Pleasing Him: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (7 page)

He cupped the sides of her face with his hands. She knew she shouldn’t let him do this to her. And if he thought he could just touch her whenever he wanted to now that she cried in his arms,
he was dead wrong
.

Then he tilted her chin up so that their eyes locked in. “What you need to do is come with me,
right now
. I can get you more stuff, but I can’t promise that I’m not going to kill this man if he wakes up before we go. And that won’t be good for either one of us.”

None of her choices seemed appealing. Staying could be a disaster. And leaving, with Colton, could be worse. She knew the author wouldn’t hurt her, not physically, but she wasn’t sure about anything else.

“What about this?” she said, gesturing towards Brody’s body.

“That piece of shit? Let it lie there. My people will take care of it for me.”

“Your people?”

“Damn you ask a lot of questions.” Then he placed his hand on the small of her back; even through the thick sweatshirt she had on, she could feel heat radiate from his hand as he touched her. He guided her body towards her apartment door.

“Why should I trust you? You took away my job. You humiliated me. You…”

He flashed a devilish grin, showcasing the most perfect set of teeth she’d ever laid eyes on. “I’m Colton Marcus, that’s why.”

She raised both of her brows, feigning disgust. “And?”

He pushed his thumb into the key remote. Taylor’s eyes followed the sounds of his car doors unlatching. She didn’t know much about cars, or even care that much for that matter. But she knew the shiny black vehicle she was about to set foot in was probably worth more than all of the cars combined that she’ll have owned for the duration of her life. “Just get in,” he ordered impatiently.

Colton opened the door for Taylor, and she did exactly what he demanded of her.

Mistake number two
, she thought as she folded her heavily clothed body into the plush, tan leather seat of his luxury car.

And as he drove her southbound, away from the sticks and towards Boston’s urban skyline, she had more questions than her mind could tolerate at once.

What were his people going to do with Brody Sharp? Were they going to kill him? Give him a personal escort to the nearest police station?

Why did Colton show up at my apartment in the first place?

Did he read my partial manuscript that I should’ve never sent him in the first place? Was he coming back to tell me to give up my dream of becoming a published author, just like my dad had told me countless times before?

Was he going to kiss me back in my apartment? Why didn’t he?

Why did I even want him to kiss me after everything he’d already put me through?

And most importantly, where was he taking me now and what did he plan to do with me?

Finally she snapped herself out of her daydream. “What do you want from me?” she asked.

He dismissed her question altogether as he flicked a button on his steering wheel, sending Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” to come oozing through his car’s crisp audio system.

How ironic
, she thought.

“Seriously, I’d love a simple answer to my question,” she said.

His eyes narrowed as he bobbed his head up and down to the rhythm of the music, again, completely ignoring her.

“Well?” she tried one last time.

Again, silence from the billionaire.

She rolled her eyes and purposefully slammed the back of her head into his soft, leather seat. “It’s pretty funny, a big, bad man like you rocking out to a Taylor Swift song.”

She peered out of the corner of her eye and noticed that he had stopped moving to the beat of the music.
Ahhh, finally she struck a nerve in the great Colton Marcus! And over a pop song for that matter.

Colton turned down the music suddenly. “Do you have a problem with Taylor Swift?”

“Me? Hell no, how could I? I’m just surprised a guy like you isn’t into something with a little more testosterone, that’s all.”

She bit off more than she could chew. She should’ve known better than to try to go head to head with a man of his wealth and cultural stature. “I worked very closely with her on her last tour. And I agreed to publish the liner notes to one of her upcoming documentary tour DVD’s.”

She felt like a total idiot. Of course he knew the mega pop star. He was a mega pop star himself in the world of paperbacks and Kindles and Hollywood screenplays.

“Oh,” she said, slinking down in her seat.

It was getting late and Taylor wondered where she’d be sleeping as Colton’s car whizzed through the Callahan Tunnel. His car rolled off of Route 9 and into a quiet Boston neighborhood; the streets he drove her through suddenly looked different than the rest of the world, with massive gates guarding grey brick driveways, slate-shingle roofs covering every mansion she passed, and even the gold-plated streetlamps stood out among the rest of the planet’s.

