The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (28 page)

Therefore the stinging slap across the face
surprised him.

"What did I say?" he said with complete
innocence.

"Did Melissa put you up to this?"

"Melissa? What are you talking about?"

"My big sister. Is this some kind of weird
joke?"

"Melissa is your sister? You mean…" He did a
double take. The last time he had met Suzy she was an invalid. In
fact this was the first time he had seen her post surgery. At the
time she had seemed like a child to him, waif like, emaciated, lost
and hopeless. Against his sterner nature he had been touched to the
core. Animals and children. If he treated a good portion of the
rest of the world with contempt he wouldn't hear of any harm to an
animal or a child.

"What the…?"

"Like you didn't know." She huffed at
him.

He gave a broad sexy smile. Typical Demovic;
unflappable, unstoppable. Make a huge ass out of yourself and then
just grin and charm your way out of it.

"You grew up." He said. "I'm sorry."

Suzy crossed her arms and didn’t know what to
say. She was the injured party and yet she was the flustered
one.

"It's only been eight months since we last
met you ignoramus."

"I didn't know we were counting, but I do
apologize. For not visiting and of course for paying you a
compliment on your cute little tush."

Suzy's jaw dropped again and she looked down
at the floor with a quick involuntary backwards glance to check her
ass. Of course she couldn't see a thing.

"But I think we both know it's the truth,
don't we?" He continued.

Suzy's fluster level was rising to
uncontrollable. Since she had gotten ill as a teenager she hadn't
spent much time with boys, or in the case of Zachary and Jason
Demovic, with men. Chronic illness doesn't make you very popular in
high-school and she had just begun to grow up when the illness had
hit. She had only ever had one boyfriend and he had long since
moved to another state, gone to college, moved off even farther
away and eventually lost contact altogether, barring the occasional
Facebook update when she was lonely and decided to cyber stalk her
ex.

"I think we both know just how cute that
little tush of yours is, don't we?" Zachary repeated, as though she
hadn't understood him.

"I heard you the first time." She said.

"Are you blushing?"

Suzy didn't move. She has slowly turned
crimson underneath the veil of auburn hair her bowed head
provided.

The tactic was useless. Zachary raised his
right hand, index finger ready to gently lift her bowed face. He
was beginning to enjoy himself--maybe it wouldn't be such a bad gig
after all.

But then he remembered why he was here and
what their relationship was. He drew his hand back.

"Of course not." Suzy huffed. "Why would an
ignoramus like you make me blush." She turned away from him and
headed towards the bedroom but tripped on the rug and was headed
straight into her ficus plant when a huge pair of strong arms
plucked her out of thin air.

She floated towards the ceiling as though on
a fairground ride and when she came to a stop he was holding her
effortlessly up against his chest, bride over the threshold style.
She felt the beat of his heart through his powerful chest and felt
his breath against her ear.

Her own heart thundering inside her heaving
chest.

What the hell was going on here?

She realized her arms were around his neck.
One powerful arm held her legs, his right hand cradling her left
thigh, his left arm around her back and his hand against her rib
cage just below her breast.

Her hormones began screamed at her as she
felt soft, pale female flesh press against the resistance of dark,
tanned, masculine muscle and power.

"Nice move." He said, but his tone had
changed. "Really smooth." He was more restrained now. His catch had
been pure instinct, but now that he held her so close he cursed his
body's reaction to the proximity of the woman he had considered a
silly little sister for so long.

The sting of acute embarrassment mixed with
sexual attraction in a dangerous and volatile cocktail.

"Put me the hell down you arrogant baboon."
Where the word baboon came from she had no idea. She felt his chest
rock with laughter at the remark.

"Well that's a first. I've been called a lot
of things before but never a baboon."

He slowly released her to the floor, setting
her feet carefully down as though he were balancing a life-sized
Barbie doll in the living room.

