The Billionaire’s Game. 2
She wiggled out of his grip and headed unsteadily for the door, Kade hot on her heels.
She opened the door and turned to look at him, her eyes bright with tears and probably fever. “Please. Just leave me alone. My life is difficult enough right now. I can’t deal with anything else. I’m not related to those people in the picture, and I wish you’d stop following me.”
Kade opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped short as her body began crumpling to the ground. He caught her just in time, scooping her into his arms and slamming the door closed. Taking her to the big bed, he laid her on the comforter. Staring down at her, he realized two things immediately: she was very sick, and this was the woman in that unsettling drawing he had seen in her collection. It had been a self-portrait, a woman pouring out her own emotions on a drawing pad.
“Fuck,”
Kade uttered irritably, realizing that Asha wasn’t really very coherent. Her eyes were closed and her body was as limp as a wet noodle. Her thin shirt was drenched with perspiration, and her skin was fiery hot.
Her eyes flickered open momentarily, and she squinted at him, as though she were slightly confused. “I love your shirt. It’s so…happy and colorful,”
she murmured softly, attempting a weak smile. “I really need to go now. I have things to do,”
she said groggily, her voice lacking conviction.
Kade would have smiled if he wasn’t so panicked about having a woman this sick on his bed. She was as weak as a kitten and he doubted she could even get to the edge of the bed without help. He admired her tenacity, but she wasn’t going anywhere on her own steam.
“Yeah, we are going,”
Kade answered, wrapping her now trembling body in a blanket from the bed. “To the hospital.”
He might be able to do minor first aid on sports injuries, but he had no idea what to do with a woman as sick as Asha was at the moment.
Her eyes flew open wide, her expression now panicked and her teeth chattering. “I c-can’t g-go there—it’s expensive…”
Her voice trailed off as she started coughing so hard that it rocked her fragile body.
Fuck! She’s sick as hell, and all she’s worried about is the expense?
Her illness scared the shit out of him. In fact, it terrified him almost as much as the possessive, protective instincts he was experiencing as he realized how vulnerable she was at the moment. But mostly, it bugged the hell out of him that she was actually frightened. He didn’t ever want this woman to be scared of him or anything else on the planet. Why...he wasn’t quite certain, but he’d leave that mystery for another time. All he wanted at that very moment was to see her well and healthy. In fact, the need to get her that way was about to become an obsession.
He lifted her, blanket and all, and hauled her off to the hospital.
Asha came awake slowly, her head foggy and her entire body aching. Blinking several times to clear her vision, she tried to remember where she was and what had happened to her. Strangely, all she could remember was Kade.
Kade…forcing her to wake up to give her medication.
Kade…plying her with fluids.
Kade’s reassuring voice as she fell asleep, so exhausted she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
Asha tried to scramble into a sitting position, looking frantically around the room, her heart thundering as she realized she was still in Kade’s very nice hotel room.
What the hell am I doing here?
Crawling to the edge of the massive bed, she started to cough as she swung her feet over the edge, making her grasp her sore ribs as she continued hacking and barking. “Damn it!”
she choked between coughs. Bending at the waist, she held her side, wincing from the soreness of her ribs and abdomen, the muscles strained from coughing.
I can’t afford to be sick right now. Survive! Survive! Survive!
“What the hell are you doing?”
Kade’s angry voice sounded from across the room.
He brought her a glass of water and some pills. She swallowed them compliantly, not even asking what they were. She felt too horrible to care, and he’d already had the chance to kill her if he was some sort of crazed lunatic. If the pills would make her feel better, she’d swallow anything he gave her.
“You can’t get up yet,”
Kade told her in the voice of a dictator, taking the empty glass from her hand. “You have pneumonia.”
“I need to use the bathroom,”
she told him, embarrassed, but the need to pee was so urgent that she couldn’t wait.
Kade didn’t say a word. He scooped up her body remarkably gently for a guy who had a body built like a Mack truck, and took her to the bathroom, plopped her on the toilet seat, folded his arms and lifted a brow. “Go.”
Asha looked up at him. “Seriously? You expect me to go with you standing right here?”
