Gray ran his hand through his hair and expelled a deep breath. Fatigue edged the corners of his mouth as he looked at his brother. Gone was the cocky grin that Nick usually wore, in its place was a look of concern.
“Nick, this is a first for me, and I don’t know what the hell to do. I just kept hoping she’d get the message without this getting ugly. I can’t figure out how she keeps getting my new number. I hate to think it, but someone within Mericom has to be leaking my personal information, and right now that’s our starting point. See if you can find a connection.
Gray lowered his voice and said quietly, “Nick, you know how I feel about Suzy. This could not have come at a worse time. She’s been hurt before, and I’m afraid this would cause her to run and never look back. I need your help to get this taken care of before she finds out about it. I’m so close to getting through to her, and I won’t let some nut job take that away.”
Nick clasped a hand on his shoulder and said, “You can count on me, bro. I’ll get right on it. None of this is your fault, so there is nothing for you to feel guilty about. With a smile of mischief, Nick added, “It’s just the curse of the good-looking Merimon Brothers, it drives some women a little crazy.”
Nick left to get checked into a hotel, and Gray made his way back to Suzy’s room. He was surprised and pleased to see that she was awake and talking to Beth. Gray walked over to the bedside and was relieved to see the color was back in her face. Beth had also helped her change into a gown that was much more…Suzy. The woman did like the leopard skin.
~~~
Suzy felt her heart skip a beat as Gray walked in the door. Here she was lying in a hospital bed in complete disarray, and he looked like he’d just stepped off the pages of GQ Magazine. She felt a little better since changing out of the horrid hospital gown but there was only so much leopard skin could do. Her hair was a mess, her make-up was gone, and she was pretty sure she even smelled. She looked like she’d been rode hard and put up wet.
Suzy cleared her throat and tried to come up with one of her usual smart comments. The fact that it wasn’t coming naturally was out of character. It must be the damn drugs. “Hey slick, sorry about the date disaster and all.”
“Couldn’t be helped, Suzanna. You might want to check into some more sensible shoes though before our next date,” Gray said.
“Yeah, right, I don’t do sensible, you should know that by now,” Suzy sniffed.
Gray walked over and picked her small hand up from the top of the hospital sheet and rubbed his thumb slowly back and forth over the sensitive nerves of her palm. He locked his gaze with hers and lowered his voice to a sexy timber, “Oh, I know you Suzanna, better than you know yourself.”
Beth shifted in place awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with the tension in the room. “Um…Sis, I’m heading home now. Are you sure you don’t want me to call mom and dad?”
Tearing her gaze from Gray’s, Suzy warned, “You better not unless you want me to send them your way next.”
Beth held up her hands in surrender and said, “Ok, ok, but we might actually need their help. How are you going to get to the second-floor of your condo on crutches, and I also live on the second floor.”
“Beth don’t worry about it; Suzy will stay with me,” assured Gray.
“The hell I will,” shouted Suzy. The sudden movement jarred her injured ribs, and pain flooded through her.
Gray saw Suzy’s face pale and pressed the call button for a nurse. He rubbed her arm in a soothing pattern and said, “Baby, calm down. We can talk about all this later.”
A nurse came in and soon Suzy was floating again. As she was drifting away, she wondered when she’d started allowing Gray to call her ‘baby’ and had he always smelled sooo good.
Gray watched Suzy’s eyes grow heavy and soon the fight left her body. It was going to be a battle to convince her to move in with him until she was recovered. If he had his way, she’d be living with him permanently. This kicked things into overdrive a bit on the house front. He knew Suzy would use the excuse that he was living in the penthouse of Danvers to avoid moving in with him. He planned to take care of that in the morning. If there was one thing having money had taught him, things that usually took weeks could be accomplished in days or hours. He’d call a realtor tonight and look at homes first thing in the morning.
Gray noticed Beth fidgeting, clearly uneasy over being in the room with him. Beth was a stunning woman, but obviously not comfortable taking center stage. Suzy not only took it; she owned it. Giving her a smile, Gray said, “Beth, I’ll see that Suzy is taken care of when she’s released, you don’t have to worry about anything in that regard. I’d like to ask a question, though, why is Suzy so against contacting your parents? I’d think they would want to know about her accident.”
Giving him a shy smile, Beth said, “Our parents are a little…different. Actually, they’re a lot different. I get along ok because I don’t rock the boat, but Suzy has battled with them for all of our lives. They’re both professors, quite brilliant really. They live, eat and breathe higher education. Our mother is a history professor and our father a biology professor. I caved to pressure a bit, which is one of the reasons I’m a teacher. Suzy rebelled from early on, and they clashed at every turn. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they love us in their own way, but they aren’t warm, nurturing people. If they came here now, they would spend the entire visit lecturing Suzy about her job, her clothes and how her lifestyle caused her injury.”
