Resisting the Billionaire Collection (67 page)

God... they’ve got to
stop. This is insane!
She tried to say
something but only a strangled gasp came out.

"You’re too late, you sneaky little asshole.
She’s mine. Now get out of here before I throw you out!" Joshua
shouted as he hunched menacingly over the supine Adam. Adam ignored
him and looked into MJ’s eyes.

"It’s not up to you, Blake." He said,
skittering backwards on his ass away from Joshua. "It’s up to
her."

Joshua advanced on him. "There was an
agreement. You show up here at 6:00. If you’re not here, then
you’ve lost the game. Now cover up that pathetic little thing you
call a dick and get out of here."

"Why don’t you use that pathetic thing you
call a brain to look at your watch? It’s 6:00 NOW. I wasn’t late.
You came early. Pretty typical for you anyway: always
premature."

Adam reached for his shorts and Joshua got
ready to dish out a bone-shattering blow with his right hand.

"Stop it both of you!" MJ shouted. "You hit
him and you can get out of here as well."

Joshua looked at her in exasperation but
eventually lowered his arm. Adam pulled his shorts back on. Joshua
looked at his watch.

"It’s five after six." He said darkly. "Now
get out."

"It’s not that simple." MJ said.

"Oh, for God’s sake." Joshua hissed.

"You heard her, tough guy." Adam
grinned.

"The invitation was a joke, you pair of
clowns."

"Well, the joke’s on us MJ. You sure nailed
us." Adam said. "But now that we’re all here anyway--"

"No way." Joshua said. "I’m not here to
share MJ with anyone. Not now, not ever. I had to come just to make
sure she wasn’t left alone, unclaimed, but--."

"Unclaimed?" MJ snorted. "What is this, 5000
BC?"

Joshua looked at her defiantly. "What part
of the joke included you dressing up in the sexiest outfit I’ve
ever seen?"

MJ looked down at herself. In the confusion
she had lost all self-consciousness. She looked around for her silk
wrap.

"Sure, cover it all up
now." Joshua said sarcastically. "Now that I’ve seen just how
beautiful you are and how sexy you can be, you’re going to cover it
all up again?" She pulled the flimsy silk wrap around her. "You
call
that
covering up?" He said incredulously. "You’re just trying to
make me harder than I already am. What’s really going on
here?"

"Don’t make this
complicated, dude." Adam cut in. "Like MJ said, this isn’t 5000 BC.
This is the 21
^st
century. We can all
share like adults."

"Adults? You’re not even old enough to drink
a beer in this state, you punk. I’m doing you and your family a
favor by even having your irresponsible punk ass in my apartment.
Then I ask you to do one simple goddamn thing for me and you mess
it up."

"What’s he talking about?" MJ was lost,
embarrassed and confused.

"Don’t worry about that." Joshua said. "Just
know this MJ, I still want you. I want you more than anything I’ve
ever wanted, but I will not…God damn it, I will not allow you to
lower yourself to this." He waved his hand around to indicate the
whole crazy scenario. "This isn’t the MJ I know."

"What are you talking about? You don’t know
me at all, Blake. In fact, neither of you do."

"Yes I do." He said emphatically. "Much more
than you think. And I know damn sure that all this is not who you
are."

"Stop it, dude." Adam said. "You’re ruining
something really special here."

"Get out!" Joshua turned threateningly on
him. "Get out of here now. I mean it."

Adam backed away, but he looked pleadingly
at MJ. She lifted her eyes and when she caught his gaze, she was
suddenly filled with revulsion.

"Go on." She said. "Do as he says. Get
out."

"No." He gasped. "Please, MJ." He went down
on his knees. "God, I was willing to share you. Christ, I couldn’t
do that unless I loved you more than--"

Joshua yanked him up by the scruff of the
neck. "She said get out, now go on. GET!" Adam knocked Joshua’s
hand away from him, gathered his things and then moved slowly to
the door.

"It’s up to you, MJ. You want me gone then
I’ll go, but I’m not leaving until you tell me to go."