No way was that happening. She was dressed in her threadbare nightgown with no panties, clothing she must have donned after their visit to the hospital, but she didn’t remember doing it. The memories of the emergency room were slowly coming back to her, but everything was pretty hazy. “I can’t pee with you watching me.”
Having this conversation, this experience with a man she barely knew was mortifying, but she was in a desperate situation where she had little choice but to be blunt. Her bladder was ready to explode, and she was trying desperately not to cough.
Kade grinned and turned his back. “Okay. Now go. I shared a locker room with plenty of guys. It was close quarters and I’ve heard plenty of men take a piss. I’m sure it sounds pretty much the same with a female.”
“I’m not one of the guys. Leave,”
she insisted, grinding her teeth with the need to relieve her herself.
“Not happening. You’re too weak and you’re likely to fall. You’re sick, Asha. And I just gave you something for your cough and the pain that will probably just make you loopier. I’m not leaving.”
To tell the truth, she was weak, dizzy, and miserable. Still, how could a woman use the bathroom with a man she didn’t know standing right in front of her? Finally, the needs of her body won out and she quickly did her business, and rose, needing to grab onto the waistband of Kade’s jeans to keep herself upright.
He had her in his arms quicker than she could blink, cradling her against his muscular chest, strong arms enveloping her, making her feel safer than she’d felt…well…ever. How could she feel so vulnerable and yet so safe at the same time?
“Wait. I need to wash my hands,”
she told him weakly.
“You have to worry about good hygiene now?”
Kade rolled his eyes, but he stopped patiently at the sink, testing the water temperature before he let her put her hands under the faucet. He dried her hands like she was a child and proceeded back to the bedroom at a fast stride for a man who limped.
After he’d tucked her back into bed, she asked softly, “What time is it?”
Kade sat on the edge of the bed, answering, “You came here yesterday afternoon. It’s now…”
He glanced at his watch. “Eight o’clock in the evening. You slept all last night and all day.”
“Oh, no! I had a job today. I have to make a call.”
She really needed the money from the job, and she had to call and reschedule. Losing the income was not an option, and her fear and survival instincts were beating at her. For so many years, one word had pounded through her brain unceasingly: Survive. Survive. Survive. “I needed that job, and now I have to pay for the hospital visit and the medicine.”
“What kind of job?”
Kade asked curiously. “The hospital has already been paid and I have all the medication you need. You don’t owe anything.”
“Then I need to pay you,”
she told him adamantly. Her purse was at the bedside, and she stretched for it, grabbing it up and rifling through the contents. “I paint walls,”
she answered distractedly, still looking for the piece of paper with the client’s number.
“What kind of walls?”
Triumphant, she pulled out the paper with the number, snatching some photos from the side pocket of her bag with her other hand. “Any wall that a person wants painted.”
She handed him the photos. “I’ll pay you as much as I can before I go and I’ll have to send you the rest. I’m sorry. That’s my only option.”
There was nothing else she could do since she didn’t have the money to pay him back completely. “Can I use your phone?”
Her cell had quit working a few weeks ago, and finding a pay phone in a world where everyone had a cell phone was nearly impossible. She’d had to scramble to find a way to connect with jobs. She used the Internet in the public libraries to check her website and corresponded by email. But calling clients was rarely possible since she’d lost her phone. It might have been a cheap prepaid, but it was her connection to jobs, and the loss was making her scramble even harder to communicate with people who wanted her services.
“Incredible,”
Kade said as he flipped through the photos. “You do art on walls?”
Asha shrugged. “I can do designs on anything, but I mostly do walls.”
“So you travel around the country, painting walls? How do people find you?”
“I have a website. Designs by Asha. They usually contact me from there. I get a lot of repeat clients and referrals.”
Kade finished looking at the pictures and handed them back to her. “I’m not surprised. You do incredible work.”
He plucked the number from her fingers and pulled out his cell phone.
Asha watched in horror as he called her client and promptly canceled, telling the expectant mother on the other end of the line that Asha was sick and wouldn’t be able to paint her nursery wall anytime soon. He hung up without getting another date or appointment.
