Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (9 Book Bundle) (42 page)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The next day Eliot made me
breakfast and told me that the landlady had arranged the apartments to be
ready. He looked away when he told me, as though he was ashamed of sending me
away. I called a cab and left, feeling like I was losing everything wonderful
that I had ever known. Well, everything but one.

I hugged Lucky inside the cab.
He sat peacefully, purring on my lap, as I rode away into the heart of Budapest
dry-eyed. After last night, I knew that Eliot didn’t want me, and it tore me
apart inside. The first man that I had ever truly desired, and the wall between
us cemented shut. I shook the thoughts out of my head and tried to focus on the
beautiful, snow-capped city that I would now be living in. I thought about the
cemetery that my mother was buried in. I would have to make plans to visit
there. Perhaps this afternoon, once I had settled into the apartments and had
some time to breathe. I cursed Eliot for not having taken me there during my
stay, then forgave him—he didn’t know, and he didn’t know how important
it was to me. It was up to me to make that clear.

The apartments had been cleaned,
and heated, and there were already two students there by the time I arrived.
The landlady had moved out half of the bunkbeds—to another set of
apartments? I didn’t know—and the rooms looked larger, more inviting. I
slung my suitcase, heavier now from my trip with Marta, over onto the bunk next
to the window.

“Brynn!” A familiar voice at my
back caused me to spin around.

“Mark!”

I ran toward him and barreled
into a hug. It had been only a couple of weeks since we had last seen each
other, but in my mind it felt like forever had passed. He smiled at me,
awkwardly, and I thought that he seemed younger than I remembered. Probably,
though, it was just the contrast of spending time with Eliot and Marta.

“How have you been?” he asked.
“This place looks cool!”

“Yeah, it’s nice,” I said. “I haven’t
seen that much of the city.”
Just the castle that Eliot lives in.

Mark left to unpack in the guys’
room, and we spent the rest of the evening with the other students who trickled
in from the airport. Some carried huge suitcases full of clothes, pictures, and
reminders of home. One guy arrived with just a backpack over his shoulder and
immediately went to sleep in one of the kitchen chairs. All of the girls in my
room seemed nice enough, although one shy brunette shook my hand, said “Hello”
in Hungarian, and immersed herself in a book in the corner of the
bedroom.

Chatting with Karen, another
California girl, I finally was beginning to find myself somewhat at ease. She
reminded me of my roommate, Shannon—artsy as hell, and passionate about
her photography. She was in the middle of telling me a story about her freshman
linear algebra professor when another girl stepped into the middle of the
doorway of the bedroom. Her heels clicked loudly on the floor, and she dropped
her suitcase with a loud
thwack
, tossing her perfectly slicked hair
behind her. One hand on her hip, a scowl on her face, she reminded me of
nothing else so much as a pissed off supermodel.

“Whose cat is that in the
kitchen?”

“He was here when I got here!” I
said brightly, turning to her with a smile of good intentions. “His name is
Lucky. I’m Brynn.”

“I don’t give a shit what his
name is,” she said, pressing her lips together and letting me finish her
sentence for her in my mind:
and I don’t give a shit what your name is
either.

“The landlady said it was okay
as long as we keep the rooms clean—”

“No.” The girl shook her head
from side to side so definitively that my hands began to clench in my lap.

“What do you mean, no?” Karen
spoke up.

“Are you allergic?” I asked.

“I’m not living with a goddamn
cat,
”
the girl spat out.

“Seriously?” Karen said. I could
have hugged her right then and there for sticking up for Lucky.

“Okay,” I said. I hated
confrontation. “Okay. We’ll find him a new place to stay tomorrow.”

“Not tomorrow,” the girl said. She
picked up her bag and swung it onto the empty bed beside her, turning again to
leave the room. “Now. I’m putting him out back in the alley.”

“What the hell?” Karen said, the
other girl’s footsteps echoing through the hallway as she went. “That’s so not cool.”

“I have to make sure he’s okay,”
I said, standing up to follow the new girl to the kitchen.

