The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (39 page)

When she asked if he wouldn't mind pretending
to be Suzy's boyfriend he didn't think twice. 'Pretend?' he said,
'hell if she wants me to I'll just be her boyfriend if it helps.'
He had been trying to get the courage up to ask her out for weeks
but he was chronically shy and this girl was so different, he just
couldn't bear to mess it up. He had also figured out that she had
some kind of medical issue and that made him hold back even more.
What if she had something really serious wrong with her? Dating
would be the last thing on her mind and she would have to go
through the awkward ritual of turning him down without hurting his
feelings. Then he would have to continue delivering to her with the
memory of that awkward moment hanging over them.

But now his big chance had come.

Bella had refused to say much but she did say
she would pass his message on. She also warned him that someone
would contact him and he should just be vague, maybe say that he
and Suzy had been seeing each other for a while but that it was
very low key and that no-one else really knew about it.

He had wanted to ask more about Susan Price
but Bella had thanked him abruptly and rung off with a brisk
goodbye saying that he should expect a call from Susan that
day.

He hadn't been able to take his eyes off the
phone all morning.

And then it happened… the call. He recognized
number right away but waited a moment before picking up and then
waited, wordless, listening to the rise and fall of soft, feminine
breath at the other end of the line. She sounded as though she were
a million miles away but also right next to him. The effect was
pure intimacy; intimacy with a girl he hardly knew.

"Hi. This is Kyle. Is… is that Suzy?"

There was no answer, just more breathing and
then the sound of a soft thud.

"Huh? Hello? Hello? Suzy, is that you?
Suzy?"

He could still hear the breathing but there
was no reply.

"God damn it." He hung up. "What kind of
bullshit is this." He flung his phone down in disgust. "These girls
are making a fool out of me."

He steamed for a little while longer before
he began to get worried. He had heard a dull noise like a phone
falling to the ground, but maybe it was someone passing out. Why
would they want to prank him like this anyway? It didn't make
sense.

He called Bella back straight away and told
her what had happened. She was mystified but unconcerned.

"Don't worry about it." She said. "I'll call
he back and make sure she's okay. You have no idea how grateful she
is to you--how grateful we both are. You
so
won’t regret
this. Just remember to stick with the plan if anybody contacts you,
okay? Bye."

She hung up before he could protest.

Bella sat for a moment considering what to
do. It was kind of strange alright, maybe something really was
wrong. Or maybe something was very, very right.

They must be doing it already.
She
thought.
Finally! What a way to end a romantic drought--talk
about ending things with a bang!

On the other hand, maybe Kyle had screwed up.
Maybe he had dialed a wrong number or worse, maybe it was Zachary
who had answered the phone.

Now she began to worry.

She checked the time; it was after 2am in
Hong Kong, prime time for the wild thing if that's what was going
on. She didn't want to interrupt but hell, if they were already at
it then a ringtone or a vibrating phone wouldn't make any
difference.

She made the call and it rang through to
voicemail.

She called Melissa and it went through to
voicemail as well. Although she had known Suzy's older sister for
years she was always a little intimidated by the older woman and
hated leaving messages for her. She was stumbling through a badly
constructed voicemail when big sister Melissa's voice cut in.

"Bella, what is it? Why are you calling
me?"

"Hey Melissa, uh, how are you guys? Still
jet-setting around the globe?"

"Cut to the chase Bella. You never call me.
What's going on?"

"It's uh, nothing really but…"

"Spit it out Bella, I'm on a private jet to
Hong Kong so we might lose coverage and it's probably costing you a
fortune."

"I tried calling Suzy and she's not picking
up."

"It's the middle of the night out there,
she's probably just in bed."

"Why are you going to Hong Kong?" Bella
asked.

"Why are you really calling me?"

One of the reasons Bella feared Melissa so
much were her famous mind reading abilities. It was impossible to
hide anything from her once she got a hint of falsehood or
hesitation.

