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“It doesn't matter. I'm paying for it, okay? I'll cover the ambulance too. All that matters is that you get the best care possible.”

  “I don't want you to pay for it! I don't want to be here. Stop acting like I'm a charity case. Let me get up!”

  “Hey there, what's going on in here?” A man with a full head of silver hair, a tan to rival George Hamilton's and a smile so white that Isabelle almost had to close her eyes against it, suddenly appeared in the room. He was dressed in slacks and a blue button-down shirt and paisley tie with a lab coat as white as his teeth pulled over it all and a tag dangling from the pocket that proclaimed he was an employee of the hospital. A doctor, she assumed. He was attractive enough to be a soap opera doctor and Isabelle wondered if the filthy rich insisted on good-looking doctors. Was it offensive to a billionaire to be cut open by an ugly man? She bet the nurses looked like the women from Grey's Anatomy. It was offensive to her. Everything about people that had copious amounts of money was offensive to her for her own personal reasons. She had grown up believing that people traded money for their souls and she was sure Alex, the guy that wanted to act like he was her savior, was no different. Had she been the one to pick the hospital she'd be looking at peeling green paint on cement walls behind the fancy doctor's head instead of a print that was surely painted by an up and coming artist. It all made her angry and she just wanted the hell out of there, and fast.

  “I'm leaving,” she said. “Are you my doctor?”

  “Yes Miss Brazil. I'm Doctor James Sanders…”

  “It's a pleasure, I'm sure,” she said. “Can you sign me out of here, please?”

  “I'd much rather you stay overnight with us, Miss Brazil. You took a nasty fall. You have a large bump on your head, and you were unconscious for over an hour…”

  “I'm awake now, and I feel fine,” she said. That was a lie. Her head was pounding and her vision was fuzzy. But, there was no way she was spending the night in this fancy hospital while the rich man sat at her bedside and promised to pay for everything. She wasn't anyone's charity case…especially not his. All she had wanted was a job. What a fucking mess.

  “Miss Brazil, I'm not sure you understand how serious a concussion can be,” the fancy doctor said.

  “I'm sure I do. I'm not an idiot. But, I can take care of myself at home. I'll rest, drink plenty of fluids…” he was still smiling at her and she realized he had no lines in his face…at all. She rolled her eyes. A doctor who was that concerned with his appearance couldn't possibly have concentrated on anything important while he was in medical school. “I'm leaving,” she said, “with or without your approval.” The doctor looked at Alex. That only served to piss her off more. “Don't look at him! He's not the boss of me. I'm leaving. Have your nurse come and unhook me from all of this fancy equipment, or I'll do it myself.”

  “Very well,” the doctor said. “We can't keep her here…” He was still looking at Alex.

  “Excuse me! Why are you talking to him? I'm the patient here. Look at me.” The doctor put his unnaturally blue eyes back on her face. They were contacts, they had to be. That color wasn't even found in nature.

  “I'm sorry Miss Brazil. I'm just afraid that your head injury may be affecting your good judgment.”

  “My judgment is fine, thank you. Now, are you going to discharge me or not?”

  He sighed. “I will, but it will be against medical advice and we'll ask you to sign papers saying so.”

  “Fine, whatever. Tell them to bring them now.” He nodded at her and glanced at Alex again. Alex gave him a helpless look and shrugged his shoulders. Once the doctor was gone she said, “Whatever all of this unnecessary nonsense cost, I will pay you back. You can send me a bill. It might take me a while, but…”

  “Izzy please…”

  “Isabelle! Damn it! Stop acting like you have the right to insinuate yourself into my life and make up pet names for me. My name is Isabelle and I'd thank you kindly to address me as such. And in the future, don't walk into my home uninvited…and go through my things, and make the executive decision to send me to the most exclusive, expensive hospital in Manhattan when there is a perfectly good county hospital six blocks from my apartment.” She was out of breath when she finished her rant. He made her blood boil and the fact that she didn't know if it was his arrogance after the shit he'd caused in her life…or the fact that she was wildly attracted to him. She didn't want to be attracted to him and that pissed her off at herself. He was pushy and controlling and he went around destroying lives for a living and he lived high and mighty off the spoils. When you added it all up, it spelled trouble. She looked around her again and thought that trouble in the form of a man was the last thing she needed. She did a fine job of getting herself into it…she didn't need any help at all. She didn't need anything from Alex Romaletti.

