by Sierra Rose
Redeeming
The Billionaire Playboy
Part 6
By
Sierra Rose
Copyright © 2017 by Sierra Rose
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Redeeming The Billionaire Playboy (Taming The Bad Boy Billionaire, #6)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Visit Sierra Rose at: www.authorsierrarose.com
Chapter 1
AFTER I FAINTED, I freaked when I woke up. I remember that much. When the good doctor arrived, and offered me a sedative, I said, hell yes. I guess it worked way too well, and I was really groggy. I remember walking to a Town car and being driven somewhere. The trustworthy doctor told me that I would be safe, and that I could just fall asleep and get a peaceful night’s rest. I told him that would be absolutely delightful. He said he would check on me first thing in the morning.
I woke up in a bed I didn’t recognize, in a robe I didn’t recognize, in a room that looked like it had been directly transplanted from the palace in Versailles.
For a second, all I could do was stare.
Pale creams and golds swirled in delicate patterns across the high walls. The canopy hovering over the bed swished softly in the warm breeze wafting in from the open window. A crystal chandelier, the elegant likes of which I’d only seen in movies, sparkled brightly in the morning sun, casting shimmering prism rainbow glints around the walls.
Wait. Morning sun?
The world tilted precariously as I sat up and let out a little gasp and tossed my wide-eyed gaze outside. What I saw there was even more shocking than waking up in a fairytale.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. How high up do you have to be in London to look out your window and see nothing but a clear blue sky?
I lifted my hand up to my face and released a tiny groan as I remembered, but what I saw when I closed my eyes was just as confusing. Not one but two men stared at me in the hallway. They were exactly the same, like twins, yet somehow completely different. Not one but two men just stared down at me, a heap on the floor. One was furious, but the one holding me seemed pleasantly surprised, his eyes twinkling as he gazed down upon me with a warm smile.
“I remember you. But what are you doing here?”
A pair of voices snapped me out of my trance, stirring my tired brain and reminding me that such a massive house had to be occupied by more people than me alone. I sat up gingerly on the bed and looked down for the first time to survey the damage.
My dress was still in place, but I was also wrapped in a soft robe, a man’s robe that smelled vaguely of honey. Without thinking, I pulled it up around my face. I closed my eyes and inhaled as deeply as I could, taking momentary comfort in the sweet scent. When those sharp voices shattered the silence once more, though, I hurried to my feet.
The room tilted again the second I was vertical, and I swayed dangerously to one side and was forced to grab hold of the frame of the four-poster bed to steady myself. I fully expected a wave of nausea to follow, but strangely enough, my stomach felt fine. I was just a little lightheaded, as far as I could tell, but just to be sure, I carefully inhaled. Just five deep breaths, I told myself, and then I’ll head downstairs and do my best to figure out what the hell’s going on.
On breath number three, however, the door flew open, and the doctor sauntered in. “Oh, you’re awake,” he said, not hiding his surprise. “I just came to check on you. How did you sleep?”
“It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time.”
“Good. You needed it. I stayed the night to make sure you’d be okay. I slept in another guestroom.”
“You didn’t have to go through all that trouble. I’m fine.”
“It’s what they pay me for, dear.”
He was an older man, probably in his late seventies, with a pleasant, soothing demeanor and the faintest hint of a German accent—the kind of man one might look up to as a child, the type to run to for help and sound advice with any and all youthful troubles, knowing he’d easily wash them away with a smile and a glass of lemonade.
“My name is Della,” I said.
“I’m Dr. Levinson,” he introduced, then stepped forward with a gracious nod, taking my wrist at the same time, albeit with hands so passive I almost didn’t notice. “And it seems there is great improvement in your pulse, young lady.”
I glanced down at our joined hands but didn’t pull away as he quietly counted out the rhythm. “I still don’t understand. Where am I? Did... Did Robert call you?”
“Not Robert.” He released my hand and looked over the top of his spectacles, giving me a gentle smile. “James. This is his London estate, miss.”
James? So my mystery man is real...and he has an actual name.
“James,” I whispered under my breath, trying to string it all together. There was only one possible explanation, and it was so obvious that I couldn’t believe it had never occurred to me before, nor had anyone bothered to explain it. “Wait. Are they, um...?”
“Twins?” he finished for me. “Yes, of the identical variety.” The doctor’s eyes twinkled knowingly as he flashed a medical flashlight briefly across my eyes.
I blinked several times in rapid succession, still trying to gain my bearings as the little green dot faded slowly from my vision. “Twins, huh. Are you sure?”
He chuckled merrily, slipping his instruments back into his bag. “I should be. I delivered them both myself, over thirty years ago.”
