The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (45 page)

Melissa chewed her lower lip and then
smiled.

"He must be one great guy alright."

"Or girl."

"Uh, sure, yeah, or girl."

"You always think men are running to the
rescue, don’t you? Like the way Jason 'rescued' you."

"I don't want to argue Suzy. Come on, tell me
about this new guy you've been seeing. Does it look like it could
be getting serious?"

"Big sisters." Suzy said with
exasperation.

"Come on Suzy, I'm not prying, I'm just
interested. You can talk to me like you can talk to Bella or any
other girlfriend."

"No. I can't. And stop trying so hard to be
my friend. You already are my friend, so stop forcing it."

There was a tense silence for a few seconds
before Melissa gathered herself up again.

"So is he good-looking?" She said with a
smile.

"You are unstoppable." Suzy hated any
subterfuge but talking about men with her big sister made her
squirm. Mark was only the second guy she had dated since she had
quit Demovic, landed her own job and started working full time.
Plenty of guys had hit on her and asked her out and she was slowly
getting used to the idea of positive male attention, without
craziness, as her health continued to improve.

What she still hadn't learned to deal with
yet was intimacy, physical or otherwise. As soon as a guy got
physical with her she backed off and made sure that they backed off
as well. The truth was that she hadn't felt physically attracted
either to Mark or to his predecessor Tom or to any man since her
insane, upside-down, reverse and sideways crush on Zachary. She had
found Mark interesting and agreeable mostly because of his ideals,
but that was as far as it went. He was fiercely committed to animal
welfare and to activism and in fact he was one of the ring-leaders
in the campaign of sabotage against the construction of Zachary's
beloved Demovic Technical Innovation University. He was at every
sit-in to block construction and he had even taken seriously a
joking suggestion by Suzy to damage equipment at the site. Suzy had
dropped him like a hot cake as a result but then agonized over
turning him in. Eventually she had extracted a promise from him not
to engage in any further illegal activity in exchange for not
reporting him to the police. One moment of madness could see him
with a record for the rest of his life and he wasn't that bad--he
was just an idealistic young guy who would know better as he got
older.

She sure as hell didn't feel like telling any
of this to Melissa.

"I take it this long silence means you still
aren't ready to share anything with me." Her sister said.

Suzy had been staring at her glass of
water.

"I'm sorry Melissa, it’s just… just
complicated."

Melissa put her hand on her sister's wrist.
"It's okay. You don’t have to tell me anything you don't want to.
I'm sorry for being such a pain in the ass. Come on, you have your
speech coming up in thirty minutes, we should get back to the
conference room so you can get set up. Are you nervous?"

"No. Not at all. I've been giving so many
addresses lately I'm used to it already."

"But this one's bigger. There are more
potential donors here. This could change the charity
completely."

"Who do you think got most of them here? If
it was one thing that spending those few days with Zachary taught
me it's that rich people are no different from the rest of us and
we don't need to be intimidated by them. So it wasn't all a waste
of time. By the way, how is his Demovic University thing going? Has
he made any progress yet?"

She knew the state of play but felt it polite
to ask nonetheless.

"Well, as it happens, now that you mention
him, there is something that you should know."

"About Zachary?"

"Yes. About Zach. He's going to be here
today."

"What?" Melissa's soft words had exploded
like a bombshell in Suzy's face.

"You look angry. I'm sorry. Maybe I should
have warned you earlier."

"I'm not angry. Why would I be angry?"

"You look angry. You sound angry."

Melissa was right. Suzy was angry, and she
was angry with herself that just the thought of him being in the
room with her was having this effect on her.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I wasn't sure how you would
react."

"What the hell is he doing here anyway?"

"He's always been interested in animal
welfare, you know that."

"There are hundreds of charities in this
city. He could pick any of them to throw his money at."

"He throws his money at all of them. Even
yours if you must know. Mostly he donates anonymously. He always
has, even before him and his brothers made it big in software. Why
should your organization be the only one he
doesn't
give
to?"

Melissa had a point and Suzy knew it. There
were several anonymous donors who gave regularly and one in
particular was very generous, accounting for nearly half of their
income and ensuring that they could always cover operating costs.
Nobody at the charity knew who it was.

Please God no….
Suzy thought. She was
happier being as far away from the Demovic sphere of influence as
she could get.

"This is about animal welfare." Melissa
continued. "It's not about who you slept with or who--"

"We never slept together. God, you sound like
a jealous boyfriend sometimes. Come on, let's go. I don’t have time
for this."

Suzy's new found assertiveness was still
disconcerting to her older sister, but she was happy about it too.
She worried about her less in the big bad world outside the
protected environment she had lived in as an invalid. She had tried
to convince Zachary against showing up in person but he had
insisted. Hopefully her little sister had changed enough in the
last six months to be able to deal with him in a mature way.

She stood up and followed her little sister
back to the conference hall.

God, I think I'm more nervous about this
than she is.
She thought.

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

An hour later Melissa was standing with
everyone else in the packed space giving an enthusiastic applause
to her sister's inspiring address. The wealthy couple next to her
was already discussing how much of a donation they would make and
it was in the thousands. She couldn't believe how much Suzy had
grown up. The once invalided young woman was soon surrounded by a
throng of distinguished looking people and Melissa had to bide her
time to one side in order to speak to her.

How the tables had turned.

Now Melissa was an artist struggling for
recognition while Suzy was the toast of the society fundraising
community in New York City. Her little sister turned to her and
smiled, radiating pure happiness.

"I'm not surprised you're smiling." Melissa
said. "Some of those men were gorgeous."

"We're they?" Suzy looked genuinely
surprised.