She looked down at the ground. "Go." She
whispered. He still didn’t move.

"Look at me." He said.

She raised her eyes, red with anger,
defiance and shame. "Go. Go on. Get out!" She shouted at him. "I’m
sorry." She whispered.

"It’s okay, MJ." He said quietly as he
disappeared from the bedroom.

Joshua and MJ listened to his footsteps
cross the living room and then when the front door banged shut,
they knew they were alone.

Very, very alone.

A cold wave of shame and guilt flooded in
upon her and MJ couldn’t bear to lift her eyes up to the man beside
her. Was this right? She was alone with the one who wouldn’t share
her. The possessive one. The arrogant one. The revulsion she had
felt when she met Adam’s gaze hadn’t been for him, it had been for
herself.

"I’ve been so stupid." She whispered.

Joshua reached out and placed the curled
index finger of his right hand under her chin. When she lifted her
gaze he was staring at her, his eyes filled with melting, haunting
kindness where she had expected hurt, anger, disapproval.

"MJ, I don’t know why you did this and I
don’t care either. But I do know that you are anything but stupid
and anything but selfish." He dropped his hand down, took a step
closer to her, and then hesitated.

She felt the immanence of his presence, the
heat of his body, the smell of his warm, masculine skin, so
recently excited by lust and anger.

She knew that she wanted. Passionately. She
was filled with need but after all she had done and all that had
happened, she didn’t know what it was exactly that she wanted
anymore.

Joshua was still dressed only in his shorts,
his broad chest slowly lifted and fell in front of her, filling her
gaze. Her own breast trembled in the cool atmosphere of the
air-conditioned apartment.

"I’m… " her voice was husky, filled with
guilt and contrition. "I guess I’m yours now." She whispered.

She watched the muscles of his chest
contract, his chiseled six pack bunched and flexed just inches in
front of her.

"That was the bargain." He said in an
equally low voice. She said nothing, but her body was crying
out.

"What are you waiting for?" She whispered.
"That was the deal. Why don’t you go ahead and take what’s
yours?"

She heard his breathing change, deepening as
his body prepared for action. She looked down and saw his shorts
begin to grow again. She closed her eyes and waited for him to
claim his prize. MJ wondered what it would feel like. She had
already watched him climax desperately while lying next to her, his
very heat and presence forcing her to her own incredible peak of
pleasure.

What would it be like to have that very real
desire engulf her now that she had no right to refuse him?

"I’m going." She heard him
whisper. She opened her eyes in shock.
Going?
It was the last thing she
expected him to do.

"I don’t understand." She said. "You were
ready to beat Adam up to get him out of here. Now we’re alone
together and you’re leaving?" She put her pale hand to his brawny
chest. He put his own dark hand over hers, pressing it to him.

"This isn’t right. I should have never come
here. You’ve been going through a tough time MJ, and I haven’t been
making it any easier for you. This whole thing was sheer madness
and I should have talked you out of it."

MJ’s heart was breaking. The words were
right, all of them, but despite everything, her body cried out for
him. After the insanely long days of desperation, worry, heartache
and confusion, the one thing she was certain of now was that she
wanted this man. The one who had come to claim her, the man who
would never share her with anyone else.

"Don’t go." She whispered. "Please. I need
you to stay."

He pulled her hand away from his chest. "You
think you do. But it’s not the right time. You need to think -- we
both do. I’m going now." He picked up his clothes and walked to the
door.

"I have to go now. But if you need anything,
just call me. You can stay here as long as you need to."

MJ watched him go and as the front door
closed behind him, a wave of darkness filled her.

Chapter
Thirty-Seven

MJ’s phone was on silent beside Joshua’s bed. She
had been lying there in numb silence in the half hour since he had
left her. Her vacant stare rested on the phone and she registered
the missed call she had received while she lay in a daze.

It was from Alison.

She ignored the message and called straight
back. Alison was the one she needed to speak to about this. The
only one she could speak to.

"MJ! Thank God, where were you? You're not
backing out on this date are you?"

