Caging me in with his arms, he leaned forward. "I've been very patient with you, brat. You've got two choices. Either tell me what the hell is going on, or I'm going to follow through and take you over my knee."
"It isn't much of a threat if I like it rough is it, daddy?"
He shoved away from me and moved toward the windows on the other side of the living room. Arnold turned and gave me his back. When he spoke, his voice was low and pinged around inside me like a swarm of fireflies lighting up my insides.
"You keep playing this game with me. One of these days I'm going to test your resolve. What will you do then, little girl?"
"Maybe you should hear why I was outside in the rain last night and then decide." He might change his mind if he knew I didn't have a penny to my name or a place to live.
He walked back to where he'd been seated when I entered the room and turned the paper toward me. In the business section of the paper was an article about The Flyn Corporation and the disastrous launch of Flyn Vodka. Business insiders were speculating that a hostile takeover was imminent, and that the CEO, Morrell Flyn, was currently consolidating his assets in an attempt to buy the stock before an anonymous investor purchased a majority of the shares.
"I'm guessing he had you locked out of your apartment, and likely has had all your accounts frozen as well. Am I right?" he asked.
I nodded. "How did you guess all that?"
He finally looked at me, and thankfully I didn't see pity in his gaze. "Let's just say, I have experience with parents like him. I'd hoped to be a different kind of father, when I finally had the chance, but it turned out I missed that chance by twenty-three years."
I couldn't help myself, and I hurried over to him. "Emily still needs you. I don't think you can begin to know how badly she needed to find her father. Just in the last few weeks I've seen an enormous change in her."
He nodded. "It's hard to feel alone in the world. I imagine it's even harder to actually be alone in the world. Now neither of us have to suffer that anymore."
A lump formed in my throat, and this time I was forced to turn away or unveil every emotion I was feeling. Being vulnerable wasn't an emotion I was comfortable with. "Now I guess it's just me," I whispered. I'd intended to speak the words only to myself, but he heard me. He always heard everything whether I wanted him to or not.
Arnold seemed to understand me on a level no one ever had before. It was terrifying, and I loved it. He knew when to push and when to back off. It was like I was an instrument and he was a virtuoso. Of course it fit his womanizing persona, because he knew just which strings to pluck to make me vibrate for him.
"I know this is all overwhelming. Bryan told me you quit your job last night. I know it seems like too much, but we need to tackle things in order of importance. The first thing we need to handle is you need a place to stay."
Again, I nodded. He moved closer to me and traced a single finger across my exposed clavicle. "I'm also willing to bet you don't want to ask Emily if you can stay with them."
I shrugged. What could I say? He was absolutely right.
"There's no way you'll stay with Sonja. I know you've become friends, but she isn't someone you've really allowed into your inner circle yet."
"And she's got some weird thing going on with Mervin, and I would rather not see him again if I can avoid it."
Arnold went rigid, and the telltale muscle in his jaw clenched and released. "She what?" His voice was low, and in someone less urbane I'd describe it as deadly.
"I don't know much. She said they were friends, but they had a weird vibe when she brought us to his club opening a couple months ago."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I was fascinated watching him calm himself. I'd never seen someone exercise so much control over their emotions. A moment ago I would have sworn he was about to fly into a rage, and then he seemed to flip a switch and change back into the affable Arnold I was used to.
"All right, her place is out. You know that means you've no choice but to stay here."
I was so occupied trying to study every emotion I saw flit across his face since I'd joined him this morning, I hadn't noticed how expertly he maneuvered me into a different kind of corner. He wasn't wrong though. I didn't have anywhere else to go.
He stepped completely into my personal space and moved my hair out of my face. "I see you trying to come up with an alternate arrangement, but I can also tell you know I'm right. This also gives me a chance to really test you."
A shiver travelled down my spine. Arnold bent down, and I felt the barest brush of his lips against mine. They didn't linger though, and his warm breath fanned against my cheek as he whispered, "Not now though, little girl. First, I'm going to start fixing some of your problems."
This was a game I knew how to play, and once again I felt like I was on stable ground. "Whatever you say, daddy," I teased as I moved past him.
"Are we doing this here?"
She took a step back. "I'm tired of people lying to me. I want to know what is going on. Why do you get to know what is happening to me, and I don't get to know?"
"You're right. Let's go home and I'll tell you what I know."
She shook her head. "I don't have a home. I don't have anything."
I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to me. "You've got me."
"You've got me."What the hell was that supposed to mean?
There were loads of daydreams I could conjure up. I mean, the man was built like one of those marble statues out of the Renaissance.
I had to remind myself he was my best friend's dad, and I wasn't living in some kinky babysitter fantasy. Arnold Grenwich was off limits.
I almost laughed out loud. My life was burning down around me and here I was fantasizing about a hot guy. This wasn't me. At least not since I was sixteen and Mervin showed me how easy a heart broke by sleeping with my nemesis, Melany Forsythe.
Thoughts bounced around my head, and I needed to get away from his distracting face to clear my head.
"I'm going to take a walk."
Arnold stopped making coffee and set the carafe on the counter. "It's raining. If you need to go somewhere, I'll take you."
"That would defeat the purpose of getting away from you." I waited for the cocky reply, but he seemed too tense and irritable to rise to our usual banter.
"Fine, if that's what you want. I'm trying to be a friend, Dory, if only you'd let me. Whether you want to admit it or not, you need somebody and I'm here. But if you're telling me what you need right now is space, then I'm going to give it to you."
Absent witty repartee, I was expecting him to fight me on leaving. The fact he was accepting me walking out so easily left me a little hurt and a lot confused.
He walked over to his hall closet and took out a raincoat and an umbrella. "Be smart though. It's been raining for days. You'll catch a cold if you don't stay dry."
I took the jacket and umbrella, offering him a weak smile. It was stupid. I had no money and no clue what I was doing. Still, I left his apartment and wandered aimlessly for what seemed like forever.
"Dory?"
I turned around at the familiar voice and saw Sonja Lake coming out of a coffee shop.
"Hey, Sonja," I replied.
My voice sounded flat, and there was no way I didn't appear as lost as I felt.
"What are you doing? You look like you've been wandering around for hours in the rain. Seriously, what have you been up to today?"
I shrugged. "Wandering around for hours in the rain." The shock of everything that happened last night was starting to wear off, robbing me of the blanket of numbness and leaving me to feel the wet and cold.
Patting my pockets, I thought I should check in with Arn and let him know I was okay, sure he was worried about me. How had I not noticed I didn't have my phone?
"I don't really know what I'm doing," I finally answered her more honestly. "My life kind of exploded, or rather imploded, last night. I took a walk to clear my head."
"Is it working?" she asked.
"Obviously not." I spread my arms out, letting the umbrella hang by my side, and tipped my face back to feel the falling rain. "I'm still out here."