A Million Guilty Pleasures: Million Dollar Duet (5 page)

“My dad can’t see me like this, Noah. He still doesn’t know anything about you or what I did, and he can’t find out. He just can’t,” she said frantically.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

Polly stormed into the room like a mama bear on a mission. “Damn it, Noah! What did you do to her? Is she okay?” Normally I’d say her tone was way out of line and I’d give her a stern talking-to, but under the circumstances I understood her abruptness. She and Delaine had grown close, and Polly was only being protective, the same way she was toward me. So I let it go.

“She will be,” I answered. “I need to get her out of here.”

“No! I can’t leave,” Delaine protested through her tears, but she still wouldn’t look up.

“No, kitten. I’m not going to take you away from the hospital. I just want to take you someplace a little more private so we can talk,” I reassured her while stroking her hair.

“Omigod, that’s Noah freakin’ Crawford!” I looked up to see a leggy chick with a fake rack, a way too skinny waist, and a face concealed by two inches of makeup blocking my escape. She had stars in her eyes at first, and then those stars turned to daggers. If looks could have killed, I would have been murdered, cremated, and had my ashes added to compost. “Get your hands off her before I rip your balls off and shove them down your throat, you bastard!”

“Dez, leave him alone,” Delaine mumbled into my neck.

“Ah. Dez. You’re the best friend,” I said, finally figuring it out. “Listen, you can make me choke on my balls later if you want—I’ll even handle my own castration—but right now I’ve got to take care of Lanie. I need to get her somewhere a little more private before her father sees her. Will you please sit with her mother until I get her calmed down?”

She looked from Lanie back to me, then gave a reluctant nod.

I turned to Polly, still holding my million-dollar baby in my arms. Fuck the million-dollar part—I guess she was just my baby now. “Polly, for some reason I will never understand, you have a way with people. They like you. So can you stay here and run interference with her father?”

“Roger that,” she said with a salute and a playful wink. When Polly had a mission to accomplish, she thrived.

I left Dez and Polly to their tasks and carried Lanie down the corridor, ignoring the curious glances of hospital staff and patients alike. When I finally made it to Daniel’s office, I
knocked on the door, and he called out, “Come in!” At the sight of Lanie in my arms, he stood from his desk, his brow furrowed with concern. “Is she okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine. I, uh … we just need a little privacy. Do you mind?”

“Not at all. I’m due in the OR to scrub in and start the procedure anyway.” He cleared his throat as he passed to leave. “Lock the door and no one will disturb you.”

I set Delaine down on the couch after he left, but when I tried to pull away, she grabbed my arms and looked up at me pleadingly. “No, please don’t leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Lanie. I promise. I’m just going to lock the door, okay?”

She nodded and reluctantly released her hold. I quickly went to the door and turned the bolt before stopping by the mini refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. “Here, drink this,” I said, removing the top and handing it to her.

She took a tiny sip and then set it on the table. I’d no sooner sat down beside her than she was crawling into my lap and laying her head on my shoulder. She was still shaking and quite visibly upset, and I had no idea how to calm her down.

“Shh, it’s okay, baby. Everything’s going to be okay now,” I said, rubbing her back and kissing the top of her head. “What’s got you so upset? Talk to me.”

“Oh, God, Noah, it’s not okay. She’s dying. Or at least she
was
dying, but now your uncle says they have a donor, and I was such a bitch to him at the ball. But all I knew was that she was dying and Dez came to get me and I had to get here, and I was scared to death that I wouldn’t get here fast enough. I didn’t want to leave you, but I had to. And I needed you here,
but you weren’t because you ran away from me this morning and I was so
pissed
at you. I wanted to yell at you. I wanted to smack you upside your beautiful,
stupid
head and you weren’t there, but you weren’t here, either. And I still kind of want to yell at you and punch you, but I can’t because you’re here now and I just want to be in your arms. You left me.…”

She was hyperventilating and ranting incoherently at the same time, and the tears were back in full force, but I understood every word she’d said. She was upset and scared, and I hadn’t been there when she needed me the most. She was right: I was stupid. And she had way too fucking much on her plate to have to deal with my shit on top of it.

“I know, kitten. I’m sorry,” I said, and I fucking meant it. “I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere until you tell me you don’t want me here anymore.”

“Good. Because I swear to God, Noah Patrick Crawford, if you leave me again, I’m going to be the one holding you down while Dez cuts your balls off,” she said, and then there were more tears.

I sat there with her, rocking her back and forth while she got it all out. Her tears, her rants, her frustrations, her sadness, all of it. After a while she grew quiet, and at first I thought she’d fallen asleep, but then she looked up at me through swollen eyes and smiled. I kissed the tip of her little nose, tinged pink from her crying, before returning her smile.

“I’ve ruined your shirt,” she said with a hoarse voice.

“It’s only a shirt, Lanie. It’ll be fine,” I said, rubbing her arm. “I’m more worried about you.”

“I’m sorry I broke down on you like that, taking you hostage on board the train to Crazy Town. Not many people
know this about me, but I take regular trips there, just so you know,” she said with an embarrassed shrug. She reached forward and grabbed a tissue out of the box on the table.

I chuckled lightly in response. “It’s not a secret. But I happen to find that trait very endearing about you.”

She laughed halfheartedly and dabbed at her tearstained cheeks. “How long have you been here?”

“Not long enough.” I took the tissue and finished the job for her. “Congratulations on having gotten a donor, by the way.”

“You did that, didn’t you?”

Looking at myself through her eyes should’ve made me feel twenty feet tall, but I knew the truth, and so should she. “I hardly have that kind of power, Lanie.”

“Bullcrap. You can do anything, Noah Crawford. You got Daniel to come, didn’t you?”

