Defying Dorian: Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (22 page)

“I can take it from here,” she began, positioning her hands where mine had been. “You did great.”

Without a word, I stepped away and watched. She continued to perform compressions, all the while keeping her eyes glued on the IV and the monitoring equipment.

“What did you give him?” I asked.

She never looked up. “Epinephrine. It’s the only chance we have at this point.”

Every second was precious and judging by the changing color of Dorian’s skin, were on the wrong side of good luck.

“Anytime now…” The nurse said, continuing to pump away on his chest. “If he’s going to be responsive, it’s got to happen within the next ten seconds or so.”

“Or what?” I asked without hesitation.

She looked over her shoulder. “Or he’s going to…”

A loud, sustained beep came from the heart rate monitor. Both of us snapped our heads, our eyes glued to it. At first, there was a single loud beep. However, not long after, several beeps followed, choppy and erratic, until at last Dorian inhaled a huge breath and started to cough.

Oh my God! Tears came rushing to the corners of my eyes.

Relief washed over me, but Nurse Jasper never slowed down. She hurried around the bed again and grabbed hold of the IV, disconnecting the epinephrine. She spent the next several minutes reconnecting all of the cables she’d pulled away from him minutes earlier. In the meantime, Dorian’s coughing fit subsided, and once again he rested, drifting back into unconsciousness. When she’d finished, Nurse Jasper took one last look at him before turning and walking towards me.

“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I can’t say for sure. He was unresponsive for several minutes. There are any number of complications that can occur in these situations. Once I speak with the doctor, I’ll let him know what happened. Until he’s able to examine Mr. Scott, we won’t know anything for certain.”

With the backs of my fingers, I dabbed at my eyes, trying to wipe away the tears that had almost poured out.

“Thank you, thank you…” I stammered, trying to regain my composure. “You saved his life.”

Before she could respond, I opened my arms. More than anything, I needed a hug. Whether she wanted to or not, Nurse Jasper didn’t deny me. We embraced for several seconds and then separated.

She looked at me. “I didn’t do it alone. We did it together. Both of us.”

“
D
id you bring everything
?”

Kendrick nodded at me. “I did.”

Apparently I’d been through a helluva time since the explosion at the warehouse. In the end that fucker Malcolm got what he had coming to him. Even so, I’m not heartless. I felt bad for Ronan. After all, he was one of my best friends. But all the twisted, dark shit Malcolm had himself involved in… No one was going to save him, not even his own brother.

“Well, bring it all here,” I began, gesturing for Kendrick to approach me. “You know they won’t let me get out of this fucking bed.”

Kendrick walked over. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he handed me the folder Ronan gave me on the plane.

“Where’s the rest of it?”

“I put it down inside the envelope,” Kendrick said. “I hope that was okay.”

Half-listening, I opened the envelope and reached into it, running my fingers along the bottom edges until at last I felt it in my grasp. Closing my fingers around it, I pulled my hand out.

“What are you going to do with it?” Kendrick asked.

I shrugged. “That all depends on her.”

He nodded at me. “Do you need anything else right now?”

“Actually, I do. I should be getting a clean bill of health here in a couple of days. I need you to man the ship. I have something I need to do with Tempest.”

Kendrick slid his hands in his pockets. “That won’t be a problem.”

“Speaking of Tempest,” I said, looking past Kendrick towards my bedroom door. “Have you seen her?”

Kendrick looked over his shoulder in the same direction before turning back to face me. “I saw her a little bit earlier but…”

Just then, Tempest walked through the doorway. “What about me?”

Shit.

With a closed fist, I slipped what I’d pulled from the envelope into the front pocket of my robe. Kendrick looked at me. A smile came to his face. I couldn’t tell if he was being a smartass or sincere. Either way, I didn’t care.

“Good luck,” he said.

The two of them passed by each other, exchanging a brief ‘hello’.

I watched her walking in my direction.
Fuck.
She was a goddamn angel,
my angel
. Whatever I had to go through to get her here with me now, I would’ve done it all over again times a thousand. Nothing could ever replace the feeling of having her here with me.

Nothing.

“You’re looking much better,” she said, drawing close to me.

“Are you coming onto me?”