I passed her in the hallway as
she was coming back from the alley exit. She didn’t even look at me as she
brushed past, the scowl still plastered on her dark, beautiful face.

“Lucky?” The night air outside
felt brisk, and I hadn’t put a coat on. A few snowflakes drifted down under the
alley streetlights. “Lucky?”

A plaintive meow came from the
other side of the alley, and a small blur of gray and white came dashing over
to my feet. I picked up the kitten.

“You poor thing,” I said,
holding him close and feeling him shiver through his thin coat. What could I
do? Maybe I could leave a blanket outside for him, make him a bed. I didn’t
know if that would be enough. I couldn’t leave him to freeze to death outside.
He might get run over by a car, or attacked by a stray dog. All of the terrible
possibilities ran through my mind, and I stood there, motionless, not knowing
what I could possibly do to save him.

“Brynn?”

I turned to see Mark in the
doorway, his dark hair haloed by yellow light.

“Brynn, you’re nuts! Where’s
your coat?”

“I—I—” My voice
caught on the first syllable, and then I was sobbing, letting all of my
frustration and anger and pity boil up and out of me. Mark stepped down and put
his arms around me in an uncertain embrace, with Lucky caught between us. He
meowed, butting his head against Mark’s chest and expecting a pet.

“It’s okay,” he said, obliging
the kitten by scratching his head. “It’s going to be okay.”

“God, who the hell does she
think she
is
?” I said. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Brynn, it’s okay.”

“It’s not
okay
!” I nearly
yelled the last word, and Mark glanced back at the open apartment door. “Lucky
could die, and she wouldn’t care!”

“Brynn,
shhhh
,” Mark
said. “She’s the director’s daughter. The director of the
Academy
.”

“His
daughter
? So what!”

My eyes must have blazed with
anger, because Mark immediately held up one hand to quiet me.

“I know, I know,” he said. “But
the guy’s important. I just thought you should know. And hey, Brynn?”

“What?” I wiped at my eyes with
my free hand. My nose ran, and Mark dug in his pockets, holding out a crumpled
paper napkin. I took it gratefully and held it up to my face. A tissue to stop
a leaking dam, it was entirely ineffectual.

“I can take the cat,” Mark said.

I looked at him,
uncomprehending.

“We can sneak him into the boys’
room. At least for tonight. And we can take him to a humane shelter tomorrow. ”

“I’m not taking him to a pound,”
I said, hugging Lucky to my chest protectively. “That’s almost worse.”

“Okay, we’ll figure something
else out,” Mark said. “Alright?”

I nodded, my face now flushing
at how much I had cried in front of Mark. He had only ever seen me break down
once before, and I had promised myself never to do it again. I don’t know if it
was the cold or the strangeness of the country, or perhaps simply Eliot, but I
had felt more emotional here than I ever had in California.

“Put him in my pocket,” Mark
said. He turned sideways, holding his front coat pocket open. I tucked Lucky
into the coat and he immediately tried to claw his way out. Mark held him down
in the pocket by the scruff of his neck.

“He doesn’t like it,” I said.
Lucky meowed.

“It’s just for a little bit,”
Mark said. “Just until I get down the hallway and into the room. Can you go and
be a look out?”

I stepped up into the apartment
corridor and peeked into the kitchen, where three of the boys had started up a
card game. Inching my way down the hall, I spotted the director’s daughter
sitting on her bed. She flipped through a fashion magazine, looking the other
way. I waved Mark in and blocked the view from the doorway with my body until
he had gotten past me and into the boys’ room. Lucky let out a small meow that
I was sure the girl would have heard, but she kept on reading. I turned and
mouthed to Mark
Thank you!
He grinned and closed the boys’ door.

Whew. Lucky was safe, at least
until tomorrow morning.

The
next day, I snuck out of the apartments early and sat outside on the icy stairs.
As much as I didn
’t want to call Eliot, I had no other option.

He picked up on the first ring.

“Hello?”