By now, I was in such a mind-blown tailspin that the remark washed right over me. I woke up in a literal castle in the clouds, owned by my own personal Prince Charming, a man I fell in love with during a magical rooftop rendezvous. Now, I was being physically examined by his personal doctor, since men of this James’s means always had private physicians at their disposal, all while he argued with his identical twin brother downstairs.
Yep, that about sums it up.
“Deep breaths,” I instructed myself again, then glanced up in surprise.
Levinson gave me a kind smile, miming the motions as he spoke. “It’s a lot to take in, but you’ll get used to it in time. At any rate,” he said, flicking his eyes to the door as he gathered his hat and jacket, “it seems the boys are worked up enough already. With any luck, you’ll be a calming influence, eh?” Then, with that bit of encouragement, he vanished down the hall, chuckling under his breath all
the while.
I stared at the door for a moment before I decided to run after him. I practically flew down the winding staircase but then came to a sudden pause mid-step, one that almost knocked me off my feet entirely.
Indeed, the twins were quite “worked up,” as the good doctor had diagnosed. I heard them before I saw them, arguing in voices that they failed miserably at hushing. It seemed that on every other syllable, one or both of them broke rank and ended up shouting at the top of their lungs. I found it funny in some odd way that for twins, they sounded nothing alike. Robert’s voice was hoarse and choppy, sharp with rage. It lacked the smooth finesse of James’s, that hypnotic sensuality that had swept me off my feet the first night we met.
As I stood there, I wondered if Robert had put two and two together yet, if he realized I’d mistaken him for his brother the whole time. Fool that I was, the simple truth had certainly eluded me for far too long.
And speaking of Robert...
“I just don’t understand why we had to bring her here,” he said. “My place is just as close, and you never even—”
“Your place is under constant siege from the paps,” James interrupted calmly. “On the other hand, everyone is currently under the impression that I’m still in South America, ingratiating myself with the native tribes.”
I saw their shadows stretching up the far wall, one with his arms folded serenely across his chest and the other pacing in manic circles across the floor. It took only a second to figure out that the manic pacer was Robert.
“I was still under that impression myself,” he muttered under his breath, unable to stand still for even a moment. “Why did you even come back? Last I heard, you were deep in the jungles of Bolivia, trying to—”
“Ecuador,” James corrected patiently. “They tried to kill me in Bolivia. In Ecuador, they declared me a god.”
There was an incredulous pause before the pacing resumed. “Of course,” he snapped.
“As for why I came back, there are...a lot of reasons,” James continued, running his hands through his hair. “I missed the city, wanted to see Dad...”
Robert’s pacing stopped again at the mention of their father, and he glanced once at his twin, then looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “Have you? Since you left your numb-minded followers behind, oh great deity James, have you even bothered to visit our father yet?”
“No. I just got in.” James tilted his head to the side, surveying his brother with great interest, despite Robert’s attempts to dodge him. “I actually thought we could visit together. That’s why I stopped by the office, but I only found you screaming at that poor girl.”
By now, I had sneaked to the base of the stairs and was peering discreetly around the corner. It was completely surreal, seeing the both of them in the same room, the man I’d been searching for and his doppelganger who would never quite measure up to the real thing. Strange as it was, I didn’t notice their similarities as I looked at them; I was completely taken aback, rather, by their distinct differences.
Robert might have been incredibly handsome, but James was in a whole other league. It wasn’t any one thing in particular either, not something I could put my finger on. It was bigger than that, the whole package.
There was just something magical about James, as if he was privileged to be given some enchanted serum at birth when his brother was not. His eyes danced with it. His skin practically glowed with it. Even the way he moved was blessed with some otherworldly grace. For all those reasons and more, I found it impossible to take my eyes off him even for a second, as hard as I tried.
“...found you screaming at that poor girl,” his last words suddenly echoed in the corner of my mind.
Robert’s eyes bulged as his face turned an angry shade of puce. He spluttered and stammered for a moment before throwing a hand up between them. “That poor girl had it coming. You don’t know what you’re talking about, James. You would have done better to just stay out of it, but you always find that impossible, don’t you?”
For the first time, James showed a bit of life. His eyes began to flash with some volatile emotion, but he quickly managed to get his temper safely under control. “Stay out of it?” he quoted, cocking his head sardonically to the side. “Even after she passed out on the floor?”
To his credit, Robert at least had the decency to blush, but that was where his humanity ended. He threw his hands in the air and began pacing again, not gifted with the ability to control his frustration as his brother could. “That kind of drama is just the tip of the iceberg with this one. Trust me, with Della, it’s just one crazy thing after—”
“Della?” James said my name slowly, like a caress, his eyes softening and illuminating once again as he tried it out for the first time. “So she does have a name.”
So he does remember.
My heart leapt in my chest, and I had to bite my lip to keep from grinning like an idiot.
