Page 137 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

Sunday

Someone tried to nudge me awake. I breathed in the familiar cherry-scented perfume. Mmm. “Penny,” I mumbled and kissed her shoulder.

She elbowed me hard in the stomach. "Mom, Dad, hi."

"Huh?" I slowly opened my eyes and smiled at her. She had sex hair. And it was just begging for my fingers.

She glared at me.

Wait, what had she said when she elbowed me? I was still half asleep.

Penny pushed me again. "James," she whispered and tilted her head toward the door.

All I wanted to do was pull her closer. But it looked like she was seconds away from shoving me out of her bed. I slowly sat up as she tried to run her fingers through her tangled hair.

I rubbed my eyes and looked over at the door.

There were two people standing there that I didn’t recognize.

And Penny’s greeting to them finally registered in my head.

Oh, fuck. This was really not the way I wanted to meet Penny’s parents.

Lying next to their daughter in a hospital bed where we’d clearly just slept together.

“Oh,” I said, trying to stall. I was about to climb out of bed, but my pants were unzipped. Screw me. I pretended to cough as I zipped up my pants. Please don’t have heard that. "Oh, umm..." I quickly climbed off the bed and laughed awkwardly. Yeah, this definitely wasn’t a great first meeting.

I looked down and zipped up my hoodie too.

It was fine. I was good with people. I could fix this.

"Wow, this is not how I expected to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.

" Okay, so I was normally good with people. But for some reason my heart was racing. I was glad I wasn’t hooked up to that monitor.

This meeting mattered. Because Penny mattered.

And I was pretty sure I was fucking it all up.

I ran my hand through my hair and looked over at Penny for help.

"Mom, Dad, this is James."

That wasn’t much to work with, but at least it was an introduction. I walked over to her parents and held out my hand to her father. "I've heard so much about both of you. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

Penny’s father looked at Penny and then back at me. He did not look pleased. Actually, he looked a little pissed. Which I totally understood. Because of the whole just sleeping with his daughter thing. Seriously, fuck.

"That's quite the shiner," he said dryly and finally shook my hand.

“Oh.” I touched my black eye and tried to laugh it off.

I’d forgotten about my black eye. Shit. I’d thought about meeting Penny’s parents.

About having to tell them that I was her professor.

It never went well in my head. But somehow…

this felt worse. "I had forgotten about that. Just a misunderstanding."

I turned toward her mom. "And Mrs. Taylor." I put out my hand and she quickly shook it. I breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't look angry at all. She actually looked ecstatic.

"Excuse my outfit,” I said and tugged the zipper on my hoodie all the way up to my neck.

"I just rushed over as soon as I heard what happened.

" I grabbed my shoes off the floor and sat down in a nearby chair.

I was stalling. Trying to think of a way to make her father stop glaring at me.

But at least her mom seemed to like me. I laced my shoes and stood back up.

"It's so nice to meet you, James," her mom said. She was smiling from ear to ear. "So how do you know Penny?"

"Oh." At least I could answer this honestly. I smiled over at Penny. "We actually met at a coffee shop on Main Street at the beginning of the semester."

"Is that so?"

"And we ended up having a class together. Comm." I’d got to be honest about a bit of it at least.

"Do you hate it as much she does?" Penny’s mom asked.

I laughed. Penny complained to her parents about my class?

I wasn’t expecting that. "I actually love the class.

It's my favorite this semester. Mostly because Penny's in it.

" I smiled at her. "You know, I didn't actually know she hated it, though.

Her speeches are really good. She tends to be too hard on herself. "

"That's what I always say," her mom responded. "It's so nice to get to meet Penny's new friends. We got to meet Brendan yesterday. Such a sweetheart. He stayed and waited for hours to see if she was okay. Are you friends with him too?"

Fucking Brendan. Seriously, who the hell was this prick? Breathe. "No. And actually, Penny and I aren't just friends. She's my girlfriend."

"Oh?" Her mom looked even happier, if that was possible.

"Yes."

"I'm so sorry, James. Penny didn't tell us she was dating anyone. I'm so embarrassed. Penny, this is kind of a big deal isn't it? Your first boyfriend?"

