Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (21 page)

CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE

Cam

It
took a few days, but I finally came out of the
drug-induced sleep to find Alex sitting next to my bed holding my hand.

"Hey, you're here,"
I smiled as she stood up and leaned over me.

"Of course, I've been
waiting for you to wake up so we could talk," she smiled back.

"Where's Tesla?" I
asked suddenly worried that no one had checked on her and unsure of exactly how
long I'd been out.

"Don't worry. Chief went
and got her, she's at the station with the guys," Alex said as she brushed
a stray piece of hair off of my forehead. "Everything's under
control."

"What about Leo? He's
probably seriously pissed at me," I said furrowing my brow.

"No, actually I'm
grateful that you created a ton of positive publicity, Cam," Leo said. I
turned my head and saw him standing in the doorway smiling. "There's no
way we could have generated this much interest in the business had you not
played the hero."

"I didn't do it to
generate business," I said rolling my eyes. "And I'm not a
hero."

"Of course, you
are," Alex said as she took my hand and squeezed it. "You saved Liz
and I, and you kept Victor from burning down that building."

"And now everyone thinks
that kind of security comes standard with CSC services," Leo grinned.

"That's insane," I
said shaking my head.

"Nope, that's good
publicity!" Leo replied. "I was able to play it up at Metzler's
announcement that he's running for office, and the phone's been ringing off the
hook ever since."

"You're an opportunist,
Leo," I laughed.

"I'm pragmatic and a
damn good businessman, if I do say so myself," Leo replied. "Look, I
just wanted to stop in and see if you needed anything. They said you're
probably going to be out of here in a few days, but that it's going to be a
long slow recovery. Take it easy, will ya? I'll take care of business, and then
when you're feeling up to it, you can come in and we'll talk about how we're
going to handle this expansion."

"I'm not quite out of
the clutches of death and you're talking business," I laughed and then
winced.

"Hey, like I said, pragmatic,"
Leo grinned as he leaned over and gripped my shoulder. The look in his eyes was
serious as he said, "I'm glad you're okay, Cam. Don't ever scare me like
that again, you hear me?"

I nodded and smiled up at him
as I bent my arm and gripped his hand.

"I gotta run; I have a
date with a girl I met at the Metzler shindig," Leo said smiling at Alex
and I. "Maybe I'll get as lucky as you two seem to have gotten."

After Leo left, Alex busied
herself straightening my blankets and getting me propped up so that I could
watch television. She'd brought her books with her and sat studying while I
flipped through channels. Occasionally she'd look up and smile at me, but
neither of us said much. I wasn't entirely sure what to say, and I wasn't sure
if she wanted to talk about what had happened.

Around dinnertime, Alex left
to go check on Liz. They'd moved her to the detox unit so that she could get
the drugs out of her system, but it was a slow painful process of withdrawing
given the fact that Liz had been using incredibly potent drugs for quite
awhile. When Alex returned, she looked pale and worried.

"How was your visit with
Liz?" I asked. Alex shook her head and bit her lip. "Is she
okay?"

"She's...struggling,"
Alex said as she sat down. "I didn't know things had gotten so bad. How
could I not have known?"

"Addicts are good at
hiding things," I said reaching out and taking her hand. "You can't
blame yourself."

"I do though," she
said looking down at the floor. "She can't go back to school after the
cheating charges were found to be true. I feel guilty."

"Guilty that you weren't
cheating?" I asked. "Liz made her own bed, now she's got to lay in
it."

"Wow, harsh,
Connor," she said with a look of surprise. "I'd have thought you'd be
a little more forgiving after what's happened."

"Why should I be more
forgiving? I'm the one who almost died!" I said wincing as I felt the pull
of stitches in my side. "And that asshole almost killed you, too. Don't
forget."

"Like I would ever
forget," she said standing up and walking to the end of the bed.
"Cam, he said that you'd treated him badly and humiliated him. That's why
he wanted revenge."

"I didn't treat that
asshole badly, he was a fuck up who couldn't fit in!" I shouted.

"And you're such a choir
boy, aren't you?" she said shaking her head. "You're a bossy,
know-it-all who thinks that he can simply buy his way out of problems and make
people like him."

"What are you talking
about?" I said confused by the sudden shift in her attitude.

"You paid my rent and my
tuition and you didn't even ask me if I wanted you to!" she shouted.
"You had every opportunity to tell me what you were planning to do, and
instead you hid it and just did what you wanted to without consulting me!"

"I was doing you a
favor!" I shouted back. A nurse came and stuck her head in the door and
asked us to keep our voices down. Sheepishly, I nodded and then looked back at
Alex who was standing at the foot of my bed with an angry look on her face.

