The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (48 page)

"Wasn't it a lot simpler when you didn't
know? Maybe now you can see why I didn’t want you to be my personal
assistant. I don't know what Melissa was thinking and I was crazy
to take anyone on without a full background check, even if it was
on Jay's word. I guess there's just something about you Price girls
that makes saying no to anything almost impossible." He paused. "Or
getting you to say yes anything either."

More innuendo.

Suzy felt like calling the building security
to have him thrown out except that he probably owned the building
as well.

That and because she wanted to tear his
clothes off first.

"You wanted to 'spare' me, was that it? You
thought I couldn't handle it? Unlike you?"

"Do you think you're handling it well
now?"

Right about everything. Always. Damn
him.

"I just wanted everything to be simple,
forgotten about, done with. But then when I had to babysit
you--"

"You never babysat me."

"Whatever you want to call it, that's when
things began to get…"

"What? Zachary, you are going to drive me
crazy, I swear it."

"That's when things got interesting. You
changed Suzy. The girl I gave a kidney to wasn't much more than a
child. The person I met at your house that night was a grown woman;
very much a grown woman, and one I haven't been able to stop
thinking about since then."

He still wants me. Still. Even now after
everything that's happened.

"But I need to know two things." He
said.

Suzy's heart froze.

"Number two is your answer to the job
offer."

"Okay. You'll have my answer at midday, as
we discussed. What's number one?"

"Number one is how you found out about my
scar. Only a very small number of people knew about this procedure
and all were bound to silence. A man in my position can't afford to
be surrounded by people who can't be counted on to keep their word.
I expect you to be the same Suzy. So tell me the truth. Who was
it?"

She should have known as much. Nothing with
Zachary was ever easy. He wanted her, or so he was saying, and she
wanted him, or at the very least his body, his presence, his world,
for even just one more day. But now there was a complication and
lying wasn't an option; the Demovic brothers were too determined,
too intense, too driven to be put off by flimflam.

She looked down at the desk, knowing the
admission would be hard.

"I still have it." She forced the words out,
her face beginning to burn.

"You still have what?" His words were
clipped, devoid of emotion. Demovic of Demovic Corporation
speaking? Zachary the bedroom God and smoldering hunk of desire was
in the background again.

"I filmed you." She said, her face was so
hot it must have raised the temperature in the office by several
degrees.

Zachary placed his hand on the desk and
softly drummed his fingers. It was the most threatening sound Suzy
had ever heard.

"You told me that you deleted everything
from your phone. I checked your phone. There was nothing
there."

"I did delete everything. After I sent
copies to my email address."

His fingers continued drumming the desk.

"You've kept them all this time."

"Yes. But it's not what you think."

"Are you sure about that?" She glanced up to
see that he hadn't taken his eyes off her for a second.

"No. Of course not. Not with you. You could
be thinking anything. But the truth is that I haven't looked at
those pictures since that night. Last night was the first time and
only because
you
came back into
my
life. I'm very
happy the way things are right now and I don’t appreciate you
coming in here and trying to take over my life again."

He fingers continued to drum softly on the
desk.

"You know what would happen if those
pictures ever got into the wrong hands, don't you Suzy?"

"They won't. I'll delete them if you want me
to. I'll send you copies and then delete them."

Zachary waited, considered and then finally
spoke.

"I want to see them first." He said.

Her heart plummeted and her stomach felt
sick. This was an outcome she had never expected from this
conversation.

"I'll send them to you." She almost
whispered. The unimaginable shame. What must he be thinking?

"I wasn't looking at them. I swear to you. I
just want you to leave me alone."

"Don’t send them to me. Don't send them
anywhere. I don’t want this material on any unsecure network. I'll
come to your house tonight, 8pm. You can show me then."

He was coming to her house again, invading
her home as he had done once before and there was nothing she could
do to stop him.

"I'll leave the key under the flower pot
outside. I have a date tonight--"

"Cancel it." He was clipped and intense, but
then seemed to regain control. "I don’t think you realize how
important this is Suzy. I need to see you delete these images
yourself. Of course I can't ever be sure that you haven't made
other backup copies but I will have to live with that uncertainty.
I'll see you at eight. Don’t be afraid, I'm not angry."

"I'm not afraid." But her voice was
shaking.

"Good." He stood up to leave. "I trust you
Suzy. I know you'll act sensibly about this." He paused. "And one
other thing. You have an additional 24 hours for your decision on
the promotion. Obviously that has to wait until I'm satisfied that
my privacy has been restored. I'll inform the board that they can
expect an answer from you by 10am tomorrow morning."

Suzy couldn't bring herself to raise her
head.

One day back in her life, less than even than a day
and already he had her on the floor, metaphorically speaking. Suzy
hadn't eaten all day, not since Zachary had left her and she had
ignored calls from Melissa and Bella.

But still something in her would never back
down to him; she would rise to meet him and play him at his own
game. As much as he wanted to control her, she would be one step
ahead.

She picked up her phone and dialed a number
she hadn't looked at in months. The call picked up right away but
the voice was hesitant.

"Hello?"

"Mark. It's me. Suzy."

"I can hear that. Suzy, it's uh, great to
hear from you. Unexpected but still great. I think. What's can I do
for you?"

"I think I might need your help with
something."

"Suzy… " The young man's voice was pained.
"You know I'd do anything for you, but don't you remember? It was
you who dumped me, not the other way around."

"I know Mark, and I'm sorry, but you knew as
well as I did it was never going to work out between us. I'm just
not right for you."