Before she could say anything, I continued. “I mean, I nearly died, but if you’re ready, so am I.”

She rolled her eyes, laughing at me. “You’re insane.”

“Insane about you!” I responded, grabbing her and yanking her into bed with me.

She continued to laugh, slapping my upper arm while I pulled her in close for a quick kiss. Her lips,
shit
, they were like nectar from a delicate flower. I’d never get tired of them, never want to break free.

“It looks like we were meant to be,” she began, flipping her hair away from her eyes. “First you saved me and then I saved you.”

I smiled at her. “That’s true. But you know what really matters to me?”

“Hmm?” she said, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“It’s how right you feel in my arms. It’s how everything that happened, it’s all been worth it because we’re here together now.”

Her smile lingered but then melted away. Tension crept into her body. She tried to push herself away from me.

“What’s wrong, baby? What’s going on?”

She shook her head. “Nothing, it’s stupid.”

I grabbed her arms and squeezed, not to hurt her, but to let her know I wasn’t going to tolerate shit like that. “Nothing you would ever say to me is stupid. Okay? Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

Tempest seemed locked up.

“Just say it. Don’t be afraid.”

“I have doubts,” she blurted out. “I’m not sure that since everything is over now that you are still going to want to be with me. I…”

“How can you say that?” I began, cutting her off. “You mean…”

“I wasn’t done, I wasn’t done.”

I stopped talking, nodding at her to continue.

“I’m in love with you. I’m in love with you like I’ve never been in love with anyone before.”

I reached for her face, cradling her cheek in my palm. Her eyes turned glassy.

“I’ll just say this,” I began, straightening myself up in my bed. “After everything we’ve been through, nothing,
not even death,
is going to keep me from loving you. How you couldn’t think I didn’t feel the same way about you, I’ll never know. But, I want you to know I do. I love you, Tempest, and I want to prove it to you.”

Tempest wrapped her arms around my neck and we kissed. Of course I loved her, more than anything. We separated, and she glanced at the envelope before looking at me again.

“What did you mean? Prove it? I don’t need anything from you, I…”

I held my hand up, silencing her. “Have you spoken to your father at all?”

She nodded. “Yeah. The day before yesterday. He wants to know when I’m coming for a visit.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Um, well I told him I wasn’t sure, but that I hoped it would be soon.”

Now was the time to see if my investment in her father’s freedom would pay off. If my hunch was right, and they usually were, her dad would be free in a matter of days if I could get her on board. I reached for the envelope and placed it in my lap.

Tempest pointed to it. “What’s that?”

I reached inside the envelope and pulled out one of the photos, passing it to her. “Do you recognize him?”

She responded immediately. “Of course I do. That’s Donald Whitmore. He’s the CEO of Health World Insurance. He’s the son of a bitch who put my dad in jail.”

Her eyes lingered on the picture a bit longer before she passed it back to me.

“Yeah, I know who he is. Why?”

I patted the top of the envelope. She frowned.

“What’s in there?”

I wasn’t going to bullshit her. We’d come too far, been through too much. I had the information I needed to take this guy down, but I wasn’t going to do anything without telling her. Normally, I trusted my gut with all decisions like this but this was bigger than me.

“Dorian,” she began, sitting up straight and staring at me. “I asked you a question. What’s in the envelope?”

I spent the next few minutes showing her everything I had on the squeaky clean insurance executive. I’d paid big money for the set up and the girls. I didn’t have the connections back east to pull it off myself. That’s where I had to rely on Ronan. I guessed after everything that went down with Malcolm, we’d be square now.

Tempest flipped through the photos. With this evidence, taking down a guy like this would be a lay down deal. I studied her face while she scanned the pictures, studying them with her eyes.

“There’s no way the contents of the envelope can be traced back to me, or you.” I said.

She didn’t look up right away, continuing to thumb through the last couple of images.

I continued… “Beyond that, a guy like this… He’s got far too much at risk to try and make an example out of your father. I guess what I’m saying is that he’ll do whatever I ask, even if that means getting your dad out of prison.”

When I finished talking, Tempest dropped her hands into her lap, crinkling the edges of one of the photos.

“Are you… blackmailing this man?”