"You treated me like I
didn't matter," she said. "Like you could just buy me off and I'd be
happy. Why didn't you talk to me about what you were planning to do?"

"Because you hate people
with money!" I said looking up at her helplessly. "And I was afraid
that if I brought it up, you would dump me!"

"But you thought that
paying my bills in secret was a good way to avoid that?" she asked
incredulously.

"I
didn't...I...shit..." I said shaking my head as I looked away from her.

"You didn't what?" she
demanded.

"I didn't want you to be
mad at me and I didn't want you to leave," I said looking up at her as the
raw emotion spilled out. "I haven't felt what I feel with you since Quinn
died, and I didn't want to lose you. I want you to stay, Alex. Please. I'm
sorry."

Confusion flashed across
Alex's face as she listened to me confess my feelings. I watched her as she
wrestled with whatever it was she was feeling before she spoke again.

"I don't want to leave
you, Cam," she said softly as she moved around the bed and rested her hand
on mine. "But you can't buy me. I don't like what money does to people. I
don't like the way it changes them and makes them forget what's really
important, and I thought you'd forgotten. I thought you were trying to buy me."

"I was just trying to
help out," I said as I took her hand. "I knew how worried you were
about Liz and I didn't want you to have to worry about getting kicked out of
school or your apartment while you waited for them to find you innocent. I knew
they would. Cheating isn't you, Alex."

"You should have talked
to me," she said.

"I know, I promise it
won't happen again," I said squeezing her hand. "Please stay."

Alex smiled as she leaned
over and kissed me then nodded. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but the
minute I stretched out to her I felt a sharp pain in my side and winced. Alex
stood up and slid onto the bed next to me so that I could wrap one arm around
her without having to stretch.

"Is this better?"
she asked looking up at me with a smile.

"Indeed it is," I
said as I kissed her forehead. "We'll always find a way."

CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO

Alex

It
was a
long road to recovery for both Cam and Liz, but by the time the spring flowers
were blooming and the trees were turning green, both of them were out of the
hospital and on their way to being well at last. Without her scholarship, Liz
had been unable to afford her apartment. Cam had offered to pay her rent, but
she’d refused, so I'd had her move in with me to share my place. She went to
meetings or therapy every day, and managed to maintain her sobriety after being
released, but her lies had caused a deep crack in our friendship.

I wanted to believe that she
was on the road to recovery, but I no longer trusted her to tell me the truth.
It created a stressful living situation and one that put both Liz and I on
edge. I knew it couldn’t last for very long.

Liz found a job working at
the diner where we'd spent so much time studying, and she loved being able to
shoot the breeze with the wide range of customers. The constant movement helped
her stay focused on what was important and her co-workers knew her challenges,
so they treated her like a family member and kept a close eye on her. It wasn't
perfect, but it was better than she'd been in a long time.

We'd talked about what had
happened at the apartment the day Victor had almost killed us both, but Liz never
wanted to talk about what had happened before that, and I didn't ask. I figured
that she'd talk about it when she was ready. She did, however, tell me about
the day she cheated and how she'd unintentionally implicated me when she'd done
it. She'd apologized and once I'd accepted the apology, we tried to move past
it, though it was hard for me to trust her.

Once cleared of any
wrongdoing, I moved forward with classes and my internship. Violet and the
girls backed down and left me alone once they knew that Cam and I were a
couple, and that his firm was running her father's security detail. I'd
graciously thanked them for their kind thoughts after the incident, and then
proceeded to do what I'd always done -- ignore them.

Mrs. Rikka watched me like a
hawk when I returned to my rotation. I think she thought I was going to have a
breakdown or something, but Leslie assured me that she was simply trying to
ensure that I didn't get overwhelmed or overly stressed as I processed what had
happened to me. I was required to attend counseling sessions to deal with the
stress and process what had happened, but overall, I hadn't been traumatized by
the incident. The therapist was not surprised, and told me that I might have
some issues later when other stresses in my life surfaced. She let me go after
ten sessions with the reminder that if things got stressful or overwhelming, I
should come back and talk with her.

I passed my final exams with
straight As and prepared to graduate. We would be walking across the stage at
the Chicago Theater and I wanted everyone who'd supported me to attend, so I
asked for extra tickets and handed them out. Cam wanted to include Danny and
Leo, so we'd invited them as well. Liz and I shopped for a dress for me to wear
under my gown and finally found one in Nordstrom's on Michigan Avenue where
we'd also let a pretty young woman do our makeup and convinced us to buy the
products she'd used. All in all, it was a time of celebration.

