LAWSON (A Standalone Billionaire Romance Novel)

by Kristina Weaver

  “God I’ve missed you,” he said. “Please know I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  Sasha’s breath was ragged. “But who did it? Who would do this to you?”

  A sudden moment of recognition sparked in Thomas’s eyes. He looked at her and said simply, “Crystal.”

  Sasha gasped. “Of course,” she said under her breath.

  Crystal seemed to know her brother’s every whereabouts. If she’d found him in the hotel during his interviews was it so far-fetched to think she’d tipped off the media about his presence at the restaurant? Two hundred dollars for a photo, Thomas had said. Pretty tempting for a junky. And she must have been on her way in to get her secretly planted cameras when she’d bumped into her yesterday morning.

  “Now do you believe me?” Thomas said exasperated. He took Sasha’s hands in his and squeezed them.

  “Yes.”

  Just then the stairs creaked. Chris had appeared on the landing, a suitcase in either hand. “Ready?” he said.

  Thomas looked up. His face blanched. Sasha’s stomach plummeted to her feet, as the only two men she’d ever had sex with stood staring at her.

  Chapter Eight

  “Well this is awkward.”

  Thomas Lloyd lent his back against the wall. With his expensive suit and perfectly coiffed hair, the English actor looked completely out of place in Sasha’s shabby hallway. Meanwhile, Chris, her high school sweetheart, stood at the top of the staircase, wearing a devastated expression.

  Sasha looked from one man to the other, from the man she’d once loved to the man who had made her feel things she never knew she could. They couldn’t have been more different.

  Just moments earlier, she’d told Chris she would leave Chicago with him, go back to her mother’s home and escape the media circus that her leaked sex tape with Thomas had created. But then Thomas had turned up on her door step and she’d learned that he hadn’t leaked the tape for publicity at all, but that his junky sister had done it for money.

  Now everything had changed.

  The paps started banging on the door and calling out Thomas’s name. He hardly seemed to notice. His gaze was fixed on Chris.

  “This is the ex boyfriend, I presume,” he said coolly in his suave English accent.

  The actor himself needed no introduction. He was one of the most recognized faces in America.

  “What is he doing here?” Chris demanded.

  Sasha opened her mouth then closed it again. What could she possibly say to Chris to explain why the man she’d accused of committing a sex crime was now standing in her hallway?

  “I’d like to know the same thing,” Thomas said. His voice had become cold in a way that gave Sasha goose pimples.

  “Let’s go to the kitchen,” she said.

  “What a lovely idea,” Thomas said sarcastically. “We can have a nice cup of tea.”

  The paps began banging on the door again, calling out Thomas’s name.

  “We can’t stand here,” Sasha said, flinching at the pounding sound. She looked at Chris. “I need to talk to Thomas. Can you give us a moment?”

  Chris frowned. “Have you lost your mind, Sash?”

  “It’s not what you think,” she replied. “Things have changed.”

  “In the ten minutes it took me to pack your bags?”

  Thomas winced at Chris’s words.

  “Yes!” Sasha cried. She was becoming exasperated. “Please, just give us space to talk.”

  With a thunderous expression, Chris dumped his hold all on the top step and retreated back from the direction he’d just come.

  “What a charming oaf,” Thomas said wryly. “I must admit I didn’t think high school quarterback would be your type.”

  “I didn’t think Alicia would be yours,” Sasha snapped in reply.

  “Touche.”

  Sasha guided Thomas into the kitchen. At the very least, the kitchen dampened out the sound of the paparazzi on her doorstep. But having the stunning actor in her tiny, rundown kitchen made everything even more surreal. She’d never belonged in Thomas’s world and seeing him in hers made it clear how badly suited they were. Why did he even care what she thought of him? Why had he even bothered coming here? Yes, they’d had some incredible sex and shared some intimate moments but the actor wasn’t exactly in short supply of willing women wanting to do the same...

