Entranced (The Alpha Stranger) Book 3 (6 page)

***

“Carrie. Carrie,” a familiar voice sounds in my head. I open my eyes. There in front of me is my lover. The lover who now has a name. I say the first word that is in my head. “Liam.” My lover looks at me, smiles and gives me the greatest hug any man has ever given me. I hug him back.

“You are okay. You are with my personal doctor. Everything is going to be fine. You passed out at the record company. When you awoke in the emergency room, you went crazy and started screaming at everyone so you were sedated. I was notified about the situation by Jonathan and I dropped everything to make sure that you are properly attended to.”

I look around and notice that I am in a palatial looking room with medical equipment. “Where am I?” I ask.

“You are in a hospital suite at Cedars-Sinai. I have arranged it so you can have complete privacy. So why did you pass out?” he asks me.

Tears begin to roll down my cheeks. “I thought you would leave me when the media plastered your name all over the place. I just couldn’t take the thought of losing you,” I mumble.

Liam takes a moment to collect his thoughts. He holds my hand and says, “The day I read all those crumbled little pieces of paper in my house was the day I fell in love with you. I’ve spent my entire life trying to avoid a close relationship because of my responsibilities. And when I read those words, I realized that pushing you away would be pushing away the only woman I have ever loved.”

We embrace. We kiss. I am not exactly sure if I had died. But I am damn sure that I am re-born!

I sit up. I feel good enough to jump out of bed. But I know my lover wants to tell me something. He sits down next to me and holds my hand. “Remember when I told you that there were rules to this relationship. Those no longer exist. There are no more rules. You deserve to know about me and my life. My name is Liam Ames the Fourth. I am the Chairman and Chief of Ames Holdings. For over four centuries, my family has controlled banking in Europe and for the last two centuries, we have controlled various banking interests in the United States. Many rumors have been written about my family. Some say we start wars. Other people claim we control entire nations and Kingdoms. None of that is true. However, having this kind of financial power brings much scrutiny to my family. That is why I prefer to have a private life. Ten years ago, my father took his life due to the stress of running the family business. And so, at the young age of 24, I was forced to take control of the entire bank. I was not prepared. The world was on the verge of a financial collapse and we were literally 72 hours away from ruin. I was able to save the business and engineer a comeback for the firm. It wasn’t easy but I was able to save my family’s legacy. To help deal with the stress of running my family business, I have had relationships with anonymous women. It helped me. I would blow off steam and not have to deal with a close relationship. Deep down inside, I knew this wasn’t the way I wanted to live. And so you came along. At first, I was attracted to your body. Then I became attracted to your art. Now, I am attracted to your soul. I no longer care if the media learns about our relationship. Let the press say what they want to say. I’m ready to deal with them.”

I am speechless. This is the first time in my life that I‘ve heard a man say that he loves me. Liam lies down next to me. We just enjoy this moment together in the hospital bed. My lover crosses his legs and says, “This is actually pretty comfortable.” That makes me laugh. It’s the first comfortable laugh that I have had in a long, long time. I take a deep exhale and for the first time in a while, I feel comfortable. I hear a knock at the door. A nurse comes in and checks my vital signs at a nearby computer. It takes me a moment to realize that I have a couple of tubes hooked up to my body.

“Heart rate is a little elevated but everything else is normal,” the nurse says. “I will call in the doctor and if he says it’s okay, then you should be on your way.” Trust me, that is the best news all day. This is my first time in a hospital and I don’t want to be back anytime soon. Even though I am inside a room that is four times the size of a normal hospital room, I don’t like be in this place.

***

“Why do I have to be in a wheelchair?” I ask as Liam pushes me out of the hospital.

“It’s hospital policy. They don’t allow any patients to walk out on their own,” my lover tells me. That seems so weird. I feel good enough to hop out of this chair and skip out of the front door. I’m not complaining. Liam escorts me out of Cedars-Sinai. Much to my shock, there is a valet with my lover’s black Ferrari. This couldn’t be a more L.A. moment. Liam tips the valet a hundred bucks and gets into his car. I hop into the passenger’s side car and close the door. Liam looks at me with a smile. “We can forgo the blindfolds from now on,” he says. Then he adds, “At least in the car. The bedroom is another story.”

“I think it’s about time you are introduced to the rest of my life,” Liam says as we get on the 10 Freeway

.

“Where are we headed?”

“To my office.”

Wow. We are going to downtown LA. It’s where I used to work. It’s where we first met. I am so familiar with this drive. It used to depress me. Now, it excites me. My lover is ready to introduce me to a world he has vigilantly guarded his entire life.

Much to my surprise, we don’t pull into one of the parking garage buildings. Instead Liam takes his Ferrari into the parking garage of the U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles.

“This is where you work?”

“Yes. It’s my building.”

“I thought U.S. Bank owns this building?”

“My firm owns a majority stake in U.S. Bank,” Liam explains. Wow.

The Ferrari races over to a large double-sized parking space right next to an elevator. Two men stand next to the parking space. They open the doors to the Ferrari.

“Welcome back, Mr. Ames,” the men say.

The elevator next to the parking space opens. This is unlike any elevator I have ever seen before. It is opulent. The wall paneling is made of oak. The floor appears to be some sort of marble tiling and the ceiling features an array of ambient lighting. Even the hand bars appear to be brass or gold plating. Something tells me this is Liam’s personal elevator. The doors close and the elevator begins to rocket upward. I nearly fall over.

