Enjoy this short introduction story about the main characters in The Tycoon’s Captured Heart! The book came out Friday the 15th with lots of bonus extra content!
Scarlett’s Story…
All the people kept wandering around her house. Five year old Scarlett didn’t understand why, all she knew was that she was alone. Her parents hadn’t come home last night. One of the neighbors had spent the night. She’d heard the police and some lady in a dark suit discussing it. She liked the neighbor lady, knew the lady and her mother had been friends. But she didn’t like the neighbor lady sleeping in her parent’s bed. That was wrong.
Where were her parents? She was trying very hard not to cry, to be a big girl, but people kept telling her that her parents were gone. They then asked if she understood, and she nodded. But she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand any of this.
The front door of her house opened up and she looked up from the book she was pretending to read. Uncle Charles!
With tears streaming down her cheeks, she raced over to him, threw herself into his arms and knew with absolute certainty that he would catch her. Uncle Charles came to all of their holiday meals, was always here for her birthdays and her ballet recitals, even though she hated ballet, and he had nice, strong arms that lifted her into his and held her against his chest.
Her parents weren’t here, but Uncle Charles was. She’d prefer her parents, but he was the next best thing.
Over the next few days, she watched as Uncle Charles packed up her house, boxing up all of her parent’s stuff and it went away, out the door to who knows where. There was lots of whispering between him and some other people and she tried very hard not to interrupt.
The nights were better. She sat in Uncle Charles’ lap and he read her stories. She rested her head on his shoulder and tried to make sense of everything. But nothing made sense. It was all so confusing.
Only once did she stomp her foot in anger and that was when she was alone. She didn’t want to think about anything.
Her parents were gone. Uncle Charles was here. Everything was wrong.
A few days after her parents “died”, which she still didn’t understand, Uncle Charles drove her to his home. The large, stone buildings were amazing and she pressed her nose up against the windows. She had loved her old bedroom, but she had always dreamed of living in a castle. And these old, stone buildings were pretty close to living in a castle.
“Are you…” Uncle Charles was saying but he stopped when he heard the ruckus. He was kneeling beside her but his head whipped around and his normally nice, soft eyes hardened with anger. “Those boys! I’m going to…”
He didn’t finish that statement. He simply stood up, took her hand in his and walked quickly over to the building with all the light coming out of it.
When they stepped inside, Scarlett saw the most amazing sight. Boys…lots and lots of boys. Some tall, some short, some gangly and some pudgy. Many were standing around, looking at the bundle of arms and legs that were rolling around on the floor. She had no idea how many boys were in that tussle, but her eyes widened. It looked like fun! And she wouldn’t mind wrestling a bit. Maybe that would get some of this confusion out of her tummy. She was so tired of being confused!
Uncle Charles clapped his hands, yelled threats at the tangle of arms and legs but they ignored him.
“Stop!” Scarlett called out, trying to reinforce her Uncles’ words. No one should ignore her uncle! He was a nice man!
Immediately, the boys stopped fighting and looked at her. She stared, astounded as they untangled themselves and stood up. Looking down at her, she watched in amazement as each one of them introduced themselves to her.
She wanted to giggle at some of them, but she wasn’t sure that was appropriate. But she could see in their eyes the same thing she was feeling. Confusion. Loss. She was scared and…so were they. The boys were just better at hiding it.
Four boys were funny, all of them introducing themselves and promising not to fight.
She smiled as two of them shook hands and it felt better, something lifting inside of her, when she smiled. And the boys smiled back at her, making that happy feeling inside of her increase even more.
But there was one boy, he was just as tall as the others but looked angrier than the others. Something in her chest hurt when she looked at him. He was so lonely. She was lonely. She could feel his pain just as much as she could feel her uncle’s calm.
But he didn’t introduce himself. They stared at each other for a long moment and she knew that he was hurting. Possibly not more than the others, but differently.
When he didn’t introduce himself, one of the others announced his name. “Grayson”. She tossed that name around in her mind. She liked it. She liked him. She liked all of them but there was something about Grayson that…called to her. She needed him in a way she didn’t understand.
When he only stared back at her, she walked over to him and took his hand. For a moment, it felt like he was going to reject her gesture, but then his warm fingers curled around hers and she knew. Everything was better. Holding his hand made her feel…better. Good!
“We’re all okay now,” she announced and almost sighed with relief because it was true. She didn’t have her parents. They were gone. But she had Uncle Charles. And she had these guys. She had Grayson. Everything was okay.
Grayson’s Story….
Walking across the campus, he glared at anyone who would dare to talk to him. The anger inside of him was so intense, he felt like punching out the first person who looked in his direction.
School. Who needed it? He could learn everything he needed to learn on his own. Libraries held books. He could read and figure things out for himself.
“Great,” he muttered as that ass Stefan approached. He wouldn’t mind slugging that guy with his smirk and his superior attitude. Grayson didn’t understand his animosity towards the other guy either. Everyone at this stupid school had a superior attitude, what was it about this guy and those other three that irritated him so much? Every time he saw them, he wanted to just pick a fight with them!
He had two options, head to the right, directly towards the guy and feel the stinging relief when he got in a good punch, or veer left and avoid him.
Never one to avoid anything, he headed right, his body tensing in eager anticipation.
Unfortunately, a blond girl called out to the jerk and Grayson didn’t get the chance to take a swing at his smug expression.
Later that night, he got his wish. He had no idea what had caused the fight to start, but swinging his fists felt good, released all the tension. Every time he received a punch, he pushed the pain aside, wanting just one more good jab, one more release of the tension.
“Stop!” a tiny voice called out.
He froze. What in the world? Girls weren’t allowed in the dorm areas! They were barely allowed on campus! A girl roaming the grounds of this school, filled with horny, barely controlled teenage boys was either stupid or walking with bodyguards.
When he untangled his arms and legs from the others, he looked around and…
She was tiny! Just a baby! Why was he listening to a baby tell him what to do?
And then he watched with double astonishment as each of the idiots he’d just been wrestling with introduced themselves to the tiny, blond tyrant.
She was adorable, he thought, then pushed that thought aside. She was a girl. And a baby at that.
But she didn’t act like a baby. She acted like…hell, he didn’t know anything any longer.
And then she looked at him and he felt like she’d just slugged him. But there was no pain. Just a gut wrenching fear. Worse than anything he’d ever experienced in his life.
Staring back at her, he refused to acknowledge her in any way other than with his eyes.
The little tyrant wasn’t having any of it! Darn her, she was walking over to him.
Her tiny fingers slid into his hand. His knuckles had been throbbing, there was a pain in his ribs and his head ached like a sledgehammer was pounding away at it.
But that tiny hand….he wanted to pull away but…
Her hand made everything better. All the pain seemed to disappear.
She looked up at him. He looked back down at her.
With a sigh, he curled his fingers around her tiny hand. Brat, he thought. But he didn’t release her hand. He could see the pain in her blue eyes. Maybe he could help the poor sprite, he told himself. It never occurred to him that one day she might help him in return.