A sudden tap on my shoulder made me jump, and I whirled around with a start to see Dr. Levinson standing behind me, his eyes twinkling behind the round little lenses of his glasses. “Shall I make the proper introductions for you?” he prompted gently.
“Oh, no, that’s all right.” I blushed a million shades of red as I smoothed my hair and stepped out into open view. “I can do it myself.”
The second they saw me, both brothers shushed. James’s eyes lit up with curious interest, but Robert greeted me with only a sour scowl.
“Nice robe,” Robert finally managed to say with a growl, unable to remove the disgusted expression from his face.
I glanced down in dismay, but I felt better when James stepped forward with a comforting grin on his face, a smile I was sure his brother wasn’t capable of.
“I agree,” he said, then punctuated it with a wink when our eyes met. “Of course, I’m sure you can make anything look good.”
For a second, everything froze, till I heard the sound of a throat clearing softly beside me I stepped aside as Dr. Levinson walked forward to give his official diagnosis.
“Gentlemen, I’m pleased to say your guest is going to survive after all. She will experience some faintness, some lightheadedness, but that should clear up once she gets some food into her system.” He glanced over his shoulder to give me a warm smile. “Let me know if I can be of further assistance in any way.”
I could tell a lot by a person based on how they treated their underlings, the people whose checks they signed. Over the last few weeks, I’d seen Robert bitterly snap at interns, lawyers, and even the poor messenger boy who dropped off our morning mail. On the contrary, the James I remembered called the French chef by name, and I was willing to bet he even knew the names of the man’s family, if not their birthdays as well.
Just as telling was the way the employed treated their supervisors. Levinson and Robert barely shared a glance, while the doctor and James seemed to automatically join for a warm embrace. In fact, they happily enjoyed a flurry of back claps and cheerful farewells before James pulled away with a smile.
“Thanks again for coming, Paul. And staying the night. Sorry for the late notice,” James said, even as those gorgeous, inviting eyes flicked past the doctor and came to rest on me, twinkling with mischief. “We just can’t afford to lose this one.”
I blushed again, spilling my hair across my face as James walked the doctor out to the foyer and to the front door. That same honey smell washed over me again as he passed by, and I found myself momentarily dazed, so dazed that I didn’t even notice Robert staring at me until he cleared his throat.
“So my brother was the one you wanted all along?”
The same horrible chill that had overtaken me at the office enveloped me again now, drenching my skin in a cold sweat as I stepped automatically away from all that unbridled rage. “Your brother and I connected one night. We never exchanged numbers. And when I met you, I thought you were him.”
“I guess everything makes sense now.”
“I’m so sorry. I
really thought you were him. I would never hit on my boss, not ever.”
“It’s why you were so upset when I didn’t have a tattoo? You know, when you had your hands all over my chest.”
“Um...yes.”
He sighed. “I’m connecting all the dots.”
“It’s why it never worked between us. You weren’t him.”
James turned toward me. “You thought Robert was me?”
“Yes. And he didn’t recognize me. And I was crushed.”
“I’m so sorry. But it wasn’t me.”
“I know that now.”
His lips pressed into grim lines. “But you didn’t at the time. You honestly thought I forgot about you. That I forgot about our amazing, magical, memorable night. And I never forgot. Not ever. I thought about you all the time. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”
“I knew something was wrong.” I turned to Robert. “Something just wasn’t right. It never was.”
And that something was that I was going after the wrong brother, I didn’t bother to say, as there was no need to state the obvious.
Robert shook his head. “Now I know why you jerked me around for weeks, teasing me, giving me all those mixed signals. You strung me along, made a fool of me. It isn’t right to get a man’s hopes up...or anything else up.”
“I don’t know what you expect me to—”
“This conversation is finished. I’m leaving now.” Robert snatched his jacket off a nearby chair and walked to the door.
“Robert. I’m so sorry. It was all a huge mistake.”
He paused and slowly turned around. “You don’t know a thing about my brother. Why don’t you let me fill you in?”
“Robert,” James said. “Stop it.”
Robert opened his phone and scrolled to an article. “Read this. Know who you’re jumping into bed with. Here’s the complete scoreboard of my brother’s girlfriends. It’s the updated list. Do you want to be on it as well?”
“The media always loves a juicy story,” I said after skimming the article.
Robert took his phone back. “James is nothing but a party boy and skirt-chaser. He’s a natural master of seduction. No matter what he tries to tell you, you’re nothing more than a hook up he forgot all about. You’d leave, Della, if you know what’s good for you. You can’t make a playboy settle down. My brother will chew you up and spit you out. He’ll be a playboy bachelor for the rest of his natural born life. It’s why he doesn’t work at the company. He’d rather travel around the globe and play.”
