Page 28 of Undeniably Corrupt (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #7)

I glance at Hazel in the rearview mirror. Her eyes are half-closed, and her rabbit is crushed to her chest. “No, I’ll take her home. Thanks, brother. As always, you keep it simple for me,” I deadpan.

“That’s my job. And Vander?” His tone shifts, becoming less mocking. “Kids are tougher than they look. You won’t break her. I gotta run. My traumas are rolling in.”

Stone disconnects the call, and I type out a quick text to Liora before the light turns green and I drive us across the Harvard Bridge into Cambridge.

Ten minutes later, I’m pulling into my driveway and unbuckling Hazel.

The house is quiet and dark but clean. Liora lives here, but you’d never know it.

She hasn’t added any of her stuff to any of my spaces.

Not that she had a lot, but other than a couple of Hazel’s toys and things neatly tucked away, the rest is untouched.

“Are you hungry?” I ask, setting her down in the kitchen.

She shakes her head.

I have no idea if Liora has medicine for her or not, but I quickly go online and order up the stuff Stone mentioned to be delivered along with other things like popsicles, soup, a thermometer, and Pedialyte. Things I remember my mother having when I was little and sick.

“So, um. Do you want to watch TV?”

“Yes,” she says, her voice small. She walks toward my family room, where I have the eighty-five-inch TV, and looks at me before she climbs up onto the sofa. “Are you mad?”

“What?” I ask, caught off guard. I haven’t been mean or short with her, have I?

“I not to be on sofa,” she whispers like she’s committing a crime. “Little hands make big messes.”

I cough out a laugh. “Is that what your mommy says?”

She nods.

I look at the pristine gray leather beneath her. “It’s fine. You can sit and play on it. I don’t care if you make a mess, and if you make a big one, I can always replace it.” I turn on the TV and see it’s already set for PBS Kids. “Is this good?”

“I like Super Why .”

“Is that what this is?”

She laughs. “Yes, silly.” But then she starts coughing a lot, and worry strikes through me.

“Don’t move, okay? I’ll be right back.”

I run and grab a glass of water, only to remember she’s fucking two and a half, and search through the cabinets until I find one of her cups with a straw built in.

When I return, she’s exactly where I left her, though she’s arranged her rabbit on the cushion beside her and appears to be having a whispered conversation with it.

“She has boo-boo ears,” she informs me seriously as I hand her the water.

I’m not about to point out the fact that this thing only has one ear. “Does she?” I sit beside her, making a note of that. Maybe I should bring her into the emergency room to see Stone. “What’s her name?”

“Bunny.” She says this like it’s the most obvious name in the world.

“It’s perfect for her.”

She giggles, then winces.

“Do you have boo-boo ears too?”

She nods and crawls over to curl into my side.

“Then we’ll avoid funny things.” I pull out my phone. “Your mom doesn’t have her phone on her at the hospital, but I’m going to send her a message she’ll get when she’s done.”

Me: Hazel says she has boo-boo ears.

Fuck, I can’t believe I just sent that in a text.

Me: Not sure if you want to bring home something to look in them or I can have one of my friends come over and examine her and write her a prescription if needed. I ordered her ibuprofen and Tylenol. Is it okay to give them to her?

“Tell her Bunny is sick,” Hazel interrupts.

I pause. Sigh.

Me: Hazel wants you to know Bunny is sick too.

“I miss Mommy.”

“I know. She’ll be home soon.”

Me: We’re fine. Take your time.

I send the messages knowing Liora will see them the moment she checks her phone. And knowing her, she’ll likely panic. Until then, it’s just me and this tiny, fevered person who’s looking at me like I might have answers.

“What do you do when you’re sick?” I ask her, realizing I have no idea what sick children need beyond medicine I can’t give her without permission.

Hazel considers this. “I like Bluey .”

“ Bluey ?” I repeat. “Is that a show?”

The look she gives me is pure pity. “It’s my favorite.”

“Right. Of course.” I reach for the remote and navigate to the streaming services. “Let’s see if we can find it.”

It takes only a moment to locate the show. Apparently, it’s popular enough to be featured prominently. Within minutes, animated dogs with Australian accents fill my screen, and Hazel’s expression brightens immediately.

“Bluey!” she exclaims, then dissolves into a coughing fit.

I pat her back awkwardly. “Water,” I remind her, handing her the sippy cup.

She drinks obediently, her eyes never leaving the screen.

I watch her more than the show, fascinated by how quickly she’s gone from wary to comfortable in my presence.

I want her to be comfortable, not only with me, but here in the house.

I don’t like thinking about how rough she’s already had it. How uncertain and scary her life has been at the hands of men. Liora has done all she can for her, and it makes me love her all the more.

That pulls me up short. Wait. Love her?

No. I don’t…

What else would you call it?

Obsession. I almost smile, but it’s only to compensate for the way my heart is hammering.

My issues are my own, and even though I know Liora likes to push my buttons and see just how much she can rile me up—newsflash, it’s a lot—I don’t want to be another thing in her life she has to survive.

I glance down at my arm, at the tattoo hidden beneath my shirt. She deserves better than that.

And yet, I’ve never wanted anyone else but her.

More than that, I don’t think there’s anything in this world I wouldn’t do for her…

and for Hazel. So maybe… maybe it’s okay that I love her.

