The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (54 page)

"Yeah Suzy, come on." Melissa had been dying
to know all about it too. "Give us some juicy details for Pete's
sake. Why is it all such a huge mystery?"

Finally,
Bella thought,
maybe you
won't tell me but I bet you can't blow these guys off so
easily.
The mystery had been plaguing her to the point of
obsession and she couldn't even figure out why it was that she was
quite so crazy to know all the details. Maybe it was her natural
curiosity or maybe it was the fairytale, dream come true thing; if
it can happen to my best friend who one year ago was a bed ridden
invalid then maybe, just maybe…

No. Stop it.
She told herself.
You
can dream about it sure, but our lives are totally different. Suzy
doesn't have the history that I have…

Suzy looked at Zachary, took a deep breath
and then turned back to her friends.

"If I told you all…" she paused, "trust me,
you would never believe me."

It was enough make Bella snap.

"It's not fair." She blurted out. "I tell you
everything I think, say or do and this is all you can give me in
return?"

Suzy shook her head.

"That's all I can say Bella, really."

"Well I'm not leaving here until I get some
details." She was serious. She needed something or she was going to
have trouble sleeping. The transformation in her friend was
complete and almost miraculous. She had gone from helpless,
shrinking-violet-invalid to confident, cocky, bride-to-be as though
it was the most natural thing in the world and the metamorphosis
had captured Bella's imagination.

"That's fine by me." She heard someone say.
She looked around to see who it was and saw Harrison's gaze fixed
on her.

What did he just say?
The meaning of
it slowly dawned on her if it was obvious to everyone else.
Harrison had gotten his sweet revenge for the earlier affront to
his intelligence.

He wants me to stay the night?

Bella descended into a muddle of
confusion.

"I mean, I'm leaving of course," the words
stumbled out, "but I just need some details."

"You can stay as long as you like." Harrison
said, un-deflected. "Now you've made a promise, you can't back
down. Suzy? You don't need to tell this pretty friend of yours a
thing."

Help me Suzy!
looked to her friend
with a kind of desperation, but Suzy just looked back to her and
smiled.

"Bella, "she said, "my lips are sealed."

She didn't dare look at Harrison to see the
expression on his face but she was pretty sure there was an evil
smile on his perfect, ruggedly handsome mouth. The rest of the
group moved on and continued to chat oblivious to the silent energy
between the young man and woman, but Bella just couldn't sit still.
She tried to focus on the conversation and block him out, but all
she could think of was the intense look that Harrison directed to
her at every opportunity. If her eyes inadvertently strayed over to
his, and they seemed to have a will of their own since he had
spoken directly to her, then a woozy wave of heat like a mirage
came over her when their eyes met.

Now Bella knew she wasn't unattractive was
never short of male attention. Whenever she got a new temping
contract she turned heads on her first day at the office and there
was often a sigh or two of disappointment on her last. Despite
plenty of offers and regular skirmishes with the opposite sex she
always held back. Even if she met some for a couple of dates once
they began to get interested in her past she would begin to shy
away. It was too difficult to talk about and she just wished she
could find a guy who would be with her for who she was in that
moment, not who she had been or what she had done or where she had
come from.

Her eyes darted over again and went straight
to Harrison's, her emerald green meeting his dark brown.

Goddamn it.
They just wouldn’t obey
her and he had that freaking temperature raising
I'm-going-to-eat-you-alive-but-slowly grin on his face.

Her eyes darted back down again, but her
heart raced and she was beginning to feel giddy.

This was it. This was really happening; she
was in the Demovic family home and one of the nation's hottest
brothers and eligible bachelors was obviously coming on to her.

I need to get some air.
She
thought.

She didn't want to make a bid deal of it so
chose her moment carefully. One of the old guys in suits, a family
friend of some kind, had engaged Harrison in conversation and while
his attention was drawn away from her she slipped outside into a
long hallway. A powder room or an entrance out into the vast garden
would have done the trick, but here was no sign of either, so she
started off down the corridor to begin her search. Rounding the
corner she saw that it seemed to continue endlessly towards the
back of the house.

There were so many doors and her natural
curiosity made her wonder what kind of opulence might be behind
them, but she didn't have the courage to enter. After all, it was a
family home and there could be other relatives around or staff
members at work. She didn't want to disturb anyone or be caught
entering somewhere that she wasn't supposed to be.

She put her hand to one of the ornate
door-handles and began to twist slowly but then stopped.

I'd better get back.
She thought and
turned around to start back up the corridor.

"Looking for anything in particular?" The
deep, velvet, masculine tone made her jump and turn around to crash
straight into the solid wall of muscled that lived beneath the hand
tailored suits of Harrison Demovic. He was dressed like James Bond,
built like Conan the Barbarian and had obviously followed her
silently down the hall to watch as she considered entering a
private room in his family home.

Now he was holding her in his powerful
arms.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Demovic." She said and
looked up at him. He sure was a whole lot bigger from this angle.
Sitting down in the family room he had looked slim, elegant,
incredibly good looking. Up close he was like a bear made of rock
hard, chiseled flesh and his good looks, so near to her face, were
nothing short of breath taking.

"Don't be sorry." He said. "I just found
exactly what I was looking for."

"You found… you found…"

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers,
gently at first and then more forcefully. A thrill of energy ran
through Bella's body, cascading down into her abdomen and thighs,
instantly bringing her to life right between the legs. Her breath
halted in her throat. It was like no kiss she had ever had before;
stolen with such absolute self-confidence. Her few boyfriends in
the past had been hesitant, polite, considerate; this man was
anything but.

She pulled herself away from him and allowed
outrage to slowly replace the passion that had seared through her;
indignation was the best way to hide.

