Resisting the Billionaire Collection (60 page)

"You're really sweet. Thanks again.
Goodnight Adam, I'll see you in the morning." She turned over and
closed her eyes.

"Goodnight, MJ. Can't wait to see you again
in the morning." He whispered.

God how I can't wait to see you again in the
morning.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

When MJ didn’t show up at the Mission, Joshua
couldn’t make up his mind if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
He hadn’t been very nice to her at the apartment, which he
regretted now, and it would have been nice for her to see him
contributing selflessly to a cause that he knew meant a lot to
her.

On the other hand, if he was to believe
Alison, then that plan was very likely to backfire. When he checked
messages after the ceremony and helped to serve supper at the
shelter, he realized what a big mistake he had made.

Jonas had followed Adam and MJ downtown and
monitored them as they drank beer together in some cozy
hole-in-the-wall café/bar. His frustration and sense of betrayal
began to mount again as he raced back home, knowing that the couple
had already returned home and had been there alone for hours.

According to Jonas nothing seemed to be
happening, but how long would that go on for? When he got back to
the apartment, there was no one around and silence from Adam’s
bedroom.

The temptation to throw the door open and
haul Adam out by the ankles was immense. But it would only serve to
push her further into his arms.

"Why don’t you open that goddamn package,
MJ?" He whispered in desperate frustration. She had had it for over
a day already. Who could wait that long to open a mystery
package?

He turned to go back to his bedroom but
stopped when he heard a low male moan from behind the door. There
was the sound of movement, the rustle of bedclothes and he put his
hand to the door ready to storm in and throw the pair out on the
street.

"Meeooww!"

"Oh my God!"

"Blackjack!"

There was a lot of fumbling and the sound of
footsteps and then MJ’s voice.

"I'm so sorry. Blackjack, you naughty cat,
come here."

Then some mumbling from Adam.

"Give me the cat." He heard MJ say
distinctly but failed to make out what followed.

What the hell is going on in there?

He squeezed his fingers around the handle
again. He heard MJ say something else, too low to make out and
then, "Good night Adam, I'll see you in the morning.", followed by
a mumble from Adam.

Okay, so maybe they weren’t doing it in
there. Or maybe he was too late and they were already done. Either
way, if he threw the two of them out now, the game was over and he
was the loser. MJ too. The only winner would be Adam, until he
found some other girl he believed he was in love with and wasted a
month of her life finding out that he the collection of tunes on
her iPod made them incompatible.

Hold on Joshua, hold on. You can do
this.

He walked heavily back down the hall feeling
more helpless than he had felt in his whole life.

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

When MJ woke the next morning, it was another sunny
New York day. She felt absurdly happy for no reason and as the
clouds of her dreams evaporated in the morning sunshine, she
remembered why. Those handsome features, that ripped torso, the
shower robe half open and those deep, dark, piercing brown
eyes.

She gasped in shock. 

That was Blake she was thinking about; the
asshole who wanted to kick her out of his huge mostly empty
apartment for no reason. The arrogant and insulting one. She rolled
over in the bed and checked guiltily to see if Adam, her sexy
guardian angel, was still beside her, but he was gone.

What is going on with
me?
She shook her head to clear her
thoughts and then headed to the bathroom to take a shower. Where
the hell was Adam gone to again? She still didn't feel comfortable
being alone in the apartment, especially not with the hostile Blake
around making her feel unwelcome.

She shed her underwear got into the shower
and was soon immersed in gushing warm water. Blake. It was his
shower she was in. One of them anyway. An image of his beautiful
body as he had leaned against the doorframe in the kitchen flashed
through her mind. Successful, wealthy, young, gorgeous.

She brought the shower head lower but then
caught herself. She didn't have time for that today. She wanted to
get out of the house and start her job hunt. It was time to bounce
back at life, just like she always had. 

Blake was definitely her type in so many
ways, but so why did he have to be such an asshole? And Adam was so
hot, so sweet, but a total loser.

Just my damn luck.

She finished up in the shower and stepped
outside. She paused for a moment to look at herself in the mirror.
On one level she knew she was beautiful, but she had never quite
gotten over that last asshole of a boyfriend. He had always made
her feel bad about how she looked. The dick had even suggested
plastic surgery to make her ass smaller and her tits bigger.

Maybe the idiot was right?

Just then, the door opened and Joshua
marched into the bathroom. She had forgotten to lock the door. He
stopped in middle of the floor as she grabbed for something to
cover her but all she could find were tiny hand towels.

Fuck.

He looked genuinely embarrassed as he
searched for a towel as well and then gave it to her while he
covered his eyes with his other hand.

"Thanks. Thank you." She said.

"Don't you ever think of locking the damn
door?" He said irritably.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I was just tired
this morning is all."

"Tired?"

Giving it up to my asshole
of a roommate all night?
The thought
flashed through his head.

MJ didn’t respond

"You're living with two men now, so you
better get used to it." He said.

MJ adjusted the long towel and composed
herself. Blake was still in the bathroom. Still looking at her. She
felt her nipples go hard under the soft fabric of the fluffy towel.
She had dreamed about him. She couldn't remember what, but he had
been in her head last night.

"You're still here." She said.

"I'm what?" He faltered.

"What are you waiting for? The towel to fall
off so you can get another flash?"

Are you going red Mr. Arrogant Rich Guy
Asshole?

He was.

"Look. I'm uh... sorry. Just please lock the
damn door in future, okay?" He turned and fled. MJ sniggered to
herself. Maybe she would accidently forget to lock the door again
another couple of times before she got the hang of it.