As if realizing that she’d been talking to a near stranger, Beth’s face flushed a pink shade. “Thank you for telling me, Beth, I appreciate the honesty. I’ll in turn be honest with you. I’m crazy about your sister and have been for quite a while. I realize that it will take some time for her to be able to trust again after the emotional damage that Jeff inflected on her, but I’m not going anywhere.
Beth appeared to study him for a moment as if testing the sincerity of his words. Finally, she seemed to come to some decision, and he could see her face softening. “Gray, I believe you. My sister comes across as fearless and unbreakable but that’s just a façade. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that she could conquer the world if she wanted to; very little stops her. She can, however, be hurt. Jeff did a real number on her, and I watched her fall to pieces over it. She got up and brushed herself off but make no mistake, inside she’s still torn apart. I know she has feelings for you too even though she has tried to fight it. With an affectionate smile, Beth added, “She can never hide anything from me. Don’t let my quiet demeanor fool you though, if you hurt my sister you will have two Denton sisters after you and that, my friend, would not be pleasant.”
Wow, Gray could see the family resemblance now. Beth practically glowed as she laid down the law to him. Gone was the quiet, shy person and in her place was a lioness protecting her cub. Even though she was calling him to the carpet, he couldn’t help being impressed.
“Beth, I know this sounds a bit cliché, but I only have the best of intentions where your sister is concerned. You have nothing to be concerned about. I intend to find a house that Suzy will be comfortable in while she recovers, and she’ll have everything she needs. If you would feel better living with us, I’d be more than happy to have you.”
The spark seemed to leave Beth as fast as it had come, and she returned to her former quiet manner. “Thank you Gray, but I’ll be fine. I will be over daily to help, though, and I’ll be here tomorrow morning to help you um….finalize your plans with her.”
Gray laughed as he read the underlying message in her expression, ‘good luck with that.’ “Thanks Beth. I plan to go look at houses early in the morning so if you could be here it would be great. We don’t want to leave your sister alone to inflict damage unto the nursing staff, do we? Also, please call me Gray. As she leaned over the bed to give her sister one last kiss before leaving, he stood, prepared to escort Beth to her car.
“Beth, I’ll see you out. Suzy would have my head if I let you w
alk to your car in a dark and probably deserted parking lot.”
He could see the protests forming on her lips. Beth obviously wasn’t comfortable yet in his company. He opened the door and held it for her to precede him out. She was quiet as they walked down the hall to the bank of elevators. Gray decided to break the ice and asked her about her job.
“Well, I’m actually supposed to start working for Suzy tomorrow, but that doesn’t look great right now. You do realize that she isn’t going to stay at home while she’s recovering don’t you? I’d give her maybe two days max before you are carting her to the office. It’s not going to be pretty, but my sister isn’t an idle person. In fact, she’ll probably be the patient of your nightmares,” Beth chuckled.
Gray laughed along with her knowing she spoke the truth. “We will cross that bridge when we have to, Beth, and thanks for the warning.”
Soon they were in the parking garage, and Beth was walking towards a bright red convertible VW. Gray was a bit surprised. Like her sister, there appeared to be more layers to Beth than he’d originally thought.
Beth turned to say goodnight to Gray. As she was getting in the car, she asked, “Your brother, he is just visiting, right?”
Gray stifled a groan at her question. Dear lord, please don’t let anything happen between Beth and Nick. Suzy would kill Nick and then move on to kill him. His baby brother was a love ‘em and leave ‘em type of guy. He was so charming that women seemed to love him even as he was showing them the door. Somehow he didn’t think the Denton sisters would feel that affection for Nick should he do the same to Beth.
He pondered lying to her, and then knew that if she was going to work with Suzy, she’d be seeing Nick around the office. “Actually, Beth we are both moving here. Jason wants us at headquarters now, especially with Claire having the baby soon. Jason plans to take time away to spend with his family, and I’d like for him to be able to have that.”
Beth felt her heart drop. She’d just met Nick tonight, why did she care whether he was coming or going? Now Gray probably thought she had a big crush on him as well. The way Nick stared at her made her self-conscious. She felt like the old Beth again, wondering if her clothes made her look big, was her dress clinging to her hips. Nick was drop-dead gorgeous and she was Beth, frumpy former fat girl with nothing to offer a man like that. She noticed Gray studying her, almost as if reading her mind. “Goodnight Gray, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Gray watched Beth buckle herself in the car and with a quick wave, she was gone. He walked back into the hospital and made a mental note to have a serious talk with his brother in the morning. Better to stop trouble now before it came calling later.
Chapter Six
Suzy woke feeling as if her bladder was going to explode. She looked around the darkened room in confusion. Where the hell was she? When she tried to sit up in the bed, pain stabbed through her. She stifled a scream as she noticed a dark head lying on the side of her bed. Suddenly, it all came back to her, and she knew who was sleeping at her bedside. Gray, always Gray. She couldn’t escape him any longer. He’d haunted her every waking moment for months and now here he was in the flesh. Fate was cruel mistress. Instead of a night of hot sex as planned, she’d fallen down a flight of steps like some klutz. Apparently, Claire was rubbing off on her. Her friend had at least one accident a day, which Suzy always found rather amusing; now the shoe was on the other foot.