"She called someone and didn't say anything.
The line just stayed open and then there was some weird noise like
a phone hitting the floor or something and then just silence."

"She called
someone
? Who did she
call?"

"What difference does that make?"

"Come on Bella, stop stalling--I'm on my way
to Hong Kong for a reason. I think she may be in trouble as a
result of stupid, stupid mistake that
I
made, now please,
for the love of God, just tell me what's going on."

Melissa admitting a mistake? Bella was
totally disarmed. And Suzy possibly in trouble?

"It was Kyle Freeman." She blurted out.

"Who the hell is Kyle Freeman?" Melissa felt
as though a huge crack were beginning to open in her world.

"He's her boyfriend, I mean her fake
boyfriend."

"Stop there Bella. I'm lost. Please start
making some sense for me here."

"He's the delivery guy she has a crush on. A
huge crush."

Suzy had never said a word, never confided in
her. Melissa felt a shadow of gloom come over her.

"Is she seeing him?"

"No. Not at all. But she asked him to pretend
to be her boyfriend to protect her from Zachary Demovic."

"Protect her. Oh my God, what have I done."
Her voice was weak. It was exactly what she had dreaded. How could
she ever have thought that dysfunctional narcissist could be
trusted with her innocent little sister. The whole kidney thing had
just been some weird from of vanity for him. It had never been
about helping someone else. He looked like Jason, acted like him
most of the time and had all his money and sophistication, but
obviously the two men were worlds apart in all the ways it mattered
the most.

"You have to get to her Melissa, I have no
idea what's wrong but I have a bad feeling about this."

"Don’t worry Bella, you did the right thing
calling me. We'll take care of it from here. Just sit tight and
wait to hear from us." She ended the call, stood up and walked the
length of the Gulf Stream cabin to the cockpit where Jason was
still playing co-pilot to take his mind off sex.

He saw her approach and could sense her
piqued and angry mood. His hormones began to rage. He never wanted
her more than when her riled she-Goddess blood was up.

"Hey sexy." he grinned at her, his trousers
beginning already to stretch.

She never cracked a smile, her eyes narrowed
with intense focus and concentration.

"He's fucking her." She hissed.

The grin slid away from Jason's perfect
face.

"What the…? Who?" Suzy jumped back from the door
where she had been lying in a crumpled heap. For a few tense
seconds she had no idea where she was as she looked around the
unfamiliar darkened room.

"Harry? Harry, where are you?" There was no
sign of her pet ferret. Her phone was glowing in the dark and she
could see that she had dialed an unfamiliar number before she went
unconscious from total exhaustion.

"Oh my God." It was coming back to her. She
was in Hong Kong with Zachary Demovic, sharing his suite and
wondering if he was the completely crazy one or if it was her.

And Kyle…

She had asked a guy she hardly knew to lie
about being her boyfriend just in case he was contacted by a famous
billionaire's security. She had traded jibes and insults with an
extremely powerful man who had been kind enough to do her sister a
favor and give her a job.

This was complicated.

She looked at the number she had dialed
again. The call had gone through. It was Kyle Freeman's number, but
she couldn't recall having spoken to him. The clock on her phone
said 3am so she decided she better get some sleep in an actual bed
if she was going to be any use as a PA the following day. It was
quite warm in the hotel room so she stripped down to just the
alluring lingerie she had donned at Zach's request and got into the
bed. A few minutes later she was tossing and turning in the sheets.
It was like ants were crawling all over her she was so restless. It
was still only 3pm EST so it was no wonder she couldn't
comfortable.

She decided there was no use fighting it and
got up again. She pulled on a hotel bathrobe and crept into the
main living area to where a giant flat screen TV was embedded in
the wall. She found the remote, turned the volume down and then
channel surfed to her default channel for mindless, exhausted
viewing.