I scoffed at her. “Babe, after what that company did to your dad for committing petty insurance fraud…
it’s unforgivable
. He’s lucky that’s all I’m going to do to him! I can guarantee you this -- your dad will be home in Vegas within days once I get this in the hands of the right people.”

She averted her eyes, looking down at the images again. Honestly, I figured this could go either way.

“I know my dad was doing what he had to do to try and save my mom’s life. In the end, it didn’t even matter. She died anyway, and now he’s dying his own slow death, rotting up there in that fucking hellhole.”

Tempest gathered up the pictures and holding them in her hand extended them in my direction. “I’m grateful for you wanting to help. Really, I am. But knowing my dad like I do, I know he won’t go for it. He knew what he did was wrong, even while he was doing it.”

I took the pictures from her, nodding. “I respect that, but you know, jail can change a man. It might still be worth a shot. After all, you just have to have a conversation with him about it. It could mean the difference between him being home this week or five years from now, or never.”

Tempest chewed on her lower lip, sucking it in.

“Okay,” she began, looking into my eyes. “I’ll talk to him about it.”

I smiled at her. I won’t lie, I was happy she agreed to at least give it a shot.

“I’m coming with you this time.” I said, sliding the pictures inside of the envelope again.

Surprise came to her face. “You are? Are you well enough to travel?”

I winked at her. “As long as you don’t tell the doctor…”

I
wasn’t
sure what to make of Dorian’s gesture. I mean, I really appreciated it. I did. I knew he was downplaying the amount of risk he took. If anything, it just proved to me how much he really cared, how much he loved me.

God, that still sounded crazy.

A few days later, he and I stood together while I waited for my visit with my dad. Dorian passed me the envelope. “You’re doing the right thing. It’s important for you to believe that.”

I took the envelope from him. Confusion split me in two. I wanted to keep my promise to Dorian that I’d at least talk to my dad about it. At the same time, I worried how my father would react and what he might think.

Ugh, I didn’t feel so good all of a sudden.

“There he is,” Dorian said, pointing.

I swiveled my head and looked, watching my dad walk into the visitor’s area. All the conflicting emotions I’d been experiencing lightened. I smiled, remembering how lucky I was just to be able to see his face again. I’d missed him so much.

I turned and looked up at Dorian. “You’ll wait here?”

“Right here, babe. Take all the time you need.”

I reached up and hugged him, kissing him on the cheek. “I love you. Thank you.”

“I love you, too. You’re welcome.”

I turned away from him and clutching the envelope in my hand, only managed a few steps before it dawned on me.

Shit! The ring! I forgot the ring!

The last time I remembered having it was at my apartment. Jesus… after everything that happened, I had no clue where it could be. It was probably lost, or even worse, one of those thugs picked it up.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed, balling my free hand into a fist.

“What’s wrong?” Dorian asked from behind.

I turned around and told him the whole story about how my father had asked for me to bring a memento of my mom, her wedding ring. He’d wanted to keep it with him.

I’d blown it! I felt like a complete idiot!

“He only asked me for one thing! I couldn’t even do that right!”

Dorian stepped close to me. “Okay, first of all, just calm down. Freaking out is not going to get anything accomplished.”

I exhaled, still unable to shake the feeling of disappointment in myself. Second of all, in the history of freak outs, telling someone to ‘calm down’ helped exactly zero times.

“It’s got to be somewhere,” Dorian continued. “Where is the last time you saw it?”

This conversation felt stupid. What difference did it make? It was gone.

“Tempest. Answer me.”

Exasperated, I shrugged and slapped the outsides of my thighs with my palms.

“The, um, the last time I saw it was at my apartment. It was right before those two fuckers carried Ainsley and me off to the warehouse. I don’t know what I did with it. I had the box. Ainsley looked at the ring. She gave it back to me. Didn’t she? Uh!”

“Well, I could have one of my men go by and look for it. It’s got to be around there somewhere. If it is, we’d have it up here later tonight.”

Beyond frustrated, I groaned. “Don’t bother.”

Completely disgusted with myself, I turned my back on Dorian and started to walk away, resigned to the fact I’d have to explain to my dad that not only did I not have the ring but, oh by the way, would you be interested in blackmailing the man who sent you to prison?