“I can’t believe you just did that,”
she told him with as much anger as she could muster, which wasn’t much. She was too damn weak, and anger took more energy than she had at the moment. She settled for glaring at him, giving him what she hoped was an angry stare. Drowsy, she lay back on the pillow and crossed her arms in front of her.
“You’re sick. You aren’t doing anything except resting your gorgeous ass in my bed for a while,”
he informed her gruffly. “And you aren’t paying me back, so quit stressing about money.”
Asha opened her mouth to reply, but promptly closed it again, his personal comment about her butt rendering her speechless. No one had ever told her she had a gorgeous anything, and it flummoxed her into silence.
Looking up at Kade, her heart skipped a beat as she looked at his stubborn expression. His beautiful blue eyes were kind, but his look told her that he wasn’t budging, and Asha had a feeling he had a stubborn streak a mile wide. She’d already discovered that he was bossy. Her eyes roamed his incredibly toned, buff body, his biceps bulging from beneath another colorful short-sleeved shirt as he crossed his arms and stared back at her, making her totally incapable of looking away. He was so handsome that it was almost painful to look at him. His eyes were as turbulent as the ocean during a storm; his hair was several different shades of blond, making him appear just a little bit wild and dangerous. He might be wearing a shirt that should have made him seem harmless, but it didn’t diminish his masculinity even a tiny little bit. Well over six feet tall, Kade Harrison was solid muscle, and all male, testosterone emanating from him in gigantic waves. Asha knew his size and bulk should probably scare her. After all, she didn’t even know him. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid of him at all. He fascinated her. His only flaw seemed to be his limp, but having that tiny imperfection made him even more captivating, making her wonder what had happened to him. Somehow, it made him seem more human.
“I can’t afford to be out of the job,”
Asha admitted reluctantly, feeling like a complete loser next to this man who obviously had his shit together financially. He’d paid what was probably a hefty hospital bill without thought, and the hotel he was staying in was one that didn’t have average, middle-class clientele. It catered to people with money.
Kade didn’t answer immediately. He held her gaze as he stretched out on the bed next to her before finally saying, “I have a proposition for you. But I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want you to work on getting well again. I won’t let anything happen to you, Asha. I promise.”
His low, reassuring baritone flowed over her like silk, making her want to sink into him and happily drown. No one had ever offered to protect her before. How strange and wonderful it seemed to have a complete stranger taking care of her like she was someone of value. “You must know that I’m not related to those two people in the picture. It’s a lovely thought, but it’s not possible. And even if it was, it isn’t a priority for me. I need to survive right now.”
Survive. Survive. Survive.
Kade put a finger to her lips and shook his head. “Not now. You’ll survive just fine. You’re safe and I’ll keep you safe. Trust me.”
Trust me.
Kade didn’t understand her background, or how difficult it was to put her future into anyone’s hands, no matter how tempting the idea was to her right now because she was sick and her defenses were down. She was fighting to survive, to be independent. But whether she liked it or not, she was completely at his mercy for the moment. She shook her head and closed her eyes. “I can’t. I need to take care of things myself.”
“You can trust me. I’m a trustworthy kind of guy,”
Kade countered stubbornly, stroking the hair away from her face. “Sleep now. The doctor said that rest was the fastest way to shake off the pneumonia.”
Asha couldn’t argue. She opened her eyes for a moment, but her lids were heavy and her body felt like lead. Reaching out her hand, she fingered the collar of Kade’s festive shirt, red with green designs. It felt like silk. “This is beautiful. It looks good on you.”
The red only intensified the lightness of Kade’s hair and the depth of his blue eyes. Bold, powerful colors and ornate designs suited him. Being partial to light and color herself, Kade delighted her senses.
She heard Kade laugh before answering, “I always said if I ever found a woman who actually likes my shirts, I’d marry her.”
Asha wanted to answer, wanted to tell Kade never to marry unless his whole heart was engaged. She’d been in a loveless marriage, and she’d never felt more alone. Her eyes fluttered closed again before she could answer, the drugs and pure exhaustion finally dragging her into a dreamless sleep.
“Do you need us to come and talk to her?”
Max Hamilton asked, his voice coming from Kade’s phone, which was on speaker as Kade shaved with the bathroom door closed. He didn’t think Asha would wake up anytime soon.
