Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (9 Book Bundle) (35 page)

I ran
all the way home and slammed the apartment door behind me, breathing hard. I
didn
’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve anything. I was a liar,
nothing more.

“Brynn? You okay?”

Shannon peeked her head around
the hallway from the couch where she had sprawled out. Tendrils of her red hair
curled limply down her neck, escaping from the pins that tried valiantly to
hold the mass of hair up. She had two more pins between her lips, and she took
them out to speak more clearly.

“Hon, you look like you just saw
a ghost! What’s wrong?”

I burst into tears, and Shannon
immediately got up from the couch and came down the hall to put her arms around
me.

“Brynn, hon, oh honey. What is
it?” She led me to the couch where I collapsed, my head in my hands. “Was it
that test?”

I shook my head, unable to
speak.

“It must be bad,” she said, her
warm hand rubbing my back as tears ran down my cheeks. “You never cry. Hey,
hey. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

After going through almost an
entire box of tissues I managed to tell her the story in between sobs.

“Oh, Brynn.” Shannon sighed. “You’re
sure he helped you out on the test?”

“I don’t know what else it could
have been,” I said, sniffling behind the tissue. “I didn’t know like half of
the problems.”

“Then he’s an asshole.”

“Yeah.” I blew my nose and added
the tissue to the growing mountain in the waste basket. “I just didn’t think he
would do something like that, you know?”

“All guys are assholes. You
remember that guitar player I told you about? Never called.”

“No!” I frowned in sympathy.
Shannon had been so excited when she came home from that concert. “What a
jerk!”

“That’s what I’m saying. The
whole lot of them are just jerks and assholes. You want to watch a movie and
forget about boys for a while?”

“What movie?”

“I don’t know, something with
John Cusack in it?”

“You’re brilliant, Shannon, has
anyone ever told you that?”

Shannon beamed at me, and it
almost made me feel better. We spent the rest of the night ogling John Cusack’s
sexy lips and even broke into the ice cream we had been saving for next week’s
finals, completing the stereotype and loving every minute of indulgence. By the
time the credits rolled across the screen the internship test seemed like a
nightmare I could forget. I went to bed and found the small brass key in my
pocket while taking off my jeans. I thought about throwing it in the trash, but
put it on the side table instead, the heavy little key clinking on the wood.
Maybe I would go back to the midnight piano room later. Much later.

The next morning the sun shone
brightly through my window. No more snow. It was back to being California
again. I was oddly disappointed.

A loud knocking at the
door got me out of bed. It wasn’t even eight in the morning yet. Who could it
be?

“Brynn? You got that?” Shannon
yelled from her room.

“Got it!” I said, wiping the
sleep out of my eyes and stumbling down the hall. In my heart, a secret piece
of me hoped that I would find Eliot on the other side of the door. I brushed my
hair down with my fingers and buttoned the top of my pajama shirt. If it was
him, I didn’t want to look indecent. But when I threw open the door, Mark stood
on the other side.

“What happened?” he said.

“Good morning to you, too,
Mark,” I said. God, my morning breath was terrible.

“Where were you? Why did you
leave before your interview?”

“Hold up,” I said, raising my
hands. “How did you know?”

“The department chair guy,
Patterson. He called my dad to tell him I had won the internship. They asked if
I knew the girl who disappeared at the test. I assume he wasn’t talking about
Quentin.”

Mark won. He had won. A stab of jealousy
thrust itself into me, and at first I couldn’t breathe.

“Did… did you tell them?”

“No, I said I wasn’t sure,” Mark
said. “I thought maybe you had a reason for leaving. I wanted to talk to you
first.”

I sighed.

“Can we talk?” Mark leaned
forward in the doorway, a concerned expression on his face. I couldn’t tell him
no.

“Sure,” I said. “Give me a
minute to get dressed.”

“One minute,” Mark said,
stepping back. “And you’re not allowed to disappear.”

“Ha, very funny.”

The snow had disappeared as
quickly as it had come, and with the sunshine above us it felt like spring had
come back to California. I convinced Mark to go with me to a coffeeshop in the
village near the university, where he bought me the biggest latte they had. I
wasn’t about to chance running into Eliot again at the library cafe.

“So what happened?” he said once
we had sat down with our coffee. “You always said you wanted to go to Hungary.
This was your thing.”

A fierce pinch of desire wrung
its way through my heart. It aimed its line not toward Hungary, however, but
directly at the figure of the eminent, the honorable Dr. Herceg. Eliot. I shook
my head.

“Not anymore,” I said. “I don’t
deserve it.”

“The hell you don’t. I’m going
to tell the department chair it was you.”

“No!” My voice carried across
the coffeeshop, and several people looked over toward us. I hunched over my
latte, trying to look forgettable.

“Brynn, I heard them talking.
Patterson wants to give me the Prize but that guy Herceg insisted that you’re
the winner. And there’s no way I’m taking it from you. You won, fair and
square.”

“No. Mark, it wasn’t fair. I met
him before. Herceg. I think he rigged the test to help me win.” Now that I had
to explain it, it all seemed so implausible. I expected Mark to ask why Eliot
would help me, but he didn’t even blink.

“The test was anonymous, Brynn.”

“Then how did I get to the end
without being dismissed? “

“By kicking ass, just like the
rest of us. You’re smart, Brynn. Jesus.” He leaned forward and put his hand on
my shoulder reassuringly. “You did well.”

“I didn’t know half of the
answers!” Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks. The second time I had cried
in… god, in years.

“So? Neither did I.”

I raised my head. Mark’s face
was completely serious.“What?”

“Are you kidding? That was the
hardest test ever. I probably didn’t know two-thirds of the answers.”