  7

  One Week Later

  “What?!” Alex barked at whoever was knocking on his office door. He'd closed it and told his assistant that he didn't want it opened until he was ready to come out. In other words, he wasn't in the mood to see anyone. He had actually fired the bodyguard that wanted to lecture him about ditching them the night he had taken Izzy out to dinner. Not only had he wanted to be alone with her, but he was afraid from her attitude earlier about his wealth that showing up with a full staff would have put her off even more. Not that any of that mattered now. It had been a week since he'd seen or heard from her and he wondered if he ever would again. “I said I do not want to be disturbed,” he growled at whoever was still knocking. The door opened, and Kelly was suddenly framed in it. He knew he should have never let his girlfriend and his assistant become friends. Now that Kelly was his ex…it seemed even more dangerous for the two women to be so close.

  Kelly was wearing a suit that Alex was sure was specially designed for her by one of the up and coming designers over at Rags. It was the exact color of her light brown eyes and the soft cream shirt and pumps she wore, contrasted with it perfectly. Her light brown hair looked like she'd just walked out of the salon and her makeup was applied perfectly. Nothing was out of place…as usual, and something about the picture pissed him off even more than he already was at life.

  “Someone is in a foul mood,” she said, breezing into the room on a cloud of her designer perfume.

  “Which is exactly why the door was shut and I told Candace that I didn't want any visitors. Did she not tell you that?”

  Kelly rolled her eyes and waved a hand as if she was trying to wave his anger away. “I just assumed you meant everyone but me.”

  “And why would you assume that?”

  She sat down in the chair in front of his desk and crossed her long legs. The skirt rose up high on her thighs and he could see that she wasn't wearing any hose, but she didn't need it. Her legs were perfectly toned and tanned. She spent more time at the gym and spa than she did anywhere, and it showed. He looked up from her legs to her face and saw the smirk there. “Is someone horny? Is that what the pissy mood is about?”

  Alex sighed. He was horny, but not for her. He'd thought about calling ten different women over the past week for the sole purpose of getting laid, and Kelly hadn't even been on that list. But he hadn't called anyone. He's spent a lot of time with his hand wrapped around his cock instead, with the image of Izzy on his mind.

  “Kelly…I have a pile of paperwork that needs signatures before the teleconference I have with a businessman in Hong Kong in an hour. I don't have time for games. So please, just tell me why you're here and then leave me to my work.”

  She set her lips in a pout and twisted a strand of her long hair. It was his turn to roll his eyes. He was suddenly annoyed with even the slightest sign that a woman was trying to manipulate him. He'd discovered…possibly to his detriment, that he appreciated the more direct approach. “I wanted to talk to you about Daniel. You said if there was ever anything I needed…”

  “Kelly, just get to the point. I know what I said, and I intend to keep my word to you.” When Alex an
d Kelly split up, he bought a small cosmetics company. He had sold to his friend Renay who owned controlling stock in Rags. Renay agreed at the time of the sale, and signed a contract to the effect, that Kelly be placed in the CEO position for at least the next five years. She would have to prove herself in that time in order for the board of directors to keep her on, but it gave her a good start. Alex had also left her with a hefty bank account, an unlimited AMEX card that he still made the payments on and a brand-new car. He was terrible at breakups and most of what he'd given her was less because she deserved it, or even asked for it, and more about assuaging his own guilt.