"Are you kidding me? Did you see that tall
guy with the Scandinavian, Thor God of Thunder look? He was so into
you. And he looks successful too."

"Well, I only need them to be successful and
generous, what they look like or who they are isn't all that--"

Suddenly her face changed. From the relaxed
self-confidence that had held an audience of almost a thousand
people rapt with attention, she went to a frozen confusion.

"Suzy, what's wrong?"

"It's him." She said as she shook her head,
smoothed her hair and straightened her clothes.

Melissa looked over her shoulder. "Zachary."
She said. "What are you doing here? I thought you were just going
to listen to the address and then leave?"

"Yes, what
are
you doing here?" Suzy
said, before silently cursing herself for reacting so much to his
presence. Had nothing really changed inside her during those six
months?

"Very impressive Suzy, very impressive." He
said. Melissa watched as her sister stared into Zachary's eyes. She
felt her old anxiety return. Whatever it was they had between them
obviously hadn't diminished in all the months they had been
apart.

"Are you here to make a donation?" Suzy
asked, struggling to recover her composure. Zachary smiled and Suzy
felt herself melt.

What the hell is it about these Demovic
brothers?
Melissa thought.

Suzy had been surrounded by men just as
good-looking, just as well dressed and maybe even as rich but she
hadn't batted an eyelid. Now she looked as confused and star-struck
as she had been when she first met the gorgeous billionaire
brothers.

"Yes I would like to make a donation."
Zachary said. "Your speech was very impressive. Can I give you a
check or--"

"You can give it to the treasurer. He's the
man in the bow tie over by the entrance."

Zachary gave him a glance and then returned
his intense, unwavering gaze to Suzy.

"You look beautiful." He said. "Better than
ever."

"Zachary, don't you have an important meeting
or something? Didn't you say you needed to be in Mexico or Malaysia
or somewhere like that?" Melissa was beginning to feel desperate.
She wanted to separate the pair as quickly as possible before
anything took hold.

"It can wait." he said, without taking his
eyes off Suzy, Melissa stood in silence, searching for words. She
knew from personal experience how hard it was to get a Demovic
brother to change his mind about something once they got locked
into a goal.

Suzy drew herself up and extended a formal
handshake to the ridiculously handsome man.

"You're looking great too Zachary and on
behalf of the board members, myself and of course all of the
animals in the center I'd like to thank you for your offer of a
donation."

He didn't take her hand, as much as he would
have loved to feel her touch again.

"There's no need to thank me on behalf of the
board." He said. "I'll be sitting on the board from tomorrow by
unanimous decision at the meeting convened yesterday."

Suzy withdrew her hand sharply. She had the
eerily thrilling and frightening sensation of being slowly
overwhelmed by something more powerful than herself, the same
feelings she had endured when Zachary had flown her off to Hong
Kong and then battled to take control of her world for several
intense days.

"Let me be the first to welcome you to the
board." She held up her hand again, hoping the trembling she felt
wasn't visible.

"I'll be an active board member." He said.
"The Manhattan animal shelter project is one that's very important
to me, so I'll be in your office quite regularly from now on."

Her whole body was beginning to shake.

He was trying to take over her life again,
just like he had before and the scariest thing of all was that part
of her wanted it--badly.

"Well, I'm sure our paths will cross
occasionally," she said, "although I'm out of the office most of
the time these days so--"

"That's going to change." He said, without a
trace of emotion in his voice but an intensity in his gaze that had
warning signals like a five alarm fire running through Melissa's
head.

"I'm an executive board member based upon the
patronage of the Demovic Corporation to the shelter, and of course
as a result of my personal donations as well. I have recommended
that you take on a more senior role that will see you working with
a higher level of decision maker. You'll be coordinating fund
raising at a national level and have new staff to assist you."

It was a mouthwatering prospect, but
obviously there were strings attached. Her hand was still hanging
in mid air.

"I don't want your charity, or whatever this
is." She said, withdrawing her hand as he reached out with his
own.

"It's not charity. The board came up with the
idea and I endorsed it based upon your record of exemplary service
over the last three months."

She looked to Melissa for help but her sister
had nothing. It was a huge opportunity, well earned, so why on
earth would she pass it up?

"Of course the ultimate decision is up to
you." He said. "If you decide to turn it down you can do so
formally to your direct superior."

"I need some time." She said.

"Of course you do. You have until noon
tomorrow. You're the best candidate for the job Suzy, but not the
only one. Think it over. You have my number." He nodded politely
and then left the two stunned sisters.

"Melissa, why the hell didn't you tell me any
of this?"

"Because I had no earthly idea."

"What about Jason? Surely he knew."

"I wouldn't count on it. Jason is pretty
involved in his own charity work but animal welfare isn't one of
his things."

The two sisters stared at each other.

"What does this mean?" Suzy finally said. "It
was the first time she had asked her sister's advice since the
debacle of working with Zachary six months ago. If it had been
about anything else Melissa would have been thrilled, but this?

The older sister opened her mouth to
speak.

"I… I…"

"I know." Suzy said, "That's how I feel
too."

**********

Later that night Suzy arrived home to her
apartment. She was that busy that she was barely there anymore. She
hardly even had time for her friend Bella these days and as for
Kyle the delivery guy? He had long ago quit his job and moved away
after the madness of his trip to Hong Kong. Her day had been just
as busy as ever after her key note address and the looming threat
of Zachary barging back into her life again had been pushed to the
back of her mind.

Now that she was home alone again it was the
only thing she could think about.

She sat motionless on her couch for a full
half hour before she finally went to her desk, opened the bottom
drawer and took out a pack of cigarettes which lay next to the
collar for her pet ferret that Zachary had given her in Hong Kong.
Harry had never worn it. She laid the cigarette box on the
table.