All That He Loves (Volume 2 The Billionaires Seduction) (2 page)

“Corruption of minors. Exposing yourselves to children.”

“There were no children there,” Connor hissed, letting his anger show through for the first time.

“I’m sure we can bribe some parent, somewhere, to say their child saw you.”

“You’re
telling
us all this?!” I asked, astounded. “You’re
admitting
that you’re going to pay people to lie?!”

“You have three witnesses on your side. I have eight.”

I looked at the bodyguards. None of them looked back at me.

“They’re paid to say what we want them to say,” Miranda said, then added with the faintest hint of a smile, “Plus I have the pictures. And they speak volumes.”

If I
did
throw up, I decided, I was going to projectile vomit in her smug little face,
Exorcist
-style.

“This is never going to hold up in court,” I snapped – though I probably sounded about 1000% more confident than I felt.

“That’s not the problem, Lily,” Connor said, his composure regained. “None of this is about the criminal charges or the lawsuits. They just want to destroy my reputation and make me poisonous to anybody trying to do the solar deal. Twenty million dollars – even a hundred million – is peanuts compared to the billions they stand to lose.”

“Plus, we get the ‘side benefit’ of seeing you destroyed,” Lenora Templeton said mockingly.

Connor looked over at his mother. “Thanks, Mom.”

“For what, dear?”

“I was feeling a
little
bit bad about my plans before you showed up. Now you’ve made it
so
much easier when I grind all of you into dust.”

“And just a few seconds ago, I thought you were looking at things logically,” Miranda clucked. “You really haven’t learned anything since last time, have you?”

Connor stared her down. “For the third time, I repeat – this is all you have?”

My insides twisted when he said it.

Miranda laughed – a sexy, throaty growl. “It’s more than enough. If you don’t care about the damage to
your
image and plans, then at least consider the impact it will have on Ms. Ross. I was under the impression that you cared for her more than some common streetwalker.”

“Even if that’s all she is,” Mrs. Templeton trilled.

GOD
I wanted to kill both of them.

Slowly.

Painfully.

“And if I give up all my Nevada plans, then, what – you just sweep this all under the rug?” Connor smirked.

“It will never see the light of day.”

“You have our word on that,” Mr. Templeton added.

Connor shot him a look. “Yeah, I know from experience how much
that’s
worth.”

Mr. Templeton flushed red, but didn’t say anything else.

“You’ll just have to trust us,” Miranda said.

“Until the next time I do something contrary to your plans and you need to blackmail me again, right?”

She smiled. “Perhaps you just shouldn’t do anything contrary to our plans.”

“I love how you’ve so completely wormed your way into the family, Miranda,” Connor said, then mimicked her contemptuously: “‘
Our
plans.’

Vincent pointed an accusing finger. “That’s because she’s more a part of our family than you’ve been for years.”

“But it doesn’t have to be that way, Connor,” Mrs. Templeton said. She
almost
pulled off a convincing desire to see her wayward son return to the fold. “You could come back. We could put all of this ugliness behind us, if you just stop insisting upon treating us as enemies.”

“Yeah, because my best friends threaten to blackmail me all the time,” Connor sneered.

After he said that, Lenora dropped all pretenses.

“You said something to your father earlier: when you know your opponent is dirty, then you fight dirtier. Well, darling, perhaps you’re not suited to the fight at all, seeing how completely you’ve underestimated your opponents… twice.”

“You’re right,” Connor agreed. “I just thought you were rolling around in the sewers. I didn’t realize you were the sewage itself.”

Miranda sighed, as though she had better things to do and was weary of it all.

“This bickering isn’t serving any purpose. Give us your final answer by 9PM.” She turned and walked away, adding over her shoulder, “As I said, I know you have to save face by pretending to think it over.”

“And if I say ‘no,’ I get to wake up to those pictures on all the morning shows, huh.”