She dressed and then went
to the kitchen to fix coffee. Blake had left a note with his cell
phone number on the counter.
‘I’m your
landlord now.'
It said
. ‘Put my number in your phone.’

God, what an
asshole.
She thought as she typed the
number in.

She ate a light breakfast and then hit the
streets. She soon found an Internet café and then set to work on
recruitment websites. The truth was that her options weren't
exactly great anymore. She had been fired as a café manager and
then again as a receptionist. She was nearing thirty and didn't
have many qualifications. She was sending her resume off on long
shots mostly. 

MJ looked at her phone again, longing to
speak to Alison. She could really use a friend by her side
now. If only she hadn’t married that asshole. She decided to
put the job search on hold and call her friend again.

"Hey baby, how are you? You didn't call
yesterday. What was it, a hot date?"

"You're worse than my mother ever was Ally,
you know that?"

"I'm just kidding, MJ. Look, how's the
apartment hunt going?"

"Really good, actually. I found a place, a
really nice one, too."

"Already? That was quick. Where is it?"

"Upper East Side. Pretty high-end but it's a
real deal."

"Upper East Side? Did you get a promotion or
something?"

"No. Just uh, got lucky I guess. Some rich
guy rents it and doesn't charge much for the other rooms."

"You moved in with a guy?"

"He's not around much. Apparently travels
quite a lot and the other tenant is very sweet."

"Well, I'm thrilled to hear it. Look, now
that you're a little more settled, can you please, please, please
just consider meeting with Josh Drummond?"

"Oh Alison, come on already."

"Please, MJ. If you won't do it for him,
then please do it for me. The guy is just nuts to meet you and he
absolutely won't leave me alone. You have no idea how persistent
these Drummond guys are. You would be so doing me a favor."

Jesus,
she thought,
I have got to get some
of this heat off me.

"I told you I would think about it but I
can't say yes right now. Look, I may have kind of met someone
already."

Alison began shrieking down the telephone.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Tell me everything right now.
Don't leave anything out or I'm getting on a plane and coming to
NYC tonight and I will freaking water board you in the shower until
I get what I want."

"Jesus Christ, why did I say anything at
all?"

"Too late now, kiddo. I want details. What's
he like? Send me a picture right away."

"No pictures yet, it's still in the early
days."

"Is he tall? Short? Skinny? Fat?"

"He's good looking. Tall, dark, deep brown
eyes. Successful."

Dark?

"Really? What does he do?"

"Uh, a business type. You know, travels a
lot." She had set out to describe Adam but realized she was
describing Blake instead.

"Jesus, I have to get Josh out there fast if
he's to have any chance with you at all. Once he knows you're
getting involved with someone, he is going to go berserk. He will
stop at nothing, I swear to you."

MJ's idea was backfiring big time. It looked
like the heat had turned up, if anything. Then a thought came to
her out of nowhere.

"Alison, before you go crazy with this whole
Josh thing, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot, MJ. You know you can ask me
anything."

"Anything at all?"

"Of course, you're my big sister, my New
York City guardian angel, what could I hide from you?"

"Okay then. Tell me about that night."

Alison faltered. "What night is that?"

"You know which night."

It was the one thing in the world Alison
couldn't speak about.

"MJ, come on. You know I can't--"

"You just told me there could be nothing
between us, so why is this any different?"

"It's not me and it's not you. I took an
oath. I promised I would never speak about it to anyone. We don't
even speak about it to each other for God's sake."

"Really?"

"Really. It’s off limits. We agreed to that
a long time ago and it is not up for discussion."

"Why not?"

"MJ, come on, stop this already. What are
you trying to do? Let's stay focused on you here."

"If you want me to be honest with you, then
you need to be honest with me."

"I can't."

"Can you tell me anything at all?"

"You already know all you need to know. He
tricked me. For God's sake, the two of them are identical. Even
their own father can't tell them apart most of the time."

"So did you do both of them? At the same
time?"

Alison sighed.

"MJ. I so really don't want to talk about
this."

"Because it was so amazing or because it was
so bad?"

Alison paused. She really wanted her friend
to date Josh. He was aching to meet her and it would be just so
cool, so perfect if they hit it off. Then she would get to spend
loads of time together with her friend again, just like in the old
days.

True, Josh was a Drummond, so it might be a
little tough in the beginning. But God, he was every bit as
gorgeous as either of his two older brothers and every bit as
determined. If MJ would just meet him, she knew her friend wouldn't
be able to resist that overwhelming Drummond charm. Add to that
trips to Paris on a private jet, champagne, and shopping in
Shanghai or Tokyo on a whim, what girl could resist that kind of
lifestyle?

"Okay." She said. "I'll tell you this much,
but you have to agree to something for me."

"Maybe. Depends what it is."

"You have to agree to meet Josh."

"And you tell me what happened that
night?"

"No way, but I will answer just one question
and one only. A question of your choice."

MJ weighed the proposition in her mind. She
hardly even knew why this suddenly meant so much to her. Sebastian
had come in to the Tête-á-Tête café and blurted out in front of an
audience of strangers a pile of weird details of something he had
done to Alison. Soon after that, Alison had left town and had never
consented to talk about the episode ever again. Then she had
married the guy.

It didn’t add up and MJ wanted to know why.
Somehow she knew it would help her make up her mind about
something. If not now then in the future. Was it worth it to have
to endure an evening with Josh Drummond though?

Last night I tried to
trick my twin brother into having sex with the woman I love.
That was what Sebastian had said and Alison had
never elaborated further. Then a couple of months later they were
married.

"Okay, it’s a deal." She finally said.

Alison took a deep breath. She wanted MJ to
meet Josh, but she dreaded what her question about that night would
be.

"So you’ll go on a date with him?"