EXPOSE (The Billionaire's Rules, Book 6)

EXPOSE (The
Billionaire’s Rules, Book 6)

By Kelly Favor

© 2015 All Rights Reserved

At first, Ivy didn’t even realize what
had happened.

There was a buzzing sound in her head and
everything was dark, like she was swimming in a lake, trying to get to the surface.
 
It was a struggle to swim to reach the
open air, to get above the water line.
 
But then, suddenly, Ivy opened her eyes and reality flooded back in.

She wasn’t swimming.
 
She’d just been asleep…

No, unconscious.

She’d fainted.

Cullen was kneeling on the floor next to
her, terrible concern written all over his face.
 
“Ivy,” he said, taking her hand and
checking the pulse on her wrist.
 
“Ivy, are you all right?
 
Talk to me.”

Ivy lay on the floor, trying to gather
herself and remember what exactly had happened.
 
“I’m…I’m okay, I think.”
 

But she didn’t feel okay.
 

She felt frightened.
 
She turned her head and saw pieces of
her cell phone scattered across the hardwood floor.
 
Vaguely, Ivy could recall the sound of
it smashing as she’d fainted.

Just thinking about her phone, and those
horrible pictures and messages that someone had texted her…she didn’t want to
remember any of it.
 
She wished her
memory had been wiped out so she could forget that Lucas was with the FBI and
he was trying to force her to betray Cullen.

Cullen was kneeling patiently next to her,
checking her vitals, his hand stroking her forehead softly.
 
“Lift your head,” he said.
 
“I want to make sure you don’t have any
trauma from when you fell.”

“I think I’m all right,” she said, lifting
herself
onto an elbow and allowing Cullen to examine
the back of her head.

His gentle, long fingers probed through
her hair, touching her scalp.
 
“Ouch,” she hissed, as he happened upon a painful spot.

“You’ve got a decent sized knot,” he
said.
 
“So you did hit your head
when you fell.
 
We’re lucky.
 
It could’ve been a lot worse if you’d
fallen the wrong way.”
 
His fingers
withdrew.

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking at him.

“Why are you apologizing?” he asked, his
brow wrinkling.
 

She hesitated.
 
Of course, she was apologizing because
she blamed herself.
 
If she hadn’t
lied to him, hadn’t kept him in the dark about Lucas and his threats, then
Cullen might not even be in her apartment right now.

And if he hadn’t been in her apartment,
then nobody would have been able to get those photographs of him and text them
to her.
  

I’m
putting him at risk and he has no idea.
 
It’s not right that I’m keeping this a secret.

However, the idea of going against the
FBI was too overwhelming to contemplate.

So she simply shrugged.
 
“I just don’t want you to worry.
 
I got a little light headed and…lost my
balance for a minute.”

“Ivy, you were out cold,” Cullen told
her.
 
His piercing blue eyes
searched her for clues.
 
“Have you
ever fainted like that before?”

She found Cullen’s concern for her touching
and surprising—but in a good way.

Ivy shook her head.
 
“No.
 
Never.”

“Your vitals are strong, pulse is steady,
eyes are clear—speech and hearing don’t appear impaired.
 
You seem okay, but I want to make sure
you don’t have a concussion.”

Ivy forced herself to sit up fully now.
 
“I seem okay because I am okay.”

But Cullen’s expression showed that he
wasn’t sold on her improvement.
 
“What were you doing right before you passed out?”

She shook her head, nervous from these
questions.
 
His words were gentle,
but probing acutely, just like his fingers had probed and found the sore lump
on her head.
 

Ivy didn’t want him to find the other
sore spot—the one in her conscience.

“I don’t really remember what I was doing
when I fainted,” she lied.
 
“It’s a
bit fuzzy.
 
I think I was checking
my phone or something.”
 
She hated continuing
the charade, but he’d backed her into a corner with his questions.

“Unfortunately, your phone didn’t take
the fall as well as your head did.”
 
He grinned slightly, as he gestured to the pieces of plastic nearby on
the floor.

“I always knew Mom was right to call me
hard-headed.”
 
She smiled back at
him, thinking how kind and sensitive he could look one moment, and then how
drastically his expression could shift when he became withdrawn or angry.

“We’ll get you a new phone,” he said, as
if not wanting her to have anything to be worried about.
 
Suddenly, his head tilted to the
side.
 
“Shit,” he said, sniffing the
air.

“What?”

“I left the eggs on the burner.
 
They’re probably burnt.”
 
He got up.
 
“You wait here,” he told her, pointing
at her for emphasis.
 
“Don’t move a
muscle, I’m just going to run to the kitchen.”
 
Cullen walked quickly from the room and
Ivy sighed, putting a hand to her forehead.

What
are you doing?
 
This has gone too
far.
 
He’s being so good to you and
this is how you repay his kindness?

She was so confused.
 
Nothing in life had ever prepared her
for a situation like this, and she had nobody to turn to for help.

Cullen
could help you if you’d let him.

But no.
 

If she told him, she would jeopardize
everything, including her freedom.
 
And he’d probably end up hating her for it anyway.

