The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four

by Ana E Ross

  Tashi needed him.

  He grabbed his cell from the nightstand and searched for Oscar’s message as he shrugged out of his robe. He memorized the address then dialed the number Oscar had forwarded while he reached for the pair of shorts he’d draped over the footboard not too long ago.

  Tashi’s number just kept ringing, and as the seconds ticked by, the sound of Adam’s racing heart beating against his chest grew louder and louder and his breath seemed to solidify in his throat.

  Tashi was in trouble. What if whomever she was running from had found her? What if he was too late? Refusing to entertain the horrific possibility, he pulled his shirt from the foot of his bed and raced downstairs like a pack of wolves was after him.

  He made the thirty-minute drive to the not-so-nice section of town in less than fifteen. He brought his Aston Martin to a stop in front of 85 Temple Street and got out. The multi-family house was shrouded in darkness, as was the neighborhood with many of the street lamps burned out. Adam flew up the short flight of steps, made a right on the rickety porch, and passed an old ragged sofa, a three-legged coffee table jammed against the wall, and a half-worn-down broom. He knocked on the door with the number four.

  “Tashi,” he called. The only response to his call in the night was the bark from a neighbor’s dog. “Tashi,” he said again, trying the door. Of course it was locked.

  A prickly feeling crept along Adam’s back as his mind raced ahead of him. Suppose the people she was running from were holding her at gunpoint inside the apartment? Or worse, suppose they’d done what they’d come to do and had already left, leaving her lifeless body to be discovered by a neighbor?

  Adrenaline pumped through Adam’s veins. He had no idea what was waiting for him behind that locked door. He could be walking into a trap for all he knew. He thought about kicking the door in, but realized that if her captors were still in there, he might startle them into shooting blindly at him. Then he would be of no use to her. He thought of calling the police, but immediately decided against it since he didn’t know the nature of Tashi’s trouble. Involving the authorities might…

  “Adam.”

  He cocked his ears as he heard the faint whisper of his name through a crack in the window on his right. He moved toward it. “Tashi?” His voice trembled on those two syllables.

  He heard a low moan, then, “In here.” It was barely a whisper.

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yes. I’m sick.” She whimpered again. “I’m so sick.”

  Sick. She was sick. He let out his breath, and on his intake, the stench of seasoned vomit and other putrefied odors he didn’t care to identify wafted up his nostrils. Why hadn’t she called 911 instead of him? Sliding a finger under the crack, and finding no screen, he pushed the curtain aside and peeked inside. It was still too dark to make out anything in the room. “Can you open the door?”

  “I can’t move. I can’t walk.”

  The panic, the pain, in her voice brought tears to Adam’s eyes. “Okay, baby. I’m gonna climb through the window then,” he said, sliding his hands beneath the splintered wood on the bottom of the sill.

  Her response was another heart-wrenching groan.

  It was a small window, but he was a man, and since men always delighted in the challenge of squeezing big objects through tight openings, Adam welcomed the scrapes and cuts on his arms and legs and the splinters piercing his flesh as he forced his frame through the window.

  He landed on a pile of clothes on the floor and stood to adjust his eyes to the darkness, even as he forced himself to ignore the stench in the air. Another moan gave away her location and Adam made his way toward her, bumping into what felt like a trashcan at the side of the bed. He swallowed the bile that rose to his throat.

  “Tashi,” he called, making his way to the head of the bed. He switched on the bedside lamp and almost fainted at what he saw. Tashi was rolled up in a ball on the bed. Her long auburn hair—encrusted with only God knew what—was spread out above her head, and the pink nightgown she was wearing was stained with human excrement, and blood.

  Adam’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. “Tashi.” Without a moment’s hesitation, he dropped down on the mattress and gathered her into his arms. She was burning up with fever. “Tashi.” He pushed her hair out of her face and cradled her head in the crook of his arm. “Cara, why are you bleeding? Did someone hurt you?”

  “No. No. I—I have my—my period.”