This is gonna be one great visit!

“Tempest,” Dorian said, firmness in his tone. “Tempest!”

I stopped but didn’t turn around. “What?”

“Making the call will only take two seconds. I just need to know what the ring looks like.”

I could’ve picked that ring out in a second, even amongst thousands.

“Oh you know, it’s just a simple wedding ring. It’s really beautiful though.”

Dorian cleared his throat. “Well I’m glad you like it so much, but that’s not a very helpful description.”

He was getting annoyed with me. I can’t say I could blame him for it. He continued.

“Now, turn around and describe this thing to me.” I heard him take a couple of steps closer to me. “Quit wasting time.”

I knew he was just trying to help. What was the worst that could come of it? One of his guys would go by the apartment and find nothing. At the very least, I’d know for sure it wasn’t there. With reluctance, I turned to face him. There, not more than a couple of feet from my face, stood Dorian, holding the wedding ring up in front of him.

“Oh my God!” I yelped, jumping towards him.

I wrapped my arms and legs around his body, dropping the envelope. Dorian staggered back, holding me while I peppered his face with kisses.

“Where did you find it? Where?”

Dorian reached down, grabbing me at the waist and peeling me off of him. He went on to tell me that when he went to my apartment searching for me, he found the ring on the floor of my bedroom. He still held it in his fingers. Seeing it again caused a lump to form in my throat.

“I-I thought I’d lost it.” I began, fighting back a surge of emotion. “It’s all my dad has to remember my mom by and…”

Dorian shook his head. “That’s not true, baby, not even close. The ring isn’t the important thing here. That’s not how your father remembers her. He remembers her through
you
.”

That was all it took. I started crying, heated streaks running down my cheeks. I collapsed into Dorian, hugging him and kissing his perfect lips. When we separated, he passed the ring to me.

“Okay,” I began, trying to collect myself. “I’m just going to go on the record here and say that while I love you for doing this, you’re a bastard for teasing me.”

“I know,” he said, smiling. “Somehow, I’ll learn to live with it.”

I smiled back at him before glancing in the direction of my father. While I did, Dorian bent down and picked up the envelope I’d dropped, passing it to me. I took it from him and held it up between us, pursing my lips.

“Well, I should get over there. Wish me luck.”

He shook his head without any hesitation. “You won’t need it.”

“You don’t know my father.”

* * *

A
pproaching my dad
, I waved at him before taking my now familiar seat on the other side of a plexiglass wall.

The worst part of the whole thing was the old phone receiver. Those things grossed me out. I am not even kidding. The guard told me once they cleaned them in between visits, but I never saw a single person wipe one of them down.

After the first visit, I always brought my own disinfectant. My dad thought it was hilarious. I didn’t care. Once I’d sanitized everything, I picked up the receiver and smiled at him.

“How are you?”

He smiled at me. “Oh, about as good as can be expected, I guess.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t seen him since that night in Vegas. We’d a lot of tense conversations since then. Once everything happened at the warehouse, he dropped the rumor about the hitman. I didn’t ask why. I figured if he wanted to mention it again, he would. I wasn’t going to do it.

“Whatcha got there?” he said, gesturing towards the envelope in my hand.

I squeezed it.

Oh man, here we go.

Now that the time had come to discuss it with him, I really had no idea where to start. If not for the fact someone like Dorian was behind it, the whole thing would seem insane to me. What were the odds of the CEO of a major insurance corporation buckling under pressure and getting my dad out of jail in exchange for keeping his reputation intact?

“Tempest,” Dad said, his voice firm. “What is that?”

Oh the hell with it.

Without hesitating, I got it over with, telling him everything. After all, there wasn’t any point in being cute about it. It was what it was. He would either go for it, or he wouldn’t.

“No, no,” he said, shaking his head. “You know I raised you better than that.”

I bit my lip, conflicted by a need to remind him of everything that had happened.

“Do you remember how much we both suffered during that time? How much we both went through?”

Glaring at me, my dad eased back into the chair. I continued while he stared at me in silence.

“You know, all of your attempts to get a parole hearing have failed. Every. Single. One.”

I pressed my index finger to the envelope, making my point.

