The Billionaire's Elusive Lover (15 page)

Helen saw the fear in her mother’s eyes behind the glare and reacted to it. “The doctor was just in here and they’ve already taken the tube out of his throat so he’s breathing on his own now.”

Her mother’s sharp eyes looked over her husband critically, assessing each line of his face and gray hair on his head before moving down to view the rest of his body covered in a white hospital gown and white sheets with tubes and monitors. “What else? What caused this to happen? I thought he was healthy but you know how he works way too many hours,” she said, admonishing the man even though he was unable to defend himself. Her reproach was softened by her taking his hand gently, her other covering their clasped hands.

Helen watched in shock as her mother leaned over to the bed and gently laid her hands on his weathered face, kissing each cheek. She saw the love and a huge lump of emotion formed in her throat. She’d never understood why they hadn’t divorced but now, seeing the love shining through her mother’s eyes, Helen finally grasped that they couldn’t divorce. They were still too much in love.

Helen smiled slightly when her mother turned back to face her, waiting for an answer. Knowing that her parents’ crazy relationship worked for them, she shrugged off her concern and questions in deference to the immediacy of relieving her mother’s mind. “I haven’t spoken to the doctor yet, mother. How about if we both go and get more information?”

Elisia turned to look at Alec. “Good afternoon, Mr. Dionysius. How are you?” she asked, her voice not the normal warm tones. Helen was surprised to find a slight chill to her mother’s voice.

“Mother?” she asked, confused by the anger she sensed coming from her normally very friendly mother.

Elisia shook her head and glanced down, sighing deeply. “I’m sorry. I’m judging your boyfriend on hearsay and I know that’s not fair.” She glanced back to Alec who was standing at the end of the bed. “And you’re here with Helen and that counts for a lot.” Her smile and the more relaxed shoulders told Helen that, whatever she had against Alec, it wouldn’t last much longer. Elisia was too much of a people person to let grudges stand in the way. Besides, she was also a diehard converter. Was that also the reason she’d never divorced Helen’s father? Did Elisia still think she could bring him around to her way of living?

Helen smiled softly, her respect for her mother growing exponentially in that moment.

“I’ll always be there for Helen,” Alec said, his eyes conveying some meaning Helen didn’t really understand right at the moment but she suspected that there was a profound communication that she needed to grasp… quickly.

Needing to distract her mother from Alec’s unspoken message, she touched her softly on the shoulder. “Um…mother, how about if we go find out more about father’s condition and see what he needs?” she suggested, wanting to get as far away from Alec as possible. And get her mother away from him. Her eyes had softened, become curious with Alec’s comment.

Elisia snapped out of her thoughts and came back to the present. Blinking, she looked back down at Edward and sighed, patting his hand gently. “Yes. I think that would be a very good idea.”

The two of them went out into the hallway and immediately found the doctor who was discussing treatment at the nurses’ station. The doctor explained the heart attack and the treatment he was recommending, adding that the patient was recovering much more quickly than he had anticipated.

He smiled reassuringly at both of them. “In fact, if he continues to progress like this, I think we can move him out of intensive care by tomorrow morning.”

Helen sighed with relief. “Thank goodness!” she said, hugging her mother. “What can we do?”

“His heart is still weak so don’t bring any business to him. He has to have no worries about anything. Once he’s out of the hospital in about a week or two, depending on his progress, then he’ll need physical therapy. He’ll still need to take things slowly and absolute rest, no worries, no work pressures.”

Elisia nodded her head. “Understand. I’ll make sure it happens. What else?”

The doctor looked at Elisia for a long moment, then smiled. “I guess if anyone can slow that man down it will be you, right?”

Elisia’s determined expression showed her answer. “That old goat, you mean?” Her eyes were twinkling with mischief so the doctor didn’t take her insult to heart. “Yes, he’ll slow down. Don’t you worry about that at all.”

Helen laughed, hugging her mother’s shoulders. “You’re going to be horrible to him, aren’t you?”