I keep them safe, and now they have nice clothes, and Liora can save money.

I still have no clue what’s going on between her and her father, and any searching I do into him is slow, controlled, and isn’t revealing a whole lot.

Then again, I’m trying to be the mouse nibbling at crumbs instead of the lion chasing its prey and eating the whole carcass at once.

By the end of the fourth episode, Hazel’s eyelids begin to droop.

I check my watch and see that nearly an hour has passed since we got home.

I go in search of a blanket from the hall closet, but when I put it over her, she shocks me by climbing on top of me and resting her head on my chest. My hands run down the back of her head, and I shift so I’m supine with her over me.

“Will you watch too?” she asks, her voice small and her blue eyes large and hopeful. She looks so much like Liora, it makes my chest clench.

Something weird and foreign pulls at my insides.

“I’ll be right here,” I promise.

I intend to work, but that’s impossible with her on me like this, so instead I find myself watching her drift into sleep, her breaths becoming deeper and more even.

This child and her mother have been living in my house, yet I’ve engineered my schedule to avoid them both.

At first, it was simple self-preservation.

Liora as my assistant was one thing. Liora in my home with her sweet smell, smart mouth, and sexy body was dangerous territory.

So I retreated, working late, leaving early if I came home at all, and dining out.

And now here I sit, voluntarily in the company of the smaller James girl, and wondering how my life has changed so much in such a short amount of time.

Strangely, I don’t hate it, and Stone’s words from earlier ring through my head.

Am I there? Has it always been her? What would that mean for my life if that’s true?

A weird sound rouses me from the half-dream I was having. My eyes slowly open to find Liora crouched on the floor beside me with her phone raised in her hand as she takes a picture of me with Hazel fast asleep on my chest.

“Hi,” I whisper, feeling a little bad that I fell asleep when I was supposed to be watching Hazel.

“Dude!” She smacks my shoulder playfully. “Learn to pick up your phone or answer texts. I had about ten thousand heart attacks on the T ride home.”

Oh, shit.

I wince. “Sorry. I didn’t hear it. Maybe I left it on vibrate by mistake. ”

“Clearly, since you fell asleep.” I get an eye roll.

“You took the T?” I frown. I should have sent a car for her. Crap.

“Yes. It’s only a couple of stops on the red line out here from the hospital.” She drags her hand over the back of Hazel’s sleeping head. “Is she okay? You said she has boo-boo ears?” Her lips bounce, and yeah, I knew that would come back to bite me in the ass.

“That’s what she told me. I was simply relaying a message.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. I get it.” She winks at me and I melt a little too much at that. “I made an appointment at her pediatrician for two.”

“Good. I didn’t hear from you, so I didn’t give her medicine yet, but it’s on the counter along with some other things. Stone recommended alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol if you’re comfortable with that.”

“You called Stone?” Her eyes go round and flicker around my face.

“Yeah. Why are you staring at me like that?”

“No reason.” She shakes her head as her shoulders drop, tension visibly leaving her body. “I came home as soon as I got your messages,” she whispers. “I was so worried. I feel terrible I wasn’t there to get her and that you had to.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t have that much going on today anyway.” I smirk and glance down at a sleeping Hazel on my chest. “Clearly I needed a nap too.”

She looks at me, eyes shining with something I can’t identify. She shifts closer to me and cups my face. The feel of her soft hand on my skin is better than anything.

“Thank you, Vander. You didn’t have to do any of this, but I’m so grateful. Once again, you’ve saved us.” With her eyes on mine and then down at my lips, she leans in and gives me the softest, sweetest kiss of my life. Softer than the one I gave her that first time all those years ago .

And fuck. Because, yeah. I love Liora. With the way I’m feeling right now, I’m not sure I ever stopped.

“It’s fine.” I brush her touch off before I do something stupid like kiss her back. It’s the one thing I’ve resisted. The one thing I knew that would push me over the edge. “I learned a lot about animated Australian dogs.”

Liora laughs softly, and the sound, along with her smile, does something liquid and warm to my insides. “ Bluey is sacred in our household.”

“So I gathered.”

She moves close now, and my gaze naturally falls to her plump, pink lips.

A strand of hair has fallen across her face, and before I can think better of it, I reach out to tuck it behind her ear.

Her breath catches, and my fingers linger against her skin longer than necessary, tracing the delicate shell of her ear before reluctantly pulling away.

“You should get changed,” I say, my voice rougher than I intend. “You smell like the hospital instead of like me.”

“Always the charmer,” she murmurs, but she’s smiling, a slight flush rising to her cheeks at my mentioning how she stole my shampoo and body wash.

For a moment, we simply look at each other, the air between us charged with all the things we’ve been dancing around.

“I’ll take her up so you can have your sofa back.

” She scoops a still-sleeping Hazel up in her arms and heads for the stairs before turning back to me. “Thank you, Vander.”

I nod. “Hey, Liora?” I call out to her, and she stops. “She can sit on the sofa any time. I don’t care if she makes a mess.”

Something crosses Liora’s features, and then she continues up the stairs. I watch her go, unable to comprehend the familiar emotion lodged in my throat.

Because whether I like it or not, it’s as Stone said. I’m already there. I just haven’t accepted it yet.