Page 36 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Saturday

“Hey,” Penny said softly and ran her fingers through my hair.

I slowly opened my eyes. My head was still resting against Penny’s tits. I was clinging to her. Last night was foggy, but I’d had a terrible dream that she wasn’t real. That I was still alone, drowning. But she was here. We were okay. I eased my grip around her waist.

She kept running her fingers through my hair.

I lifted my head off her chest and looked down at her. "Hey."

"How are you feeling? You were really drunk last night."

I laughed. That was nothing. She should have seen me when we’d been on a break.

And if she was expecting me to have a hangover, it wasn’t happening.

My body had a very high tolerance level.

But I kept all that information to myself.

"I'm fine. Although I don't remember much about last night.

" My eyes scanned down her naked body and I smiled.

"I remember that." I remembered my palm on her ass.

Her laughter making her pussy grip my cock so tight.

She scrunched her mouth to the side as she stared at me. "Do you need some Advil or something?"

"No, I'm okay." My dream of her not being real was worse than any hint of a headache I had. But she was here. I reached out to touch her cheek.

"Oh my God, James." She sat up and grabbed my hand. "Your hand is bleeding. Why are you bleeding?!"

"Oh, shit." I ran my hands down my face as everything about last night fell into place. Rob. Ian. The flaming bag of shit. "Fuck. I remember that too." She was going to be so mad at me.

"What happened? James, you need to clean it. It's going to get infected or something." She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the bathroom.

She looked frantic as she opened up a drawer in my vanity and then another.

And I found it incredibly adorable.

"Do you have peroxide?” she asked as she kept rummaging around in the drawer.

I’d been hurt plenty of times and no one had ever cared. Besides, she should have seen the other guy. Blood all over his face, rolling around in Rob’s shit. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Or Band-Aids or anything?" She pulled open another drawer.

"No. Penny, I'm fine. Really, it doesn't even hurt." I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her.

Her eyes met mine in the mirror, catching my smile. "This isn't funny. We were just in the hospital. I don't want to go back. Is Ellen here? Maybe she has something?"

"She doesn't work on the weekends. Penny, it's fine. See?" I closed my hand into a fist to show her I was okay, but the dried blood made the cuts on my knuckles resist the movement and I winced.

"Jesus, James." She turned on the water and grabbed the bar of soap. She grabbed my hand and put it underneath the faucet.

Ow, fuck. I exhaled sharply and turned away from her in the mirror. I kept my head turned away from her as she gently washed away the blood on my knuckles. The water eventually stopped and she patted my hand with a towel.

Silence had always been comfortable between us. But right now it felt heavy. I could practically hear the questions running through her head. And I didn’t want to answer any of them.

"James,” she said, finally breaking the silence. “What did you do?"

"Thank you,” I said, ignoring her question. “I'm sorry, I didn't know I was bleeding."

"James,” she said more firmly.

I looked down at my hand and then back at her. I didn’t want us to fight anymore. I’d done this for her. And yeah, maybe a little bit for me. But it was already done. "I wanted to fix it."

"Fix what?"

"He touched you. That asshole touched you."

"You didn't.” The disappointment on her face made my stomach twist with guilt. “James, you promised me that you wouldn't hurt him."

"I didn't promise you that I wouldn't hurt him.

I told you exactly what I was going to do.

I said I was going to punch him in the face.

And that's what I did." The toilet paper and the poop and setting him on fire didn’t seem to be important to mention right now. At least none of us had slept with McCarty’s daughter.

"You said you were going to call Joe. This wasn't the way to fix it."

Joe wasn’t going to do anything. I had to take matters into my own hands. "He shouldn't have touched you."

"He's probably going to the dean right now. Or calling the cops on you."

"Trust me, he's not."

"What does that mean? Can he not move or something?"

James laughed. "No. I just made it very clear that I'd visit him again." And I was sure Rob’s threats to make McCarty’s daughter call him daddy had actually helped quite a bit in that department.

"You threatened him?" She was staring at me like I was a monster.

"You don't understand." I did it for you.

"Obviously. Because there was another way to handle this. So you're right, I don't understand why you got drunk and beat up another professor. Why would you do that?"

"Because I couldn't be there to protect you! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?"

"Yes. Because you never let me protect you."

I ran my hand down my face. "That's different."

"It's not different. And I've never beat someone up because of it."

I forced myself not to laugh. I could not picture Penny hitting anyone. But she looked dead serious. I leaned against the sink. "I did what I needed to do. He's a freaking pervert. He deserved it."

"And that's how people see you. Because you won't defend yourself. And you won't let me try to protect you. I don't want people to see you like that. I want everyone to know how wonderful you are."

"But I'm not wonderful.” She knew my demons. She knew what kind of man I was before we met. She knew. “I'm used to people saying bad things about me. I can handle it."

"You are wonderful." She put her hands on both sides of my face. "You're so wonderful. And smart, and funny, and sexy, and perfect.” She was staring at me like she truly believed what she was saying.

But I wasn’t perfect. Not even close. I was a fucking mess.

“Even when you get in fist fights you have good intentions,” she added.

"I didn't have good intentions. I wanted to kill him."

She shook her head. "You can't convince me that you're a bad person. I don't know why you keep trying to do that. I love you."

"I'm not going to apologize for what I did. I'm still mad." I looked down at my hand. I would have kept hitting him until I broke my fist. I was lucky Ian was there to pull me back.

"If you're mad about what's going on, then maybe you should do something else about it."

"What else can I do?"

She just stared at me.

"What? Talk to the press? Penny, that really would just make it worse."

"Yes. Please. Please tell the real story."

I wanted to shut this conversation down. But I heard Dr. Clark’s voice in the back of my head. We needed to talk these things through. And if this was what she wanted? How much could it really hurt? "Joe's going to be mad."

