Holiday Treasure (Billionaire Bachelors - Book 10) (11 page)

Chapter Twenty

I
want all
the information you can find about Billy Stephens and his grandmother, Vivian Stephens.” Tanner waited for his assistant’s answer before he added, “No one is to know about this.”

Without another word, he hung up. Why he even cared about this pathetic little kid was beyond him, but he’d been restless all day, pacing in his apartment, and he needed something to occupy his mind. How the hell had Kyla had been able to sneak away from his bed without his knowing it?

He didn’t normally fall asleep with a woman still in his bed, but the only reason he’d let Kyla stay in bed with him was to help maintain body heat and because she’d told him she was frightened of the dark. Yeah, that’s all it was. But even while nodding his head in agreement with what he was saying to himself, for heaven’s sake, he had to admit she was different.

He could tell himself all he wanted that he was going to walk away from her and never look back, but this small woman, this woman who was completely unsuited for him, was quickly wedging herself into his life.

He didn’t like that. Didn’t like it one little bit. And he would fight it like hell.

He’d just have to fight it until Christmas day, when he’d run like hell back to his bachelor heaven high in the Seattle sky. Take things one day at a time — wasn’t that what you had to do? Accept the things you couldn’t change? Suck it up? But a few more little fixes wouldn’t hurt. One thing Tanner knew for sure was that he wanted her back in his bed again tonight.

Waiting for her to arrive back home after work was killing him. Yes, he’d called the authorities and asked permission to walk over to the mall to accompany her here, and they’d denied him. They’d already let him go to the hospital, had let him have some leniency, they’d pointed out.

This damn ankle device was pissing him off. “Only a few more days to go,” he reminded himself out loud.

He was a good man, a man who gave to the community, who provided jobs, who obeyed the law. The two officers who’d so gleefully escorted him to this effing building didn’t seem to feel the same way, though. Well, to hell with them. He was only here for a little longer.

Okay, he had to admit that the thought of leaving and never seeing Kyla again was far less than appealing. But who knew what would happen in the next few days? He would just cling to the happy thought that he was temporarily insane, most likely from the mold he knew had to be everywhere in this old building.

When Kyla didn’t arrive back at the complex soon after her shift was over, he began to worry. What if something had happened to her? When two hours passed, he was about to break the law and go looking for her.

After a few more minutes, he made his way purposefully to the front doors of the building, not caring if the damn officers came and arrested him. She could be in trouble, and he needed to make sure she was okay.

Just as he pushed the doors open, she came through. He gave her no greeting as she looked up, startled, then quickly looked back down again. This wasn’t good. She wouldn’t even look him in the eyes.

“Where were you?” The question wasn’t meant to come out as so curt, but he’d been worried, dammit.

“What business is it of yours, Tanner?” she said as she looked back up, fire instantly leaping in her eyes.

“I was worried.” Again, Tanner was shocked when those were the words that popped from his mouth. He didn’t worry about people, and if he did, he certainly didn’t admit it.

“Oh.” Her temper quickly defused. “I went to visit Vivian. She still isn’t awake, but she looks better. The doctor said he expects her to wake up any time.”

“That’s wonderful.” Should he admit that he was checking on Billy, that he was trying to see if there was anything he could do for the boy? No. He shouldn’t, not yet, at least. He’d hold that card to his chest and bring it out when it would play to his best advantage. If he helped the kid — an act of boredom, of course — wouldn’t that make him more appealing to Kyla? Weren’t girls a sucker for a man coming to the rescue? Yes, they were. He was only helping the kid to get back into her pants. That thought made him feel better, and he refused to even think to himself that he was lying, even in his own head.

“I tried to get information on Billy, but they won’t tell me anything. Did you know the process to become a foster parent is long and drawn out? By the time I could do anything, his grandmother will be fully recovered. I’ve still started the paperwork. I just hate the thought of him being all alone and scared.”

“I know you hated handing him over, but if you hadn’t done that, you would have been considered a kidnapper. You did the right thing, Kyla.”