Colton’s car slowed near the front of a long, winding road accented by two concrete statues of majestic-looking lions on each side. A black, iron gate opened the instant his car drew near, and then it closed behind him once he entered. He drove her up what she thought must be the nation’s longest driveway, adorned by huge, flowering trees on each side of the road.

They came to his house, if she could even call it a house, and Taylor’s jaw dropped open.
Castle
would be a more appropriate term for the structure.

“You live here alone?” she asked.

He steered the car down a sloping section of the driveway and then into an underground garage. “I have lots of guests.”

“How often do you stay here, in Boston I mean?”

He pulled his car into the coded garage doors and then came to a smooth stop. “Not very.”

“Oh.” She felt a pit in her stomach.

Don’t be ridiculous
, she thought, knowing full well she’d felt a pang of disappointment at the thought of him leaving her. Taylor had a previous habit of getting overly attached in relationships, and she vowed to never let herself get too close again.

Not that he was even offering her the opportunity.

“Shoes off,” he ordered.

She did as he told her and then followed closely behind him as they walked through a door that led to a hallway in the billionaire’s estate.

The interior looked like something out of a dream, and she hadn’t even made it past the hallway yet. The walls and trim were all white, and the plush brown and tan runner beneath her feet was the softest thing her toes had ever felt.

“First things first. You need a shower.”

“I do?” she asked.

He looked at her and grinned. “I mean so that you can relax, not because you smell or anything.”

“Did you just compliment me?”

He looked her up and down. “The sweats gotta go too.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was going to be visited by a rapist and a man who robbed me of my job all in one fell swoop.”

“You didn’t lose your job, you were suspended.”

“Same thing.”

“That’s up to you,” he said as he opened the door to one of the seemingly endless rooms off the hallway.

“Are you trying to say that I have to let you have sex with me again if I want to get my job back?”

He stopped dead in his tracks. Then he turned to face her as he flashed his beautifully intoxicating smile at her. “Don’t worry, that was a once in a lifetime opportunity for you.”

Ouch.

“When do I get to know what you want from me?”

“When I’m ready,” he said, reaching into a linen closet and handing her the softest white towel her hands had ever felt before. “I thought I was ready, but then…” his voice trailed off, leaving her to guess the inner workings of the billionaire’s mind.

“
You
, undecided?”

He pressed his lips together in straight line. “Get cleaned up, then we’ll talk.”

He was so ridiculously demanding, and normally she detested that sort of behavior from men. But there was flicker behind his eyes that told another story.

And it was most definitely a story that intrigued her beyond what she felt comfortable with deep down inside. Because she shouldn’t even be with him right now, even if he did save her from that creep back at her apartment.

Then he turned and started to walk out of the room. She took advantage of the fact that his back was now turned to her as she ogled over the way his dark designer jeans hugged the tight muscles in his butt and hammy’s.

Colton left the room completely, and Taylor glanced around at her surroundings. The style and decor made her shoulders drop. What appeared to be a guest bed with elegant white bedding sat in the center of the room. The ceiling was also white, with gold trim around its perimeters. One of the walls was buried behind a floor-to-ceiling electronic shade.

Taylor crossed the plush carpeting to the bathroom, and almost gasped. Three of the four walls were pure glass, and the room itself overlooked the back of Colton’s estate. She looked out through the glass walls as she took in panoramic views of a large, sweeping lawn that bled downhill towards an ocean bay.

She stepped out of her clothes and tossed them on the floor, just in front of the guest bed.

Then she ushered herself into the shower itself. The warm water filtered through the shiny chrome showerhead and onto her tired body. She took full advantage of the expensive honey and lavender shampoos and soaps and conditioners, lathering up every square inch of her flesh.