“Oops. I forgot to tell you to hang on,” Liam tells me as he grabs my waist. I watch the LED read-out of the floor numbers. We are moving much faster than one floor per second. In under fifteen seconds, we are already at the fiftieth floor. The elevator slows to a stop at the seventy-third floor.

The doors open to a luxurious looking room. Several men and women welcome Liam as the door opens. Right now, I really feel like some sort of intruder. I hang back and give enough space for Liam to deal with the people before him.


“The Singapore office is ready and waiting for you,” one of the men says.

“Tell them to take a ten minute break,” Liam says.

One of the sharply dressed women hands my lover an iPad with some numbers on it. “Closing commodity positions,” she says to him.

Liam glances at it for about five seconds and hands the iPad back to the woman. “I want Asian offices to keep buying gold across the board.”

“Yes, sir,” the woman says as she marches off. I have never seen this side to my lover before. He is all business. I am turned on! Watching this man inside his element is really something to behold. Liam turns around and smiles at me. “I hope you don’t get bored,” he tells me. Then Liam looks at his staff and pulls me towards him.

“Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Carrie. You have already heard from the news that we are an item. This morning Carrie signed a record-breaking recording deal with Sony Music. Pretty soon she will require the service of our wealth management bank,” Liam says with a smile.

My lover’s employees welcome me with kind smiles. Liam begins to walk. The rest of the staff try to keep up.

Liam walks me up to these giant frosted glass double doors. My lover opens one of the doors and invites me to walk inside. I step inside this space and suddenly find myself inside Liam’s personal office. The first thing that hits me is the view. Wow. I can see the mountains and the oceans. You can tell, right away, that this is the highest point in Los Angeles. The view alone would distract me from getting any work done! The rest of the large space is rather sparsely designed with contemporary furniture and a large glass desk with just a few pieces of paper.

“Alright everyone. I’ll be on the Singapore call in ten minutes. I just want to spend some time with Carrie,” my lover says. The entire group exits the room without haste. Liam puts his arm around me and looks out of the window.

“The view would be much better without the smog,” Liam jokes.

“It is still the best view in the city.”

“Yeah, every time I need a little break, I like to look out at the ocean,” my lover says. He walks over to a white leather sofa and takes a seat. I sit down next to him. Liam turns on the massive wall mounted TV. The first image on screen is that infamous video screencap of Liam and myself making out in Santa Monica. The words under the photo read, “Reclusive Billionaire’s Life Revealed.” Liam turns up the volume on the TV.

“Santa Monica’s Main Street district was the scene of chaos last night when a near riot broke out at the Alley Bar at around 11 PM. The disturbance broke out when the Fire Chief attempted to close the over-capacity bar during a performance by piano songstress Carrie Shaw. Fifteen people were arrested. However, the most shocking part of this story features this captured footage of Carrie Shaw in the embrace of this man you see on screen. That is reclusive billionaire Liam Ames the Fourth, the CEO of the powerful Ames Banking Family. Apparently, the camera shy Mr. Ames is dating Carrie Shaw who just signed a record breaking recording contract with Sony Records. A deal worth about 2.5 million dollars, according to sources. Well that amount is perhaps an hour’s pay for Mr. Ames whose wealth is rumored to be in the forty billion dollar range.”

I am cringing in my seat. Liam seems to be taking all of this sudden exposure better than myself. He looks over at me and runs his hands through my hair. “Oh well, I guess four hundred years of family privacy can’t last forever.”

“I hope this doesn’t adversely affect your life.”

“My entire life, I have avoided the media at great expense to my everyday life. I had to run around and have these anonymous affairs. I’ve had to pay off reporters and photographers to keep my life a secret. Well, I’m not going to do that anymore. In fact, I would love nothing more than to make everyone know that you and I are an item,” Liam says to me with a fierce conviction.

Liam stands up and walks to the giant floor-to-ceiling windows in his office. He is in deep thought. My lover looks down and closes his eyes. A long minute of silence passes between both of us. I finally break the tension with the simple question, “What are you thinking about, honey?”

“Whenever someone in our family was ready to introduce a special person in our lives, it is always a grand occasion. And I want my family and friends to be properly introduced to you. The longer we have the media tell the story, the more distorted our relationship will appear.”

Oh my goodness. He wants to introduce me to his family and friends. My head is spinning.

Liam walks over to his phone and presses a button. “Yes, Mr. Ames?”

“All hands meeting in the atrium in fifteen minutes.”

“Yes sir.”

My lover looks at me with a smile on his face. “I know I’m about to go in over my head,” Liam says as he grabs a pen and a paper.


“What do you have planned?”

“I want to introduce us as a couple. At first I thought about a formal cocktail party. You know, nice wine and cheese and a seven course meal. But those parties are always uncomfortable. I just think we need to have a nice big event that will make everyone feel good,” Liam explains as he leaves his office. I hurry to follow him. Just outside, his assistant informs him that all departments are currently headed to the atrium on the seventieth floor. I follow my lover to his private elevator. We head down to the seventy-first floor. The doors open. Liam allows me to exit first. We walk down a hallway and head to this grand balcony area overlooking a huge atrium on the seventieth floor. The atrium is dominated by a two story waterfall. About a thousand employees are filing into the grand area. This is all so bizarre. I just stand next to my lover and pretend to know what is going on.