I saw her as I waited in the back of the car. Rolling the window down I beckoned to her as she drew nearer.
That smile, only for me, always for me, I will make it so.
The driver got out and let her in as some curious onlookers tried to get a glimpse of me. She was in and in my arms in seconds. I couldn't resist; all day she had plagued me, I had hardly looked at the spreadsheets still covering my desk, my only thoughts were of her, and us, and our life together.
"Gideon, you came."
"I said I would." I smiled at her exuberance as I kissed her forehead. As she pulled her head back to look at me I noticed her lips were a bit chapped. "Where's your lip balm sweetheart?" I ran my thumb gently over her lower lip. She hung her head and blushed, why would such an innocent question cause such a reaction unless, shit...
"Blossom, I'm not insulting you sweetheart, I just wondered..."
"No, no, no, it's not that, it's just that...my dad doesn't like it." She wrung her hands together while looking down at her lap, so she didn't see the frown that crossed my face.
"What do you mean? Doesn't like what?"
"He doesn't like me to wear lip balm or things like that?"
"Why ever not?" This wasn't making any sense to me at all it was such a little thing after all. I thought all teenaged girls were into that silly stuff.
And then I remembered my reports, she didn't have any friends, so she didn't do the teenage girl thing. For some reason that made me sad. Cliff Sanders was a total fuck, he meant to rob her of everything that was good in life, meant to put out any light or joy she could find in the already mundane world he had made her life into. We'll just see about that, cock-sucking bastard.
I kept a mile on my face so she wouldn't guess at my intentions, or of the rage that was beginning to boil inside me. I rolled down the window between us and the driver.
"Change of plans instead of taking us straight to the office we need to swing by the shopping district."
"Yes sir." I rolled the window back up before turning to her.
"How would you like to go shopping with me?" She looked down at her uniform.
"Don't worry about that, your dad already knows that you're with me, you don't need to be home until after dinner."
"I still don't understand how you got my dad to agree to this..."
"That's not for you to worry about, just know that when you're with me we can do anything you like, like go shopping for lip balm and anything else your little heart desires.
"Really...that's...oh no wait, I can't..." She was back to gnawing at her lip and I subconsciously pulled it out from between her teeth with my thumb.
"Why not?"
"Because then you might think that's the only reason I like you."
So shy and so fucking innocent; I wish to always keep her this way, I'll do everything in my power to make sure she stays this way for as long as possible. Which meant getting her away from my new number one enemy before he had more of a chance to fuck her over.
"Don't worry about such things Ashley, I want to take you shopping, I want you to have all the things you've ever wanted but could never have."
"Really, but why?"
"Simply because I want you to, for instance, do you have a cell phone?"
She shook her head no while pulling at the hem of her skirt. Let me guess dear old dad didn't like that either. Well fuck him, from now on I will see to it that she had all the things a young girl could need or want. Cliffy boy could roast on a spit in hell for all I cared, fucking bastard.
"Well then, that will be our first stop, how am I supposed to keep in touch with my best girl if I can't even call her huh?" I tried to make light of the situation, but she knew that I knew about her personal hell.
Hopefully I can use this to get her away from that despot.
I took her to the mall and directly to the apple store where I proceeded to spoil her. I tried to fix seventeen years of neglect in one afternoon, an impossible feat, yes I know, but I will never stop trying.
"Gideon, this is too much."
She tried to protest when I got her a new phone an iPad and a Mac. I knew part of her reluctance was due to her father's reaction, but I was on top of it, in fact I almost wanted him to react to it; that would give me an excuse. Any wrong move on his part going forward was all the excuse I will need to remove her from under his care and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it, by law she was old enough it was only her attachment to him that was keeping me from making my move.
Hmm, that's food for thought, a bit drastic Thorpe, but if he forced my hand I would do it.
But do you really want to pick up that gauntlet? Get embroiled in some sort of tug of war over a girl you'd just met? For her, I'd risk it, I'm beginning to think there isn't much I wouldn't risk for her, to see her this happy always.
From there I dragged her off to a clothing store, her eyes opened and she acted like just what she was, a young girl. I still had to force her to try on things and then to let me buy them for her.
"Uh, maybe I should leave this stuff at your place?"
"Why would you do that? Your phone and new computers are for you to use, especially to call me." I nudged her before hugging her under my arm. We were attracting a lot of attention, I'm sure people were trying to figure out the relationship between the twenty something guy and the much younger school girl, still in uniform no less.
I could care less but I didn't want my Blossom feeling uncomfortable, though she didn't seem to notice the attention thank God, that's just one more thing to make her feel self conscious.
"I'm not sure..."
"You're worrying about your dad again, I told you everything's going to be okay, nothing for you to worry about."
I was gonna make sure I had eyes and ears on the Sanders residence for as long as she remained there so there was no need for her to worry.
We finished up with all those little necessities every girl should have, perfume, lipstick, lip gloss, of course she had to choose cherry which meant I couldn't wait to kiss it off her lips.
We were loaded down with bags of which half were for the condo. There were things bought specifically for there, like her new silk robe for relaxing evenings when she stayed over, her favorite shampoo and body creams which she'd always liked but never bought. I got her two of everything, one for home and one for my place.
She didn't have to tell me anything for me to know the asshole never gave her any spending money, the more I learned, the harder it was for me to think about letting her go back to him.
Dinner was a simple affair in a little bistro that I liked. I ordered her the leek and potato soup as a starter followed by poached salmon in hollandaise sauce with asparagus and new potatoes.
She was such a delight to spoil, I found myself looking forward to things that I had never paid much attention to in the past. Like the upcoming holidays, not to mention her birthday which would be in a few short months.
I smiled at the thought.
"What? What are you smiling about?"
That's my little girl, so attentive to my every action.
My smile grew wider. "I'm imagining spoiling my best girl for the holidays."
"Who me?"
She blushed with a look of uncertainty on her face. My poor baby, so unaccustomed to attention, I felt my hands clench into fists. I refuse to let thoughts of her father and what I would like to do to him intrude on our time any more this evening.
My only thought from now on would be of her, of making her life something beautiful.
It was pure torture taking her home after all that. I had stolen more than a few kisses in the back of the car. Like now, we were almost to her house and I had her on my lap as I taught her how to kiss me the way I liked, with lots of tongue and playfulness.
"Give me your tongue."
She obeyed hurriedly and I took her tongue into my mouth. She'd put on her new lip-gloss, I knew it would torment me, she tasted like innocence and sin.
I wanted to plunder and devour but reminded myself of my promise. Not until after her birthday, Damn I hope I can last that long. She drew forth such strong emotion in me I wondered how I would keep myself in check when already I wanted her so badly it was like a gnawing pain in my gut that would not be assuaged until I had her for the first time, and perhaps not even then.
"Sir we're here."
Dammit, not enough time, never enough time. I held her away from me holding her little face in my hands.
"You call me if you need me do you hear me Ashley?" Fuck I don't want to leave her. Beg me to take you home with me baby, just say the fucking words.