Miranda got to Vincent’s side and turned around. “You won’t even have to wait that long. We’ve promised one of the lead editors at TMZ something juicy and scandalous. He’s chomping at the bit to put it all on the website tonight, even if he doesn’t know what it is. It might even make the 11 o’clock news in Los Angeles.”

“I don’t think the TMZ angle will get much play,” Connor snarked. “My last name isn’t Kardashian.”

“But it
is
Templeton,” Miranda reminded him. “That alone would be enough.”

“Then you’ll take a ton of collateral damage,” Connor said to his parents.

“Not if we denounce you as a depraved, sex-crazed degenerate,” Mrs. Templeton said.

“And even if we
do
take collateral damage… it would be worth it,” Mr. Templeton smiled coldly.

He made a gesture, and a bodyguard opened the front door. The three other goons went out to secure the hallway, and then the Templetons filed out. Vincent wouldn’t look at us. Mr. Templeton just stared coldly at his son, and his wife sneered at me like I was dirt.

Miranda was the last one to leave. “Nine o’clock, Connor. No later.”

She walked out, and the bodyguard followed behind her, shutting the door.

It’s pretty much impossible to describe the flood of emotions that were coursing through me, but here’s the big ones:

Terror.

Rage.

Shame.

Hatred.

Hurt.

And nausea, which isn’t really an emotion, but tell that to somebody just before they puke on your shoes.

I looked at Connor. He ignored me. He just went over to the couch, picked up the iPad, and stared down at the screen emotionlessly.

I turned hesitantly towards Johnny. I had a hard time meeting his gaze, wondering if he’d seen the photos and what he thought about them – but when our eyes finally locked, I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one who was green around the gills.

He was watching me, his expression full of sympathy and pain. Then his eyes trailed over to Connor, and the worry in Johnny’s face doubled.

I looked back at Connor again.

He was flipping through the pictures, a blank look on his face.

“…Connor?” I whispered.

He didn’t answer, just kept swiping his fingers across the screen.

“Connor, talk to me,” I whispered.

Suddenly, it was like a dam broke, and all the fury and anger and hatred spilled out at once.

“GOD DAMN IT!” he screamed as he threw the iPad.

I shrieked and covered my head, even though the tablet wasn’t aimed anywhere near me.

The iPad cracked against the wall, sending pieces of plastic flying from the broken screen before it clattered to the floor.

Johnny was in front of me in a split second, putting himself between me and Connor.

Although it was terrifying, he needn’t have bothered. Connor was off in his own private hell as he stomped away from us.

“GOD
DAMN
THEM – GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING – ” he screamed, his hands tearing at his hair –

And then he stopped, his shoulders heaving, his back turned to us.

After a few seconds he held up one hand halfway, as though hailing us from a distant mountain.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a low, composed voice. He still faced away from us. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

I pushed past Johnny. He tried to hold me back, though only half-heartedly. I batted him away.

But the closer I got to Connor, the more unsure I became.

“Connor,” I whispered.

He still wouldn’t turn around or look at me.

Instead, he bowed his head and put his face in his hands.

“So stupid… how could I be so fucking
stupid…
” he whispered.

I put my hand on his arm… lightly. Hesitantly.

To tell the truth, I was afraid.

But I did it anyway.

He pulled away his hands from his face and looked down at my fingers. Then he followed them up my arm to my face, until he was looking me in the eye.

He looked weary… tired… defeated.

Then… like a single ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds… the corner of his mouth turned up the slightest bit.

“So. How’d you like my family?” he deadpanned.

I laughed – a couple of short bursts, mostly out of shock. I couldn’t help myself.

“They were… kind of assholes,” I said.

At that, he roared with laughter. Then he took my hand and gathered me to him, wrapping me in his arms.

His chin rested on the top of my head, and he sighed deeply. I could feel his chest move beside my ear.

“Well… that’s that,” he murmured.

I frowned and pulled away. “What do you mean, ‘that’s that’?”

“They won.”

I stared at him. “…what?”

