Pleasing Him: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (15 page)

“Yup. She pretty much raised me. The least I can do is pop in and see her every day.”

Taylor couldn’t hide the shock that filled her eyes. “
You
visit your grandmother every day?”

He shook his head. “Almost every day. And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I guess I just never thought…”

He cut her off mid-sentence, “You guess you thought I’m not capable of caring for anybody but myself?”

She flashed a soft smile. “I give up trying to figure you out. That much I know.”

“Sounds like a good place to start. Come on, let’s get you dressed.”

* * *

Colton steered his black Maserati off the bustling Beacon Avenue and pulled into a freshly paved parking lot. The notorious author drove his sports car into a parking spot that abutted a perfect row of red rose bushes. Just in front of those bushes stood a large building with grey siding. Taylor’s eyes glanced over the sign that read
Boston Nursing Associates.

Colton placed his warm hand on her knee. She couldn’t deny how good it felt to have his fingers caress the designer denim that he had magically delivered to his doorstep in order to replace the baggy pair of sweats she had originally arrived at his house in.

“Thanks for coming. Grams doesn’t talk, and she doesn’t have a clue who I am anymore ever since her Alzheimer’s took a hold of her. But I know it means a lot every time I visit her. Plus I need to check up on her and make sure that people are doing their job for her.”

Taylor’s heart melted.
Grams?
He was the only man in the world that could seem even sexier when he referred to his grandmother as Grams.

“Of course. I’m glad you invited me to come with you,” she said.

Major understatement
.

She looked around the nursing home grounds as they walked up towards the glass entrance doors that stood protected by two security guards who were both massive enough to pass as NFL linemen.

The facility property was elaborate to say the least. There were bright green lawns freshly misted from the automated sprinklers, perfectly manicured flowerbeds, and Dogwood trees that shed vibrant pink petals around their bases. She could get lost in the maze of tall pines that bordered the property’s perimeter. Taylor wasn’t exactly a finance whiz but she was more than sure that this particular nursing home had to cost more in a month than the total cost of a typical four-bedroom house in the Boston area.

She followed Colton through the main foyer, up the elevator to the third floor, and into the his grandmother’s room.

Check that-
room
was an understatement. It was more like an executive suite. His grandmother’s living quarters were fit for a Saudi Arabian princess… Marble flooring, tall pillars that divided each section of the room, expensive looking photography that brought the walls to life, and a stunning three panel rustic copper waterfall in the center of the room that sounded more soothing than an actual waterfall itself.

“You take good care of her,” she said.

“I don’t do enough,” he replied.

Colton’s grandmother sat in the corner of the suite, just in front of a large floor to ceiling window that overlooked the dusky Boston skyline. All Taylor could see was the back of the older woman’s hair- silver and not a single strand out of place as she rested in her wheelchair.

A tall, dark-skinned woman reached for a food tray topped only with a half-empty bowl of applesauce and an empty disposable medicine cup.

“Thank you, ma’am,” the billionaire said to the nurse.

The nurse voiced a thick, ethnic accent. “Of course sir, it is always my pleasure. She is a wonderful lady.”

When the nurse left, Colton knelt down in front of his grandmother. Taylor couldn’t stop staring at him; somehow, he found a way to look even more beautiful to her than he’d ever looked before. She positioned herself so that she could see his grandmother’s face- chalk full of wrinkles, a practically vacant gaze, and yet somehow Taylor saw a slight reflection of Colton himself in this elderly woman.

“Hey Grams, it’s me, Colton.”

His grandmother didn’t respond back to him, but Taylor was sure the woman’s lips flashed a tiny smile as she continued to look out through the giant glass window.

“Grams, I want you to meet my new friend, Taylor Ward.”

His grandmother remained completely silent, but Taylor’s cheeks flushed the same color of the rose bushes out front. “Friend?” she asked him.

“You okay with that?” he said back to her.

Taylor reached out and touched the soft, wavy flesh of his grandmother’s hand. The older woman’s lips formed a wide smile.

