Chapter 71
Their fingers intertwined as they moved through the corporate halls, descending in the elevator until they emerged into the night air.
Dominic held the car door open for Evelyn. Once she settled inside, he turned away, lighting a cigarette with a troubled expression.
The crisp evening wind played with his sharp features, yet couldn't cool the fire burning beneath his skin.
From their first encounter, she'd ignited something primal in him. He recalled spotting her petite frame at the basketball courts - that delicate face stirring protective instincts he never knew he possessed. She'd been so slight, almost fragile-looking, like she hadn't been eating properly.
Yet as days passed, it was this underdeveloped girl from the neighboring middle school who occupied his thoughts, not the curvier high school girls throwing themselves at him.
Small towns tolerated teenage romance more than cities. Teachers kept watch, but not with A City's oppressive scrutiny. The temptation to pursue her grew unbearable.
One Friday dusk, he followed Evelyn walking home. Lost in her own world, she never noticed the tall high schooler shadowing her steps. As they neared her house, vicious whispers reached his ears.
"Old man Robert's lost his mind promising Evelyn to Theodore Wilson. Even if my boy couldn't find a wife, we'd never accept that Sinclair girl..."
"Doesn't take after her father at all. Must've inherited everything from her mother - in every way!"
"Exactly! She'll probably turn out just as unstable. Who'd marry a madwoman? What if she runs off with some rich man two years into marriage?"
"My son said she's already seducing wealthy classmates for free meals - a little temptress in ninth grade!"
That day Dominic understood Evelyn's perpetual silence.
The neighbors' cruelty wasn't hidden. He heard every word, and Evelyn must have endured this daily.
Though he wanted to claim her, he considered the consequences. After witnessing the street's venom, he reluctantly stepped back.
Not because he believed their slander about her becoming like her supposedly promiscuous mother.
He refused to worsen her reputation by association.
She deserved purity, not more gossip.
His own background was complicated enough - wealth, power, college courses already mastered. He'd repeated grades just to stay in that judgmental town longer. Rumors couldn't touch him, but they'd destroy her.
The self-conscious girl never noticed his lingering gazes, even when teachers did.
Later, he learned her father had remarried and moved to A City, inexplicably leaving his daughter behind. As an outsider, his opinion meant nothing.
The urge to rescue her grew daily, but reality intervened. Taking her away meant confronting his parents first.
Two dependent teens together would be labeled reckless elopers.
She'd become exactly what the neighbors predicted - a gold-digger fleeing with a rich boy.
Abandoning that fantasy, Dominic focused on establishing himself, becoming someone she could truly lean on.
If only she'd hurry up and grow older.
That five-year age gap stretched like decades.
At nineteen, drunken nights at friends' houses exposed him to adult films. Learning about intimacy, his mind conjured forbidden images of that delicate girl...
His possessiveness intensified.
Until his grandfather abruptly pulled him from school that winter, sending him away without explanation.
As he gained independence in subsequent years, his first act was arranging discreet protection for Evelyn.
Finally, she reached adulthood.
Moving to A City to live with her father and stepmother brought some happiness, though shadows remained. Robert treated her well, and A City High's students proved kinder.
Then his informant reported a college boy showing Evelyn special attention - weekend study sessions at his home, claiming his sister was Evelyn's classmate.
Before Dominic could investigate, news came: Robert had liver cancer.
That afternoon, Evelyn left school crying silently, tears streaking her cheeks unnoticed.
Dominic waited at the gates in his Bentley after cutting a meeting short. She walked right past his offered tissue, consumed by her father's diagnosis.
When she finally registered his presence, a distracted "thank you" was all she offered before rushing to the hospital.
Robert's treatment required substantial funds. Some sick opportunist introduced a fifty-year-old man to Evelyn - offering half a million if she'd bear his child.
Dominic's face twisted in disgust hearing his priceless girl reduced to a transaction.
Now she was finally, openly his.
If her tightness hadn't restrained him, he'd have buried himself completely inside her, marking every cell with his devotion.
"What are you thinking about?" Dominic asked as they left the corporate tower for his hotel.
Evelyn shook her head.
The exclusive suite felt intimately familiar, clearly his private domain. She opened her laptop to work, though she'd have preferred finishing at the office or home. Dominic had insisted on her company after hours.
Searching her bag for a ruler, she was suddenly lifted onto the bed by the balcony door.
"Let me see where I hurt you," he murmured, fingers working at her dress buttons. He remembered forcing his way despite resistance, worried he'd caused damage.