Billy Jeffers: Rockers of Steel (20 page)

“Leave!”

I walk out and pace, waiting for her while a freight train whistle plows through my head screaming, “
She’s late!”

I hear the water run and quietly open the door just a crack to see her getting into the shower. She wipes her eyes as her shoulders shake. She’s crying.

What the hell have you done?
I ask myself.

What the hell was I going to do?

I am standing in the same place when she walks out.

“You okay?”

“Did I sound okay?” she whispers, starting to walk out of the bedroom.

“Where are you going?” I call out behind her.

“Going to get my clothes and go home.”

“Madison, wait.”

She stops and turns around.

“It’s midnight.”

“Great,” she huffs and starts to walk out again.

“Just stay, okay? I will take you to your place early in the morning.”

“Tell me you’ll accept my help,” she counters. The girl should have been a lawyer.

I shake my head.

“Fine. Then I suppose we are really not that good of friends.”

When she takes a step, I say, “I’ll consider it … if you stay.”

She turns around and walks toward the bed and climbs in. “I need to be up by six.”

“I’ll make sure you are.”

She looks over at me holding the covers open. “You need sleep, too.”

I don’t want to piss her off, and she’s right; I need my damn sleep. Besides, I’m not sure things could possibly get more fucked up than they are now.

I climb in, and she lies on her side, facing me, just looking at me and not saying a word.

“Go to sleep,” I say as I turn off the light.

“You should be happy for me.” She yawns.

“Why is that?”

“It was a pretty great day. Someone thinks I am almost rock star status. They bought my app, my company.”

Play nice, Billy.
Don’t tell her she could have made twenty times that in a year’s time. It’s a win for her, and for some fucked up reason, she did it for you.

“Who was it that made that wise investment?”

She rolls over on her other side, facing away from me. “Remember the boy I was telling you about, Charles?”

“As in Charles and Matt?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound as pissed off as I feel.

“Yep, his family’s business bought it.”

I want to flip the fuck out. I hit the air a few times, wishing it was Chuck the shitty fuck’s face.

“Goodnight, Billy.”

“Goodnight, Madison.”

Goodnight?
Hell no, it isn’t a good night. It is awful. There is no way in hell I am going to be able to sleep.

Now more than ever, there is no way in hell I would consider using that money.

“Billy?”

“Madison?”

“I forgot to tell you. I insisted on the do not compete clause being removed from the contract. I gave them my word I wouldn’t start up the same kind of business, but I made them sign.” There is pride in her voice, even though it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

“That was a smart move.”

“I’m a very smart girl.” She yawns again.

“Yes, you are.” I yawn in response to hers.

“Billy?”

“Madison?”

“I have another idea that is gonna be a thousand times bigger than Basic Black ever could be.”

“That’s great.”

“That’s what I meant when I said you can work it off. It’s a much bigger idea, and I would love your help making it happen.”

“I will help in whatever way I can.”

“Good, I wouldn’t trust anyone else.”

It warms my heart a little to hear her say that.

“Billy?”

“Madison?”

“You can pay me back by helping me pull this off … and orgasms.”

“We’ll talk about it in the morning. You need your sleep.”

“But I’m not tired now.” She yawns again and rolls over, and the reflection of the moon illuminates her just like last time. “We’re gonna kick ass, make millions, and be friends for a very long time, you know.”

I nod, even though I know she can’t see me.

“And I promise everything is gonna be okay. The good guys do win once in a while.”

I close my eyes because I don’t want to talk, but I can’t sleep. There’s too much to think about. And tonight, she is in my bed.

“Billy?” she says quietly, and I am trying not to be pissed off every time she says something.

“Madison, you should sleep.”
You really fucking should
, I think.

“No one has ever made me feel desired like you do. I want you to know that’s worth so much more than I could ever put a dollar”—she yawns again—“amount on.”

“Well, it would be hard for a man to not want you. You make it very hard to ignore you.”

My dick even agrees.

“I promise I’ll try to be better.”

“Don’t try too hard. Any man who knows this side of you would know he is very lucky, indeed.”

“That’s what Charles’s father said this morning. He told me I should go back to school.”

“I hate Charles and his fucking father,” I mumble under my breath.

“What?” she asks after finishing yet another yawn.

“I’m falling asleep.”

“Is that your way of telling me to be quiet?”

I don’t answer because I secretly hope she thinks I have fallen asleep.

“Billy, are you awake?”

No
, I think.

She sighs and pulls the blanket up. “Goodnight, Billy,” she whispers.

Goodnight, Madison
, I think.

When I hear her breaths even out, I stare at the ceiling, trying to ignore the world, the fact that I know she is going to be furious when she realizes I really won’t take the money, the freakishly haunting thoughts of what she may do, how she will act when she finally does realize there is no way in hell. Then I try to ignore the way my dick gets hard when I think about her being pissed off at me.

I can’t think of another person in the world who can piss me off like she can. I can’t think of another person in the world I can piss off as easily as I do her. I can’t think of another person in the world who has ever known so much shit about me, yet I am confident she would never spill my secrets. I can’t think of another person in the world I would rather have in my bed than her. I can’t think of another person in the world who has piqued my interest on as many levels as Madison Black has. And I cannot think of another person in the world I would rather have as the mother of my—what the fuck am I thinking?

I close my eyes tightly and beg for enough sheep to count to make myself forget about the bullshit that was just floating around in my head.

I wake up wrapped around a very warm, large, strong body.
Two lovers tangled
… I sigh as I feel my smile spread.

