A Million Guilty Pleasures: Million Dollar Duet (19 page)

So the decision I was left with was to either let him have what he wanted and break Noah’s heart, or to refuse him and watch helplessly as Noah handed his company over to David Stone—a company his parents had built from scratch. Noah would be ruined, and my parents would know what I had done. But if he walked in and saw us together, it might do far more damage. Could Noah still love me after all that? Either way, it seemed there was no easy answer.

Images of Noah’s face flashed across my mind: the anguished expression when he first told me he’d fallen in love with me, the light in his eyes when I finally got a chance to say it back, the desperation as he stood in the rain half naked and asked me to marry him. I couldn’t rip his heart out. I refused to put him through the same thing Julie had.

Material things could be replaced. Noah was smart enough and had the talent to rebuild. As for his damnation in the public eye, people were bloodthirsty and ruthless when it came to
celebrities, but as soon as the next star fell from the sky, his sin would be forgotten. And yeah, I would forever see the disappointment in my parents’ eyes after they learned their daughter had sold her body for two million dollars, but the loss of their respect was a fair price to pay when I thought about the alternative. It was much more difficult to mend a broken heart, and Noah couldn’t take much more heartache. It took a lot for him to finally trust someone else, and he’d put everything he had left in the palm of my hands. No way was I going to destroy a gift that precious.

“No,” I answered David. “I belong to Noah, and Noah alone. I am his.”

I felt every muscle in David’s body tense as he registered my words. A low growl rumbled from his chest and he pulled back to glare down at me. “I
will
have you. Willingly, or not.”

Before I had a chance to react, he grabbed my shirt and ripped it apart, sending buttons flying across the floor.

“No!” I screamed, and then I gathered every ounce of strength I had in my body and pushed against him.

It was enough force to make him stumble back, giving me room to get out of his clutches. I made a run for the door, but David was quick on my heels. Just as I reached for the door handle, he grabbed my arm and yanked me back, sending me sailing across the floor until I hit my head on the wall.

David stalked toward me, undoing his pants in the process. I scrambled, trying to get away, but he was on me in a nanosecond. So I did the only thing I could do: I fought. If he was going to take me, I wasn’t about to make it easy for him. He hovered over me, and I kicked my foot out, nailing him in the balls.

“You bitch!” He doubled over, but the kick hadn’t been enough to stop him. With renewed determination, he grabbed at my flailing arms and pinned me down to the floor. I was trapped under his weight, unable to move as he wedged his knees between my thighs and forced them apart while fumbling with my pants.

“Please! No!” I cried out. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

I squeezed my eyes shut to block out the horrific image of the disgusting man on top of me. He was a fucking animal; a panting, feral beast that was out of control with determined lust. The stench of his sweat burned my nostrils, and scalding tears ran freely down my face, their saltiness leaking past my trembling lips. At that moment I hated David Stone enough to want to kill him.

His hands went to the button on my jeans and I struggled to break free of his unyielding strength, determined not to let him touch me.

I was
not
a whore!

Just then, the front door flew open.

“Get the fuck off her!” It was Noah’s voice, and he sounded demonic, as if he were possessed by Satan himself.

My bare skin felt an unexpected chill before I realized David was no longer on top of me. Instead, he was flying through the air, his body crashing into the side table with a sickening yet pleasing crack as its wood splintered under his weight.

Noah gave me a fleeting glance before he went after David, and I saw the rage that flamed behind his darkened eyes like red serpents licking a velvet sky. His shoulders heaved with angry breaths, his body tensed and ready to strike. I had never seen him look so fearsome.

He stalked toward the place where David lay among the debris trying to regain his bearings, but before he could get to his feet, Noah was there. Noah grabbed David’s collar and drew his fist back, and then a loud crack echoed through the room when he landed the first blow to David’s face.

David retaliated by grabbing Noah and throwing him back far enough to allow himself time to get to his feet. Blood spilled from his lip, and his face was swollen and discolored to an angry red. Then a battle cry clawed its way out of David’s chest and he ran full force toward Noah, hooking him around the waist and driving him into the wall behind him.

“Noah!” I screamed as I got to my feet. I ran at them and jumped on David’s back, wrapping my arms around his neck to put him in a choke hold. Admittedly, I probably didn’t pose much of a threat. David proved that when he grabbed me and pulled me off his back to throw me back onto the floor.

It was the distraction Noah needed. He threw another punch, this one striking David’s rib cage. David doubled over and Noah took the opportunity to land an uppercut to his chin, sending him flying back again.

When he crashed onto the floor, David’s head lolled to the side and his body went limp. His face was bloodied and bruised, but that didn’t keep Noah from continuing his attack. He straddled David and kept pummeling him over and over again. When he was satisfied David had no more fight left in him, he shook out his swollen hand and stood, looking down at his foe with disgust.

He turned toward me, his face quickly morphing from anger to heart-clenching concern, and then he knelt beside me. “Are you okay, kitten?”

Everything, the whole weight of the situation, finally hit home and I sobbed uncontrollably. David knew everything, and that still wasn’t enough. No, he hated Noah so much, he was going to rape me just to destroy him. He was going to
rape
me.

I clutched Noah’s shirt in my fists and pulled him to me so I could bury my head in his chest. “He wanted me to … And I couldn’t do that to you, and he was going to …”

“Shh, shh, shh,” Noah said, cradling me in his arms. “I know, kitten. It’s okay. I’m here now, and I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Oddly, it wasn’t the fact that I had nearly been raped that had me so upset. Sure, that had a lot to do with it, but David hadn’t gotten the opportunity to follow through on his threat. Noah had protected me, just like he had promised he would. What was most upsetting was the fact that David knew everything and would stop at nothing to see Noah a broken man.

