Twenty-one and ready to take on the world, orphan Lizzie Gold didn't expect her chance encounter with a stranger to lead to a damnable task - to take down a rising business tycoon.
Ryan Pierce - her viciously handsome target and her new boss - might...
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L I Z Z I E 45 | where I belong
"Do you need me to carry them for you, Miss?" the lobby boy, Pedro, asks genially when he finds me heading for the private elevators with five shopping bags dangling in my arms.
"Thank you, Pedro," I say with a cheery smile. "But they are very light so I can carry them myself."
"As you wish, Miss." The young boy blushes, his pale cheeks turning a bright shade of pink as I step into the elevator.
Everyone has been so kind to me in the hotel since I moved in with Ryan three days ago. I am greeted with smiles wherever I go. Things have been easier than I thought they would be since I started staying with him. I have the belief that it is because Ryan and I are practically an old married couple who have nothing to adjust about. I didn't have much stuff to move from the apartment so the shift was even easier.
I have been so used to changing homes, never having a permanent one ever, that being with him erases that feeling — that sense of 'This is just another house; you will do fine' replacing that with 'This is Ryan. His home is yours too.'
As I carry the shopping bags which contain some new clothes for me and a little gift I picked up for Ryan, memories of Tia still linger causing me to worry about her safety.
I still can't process that she just left. More than that, I can't believe that I grew this attached to her company in the last six months. She had been my only family in the city.
Before I found the Pierces.
There is a part of her in my heart no one can replace.
The elevator dings, opening up to a quieter penthouse than the blaring music I left on while Ryan was in the gym. I step inside, furrowing my eyebrows as I scan the empty place. I drop the shopping bags on the couch when I hear a giggle from the kitchen.
The giggle is feminine, a child's voice I recognize immediately. I head into the kitchen, my jaw dropping when I halt at the unfamiliar scene before me.
Ryan has a dish towel thrown over his shoulder as he decorates a cake with a pastry bag on the breakfast bar. His attention is on it while Crystal is sitting on top of the breakfast bar, her legs dangling as she watches Ryan or more specifically the cake. Around them, there are numerous dishes some of which I can't even name, and nor do I remember being there when I had left.
What happened in a few hours that Ryan is suddenly so focused on being a cook? He doesn't even notice me.
"You need to add a smiley face here, Ryan. Betty likes that," Crystal instructs Ryan, hiding a fleeting smile that I don't fail to catch.
"Where?" Ryan scrutinizes his handiwork, looking closely at the cake.