“You bet,” Elisia said, nodding firmly. “He’s going to live if I have to tie him down to do it. I didn’t wait all these years for him to come to his senses only for him to die on me before he admits that I’m right!”

Helen followed her mother back into the hospital room after that and Alec slipped out, returning several minutes later with cups of coffee for both of them. Throughout the day, he was in and out of the room, ensuring both Helen and Elisia had every comfort.

Helen didn’t realize the passage of time until Alec lifted her into his arms. She woke with a sore back and snuggled into his arms. “Where are you taking me?” she yawned.

“You’re going to sleep in a bed tonight,” he said firmly and carried her down the hallway, exciting through a door and ducking into the back of a limousine. He put her onto the seat carefully, kissing her gently on her forehead before stepping back again. “Stay here, I’m going to get your mother,” he said.

A feminine voice from behind him said, “I’m not leaving his side,” she said and her eyes were hard and unyielding. “Take Helen home and come pick me up in the morning. I’ll shower and change clothes once she’s back here to be with him while I’m gone.”

Alec eyed her carefully before finally nodding. “Fine. I’ll see you early tomorrow morning with food and you’ll eat before I escort you to my place to shower.”

Elisia nodded, then turned back to the hospital room to return to her husband’s side.

Alec got into the back and nodded to the driver before pulling Helen back into his arms. He was only partially mollified when she easily came to him, snuggling into his chest. He curled an arm around her waist and considered all that he would need to do. The list was long, but he had several staff members he could delegate the tasks to. He would just need to be strategic and careful.

When the limousine pulled into an underground parking garage, he lifted Helen into his arms, holding her while the private elevator whisked them to the penthouse. There, he carried her into his bedroom and slowly pulled her jeans and tee shirt off. Gritting his teeth, he unhooked her bra, then pulled one of his own shirts on over her.

Once she was tucked in, the sheets pulled over her slender body, his own clothes removed, he slipped under the sheets next to her, pulling her against him. Moments later, they were both asleep.

Chapter 10

Helen woke feeling as if something were wrong. Hadn’t she had this warm, cozy feeling before? Her mind, still groggy from sleep, was slow to sort out the details of the night before. Why was she so sore? And warm? She snuggled down into the warmth, knowing instinctively that something that felt this good had to be bad. And she didn’t want to find out the bad. She didn’t want to remember. Her mind knew that something horrible was trying to come to the surface and she just didn’t want to think about it now.

Her toes were cold and she moved them to the warmth. Her back was all toasty but she wanted to feel the same on the front of her. Pulling the blankets closer, she pushed against the heat.

The groan woke her almost instantly. Her eyes popped open and the heavy arm that had been resting against her waist pulled her more tightly. “Don’t move, Helen,” Alec’s deep voice said against her ear.

Helen stiffened. Again? Hadn’t she woken like this yesterday morning? And then….”Daddy!” she instantly sat up in bed, pushing her hair out of her eyes. Looking around, she spotted Alec in the dim morning light. “What are you doing here again?”

Alec rubbed his face, then ran his fingers through his hair before letting his hands drop by his side, looking at her with amusement. “I know you were tired last night but it’s hard to believe you can’t remember anything.”

Helen bit her lower lip, her mind running through the last thing she remembered. “I know I fell asleep in the chair next to my father’s hospital bed. But I don’t remember how I got here.”

Alec smiled ruefully. “In deference to your father who is probably waiting for you by now, I won’t tease you about that comment.” He sat up and tossed the sheets off of him, then walked unashamedly naked across the expanse of the large, beautifully decorated bedroom to the black marble bathroom while he said, “I brought you back here so you could get a good night’s sleep. Nothing happened last night,” he assured her. “Your suitcase has been delivered. It’s at the end of the bed. Why don’t you hop into the shower first?”

Helen held the sheet to her chest but her eyes were glued to the man’s broad shoulders and perfect butt. How could a man so high in the business world find the time to be so athletic? He was perfect, she thought, her mouth dry as she watched him disappear into the bathroom.