It wasn’t fear for my own well-being that had me so distraught; it was fear for Noah’s.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye just before heavy footsteps made a mad dash for the door. It was David, and he was running away. Noah turned me loose and made to go after him, but I pulled him back.

“No, you can’t!” I yelled, holding on to him with all my might.

“He’s getting away,” Noah said, trying to pull my hands loose.

Grabbing his face, I forced him to look at me. “He knows, Noah. He knows everything.”

And just like that, our perfect little bubble had popped.

Noah

Samuel had just dropped me off at the front of the house with my briefcase and a bouquet of flowers for my girl in hand. I stared in confusion when I noticed we had a visitor, and I knew for a fact it wasn’t Dez. David Stone’s Viper was parked in plain sight, and for just a moment, my mind flashed back to the day I had found him ass-fucking my would-be fiancée in my bathroom.

All I could think was,
Please, not her
.

My knuckles tightened around the bouquet in my hand until my senses brought me back to the fact that Lanie wasn’t that slut Julie and she would never do anything of the sort to me.

Still, the fear was there. Had I let my guard down only to be fucked over again?

Haunted by the desolation that replayed like a wavy vinyl disc under the needle of an old phonograph, I found it hard to force my feet forward. It was as if they had been fastened down with cement blocks to the rocky bottom of a murky river, cutting off the freedom required to swim to the surface for a
much-needed breath of air. My heart was giving me a pep talk like a motherfucker, but the agony over the possibility that Lanie could have fallen under David’s mysterious spell overshadowed the trust I had given to her so easily. What the fuck did women see in him?

I was bitch-slapped out of my morbid thoughts when a bellow came from somewhere inside the house.

“You bitch!” It was David’s voice, outraged and laced in venom.

The bouquet and my briefcase tumbled to the ground at the next sound, and the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.

Lanie’s scream was a desperate plea, and I took the front steps in giant leaps. Without a second thought, I threw myself against the door, my body numb to the pain I should’ve felt in my frantic attempt to get to her.

The violent scene was displayed before me; my girl had obviously been knocked to the ground by that piece of shit motherfucker. Her cheek had a huge bruise beginning to rise, and it was obvious that a heavy hand had landed there mere seconds before. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her eyes were squeezed shut.

He put his fucking hands on my girl!

My heart was seized by a myriad of emotions that seemed to take on a life of their own. As they took shape, a full spectrum of colors clouded my eyesight and rendered me helpless to the maniacal beast that lay dormant within. Horrific greens morphed into sodden blues of terror. Violent midnight shifted to an outraged orange consumed by disgust until my vision was inflamed with a demonic red that burned white-hot with
the intensity of rage. And then finally everything went black with the vengeance every microscopic cell in my body needed to claim.

“Get the fuck off her!” I barely registered my own movement before I had David’s clothes clenched in my fists and had thrown him across the room, away from my girl. Lanie looked up at me, and everything inside screamed for me to provide the comfort I knew she needed, but the driving force to make David pay for what he had done won the battle.

Fury consumed me until I was possessed with no control over my own body. Fists were thrown and connected, my back was slammed against a wall, and then Lanie leaped across the room and landed on David’s back. It was when he swatted her away like she was nothing but an insignificant gnat that I snapped like a rubber band that had been stretched beyond its limit. I’d had enough of wrestling around with him like two scrawny boys grappling for dominance on a school playground. I was out for blood. I meant to beat him to a pulp until the very life force that kept the pathetic excuse for a human being alive was sucked out of him.

And I almost did. I was on him, hovering over him just as menacingly as he’d been hovering over my girl, punch after punch connecting with that slimeball’s face. I could hear his bones cracking under my fists, a sound I found quite pleasing to the ear.

It was pure instinct that told me when I’d succeeded. David lay motionless on the floor, barely breathing. I shook out the sharp bolts of pain that shot from my hand and up my arm, not giving two shits about it, because it was worth it. Then, like a gravitational pull, I turned toward Lanie. Every trace of anger suddenly dissipated when I saw her face.

She needed me, and nothing would stop me from going to her.

“Are you okay, kitten?” I knelt beside her and looked her over for further injuries.

Her face had been blank and then suddenly, tears streamed unabated as the gravity of the situation came crashing down on her. She reached out and clutched my shirt in her hands, burying her face in my chest and sobbing uncontrollably.

“Shh, shh, shh.” I did my damnedest to soothe her as I cradled her in my arms. “I know, kitten. It’s okay. I’m here now, and I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

I meant it. With my dying breath, I fucking meant it.

We sat there like that for a little longer, Lanie crying and holding on to me like she was scared I might leave her at any moment, and me doing my best to console her. I had failed her. I’d promised to protect her and I’d failed. I should’ve been there, should’ve somehow sensed David’s intentions. I knew he hated me, and I knew he would try to seduce her, but to try to rape her? It became evident that I’d never really known the man I used to call my best friend, and that made me even more disgusted.

I heard shuffling from behind me just before David made for the door like a bat out of hell. I’d be damned if I was going to let the motherfucker get away with an ounce of life still in him. I pushed Lanie away and tried to get to my feet, but she wouldn’t let me go.

“No, you can’t!” she yelled, desperately holding on to my shirt and preventing me from chasing after him.

“He’s getting away.” I tried to pull her hands loose, but she kept clinging to me.