  Adam let out his breath, relieved that he didn’t have to go out and commit murder. “Is it always this bad?”

  “No. It’s not because of that. I didn’t know my fridge had died and I ate some leftover chicken.”

  “When? How long have you been sick?”

  “Since the day I met you. I had the chicken for dinner that night and I woke up with a bellyache.” She sank her nails into the fresh cuts on his arms and screamed as cramps apparently ripped through her stomach.

  Her breath smelled horrible, but Adam pressed her face against his. He spoke softly and soothingly to her, and rubbed her belly lightly as he waited for her cramps to subdue. When they finally did, and she relaxed her hold on him, he gazed down into her eyes. They were hollow, almost transparent like her ashen skin. The vibrant colors he’d seen in her complexion and her eyes three days ago were gone. It was as if he was gazing into the face of a completely different woman—her apparition.

  “I have to get you to the hospital,” he said, easing off the bed with her in his arms.

  “No. No. No hospital.”

  No hospital? The girl was dying from food poisoning and she didn’t want to go to the hospital. “Why, Tashi? Why don’t you want to go to the hospital?”

  She started to cry, her lithe body shaking from her sobs. “If I use my name, they—they could find me. They—they’ll kill—they’ll kill me. I have to stay below the radar.”

  “Who? The people you’re running from?” he asked, caressing her arms and her back in an effort to calm her down.

  She nodded as more tears poured out of her eyes, ran down her cheeks, and into the fresh cuts on Adam’s arms. He steeled himself against the stinging of his raw flesh from her salty tears.

  Dear God, his suspicions were correct. She was a damsel in distress. The worst kind, if she was too afraid to seek medical help even though she was one hairsbreadth away from death. People wanted to kill her. Who? Why?

  “Okay,” he said. “I won’t take you to the hospital, but I have a friend who’s a doctor and I’m going to call him. I can trust him. He wouldn’t tell anyone about you. Is that okay?”

  She nodded.

  He reached into his pocket for his phone only to realize that he’d left it in the car. He picked up hers from the nightstand. It was dead. Her charger was nowhere in sight. That’s why she hadn’t answered his calls earlier. He was grateful she was able to make the last call to his hotel before the device went completely dead.

  He glanced around the chaotic room, hardly able to breathe in the foul air. Soiled clothes, used tissues, and dishes with leftover food were strewn everywhere, but he noticed the two empty gallon water containers on the floor. At least she’d been drinking water to ward off dehydration. It was probably the reason she was still alive.

  She’d been sick for three days. Sick, alone, and scared to seek medical help. That’s why she hadn’t been back to the café. Felicia had said that she came in at least three or four times a week, and always on Thursdays for the special lunch buffet. Yesterday was Thursday and Tashi hadn’t shown because she was sick.

  Adam’s gaze landed on the trashcan he’d bumped into in the dark. Now he could see the gross contents inside it. She’d started using it because she’d become too weak to walk to the bathroom. He shivered as a small black rodent scurried from one corner of the room to the next and disappeared behind the radiator.

  Adam shook his head with disgust. He couldn’t ask Erik to come here. He didn’t want his friend to see Tashi in this condition, in
this place, this neighborhood. He glanced down at her again. She needed a bath, and so did he now that he too was covered in her waste.

  “Tashi. I’m taking you to my home. No one else is there. It will just be the two of us,” he said, just then deciding that his entire household staff would be enjoying a nice paid vacation for however long it took to nurse Tashi back to health. “Is that okay?”

  She nodded, then closed her eyes and groaned as another cramp apparently ripped through her. As he held and caressed her through it, the heat from her body seemed to burn off Adam’s clothes and flesh.

  When she went limp again, he eased her back down on the mattress and stood to his feet. She curled up into a ball, trembling. He hated to leave her side, but he had to get going. He took the trashcan into the bathroom and flushed its contents down the toilet.

  “I’m going to clean you up a bit and change your clothes before we leave,” he said, returning to her bedside. She needed a good soak, but he didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary in this dump. A quick wipe-down would have to suffice for now.

  He walked to a bureau on the other side of the room and quickly scanned the contents of the top drawer—a neatly folded colorful pile of silk and lace thongs on the left side, and a pile of practical cotton panties on the right. He grabbed the first item from the right pile—a pair of pink boy shorts with white polka dots and the word “Angel” printed on the front.

  Two side steps brought him to her tiny closet—more like a hole in the wall. He pulled a lime green dress from its hanger, and a clean bed sheet from the shelf. He set them on the nightstand, next to a box of sanitary napkins, then walked into the bathroom. He took a washcloth from the shower curtain rod, lifted a plastic tub from the floor and half filled it with cool water. Grabbing a bar of soap, he returned to the bedroom, took off her nightgown—the only piece of clothing she wore—and gave her a hasty bird bath.

  “Hold me tight,” he said, picking her up. While she wound her arms about his neck and her legs around his waist, he cradled her naked body with one arm while he stripped the bed of the soiled sheets and tossed them on the floor. He arranged a clean sheet on one half of the mattress, eased her back down on it, and dressed her.

  “Thank you,” she said, her voice cracking as she gazed up at him with liquid emerald eyes.

  Adam smiled down at her, then reaching out, he traced a knuckle along one cheek, wiping at the tear that had slid from the corner of her eye. Her skin was soft and silky. She had lost weight since the last time he’d seen her. She looked so small, frail, helpless, and alone. “I’m glad you called me.”

  Their eyes locked. He’d seen her naked and had bathed the most intimate parts of her body, taken care of her woman’s monthly business, yet it seemed to Adam that there wasn’t an ounce of embarrassment on her side, and definitely not a shred of lust on his. It were as if they were old acquainted souls who already knew each other’s secrets, wants, and needs in every possible form, who’d witnessed the best and worst of each other, and were still…

  A sharp pain pierced Adam’s heart and a lump lodged in his throat.

  He was paralyzed for a moment, then he turned away abruptly, shaking off that invisible seize on his heart. He took the tub to the bathroom, flushed her bathwater down the toilet, and then soaped and washed his hands thoroughly. He took a clean face towel from a shelf over the toilet and soaked it with cold water. “This will help with the fever,” he said, placing it on her forehead. “Where’re your keys?”

  “Living… Uh…Uh….room...”

  Adam’s heart twisted with pain as he watched her writhe in his arms. It was all he could do to hold back the tears from his eyes. He’d never witnessed anything like this before, and quite frankly, it scared the hell out of him.

  “Here we go,” he said when she lay shivering in his arms. He scooped her up inside the sheet, and pushed to his feet. She was so light, he felt like he was carrying a young child in his arms.

  On his way to the front door, he grabbed her keys from the coffee table, and lingered when he saw her opened backpack on a corner of the sofa. A laptop, a camera, and her wallet were inside it. Remembering that he’d seen her carrying it the day they met, he figured she used it in place of a purse. He zippered it with one hand and slung it over his shoulder.

  He locked her dead bolts and descended the porch stairs as quickly and carefully as he could. He laid her on the backseat of his Aston Martin and tucked the sheet around her. He’d love to put her up front beside him, but knew she’d be more comfortable in the back where she could stretch out. He buckled her in and then got behind the wheel. If he hurried, he’d have enough time to give her a quick bath before Erik got there.

  “You’ll be feeling better soon, Tashi,” he said, as she groaned in pain again. He called Erik and asked him to meet him at the Andreas estate, equipped to treat a young woman with a fever and a severe case of food poisoning—perhaps salmonella.

  He couldn’t answer Erik’s litany of questions about the identity and family history of the young woman. He knew nothing about Tashi, except for the fact that she needed him tonight.

