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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 199
He worked on me in the elevator, too, alternating kisses (and well-placed caresses) with requests.“Come on.”“No,” I giggled as he nibbled my ear.“Are you coming back to the party?”I pushed him away at arm’s length and gave him an Are you serious?! look. “With my makeup like this? Hell no.”He grinned with self-satisfaction. “What? You just look like a beautiful woman who’s had the time of her life.”“Ohhhh, aren’t we self-congratulatory!” I said, and tapped the tip of his nose with my finger.“Well, I figured it was classier than saying ‘had her brains fucked out.’”“Yes, although the second part’s true, too,” I said, stood up on tiptoe, and bit his lower lip softly.He grunted… and then leaned over and hit the STOP button on the control panel.The elevator rapidly slowed and came to a halt.“Connor?” I asked, slightly alarmed.“We need to talk for a second,” he said.There wasn’t the annoying, clanging alarm that you normally hear in an elevator when someone stops it. I didn’t re
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In the overwhelming chaos, I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was that Connor had slumped against me and we had fallen to the floor. He was lying on top of me, unconscious.At least, I prayed that’s all it was. Or I would have been praying if I hadn’t been screaming frantically.Suddenly Connor rolled to the side, and I thanked God that he was alright – Except his eyes were closed and he sagged like a rag doll, no reaction on his face.“CONNOR!” I screamed, clutching at his limp body. “CONNOR – ”And then Johnny was there above me, just a foot away, ten times more panicked than I had ever seen him. He looked like a man who had just lost his entire family in some horrible, sudden tragedy, right before his very eyes.“Lily, are you hit?!” he yelled.“Connor – ”“LILY, ARE YOU SHOT?!”“No, no, I’m okay,” I babbled, and immediately burst into tears.I needed to tell him – I needed to tell him how Connor had sensed the danger, and had wrapped his arms around me, shielding me fr
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Todd the limo driver was pretty damn good. Even without a siren and flashing lights, he got to the hospital just as the EMTs were unloading Connor’s stretcher outside the Emergency Room.The limo screeched to a halt and Sebastian and I jumped out. Johnny was already on the sidewalk as the EMTs released the legs and turned the stretcher into an instant gurney.“Johnny, is he okay?!” I cried out as Sebastian and I ran across the sidewalk.And then I heard the most beautiful sound ever:Connor’s voice, even though it was more like a croak.“…Lily…?”I rushed up beside him and burst into tears. He looked blearily up at me and grasped for my hand. I grabbed it and ran beside him as the EMTs rushed him inside.“…are you okay?...”“Yes, yes,” I sobbed.“…are you sure?...”“You’re the one who got shot!”“…I got shot?”“Just a little bit,” Sebastian said drily.Connor looked up at Johnny. “…don’t I pay you so that doesn’t happen?...”I glanced over at Johnny and saw the guilt on his face.Conn
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I almost started crying again as soon as I entered the dimly lit room.Connor was lying in a hospital bed, dressed in a flimsy hospital gown and his eyes closed. He was hooked up to a ton of machines, and the gentle beep… beep of an EKG machine filled the silence. There was an IV with clear fluid taped to his arm.He looked peaceful. For that, I was grateful.I sat down next to him in a chair and held his hand with both of mine.“Connor, can you hear me?” I whispered.There was no sound but the beeping of the heart monitor.There were so many things I wanted to say to him… and now that he couldn’t hear me, couldn’t talk back… now was the only time I had the courage to say them.“I just wanted to tell you… I love you,” I said, wiping tears off my cheek. “You don’t have to say it. You don’t ever have to say it. I just want you to know that I love you. I’ve always loved you, and I never stopped loving you. I’m sorry I walked out two months ago… I just… please… please get well… please… ev
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The hallway exploded.“Connor!” I gasped.“Connor!” his mother cried out.“Mr. Templeton, get back in bed!” Dr. Sarpara ordered.Somewhere down the hall, somebody yelled into a phone, “Security!”“Come on, man, don’t,” Johnny pleaded, and tried to gingerly push him back into the room – But Connor stood his ground. He gripped the door with one hand to steady himself, and with the other hand pointed at his family like some sort of specter of death. “…get… these fucking people… OUT of here.”“Even now?!” his mother howled. “Even now, you attack us – ”“After you tried to ruin me?!” he yelled, his face wracked with pain from his broken ribs. “After you tried to destroy the woman I love?!”My heart swelled with so much emotion when he said that, I almost burst out crying.“You don’t love her,” Lenora Templeton scoffed, her voice filled with acid.“After you tried to have both of us killed?!” Connor shouted.“What?! Don’t listen to her!” Lenora screamed as she pointed at me. “Why are you
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I didn’t have to turn around, though, to tell who it was. I could see his towering height and imposing outline reflected in the glass, his body silhouetted against the white glow of the hallway.“How is he?” Mr. Templeton asked in a weary voice.I looked over my shoulder at him. Truthfully, I was a little scared.Make that a lot scared.“He’s doing fine,” I said in a quiet voice, trying to mask my nervousness.“Is he in much pain?”How can he even ASK that? I wondered – and then realized that the only image he had of his son was of him yelling at Mrs. Templeton from the hospital doorway.I wasn’t sure I should tell him – I was pretty sure Connor would be angry with me – but hell, he was a father asking about his son.“He’s in a lot of pain, but they’ve got him on pain killers. He’s sleeping right now.”“Good,” Mr. Templeton said, and he sounded like he meant it. Like he was relieved.He slowly walked over to the glass and stood by me, though he never looked at me once. He just gazed o
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“Jesus,” Sebastian muttered.The three of us – me, Sebastian, and Johnny – were all standing in the hallway outside Connor’s room. Sebastian had just finished playing the voicemail back on his phone. Johnny refused to leave Connor, so we’d had to move from spot to spot like we were using a divining wand until we finally enough reception to play back the message. It was muffled and staticky in places, but most of the conversation came through.Johnny frowned at me after it was over. “Why did you go outside?”“You know I went to go get the food!”“You could have walked through the hospital.”“I would have if I thought that psychotic bitch was going to be waiting for me.”“Yeah, well… don’t go outside unprotected again.”“You were going to send me home,” I pointed out. “She could have just as easily gotten me when I walked out to catch the cab, or when I got to my apartment. Besides, she didn’t do anything – and she’s not going to do anything, not when there’s this much heat on her from
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The cops came by shortly thereafter to question Connor. I watched them suspiciously the entire time, wondering which one might be getting paid off by Miranda. Connor knew about as much as I did – which is to say, not much more than he’d been shot. He repeated the story several times, but nothing interesting surfaced until one of the cops asked, “Did you recognize the shooter?”“No. Do you have any information on him?”The cops looked at each other. “Not yet.”“‘Not yet’? It’s not like he got away – you’ve got his goddamn corpse.”“His prints aren’t in the FBI database, the federal prison system, or any of the state prison systems.”“Of course not, somebody either hacked the system and wiped his record, or he’s from out of the country,” Connor snapped. “Have you tried Interpol yet?”The cops looked at each other again. “Uh… that’s our next step. All that about somebody hacking the system or him being a foreigner – why did you say that?”“Because the person behind this isn’t going to t
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