  As far as being CEO of the cosmetics company, that hadn't been a rash decision on his part. He'd given that a lot of thought before he presented the idea to Renay. Despite the fact that Kelly looked and often acted like an empty-headed runway model, she had a master’s degree in business, and was actually very bright. She'd worked as an assistant to one of the executives at Rags for several years before Alex met her, so she knew the business, and he had told her if she ever needed help or advice while she was learning, he would be there to help. Unfortunately, he hadn't realized until just that very second that he really wanted her to just leave him alone. He was sad about their breakup at first, but honestly hadn't thought about her for an entire week. That said a lot. He knew that he didn't hate her, but he didn't love her…and most of the time he didn't even really like her. She was smart and sexy, but so superficial that there wasn't really anything real to like. Today he liked her less than usual. It had been an entire week since he'd lain eyes on the woman that he couldn't stop thinking about and in his mind Kelly was intruding on that.

  “Fine Mr. Grumpy pants,” she said, as if she was talking to a four-year-old. He was sure she thought it was cute. He thought it was annoying as hell. Thankfully she changed her tone back to adult mode and said, “Daniel Barker is the only original employee I kept from Puff.” Puff was the name of the company when Alex bought it. Renay had changed it to something else…something “beauty” he thought…He realized that Kelly was still talking as his mind wandered. He refocused on her as she was saying, “He's smart as a whip, and I'm thinking seriously about giving him an executive position, something like Chief Operations Officer. He's qualified for it and had been passed up by the owners at Puff in favor of their relatives for years.”

  “Great, fine, you have good judgment…”

  “Will you let me finish?” Her tone was growing more annoyed. It was her, “pay attention to me,” tone. Alex really wasn't in the mood for that, but he decided the quickest way to get rid of her would be to hear her out.

  “Fine, finish.”

  “You've met him…remember, at the launch?”

  “Yes. I spoke about six words to him though, so it would be hard for me to give you any kind of opinion.” The truth was that Alex had almost instantly disliked the man. Daniel had been polite and professional, even slightly deferential toward Alex…but it was just a gut feeling he had that the man wasn't all he tried to present to the world. He could tell by the way Kelly related to him that she found him attractive and at first Alex wondered if it was just simple jealousy that made him dislike Daniel. But, the sad truth was that no matter how shamelessly Kelly flirted in front of him, he'd never felt a modicum of jealousy over her. He just didn't like the guy. But, Daniel Barker wasn't his problem, so he'd left Kelly to decide how valuable he might be to her and the new company.

  “I understand that,” she was saying, “but, the thing about Daniel is that…as I'm sure you noticed, he's extremely good-looking and charming and women are drawn to him like a magnet. I haven't seen any inappropriate behavior or heard about any…but I can't shake my concerns. Every woman I've hired thus far looks at him like she's picturing him without his suit…”

  “Kelly, I can't for the life of me figure out where you're going with this and it's honestly giving me a headache.”

  She frowned, but the weekly Botox injections he had paid for, kept any lines from forming between her eyes. Again, for unknown reasons, that suddenly pissed him off. Why doesn't anyone want to look real any longer? Except Isabelle…his Izzy…fuck, he wished she was his Izzy and he had no idea why…except that she was real. That's what he suddenly wanted…real. He was sick to death of plastic. “Well, pardon me for disturbing you,” she said, getting to her feet. “I can see that you didn't mean anything you said about us keeping in touch and staying friends and you helping me if I needed it.” She pulled at the scalloped hem of her suit jacket and then spun on her high heal and pointed toward the door. For a second he mulled over letting her just storm out. Maybe a big fight was what they needed. It would sure as hell be more passion that he'd gotten from her in over two years.

  “Kelly, wait.” She hadn't taken a step. It was all for show, like most everything she did. “Please sit back down. I'm sorry. My mood has nothing to do with you. Please, sit and tell me what your issue is with Daniel.”

  She pouted again, but she sat back down just like he knew she would. “I don't have an issue with Daniel…yet. I’m just trying to look out for the future of the organization. I know that over the years you've been accused by a few of your female employees of sexual harassment. I also know that each time it turned out to be a false accusation by some little gold-digger that simply wanted a payday from the billionaire. I'm worried that with Daniel's good looks and the way he attracts women that something like that will happen if I put him in an executive position. Mostly, I'm worried about what my company's liability would be in a case like that.”

  “Do you trust this guy? I mean, do you see him as a predator?”

