Billionaire Season 2 (2 page)

“Is your brother a member of this club, does he come here for sex?” Allie asked and she watched as a hint of a smile played across his lips.

“I might be crazy, Alaina, but not crazy enough to give away the names of the club’s members. Why would you ask about my brother’s sex life, have you met William? I guess you must have, you were at my father’s estate when I first saw you and William was there that day….”

“Yes, I know him… William and I are…. Well, I’m not sure what we are, to be honest. We met and… we like each other very much. Your father arranged for me to do an internship here in New Orleans for the summer and William gave me a ride from the airport when I flew in on your dad’s jet. I’m… I’m staying with him in his townhouse….” Allie stumbled over the words, how could she explain what was between her and William? They barely knew each other really, but the flame between them was so hot that it was not to be ignored and they had both surrendered to it. The rest of the world had ceased to matter and she felt as if she were walking around in a delicious dream which was why she was sitting in his brother’s house at that moment without regard for her own safety. “What time is it? I really should go, no one knows where I am, I left my office just to grab a cup of coffee….”

“My brother is exceptional and he’s the lucky one, it’s been that way for as long as I can remember. He escaped… but that was lucky for me as well, I wouldn’t be alive if William hadn’t gotten away….” Walden said and as he turned to face Allie full-on his sparkling eyes clouded over for and instant and he smiled a brave yet haunted smile.

Allie felt as if she’d been allowed a glimpse into the dark recesses of Walden’s soul and it wasn’t a frightening place, it was just heartbreakingly sad.

“I’m a good listener if you want to talk about it, Walden,” Allie said, slipping off her shoes and curling her feet under her body as she sat on the plush sofa. She felt comfortable in that room with the brother of her lover and she wanted very much to hear his story, she needed to know what had happened so long ago.

“Yeah, it’s not a pretty story by any means,” he said, running his fingers through his tosseled hair, a deep frown furrowing his brow. He leaned forward with his tanned forearms resting on muscled thighs and his biceps strained the sleeves of his black T-shirt. “But here goes— I don’t think my mother was ever a good person, she sure wasn’t a good parent and she didn’t have ties to any family or friends of her own. She could be vicious and she had a mean streak a mile wide, everyone knew that about her. I guess my father married her because she got pregnant, the age old story, you know. It’s anyone’s guess as to why she decided to extort money from her own husband, she probably grew up dirt-poor under who knows what kind of circumstances. Maybe it was because my father couldn’t get over losing Liza, but I think my mother’s brain was just wired wrong. So, it turned out she had this lowlife boyfriend who lived down on the Bayou Lafourche and together they came up with a scheme to take me and William and demand a huge amount of money for our return. They made it look like my mother was kidnapped too and they took us by boat to this broken down shack deep in the backwoods on the bayou… And while the boyfriend was busy duct-taping me and my mother so he could take pictures to send with the ransom note, William ran away. My brother was seven and I was six and my mother and her boyfriend… they tortured me with a… a razor… to make me scream so that William would hear and come back. Anyway, I don’t remember how long I was there tied to this filthy metal cot…. William made it through the swamps and the cypress groves and man, there were ‘gators in that green water and snakes and he was just a kid. He made it though, he found his way to a cabin and this ninety year old Cajun took him into town in a homemade pirogue. Twenty years ago folks down there on the Bayou Lafourche didn’t have telephones or much of anything except for a pirogue, a pot to boil brackish water and a crawfish trap. Well, I recall hearing the police sirens wailing from faraway and dogs barking, that shack was so deep in the woods there wasn’t even a road to get to it. My mother’s boyfriend knew it was all over then so he gave my mother a ‘hot dose’ and she was screaming for him to kill me too. It killed her and he just swiped that razor across my chest one more time and then he ran off into the swamps. They found pieces of him later, the gators got him, most likely, or maybe he ran into some real hard-ass Cajuns and they cut him up for fish bait, it doesn’t matter. He got what was coming to him and William led the police and my father right to the cabin… that’s it, that’s our story and together we survived it. So, my brother is my hero, he’s never let me down.”

Walden leaned back, closed his eyes and exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath and the story inside himself for forever.

Allie wiped tears from her eyes and listened to the faint words of a song on the sound system that echoed through the beautiful rooms. It was the gruff voice of Johnny Cash and she imagined the lyrics spoke directly to Walden’s soul.

“
I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real. The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting. Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything. What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end. And you could have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down, I will make you hurt
.”

“I haven’t finished showing you the house, there’s a lot more to it.” Walden said, scrubbing at his eyes with the fingers of one large hand as if to erase the scene he had described.

He collected himself and regained his composure, stood up quickly reaching out for Allie’s hand and just as she had experienced with William a distinct current crackled between them. She gasped and he raised an eyebrow and grinned as he led her to the wide and winding stairway that rose majestically to yet more unexplored rooms.

“I live on the fourth floor but I’d really like for you to see the conservatory on the roof. You can’t see it from the street below, it’s set toward the back of the building. I love it up there, it has a glass roof and walls, so I sleep under the stars most nights. It’s so peaceful, all you hear is the crazy laughter from Bourbon Street and the horns from the tugboats on the river, man, that sound is like a sweet lonely lullaby,” he said, his voice was deep and hypnotic so that she started up the steps ahead of him.

“I should go, seriously. I have no idea what time it is, William will be wondering where I am….” She said, her own voice sounded small and raspy and unsure and she continued ahead of him up the stairs. She stopped on the third floor landing and faced a set of double doors that were not carved cypress like all the others. These doors were upholstered in deep blue leather with brass nail heads framing the edges and crisscrossing in the middle creating an intricate geometric design. Allie couldn’t resist, she lifted her hand to feel the butter-soft leather and cold steel of the nail heads. “So beautiful,” Allie whispered reverently her hand coming to rest on the antique crystal doorknob. “Why are these doors so different from all the others?”