  Thomas perched against the work surface. An image of him licking her out on the worktop in his own kitchen popped into Sasha’s mind. But rather than the view point she’d been in when he had been bringing her to the point of ecstasy, she saw it from the perspective of the leaked sex tape, from the position of the voyeur. The memory of one of the most amazing experiences of her life has been ruined by Crystal’s cruel actions.

  “You moved on quickly,” Thomas said, picking up an apple from her fruit bowl and tossing it into the air carelessly.

  “It’s not like that,” she argued. But guilt bit at her. They had kissed, she and Chris. Or at least, he’d kissed her. She’d hardly reciprocated and though that didn’t exactly make it better, it still wasn’t what Thomas thought. They hadn’t slept together. She hadn’t cheated on him. “I know how it looks but we didn’t do anything. Chris… he just came to help.”

  “You were leaving with him.”

  “Not with him. He was taking me home to my mom’s. I wasn’t running away or anything. I was just going back for a bit until this all blows over.”

  Thomas scoffed. “You think this will blow over? You think the paparazzi won’t find your mother’s house and trace you there? Come on, you’re a journalist, you know how this game works. There’s no running away for either of us.”

  Sasha was taken aback. When Thomas had first arrived, before he’d seen Chris, he’d wanted a reconciliation. He’d wanted Sasha to understand that he hadn’t leaked the tape for publicity. He’d even kissed her. But now he was acting like a different person. Cold. Cruel. Emotionless.

  “Why did you come here, Thomas?” she said, her voice hushed.

  Thomas hesitated. He put the apple back in the fruit bowl. “My intentions don’t matter anymore. What matters now is how to proceed.”

  Sasha folded her arms and huffed. “Fine. Then tell me what happens next.”

  “We put on a united front,” Thomas said simply. “We stick together, pretend to be a couple, do all the things the media would expect of us.”

  Sasha frowned. “Such as…?”

  “Go to award shows. Lounge around on private yachts. Dine with celebs.”

  “Thomas, what are you asking me to do?” Sasha said.

  “I’m asking you to play the part of my girlfriend.”

  Sasha steadied herself by gripping the worktop. Was he crazy? “Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor settles down with… an intern?” she said, suggesting the sort of headline that would appear on all the celebrity gossip sites. “Did your publicist suggest this?”

  Thomas glared at her. He spoke in a clipped tone. “The public will look more favourably upon the sex tape scandal if it was sex within a happy relationship rather than a sordid casual fling.”

  Unhappiness gnawed inside of her. It was the first time Thomas had referred to sex with her as casual. Despite her caution, he’d given her the impression that there was more going on than just casual sex, especially after he’d revealed his scars to her and told her about the terrible fire that had caused them.

  “So you’re just here to protect your reputation,” she said sadly.

  “And yours,” he shot back.

  Thomas began pacing across the floor. Sasha mulled over his words. Her reputation… As in her career prospects. The sex tape had left them in tatters. No reputable paper was going to employ someone who couldn’t even make it through an internship at the low-brow Atomic magazine before sleeping with a client.

  “You’ll have to do some interviews about my scars,” Thomas continued. “About how they affect me emotionally. I’ll need to talk about my traumatic
experience as a youth.”

  Everything he said was so cold and calculated, so far from the passionate man she’d come to know.

  “Does that mean you… that you don’t feel anything for me?” She couldn’t stop the question from escaping her lips, but regretted it instantly.

  Thomas clenched his teeth. “You took another man into your bed after falling for the stupid lies the media print. You didn’t even give me a chance to explain.”

  “Nothing happened with me and Chris,” she contested, knowing full well it was only half true.

  “Even if that were true, you’re still not the woman I met before. The one who didn’t listen to hearsay. Who didn’t have time for it. The one who gave more weight to my words than the lies of the Kelly’s and Alicia’s of the world.”

  Sasha’s heart clenched. She’d blown it with Thomas. She’d blown it with her career. She didn’t even know if she wanted that career anymore. Prying into people’s lives and making assumptions about them was wrong. In the short time she’d known Thomas, she’d seen firsthand the destruction and confusion the media caused. Being with him had flipped her whole world view upside down.

