Page 27 of Chosen By a Billionaire (Rags to Romance #24)

But later that night, after he removed his suit coat and tie, and his shoes, and laid in bed beside her, it still astounded Jayda. This man, this billionaire , was actually lying in this hospital bed with her as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

And in an odd way, it was. Yes, there was security outside her door to protect him, which made it all the more surreal to Jayda, but that same sense of home she felt around him at his penthouse she felt in that hospital too.

Which made her realize that it wasn’t the location that was making her feel that way.

It was the man. It was Harrison. Unlike any man she’d ever been with, it was him.

Harrison felt deeply about Jayda, too, as he laid in bed beside her.

He couldn’t believe he was doing this. In all the years he’d been with different women that had been hospitalized or otherwise infirmed, he never once had any interest whatsoever in so much as visiting them in the hospital let alone spending the night in that same institution with them. It was unheard of to him.

But it was natural for him when it came to Jayda. This woman did something to him that no other woman had come close to doing. She made him feel alive again. And needed. She gave him a sense of purpose.

But it wasn’t without risks. Because she also made him feel burdened down.

When she was relaying what happened to her in that alley, he thought he was going to die where he sat.

It anguished him. And these were early days.

How in the world was he going to be able to handle it if he were to fall madly in love with her and something awful happened to her? It would utterly destroy him.

But not being with her might do the trick too.

That was the dilemma he found himself struggling through. That was why he decided to stop worrying about it and just be in the moment with her. Which he knew she would appreciate. And in that moment, it was all about her as far as Harrison was concerned.

They were turned face to face. “I have a question,” she said to him.

“Ask away.”

“I’m not close with my mother,” she said, “and my father’s dead. Your mother passed away seven years ago.”

“That’s right.”

“What happened to her?”

More sharing. This was so new to Harrison that he thought it would be most uncomfortable.

But it wasn’t. “She and my father divorced, and she went from man to man and love affair to love affair, which meant broken heart to broken heart until her heart just had enough. She had a heart attack and died.”

Jayda found his reasoning odd. “You sound as if you think love broke her heart.”

Harrison looked at her. He couldn’t get over how perceptive she was. “Yes,” he said. “That’s what I believe.”

Although it was odd to Jayda, she didn’t judge it. “What about your father and brother. Are you close to them?”

“No,” he said.

“Why not?”

“My brother and I are just too dissimilar to ever be close. As for my father, we were once close. But . . .”

Jayda stared at him. “But what?”

“About four years ago when his new wife, who was around my age, decided Dad was too old for her and she wanted to go out partying with people her age. Namely me and my girlfriend at the time. We all got drunk, although my so-called stepmother was apparently less drunk than my girlfriend and I, so she decided she would take my car and drive us back to father’s house.

But she apparently was just as hammered as we were and she merged into oncoming traffic and had a head-on collision. ”

Jayda’s heart squeezed. “Was she killed?”

He nodded. “Her and my girlfriend. Both of them died. I got out without a scratch.”

It was a thank God and an oh no moment at the same time. “Don’t tell me your father blamed you?”

He nodded. “Everybody did. There were rumors that I paid off the authorities to declare that my stepmother was the driver, so that I would avoid prison, when it was me driving all along.”

“But that wasn’t true.”

“No, it wasn’t. But Father was hurt, and rightfully so, and for a long time he believed those lies. He just needed somebody other than his wife to blame. It nearly crippled our relationship. He didn’t want to have anything more to do with me.”

“Why would he even consider giving you his company if that was the case?”

“Bainbridge Oil was passed down to him from his father and to his father from his father and so on. He doesn’t want to be the one to destroy that legacy.”

“And he figures you would be the better son to carry it on?”

“He used to feel that way hands down. But now it’s more of a coin toss. And my brother, because of his marital status I’m told, has the upper hand.”

Jayda exhaled. “Visiting your father again won’t be easy for you.”

“It never was,” he said. “But especially now.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be there,” she said with a smile. But it touched Harrison deeply. And he pulled her into his arms. Oddly enough, he felt more at home with her than he’d ever felt with anyone else. Including his own family.

But they didn’t discuss it any further. That was enough for them.

They, instead, watched Tyler Perry movies on Netflix. It would show up on the bill as extra, Jayda reminded him, but Harrison smiled and said he could handle it. She laughed and they settled in.

Remarkable to her was that Harrison had never seen not one Tyler Perry movie before. According to him, he never bothered watching because so many critics gave them such low marks, but he enjoyed the two movies they saw. And commented more than Jayda did.

He laughed just as hard as Jayda did as they watched Madea’s Destination Wedding . “They think all that shit’s for free?” he asked between laughs.

He privately shed just as many tears as Jayda did while watching Straw : “So that’s what that meant when that principal was waving at her with that strange look on her face!”

He loved both movies. As long as they didn’t delve any deeper into their own relationship, such as it was, they both felt unburdened enough to enjoy themselves.

And then they checked out Saturday Night Live .

At least Harrison checked it out. Jayda fell asleep before the guest could scream “ Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night !” It had been an enormously long day.

After she fell asleep, Harrison spent less time watching TV and almost all of that time watching Jayda.

He was fascinated with her. Feelings he felt for her were so unusually strong to him that he couldn’t fathom how they came to be.

He just had to look at her that day in front of his building to feel something for her. But he still couldn’t get pass the why.

He never believed any of that nonsense about how everybody had a “person” and there was somebody special for everybody.

He didn’t believe any of that shit. But was he wrong all this time?

Was his disbelief based on the fact that he never came close to having somebody that special in his life?

Was his disbelief only because it had never happened to him before? Until he met Jayda?

He couldn’t answer any of that. But the more he stared at her angelic face, the more he knew he could never turn his back on her. He felt an awesome responsibility for her. He knew, deep down, that he had to look out for her for the rest of her life no matter what became of them.

That was why he called his security chief and ordered him to make sure that hit-and-run in that alley with Jayda wasn’t targeted like he believed his hit and run had been.

Especially when she said the driver of that car opened the car door.

“Try to find those young guys that play basketball back there,” he said.

“They may show up on some CCTV footage. They may have seen more than Miss Robinson saw. And since they saved her life, give them each ten thousand dollars cash if you can track them down.”

“Yes, sir.”

He made clear he wanted answers on both incidents. “Or somebody’s getting fired,” he said. He also ordered his chief to assign a clandestine security detail to follow Jayda, once she was released from the hospital, until he called it off. He wasn’t taking any chances.

He had many enemies, including many startup owners that blamed him when their companies didn’t catch fire, or many bankrupt business owners that hated when he was able to buy their struggling companies for pennies on the dollar and sell those same companies, after turning them around, for millions in profits.

It wasn’t unexpected for him to have a target on his back.

But did Jayda have enemies? Who would put a target on her back?

Harrison felt it was his duty to find out.

Because he felt more than just a sense of responsibility for her. He felt as if she’d already taken over a part of his heart that he thought he would never give away. But as if he had been robbed in plain sight, she already owned it.

He watched her for hours on end. She still captivated him. Until even he couldn’t hold back the drain any longer. And he fell asleep too.