The only downside of things
was when, two weeks before graduation, Cam, Liz and I were called to testify in
Victor's trial. It was unsettling to see him again after all the damage he'd
done, but when the verdict came down and the judge sentenced him to life in
prison for kidnapping and attempted murder, we were all relieved. I watched him
being led away in handcuffs and felt sad that he hadn't been able to find
another way to deal with his rage and frustration.

"You okay?" Cam
asked as I stood in the doorway of the courtroom staring at the empty stand.

"Yeah, fine," I
nodded as I took his hand and turned my back on the past.

CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE

Cam

It
took me
until Alex's graduation to make it through rehab, and even after the physical
therapist pronounced me in tiptop shape, I wasn't sure I wanted to return to
the fire department. I had developed a new perspective on life and I wasn't
sure I wanted to spend my days running into burning buildings anymore. It was
hard to admit, but once I told Alex how I felt, she encouraged me to explore
other options.

Leo was adamant that I come
work at CSC and help him deal with the surge in new business. I agreed to try
that for a while, but I wasn't sure that's where I wanted to spend the rest of
my time. Yet I wasn't sure what other options I had. I'd spent the past decade
running from what had happened to Quinn, that I hadn't spent much time focusing
on doing what would make me happy.

"You should think about
doing home renovation," Alex said two nights before she was to graduate.
"You did such an amazing job with this place and there are tons of homes
that need updates and overhauls. This neighborhood alone would give you enough
business to keep you hopping for the next five years!"

"I'll have to consider
that," I said as I poured her a glass of wine and handed it to her. I
raised my glass and toasted, “Here’s to you and your nursing degree!"

"It's hard to believe
it's over," she said as she sipped her wine. "But it's nice that I'll
be working at General in the ER. I like it there."

"I like having you
there, and I'd like to have you here, too," I said as I looked at her. I
reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box that I'd been saving for the
right moment, and this felt like it was it. I dropped to one knee next to her
chair opening the box and said, "Alexandra Pierce, would you do me the
honor of becoming my wife?"

"Cam?" she said
completely caught off guard. "What? Oh my God! Yes!"

"Hmmm, interesting
response. Not exactly the one I was expecting, but the affirmative will
work," I laughed as I pulled the ring out of the box and placed it on her
finger. It fit perfectly, and she stared at it for a moment before she threw
her arms around me and kissed me.

I pulled her to me and kissed
her deeply. It had been a long time since we'd had sex even though the doctor
had cleared me for it a month before. We were both a little scared of what
might happen.

Alex pulled back and looked
at me expectantly, and I nodded, taking her hand I led her to the bedroom where
I slowly removed her clothing stopping to kiss every inch of bare skin that I
exposed. When I finally pulled her lacy panties down to her ankles, I looked up
at her in wonder. This beautiful woman had agreed to marry me, and I wanted to
show her just how happy I could make her.

I gently pushed her back onto
the bed and spread her legs as my fingers traced a path around her nipple down
to the warmth between her legs. She moaned softly and pushed her hips up as I
teased her outer lips before sinking my fingers between them and stroking a
path from top to bottom.

"Cam..." she moaned
as I found the center of her pleasure and pressed on it before letting up and circling
it over and over. "Oh my God..."

"Mmm, feels good,
doesn't it?" I whispered as I leaned down and kissed her lips while my
fingers dove deeper and stroked her inner walls. Alex lifted her hips and moved
to the rhythm of my long lazy strokes while I used my other hand to unzip my
own pants. I let them drop to the floor as I pulled my fingers out, much to
Alex's chagrin.

"Don't stop," she
whispered as I moved on top of her and slid my swollen shaft up and down
coating it in her slick warm wetness. And then, in one swift thrust, I was
inside ,her feeling the tightness and heat encircling me as I slowly pulled
back and then thrust forward again.

Alex moaned more insistently
as she gripped my shoulders and pushed her hips up to meet my thrusts. I could feel
her naked skin sliding against mine as we climbed higher and higher searching
for the release we'd been aching for. I braced myself as I felt a twinge, and
when Alex saw the brief wave of pain cross my face, she pushed me sideways and
rolled me onto my back so that she could straddle me.

I held my breath as I watched
her move on top of me. She looked so beautiful rising above me like a nymph as
she moved her hips back and forth. I held my breath as I tried to stave off the
inevitable climax, but it had been too long to wait and in an instant I felt it
all come crashing down on me as I came crying out her name. Alex kept moving as
she raced toward the same conclusion. She leaned forward and ground herself
against me as she found her own orgasm. I watched as she fell forward burying
her face in my neck as our bodies jerked and moved in the throes of intensity
neither one of us could deny.

I held on to her tightly as
we waited for our breathing to return to normal, and felt like I was the
luckiest man in the whole world.