The TROUBLE with BILLIONAIRES: Book 3 (2 page)

When he opened his eyes, he immediately pulled away, sitting up a little straighter in the bed.

“Where’s Madison?”

“She’s in the hallway, watching for the medical staff.” I tilted my head slightly as I studied him. “Do you want me to get her?”

He hesitated, and that just about killed me. I turned away, spotted his clothes folded on a counter, and retrieved them.

“She wanted me to help you get dressed so we can sneak you out of here. But I can go get her, if you’d prefer—”

“No, it’s fine.”

He started to tug at the tap that held his IV to the inside of his elbow.

“Wait.” I went to the counter and searched a few of the drawers until I found a gauze pad. “It might bleed.”

He nodded, taking the pad from me as he pulled at the clear tubing. A second later, the needle slid from his flesh and the inside of his elbow immediately flooded with blood. He pressed the pad there as he swung his legs over the side of the bed, knocking the sheet to the floor and baring his long, muscular legs.

“You’re going to have to help me,” he said. “They gave me something that’s got my head swimming.”

I nodded, as I grabbed his jeans, not really looking at him as I shook them out and unfastened the button someone had fastened after taking them off of him. It felt strange, helping him put them on after fantasizing about helping him out of them so many times.

He pressed his hand to my shoulder with his free arm, his other bent to keep pressure on his bleeding wound. He stood, and we were suddenly in an awkward embrace, my arms around his waist and his hand sliding from my shoulder to the center of my back. He smelled—
mmm
—despite the clinical smells of the hospital around us, he smelled like a warm walk in the woods. My nose was practically touching his throat, and I wanted to just stay there and breathe him in for a while. But then his jeans slipped up over his hips, and he let go of me to fasten them.

I stepped back, and he lowered himself onto the edge of the bed again, running a hand over his forehead, clearly struggling with a little vertigo. I busied myself with unfolding his shirt and shaking it out, trying to ignore my inconvenient—but overwhelming—arousal.

How often do you get to stand that close to your fantasy?

But, again, how often does your fantasy become a reality that turns out to be as vulnerable and fragile as everyone else?

When I turned back to him, he had slipped out of his hospital gown and dropped it onto the floor. He was looking at his elbow, dabbing at a few stubborn drops of blood.

“There’s probably a Band-Aid here somewhere.”

He shook his head. “It’s done bleeding.” He grabbed the shirt out of my hand and pulled it over his head. “Can you find my shoes?”

I did, a pair of expensive sneakers that looked like he had only worn them once. I handed them to him, but when he bent over to pull them on, he nearly lost his balance and slid off the bed. I pushed him back and took the shoe out of his hand, dropping to my knees in front of him and quickly helping him into them.

I waited for him to say something funny. He seemed like the kind of guy who could charm his way out of an uncomfortable situation, but he wouldn’t even look at me when I finished and stood again.

“We should go before the doctor or one of the nurses comes back.”

He inclined his head slightly and held out his arm. I gripped him under his triceps and pulled him to his feet. He swayed slightly, so I slipped my arm around his waist. Again he hesitated before he laid his arm across my shoulders and let me lead him toward the door.

I tapped, as Madison had instructed. A second later, she pushed open the door and gestured for us to follow. We had to walk fast. The emergency room was fairly empty with a lot of staff members standing around with too much time on their hands. It might have been better if they were busy…but we managed to make it to the back hallway before a man—a doctor—called out to us.

“You can’t go out that way,” he said. “The doors are alarmed.”

Madison gestured for us to continue while she turned and confronted the man. “Can you tell me if there’s another door we can use? My friend’s ex-girlfriend is in the waiting room and he really doesn’t want to see her. You know?”

“Oh, sure, been there a few too many times myself.”

Their voices faded as Logan and I turned another corner. We came to another exit door, this one propped open by a cardboard box—probably for the smokers on the staff. I guided Logan through that door, relieved to see Rawn’s car parked just a few yards away. As we stumbled to the car, a chilly wind blew over us. I shivered. Logan slid his hand down my bare arm in a thoughtful attempt to warm my cold skin.

