04: My Firecracker.

CYRIL’S POV.

I should have known it was some fucking game. Yet, something about seeing that fucking marriage application had sent my reasoning out the door.

Like as if I would let some random boy get married to her.

I didn’t know it before. Heck, every damn time that she tugged at my limits, tried to push me, she had pushed me a little bit without me even realizing it.

But now, there was no taking back time. There’s no way Raine is going to believe me if I told her the contract was just to protect her from Indie.

Damn Indie.

Even though she was in some country across the sea, she had still managed to cause a mess right here.

I rubbed my face and walked away from her door. There was no point staying here. Knowing my firecracker, if I got anywhere near her right now, the entire world would come crashing down.

I pulled out my phone at the first vibration. It had buzzed twice in my pocket when I was in her room.

As soon as I picked up, I didn’t wait for my assistant to speak.

“Pay those tabloids to take it down and get the PR team to slow the spread.”

“Alright, boss, what of the hits on you? A lot of people are saying she’s only doing this because you don’t treat her well.”

Annoyance tightened in my chest.

Yes, Riane was not my biological daughter, but even the heavens knew I would give my firecracker the world if I could. If she gave me a list of the bastards that had hurt her in the past, I would have every single one of them off the surface of the Earth.

Scum like them didn’t deserve to be here.

“Leave those hits. Also, get some other tabloids to move things in that direction.”

“Sir, I don’t think…”

“And since when do you do the thinking, Jamie?” I cut him off and ended the call without waiting for his response.

The stunt she pulled was silly, but the last thing I wanted was her getting bullied on the internet one more time.

Besides, I was her guardian and it was my duty to protect her.

Without thinking, I headed up to the cellar, and it was only when I saw my 55-year-old Yamazaki open in front of me that I realized what I had just done.

Still, I grabbed the bottle and walked to the kitchen. I wasn’t meant to be drinking.

Self control wasn’t one of my best virtues. But I had just enough to make sure that I kept my twenty two years career clean of a lot of scandals. However, there were two things I couldn’t hold myself against.

Alcohol and my firecracker.

She was like an addiction, too, and every damned time that she walked around the house in those bare nothings had me sporting a hard-on.

There’s no telling what went wrong. One minute, she was fourteen, and the little girl I wanted to protect from her immoral mother.

Sixteen must have been where the troubles started. From the moment I became her legal guardian, all she did was rebel. Parties, getting drunk, trending for all the wrong reasons, and paying for escorts!

If you asked me, I had a feeling Raine had some checklist of the things that would piss me off. Nothing I tried with her was working.

I tried to play nice, tried to play father figure, tried to play authoritarian. Not a damn thing worked. So, I shipped her off to some private catholic college. Made her spend two years there to learn some manners.

That must have been where things went wrong. Regardless of my sour mood, I couldn’t help a chuckle as I remembered the memory of her alighting from my private helicopter.

She was eighteen, and somehow, those two years seemed to have been good for her. I can remember trying to confirm I wasn’t on some silly movie set with how gorgeous she had looked, but nothing prepared me for the brat she had become.

Despite being at a catholic school, Raine’s wardrobe when she got back was interesting. Every damned cloth in her wardrobe had a single mission of pissing me off.

I didn’t realize it at first. It took me about a month after she got back to notice that she liked to ‘check in’ with her new choice of outfit every day. There was also nothing I could do. Every single time she opened her mouth, all she did was remind me that she was eighteen and legal.

I should have spanked her ass hard today for how naughty she had been. Yet, nothing Raine had done was deserving of my actions tonight.

I was no saint. It was impossible to walk through Hollywood. To shine on the entire world and remain one but if there is one time I want to be a saint, it’s when I’m around my princess.

I didn’t even want her near that world. I could give her my world, but I wanted her far away from Hollywood.

But Riane, she had her own plans—like some secret mission to win the title of Hollywood’s wildest child star.

I shouldn’t. But I allowed myself a gulp of the alcohol, and I was quickly reminded of why I loved them so much. Still, even the burn can’t compare to the regret that’s settled in my chest.

Raine was never going to forgive me. I was sure of it.

But maybe it was time I let her be. She would have access to her trust fund in a few months anyway and she won’t have to endure me nagging her to go to college.

"Sir?"

I looked up and caught the eye of my housekeeper, Martha. She was standing at the doorway with arms folded across her chest in front of her. I can immediately tell from the frown on her face that she’s not happy to see me drinking.

"Would you like me to make dinner?" She asked.

Her gaze moved from my face to the empty bottle beside me. It lingered there for a few seconds before returning back to my face.

I nodded. "Make something for Raine. Her favorite."

Martha pressed her lips into a thin line. "You should eat too." She used a tone that sounded more like the suggestion it was meant to be.

When I said nothing, she let out a sigh and went towards the refrigerator. She pulled out different ingredients from inside.

“Don’t slip back into your old habits if you can help it.” She murmured.

I almost laughed.

I sat there while Martha placed all the items on the counter and paced back and forth in the kitchen. My gaze went back to the whiskey, and a gentle sigh passed through my lips. She had been around long enough to know everything that I had been through and when I was a complete mess.

My fists clenched when I remembered how I’d spent years fighting to keep these habits buried. But Raine… Raine was opening every part of me I wanted to keep locked away.

Pushing back the stool, I stood. “Make sure she eats,” I instructed as I walked out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs.