Page 130 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

Friday

I walked back into my bedroom. The smell of cherries was everywhere. I hadn’t realized how much it had faded since Penny had last been here.

And even though Penny was hurt and scared, she still looked beautiful. I’d never stood a chance when I was trying to stay away from her.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and opened the Ziplock bag Dr. Ridge had given me. “Stay still,” I said. I gently dotted some of the salve onto her forehead.

I’d told myself I could protect her. And the first thing that happened when I showed back up in her life was this? I’m so sorry, baby. My heart ached as I touched the stitches. I’d been so scared of breaking her. And here she was. Sitting in my bed…broken.

Tears started falling down her cheeks.

I pulled my hand back. "Why are you crying? Does it hurt?" I was trying to be gentle.

She shook her head.

It wasn’t convincing. But I needed to finish this up. I placed a white bandage over her stitches. I tried to be gentler as I applied the medical tape to keep it in place. I didn’t want to keep hurting her. It was like it was all I was capable of.

Her bottom lip trembled. "I want to go home."

"Penny, you are home." I cupped her chin in my hand.

"Please, Professor Hunter."

"I'm not letting you out of my sight." Not ever again. Yes, this happened tonight when I showed back up. But she’d been drinking. She’d been hanging out with a piece of shit.

Breathe. From here on out I was going to keep her safe. I pulled her head onto my chest.

"I need to go home." She sniffed. "Please."

I kissed her forehead. Her scent calmed the ache in my chest. I heard her words, but I couldn’t do it.

I can’t. It wasn’t just that I wanted to keep her safe.

It was that I finally had her back in my arms. And I couldn’t let go.

I’d stayed away from her for so long. I’d never be strong enough to do that again. "You need rest."

She looked down at her lap. "Why am I wearing one of your shirts?"

"I didn't want Dr. Ridge to see you in the outfit you were wearing earlier." The costume was sexy as hell. No one should have ever seen her in that but me.

"You undressed me?"

"Yes."

"You shouldn't have done that."

"Penny, I've seen you naked plenty of times."

She looked up at me. "You're not allowed to see people naked that you've ignored for two weeks. That's not how things work. You've got everything backwards."

She was rambling. It reminded me of when we first met and she kept losing her words around me. I still found it incredibly endearing. "In that case, I'm sorry."

"Good."

I kissed her forehead next to her bandage.

A rumble of thunder sounded outside. A moment later I could hear the patter of rain against the window. I breathed in Penny’s perfume and closed my eyes, remembering our first kiss. It was a stormy night just like this.

"It's raining," she mumbled.

I kissed her forehead again.

"Whenever it rains I think about you. It's when I missed you the most.”

There was a lump in my throat that wouldn’t go away. Me too, Penny.

“You promised you wouldn't be mad at me. You promised."

I had nothing to say to that. I did break my promise to her. I knew I was a disappointment. I knew I was a fucking mess. But couldn’t she already see all that? So instead of answering her, I kissed her forehead again.

She looked up at me. "You should put ice on your eye."

"Don't worry about me, Penny." Why was she always worried about me? She was too good for me. Too kind. Too sweet. Too perfect.

"You're very worrisome," she sighed into my chest. "You never talk to me. You won't let me in."

I ran my fingers through her hair. I didn’t know what to say to that either. I swallowed hard. "I'm trying." I promise that I’m trying.

She yawned. "It's normal to worry about the people you love."

I started blinking fast. But I couldn’t stop it. I felt a tear slide down my cheek.

No one worried about me.

My parents never cared.

And I’d lost all my friends.

All I had was her. And she loved me despite my flaws. This was real. We were real.

It felt really good to know that someone cared. But even as I thought it, I felt guilty. Ellen cared. Ian cared. Rob cared. But this was different. I paid Ellen and Ian to stick by me. And Rob was family.

Penny didn’t have to care about me. She was choosing to.

She lightly snored in my arms. I reached out and ran my fingers through her hair. Being a better man for her meant not making her worry. I’d get my shit together.