  But amidst all the chaos and confusion, there was one thing she knew for certain, one thing she could trust, and that was the fire that burned in her when she was with him. She wanted Thomas Lloyd, to be with him, near him, in whatever capacity that entailed. Even if he felt nothing for her, she felt something for him - a huge, burning, insatiable sexual desire - and it made her feel more alive than she ever had before.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Okay what?”

  “I’ll do it. Put on the united front. Be your girlfriend. Save your reputation.”

  Thomas regarded her for a moment. There wasn’t even a trace of emotion on his face, not even a hint that he recognized what she was giving up for him.

  “Good,” he said, simply. “I’ll get the car over here. My PR team will brief you on everything you need to say once we’re on the plane.” He was already tapping on his phone.

  “Plane?”

  Thomas’s gaze darted up. “Yes. That house on the private island I was telling you about. It’s probably best if we go there and lay low for a little while.”

  “You, me and the… PR team?” How romantic.

  Thomas’s eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a holiday, Sasha. This is a crisis planning meeting. And we’re all going to have to pull together to make this work.”

  “What about Chris?”

  “He’ll have to stay here until the paparazzi are gone. If they photograph him leaving the house the whole charade will fall to pieces.” He paused. “How much will it cost to get him to play ball?”

  “Nothing,” Sasha shot back. “I don’t need to bribe my friends to help me out.”

  “You sure about that? All he has to do is leave this house a minute after us and get papped and he’ll be offered hundreds for his story.”

  Sasha narrowed her eyes and spoke through her teeth. “How many times do I have to tell you, there is no story.”

  Thomas shrugged. “Even if there isn’t, doesn’t mean he won’t capitalize on the opportunity.”

  “I can trust Chris. I’ve known him my whole life and...”

  “Like I could trust Crystal? She’s my sister, Sasha. In this world, you can trust no one. Do you understand me? No one. So go and let down your boyfriend gently. Convince him that we’re genuine or before you know it he’ll be selling you out to the press.”

  Convince Chris she was genuine about Thomas? That wouldn’t be hard; she was.

  She was about to say that Chris wasn’t her boyfriend but stopped herself. What would be the point? Thomas had already made his mind up about her. She was a cheat. A man eater. Just like how she’d thought he was a sex addict when she’d bumped into his “escort”.

  With her stomach swirling, she left the kitchen and went through the hallway, past the pounding door, and up to the bedroom.

  Chris was sitting on her bed looking dejected.

  “You’re not coming with me, are you?” he said without looking up.

  “I’m staying with Thomas. He explained what happened with the tape. It was his sister who leaked it, not him.”

  Chris glanced up, his eyebrows furrowed. “And you trust him?”

  ‘In this world, you can trust no one. Do you understand me? No one.’

  “Yes.”

  “How well do you even know him, Sash?”

  Sasha could feel echoes of the amazing orgasms Thomas had given her running all through her body. She could smell his sweat, remember the feel of his mouth on hers, and the sensation of his cock as it slid inside of her.

  “Better than you’d think,” she said.

  Chris frowned. “Do you love him?”

  Sasha knew better than to hesitate. “Yes.”

  Chris let his head drop into his hands. His shoulders slumped with dejection. “Do you think he’ll make you happy?”

  Sasha remembered the passionate sex she’d shared with Thomas and the belief that no one would ever be able to satisfy her in the same way. Even if his only intention for being with her was to protect his public image, Sasha had to take it. She had to take the slither of Thomas Lloyd on offer to her.

  “Happier than I’d be going back home. Thomas can show me the world.”

  Chris looked suddenly disgusted. “So it’s all about the money after all. He can take you all over the world to fancy hotels and beautiful beaches. Whereas me, all I can offer you is love and stability. But you’d prefer the money and the fame. You’d prefer the drama. I never thought you’d become so shallow.” He stood up and began dumping her clothes out of the hold all and onto the bed.