Taylor looked up at Colton who flashed a smile himself. “She approves,” he said.

“Phew. I passed the test.”

“Don’t get cocky. Grams is one of the most modest people you’ll ever meet.”

Taylor laughed. “I guess sometimes the apple
does
fall far from the tree,” she teased.

He shook his head, feigning annoyance. “She did the best she could with me. But she wasn’t a miracle worker.”

Taylor’s smile disappeared from her face. Something about the way he was around his grandmother was tugging at her heartstrings in a way that made her uncomfortable. She couldn’t stand one simple fact…

She was starting to fall for this man.

He’s totally unattainable. Don’t be an idiot, Taylor
.

The billionaire reached for his phone that vibrated in his jeans pocket. “Hold on Grams, my agent seems to think I care about decreasing the number of hate tweets I receive.”

Taylor watched his every beautiful move as he answered the call. She loved the way the color in his eyes swirled around his pupils, and the way his cut shoulders flexed naturally beneath his shirt, and the way his full lips curled upwards at both corners despite the fact that he was clearly agitated underneath his facial veneer.

“This isn’t a good time,” he said into his phone. A muted voice came through the other end of his call. His eyes narrowed slightly; his attention had been caught. “Let me call you in thirty seconds.” Then he hung up.

“Everything okay?” Taylor asked.

His face looked suddenly strained. “Just business. I need to make a call. Do you mind staying with Grams for a minute?”

Taylor was touched that she was along for this ride, even if she knew it was about to end. “Of course not.”

As Colton stepped out, she sat beside his grandmother, sharing the view with her through the window as the two sat in silence together. Taylor wondered a lot of things.

Why did he bring me here? Is he just feeling sorry for me? Or was it something worse…

Does he have feelings for me?

She shook the ridiculous thought out of her head. But the moment she did, it was as if the universe had spoken…

“You’re the first one he’s ever loved,” his grandmother said.

Taylor was rattled at first. “Excuse me?” she asked, looking towards the woman’s wheelchair.

No.

Way
.

She waited for the older woman to repeat herself, but nothing came out of her lips. Had Taylor started hearing things that weren’t really there? Seriously, maybe all the stress and worry and fear were turning her brain into a useless pile of mush.

No. She said what she said
.

But surely even if she did say what she said, it wasn’t like Colton’s grandmother’s words actually meant something.

Or did they?

Taylor was ripped from her trance as the nurse returned, this time holding only a clear plastic cup and several multi-colored pills in her hand. “It’s that time of day, Ms. Marcus. Time for your beauty vitamins,” the nurse said, winking at Taylor as she began to reposition the elderly woman in her wheelchair.

Taylor needed some fresh air; it was the least she could give herself after what she had just heard pour from the lips of his grandmother.

She was accustomed to going for walks as a way to get clear on things.

Problem was, she had no idea what she was about to walk into as the afternoon sky grew dark.

She walked through the glass doors and past the two security guards until she reached the parking lot to the nursing home. It was almost eerily quiet, aside from the traffic sounds off in the distance outside of the property’s tree-lined grounds. She glanced at Colton’s car, but he was nowhere to be found, then her eyes followed a grey stone walkway that led to a maze of tall evergreen cypress trees.

Perfect
. She could get lost in those for a minute or two, and then meet Colton back in his grandmother’s room.

She walked along the rows of trees. It was exactly the kind of privacy she craved from the rest of the world.

Colton’s grandmother’s words bounced around from every inch of her brain.
You’re the first one he’s ever loved
.

As she tried to make sense of it all, she failed to notice that she wasn’t alone anymore.

Until it was too late.

Her eyes caught the tops of two large, worn-out work boots peering from the bottom of one of the bushes.
Definitely not Colton’s
, she thought.
Must be one of the groundskeepers.

She tried to move to another section of the evergreens, just to be safe, but accidentally found herself moving further away from the nursing home itself as she inadvertently entrenched herself even deeper inside the maze of trees.