I slowly unwound my arms from around her, being careful not to wake her.

And then I texted her friends to let them know she was okay.

I let Ian know too. I showered. I ignored the cut on my lip and my eye turning more purple by the minute.

And then I climbed back into bed where I belonged. Next to her.

***

The sound of the shower woke me up. I slowly opened my eyes and yawned. I hadn’t slept that well since the last time Penny was in this bed with me.

Last night had not gone at all how I’d planned. But it had been a wakeup call. From here on out, I was going to be the man Penny needed me to be.

I climbed out of bed and walked into my closet.

I pulled on a pair of sweatpants, grabbed a clean outfit for Penny, and set it down outside the bathroom door for her.

Penny needed carbs to soak up the rest of the alcohol in her system.

A hangover combined with her concussion…

she was not going to be feeling good this morning.

And I was going to make her feel better.

The shower turned off just as I got the waffles in the toaster. I put the box back in the freezer. Not that I was hiding the fact that these weren’t homemade.

Penny emerged out of my bedroom a moment later. Her eyes raked over my body. But unlike last night, when it seemed like she’d savored staring…today she looked pissed. She stopped at the counter.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"I'm fine," she said.

That couldn’t be true. I was sure her head was pounding.

"I'm going to get going."

I raised my left eyebrow. Was she joking? I pushed a plate of waffles in front of her.

"I thought you didn't cook."

"I don't. They were frozen."

She looked down at her plate. "I'm not hungry."

"You've lost weight. You need to eat."

"So now you suddenly care about me again?"

"I never stopped caring about you." I couldn’t prevent the scowl from forming on my face. She had this all wrong. "I see that you have your memory back."

She defiantly pushed the plate away.

I walked over and placed two pills down on the counter. "You need to eat with these." I pushed the plate back toward her.

"I'm not taking those."

Yes. You are. "Dr. Ridge left them for you. They're for the pain."

"I'm okay. Actually, I'm used to dealing with pain now. Where is my phone?"

I clenched my jaw. "Penny, take the pills. Eat the waffles. I'll give you your phone when you're done."

"I need to tell Melissa where I am."

"Your friends know where you are." I emphasized the word friends. Because I’d even texted limp dick Tyler Stevens. And that prick would never be anything more than her friend ever again.

She huffed and sat down.

Well, if I hadn’t known she was a teenager a few days ago, I would have guessed it now. I was withholding her phone privileges because she was being petulant. My hand was itching to spank her. And I knew she’d like it. She liked that I was older than her. She liked when I punished her. Breathe.

She downed the pills with some water. "How do you know Dr. Ridge?" She cut up the waffles and poured syrup over them.

"He's an old friend." I clenched my hand into a fist so I wouldn’t actually be tempted to spank her. That’s not what she needed right now. She needed to eat every piece of that waffle and drink the rest of her water.

"A friend of Isabella's too?"

Fuck me. "No." I put my elbows on the counter and buried my fingers in my hair. Stop pushing my buttons and eat your food.

She took another bite and then pushed the plate away. "I can't eat anymore."

Forcing this wasn’t working. I needed to make her feel comfortable here. To calm her down. I walked over and sat down on the stool beside her.

"Look, thank you for taking care of me last night,” she said. “You didn't need to do that..."

"I did need to." I put my hand on her thigh, savoring how warm she felt even through her yoga pants.

She immediately swiveled her chair to remove my hand. "You didn't. But I do appreciate it. I'm fine now, though. And I need to go. Please give me my phone."

Absolutely not. "I can't let you leave. You have a concussion."

"I can take care of myself."

I forced myself not to laugh. "You certainly didn't take care of yourself last night."

"I was fine before you showed up," she snapped.

"You haven't been taking care of yourself these past few weeks either."

She stood up, her stool squeaking against the floor. "How dare you throw that in my face? I tried. How can you sit there and judge me for feeling? I loved you. I loved you so much.”

Past tense. The knife was back in my chest, slowly twisting.