Good old Chauncey Tales was on the case as
always. The man of the moment was yet another Demovic. With Jason
engaged and Zachary in Hong Kong the media had turned its focus to
Harrison the youngest of the three brothers. He had all the
smoldering good looks of his older brothers but obviously none of
the media savvy. He looked slightly inebriated as he left a chic
night club, that she recognized as a haunt for New York's rich and
famous. The Demovic brothers were often seen leaving there.

Suzy watched with distaste as Harrison
mumbled something incoherent into the camera. Was this how a young
billionaire looked before he learned the rules of the game? Maybe
that's how they all were before they learned to behave themselves
in front of the media.

"There you have it folks." Chauncey said. "A
cry for help. Can any of you ladies out there offer a helping hand,
a shoulder to cry on, a comforting bosom to this troubled young
man?" She winked into the camera. "I know I can think of a few… a
few thousand!" She gave a snort of lascivious laughter. "But now
back to another of our favorite billionaires, Zachary Demovic."

Suzy sat bolt upright. If she had been half
awake before, she was all lit up now.

"Just who is this mystery girl that's been
following the world's sexiest bachelor around since Wednesday
morning?" Pictures flashed across the screen of herself and Zachary
at Ricardo's staring intently into each other's eyes, then an image
of herself coming out of her own house and stepping into his car,
another of her emerging from the Demovic corporate
headquarters.

Suzy was frozen. This program would air again
later tonight and for sure Bella would see her.

"Oh my God." She said slowly. "I'm on
TV."

"Turns out it's no mystery at all." Chauncey
continued. "Notice anything familiar about this girl? That's right,
this is up and coming artist and former psychotherapist to the
stars, Melissa Price's little sister Susan, or Suzy as her friends
call her. It looks like a double lottery win for the Price family
as sexy sister Suzy now sinks her penniless hooks into notoriously
soft-hearted billionaire Zachary's heart. What many of you don't
know is that the scorching hot young Zach is notorious for his
large donations to animal shelters, animal charities and of course
to children's charities. It's even rumored he made a donation of a
very personal kind to a medical foundation in the last year but
details have been extremely hard to come by. This girl should be
counting her very lucky stars to be getting next to this guy. On
the other hand, Zachary Demovic isn't Jason. While animals and
children seem to open up the heart of this uber-sexy young man no
woman has yet been able to unlock that warm heart and more than
likely little Suzy Price will be out on her ass before you can say
'one night stand'."

Suzy clicked off the TV, unable to bear any
more. The images and footage of herself looping over and over again
were excruciating to a private person like her, not to mention the
extra 10lbs the camera had added to her figure.

What she saw next made her jaw hit the floor
again.

Zachary was up out of bed and looming right
in front of her. Her heart nearly stopped and her breath froze. In
the twinkling half-light of Hong Kong's skyscrapers and the light
of a huge tropical full moon he looked unreal. Wearing only his
shorts Suzy could see that the impression he gave through his
designer suits of being covered in toned muscle wasn't mistaken;
the guy looked like an Olympian athlete in his boxer shorts and
white Tee. The tousle of his just-out-of- bed hair added to the
overall effect and she waited for what this huge man would say to
her but instead he just stood there, breathing heavily as though
still asleep and peering into the darkness from under the shadows
of his ruggedly handsome brow.

Suzy's dressing gown was hanging open,
exposing her soft, flat abdomen and underwear. She pulled it over
but her legs were still exposed. She was almost naked and so was
he.

"Zachary…" she said, staring up at him,
waiting, what was he going to say? What was he even doing walking
around like that in front of her.

"Suzy." He said in a low gruff just barely
awakened voice. "What the hell are you doing there, looking so
goddamn sexy?"

Oh my god.
She thought, her heart in
her mouth.
This, is happening.

"Who do you think you are?" The statuesque God-like
figure in front of her continued. "Sitting there like that looking
irresistible with that cute as hell ass and all that sexy long
hair," he paused, took a breath. "and all those goddamn
curves."