And as relaxed as she felt in this moment, she knew it couldn’t last. She didn’t have anywhere to go except back to her apartment. Problem was, she was dependent upon Colton to get her back there, and to give her the go ahead as far as Brody Sharp went. She could call the police; maybe they’d give her a ride home and take care of the Brody situation, but she was hesitant, especially after the experience she’d had with the police when she was a teenager.

Regardless, she knew she couldn’t stay long. It wasn’t safe to be around him, not after what she’d already let him do to her, and the way he treated her afterwards.

She stepped out of the shower and onto the heated floor tiles. She wrapped the soft, white towel around her naked hips and stepped back into the bedroom area.

My clothes
, she noticed.
They’re not where I left them
. Taylor glanced up and noticed a silky, pink, camouflage-patterned top and bottom set with lace trim.

She shook her head, annoyed at the billionaire for taking her clothes like that.

He doesn’t own me. And he doesn’t own my clothes.

But she only had two options, waltz around in only her towel until she found him and gave him a piece of her mind…

Or she could surrender and put on the flimsy sleepwear, knowing it would at least securely cover most of her naked body.

Ugh.

Taylor walked slowly down the writer’s hallway in her borrowed wardrobe.
I might as well be naked
, she thought. She could feel puffs of air brush up against the lower cheeks of her ass, the same ass that practically hung out of the outfit she was wearing.

And then her heard his voice.
Something wasn’t right in his world
, that much was clear to her the instant she heard his vocal inflection.

“They’re gonna have to face
me
at some point! And if…” he paused to whoever he was talking to on the phone. “
If
they’re lucky enough to get a shot in before I see ‘em coming, then so be it.”

She took a few more steps until she reached the top of his stairs. She knew she shouldn’t be listening in on Colton’s conversation like this, but she couldn’t help herself.

Taylor was certain he was really, really pissed off. She wondered if he was always operating at this speed, or not… And she was even more intrigued than ever; besides the fact that he was the sexiest man she’d ever been this close to, she was certain that there was a juicy story buried beneath the his public persona.

The author raised his voice even louder as he talked to whomever it was he was talking to on his phone. “But if I see them before they see me, so help me motherfucking god! I will tear there fucking limbs apart!”

Jesus.

She’d never heard him this upset before.
Something was really, really wrong
, she thought.

“You calm down, cause I ain’t gonna calm down until I’m good and fucking ready. I’ll calm down when I no longer have someone else threatening me, trying to dictate how I’m supposed to live my own dictate how I’m supposed to live my life, or what I’m supposed to write about in my next book. After that, then I’ll calm down. Goodbye, Jordan.”

Then there was silence. She panicked, realizing she needed to move quickly and act as though she hadn’t heard a word of his conversation. She thought it’d sound odd if she walked backwards, towards her room, so instead she headed down the winding staircase.

She gasped when she saw Colton, shirtless, wearing only his dark, expensive jeans that hugged his legs and butt like it was nobody’s business.

The billionaire author was doing speed push-ups on his glossy wooden kitchen floor. “Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one…” His phone was just off to the side of his hand. His face burned red, and every single muscle in his arms, shoulders, and back exploded through his skin as he pounded out more reps. “Sixty-two, sixty-three…”

“Everything okay?” she said meekly.

Colton stopped mid push-up. He stood up, his eyes still burning from the aftermath of his phone conversation. Then he looked at her and walked towards her. His chest and abs seemed to scream out Taylor’s name as he moved closer, but she knew she couldn’t touch them, not if she wanted to start working her way out of this mess once and for all.

Keep things simple, to the point. Tell him you want a ride home, even if he doesn’t think it’s a safe place for me to go back to right now
.
It’s a hell of a lot safer than being here.

He rubbed his own chin as he looked her over in the lace-trimmed sleepwear he’d left out for her. It was suddenly as if he hadn’t just been teetering on the edge of madness during his phone conversation just moments earlier. Taylor tried to cover herself up with her own hands and arms, but it was useless. “Everything’s more than okay. I’m sorry if you had to listen any of that. It’s just business.”