The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (46 page)

Suzy didn't smoke.

In fact she had never smoked in her life and
never would.

She opened up the box and took out a row of
cigarettes which had been cut in half. She tapped out a small
memory stick from the box and then hesitated, glancing nervously at
her laptop on the desk.

After some thought she finally plugged it in
and then waited. Her heart was racing with excitement. She hadn't
watched the clip even once since the night she had recorded it.
With Zachary banging on the bathroom door and threatening her with
security and lawsuits she had barely had time to think but
eventually she had sent the clip to her personal email address and
then deleted all trace of it from the phone. Once home from Hong
Kong she had downloaded it to an empty memory stick, deleted all
trace from her laptop and email, hidden it in the cigarette box and
never dared to even take a look at it again.

Occasionally she had felt uneasy about
keeping it; there was nothing illegal about holding it, but then
again, it also wasn't exactly a nice thing to have hanging over
someone. Something in her had never quite let go of those events in
Hong Kong and this was her only record of that time.

There were four files on the stick. Two video
clips, two photos.

She hit play on the first video and then
waited. It was like going back in time when the dim images began to
unfold before her.

She made out
his
form lying on her bed
in only his t-shirt and shorts, his head turned away from the
camera. It was the scene she had pretended to herself was for Bella
but as she watched it now she knew it had always been for herself
alone. The camera followed his form from his head to his toes and
back again, taking in every detail including his burgeoning
arousal. Her pulse rate shot up. How had she ever had the audacity
to do such a thing? This wasn't something she would do in a million
years. It was a different person who had taken that footage, not
the sober, professional person she was now.

Jesus, the person who shot this had it
bad.
She thought.

It was a short clip and came to an end
abruptly. The next file was a photo, her revised promise to Bella.
The portrait was just as intimate as the film. Examining it closely
she was so glad she had never shared it with anyone.

Her hand hesitated over the next file.

"I should delete this." She whispered to
herself. "If I was a good person I would just delete this now and
never tell anybody about it."

But the temptation was too strong.

Just once.
She thought.
Just once
so I know I'm deleting the right file.
The words rang hollow in
her own mind.

The video began to play and she watched,
rapt, as Zachary come into her bedroom. She thought she had filmed
only his head and shoulders but she was wrong, she had captured the
tall man in all his muscular glory. She turned her gaze away for a
second, as though he were actually in the room but then her eyes
were drawn back. It made for compelling viewing. She heard her own
voice then and she cringed inside. She sounded so petty, so
vindictive, so like a silly little girl. It underlined to her how
much she had grown up in the short time since then. Her hand darted
out to mute the video so she could watch Zachary in silence and the
effect was eerie. His strong but troubled face came closer to the
camera, his bedroom hair was dark and thick in the dim light of the
hotel bedside lamp. He was speaking, mouthing words but she didn't
need the sound, every syllable was etched into her memory.

'I've got to admit it. You really have got to
me Suzy.' Her throat went dry as the words echoed back into her
life across the months of silence.

'I underestimated you from the start,
thinking I could just fuck you and get away with it. But you've
outsmarted me at every turn and now I want you so bad I can't even
admit it to myself.'

The old feelings of guilt from that night
began to well up in her again, and another feeling that she didn’t
dare to name.

'I can't help myself when you're around.' He
continued. 'It's something I can see in your eyes, something in
your smile and then when you take me on, tussle with me, fight me
back and turn the tables, god I fucking want you--in my life and in
my bed. If I can't have you then you better just go away. Far
away.'

After that he had reached out to her and
rested his hand on her thigh. She could still the pounding thrill
that went through that night and as she watched his head had dip
below the camera she remembered vividly how much she had wanted him
at that moment.

It terrified her to realize that she still
wanted him again even now.

The phone had continued recording that night
as his lips and tongue hungrily explored her breasts, her abdomen
and then went lower still. The camera hovered over her unconscious
lover's back, and she watched as the well-defined muscles of his
torso flexed and strained with desire. Her breath nearly stopped as
she observed his perfectly round, muscular ass push deeper into
her.

And then her breath stopped entirely.

What the hell?

She gasped in amazement, hit pause and then
leaned in to take a closer look. The picture wasn't particularly
clear but she was sure there was a mark on the right side of his
otherwise flawless and chiseled side muscles. It was the
unmistakable sign of kidney transplant surgery. It was a neat job,
just like her own, with minimal scarring, the work of an excellent
surgeon. In fact it looked like the one that Jason had found and
mostly paid for in order to ensure she had the best treatment
possible. She had seen the work of other surgeons and it was clear
that not everyone had the same skill.

She pulled up her shirt and looked at her own
scar. They were nearly identical. "Oh my God." She gasped. "Oh my
God, oh my God, oh my God." She played back the scant frames in the
clip that showed the scar but she had dropped the phone soon
afterwards and all she could see soon after was the ceiling of her
hotel room.

Then she saw her own face appear and mouth
the words 'oh crap' as she realized the phone was still recording.
There was more confusion then as they struggled with each other for
the phone and she remembered the thrill of that struggle as his
hard body had pressed against the softness of her own.

Abruptly there was blackness on the screen,
the moment she had thrown the phone under the bed. A moment later
the video ended but she knew there was more on the memory stick; at
least one more photo that she had taken of him with the explicit
intention to embarrass and enrage.

A double click and it was open.

There he was, on his knees in her bedroom,
adorably enraged, fully naked and impressively erect. She instantly
closed it again, steadying herself with a deep breath. It was
insane that she had this picture of him, insane that she had taken
it, insane that they had been there together and most of all,
totally mind-blowingly nutty that she wanted back on his knees in
her bedroom, wanting her again so badly. And this was the man who
had… no. That was impossible, a co-incidence.