The sensation was exhilarating and disturbing
to Suzy. Every ripple of his toned muscles reverberated through
her. She couldn't remember the last time a boy, let alone a man had
touched her that way. Hell, this felt almost like a first time
experience. Her boyfriend had been a slim teenager, nothing like
the huge beast that lurked inside the designer suit Zachary Demovic
was sporting.

She looked across his broad back while he
stooped to steady her and the vision she had was frightening; she
couldn't help but think of those powerful arms surrounding her,
those huge shoulders and…

She craned her head a little more.

Oh sweet Jesus, that ass…
she
thought.

"Are you alright?" He said standing upright.
He looked behind him, following the line of her gaze. "Am I
alright?" He added.

"Everything's just fine." She said hurriedly.
"But you better go now. I don’t think we've gotten off on the right
foot here and I don't really need someone to 'babysit' me if that's
what you call it. Melissa is just being way too protective as
always. I swear if our Mom was alive she be more relaxed about me
than Melissa is."

That's right.
Zachary thought.
She
lost her mom when she was a teenager.
It was another of his
things. Jason and he had been raised almost single-handedly by
their mother while their father pursued his dreams of ever greater
levels of wealth and individualism. It had always seemed that he
was ready to give his money away to almost anybody except his own
family. He couldn't imagine what life as a child would have been
like without their devoted mother.

The thought galvanized him.

"I'm not going anywhere." He said. "I told my
brother I'd stay and look after you and by the looks of it you need
it. Hell you can't even cross the room without nearly breaking your
neck. He'd kill me if I let anything happen to his girlfriend's kid
sister."

"Do I get any choice in this?" She said, her
arms folded defiantly across her still heaving breasts.

"No you don't. So why don't you be real nice
and fix us something to eat. I had to skip dinner to make it here
and I'm starving."

Suzy stood for a moment, trembling with
indignation. How could anyone so sexy be such an asshole?

"I'm not one of your servants Zachary. I'm
not a slave in the Demovic Empire. If you're hungry you can order
out or fix yourself a sandwich. Just remember, I don’t want you
here and I don't need you here."

Resistance. Red flag to a bull. She wanted
him out but he had promised to stay.

He smiled.

"Okay Suzy. You just say the word; tell me to
get out of her and I then I can tell Melissa and Jason that I did
my best but the little girl threw a temper tantrum and threw me
out."

Part of Suzy wanted to tell him where to go,
but if she did then the apartment would be very, very empty.
Melissa and Jason not around, Bella working and the nurse that
Jason had paid to be with her round the clock was on holiday. She
needed people around her and another lonely night at home
regretting all of her lost teenage years would be no fun at all.
Even worse, then she would have to explain to Melissa why she had
asked Zachary to leave.

Big sisters.
She groaned inwardly.

Melissa would then begin with all her
shrinking and analyzing and whatever little thing she had done
would turn out to be the manifestation of some inadequacy she had.
She would need to 'think it through', accept that she had a problem
and blah, blah, blah.

Maybe it wasn’t worth it.

She looked at Zachary. He had an annoyingly
smug look on his ridiculously handsome face; the look of someone
who always believes they're right and always gets their way. He
looked so much like his brother Jason and she had had a few
sleepless nights recently thinking about her sister's gorgeous
boyfriend.

Guilty ones.

Sure she had noticed a few guys taking second
looks at her in the street since she had begun to feel healthy, and
not to mention horny, again, but there was no-one quite like the
Demovic brothers. Asshole or not, he was exciting in an infuriating
kind of way.

"Okay kidney, I'll be on my way then."
Zachary said. "You can explain this to big sister."

"Hold on." She said quickly and picked up the
phone that lay on her couch. She tossed it to him and he plucked it
smoothly from the air.

"The best Chinese takeaway in this neck of
the woods is on speed dial." Her heart began racing again. She was
inviting him to spend the evening. This was absolutely crazy.

He gave a slight grin and before she knew it
she had smiled back at him.