Rawn came around to help Logan into the backseat.

“Where’s Madison?”

“She got distracted by a doctor.”

He gave a slight nod as he bent to help Logan. When he straightened again, I could see concern written in every line of his face.

“She’s okay,” I said. “She can handle herself.”

“She keeps telling me that, but it doesn’t seem to make me feel any better.” He closed the car door and leaned back against it. “I’ve never met anyone quite as reckless as Madison.”

I smiled, thinking of all the times it was Madison talking me down from a ledge. The craziest thing Madison had ever done was arranging to have sex with a stranger in a downtown park. And look how that turned out.

“You just see her that way because of what happened before Thanksgiving, but, really, she’s not as reckless as it seems.”

He shook his head, but when he looked at me he was more thoughtful than concerned. “You’ve known her a while, right?”

“A little more than three years.”

“Do you know if she—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Madison burst out of the door.

“We need to go,” she announced, her cheeks flushed as she rushed to the car. “They caught on.”

Rawn immediately turned and opened the front passenger door, gesturing for Madison to get in. I was suddenly an afterthought. I rushed around the other side of the car and climbed into the luxury vehicle beside Logan—who also seemed to not see me as he leaned forward and whispered something I wasn’t meant to hear. Just as Rawn climbed behind the wheel and started the powerful engine, a nurse and a couple of orderlies burst through the back door.

“Feels like escaping from prison,” Logan said as he sat back.

Mellissa

I stared at myself in the mirror, wondering how I got to this place in my life. It was a relief to be free of WITSEC and all the fear and paranoia that came with it. Two weeks ago I thought I was on my way to another place, another name, another life. I thought I was going to have to leave behind everyone who mattered to me: Madison, Annie, my grandmother. And Conrad.

Conrad.

It hurt to think about all I almost lost. But it also felt strange to realize how much I had gained.

I was suddenly a wealthy woman with the freedom to live where and with whomever I wanted. I went from struggling to keep my grandmother and me afloat with the stipend we got from WITSEC and the money I made at my job at Cepheus. Then, they told me I didn’t have to stay in WITSEC, not after Peggy Duprey, the sister of the criminal my uncle testified against, was arrested for attempting to kidnap me—and that after she masterminded another kidnapping in which they grabbed my friend, Madison, by mistake. However, that meant having to pay for my grandmother’s assisted living center on my own. Suddenly, my problems had shifted but were no better than before.

And now…

Money changed everything. But it didn’t solve every problem.

“Mellissa? You okay?”

I glanced at the closed bathroom door and wished I could disappear, if only for a little while.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

“We have to go. Rawn just called. There was a problem at the photoshoot this morning.”

“Okay.”

I dragged my fingers through my hair, sighing at my reflection one last time before I turned to the trash scattered on the counter in front of me. I quickly wrapped it all in tissue paper and tossed it into the trash can, making sure Conrad couldn’t see anything if he came in and happened to look.

One more quick check and then I was out the door.

“Hey.” He was leaning against the wall, waiting. “You ready?”

He smiled and my heart melted. I’d only really known him less than a month, but there was something about him that just seemed…right. Was it possible to fall in love that fast? Was it possible to know your soulmate after just a few conversations, a couple of long, lingering nights of intimacy, a kidnapping and a shared visit to a federal penitentiary?

I moved into his arms and pressed my face against his chest for a minute. He ran his hand slowly down my spine.

“You okay?”

I nodded. “What happened at the photoshoot?”

“I don’t know. Rawn said something about Logan Mitchell having some sort of seizure…he didn’t really explain. Just said we needed to go over to the apartment and get it ready for him to hide out there for a while.”

“Hide? From what, the press?”

“I guess. I don’t really know.”

“I hope he’s okay.”

Conrad touched my face, his caress playing with my heart strings.

“You are so…” He bent low and kissed me softly. “…too perfect.”

“Not perfect.”

“You are to me.”