“Eliot?” My voice turned small,
shy. I did not want to ask for anything from him.

“Brynn.” A short pause filled
the line between us with awkward silence, and I smacked myself in the head
mentally for having used his first name. “Why are you calling?”

“I know, I know, I shouldn’t,” I
said. “But I need your help. I need you to come take Lucky.”

“I’ve already told the
landlady—”

“It’s not that. It’s another
girl that has a problem with him. The…the director’s daughter. She hates cats.
Can you come take him? Please?” My words sounded strained, desperate. I didn’t
know what I could possibly do if Eliot couldn’t take the kitten. Another period
of silence passed.

“I’ll be there soon.”

Elated, I snuck inside and to
the boys’ room. Before I could knock on the door, however, it opened and Mark
peeked out with eyes still crusted with sleep. Lucky sat behind him on the
floor, his ears perked up.

“I heard footsteps,” he said.
“What’s up?”

“I found someone to take Lucky,”
I said. “He’ll be here soon.”

“Good. The little guy needs to
go out, I think. He’s been pacing by the door. Is it safe?”

I looked back, but the girls’
room door was shut.

“I think so,” I said. Mark
opened the door and Lucky darted out into the hallway, circling around my legs
in a figure eight and purring. I picked him up and he licked my nose.

I took Lucky out to the front
and he darted behind the granite steps. I sat down and waited for him to finish
his business. Soon he jumped back up to my lap for petting. Mark came outside
into the street, having put on some warmer clothes, and sat beside me.

“My butt is going to freeze to
these steps,” he said. He rubbed his hands together, his breath white and warm
in the chilly morning air.

“Amen. I thought winter in
California was cold.”

“So who’s coming to take Lucky?”
He reached over and scratched Lucky’s chin. Lucky rolled onto his back on my
lap and pawed at Mark’s hand, his tiny claws splayed fiercely in the air.

“Um, Dr. Herceg.” As I said the
name, my heart cramped with emotion.

“Wait,
the
Dr. Herceg?”

I nodded.

“How the hell do you have his
phone number?”

“I—um—” I really
didn’t know how to explain it without giving away everything. Mark cocked his
head and looked at me curiously. “He met me when I arrived here early.”

“So you can just call him up to
say hello?”

“I guess,” I said, my eyes
shifting away uncomfortably. “He said Lucky would be okay here, so I think he
feels bad about it.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah,” I said. “He gave me a
textbook to study, too.”

“Oh? What’s it about?”

We talked for only a few minutes
about the kinds of math we thought we were going to have to work on, and I told
Mark all that Eliot had taught me about the basis of his work, without
mentioning that he had personally taught me, of course. So engrossed in our
discussion, I didn’t notice the car pull up until the engine’s sound registered
in my brain. I turned to see Eliot getting out of the car.

Mark jumped up and almost ran
down the steps to greet him.

“It’s so good to see you again,
Dr. Herceg. Thank you so much for this opportunity.” He shook Eliot’s hand
firmly. I held Lucky with both arms, trying not to seem awkward.

“Mark, Brynn. It’s good to see
both of you again.” He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes.

“Thanks for taking Lucky,” I
said. I held him out to Eliot, who took him gently. The kitten looked so small
in his large hands. His gaze turned from Mark to me, as though trying to figure
out the answer to a logic puzzle.

“He’s a good cat,” Mark said.

“I’ll see that he’s taken care
of.” Eliot looked once more at the both of us, then pressed his lips together.
“I’ll see you both later, I’m sure.”

“Looking forward to it!” Mark
said. I just nodded, and Eliot climbed back into his car, Lucky sitting on his
haunches in the passenger seat. Whiskers twitching, he looked back at me
through the window and I waved goodbye. Eliot held up a hand, and then the
engine rumbled to life and the car rolled away down the street.

“I miss him already,” I said,
not sure who I meant. I walked up the steps slowly and watched as the car
turned at the corner and disappeared.

“You’ll see him again,” Mark
said. “Don’t worry.”