Then she noticed something bad. Something really,
really
bad. For every step she moved, the greasy pair of boots moved with her.

Fear set in as she realized she was being followed. Her heart started to pound hard in her chest. She had to do something, even if it was just the groundskeeper. She’d rather look silly and be wrong than do nothing at all.

So she ran. Fast.

Her body flooded with so much panic that she couldn’t hear whether or not the heavy work boots, and whomever they belonged to, followed after her. She was totally discombobulated as she rounded one corner after another of what seemed to be endless rows of trees.

The next corner that she turned proved to be her last. She screamed as she ran right into the arms of a strange man. As she yelled at the top of her lungs she prayed that whoever this man was, he was going to immediately identify himself as one of the groundskeepers

No such luck.

Because the moment she let out the highest pitched scream she could muster, a large, leathery glove came down hard on her lips, muting her altogether.

A gruff, disgustingly familiar voice crept into her ears. “You little bitch! I knew I’d catch up with you eventually.”

She tried to move her head, but the man’s arms were at least three times her size as they easily held her in place from behind. His gloved hand continued to keep her delicate mouth locked shut, completely muting out any of her attempts to cry for help.

“Shut up, whore, or I’ll cut her fucking throat!” he said. He pulled out a long, razor-sharp blade and pressed the tip slightly into her cheek. “I swear to god if you make another sound I’ll cut your eye out.”

Taylor stood frozen. She was completely helpless, and her shame-filled mind couldn’t help but wonder if this was exactly what she deserved.

“Turn around and look at me,” the voice grumbled. Then he forced her to turn, all the while locking her mouth shut with his hand. He towered over her wearing tan, stretchy nylon over his face and head.

She trembled as she spoke. “What… What do you want? Do you want money?”

The masked man smacked the side of her face with the back of his hand, the same hand that gripped a blade that was long enough to end her life in a mere instant. Taylor moaned from the pain, but his other hand covered most of the sound that tried to pour from her mouth. “I’m telling you to shut the fuck up and look at me.” Then he pressed the tip of the blade into the center of her throat. “You make even the slightest chirp and it’s goodbye Taylor Ward.”

He knows who I am
.

She would have swallowed her own throat but the knife that indented her neck kept her from flinching.

She hoped and prayed that somehow Colton would come looking for her, not that he had a clue she was even out here right now.

Then she stood frozen in front of this man as he slowly began to peel the nylon mask off his face.

Taylor’s eyes bugged out of their sockets as she made out the man’s hauntingly familiar face. Those vacant, blood shot eyes and that pale, ghostly complexion speckled with red, hellish freckles.

Brody Sharp.

She’d wondered what Colton’s “people” had done with him after she and the author left him passed out on her apartment floor. She’d even gone so far as to think, maybe even hope, that someone chained a concrete block to his ankle and dumped his body over the Zakim Bridge.

But here he was- alive and overflowing with vengeance.

Every time she uttered a single word she felt the blade’s tip dig even deeper into the flesh of her throat. “What do you want from me?” she asked.

He smiled, revealing an incomplete set of mustard yellow teeth. “Well, it’s too late to collect your rent check. That job’s gone, thanks to you and Captain America.” Then he dragged the blade down her neck until it reached the top of her breast. “Now I want something else,” he growled as he moved his other hand off her mouth and squeezed her breast.

She jerked her body and inhaled sharply, causing him to flinch. “Shut up!” he snapped. “Remember, little girl, you make a sound and I fucking kill you.”

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her right now. It didn’t seem fair, and yet part of her, the same part that of her that repeatedly set the bar all too low for herself, thought this was just karma in the making. “You’re a sick pig,” she said with a breathy tone.

A smile erupted across his entire face as if he had just received a presidential award. “Maybe so, sweetheart. So why don’t you show me that tight little pussy of yours and make me squeal like one?” he said.

She turned away and closed her eyes. “I’d rather die you psycho!”

“You little whore! Do what I say or you’ll get what you deserve and then some.”