Ivy slowly climbed to her feet, and then
she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her again.
 
She saw spots, and then the world began
to swim before her eyes.

She stumbled as Cullen came back into the
room and saw her.

“Ivy!” he called out.
 
“What are you doing?”

She tripped and stumbled even worse,
sprawling towards the floor again—this time face-first.

Luckily, Cullen reacted quickly, jumping
to grab her before she could fall hard.
 
He caught her in his strong arms and lifted her back to her feet.
 
“I told you not to get up,” he said.

“I know, but…” she tried to stand on her
own.

Cullen held her.
 
“No buts.
 
You need to listen better.”
 
He looked into her eyes as he kept his
arms around her.
 
“Are you okay?”

She nodded.
 
“I just got dizzy again for a
second.
 
But I’m better now.
 
I swear.”

He stroked her hair.
 
“You need to take care.”
 
His voice was actually soft.
 
His eyes were still liquid, not
ice.
 
His entire demeanor was so
different and it melted her heart to know that he cared so much.

“I’m sorry.”

“Less apologizing and more listening,” he
said.
 
“As usual.”
 
His lips twitched into another smile.

“I’ll do better,” she told him, and then
burst into tears.
 
Her shoulders
shook as he held her tightly.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

She shook her head.
 
“I don’t want to disappoint you.”

He stroked her hair and held her,
whispering in her ear.
 
“You don’t
disappoint me, Ivy.
 
Far from it.”

After a bit, he let her go, watching her
with his blue eyes as she stood there, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
  

He sighed.
 
“The bad news is, breakfast got burned.”

“I don’t care.
 
I’m not that hungry.
 
Besides, I can get something at the office.”

“The office?” Cullen said, frowning.

“It’s almost time to leave for work.
 
I can’t be late again.
 
Emma will have my head on the chopping
block.”

“You’re not fit to work today.”
 
He shook his head and placed his hands
on his hips.
 

“I just had a little spell.”
 
She waved his concern off.
 
“I’m going into work.”

“I don’t think so,” he replied, shaking
his head firmly from side to side.
 
“I need to keep an eye on you.”

“You can’t watch over me forever,” she
laughed, rolling her eyes as her cheeks flushed from receiving so much of his
attention.

“I can watch over you today, and the rest
of the weekend.”

Her mouth dropped open.
 
“The weekend?”

“Pack your bags,” Cullen said.
 
“You’re coming with me.”

***

Cullen made a few business calls on the
drive.
 
Ivy couldn’t make heads or
tails of most of it, and didn’t really try to.

Just the sound of his voice, so calm and
sure and deep—it was comforting.
 

The car sailed smoothly along as the CEO
maneuvered easily in and out of traffic, even while talking business and making
decisions on the fly.

Her bags were sitting in the back seat
and Ivy still couldn’t believe that Cullen had actually insisted that she come
and stay with him for the weekend.
 
Not to mention, the fact that he was taking the day off work to watch
over her.

She sighed, smiling a little at this
strange turn of events.

But the smile died on Ivy’s lips when she
looked in the side mirror on the passenger door and thought she saw a black
sedan tailing them, with Lucas in the driver’s seat.
 

She sat up straighter and looked more
closely.
 
But then she realized it
wasn’t Lucas after all, and her breathing slowed.

Cullen was off the phone now.
 
“Everything okay?” he asked.

She nodded, sitting back in her seat and
trying to relax.
 
It had just been a
trick of her imagination.
 
Lucas
wasn’t tailing them like some ridiculous Hollywood movie.

Except, she knew it wasn’t that
ridiculous.
 
Someone had taken those
pictures and texted her this morning, along with the threatening messages.

“I’m just tired,” she said.

“Do you have a headache?
 
Any nausea?” Cullen instantly replied.

Ivy giggled a little at his caution.
 
“No, Cullen.
 
I don’t have a head injury.
 
I just bumped it a little.”
 
She touched the back of her head and
winced from the pain.
 
The bump
there was pretty big.
 
She’d hit it
good.

“You can rest when we get to my place,”
he said.
 
“I’ll make you some food
and set you up with everything you need to be comfortable while you
recuperate.”

“Okay,” she sighed, giving into his
insistence that she needed recovery time from her fainting spell.

The truth was that she felt mostly fine,
other than the sore noggin.
 
What
was bothering her had little to do with the fall and everything to do with the
reason she’d passed out in the first place.

As they pulled up to the reserved parking
spot in front of Cullen’s building, he swore under his breath.
 

Ivy followed his perturbed gaze and saw a
woman sitting on his front steps, smoking a cigarette.
 
It was the woman she’d seen fleeing his
apartment the other day in the early morning hours.

“Who is that?” Ivy asked, glancing at him
to see his reaction.

Cullen’s face was impassive, his
expression unreadable.
 
But his eyes
had hardened into ice once more.
 
“Nobody you need to worry about,” was all he said as he parked.

When they got out of the car, Cullen went
and grabbed the bags from the backseat and then told Ivy to walk with him.
 
“Just stay with me,” he said
softly.
 
“And no matter what she
says, ignore her.”