The Billionaire's Unwanted Virgin (6 page)

Her heartbeat was thundering under his
finger tips, and her breaths were too shallow.

"Breathe, little Alice. You'll be
no good to either of them, if I have to carry you off here because you
fainted."

His lips twitched in an amused smile
when she snatched her hand away and glared at him.

"I have never fainted, and I am
not going to start now. And do
not
call me little Alice! I am not a
child."
 
Her voice sounded tinny and
lost over the head sets they were both wearing, and he clasped her hand back in
his, as the pilot started his descent towards St. James's park.

"Trust me; I am very aware of
that fact."

A brief flare of heat stained her
cheeks at his growled admission, before she screwed her eyes shut and shook her
head.

"We're going to die." The
panicked screech hurt his ears, and the pilot chuckled.

"Not on my watch, Miss."

Sure enough, Jackson completed the
maneuver with his usual effortless skill, and Alice released the breath she'd
been holding in one fell swoop, when Lakota pulled her headset off.

"Open your eyes, Alice. All safe
and sound on terra firma, sort of. I'll have you with Beth in just a few short
minutes."
 
He cursed silently at the
inconvenience of the renowned children's hospital not having its own helipad.
This time of night the drive would only take a few minutes, but it was still a
damn nuisance. "We'll be there in minutes, you'll see."

If possible she went even paler, and
the rush of affection he felt toward her took him by surprise. She was
genuinely terrified, and had been ever since they'd approached the helicopter
back in his grounds in Hampshire, yet she'd bravely swallowed her fear and
climbed on board. It seemed nothing was going to stop her to see from seeing
her family, and some of his cynicism towards all womankind fled. He could
understand devotion to family better than most people. The fact that she'd
sought his money not for herself but for her family meant far too much to him.

In fact, she had no idea that her
niece was already in the best possible care his money could buy. When Lakota
had read her file, he'd wasted no time contacting his golf buddy and old
friend, Spencer. Spencer Jamison not only sat on the charity committee for the
eminent children's hospital, he was also the best children's cancer specialist
in the country. As his personal friend and major benefactor to the hospital
coffers, Lakota had set the wheels in motion the minute he'd realized how
serious little Beth's condition was.
 
He
knew the little girl was in theatre right now under Spencer's skilled hands,
the man himself having been alerted to her plight the minute the ambulance crew
made the call for help.

He hadn't told Alice any of this. She
would find out soon enough, because his money had also bought the little girl a
private room and a place on a clinical trial. Whether it was all too little,
too late remained to be seen, but he hoped for Alice's sake, that her niece
would survive the night. Chances of a full recovery were good with the right
treatment, but this current crisis could jeopardize that recovery severely.

Whatever happened there was no going
back on his plan now. To obtain the information he needed from the hospital
staff, he'd had to announce the nature of his relationship with Alice, and he
could almost hear the pound signs drop when he informed the over-eager
receptionist that little Beth was indeed family, as he was engaged to her
sister. No doubt come morning that little tidbit would be plastered all over
the gossip columns.

He shook the thought off and concentrated
on coaxing Alice out of the helicopter instead. In no time at all they were
safely seated in the waiting limousine and speeding towards the hospital.
 
Her entire frame shook when they arrived at
the entrance, her gaze riveted to the little welcoming committee standing
there.

"Why are they there? It means bad
news, right? I know how this works. The NHS doesn't greet you like that unless
it's bad news." She stopped abruptly, and her fingernails dug into his
arm. "Don't let it be Beth, please."

"Alice, look at me. Relax.
They’re here to greet me. I took the liberty of phoning ahead. Beth is in
theatre, and in the best possible hands. I can't promise you it will all work
out okay, but she is getting the best treatment possible. I made sure of
that."

Her eyes widened and sought his, and
she would have stumbled had he not pulled her close to him. So close that the
delicious weight of her breast rested on his arm. It seemed in her haste to get
dressed she had foregone a bra, and his blood heated at the thought of what
else she may not be wearing under those loose fitting clothes.

"She's in theatre? But, they said
it was too risky to operate, unless …" Her voice trailed off, and she
straightened her shoulders and pushed away from him. "I need to be with Mum.
She'll be falling apart, and you, mister, you'd better tell me exactly what
you've done."

She glared at him, but he was close
enough to her to feel the slight tremble going through her body. His little
Alice was putting on a brave front, but the terrified expression in her eyes
gave her away. Again that need to protect her from what was coming almost took
his breath away, and he shook his head to clear the unexpected fog of
emotion.
 

Emotions had no say in his dealings
with this. The best thing he could do for Alice and little Beth was to do what
he did best—get things done as efficiently as possible.

She strode ahead of him now, head held
high, until they reached the little welcoming committee. The fact that they
completely ignored her irked him no end, and he waved the fawning welcome away
with an impatient wave of his hand, and pulled Alice back against him. The blue
eyes of the hospital board executive's personal assistant narrowed in
speculation, and Lakota swallowed the bile rising in his throat.

"Save the niceties, and fill my
fiancée in on how her niece is doing, will you? I'm not here for a fucking
social visit."

The platinum blonde's practiced smile
slipped for a nano-second, before she recovered and extended her perfectly
manicured hand towards Alice at last.

"I am so sorry. Where are my
manners? Beth is in theatre at the minute, but we expect her out within the
next hour. The operation is going well, I believe. Mr. Jamison is the best at
this, after all."

"Mr. Jamison?" Alice
mirrored the words and looked up at Lakota with a frown. "But she's under
the care of Mr. Reynolds.
 
It was our
impression that Mr. Jamison was unavailable to take on her care, as his Rota
was full, and she did not qualify to be on his trial?"