“I can practically hear your mind racing from here.”
Suzy snorted. Did he always have to sound so sexy? Just once couldn’t he have a squeak in his voice or something? That deep, sexy rumble made her want to start panting. “It’s not my mind racing babe; it’s my bladder. If you could step out for a moment, while I go to the bathroom that would be great.”
Gray flipped on the bedside light and she blinked like an owl, trying to adjust to the sudden brilliance. He walked over to the bedside and started lowering the side bar of the bed. “What’re you doing?”
“Well unless you want to pole vault out of bed, I’m going to help you.” When Gray had the side lowered, he leaned down and started sliding his hands under her hips.
Suzy stiffened in shock, sputtering, “What do you think you’re doing, slick?”
“Relax princess; I’m not attacking your beautiful body; I’m carrying you to the bathroom.” Then lowering his voice, Gray, murmured, “When I want your body, you will know it, I promise.”
Shivers ran down her spine as she cleared her throat, “I can walk to the bathroom Gray; I’m not an invalid.”
“Baby, just let me help you. You’re going to cause yourself a world of pain trying to prove your point, and I don’t want to see that happen. I’m going to pick you up and set you inside and then carry you back to the bed, are we clear?”
Being the intelligent person that she was, Suzy knew when to pick her battles. When you were about to pee all over yourself and felt as if someone had stabbed you, was not the time to stage a stand-off. She closed her mouth and linked her arms around his neck as he gently picked her up. At the best he could do, it was still an excruciating trip and she stayed on the toilet longer than necessary trying to recover enough to return to the bed.
Suzy had to give Gray credit; he made an incredible nurse. He was gentle, caring and smelled good enough to eat. If not for all the pain she was in, she’d be seriously tempted to pull him down in the bed on top of her and finally take care of this ache she had inside whenever he was near. Heck, she could almost have an orgasm just hearing his sexy voice on the phone; she could only imagine how good the real thing would be.
When Gray had her settled back into the bed, he called the nurse and asked for more pain medication despite her protests. She needed to think clearly where he was concerned and how could she do that when she was constantly in la la land? The nurse came in and quietly injected medication into her IV. When she left, Suzy looked at Gray in a haze and said, “You know I’m not staying with you.” She tried to hang on a little longer to finish her sentence just barely managing, “And I’m not falling in love with you Gray.”
As she finished those last words, Gray held her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against the palm, whispering, “I’m afraid you have to, from the moment we met, I ceased to exist without you. You’ve put me off as long as I can take. Ready or not Suzanna, I’m coming for you, and I don’t intend to stop until I have you..forever.”
~~~
The next morning, Gray left the hospital when Beth arrived. He’d convinced a realtor to show him some property bright and early. He hit it lucky on the third house and within two hours, he was signing papers to make it his. Luckily, the house was empty, so he’d be able to move in immediately. An offer well above the asking price had both the realtor and the owner anxious to accommodate anything that he needed so he could keep all the furnishing, for the time being. Later when Suzy was settled in, he’d be happy to let her change anything that she wanted, but for now, it was a bonus to be able to move right in. He called Nick and asked that he handle having his personal items moved from the penthouse to the new place and also have it fully stocked with supplies. He’d then talked to Beth about packing some items for Suzy.
As he was getting back into his car, his cell phone rang. Afraid it was the hospital, he didn’t even spare a glance at the caller ID, instead answering it on the first ring. His blood ran cold as a mocking voice filled his ear. “Well, hello my darling, have you missed me?”
“Reva, how did you get this number?”
Laughter filled his ear as she said, “You should know by now Gray, what I want, I get. I told you when you broke up with me that I wouldn’t just tuck my tail and run like all the other women you have thrown away.”
“I didn’t break up with you Reva. That would imply that we had a relationship, which we didn’t. We went out for less than a month.” What Gray didn’t add was the only reason it had lasted that long was because he was desperate to take his mind off of Suzy. It hadn’t taken long t
hough to figure out the whole love the one you’re with thing didn’t work for him.
He’d met Reva at a launch party for an author friend. Warning bells should have been ringing wildly at the way she pursued him all evening before he finally agreed to have dinner with her the following evening. Truthfully, he had had little interest in Reva, and he was paying the price now for letting it get out of hand. They’d gone out to dinner a few times, and he’d been her escort to various charity functions over the course of a month. Finally, after several weeks of pressure, they had ended up in bed together. Gray knew it was a mistake as soon as it happened, and he ended things afterwards. He didn’t see leading her on when he knew it was going nowhere. Even if Suzy wasn’t in his life, he’d have no desire to become seriously involved with Reva.