He kissed me one more time, then he grabbed my hand and led the way down the stairs. We paused long enough to grab jackets. Our warm autumn had suddenly turned cold this past week, and they were already predicting snow for Christmas. It was sneaking up on me, the holidays. It was hard to imagine what they would be like now that Memaw was in an assisted living center instead of in the kitchen, making her famous jambalaya.

Change. I hated change.

***

Annie

Conrad and Mellissa were at the apartment when we walked in. Logan was walking under his own power now, but his movements were slow. Madison stayed by his side, grabbing his arm from time to time to offer him a little extra support. The evil side of me wanted to push her away, to take her place. But that wasn’t how I was going to convince Logan we were meant to be together.

“Hey.”

Mellissa moved up beside me and took my hand, squeezing it lightly as though she could read my thoughts. I smiled at her, even though I didn’t really feel it, and watched as Madison settled down beside Logan on the couch, dragging a blanket over his knees like he was a child with the flu.

“So, what’s going on?” Conrad asked.

Rawn gestured for Madison to take the lead.

Madison glanced at Logan, who shrugged.

“Well,” Madison began, drawing out the word as though giving herself a chance to think about what she was about to say. “We’re not really sure. But it looks like someone managed to give Logan something that caused him to have a seizure.”

“Why would someone do that?” Mellissa asked.

Madison shook her head, shooting a glance at Rawn. However, Rawn didn’t seem any clearer than the rest of us.

“Do you think it has something to do with what happened to you, Madison?”

She dragged her fingers through her hair, rearranging it over her shoulders as she studied the pattern on the carpet. She seemed uncertain, as though there was something she didn’t want to say. Rawn came to her rescue—as he always seemed to do—resting his hand on her shoulder as he said, “We don’t know for sure. But I think it would be prudent to keep Logan out of the public eye until we figure it out.”

“But how could it be connected?” Mellissa asked. “I thought all of that was finished with Janet’s—or Peggy’s, or whatever her name was—arrest?”

“It could have nothing to do with it,” Rawn agreed. “It could be that Logan has enemies in the movie industry. But it’s a little coincidental that it happened while he was doing a photoshoot for Cepheus.”

“I’ve been going over it, again and again,” Logan chimed in. “I didn’t have anything to eat or drink at the hotel this morning. Just a water bottle at the studio.”

I nodded. “I remember. There was a woman walking around offering water and sodas to everyone.”

Rawn made a small gesture. “I remember that. I thought she was there with the photographer.”

“She told me she was from Cepheus,” Logan said.

That set off alarm bells for Rawn—I could see it on his face—but he didn’t say anything.

Everyone kind of looked at the floor for a few minutes. Conrad moved up behind Mellissa as though protecting her from some unseen threat. Rawn did the same with Madison, sliding his arm around her shoulders even as she continued to sit perched on the edge of the couch beside Logan.

Conrad’s cellphone rang in that moment. He glanced at it and made a sound that made it pretty obvious he wasn’t pleased.

“Conrad,” he said quite tersely before listening to whoever was on the other end of the line. Then, “We have no comment at this time.” He hung up, but the phone rang again almost instantly.

“Who was at the photoshoot?” Conrad demanded, turning to face Rawn.

“Just the photographer, his assistant, and the four of us. Why?”

“The press has gotten hold of it already.”

Rawn cursed under his breath. Logan leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, mumbling something I couldn’t quite hear. My heart ached as I watched him. I wanted to go to him, to offer some sort of consolation, but then Madison reached over and rubbed a hand across his shoulder, and he glanced at her, offering her a weak smile.

It was getting harder and harder for me not to get annoyed with Madison.

Conrad’s phone continued to ring. Each time it stopped, a new call would come in—until he finally turned the thing off.

“I need to go deal with this.”

Rawn nodded. “I need to speak to the CEO, let her know what’s going on.”

Rawn held his hand out to Madison, and she immediately took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet. And Conrad slid his arm around Mellissa’s waist, pressing a kiss to her temple before drawing her toward the door.

“Stay with him,” Rawn said to me as he walked by. “Keep him quiet and call if he has any medical issues.”

“What if he seizes again?” I asked, the memory of him falling to the floor still too fresh in my mind.

“Keep him safe, talk to him, and then call us when it’s over,” Madison said.

