The Billionaire Bargain #2(24)
“Stupid, stupid, stupid, corrupt—”
I grabbed his arm, and he sagged immediately to avoid pulling me into the wall with his fist.
“Hey,”I said softly.“Hey. Stop it. You’re hurting yourself.”
“How could I have been so stupid?”he whispered.“It was just supposed to be a bit of fun, I knew they had the camera but I didn’t think, I just didn’t think, I never think and it all goes to hell—”
“You can’t blame yourself, Grant—”
“How can I not blame myself? My stupid need to get my dick wet is threatening hundreds of jobs.” He sagged, almost fell forward, letting his forehead rest against the edge of the hole he’d made in the wall.“You told me to take itseriously, and now I do, and I don’t know what to do. How do people live like this? How do they care about things all the time and not go stark raving mad?”
“Well, sometimes they do go mad,”I said, reaching up to rub his back slowly.“But most of the time, they talk to their friends, and they help each other see that nothing is insurmountable.”
“This feels insurmountable,”he said, but his eyes closed as I rubbed his back, and his voice relaxed, slipping into its broad Australian vowels. It made him sound so young.“How do we distract from something this big? Jennings isn’t going to listen to some song and dance while our house is on fire.”
And somehow, just like that, I knew what to do.
“We don’t distract,”I said, feeling the warm glow that spreads through your body when you come up with an idea you just know is right.“We don’t dodge. That’s what everyone expects us to do, the sleaze move.”
“If we don’t do that, what can we do?”
“We can get in front of it.”I was so excited I hugged him, reaching up on my tiptoes to plant a smacking kiss on his cheek.“You’ll face the music! Own up to your mistakes. Oh, Grant, don’t you see? Call Jennings, ask for a meeting to show him you have nothing to hide. You made a mistake, a regrettable one with humiliating consequences, but you’re moving forward and that’s all that matters. That’ll prove you’re not the person the media’s making you out to be.”
Grant’s eyes opened, and he stood up straight, looking down on me as if I were the eighth wonder of the world.
“You have the best ideas in whole damn universe,” he said, and kissed me.
His lips were rough, burning, possessive, as if he were claiming a trophy he had won in combat, and all I wanted to do was grab onto him and kiss him back until our clothes spontaneously combusted and we didn’t even care.
I pushed him away. “Less smooches, more calling Jennings!”
Grant made a pained face but pulled his cell from his pocket. His voice when the other end picked up was upbeat and plain, like a Boy Scout called to testify in a court of law.
“Sir, I know you’ve seen the news and I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you, but as you can imagine, I’ve been trying to take care of Lacey and make sure her needs are met through all this. She doesn’t deserve this shit-storm, if you’ll pardon my French, and I’m trying to do right by her.”A pause as he listened.“You’re right to be wary, and I want to talk about all your misgivings. Would you join me at our building tomorrow for lunch? I want to hash this out with you. You’ll see I have nothing to hide.”His eyebrow quirked in surprise at something, but his voice stayed even.“Yes, Lacey will be there too. I promise.”
? ? ?
Lunch was exquisite: artisan baguettes, a platter covered with slices of prosciutto, crisp slices of Asian pear topped with blue cheese crumbles and drizzles of honey, lavender-rosemary Madeleine's. And no one in the room was taking a bite.
“—and that’s the whole truth, sir,” Grant finished. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but I’m not going to lie about it either. It’s all in the past, and Lacey—” he reached across to me, taking my hand—is my future.”
He sounded so sincere even I almost believed he saw me that way. Still, Jennings kept his poker face firmly attached, and there was a pregnant pause before he opened his mouth to speak.
And then an intern burst through the door.“Mr. Devlin, this call, they keep insisting on speaking to nobody but you, I didn’t know what to—”
“We’re busy, Paula,”I said firmly.“And if you’ll recall our procedures for belligerent callers—”
“Oh, you go on ahead. I’ll be fine waiting,”Jennings said amiably. It was the first time I’d heard him speak in anything less than a roar, and for some reason that worried me.“As long as I have the lovely Miss Newman to keep me company.”
Grant shot him a look that told me he was wondering if Jennings had engineered this call himself just to get me alone, but removed himself graciously.
The second he was out of the room, Jedediah Jennings turned to me and took my hand.“Oh, sweet child. Now I want you to know—I want to believe that nice young feller. But I’m going to need you to tell me the truth.”His twinkly blue eyes were grave.“Don’t protect him now just because you love him, because there’ll be a line of gentlemen around the block to love you if he’s not the one. You’re a good girl, and I know you’ll tell me the truth, won’t you?”