"Ally… oh my God! Of course not, no. I’m,
uh, I’m on my way." She had forgotten completely about the date
with Josh Drummond. "What time is it now?"

"What time is it? Jesus, are you even ready
yet? You sound groggy, are you okay?"

"I’m okay, really. Don’t worry. I won’t let
you down, I’ll be there." She desperately wanted to talk about her
trainwreck of an evening so far, but this wasn’t the time. A
promise was a promise and MJ didn’t have many friends left.

"Josh is picking you up at 8:00 and it's
already after seven. Do you want me to call him? Push it back by an
hour?"

MJ thought a moment. She was at home and
Josh was coming to pick her up. She had already made her decision
between the two men. It wasn’t finished with Blake, she knew that.
Despite everything, at least the torment of her indecision was
over.

"No need, Alison," She said sounding
suddenly much more relaxed. "I'm just about ready. Can't wait to
meet him after all this time."

Like it or not, Daniel Drummond was now
Alison’s husband and as much a part of her family as anyone could
be. Josh was Alison’s brother-in-law. She couldn't let her friend
down by not, at the very least, showing up and being polite to him.
And after all, it was just a date. Maybe it would help get her mind
off the weirdness of the last few hours and the last couple of
days.

MJ put on her wrap and went to the bathroom.
She took a relaxed shower and then went to Adam's bedroom to get
dressed. Smart casual and easy; no stress. She fixed up her hair,
redid her makeup and then went to the living room to wait for her
date to arrive.

The buzzer sounded punctually at eight.
"There's a car waiting to pick you up ma'am." The doorman said.

Of course. These damn
show-off billionaires and their limousines.
She remembered how excited Alison and she had been when that
Bryant guy from the millionaire dating website had sent around his
car to pick up Alison for her first date. They had both been so
much in awe.

Tonight, she couldn't have cared less.

When she got downstairs, it all looked very
familiar. The driver held the door for her and she stepped inside.
All the same show of luxury that Blake had, even the same trick of
mixed and ready cocktails waiting for her.

She didn’t wait. She needed a drink after
the evening she had just had and it was barely even nightfall. She
took a sip. Another perfect Cosmopolitan.

Must be back in fashion with the masses for
the next ten seconds. She tapped on the window and the tinted glass
rolled down.

"Yes ma'am?"

"You can call me MJ buddy, okay?"

"Whatever you say, MJ -- ma'am."

"So tell me, does your boss send you out to
pick up a lot of girls this way?"

"Not that I know of, MJ. Although I'm not
his regular driver."

Probably coached to keep mum on all his
boss’s philandering I suppose.

"Okay, whatever. So where are we going?"

"Jean Jacques, ma'am. I mean, MJ."

"That old
chestnut."
The place where Alex Drummond
impersonated his brother for Olivia. Must be one of the billionaire
hangouts of New York City.

She rode the rest of the journey in silence,
enjoying the perfect Cosmopolitan. She had to hand it to these
limousine dating rich guys, they sure did make good Cosmos.

At Jean Jacques, she was escorted to her
table by the ever-attendant maitre d'. She seemed to be a guest of
honor, even though she wasn’t really dressed for the occasion. MJ
was nothing in comparison to the jewel dripping, size zero, plastic
surgery enhanced effigies of femininity that decorated the other
tables.

She sat and waited, still basking in the
glow of relief at having made her decision about Blake. She
couldn’t wait to see him again, to talk to him properly and discuss
everything that would need to be before he would take her to that
big bed of his and show her what he was really made of.

A contented grin still played on her
delicate pretty mouth as she looked up and saw the man in question
right in front of her. Her smile disappeared, her jaw dropped.

"Blake," she sputtered, "what the hell are
you doing here?"

His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. He
took a deep breath in and then gave her a tense smile. He was
dressed up again, a full change of clothes into obviously hand
tailored executive billionaire high fashion. He exuded culture and
wealth but still bore a residual aura of his recent animalistic
desire and struggle to contain his almost unbearable urge to take
her the moment she had offered herself to him.

"I have a date here tonight." He said with a
tense smile as he took the seat opposite to her.