The jilted lover didn't respond. He hadn't
gotten over her yet even though the relationship had been brief and
had ended with his ludicrous act of criminal damage to Demovic
Corporation property.

"Look, Mark, I will totally understand if you
tell me to go to hell here and I won't hold it against you, but I
really, really need your help right now. I think I'm in over my
head with something here. If you can't help me then I'm not sure
anyone else can."

"I don't like the sound of this Suzy. What's
going on? What kind of trouble are you in?"

How to tell him without telling him?

"Are you still involved in the campaign to
shut down the Demovic University project?"

"I haven’t done a thing since we talked.
Nothing illegal anyway. I've been playing strictly by the rules
since then."

"I know. That's not the issue. I just need to
know where the project is at."

"It’s the same as ever Suzy. That Demovic
asshole may have all the money in the world but we have the support
of the people, the town hall and the law. If there's any semblance
of an independent judiciary in this country then we'll have a
preservation order slapped on that site eventually and Demovic can
go put his little vanity project somewhere else."

"So you have him over a barrel is what you're
saying?"

"He must be so pissed. All that money and not
a thing he can do."

"Are there any circumstances under which you
would back down?"

"No way. We want a visitor center there to
educate the people about the existing wildlife. Anything else is
out of the question."

"Wasn't there one part of the park that could
be set aside? If I remember right?"

"Well, yeah, but Demovic is so greedy he
won't accept that. He could say the word and then tomorrow he'd be
able to build his little school right there and churn out more
little capitalist machines just like himself. But he's selfish,
greedy, arrogant--"

"He's not so bad." Despite herself, the
insults to Zachary were grating on her nerves.

"Not so bad? This guy is the devil."

"What if I could get the devil to do a deal
with you? Get him to accept your offer and stump up some of the
money for the visitor center?"

"It's too late for that. I don’t want
anything to do with that guy. He had all the opportunities in the
world to make this work and now he's up to his neck in a legal
storm for all the heavy handed tactics of his private army against
peaceful protestors. When we finish with him he won’t have money
for a new computer let alone a new computer innovation center or
whatever the hell it is."

"I doubt that. You know how the law works in
these cases and Zach Demovic isn't just money, he's big, big money.
He could let a case like this drag on for years just to wear you
guys down and in the meantime he's getting richer and your visitor
center isn't getting built and nobody is winning anything. If I
told you I could work on him to get a solution would you work with
me?"

"Are you telling me you want to get into bed
with this guy now?"

"I've never slept with him." She said
instantly.

"Huh?" Mark was momentarily confused." Jesus
Suzy, I was speaking metaphorically. Do you actually know this guy?
Are you seeing him or something?"

"Nothing like that, but let's just say that I
might have something he wants but still need a trump card in order
not to be railroaded by him and his organization. The information
you just gave me might be exactly what I need and if I can tell him
you might be willing to back down on some of the legal cases it
might even be that I could swing a deal with him for you."

"I doubt that Suzy, although I know you can
be pretty damn persuasive when you want to be."

"I just need to know you can be flexible if
necessary, that's all. If you could even commit to just re-opening
a line of communication with him that I think that will be enough.
If you do this for me Mark, I'll never forget it and I swear I'll
make it up to you."

Mark took a deep breath and felt his boner
swell. He still had the hots for Suzy and she was talking sense,
just like she always was. The stupidest thing he had ever done was
take her seriously on the sabotage of equipment campaign, but the
smartest thing had been to drop it like a hot cake as soon as she
had told him to.

"Hey, it's all up to him." He said. "It
always has been, the stubborn asshole. If he'll talk with us, we'll
talk to him."

"I love you Mark."

The doorbell went and Suzy nearly jumped out
of the chair.

It was 8pm exactly.

"Gotta go." She said and hung up abruptly to
the bewilderment of the young man on the other end of the line. He
never had been able to say no to her and as he sat with his
stiffening member, alone in his apartment he wondered where the
hell it had all gone wrong with her.

She remained a mystery to him. A hot mystery
that he still longed to bone.

Suzy stood up to get the door. She didn't
want a fight with Zach but she was damned if she was going to let
him walk all over her and maybe even some good could come out of
this in the end if she could engineer a compromise over the land
development deadlock.

She stood in front of the door and steeled
herself.

Goddamn you Zachary Demovic, this isn't over
yet. You didn't beat me before and you'll lose again this time
too.

She opened the door defiantly and then froze;
he was completely alone. She had expected him to be surrounded by
his security team, ready to search her house for other copies of
the video, and probably a legal team as well to get her to sign
binding documents of non-disclosure before she could even think of
getting legal counsel herself.

But instead it was just him; tall, gorgeous,
irresistibly sexy and all by himself, just as he had been on that
very first night.

"Can I come in?" He said.

"That's why you're here."

He stepped inside, surveyed the room slowly
and then turned his formidable gaze to her. The lights were dim and
he was always inscrutable but he had that unmistakable annoyingly
sexy little grin on his face again. Her apartment looked like a
bomb had hit it and tidying up for him had been the last thing on
her mind.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"I've been busy." She said.

"Obviously you have. I think that empty pizza
box was there the last time I was here."

Suzy moved quickly to tidy it away.

"I've been busy all week. Would you like to
sit down? Have a drink or something?"

"I'd like to see the material."

She took a deep breath. If it wasn't so
humiliating she would have been thrilled to have him back in her
apartment again. The memories of that evening when he had held her
in his arms for the first time and they had shared Chinese food
were intense and in the six months they had not seen each other he
seemed to have grown even more handsome, more irresistible. Hell,
it seemed like he was getting sexier after every time they met each
other.