“No. She’s sick. I’ll talk to her as soon as she’s well enough to travel,”
Kade answered protectively. The last thing Asha needed was a three-ring circus with all her possible relatives coming to Nashville to talk to her.
“Is she okay?”
Max asked, concerned.
“Yeah. I think so. She’ll recover. I don’t know her whole story, but her life hasn’t been easy, Max.”
Asha obviously traveled from place to place, making just enough money to get her to her next job. She had nothing, yet there was a sweetness about her that had Kade on edge every moment he was near her…and every moment when he wasn’t. What kind of life had she known? Everything she owned fit in one small bag and her purse. “I’ll get more information in a few days. She needs to rest and recover right now.”
Max’s deep sigh came through the phone line. “Get her well, Kade. Take care of her.”
Kade intended to do just that, and not because she might be Max’s half-sister. His possessive instincts were all his own. “She likes my shirts,”
he told Max jokingly, wiping his shaven face with a towel.
“She needs her vision checked,”
Max answered drily. “What’s she like? Does she look like Maddie?”
Kade paused for a moment, tossing the towel into the laundry pile. “No. She doesn’t look like either one of you, but she’s beautiful. Her father was an Indian immigrant, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be related. Her mother was American.”
“Does she have a birth certificate?”
Max asked, obviously anxious to find out more about Asha.
“I don’t know. We didn’t have a chance to talk much about her past before she almost did a nosedive to the carpet. She collapsed almost from the moment I met her. Let me get her well, Max,”
Kade answered irritably, not happy that Max didn’t seem to understand his main priority was to get Asha healthy. “I’ll get her to come to Tampa.”
“Thanks,”
Max answered gratefully. “I don’t mean to push. I guess I’m just anxious to know. I’m glad you finally found her. I owe you.”
Kade was glad too, but for totally different reasons than seeing if Asha was related to Max. “I’ll remember you said that. I’ll keep in touch. I’ll get her to Florida as soon as I can.”
“How’s your leg holding up?”
Max asked, the concern in his voice evident.
“It’s fine.”
Actually, it ached like hell, but Kade wasn’t about to admit it.
He hastily ended his conversation with Max before his brother-in-law could pry any further. Or worse yet, put Mia on the phone to try to wangle more information out of him.
Stepping out of the bathroom, Kade’s eyes went instantly to the bed. Asha was still sleeping, but she was tossing restlessly. The sheets were tangled, thrown from her body, probably during a period when her fever had made her overly warm. He climbed onto the bed, touching the back of his hand to her cheek. Her face was slightly damp, but cool, her fever probably under control from the drugs he had given her before she’d fallen asleep.
Her body started to shiver, and Kade grabbed the sheets and blankets that had been kicked to the bottom of the bed. As he went to draw them back up, his eyes caught a small patch of red on the top of her right foot. Looking closer, he could see that it was actually an intricate pattern, a stylized butterfly trying to emerge from the confines of its cocoon. Kade knew tattoos, and as he traced the pattern lightly with his fingers, he wondered exactly what it meant. It was henna, the rendering already lightened with age, but he could still make out every detail.
“Ow! Shit!”
Kade quickly jerked his fingers away and moved back as Asha drew back her foot and kicked him in his bum leg. Her eyes were still closed, and she was still asleep. The action had been reflexive, a subconscious reaction to his touch, but it still hurt like hell. Rubbing his leg, he moved back to the head of the bed.
Asha tossed her head, her hair sliding along the fine cotton of the pillow. “I need to get out! I need to get out! I can’t do this anymore.”
Her voice was raw and frightened.
Kade quickly shucked his clothes, leaving on his silk boxers, and slid into the bed beside Asha. Her panicked, scared ramblings tugged at him, lured him closer. She could go ahead and kick him again. He didn’t give a shit. All he wanted to do was comfort her, make her feel safe. The need to shelter her from anything unpleasant was stronger than his physical pain, and Asha tapped into emotions that Kade hadn’t even known he possessed.
“Kade?”
Asha murmured softly as he gathered her close to him and covered them both with the blankets, his arm wrapping around her waist. She squirmed until her head was resting comfortably against his shoulder. “I need you,”
she murmured softly.