“Shouldn’t I call an ambulance?”

“No,” Rawn said. “We can’t risk this getting any bigger than it already is.”

“Besides,” Madison added, “I don’t think he will. Once the medication—whatever it was—is out of his system, he’ll be fine.”

I nodded, but I was suddenly overwhelmed with the idea of being alone with Logan. I wasn’t sure I could handle anything medical…I was a physics student, not a doctor. Madison offered a quick hug, followed by Mellissa. I watched them walk away, my stomach tightening as a wave of nausea rushed through it. When they were gone, disappearing behind the closing elevator doors, I shut the door and leaned my forehead against it.

“I hope you didn’t have other plans today.”

I turned, suddenly feeling guilty. “No, of course not.”

“If you did…I could probably take care of myself.”

“We just snuck you out of the hospital. I wouldn’t leave you alone if I had plans to spend the day with Obama.”

“You’re a democrat?” I blushed and he laughed. “Just joking.”

I went into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator door, pleased to see Conrad had thought to stop by the market on his way over. There was a big selection of fresh vegetable and fruits, a loaf of bread, milk, meat, and cheese.

“Are you hungry?”

“I could eat.”

I gathered a bunch of things, deciding to make sandwiches. I had to search for a knife, but finally found one in a drawer by the refrigerator, the first place I should have looked, but was actually the last.

“Do you want ham or turkey?”

“Turkey.”

His voice was so close it seemed like it was right behind my ear. I turned, and he had come into the room and was standing against the counter just a few feet behind me.

“You should be sitting.”

“I’ve been sitting all day. I want to move around a little.”

I understood that, but I wasn’t sure I could help him up from the floor if he fell. It made me nervous…or maybe it was just standing this close to him.

I turned away, grabbing a couple of pieces of bread and slapping a little mayo and mustard on them.

“I like lots of mustard,” he said moving closer behind me. “And lots of meat.”

“Anything else?”

“Do you want me to do it? I think I can handle throwing a sandwich together.”

“No, I’ve got it.”

“I’m not dying, Annie,” he said, the sound of my name on his lips like the perfect musical note. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. I don’t imagine one little seizure will change that.”

I stepped back and gestured for him to take my place. He snatched up the knife and slathered mustard over one piece of bread before dropping several thick slices of cheese over it, then the meat. By the time he was done, the sandwich probably weighed a pound. Then, he deftly cut it into triangles and dropped it all on a plate.

“See?” he said, holding it up where I could see it. “One perfect sandwich and I’m still breathing.”

Something about the way he said it irritated me. It felt like he was accusing me of something that wasn’t my fault.

I brushed past him, gathered the food and tossed it all back into the refrigerator.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

I shook my head, charging into the living room and grabbing a magazine off the coffee table before I flopped down into a club chair set back in one corner. I thumbed through the pages, not really looking at the pictures or articles. I wasn’t even sure what magazine it was.

Logan returned to the couch, sighing as he sank his teeth into one wedge of the sandwich. I could feel him looking at me. This morning, I would have done anything to get his attention. But now? I wanted to be anywhere but here.

Silence settled over the room; the only sound was that of Logan’s sighs as he ate his sandwich. I glanced at him, struck by the fact that he managed to continue to look intensely sexy even as he chewed with relish at bite of his sandwich. Again, I felt this pull…from the first time I saw his image on my television screen, I knew there was something about him. And at the launch party for Cepheus’ Alessa 3D X100, when I caught him staring at me from across the room, there was something there. It was…momentous. I have been convinced from that moment that we were meant to be together. I even told Madison as much the day she was kidnapped.

Was it possible to love and hate the same person so passionately all at once?

“You don’t have to babysit me.”

I set the magazine down in my lap. “I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I’m only doing what Rawn and Madison asked me to do.”

“Do you always do what they tell you to do?”

“You’re not a nice guy, are you?” I tossed the magazine onto the coffee table and stood up, not sure what to do with myself once I did. “Everyone talks about how different you are from the typical movie star, but you aren’t, are you?”

“You’ve read about me?”