  Watching him made her heart ache. Knowing she’d caused him pain hurt her to the core. But she didn’t love Chris in that way and she never would. He would never satisfy her in the way Thomas could. Even though she knew she’d never get to have sex with Thomas ever again, she knew she’d be better off following him than letting him go forever.

  “Chris,” she said, tentatively. “I need you to do something for me.”

  He swirled around angrily. “Do you really expect me to do you favors after what you’ve put me through?”

  “I’m not expecting anything. I’m asking. I’m asking that you wait here until Thomas and I have gone. If the paparazzi get a photo of you then they’ll suspect that we slept together. It would harm Thomas’s credibility.”

  “Why should I give a shit about Thomas’s credibility?” His words were cruel, his tone sharp and bitter.

  “Because Thomas’s credibility is my credibility. And even though you’re angry with me now, you don’t want to hurt me. Not like that.”

  “Don’t I?” Chris snapped back.

  Sasha spoke calmly. “Chris, this is the media we’re talking about. What you do now will have ongoing ramifications. It can’t be undone. It won’t be forgotten. It will be immortalized on the internet. If you don’t want drama, then wait until the paps have gone. Do you understand?”

  Chris chucked her last top onto the heap of clothes on the bed. He let out a deep sigh, a sigh that told her he understood, that he would play his part in their stupid game.

  “You can stay as long as you need to,” she added. “I’ll leave you my key to lock up when you leave.”

  Chris sunk down onto the bed and looked up at her, shaking his head. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Sash. I hope you know what you’re letting yourself in for.”

  “I do,” she replied, but her insides were a swirling tornado of confusion, anguish... and lust.

  Chapter Nine

  It was all so covert - the dark sunglasses, the scarf over the head, the hand in front of the camera. Sasha must have seen a thousand other celebrities go through it but now she was at the centre of the scandal.

  The rain had started pouring as she bundled into the back seat of Thomas’s car. She recognized the driver as the same one who picked them up that night at t
he restaurant, when the paparazzi had hounded them and she and Thomas had shared a passionate kiss in the back alleyway. That time he’d been helping them escape the paparazzi, and now here he was doing the same thing again, like a personal getaway driver.

  They sped through the drizzly streets of Chicago in the blacked out car. Thomas didn’t seem in the mood to talk, so as they went, Sasha looked out the window at the city she’d tried to make her home. She’d worked so hard to get here, to leave her small town upbringing and her lack of prospects. There were points when it had felt like the whole world was against her - with her mother’s illness and her father’s abandonment - but against the odds she’d come within a hair’s breadth of the life she’d always wanted. And now she was just leaving it all behind. She couldn’t bear to think how disappointed her mother would be.

  Thomas’s private jet was waiting for them at the airport. His team - a publicist and two bodyguards - were already congregated by the entrance, huddled under umbrellas. So were the paps.

  As the car pulled up to the entrance, Thomas leaned over to Sasha.

  “Don’t let me down, okay?” he whispered in her ear.

  His breath was hot. It made her gasp.

  A woman knocked on the window. Thomas wound it down. “Pippa,” he said.

  The woman leaned right in and spoke in a whisper.

  “I could kill you right now, Thomas.” She had a posh, English accent. She started straightening his shirt and mussing his hair. “Now, you’re in love remember. Protect her. Hold her. Caress her.” Then her gaze flicked to Sasha. “And you need to laugh at his jokes. Got it?”

  Sasha nodded.

  “And for God’s sake act relaxed. You’re not supposed to give half a hoot about this whole drama.”

  The woman popped back out of the window.

  Thomas took Sasha’s hand in his.

  The car door was opened from the outside. Hand in hand, Thomas and Sasha stepped out into a heavy downpour, a cacophony of shouting, and bright, blinding lights.

  Thomas’s team swarmed around the couple, trying to shield them from the flashing lights. Thomas pulled Sasha inside the entrance to the airport, then all the way through it, ignoring the paparazzi’s prying questions. Though Sasha knew it was all an act, she still reveled in the feel of his skin on hers. She just loved being so close to him, feeling the warmth radiate from him...