“This man… He’s the reason you’re in here. You know that you were only doing the right thing, trying to save Mom.”

He cut me off. “It doesn’t matter, Tempest, I broke the law.”

I rolled my eyes. “I get that. But Dad, while mom is gone, I’m still here. I’m the one that’s left to deal with all of those unpaid bills from lawyers that went along with everything that happened. Me!”

My dad held up his hand, showing me his palm. “We’ve discussed all this before, Temp. Whatever the costs, no matter how long it takes, I will make sure that you are compensated for everything I’ve done. Is that what this is about?”

“No!” I said slapping my hand on the table. “This is about you getting out of this place, while you still can.”

My dad exhaled into the receiver.

“Tempest,” he began, shaking his head. “I know what I did. I’m going to deal with the consequences. I’m not going to be blackmailing anyone. That’s the end of this discussion.”

The tone in his voice said it all. I reached down for the envelope, closing it again. My dad took the opportunity to change subjects.

“Did you bring the ring?”

I nodded and leaned back in the chair, slipping my fingers inside of the front pocket of my jeans. Pulling out the ring, I held it up and placed it against the pane of glass separating us. My dad looked at it for a couple of seconds and then lifted his hand to the glass, placing it over the ring. Not long after, he started to tear up, eventually dropping his hand back into his lap.

That look in his eyes… Ugh, I felt like my heart was gonna break.

“Dad, please don’t be upset. Please.”

While I spoke, the expression on his face changed from sadness to the look of determination.

“I’m not sad, Temp. There’s nothing wrong, nothing at all. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get out of here alive, but I’m going to do it on my own terms.”

He paused, gesturing towards the ring, which I still held between my fingers. “I want to be able to hold that again, as a free man.”

I nodded and glanced at the ring. Now that he’d changed his mind, I had a new problem. “Okay, what do you want me to do with it?”

“Keep it safe,” he began, easing back in his chair. “Who knows? Maybe you can use it one day when you get married.”

Breaking eye contact with my dad, I looked at Dorian. It wasn’t for long, but it was long enough. By the time I turned and met my dad’s eyes again, he was staring at me.

“Is there something else you need to tell me?” he asked, a suspicious tone in his voice.

I shrugged.
Where the hell would I even start?

He didn’t give me a chance, leaning forward and resting an elbow on the table in front of him. “I know Todd is dead…”

I swallowed hard. I’m sure the fact that I had no emotional reaction to his words didn’t help calm his suspicion.

“Dad, I…”

He gestured for me to stop talking, raising his hand in the air. “I don’t care what happened. In my heart I know you weren’t involved.”

He stopped talking and gestured towards Dorian. “I can’t say I believe the same thing about him, though.”

I matched my dad’s posture, leaning in also. “Dad, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be alive right now. Not just because of what happened with Todd but… Listen, it doesn’t matter. He’s saved me more than once. That’s the truth.”

“And now?” my dad replied.

I frowned at him. “Now what?”

“Well, a man doesn’t just come to a prison with a woman to visit her father unless she means something to him.”

Why was I still worried? What difference did it make any more?

I was tired of lying to him, done with it. “We mean something to each other, everything actually. We’re in love.”

My dad didn’t respond right away. He sat there, looking at me nodding “I can’t help but be concerned. That is a father’s job after all.”

“I know.”

He continued. “The only thing your mother and I ever wanted was for you to be happy. That man, does he make you happy?”

I struggled. When he started talking about mom and wanting me to be happy, I almost lost it. This conversation kept getting harder and harder.

“Temp?”

I kept it together somehow. “Yes, he makes me happier than any man I’ve ever been with in my entire life. That’s the truth.”

My dad smiled at me. “Okay, that’s good enough for me. Don’t wait for me to get out of this shithole before getting married.”

I smiled back at him. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. No one’s talking about marriage, and anyway even if we did, there’s no way I would do it without you there. We’d have the wedding here if we had to.”

My dad chuckled a bit. “Well I guess we can talk about that some other time. I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“By the way,” he continued. “I forgot to mention I’ve got an opportunity to do some community service. There’s a chance I’ll be able to get my sentence reduced if it goes well. It’s too soon to tell, but I’m optimistic.”