One of his hands is on my ass, and the other is on my wrist, holding it against his chest. I refuse to open my eyes, basking in another first.

I hear a sigh, and my smile grows.

His grip on my wrist loosens and he asks, “You awake?”

“Does it count if I don’t wanna be?”

“Yes, it counts,” he answers in a sleepy, sexy morning voice that would definitely make me hard if I were a man. Being a woman, it makes the nips wake up. They love him.

“Then, no, I’m still asleep, and I talk in my sleep.”

“And apparently answer.” He sighs.

I say nothing, nothing at all, because I know we need to talk about what happened. I know that what I have to tell him is going to upset him since it upset me a lot.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“Five-thirty.”

“Do you normally get up this early?”

“No.”

“Then why are you today?”

“You were not only chatting during the waking hours.”

“What?”

Shit, shit, shit.

“You talk in your sleep.”

“What did I say?” I open my eyes and sit up.

“It doesn’t matter.” He sits up, too.

I watch to see if he is angry. His eyes narrow a tad, and I can’t take it.

“You’re judging me.”

“Am I?”

“What did I say?” I hold my hand on my stomach, feeling like I may throw up.

He doesn’t answer the question.

“I was going to tell you. It’s just, well … I guess I needed to make sure you were okay first, and I needed to do, um … things, okay?”

He crosses his arms over his very naked chest, and I swear I would slap my nipples if he wasn’t looking. He has the best man nipples ever and—

I stop and look at his eyes. He is waiting for me to explain, and I am staring at his nipples when I have to tell him something that is going to rock his world, and not in a good way. Something I am sure he already heard part of when I was talking in my sleep.

“Fine, fine. She called, and I listened.” I get off the bed and start pacing. “She loves you, and he loves you, and I have no idea how you could forgive them, because I’m not sure I could, but I understand, and that doesn’t make me any less a friend.” I turn and point at him. “Because I am totally ‘Team Billy.’ I am your friend first; do you understand?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Yeah, well, I expected this to happen. I mean, who the hell would come up with the saying ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’ if people hadn’t actually shot the messenger? But it’s wrong, okay? I mean, you are waaaaay more rational than me, so I know, once you hear me out, you’ll absolutely understand, okay?”

“Spill it,” he says with absolutely no change in facial expression.

“She called after you dropped me off. She told me about Penelope, and I swear I didn’t even ask.”

“How did she get your number?”

“She asked for it.” I shrug. “Sorry, I know I should have asked if it was okay to give it to her.”

I wait for him to confirm or deny my statement. He doesn’t, so I continue.

“So, I am just gonna tell you everything, okay?”

“I expect that.”

“Of course, because you deserve to know, not that it’s going to make you feel any better. I mean, I was going to throat punch her through the phone and—”

“Madison, could you please get to the point?”

I tug at the hem of his T-shirt that I am wearing. “May I have coffee first?”

He sighs then scowls. Then he throws his legs over the side of the bed and stands up. I get a nice look at his perfectly sculpted bare ass as he stretches.

“Fine, I will make coffee, but you keep talking.”

He turns around, and I see it. That beautiful thing hangs like that’s its job, and I want to high-five its awesomeness, but I’m pretty sure that would hurt.

I bite my lip then look up. One eyebrow is flying high, and I know damn well it’s judging me.

He walks over, shaking his head, and grabs a pair of sweats out of the dresser then steps into them. I follow him out to the kitchen, and he points to the barstool. I sit, and he turns his back to me and hits a button on the Keurig.

“Continue.”

“Okay, well, she called and asked if you were okay. I pretended I didn’t know a thing, so that’s good, right?”

“Yes, Madison.” He puts the K-cup in the machine.

“When your dad’s father passed away, your dad was advised to invest in some account by a coworker. I don’t remember everything, but—”

“It’s fine, just keep going,” he says, his back still to me.

“He lost everything. She says it wasn’t his fault, and that’s neither here nor there, but that’s when things got bad for him.”

“And we lost our house.”

“Yes, and then his mother, your grandmother, died.”

“I know.”

“Of course you do, sorry. Well, he apparently went to work for the company of a smaller firm, and he became distant. He drank a lot and was never home. They went a year without sex, and—”

“Please skip that part.”

I try to figure out how to do that without losing the part which may make him understand her side.

“Madison …” he prompts.

“Right, well, he wasn’t making any money, but he was never home. She thought the way women do, and well … You don’t know how women think, but she felt maybe he didn’t love her, maybe he was having an affair, and maybe it was best if she moved out. She did. You went and stayed with her sister for a while.”

“Three weeks,” he says, placing the cup in front of me with three sugars and three creams.

“For three weeks, he didn’t try to contact her. Then, when he did, he told her to move home, that he would stay away. And he did for—”

“Three months,” he says, turning his back to make himself a cup.

“Right, and during that time, she took comfort elsewhere,” I whisper.

“She cheated on him?” He doesn’t turn around.

“Yes, and well, Penelope, she—”

“Isn’t my father’s?” He turns around and looks at me, showing emotion briefly before the straight line forms again.

I shake my head. “He couldn’t raise her, and she couldn’t lose him.”

“So they just threw her to the wolves?” he snaps.

“No, not exactly. Her biological father raised her,” I whisper, because this is stranger than fiction. “His wife didn’t know it was his, but they couldn’t have children, and well—”

“You have got to be fucking shitting me.” He slams his cup down.

“Look, they do love each other.”

“He didn’t let her keep her child, my sister.”

“But he allowed you both to have a small part in her life. I know it makes no sense, Billy, but—”