Shaking her head to get the image out of it, she looked down and wondered how she came to be wearing a large man’s shirt. Glaring at the now empty doorway, she suspected that it had been Alec that was responsible for her current state of dress, or undress, whatever the case might be.

She waited several moments after he disappeared, just to make sure he wouldn’t catch her in such a vulnerable state, then threw back the sheet and hurried across the room. Catching a glimpse of herself in a large mirror over one of the dressers, she gasped at how she looked. Her hair was completely mussed and her cheeks were rosy. If it weren’t for the dark circles under her eyes, she might look like she’d been making love all night instead of tossing and turning with worry in her dreams about losing her father.

Actually, she paused mid-stride as she turned away from the mirror, her dreams hadn’t been about losing her father last night. He’d definitely been in them, but…she nibbled at her lower lip, her mind concentrating on what had actually happened in her dream. She wasn’t positive what had happened, but she knew that Alec had been in them, and he’d been there, strong for her, supporting her.

Sighing, she pushed thoughts of her dreams out of the way as she searched out the bathroom. She didn’t have time for little things like that. She had to get moving, get back to her father. He was probably asking about her and she didn’t want to keep him waiting. She had to confess, Helen told herself. Oh, she’d told him the whole story yesterday just as soon as she’d arrived, crying out her grief and guilt at her behavior. But he’d been unconscious at the time, so that confession didn’t really count.

She stepped into the bathroom, glad that it was miraculously free. She wasn’t sure where he went, but suspected that he’d gone through the other door. Where that led to, she wasn’t going to find out.

The shower was heavenly. She couldn’t believe how nice the water was and how the heat melted some of the tension of the day before. She didn’t linger though. She was afraid to be away from her father for too long. She worried that she might miss something if she weren’t right by his side.

While she was showering, Alex must have gone to another bathroom because he was already showered and shaved by the time she stepped out of the bathroom, a fluffy white towel wrapped around his lean waist, showing off his washboard stomach and making her shiver with excitement.

Not the time, she told herself and looked away. “Um…where are my clothes?” she asked nervously, securing the large towel around her body as best she could. She’d love to have a robe, or even better, a very dowdy outfit right about now, especially when he turned to face her, seeing what she wasn’t wearing and his eyes flared. Helen could see the desire all the way across the room and hated the blush that stole up her neck and into her cheeks.

“They’re in the closet,” he said, pointing to another door, but said nothing about the fact that she was in his bedroom with only a towel wrapped around her.

Helen walked carefully over to the door, holding the towel in place. She was terrified that it would fall and reveal everything and she wasn’t able to walk around naked as casually as….Oh no! Alex just pulled off his towel and was following her into the closet.

“What are you doing?” she gasped, backing into the wall, her eyes slipped to his chest, and lower, but then she squeezed her eyes shut.

She heard Alex’s deep chuckle but didn’t dare open her eyes. “Helen, you’ve seen, and more importantly, felt, everything so I’m not sure why you’re being so shy now. You certainly weren’t shy the previous night.”

“No!” she gasped and turned around. “You don’t understand. My father’s in the hospital because of me. I did this to him!”

There was a long silence and Helen could feel his eyes on her. He didn’t touch her, but she knew that he was trying to work out what she’d just said. “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.

“My promise! Remember?” she implored. “I let him down and somehow he found out. I’ve obviously hurt him so deeply by what we did together that I shamed him and caused his heart attack.” Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and squared her shoulders with determination. “I can’t let him down again.”

Alex sighed and came closer, apparently unaware of his nakedness and the effect it was having on her. “Helen, listen carefully to me. Your father was in business and with that comes a lot of stress. Your father didn’t find out about our night together and he won’t, unless you tell him. That’s up to you.” He pulled her into his arms and held her gently, but wouldn’t let her have any space when she struggled against him. “Helen, you said you’d promised him that you wouldn’t have sex until you were married, right?”