I’d forgotten about that. Maybe I should have let Penny tell them herself.

But I couldn’t help but smile when I glanced back at Penny.

She looked completely mortified. My parents never tried to embarrass me.

They just ignored me completely. And it was weird being in such a normal situation that didn’t feel normal at all to me.

"It's still new,” Penny said. “I was going to tell you." She had a deer in headlights thing going on and it was absolutely adorable.

I bit the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t start laughing.

"You know what?” her mom said. “James was the first thing she said when she woke up. We had no idea what she was talking about. But I guess she wanted to see you. Isn't that sweet, honey?" She looked over at her husband.

"Mhm," her dad said and crossed his arms.

Penny’s mom loved me. But her father hated me. Maybe I should give them all a moment alone. "Well, I don't want to interfere with your time, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. I just spent all night with her." Fuck, what did I just say? "Sleeping," I quickly added.

"Excuse me?" her dad said.

I cleared my throat. "Not sleeping with her. I was just in bed with her. Sleeping next to her I mean. Just beside her." I shoved my hands into my pockets. Why the hell had I said that? The man already hated my guts.

Fortunately her mom laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, James. We'd like to get to know you." She walked into the room and sat down in one of the chairs. Penny’s dad walked over to the only other chair and sat down. His arms were still crossed.

I half stood, half sat on the edge of Penny’s bed. The last thing I needed was for them to picture the two of us in bed together. I usually wasn’t easily intimidated. But Penny’s father wasn’t just some guy I could fight in a bar. This mattered.

Penny reached out and grabbed my hand.

I automatically relaxed. She knew just what I needed. I took a deep breath and squeezed her hand. We were in this together.

An awkward silence settled around the room. And for the life of me, I didn’t know how to fill it. Luckily there was a knock on the door and the doctor walked in.

"You look a lot better this morning," she said. Her eyes flit toward me for a second. Hopefully that staff member hadn’t ratted me out.

"Do you think I can go home today?" Penny asked.

"Let's see." She pressed a button on the machine that had been monitoring Penny’s heartbeat. It started printing out a long chart. "Well that's strange."

"What is it?" Penny’s father asked.

"Well, it looks like there was a twenty-minute period of escalated pulse."

I laughed and then turned it into a forced cough. I hadn’t thought about the doctor bringing up the fact that we’d fucked last night. Please don’t say anything else about that. Penny’s father already hated me enough. I squeezed Penny’s hand and looked down at my shoes.

"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked. "Are you struggling for breath at all? Have you noticed that your heart is racing? Or any palpitations?"

I pressed my lips together. They probably thought she was about to have a heart attack or something.

"No,” Penny said. “Not at all. I'm fine."

The doctor flipped a few switches on the monitor. "It could have been a computer malfunction. It seems to be working fine now, though. Strange." She leaned down and unplugged the machine and then plugged it back in.

"Maybe it was just a nightmare or something," Penny said quietly.

Oh, Penny. She wasn’t as good of a liar as I was.

"Possibly," the doctor replied. "So the man who brought you in said you had fallen a couple nights ago and hit your head pretty bad. And then you fainted yesterday afternoon. Are you feeling lightheaded at all today?"

"No. I feel a lot better."

"Well you have a moderate concussion. You shouldn't have been walking around by yourself. Plus you had an empty stomach and you were dehydrated. It's no wonder that you fainted."

I winced. That was all my fault. "Will she be okay now?" I asked.

"She needs to rest and build her strength back up."

"Can she leave today?"

"Let's keep the IV in for a few more hours to help with your dehydration. I'll be back to check on you soon. And if everything looks good and your heart rate stays down, you can head home."

"How long should she stay at home?" Penny’s mom asked. "She has classes." She looked at her husband. "I can take tomorrow off. I just need to call in."

"I'd recommend taking it easy for a few days. Definitely no classes on Monday. And just see how you feel on Tuesday. Don't push yourself. I'll be back in a few hours to check in." The doctor nodded at Penny’s parents and walked out of the room.

"Okay, let me call the office." Penny’s mother stood up and grabbed her purse.