He looked at me with a combination frown and smile. “I can’t let them do that to you.”

My heart felt like it would burst. “You would… you would give up… all your…”

He rubbed one hand over his face. “What other alternative do I have? Watch you get dragged through the mud?” He shook his head and looked off in the distance. “If I hadn’t been so fucking stupid…”

“It’s my fault,” I whispered.

He laughed once, short and bitter. “No, it was all me, and we both know it. I let my dick do my thinking for me, and this is what – ”

“No,” I choked out. “I mean… if you give in to them… then it’s my fault.”

This time he just frowned. There was no smile. “No, Lily. No. You can’t think that.”

But I wasn’t listening to what he was saying
now
.

I was hearing what he’d said to me last night.

Imagine a world where electricity costs less than a tenth of what it does now – not to mention it’s clean.

I want to be the guy who changes the world for the better. And if I can’t be him, then I want to help the guy who’s going to change the world for the better… the dreamers, the scientists – the Nikola Teslas of the world.

Something that won’t just benefit the rich, but poor people on every continent. Something that the history books will say changed the course of human civilization. That’s what I want to be part of. Something amazing. Something that changes the world.

There was no way I was going to stand in the way of that.

There was no way I
could.

Not and still live with myself.

I was terrified by what I was about to say, but there was no way I could keep quiet.

I stood up straight as I could and tried to sound as brave as possible. “I don’t care what happens to me. If you really believe in everything you told me last night… then fuck them. You have to do whatever it takes.”

He stared at me. Then he shook his head ‘no.’ “Lily… you don’t understand – ”

“I understand they’re pointing a gun at your head, and I’m the gun. And I’m not going to let them use me like that.”

“No, you
really
don’t understand. The gun isn’t at my head –
it’s at yours.
Those pictures? Your
mother’s
going to see those. Your
father.
They’re going to see them on the news, in the papers, on the internet. They’re not going to be able to escape them. Are your grandparents alive? They’re going to see them, too. You have a brother, right? Is he married? Got kids? Because any nieces and nephews you have, they’re going to see them. If not on their own, then from every kid at school with a cell phone. Everybody you ever knew in high school and college – everybody you ever worked with – they’re going to see those pictures. Not only that, they’re going to be
assaulted
with those pictures, for days, maybe
weeks
on end. And not just the pictures, but all the lies and filth Miranda and my parents can pay people to spread in 24 hours. That you’re a prostitute. That you’re a whore.”

I flinched as he said it. ‘Whore’ isn’t the prettiest of words under any circumstances. It’s especially ugly when you know it’s going to be used to attack and degrade you.

“And it’s not just going to be tomorrow morning – this is going to live with you for the rest of your life. This is going on the internet, and it’s never going away. When somebody Googles your name five years from now, ten years from now,
fifty
years from now, they’re going to see you in those photographs. Hell, they won’t even have to Google
you
– it’ll probably be the second or third thing that pops up if they Google
me.
Your children are going to hear about this from the time they first set foot in school. Other kids – even adults – are going to rub those pictures in your children’s noses. Even if you discover the fucking cure for cancer, or win the Nobel prize for world peace, this is going to be mentioned in your obituary. Miranda and my parents are going to make sure of it. Is that something you want to live with?”

I hadn’t even thought about any of that. The more he said, the more it was like I was standing on a platform that was rising higher and higher in the air – and I was becoming dizzier and more nauseated with every word.

But I’d already started down the path of self-sacrifice, dammit. I wasn’t going to let a few internet searches keep me from being noble.

Okay, a few
billion
internet searches.

But still.

“I can live with it if you can,” I protested.

Connor shook his head. “I’ve spent my entire life protecting my anonymity. I’ve spent millions keeping out of the limelight – and trust me, this is freaking
me
the fuck out. But in reality, it wouldn’t change much. It would derail my plans for awhile, yeah, but beyond that, I don’t give a damn what anybody else thinks about me. But you… we’re talking about your entire life here.”