“It doesn’t matter if I did the right thing or not. I feel like I’ve betrayed him, and he’s already been through so much. It’s just…it’s not right,” she said, her shoulders sagging.

“Why don’t you come over? I’ll make you some dinner and we can talk about it…” Nice offer, he thought.

“I can’t tonight, Tanner. I’m so tired. I want a hot bath and to go to sleep. It’s pathetic, but it is what it is. And I am what I am.”

Before he was able to argue with her, or maybe persuade her, she turned and walked way from him. He was so surprised that he’d been rejected, and by a woman who knew all his best bedroom tricks — okay, not all of them — that by the time he realized she was getting away, she was already at her apartment and her door was shutting. Maybe he’d just go pound on it.

“Ouch. That looked like it hurt.”

Tanner turned around, fury rolling through him.

“Who in the hell are you?”

“Hey, don’t take your bad mood out on me. I’m Wayne, one of the guards here.”

“Well, I’d appreciate it if you keep your comments to yourself,” Tanner told him as he turned to leave.

“I’m just saying that she’s not the warmest cookie in the batch. The lady up on three-twelve heats up a whole lot faster,” Wayne said with a sly look.

“Go to hell,” Tanner said, and he slammed his door in the guard’s face.

It looked as if Wayne wouldn’t have a job come morning.

Tanner flopped down on the couch and made two more phone calls. This insane restlessness really pissed him off. He didn’t need Kyla to be with him to make him happy. It had to be this place. As soon as he got out of here, he would go back to being himself.

And that’s just what he wanted.

Chapter Twenty-One

“
…and a Buzz
Lightyear, and Megatron, and…”

The kid wanted a million presents for Christmas, and Tanner tuned him out. He didn’t care. If anything, this job had shown him that the majority of people were just plain greedy.

Not one child had touched him like Billy had almost three weeks before. He’d gotten the information back that he’d requested, but he almost wished he could erase from his mind what the report said.

Billy’s father had been a soldier, had been deployed for a year, and he’d just gotten home for leave. His wife, Billy’s mother, had picked him up from the airport and they’d gone over a bridge. Billy hadn’t even gotten to see his father again.

One minute he was asleep in bed with no idea that his father was coming home, and the next he’d been awakened to see his grandmother’s sad face, and to hear her telling him he was going to come live with her now.

The two of them had a lot of healing to do, and now Billy blamed himself for his grandmother getting hurt. She was awake, but it would have almost been better if she hadn’t come out of the coma.

When the doctors had gone in to fix the hip, they’d found bone cancer. It was too far gone for them — or anyone — to do anything about it. So Billy was not only not going to not get his Christmas wish of having his parents come home again, but he was going to lose his only other living relative.

Tanner was trying desperately not to dwell on it, but as he looked out at the line of kids still waiting to sit on his lap, have a picture taken and tell him how many toys they wanted, all he could think about was one small boy. But he did his best to shake Billy’s image from his mind. The boy wasn’t his responsibility. Kyla wasn’t either. He was almost done with this place, and once his stint was over, he was done forever, so how could these two people occupy so much of his time?

Shaking his head, he practically pushed away the little boy who was actually on his lap. Still, he wasn’t wholly in Scrooge mode. A semblance of a smile touched his lips as a little blond girl with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks took the boy’s place on Tanner’s lap.

“What can Santa bring you for Christmas?” he asked.

She flashed him a precious little grin. “I want a purple pony,” she giggled.

“A purple pony?” Did they even make things like that?

“Yes, Santa, with sparkles.”

“Santa will have to talk to his elves and see if we can get you one of those,” he told her. At least she wasn’t reading off a list from a yard-long scroll. The twinkle in her eyes was just plain adorable.

“Thanks, Santa. I love you,” the little girl said.

“Santa loves you too,” he told her, and accepted her hug. All right, this wasn’t so bad. He was just feeling grumpy about humanity earlier.

Then she leaned back and the color washed from her face. “Uh oh.” That was his only warning before her mouth opened and a stream of nastiness came shooting out right at him.