"She can come back to my place," I said. I’d only just gotten Penny back. And I wasn’t letting her out of my sight again.

Honestly, I didn’t really want her to be alone with her father.

The last thing I needed was for him to spew poison in her ear, when I’d already done enough harm myself the past couple weeks.

I wasn’t sure how important his approval was to her.

"If that's okay with both of you, of course. "

"A dorm room isn't the best place to recuperate from this," her father said coolly.

"He actually lives in a nice apartment, Dad. It would be okay with me. I don't want to inconvenience you guys."

"It's never an inconvenience, Penny. Besides, James has classes. We can't ask him to miss them," her mom said.

"I can cancel them,” I said. “I mean, skip them. Not a big deal at all."

"Well, if you're sure it's okay, James. And if that's really what you want to do, Penny," her mom said.

Her father lifted his hand. "Nonsense. You'll be coming back with us, Pen." His tone was firm. It seemed like the end of this discussion.

Well, he’d definitely heard me zipper my pants then.

There was a knock on the door and Melissa burst in. She ran over to the bed.

"Oh my God, Penny!" She threw her arms around her. "Have you been here this whole time? I thought you were okay." She turned to me. "Thanks for keeping me in the dark, James."

I was pretty sure Melissa hated me as much as Penny’s father. "I didn't know she was here either. I would have told you."

"Then where were you, Penny? I haven't heard from you since Friday night. I can't believe..." she let her voice trail off. "We can talk later." She walked over to Penny’s parents. "Thanks for calling me, Mrs. Taylor." She hugged both of them at the same time.

So her parents loved Melissa? Huh. I wondered if they’d feel differently knowing how drunk Penny always got when she went out with her.

"Oh, I have someone I want you to meet,” Melissa said when they finally finished hugging. She opened the door and poked her head out. "Hey guys, it's okay, you can come in."

A man I’d never seen before walked in, followed by… Tyler. What the fuck is he doing here?

I ignored whatever Melissa and the stranger were talking about.

I was too busy staring at Tyler. He was hovering by the door because he clearly wasn’t wanted in this room.

And he looked like shit. Definitely worse than me even though I’d let him take tons of cheap shots.

The inside corners of both his eyes were bruised.

I was pretty sure I’d broken his stupid nose.

"And that's our friend Tyler,” Melissa said and pointed over to him.

Penny’s father frowned as he looked back and forth between me and the idiot kid. His brow furrowed.

"Nice to meet you both." Tyler smiled at them but didn't move.

Penny’s parents went back to talking to Melissa.

"Thanks for coming, Tyler," Penny said quietly.

Thanks for coming? It was this shithead’s fault that she was here.

Tyler glanced apprehensively at me. But then he walked over to Penny. "Yeah, well, Melissa needed a ride. It's hard to say no to her."

Was he even going to apologize to Penny? He really was a pussy.

"Right." Penny smiled at him. "Well, thanks for bringing her. My parents can take them back. You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"What? No, that's not what I meant. I wanted to come."

Every word out of his mouth made me grip Penny’s hand tighter and tighter. Like I was afraid if I let go I’d break Tyler’s nose again.

"How did you end up in here?" Tyler asked.

"I fainted. On Main Street."

"Penny." His voice sounded strained. "I knew I shouldn't have let you leave. You're so stubborn."

Shouldn’t have let you leave? What the fuck? I loosened my grip on Penny’s hand. She’d went for a walk to see Tyler fucking Stevens?

"I'm okay, Tyler,” she said.

"That's what you said yesterday too. So I don't believe you."

Tyler loved asking to be punched. I let go of Penny’s hand and stood up. I couldn’t listen to any more of this conversation. Penny’s father already hated me. Punching this kid again wasn’t going to help my case. "Does anyone want some coffee or something to eat?"

No one said anything.

Good. I’d get the full story directly from Penny about why she went to Tyler’s yesterday. Until then, I needed a minute alone anyway. "I'll be right back." I raked my fingers through my hair as I walked out the door without looking back.

But I heard footsteps behind me.

I turned around, expecting Tyler to be there pushing my buttons again. But it was Penny’s father. And he did not look happy.