“Quentin said he answered
everything.” My lips trembled.

“Quentin is an overconfident
asshole, of course he said that.” Mark leaned back in his chair. “There’s no
way he got half of those right. Are you serious? That’s why you left?”

“That’s not the only reason,” I
said.

“What else?” Mark waited
patiently, but there was no way I was going to tell him about the piano, or
about the way Eliot’s hand brushed against mine, igniting a fire inside of me.

“Trust me,” I said. “You deserve
it more than me.”

“Nuh-uh.” Mark crossed his arms.
“Not going to happen. I’m abdicating.”

“Mark—”

“And then Quentin will get it.
You want Quentin to get it?” Mark looked serious.

I sighed, bending my head over
the coffee.

“No,” I admitted.

“Then you’re going to the math
department right now to tell them that you’re the mysterious disappearing
girl.”

“I—” I looked into Mark’s
face, but he looked like he was ready to handcuff me and haul me down to campus
himself.

“Okay,” I said. My skin flushed
red at the thought of admitting to Eliot that I wasn’t the girl he thought I
was. But another part of me thrilled to know that Eliot wanted me for his
internship, and hoped even more that I might be able to go to Hungary, as I had
been hoping for the past thirteen years.

Mark and I walked to campus from
the coffeeshop, the sun warming the day quickly. We made our way through the
math department to Patterson’s office, and as we turned the corner, my steps
faltered. Eliot stood in front of the door next to Patterson, gesturing angrily
towards a sheet of paper. Mark coughed and he turned to see us, his frown
melting into a blank expression that I could not read. Eliot straightened
himself up to his full height as Mark and I approached, his clear eyes giving
away no hint as to the thoughts hidden in his mind.

“Hello,” he said to me as we
walked up, and extended his hand. “You must be Brynn.”

CHAPTER SIX

“If people do not believe
that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how
complicated life is.” - Von Neumann

“Congratulations, Mark,” the
department chair said.

“Yes, congratulations,” Eliot
echoed. My heart sank. So Mark had won the Prize. I had thrown it all away for
nothing, and Eliot knew who I was. A lump rose in my throat. Eliot turned to
me.

“And congratulations as well to
you, Ms. Tomlin.” Eliot’s voice sounded formal, distant. “Dr. Patterson assures
me that despite your disappearance for the interview portion, you are generally
a reliable person, and I can speak to your mathematical ability myself.”

I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know
if he was saying what I thought he was saying.

“I’m sure the department will be
happy to have two students named to the internship this year,” he continued.
“Isn’t that right, Dr. Patterson?”

The department chair raised his
eyebrows but shook his head in agreement.

“An excellent selection of
students,” Patterson said. “Both very qualified.”

“So we’re both going?” Mark
asked. “No way! Awesome!” He turned and swept me up into a tight hug. My heart
soared as I hugged him back. I turned to Eliot in amazement.

“Thank you,” I said. His jaw
tightened in a tense smile.

“I’m late for physics,” Mark
said, his arm still holding me close. “We can talk later. Thank you, Dr.
Herceg, thank you so much. You’re such an inspiration.” He shook Eliot’s hand.
“And congrats, Brynn!”

“You too,” I said, waving
goodbye. For some reason, I was scared to look Eliot in the eye. “I should get
to class.”

“One moment, Ms. Tomlin,” Eliot
said. “I’d like to talk with you first about the internship. We didn’t quite
get a chance to finish the interview portion of the test, after all, did we?”

“In my office?” Patterson
offered.

Eliot waved him away. “It’s such
a beautiful day,” he said. “And I only have a few questions. Let’s walk
outside, shall we?”

I nodded. He led the way through
the hall and opened the door for me. The sunlight made my eyes squint as I
exited the building. Although Eliot had said he wanted to talk with me, he
didn’t speak at all as we walked slowly on the sidewalk. We crossed the lawn
and came to the library. He sat down on the bench outside. I stayed standing,
uncertain.

“Please.” He motioned for me to
sit, and scooted to one side so that a large gap separated us. I settled down
onto the bench beside him, my skin growing hot.

“Brynn,” he began.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “I’m
sorry for lying in the first place. I’m sorry for running away. I just—I
thought I did really bad on the test. And I didn’t want you to know I lied. I
thought maybe you just wanted me to win, because…”

“Because?”

I flushed even more, shifting
uncomfortably.

“You know,” I said. Eliot
paused, and I could not tell what emotion it was that flitted across his brow
before disappearing. When he spoke, his voice was low.

“I’m sorry we started off the
way we did, Brynn,” Eliot said. “You did very well on the test. You deserve the
prize as much as anyone.”

“Thank you,” I said. My heart
pounded with a mix of desire and embarrassment.

Eliot licked his lips before
speaking, and I felt my body respond to the sight of his full mouth, so warm
against my fingers that night. My entire face burned with the memory.

“I wanted also to apologize for
my behavior toward you,” Eliot continued. “I behaved unprofessionally.”

“You didn’t know…” My words
trailed off as I looked into Eliot’s stormy eyes. He was holding something
back, and I could hear the unspoken words echoing between us.

“Let me assure you that nothing
of the sort will happen again.”

Eliot stood up, his eyes looking
away, toward the math department.

My mouth dropped open but, as
always, I lacked the words to express myself properly. How could I be anything
but ecstatic to win the internship prize? But Eliot’s assurance only pierced my
heart.
Nothing of the sort will happen again.
The words struck me to the
core despite my joy at winning. I had never wanted much, never had much, but it
had been such an excitement, such a thrill to find that I wanted
him
!
And now, with my victory, I had assured myself that he would be securely out of
reach.