  “No. Absolutely not. But, you're far from being a predator and like I said, it's happened to you.” Alex got an image of Izzy in his mind again. She made him feel like a predator. He'd never chased a woman in his life and in Izzy's case he was practically willing to go into stalker mode just for a glimpse of her. He ached to see that dark, wavy, messy hair hanging down across her pretty blue eyes. Or that deep frown line she gets between her eyes when she's annoyed with him, or the cut little parenthesis that outlined her sexy lips. She was gorgeous and the best part about it was that she wasn't perfect. What someone like Kelly would see as flaws gave her the kind of character that reached into his chest and seized his heart. Fuck. He had to stop thinking about her. She already made up her mind about him, and it was all bad.

  “So then here is what you do. Do you know why those women that accused me…falsely, as you said…gave up? Because my attorney advised me a long time ago to set aside a fund specifically for that…because when you have as much money and power as I do, it happens. If you're truly concerned about it happening to your COO who yes, you will be responsible for, then you have two choices. The first one is to not put him in a position of power and the second one is that if you choose to do that, then you need a contingency plan, which in this case means a special fund, and an attorney in the know that can quietly take care of things that could possibly ruin your reputation and possibly your company in the process.”

  She was nodding. “And this is why I came to you with this,” she said. “I love the way your mind works. No bullshit.” She smiled and stood up. “Now that we have business out of the way, how about dinner tonight?”

  “Dinner?”

  “Yes. Why not? We're still friends, right?”

  “Of course, but I don't think it's a good idea.”

  Kelly smiled, what Alex knew she thought was a seductive smile. He was confused. Was she trying to seduce him? Didn't they both agree they were better off without each other? He was horny…so fucking horny that for a second, he considered it. But his rational brain told him it would be a very bad idea. Kelly came around the chair she'd been sitting in it and to the side of his desk. He almost thought he could smell her arousal underneath that expensive perfume. He needed to get laid, that was for sure. But not by Kelly. “Why wouldn't it be a good idea?” she said, lowering her voice to its seductive level.
r />   “Because, our breakup is new, fresh…it would only confuse things.”

  She took another step and suddenly there was nothing between them. His traitorous cock began to react to the closeness of female flesh. He knew it wasn't Kelly…it was hormones and biology. He tried to think of it that way, clinically, so hopefully the problem would resolve itself. “I wouldn't be confused,” she said, reaching up and pushing a stray piece of his hair off his forehead. “We were good together, right? What's the harm in being good to each other, as long as we're both single?” Her hand came to rest on his shoulder and the other hand came up to rest on the side of his face. He was looking at her plump lips…thinking about kissing them. He reminded himself they were full of Juvaderm, to see if that would help, but it didn't. His little head was taking over. Kelly slid that hand off his shoulder and down his arm. Before he could think clearly enough to react, it was covering the hard lump in the front of his pants and his brain had been completely taken out of the fight. She began to rub and massage the outline of his aching cock. “Let me help you release some tension.”

  Alex would never know for sure if he would have given in…but it was highly likely. He didn't have the chance though because at that moment his cell phone began ringing. It was face up on his desk and when he looked down at it and saw “Izzy” on the face, all thoughts of Kelly were out the window. He took a step back and her hand fell away. Trying to keep his voice steady, he looked into her brown eyes and said, “We're not going to do this, Kelly. Please show yourself out and good luck with your situation with Daniel.” Kelly looked stunned and she might have argued the point had he not picked up the phone and walked away. He went into his executive bathroom and closed the door behind him before answering it. There was a slight shake in his voice when he said,

  “Well hello Izzy…this is a surprise.” The last time he'd seen her was the day she'd gotten into a cab in front of the hospital a week ago. She'd tossed a grudging, “Thank you,” over her shoulder and before closing the door she said, “Please don't call me. When I have the money, I'll pay you back for all of this, you can count on that.” He'd watched the cab pull away and almost every minute since then he'd thought about either calling her or showing up on her doorstep. Thank God for impulse control…he supposed. Maybe her calling him today meant that his had paid off, and she was willing to give him another chance. Proving that he was probably being overly optimistic he heard her snap,