside. Erik and Fitz. Both looked my age or a few years older. Kash introduced us last night. He came around to officially meet me, and Kash told me Erik would be in civilian clothes, meaning he’d attempt to blend in. I couldn’t fathom how a high-security bodyguard could “blend” so he was invisible. But they were trying. So I would try, too.
Fitz was about to open his door, and I knew what he would do after that.
I couldn’t. That was too much attention.
“Is Erik inside? I’d like to get out on my own.”
His eyes met me in the mirror. He knew what I was really asking, and after a second look, he used his phone. It buzzed back a moment later, and I looked through my window to the building. As Fitz answered me, I already spotted Erik standing at the door.
He did look like a grad student. Jeans. Hoodie. He had a bag slung over one shoulder and his phone in his hand. His gaze on me, he pushed open the building’s door, taking a casual stance behind it.
He was looking just like the four other students right next to him, but I knew that wasn’t the case. He was out there watching me, and I knew as I got to the building he’d somehow find a way to open the door for me. I would have to wait so he could go in first. These rules were stressed heavily to me the night prior. There was protocol and reasons for everything, but mostly Kash said it was all for my safety.
“You’re good to go.”
I grabbed my bag and nodded to Fitz. “Thank you.”
I got out, and as soon as I did, my phone started ringing.
Kash calling.
He’d woken me this morning with his mouth trailing down my spine, a firm hand on my hip, and then a full hour of ecstasy. I expected a quickie for the morning. It was anything but. He’d been in no hurry. There was still that, but there’d been a whole element where it was slow and tender and loving. He kissed me the entire time he made love to me.
My entire body had been trembling from the emotions, and he rubbed a tear away with his thumb at the end. I’d been that overwhelmed.
I loved him.
God, did I love him, and somehow he knew the exact touch I needed to start this next chapter.
I answered, my phone to my ear. “You’re supposed to be walking into your first shareholders’ meeting right now.”
Kash came from a powerful, well-connected family. With his grandfather being the evil lord he was—wealthy, powerful, and dangerous—and his mom having been a money genius who left an extremely large inheritance, he was a major player in the world. Besides money and power, Kash had his father’s shares in Phoenix Tech, since he and Peter started the company together.