"As to that, I have no idea, my
dear. This is just what I have been told. Now if you follow me, I will take you
to her niece's room, where you can wait for her. Your mother is already
there."

She turned about on her heel, and
pressed the button for the elevator with an impatient stab of one long painted
finger. Despite the situation Lakota had to smile. It seemed little Miss
Blondie was rather put out by the fact that he'd showed up with Alice. They'd
had a brief fling a couple of years ago, when he'd first gotten involved with
the hospital charity, but as he didn't mix business with pleasure he'd soon
broken it off. That hadn’t stopped Louise from trying to rekindle their
flirtation every time they met.

The way she bristled and stole coy
glances at both him and Alice spoke volumes of her curiosity, and annoyance. No
doubt she wondered what Alice had that she didn't. Acting on pure instinct he
laced his fingers with Alice's, and she gave him a grateful squeeze and leant
against him. Her fresh scent was a welcome relief from the other woman's
expensive perfume cloying up the limited air supply in the lift, and Alice and
he exhaled in unison when the lift doors finally swung open.

Alice's eyes widened when they
approached the private wing of the hospital, but before she could say anything
to him, they had reached her niece's room. He dismissed Louise and opened the
door for Alice. The woman perched on the edge of the bed clutched a battered
teddy to her chest, and she looked so much like an older version of Alice,
Lakota would have recognized her as her mother anywhere. She looked up when the
door opened, and the keening sound coming from her sliced straight through his
cold heart.

"Alice, you're here. I
thought—" She stopped and glared at him, even as her arms drew Alice into
a bear hug. "Is that
him
? How dare he show his face here? You may
have bought my daughter, but that doesn't give you the right to barge into our
private affairs. Get
out
!"

Suitably chastised by that little
bundle of motherly outrage Lakota took a step back and put his hands up.

"I don't mean to intrude Mrs.
Wanderlund. I simply made sure Alice got here. I will leave you two on your own
for a bit. I have some phone calls to make anyway, and I shall find out how
Beth is doing."

"There is no need … Mum, this is
not what it seems—" Alice's defense of him stopped him in his tracks. She
held her mum back and threw him a worried glance. "Lakota is here to help.
You don’t understand what he's done already. All this," she swept a hand ‘round
the private room," this is Lakota's doing. He even got Mr. Jamison
operating on Beth. I have no idea how he did it, but, please, Mum, he's not the
baddie here. He really isn't."

"So what?" Her mother's
voice rose to shrill screech. "Maybe he's trying to assuage his
conscience, I don’t much care. I don't want him in here."

"But, Mum—"
                                                                  

"It's okay, Alice. I'll leave.
I’ll just be down the corridor, so if you need me, just holler. Your mum has
been through a lot tonight. I'm not expecting her to be reasonable. Stay with
your mum. I'll rustle us up some coffee or something."

He grinned at her mother's snort in
disgust. It was pretty obvious where Alice got her backbone from, and if looks
could kill, he would be dead several times over already. Not that he could
blame Alice's mum. She didn't know him, and he would not have been impressed
had she just accepted him with open arms.
 
Alice looked so damn worried, however, that he couldn't stop himself. He
brushed a kiss across her lips, catching her shocked exhale in his mouth, and
she melted against him for one precious second, before he stepped back and out
through the door.

Yes, Mrs. Wanderlund would need some
convincing to play along. And he would need her support for what he had in
mind.

****

Alice's lips still tingled from the
unexpected kiss, and she had to suppress the urge to touch them.

"I can't believe you brought
that man in here, Alice. I really can't." Her mother's terse words shook
her out of her kiss-induced daze. Heaven help her if he ever kissed her
properly. She would be putty in his hands. She pushed the disturbing thought
back into the box it had popped out of and concentrated on her mother
instead.
 
This is what she was here for,
not to moon over her fiancé. A silent thrill had gone through her, when he'd
called her that in front of that irritatingly chirpy and well-coiffed Barbie
doll lookalike, who had made Alice feel like the frumpy girl at the school
disco again.

"Mum, what happened with
Beth?" The starch went out of her mother at the mention of little Beth,
and she sat back down on the bed with a heavy thump. She picked up the little
girl's teddy, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

"I didn't know what to do. The
oxygen wasn't working, and she just got worse and worse. She called for you,
and she got more and more agitated when you didn't come."

Alice pulled her mother in for hug,
and she was once again shocked at how frail she felt in her arms. Beth's
illness was taking its toll, and no matter what her mum thought of Lakota,
Alice knew deep down in her heart and soul that she was doing the right thing
by marrying him. He had surprised her tonight with his quiet, yet forceful,
efficiency. He hadn't needed to bring her here, to go through all this trouble.
She was his to do with as he pleased, and the cold man she'd encountered at
this mansion could have easily not cared about her family. The fact that he
did, the fact that he must have set the wheels in motion long before Beth's
crisis, gave her a suspiciously warm glow inside.

He hadn't been at all surprised when
she'd mentioned that her niece was ill, but then what had she expected? A man
like Lakota would leave nothing to chance. No doubt he had a file on her a mile
long, and for whatever reason he had decided to help her family.

"I had no choice but to call for
an ambulance, and if you hadn't been with that man, you'd have been there with
us. She needed you, Alice."

The accusation stung, much more than
it ought to, and the unfairness of it all, of the whole situation in fact, made
Alice's reply much sharper than it normally would have been.

"That man, as you call him, is
paying for all this, mother. I've always been there for you and Beth, dammit.
Do you think I'm doing this for fun? Do you think I want to marry a man who
doesn't fucking love me? Do you—"