“And it meant nothing to you. I meant nothing to you. You're completely fine. It's so hard to see you that way when I'm falling apart."

She couldn’t be more wrong. "Penny..." I reached out for her.

"Don't touch me. Don't you dare touch me." She glared at me. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. Because of you! Because you left me!"

The words seemed to echo in my apartment. And maybe I needed to hear them over and over again. To remind me of my mistakes. So I wouldn’t be tempted to make them again. But this wasn’t all on me. We’d had a fight because of her. "That's not fair, Penny. You can't put all the blame on me."

"Yes I can. You're the one that left. You're the one that refused to talk to me. You shut me out. You didn't even give me a chance. I made one mistake and you left. You left me."

"Only because you lied to me!"

"Yes. Because I wanted to be with you. I didn't think you'd want me if you knew how young I was. And I hate that I lied to you."

I tried to take a deep breath. Did she need me to harbor all the blame? Is that what she wanted? Because I already felt like shit every fucking day. I didn’t know how much more weight I could hold on my shoulders. "I know,” I gritted out.

"No. Not because it made you leave me. But because it made us get together in the first place."

The knife in my chest twisted again. "You wish we had never started fucking?" I knew that she wouldn’t have used those words. But I was seconds away from snapping.

"And that's it, isn't it? Just fucking? See, that's the problem. I thought it was more than that. I want someone to love me. Unconditionally."

"And that's what Tyler does? Because last time I checked, taking advantage of someone when they're drunk isn't love." I gripped the side of the counter. I needed it to ground me before I completely lost it.

"And what do you know about love? You're fucking married to a woman that you don't love. You didn't even love her when you got married. And instead of facing it and getting divorced, you just go around screwing students like it means nothing."

"I don't go around screwing students. You're the exception. You know that."

"Do I? Because I don't think I know you at all."

"You know me." I stood up. My fingers gripped the side of the counter harder. "You'll never forget what it feels like to have my rock hard cock deep inside of you. You'll never be able to stop screaming my name."

She glared at me. "I was already forgetting you. Tyler didn't take advantage of me. I told him that I wanted him. I asked him to fuck me."

All I could see was red. "Because you were drunk."

"No! It was because you left me! Because I was numb! You ruined me." Her voice cracked. She turned around like she couldn’t even bear to look at me. "You ruined me."

No. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do that.

The knife in my heart twisted again. Breathe.

I didn’t ruin her. She was fine. We were going to be fine.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her into my chest. But then I looked down at her lips.

The same lips she’d let Tyler kiss. "So it's my fault that you're loose? "

"I'm not loose." She shoved my chest and took a step back from me. "You broke up with me. I was trying to get over you."

"I never broke up with you. I said I needed time."

"I gave you time. Weeks! In order to work things out, normal people usually talk. What was I supposed to think?"

I’m not a normal person. I’m a fucking mess! "That's not how I work through things."

"That's not an excuse. Keep my phone. I'm leaving. I don't want to hear anything else you have to say." She stormed off toward the elevator doors.

"What is wrong with you?" I yelled after her.

She turned back around. "What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you?!"

I got it. This was my fault. Because everything was always my fault. But I’d tried to stay away from her for her sake . And she wasn’t giving me a second to explain. I walked toward her. I was trying to have a conversation with her and she just wanted to run away. Again. "Stop acting like a child."

"I'm not acting like a child. Get over yourself."

"I'm trying to talk to you now. Which is exactly what you wanted. You're being immature."

"And you're being an asshole!"

I lowered my eyebrows at the rash comment. We both stood still, staring at each other. And I couldn’t help it. My anger shifted. I didn’t want to look at her lips for one more second and be haunted by her kissing Tyler. I wanted to erase the memory. I needed her beneath me screaming my name.

I was done with this conversation. She was mine. We both knew it. And it was about time I reminded her. "You're infuriating, Penny."

She stared back at me.

Exactly the way she’d stared at me in my office when I’d said those words to her the first time.

"Then punish me, Professor Hunter."