“I may have asked him to oversee your mother’s care, yes.”

“Then you’re her savior by default, because if he hadn’t stepped in, Mom wouldn’t have gotten that donor heart.”

I sighed and took her chin in my hand and looked into her eyes. “I’m no superhero, Lanie. But I’d take a speeding bullet for you, maybe face down a powerful locomotive with nothing but a raised hand in defense, or even leap tall buildings in a single bound to get to you. Anything it takes to make you happy … because I love you, and that’s all the reason I need.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

The blood in my veins surged and my heart swelled to the point I thought it might burst right out of my chest. She loved me. My million-dollar baby loved me.

“I may not have all kinds of pretty words to express it like you do, but—”

“Hey,” I said, stopping her rambling before she got going again. “That’s all I need—to know you love me.”

Lanie closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. When she opened them again, she looked into mine and said, “Noah Crawford, I love you so much sometimes it’s like I can’t breathe because my heart is smothering my lungs.”

That did it for me.

Slowly leaning forward, I nipped at her bottom lip before taking it between my own for a sensual kiss. She fisted my shirt as I pulled away slightly and then kissed her again and again, each time deepening it a little more. It wasn’t enough for her, and truthfully, it wasn’t enough for me, either. Thankful the door was still locked, I maneuvered out from under her so she could lie back on the couch before settling on one bended knee between her legs. Just as anxious as I, Lanie tugged on my shirt, pulling me down to her until our chests were flush.

We were making out like a couple of teenagers on the couch in my uncle’s office, and I felt so alive. My hand traveled up her thigh and under the hem of her dress, and I stopped abruptly when I got to her hip. Something was very much out of place.

I hooked my fingers under the elastic band there and snapped it. “What the hell is this, Miss Talbot?” I asked against her lips.

“Panties,” she answered breathlessly and then started a trail of suckling kisses down my neck.

“I know that. What are they doing on your body?” Panties had been expressly forbidden after Lanie had decided to throw a bitch tantrum and destroyed the very expensive collection of
undergarments I had purchased for her. True, she had done it because the shop owner was my ex-lover and Lanie had been jealous of her, but the no-panties rule had remained in effect.

“Polly brought them to me along with the dress.” She cupped my ass and pulled my hips into hers.

“But you didn’t have to put them on,” I said, cupping her ass as well—her bare ass. Well, at least it was a thong.

She cursed and arched her back when I nipped at her neck and sucked languidly. “No, but you left me, and even though I didn’t really think you’d get a chance to see them, in my head, I’d gotten a little bit even. Besides, you ripped up the contract.” Her breathing was ragged, just like mine.

“Contract be damned, you still belong to me,” I said, grinding against her center and eliciting a moan from her to prove my point. “And you’ve been a naughty little girl, Delaine.”

She wrapped her legs around my hips. “Mmm, I love it when you get all possessive and threatening.”

This was what I loved about our relationship. We’d just confessed our undying love for each other, and there we were, about to get all kinds of kinky in my uncle’s office.

“Kitten, I would love nothing more than to dole out your punishment, but we have to stop before we get carried away,” I said, pulling back.

Lanie sighed and let her head fall onto the armrest, unwrapping her legs from around my waist. “You’re right.” With closed eyes, she took a deep breath to calm herself. Without warning, she huffed, shoved on my chest, and then scrambled into a sitting position to right her clothes. “See? This is the kind of stuff you do to me, Noah Crawford. You come in here
and get me all riled up, knowing that we can’t do anything about it, and my mother’s right down the hall, about to go into surgery. I have half a mind to tell my father all about how you’ve taken advantage of his sweet, innocent little girl and turned her into a walking poster for teenage hormones.”

She stopped abruptly. “Crap! Mack!”

I laughed. “What about him?”

“How am I going to explain you to him?”

“How about ‘Dad, this is my very rich, very hot boyfriend. He’s got a colossal cock and a wicked tongue’?” I licked my bottom lip to tease her, but she grabbed my tongue to stop me and narrowed her eyes at me.

“I’m serious, Noah.”

Pulling back, I made to nip at her fingers until she finally released me. “So am I, and I think I’ve already proven the validity of that statement, but I can always refresh your memory,” I said with an evil grin and a waggle of my brows. I slid my hand up the inside of her thigh, prepared to do that very thing.

“Noah!” She slapped my hand away and stood to pace the room. “My father thinks I’ve been away at college, not Noah Crawford’s House for Daughter Deflowering. How am I going to say we met?”

With a shrug, I offered up the most logical solution. “I’ll leave. That way he doesn’t have to know anything about me.”

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned on me with a finger aimed in my direction. “You’re not going anywhere! I swear, Noah. I can’t even think about—”

“Okay, calm down,” I said, cutting her rant off and throwing my hands up in surrender.

Appeased, Lanie dropped her hands to her hips and started chewing on her bottom lip. If she didn’t stop doing that, we weren’t going to make it out of there without fucking like bunnies. I stood and crossed the room, forcing her to release the meaty morsel from between her teeth and then cupping her face. “I’ll think of something. Just go back to your mother’s room and find some way to tell Polly and Dez to meet me here without your father knowing.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m sure if the three of us put our heads together, we’ll come up with something believable.”

“Okay.”

I gave her a chaste yet soft kiss and walked her to the door.

“Hey,” I said, stopping her before she left. She turned to look at me. “I love you.”

The smile she gave me was so electric it could’ve powered the entire city of Chicago. “I love you, too.”

Noah

We had a plan. It took us four hours to come up with it, but we finally had one. Of course, some of that time was spent waiting on my cousin Lexi, because Polly had decided we needed reinforcements.