"You are one hell of an asshole." She
sputtered.

"I know." He said. "I'm sorry. But I just had
to do that." He looked completely serious, leaving no clue as to
exactly
why
he had to kiss her.

"Well couldn't you at least ask before you
just, just… throw your lips all over mine?"

"I find you very intriguing." He said. "Will
you come to dinner with me?"

Bella looked up at him, his hooded eyes told
nothing, but God was he handsome. This was a dream and like all
dreams it would not, absolutely could not come true. As much as she
would have liked to, there was no way she could accept the
invitation. There was would be no point--with a past like hers,
sooner or later the truth would come out and it would all be over
in a heartbeat, so why waste everybody's time?

"I'm not that easy." She said evasively and
went to walk past him but he blocked her with one strong arm.

"I never said you were easy. In fact, I'd be
willing to bet you're pretty damn hard."

He tilted his head back slightly to look down
towards her and the intensity of his gaze was still there, the same
one that had made her blush and look away from him time and again
in the family room.

He didn't need to say another word.

I can't do this.
Bella thought.
What if he finds out? What if everyone found out?

They continued to stare into each others'
eyes. The only sound in the long hallway was the rise and fall of
their breathing; quietly intense, insanely tempting.

It was the closest to fucking without having
a finger laid on her that Bella had ever experienced.

"Get your arm out of my way." She said and
then waited for Harrison to slowly step back from the wall. He
smiled his annoying, 'I-know-something-you- don't-know' smile as
she walked past him.

"What are you afraid of?" He asked, his eyes
piercing into her soul.

If only you knew.
She thought.

"You think you're a big shot, don't you?
Kissing me like this here in your family's big house and acting all
mysterious. But maybe you don't want to get to know me any better
than this." Her heart was racing. This was just plain stupid. She
had never given an inkling to anyone about who she was or what she
had done in her past; not since she had turned her back on her old
life those four long years ago. Why made her think she could
threaten someone with that knowledge now?

"Sounds like a challenge if ever I heard
one." Harrison said. "And I just love a challenge."

"Well maybe this is one you should walk away
from. For both our sakes." She raised her hand to push it against
his arm but he moved out of her way and let her pass by.

"You think you're different Bella, and you're
right. You are. In all the right ways." He said as she walked away.
"But you've also never met anyone like me before. There's nothing
you can say that will scare me off. Not when I see something I want
and I'm telling you right now that I want
you
. You could
save us a whole lot of time by just turning around right now, like
a good little girl, and walking right back down here to where you
belong." He paused. "Or maybe you're a bad little girl. Is that the
problem Bella? Is that why you're running away?"

Bella didn’t look around. She was terrified
of what would happen if she did. He was right, absolutely right and
way closer to the truth than he could possibly imagine. She
was
different from everyone else in that house but she had
also certainly never met anyone like him before. He said he
wouldn't be scared off if he wanted her, but maybe fear wasn't the
problem. Maybe disgust, revulsion or hatred would be better words
to describe it.

Would he be above emotions like those?

"Have it your way." He said as she walked
unsteadily onwards. "For now."

It was a long uncomfortable journey back to
the family room as she imagined Harrison's eyes watching her back,
her legs, her ass. The urge to turn and look around to see if he
was looking at her was almost unbearable. How dare he just stand
there like that; as though she were on show just for him, a
plaything for his visual pleasure.

But God was the thought also making her wet
for him as well.

At the last minute she turned back to
confront him, ready to unleash a barrage of scathing remarks, but
he was already gone.

She had wasted her time and energy getting so
mad at him and the truth was probably that he had already forgotten
her by now. It was all just an empty game played by a rich guy to
mess with a poor girl's head.

Go to hell Harrison Demovic.
She
thought as she opened the door and dug deep to find a smile to wear
for the people she loved most in the whole world, gathered there
together in happiness and love.

"Hey Bella, where have you been?" Suzy asked
her. "You've been gone for ages."

"It wasn’t that long." She said
defensively.

"Where's Harrison?" Catherine asked, with a
half-smile playing on her lips.

It was an innocent question but it instantly
brought a flush to Bella's face.

"How should I know that?" She blurted out.
"We didn't leave together, so why would I know where he is?"

"Yeah, where is that jackass? Did you guys
slip out one by one to get to know each other a little better?"
Zachary joked, but his lips wore the same,
I-know-something-you-don't-know smile that seemed to be a genetic
trait of the Demovic brothers. Bella drew a blank in response. She
had shared a kiss with his brother, or more correctly, his brother
had kissed her and it had been the hottest, sexiest and probably
the scariest kiss of her life so far.

"I haven't seen him." She said, way too
insistently and then flushed again. She felt like kicking herself.
What did she have to hide? She hadn’t done anything wrong.

"You should 'fess up young lady." Catherine
said with a motherly smile. "Mark my words, it never pays to keep
secrets from a Demovic boy."

The laughter in the room was spontaneous,
free, as though it were the lightest, silliest joke in the
world.

Bella looked around and tried to stay calm.
The ball of anxiety in her stomach tightened up another notch as
she forced herself to join in with the laughter.

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

Harrison didn't bother returning to the
family gathering after his encounter with Bella. He knew what the
rest of the afternoon would entail; small talk, wedding talk, jokes
about little feet and babies and blah, blah, blah. He had better
things to do.

If Jason was the business mind and Zachary
the technical mind, he was the marketing wizard of the three
brothers and he could spot deception and lies a mile off.

He called up his personal private eye, Lacey
McMahon. She was one of the best in the business and for cases like
this he preferred his own professional. If he used Demovic security
things tended to leak to other family members and he knew how that
could turn out; the not so subtle pressure to conform to Demovic
family values.