"To hell with co-incidences." She hissed, and
grabbed her phone, hastily dialing her big sister's number.

"Hey Suzy--"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Her voice was
urgent, angry.

"I've already told you, I didn't know about
him becoming a board member."

"Not that. The other thing."

"What other thing?"

"Don't even try Melissa, I'm not the innocent
little girl I was before. Tell me what's going on. Why did he do
it?"

"Do what? I'm lost."

"He's the one who gave me the kidney, isn't
he? Tell me the truth. For once." Suzy waited. The hesitant silence
at the other end of the line told her all she needed to know.

"You assholes." She said.

"Suzy, it wasn't up to me."

"But it
was
up to
me
; my body,
my kidney, my decision, my life. What the hell were you thinking
keeping this from me? I don't know who you are anymore."

"You don't understand. I had no choice in
this and the law says that if a donor wishes to remain anonymous
then they can. I had to respect his desire in this. We all
did."

"Why me? Why did he choose me?"

"Suzy…."

"What is it? Tell me. You've lied to me for
long enough already."

"It's not up to me. You have to speak to him.
If he wants to tell you then so be it, but I won’t break my promise
to him."

"Is that why you forced him into hiring me as
his personal assistant?"

Melissa felt acute shame at the barbed
words.

"It's one of the worst decisions I've ever
made. You know that already."

"Just tell me, please, explain to me what in
the hell you were thinking?"

"I just wanted you to have a good chance, an
opportunity at something. You hadn't worked a day in your life and
here you were looking to be independent, to earn your own money,
live your own life. I'd have hired you myself but how could I? God
knows you wouldn’t have wanted to be running around after your own
big sister, I'm not that stupid. Jason has had his own PA for years
and she's way off retiring age but Zachary needed someone and I
knew that you could do the job. Or at least I thought I did."

"But if you knew he had this damn secret, why
would you--"

"It was stupid. Plain stupid. I knew he cared
about you because he had donated a kidney for you. Do you know what
that means?"

"Better than anyone." She spat back.

"Of course you do, that was a damn stupid
question, but look, Suzy, if he was willing to do that for you I
thought hiring you and giving you your first chance wouldn’t be
such a big deal. How was I to know he would have such a problem
with it?"

"Him have a problem with it? What about you?
You were the craziest one of all; chasing us all the way to Hong
Kong? You don't call that crazy? How the hell did you ever get to
be a psychotherapist?"

"I just… I… I knew I'd made a mistake. When
he insisted on helping you, on donating for you, back then you were
like a child, my kid sister, an invalid. I didn't realize… I didn't
see that you had grown up in those six months, but obviously…"

Melissa didn’t need to say any more. The rest
was history.

"He changed your life Suzy. Doesn't that mean
anything to you?"

Suzy's hands were shaking. She owed this
mean, sexy, controlling bastard more than she owed anyone else in
the whole world. She owed him everything, the breath in her body,
the life in her soul. Him, of all people.

"I've got to go." She said.

"Don’t hang up Suzy, we have to talk
about--"

She ended the call. Melissa had done it this
time. Her sister had taken control of her life when she was just a
child and couldn't look after herself and had so much difficulty
giving up that control--but this was too far. Suzy didn't know if
or when she would be able to forgive and forget a deception so
great. She threw her phone across the room and buried her head in
her hands while the tears flowed.

********************

The following morning Suzy stepped off her
bus with grim determination. She walked to the New York Animal
Welfare Center with determination. She bought coffee with
determination. She entered the building and walked, with
determination, to the open area where her small desk was situated.
Zachary hadn't answered her calls last night and his new PA, a
young and attractive sounding woman on the phone, had described him
as 'unavailable' when Suzy had contacted her as a last resort.

Poor, stupid girl.
She thought and
then wondered if she had been kidnapped onto his private jet as
well and then subjected to naked sleep walking extravaganzas in a
luxury hotel suite. The thought drove her mad. What if that girl
had some crazy pictures of him as well? Maybe hers weren't so
unique after all.

Don't you dare woman. Don't you dare.

She had hardly slept a wink all night.

Walking into the open office are she realized
at once that things were strangely quiet today. There were only
about ten full-time staff members in the center, most of them young
women, and the atmosphere was usually abuzz at this time of the
morning with people already on the phones.

She looked up and nearly a dozen sets of eyes
were fixed on her.

"What's wrong?" She said. "Did I forget to
put pants on?" She looked down at her legs; she was wearing a short
skirt over leggings. No problem there.

"I think you have that pretty well covered
Suzy." The voice was so instantly recognizable--the dark, velvet
tone, the seductive depth, the sexy undertow that threatened to
pull her under. He was right there in front of her, sitting at her
own messy little piled up desk and playing with the mouse on her
computer.

She nearly dropped her coffee to the
floor.

"Zach." She said. There was a murmur in the
office. The presence of well known hunk and sexy, single, highly
eligible billionaire bachelor Zachary Demovic in the tiny office
had caused a stir among staff unlike anything that had ever
happened there before. The girls had been falling all over
themselves for the last thirty minutes, afraid to say anything,
afraid to not say anything and generally making fools of
themselves. Zachary had seemingly ignored them. He was polite when
he entered, spoke quietly to the boss lady and then been seated at
Suzy's desk as requested. Wealthy private donors rarely came to the
office and when they did they were usually advanced in years and
not well-known to the general public--but this was altogether
different. Zach was a superstar, rock-star billionaire of a
different order.