“This is my bedroom,” Walden said and he turned his back to hide his throbbing erection and the flagrant thoughts that threatened his tenuous control. “It’s my sanctuary, my confessional, it’s where I atone for all my sins.”

“I see, it’s very private then. I have to say that I’m curious, Walden, after the horrible, horrible story you shared with me. I hope you’ve made your room into a warm safe haven, I hope you don’t let those bad memories ruin your life. Like you said, William saved you and there’s so many amazing experiences out there in the world just waiting to be discovered. You deserve a lot of happiness after such a bad start, you know that don’t you?”

“Yeah, you’re right, I suppose so and… I work hard to believe it,” he said although he knew without a doubt that she would be his most amazing experience. She would come to him and choose him and she would want him with every fiber of her being.

Her guileless face was turned up to him, so trusting, so naive and beautiful. Her small straight nose bore a smattering of golden freckles across her otherwise porcelain skin and somehow that slight imperfection along with her huge grey-green eyes and delectable pouty lips both broke his heart and began to mend it all at once.

Her hand came to rest on the antique crystal doorknob and a question settled in her eyes when the knob refused to budge.

“Locked,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her down the stairs. “For the protection of the innocent and those who aren’t sure of what they want. You’re right, Alaina, William will be missing you, he’ll wonder what’s happened to you. Come on, I’ll walk you to your office and then I have to put my life in order since I’m the one who’s made such a mess of it.”

“Don’t say that, what happened to you and William and your mother was a tragedy but you were a little boy, how could it have been your fault?” Allie asked, stopping just before they reached the bottom of the stairs so that he stood just below her.

“Why did you come here with me, Alaina? What you said before about knowing William, please don’t tell me there’s anything serious going on between you two. We’ve been through that you know, William and I, from the time we were teenagers there have been girls and women who gave themselves to both of us. But I couldn’t do that now, not with you. If you were mine I wouldn’t share you,” Walden said and he reached out and quickly snaked one long arm around her narrow waist and pulled her against him. They were standing a few steps above the entry hall and she tried to step back but he was fast and strong and she fell forward against the solid wall of his chest. “Alaina, you’re here for me, you came to New Orleans because you’re my destiny. Do you understand that?” He asked but he didn’t give her time to answer.

Her lips parted to protest but in that moment his hot demanding lips met hers and a flare of panic mixed with excitement ignited inside her. It was such a shock that she couldn’t move and although she didn’t respond she stood paralyzed as his mouth consumed hers in a deeply sensual kiss. His hands tangled in her long golden hair and he moaned with satisfaction.

She felt the pleasure of that kiss spiral down to her very core as her body threatened to betray her, or maybe it just didn’t recognize that this wasn’t William. Whatever the cause she was horrified at her own traitorous reaction and she quickly jerked away from him.

“Stop!” she said, stumbling backwards so that he caught her, pulling her close, and at that moment William burst through the front door.

“Allie are you alright? Step away from her Walden, do you hear me? Take your hands off her,” William’s voice was practically a growl and he was up the stairs in a split second.

Walden released her slowly but he stood his ground with his hands drifting from her hair to trace the lovely shape of her face.

She glanced into Walden’s eyes for a moment before William tore her away from his brother’s touch and there was a deep sadness there that tugged at her heart.

“Walden what the fuck do you think you’re doing? You should be in Switzerland under Dr. Selig’s care and by the fucking way our father is alive but he had a heart attack and don’t you ever put your fucking hands on Allie again— EVER!” William was shouting as he crushed Allie to him with one massive arm around her shoulders glancing down into her startled face to make sure she was alright.

“Wills there are so many things you don’t know or understand.” Walden said staring his scowling brother straight in the eye before William steered Allie down the stairs and out onto the street with Walden following close behind. “You think you know me and you think you know Alaina, but she isn’t really yours and you’ll come to accept that in time. As for Eleanor Selig, I swear to God you don’t know shit about the good doctor. I’m gonna let this slide for now because you believe Alaina’s in love with you and because I need to go see about Father, where is he? By the way, do you think if you get Alaina out of my house and away from me as quick as you can she’ll forget about me? Don’t delude yourself, Wills, there’s something between us already. I felt it when I kissed her.”

William let go of Allie and his fist smashed into Walden’s face before he could even think about what he was doing. Allie screamed as blood sprayed across her cheek and the front of her dress. Walden took the punch and smiled at his brother with blood gushing from his nose.

“Really, William?” Walden said shaking his head in disbelief, he slipped his T-shirt off and held it to his bloody nose. “After all that we’ve been through you hit me in the fucking face? I love you man, but she’s mine, she’s meant for me, didn’t you listen when I told you that before? I
FUCKING
told you that I’ve been waiting for her all my life and what did you do? You sent me away and took her for yourself. How could you do that, William? You’re my family, my
brother
and you fucked me over. That is so fucking low.”

“You’ve lost touch with reality Walden, you’ve had a psychotic break or some other crazy fucking episode. I am not up to dealing with this shit today, I’ve been worried sick about you, do you understand what I’m saying? I was worried that you’d do something stupid and hurt yourself so badly that it would end your life and now I walk into your house and you pull this fucked up shit with Allie? That is messed up, y
ou are
severely messed up
!” William said clenching and unclenching his fists in fury as he stared at his brother. But he heard the truth of Walden’s words and felt that maybe, just maybe— he should be the one who was beaten and bleeding.