"I knew I could put a smile on that sour
puss." He said. "No woman can resist." He put the phone down on a
counter top and went to the kitchen area.

"Baboon." She said, but he ignored her, still
smiling.

"Where are you going anyway?" She watched
him.

"Just seeing what the kidney kid has by way
of vittles. Probably not much if she has a greasy takeaway on speed
dial."

"Does everything you say have to be some kind
of sneaky jibe?"

He turned from the fridge to face her.

"Cute little tush." He said with a friendly
smile. "Is that a jibe?"

She felt her color begin to rise again, mixed
with anger and embarrassment. She was acutely aware that she was
way out of her league here, but the fighter in her that had
wrestled with kidney dialysis and won refused to back down.

"Stop saying that. What would Melissa or even
Jason say if they knew you were, you were…." What? Was Zachary
Demovic, sexiest billionaire bachelor in the whole of New York
City, coming on to her?

"I'm just being friendly." He said. "Trust me
kidney, if I was coming onto you you'd know all about it."

Her blush came into full bloom and he turned
back to the fridge. Suzy had never wanted a man to stay so much
while wanting at the same time to assault him with a blunt
instrument.

"If you're going to stay then stop calling me
kidney. It's not nice." She flopped down onto the sofa. "There's
cheese and bread if you really don't want to order out. There might
be a beer as well."

"So what would you like?" He asked. "A cheese
sandwich?"

"Sure. If you can still remember how to make
one. Don't you Demovic brothers have people who do all those kinds
of things for you?"

He smiled at her and set to work preparing
the sandwiches. There was mayo and some pickles as well. Hardly a
feast but for some reason he was enjoying doing something so simple
for another person. It wasn't often that happened and since the
clarification of identity he was trying to see Suzy as the kidney
seeking waif his heart had gone out to not one year ago. That
little girl he would happily make a sandwich for. The hot little
cutie who had answered the door he was trying to put in the back of
his mind.

He looked at her again, pouting on the sofa
in her sweats. She was the opposite of the immaculate women he
habitually dated and tossed aside one after the other. He shook his
head.

Don't be ridiculous Zachary, this kid may be
twenty-one but she has all the maturity of a college freshman. And
what the hell would Melissa say?

"I'm making the sandwich because it's easier
than calling out for Chinese." He said. "I have an assistant who
does all that crap for me so I have no idea how it goes."

Suzy mouth dropped open.

"Are you serious?"

He handed her the plate with her sandwich and
a beer.

"No." He said "Do you really think I live
like some crazy rock star with an entourage of people taking care
of my every whim?"

She looked at the sandwich. Everything about
it was jagged and crooked with hunks of cheese sticking out at
ridiculous angles from between the two badly hacked slices of
bread.

"Have you
seriously
ever made a
sandwich before?" She asked him.

"Is something wrong?" He was genuinely
surprised.

She held up her plate and tilted it towards
him.

"Is this really how you make a sandwich in
Demovic Towers?" She was enjoying the chance of ridiculing him. He
deserved it after all the hot blushing and hormone rushes he had
put her through since the moment he set his Italian leather covered
foot through her front door.

He experienced a genuine and very, very
unfamiliar moment of awkwardness. Being criticized openly wasn't
something he had to put up with very often; he was a perfectionist
surrounded by hordes of staff who jumped if he raised an eyebrow.
The last time he had been jeered at was in high school, but
sometimes the oldest memories are the most powerful.

"I made this sandwich for
you.
" He
said, sounding hurt.

She stood up and walked to the kitchen area,
put her toe to the pedal bin and flipped up the lid.

"I'm very sorry Zach--"

"You can't do that." He was outraged. "That's
a perfectly good sandwich."

"Who are you now? Grandma Demovic?"

"Suzy, don't you dare."

The sandwich slid off the plate and plopped
into the trash.

She grinned with pleasure as the lid dinged
shut but when she looked up her smile disappeared; she had never
seen a Demovic brother with that expression on their face. He was a
hurt little boy.