Tanner froze as the smell of vomit invaded his nostrils and chunks of food got stuck in his fake beard. His so-called helpers all took a few steps back; the best they could do for him, it seemed, was give him wide-eyed looks of horror.

“Sorry, Santa,” the little girl said before she quickly climbed off his lap and ran to her mother, tears now pouring from her eyes.

“It’s okay, sweetie. You didn’t mean to throw up on Santa,” her mother told her.

“Now he won’t bring me my pony,” she sobbed.

“Of course that’s why she’s crying,” Tanner muttered. “Greedy like every damn one of them. I’m done for the day! Now!”

With that, he stood up and stomped from the ridiculously festive “North Pole” area, walking through the mall with people skirting around him, his stink following wherever he went. He’d been peed on, spit on, punched, snotted on, and now thrown up on. How in the hell did they get anyone to actually take this job? There was no amount of money in the universe that would make being Santa worth it.

All children were simply germ machines out to wreck the lives of unsuspecting adults. Who in their right mind would actually want to have some of the repulsive little brats for their own? And Billy? He was probably a little schemer, too, playing his bereavement for all it was worth.

Tanner entered the break room, and he found Kyla sitting on the bench and rubbing her feet.

“Why in the hell weren’t you out there?”

Her shocked look made him realize that, in his anger, he might be behaving slightly over the top. But he was covered in vomit. Didn’t that give him a little bit of leeway to act out?

“I’m on break,” she said before her nose twitched and then she backed away from him. “What on earth happened?”

“What do you think happened? Anything and everything disgusting a child can do to me has now been done. Thank heavens I only have one more day left of this Santa bullshit!”

“It’s not so bad. They’re just children, and they adore you,” she reminded him.

“Just children? How can you even say that? You’ve seen their behavior. They are all monsters in disguise. Don’t let their small size fool you,” he ranted as he stripped down.

When his eyes connected with hers again and he saw the look of appreciation that his naked torso inspired in her face, his temper cooled. No, they hadn’t made love again in the last two days, and yes, she’d managed to avoid him like he had the plague, but she still wanted him. That much was obvious.

There were only two nights left in his sentence, and he planned on making the most of the time. “How about we sneak out of here? I no longer have a usable Santa suit, so they’re going to have to bring in the other guy. We can go cuddle up and watch another Christmas movie.”

The last thing he wanted to do was watch a movie, but if that got her to snuggle into him, then he would watch a dozen of the things. Their first movie night hadn’t been half bad — well, it hadn’t until she’d fallen asleep. And he did have to sit through Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.

“I can’t just leave work, Tanner,” she said, looking down.

“Why are you avoiding me? Do you regret what happened between us?” There. She couldn’t get out of answering that.

“No. I decided not to regret it, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen again,” she said, looking back up with a glint of determination in her eyes.

“Why not? We’re good together. Why fight it?” Logic was always the answer, wasn’t it?

“Just because we’re obviously compatible in bed doesn’t mean we should continue to jump into it.”

“In my book, that’s exactly what it means.” Women! Were they all incapable of reason?

“Look, it’s obvious you’re not sticking around long, Tanner, and I’m not usually a one-night-stand sort of girl, so let’s not have regrets, but let’s not pretend there’s something there between us.”

He latched on to the one part of her explanation he could. “It won’t be a one-night stand if we do it again.”

“Are you for real?” she asked, a hint of a smile on her face.

“Oh, baby, I’m all real,” he assured her as he stepped closer.

Her nose wrinkled for the second time, and she stood up and backed away. “Why don’t you go and shower? Your looks might be appealing, but your smell is killing the mood.”

With that lethal shot, she walked out of the room. He almost followed before he realized he was standing there in his boxers and ridiculously thick socks. With a sigh, he grabbed his clothes and made his way to the mall shower.

The sad thing about the shower was that it was better than the one in his apartment. But that was hardly an issue anymore.

Kyla was the issue. She might think she was avoiding him successfully, and she might think she was witty, but she didn’t know quite how determined he could be.

She was soon to find out.