"I don't care. I don't want to go here anymore anyway."

Wait. What? "You don't?"

"No. I want to take the rest of the semester off. And try to enroll somewhere else in the spring. I want that fresh start you talked about."

I smiled. That was exactly what I wanted too. But she’d been so adamant about staying here. I thought… Well, I wasn’t sure what I thought. But I knew what this meant. That she truly was all in. "You'd give up going here to be with me?"

"Yes. All that I care about is being with you."

I wanted to lift her up and twirl her around.

"I love you, James Hunter."

I smiled. I knew she loved me. But hearing her say she was willing to move? And start over somewhere new with me? Her actions aligning with her words made my heart beat easier. She was as far gone as I was.

"I love you with everything that I am,” she said.

I grabbed her waist and kissed her. "I love you." I lifted her up onto the sink. "And it's rather convenient that you're already naked." Because I was about to show her how much I loved her too.

She laughed as I pressed my lips against hers again. I’d been barely holding on when I met her. But now it felt like I finally had everything figured out.

I’d thought a lot about my fresh start when I left New York.

But it wasn’t about moving to Delaware. It wasn’t about being a professor.

Those choices had just led me here. To her.

Because she was the only person who could save me from myself.

And she was the only thing I’d ever loved more than a vice.

Yes, I was still a mess. But I’d be better for her. Because she was fucking everything to me.

***

We finally emerged from our bedroom and Rob was in the kitchen with a knowing smirk on his face. Penny and I hadn’t exactly been quiet this morning or last night.

"Good morning," Penny said to him.

"Well, you two look like you're in a good mood," he said as he opened up the fridge. "Must be all the sex." His head disappeared behind the fridge door.

Penny’s face flushed and she looked up at me. "Could he hear us?" she whispered.

I leaned down so my lips brushed against her ear. "He might have been able to hear you. You're unbelievably responsive."

She pushed on my chest.

"I'm just kidding," I whispered. "I'm sure he couldn't hear us.” But…it was a lie. Because she’d been very vocal when I ate her out this morning.

"Do either of you want some scrambled eggs?" Rob asked. "I assume you're both hungry after your double header."

"I would love some, but only because it's breakfast time and I have a normal person's hunger," Penny said and sat down at the kitchen counter.

Rob laughed. "Don't be shy now. You know, for such a nice place, the walls are kind of thin. Don't you think, Professor Hunter ?"

"Shit," I mumbled. Rob was never going to let me live this down. But Penny had screamed my title several times this morning when my tongue was in her pussy.

"You don't have to be embarrassed. Penny already told me all about how kinky she is. I would have been surprised if she wasn't screaming Professor Hunter all night and morning."

I stifled my laugh only because Penny looked truly horrified.

"Please stop talking," I said.

"Besides," Rob continued. "We had to go on that top secret mission last night so I didn't end up getting laid. It was nice to have something to jerk off to."

Penny’s mouth literally fell open as she gaped at him.

"Damn it, Rob, we've talked about this. Stop saying stuff like that around Penny. I don't want to have to kick you out."

Rob cracked an egg. "It's fine. Penny and I are cool."

"Actually, we're not cool," Penny said. "Because James told me all about your secret mission. And you told me that you wouldn't let him do anything stupid. Punching a professor in the face is something stupid. What is wrong with you?"

"I tried to stop him,” Rob said.

Wow, he did not. He’d barely asked any questions about why I even wanted to do it. And he’d added on to the plan. I never had any intention of setting McCarty on fire. That was all Rob.

"Not well enough,” Penny said.

"He's bigger than me." Rob shrugged and cracked another egg.

"You two must have been a disaster together growing up," Penny said.

"No, only me really. James is the perfect one. I'm a terrible influence on him." He pushed the eggs around the pan with a spatula.

"That's kind of what it seems like."

"Geez, you sound like my mom. What, you think I wanted to go kick some guy's ass last night? That was not how I saw last night going at all. That was all him." He pointed at me.

Penny just laughed and shook her head.

"So what are we doing today?" Rob asked. "Is there someone else we need to beat up?"

"Penny and I are going shopping,” I said. “We need to pick up a few things for the apartment." I sat down next to her at the counter.

"I don't mind third wheeling." Rob put some of the scrambled eggs on plates and handed them out.

"Thanks, Rob, these look great," Penny said and took a bite.

"Actually, if it's alright, I was hoping to do something with just Penny. We'll only be gone for a few hours."

"Fine,” said Rob. “I have some stuff I need to do too anyway."

"You do?” Penny asked. “What are you going to do? Nothing illegal I hope?"

"Very funny, Penny. No, I ordered an Xbox from this place down the street. I need to go get it and set it up."

"I can't even remember the last time I played videogames," I said. We used to play all the time with Mason and Matt.

"I know. It's going to be so much fun crushing you. I call dibs on James after your lunch date." He pointed his fork at Penny.

"I'm good at videogames," Penny said. "Maybe I can crush both of you."

I stared at her. I didn’t know she liked videogames too. She really was full of surprises.

Rob laughed. "I seriously doubt that."

"I played tons of N64 growing up. I can beat anyone at Mario Kart."

Rob laughed again. "Yeah, this isn't N64. Xbox is for grownups."

"I'm sure it's not that different."

"Well, I guess we'll see later. Game on, Penny. Oh, and Professor Hunter , could you please pick me up some condoms? Like a huge box? Like all the condoms they have in the store."

"Please don't call me that,” I said. “And there's some in my nightstand. You can have them."

"I think the two of you are going to need those."

"Yeah, we don't use them."

Penny’s face turned completely scarlet.

"Fuck, I hate you,” Rob said. “I hate both of you so much."

I laughed and grabbed Penny’s hand, pulling her toward the elevator.