AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her lips quirk. “Bejü was in my class at Pratt. Her least popular pieces are my favorite. But art speaks differently to everyone. That’s why they say it’s subjective. Like beauty.”
Thinking beauty might be subjective with certain things, but not her—she is most definitely, factually, beautiful—I say, “You’re an artist too, then.”
She shrugs. “Subjective. Some would say all I do is draw lines. Others see rainstorms.”
“Some see beautiful trees,” I add. “And a beautiful woman.”
Cheeks flushed again, she parts her lips. But before she can speak, someone calls from across the room.
“Em!”
We both turn to the man coming our way, his strides long and determined. When he reaches us, he’s staring at me, not her, his gaze hard and judgmental.
Beside me, the girl flashes every shade of red, her eyes going from me to the man I recognize instantly as Jackson Shaw.
“Dad, this is…” She narrows her eyes as if she’s trying to remember. “Actually, we didn’t introduce ourselves.”
Dad? Did she just call him Dad? And he called her Em. Short for Emily?
I look at her again. Before me is a gorgeous woman of probably twenty-two or twenty-three years, not a cute kid of eight. My gaze lingers on her face just long enough to age her. To compare the features of the child I saw in the photograph to the ones onher.
Even if she didn’t still have the same fair skin and pale freckles, the small nose or the flaming red hair, the eyes would give her away. The brilliant, almost electric blue that seems too magnificent to be real.
It’s her. As strange as it seems, Justin got this bit of information wrong. Emily Shaw isn’t a child anymore. Something that may be much more useful to me than anything I could have hoped for.
Shifting my attention to the man who may have killed my father, I extend my hand to him, plastering a smile across my face that grinds. “Noah Russo,” I say, giving him the first name that pops into my head. The last thing I want is for him to associate me with his victim.
“Jackson Shaw.” He shakes my hand and squeezes tight in that way men do as a show of power. I squeeze tighter.
Then I release him and turn to her. Taking her hand much gentler than I did his, I bring it to my lips and kiss the top of it. “And you’re Em?”
“Emily,” she corrects, glancing at her father nervously before she yanks out of my grasp. “But everyone calls me Em.”
“Noah, are you enjoying the exhibit?” Jackson asks, calling my attention back to him.
There’s a tic in his jaw that wasn’t there when he first arrived, and I smile inwardly. He didn’t like me touching his daughter.
“It’s great.”
“Good.” He nods, his blue gaze assessing me. Then, to her, he says, “Em, a word in private.”
She watches him walk away. When his footsteps disappear up the stairs behind me, she smiles. Though this time, it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“It was very nice to meet you, Noah,” she says. “Will I see you around?”
“Actually, I was just leaving.”
“Oh,” she says with obvious disappointment. “I need to head up to the office before my father comes searching. He’s not a patient man. Have a good night, Noah.”
“Good night, Emily.”
She goes to the stairwell, pausing on the first step to glance over her shoulder at me before heading up.
There are offices up there. She confirmed what I wanted to know. However, now that they’re upstairs, I’ll have to wait.
Jackson may not be a patient man, but I am. That means waiting to have her wrapped around my dick too.
Because now, she’s not just going to be a plaything for the night. Emily Shaw is exactly what I came for.
