Bedding the Billionaire (Book 3) (Legacy Collection) (28 page)

He’d let his lust for Lil cloud his judgment and distract him when he most needed to be focused on saving
Corisi
Enterprises.

I’m no better than
Dominic.
We both deserve to be flipping burgers next year if we screw this up.

What was it about those
Dartley
women?

For just a moment, he entertained the possibility that they could have been planted by the competition. Did Stephan’s initial plot against Dominic include gaining their trust and then taking both men out of the picture via the oldest trick in the book?

No,
not only were Lil and Abby likely the most thoroughly background checked women in the country, but
he pictured Lil putting him in his place
the
very first night he’d met her
and smiled
.
Lil would make an awful mole. She
said whatever was on her mind.
S
he might be frustrating as hell–
but she was no liar.

The weight of responsibility lay squarely on his shoulders.
He’d watched Dominic check out of reality after he lost his father over a month ago and there was no sign that he’d be checking back in any time soon.

Getting invo
lved with Lil right now was irresponsible, ill-advised, and all he’d been able to think about this past week.
Why couldn’t she just move in with him and remove the fascination of it all?
Familiarity was the most likely antidote to what was beginning to feel like an obsession.

Mentioning the settlement had been a mistake.
She was wavering until he’d tossed that tidbit into the ring.

Maladroit
comments
were out of character for him.
So was asking a
woman to move in with him
;
never mind practically begging
her to.

What was happening to him?

He
wasn’t sure
how to move forward with Lil.

He had no idea how to make Dominic see how close they were
to
losing everything.

But there was o
ne area he was still certain of.
He was going to find out who
had
hacked into his personal computer and whoever it was he was
going to crush them financially, and quite possibly
,
physically.
Never before had he
understood
the
lure
of
violence, but right about now the urge to punch
someone was surging within him.

Pulling up to the building that housed her new apartment, Lil
decided that i
t was too beautiful of a day to hide away inside
so
she
handed her keys to the valet and
took her daughter
to a local park.
She was pushing
Colby
lightly back and forth in one of the baby swings when her phone rang.

She almost didn’t answer it.

What am I afraid of?
Really, how much worse could today get?

Alethea’s
voice exploded from the phone as soon as Lil answered.
“
Lil, I’ve got good news for you.
”

Considering the source, that was highly unlikely.

“I could use some, Al.” Lil sighed and pushed her daughter’s swing again.

“
I don’t think
they’re
doing anything illegal.
Everything points more to damage control.
Looks like
our friends are
in scramble mode to fix something.
My guess is it has something to do wi
th that Chinese server Dominic
has scheduled to unveil
next month.
Jake’s good, though.
Nothing in his email was specific
.”

“
So the good news is that Dominic is having some huge
server
issue?
”
It didn’t sound like anything to celebrate.

“
No the good news is that my instincts are still sharp.
There is definitely something going on, but it doesn’t sound like anything that will endanger your sister.
”

So Jake
isn’t
a criminal.

Lil scrambled to piece together what it all meant.
How would their date this morning have ended if she’d never doubted him?
Could she blame Jake for thinking their relationship might not last when she ended every encounter with him by telling him that she never wanted to see him again?

I keep thinking that Jake is the one who is wrong, the one who has to change, but what if it’s me?
What if I could have had everything
but lost it because I was too scared to trust that something that wonderful could happen to me?
Never knowing the answer to that would be the price she’d pay for believing the worst of Jake again and again.
“
I’m heading down to New York
in the morning.
I’ve changed my mind.
I don’t think you should go.
”
Lil balanced the phone on her shoulder while she released her daughter from the swing
and returned her to the stroller
.

Lil was too restless to stand there and pretend she wasn’t full of nervous energy.

Real concern entered her friend’s voice.
“
Are you feeling guilty about today?
We
didn’t have a choice, Lil.
”

Everyone
faced tough
choice
s, but
not ever
yone always made the wrong one.
“Al
,
Jake knows someone hacked his computer.
”

“
What?
How do you know?
”
Alethea’s
voice went up a pitch.

Back on the sidewalk and heading home, Lil said,
“
He got a phone
call while we were at lunch and I heard him say that they had made changes to their firewall to ensure that something like th
is
couldn’t happen.
What if he knows it was Jeremy?
W
hat if he traces it back to him
…to you
..
.to me?”

Alethea
said,
“
Jeremy did say that he’d encountered a snag.
”

“
A snag?
A snag?
”
Lil
heard her own voice
rise
with panic and took a deep breath
.
People on the street were beginning to stare at her.
Great, maybe I’ll end up in a video on the internet and round this week out.
She lowered her voice to near a whisper.
“
You said no one would ever know.
”

“
Knowing that someone breached your security is a long way from knowing who did it.
Jeremy is careful.
He
has several dummy, dead-
end accounts.
No one will ever find out about today, Lil
,
unless you tell them.
”

“
I know,
”
Lil said with little conviction as she gratefully ducked into the privacy of
the high-rise building she still didn’t consider her home
.
She leaned her head back against the cold wall of the eleva
tor as it carried her up to the top floor.

“
Lil,
I recognize that tone.
You want to
confess
.
”

“
I know I can’t.
”

“
Exactly.
Jeremy and I could be in serious trouble with the law if you do.
This is the kind of secret to take with you to the grave, Lil.
”

“
Don’t you think I know that?
”
Only
a fool would want to risk everything for a man who’d made it pretty clear that he didn’t love her.
Lil let herself into her penthouse.

Alethea
shared her opinion by saying nothing at all.

Lil
removed Colby from the stroller
and took her to the bedroom to change her. The contrast between the mundane and the insane made it difficult to reconcile the two. Lil said,
“
Trust me, if I didn’
t spill the beans this morning,
I can keep my mouth
shut
through anything.
”

“
That bad?
”
Despite the tension of their conversation,
Alethea
sounded sympathetic.

“That good.
He
even
asked me to move in with him.
”

“What did you say?”

Lil grimaced.
“I said no. What could I say?”

“Were you tempted?”

“I don’t know. He says the stupidest things, but then he does something that shows me that he cares about what’s important to me and I want
to believe that something is possible between us
. Oh, Al, I think I’m
falling in love with him, but I ruined everything, didn’t I?
”

Ever the practical one,
Alethea
said,
“
You can have you
r happy ending, Lil, if we mutually agree to forget what we did today.”