  As Adam sped along Route 80 and made his way northwest toward Mount Reservoir, he wondered who Tashi would have called if they hadn’t bumped into each other at Mountainview Café, three days ago. Didn’t she have a job, coworkers, friends, family, or a neighbor she could have called? A boyfriend? Girls her age usually had boyfriends.

  Why was she so alone in this world that she had to call a total stranger whose private phone number she didn’t even have?

  There are no coincidences in life, his now deceased friend, Michael Rogers, used to say. The prophetic truth in those words had rung true in the professional areas of Adam’s life. In the past few years since his parents moved back to Italy and gave him absolute control of the family business, he’d been able to expand Andreas International at an alarming rate because of the people and connections he’d made along the way.

  But never had the divine power in those words affected the personal aspect of his life until now, Adam realized. He was supposed to have taken Tiffany two days before, but her Uncle Robert had made an unexpected visit to Granite Falls to spend some time with her and her siblings, thus changing Adam’s date day with his goddaughter. Then if Tiffany had been her usual perky self instead of sleeping the morning away, he would not have cut their date short and taken her to the café and her grandmother so early on that fated day. They would still have been at the petting zoo, and he and Tashi’s paths would never have crossed.

  It was as if the blueprint for every single event of that day had been carved in stone eons ago, and then set in motion two years ago when Lillian and Felicia had discussed buying out Mountainview Café with their sons. Neither Bryce nor Erik had thought it a good idea. It was too close to the wrong part of town. They didn’t see the financial benefits of owning it. And they were worried about their mothers’ safety on a daily basis. The café had been held up four times in the past two years—the main reason the previous owner had put it on the market.

  But Lillian and Felicia were determined to own a café and beauty salon together. They had purchased it, along with the adjoining pawnshop, torn down the buildings and erected a beautiful structure—one half café and the other half beauty salon. To ease their sons’ fears, they’d hired a team of 24/7 security guards. Two were always on the premises during hours of operation. Mountainview Café and Hair Salon had become a flourishing business where the once-divided social classes of Granite Falls now mingled.

  The prices were just right for the poor, and the delicious delicacies from the bakery, along with the remarkable hairstyles Lillian whipped together were just right for the rich.

  It was the perfect place for a billionaire to literally run into a poor damsel in distress.

  No coincidences. Everyone is simply following the path they’ve been predestined to travel. If Felicia and Lillian hadn’t followed their dreams, and if Robert hadn’t made a s
urprise visit to Granite Falls when he did, he and Tashi might never have met, and she would not have called his hotel tonight looking for him.

  Every person we meet comes into our lives for mutual and specific reasons and benefits—another of Michael’s profound truisms. Tonight, he was saving Tashi’s life—his specific reason for meeting her, her benefit for meeting him. What was her specific reason for meeting him, his benefit for meeting her? What would, could she ever do for him?

  As he pulled his car to a stop in the courtyard of his home, Adam realized that he might never know the answers to those questions since he was planning on setting Tashi Holland loose the moment she was feeling better.

  This serendipitous liaison between them, this intimate, yet nonsexual relationship was as temporary as his sexual ones. And speaking of sex, or the lack thereof, it was time he began looking for another temporary playmate, one he knew without a doubt he’d have no trouble walking away from once the relationship had run its course. He needed someone to help put distance between him and Tashi Holland before his heart and soul became engaged.

  Sadie was right. Balance was safe, and imbalance torment. His scale wasn’t tipped to the point of toppling over yet, and at this stage, he’d rather be safe than relive the pain Claire and Denise had caused him.

  Happily Ever After wasn’t for him. Temporary was working just fine.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  They were in a tub of cool water, yet the heat from his body was so intense it seemed to scorch her skin from her bones. Or was it her skin that was generating the flames that seemed to fuse their naked bodies together in the scented bubbly liquid?

  The water was all the way up to her chin, but she had no fear of drowning because the man sitting behind her, cradling her between his muscular thighs had a secure grip on her lower body.

  He was scooping water up with a container and pouring it over her head, then he was massaging her scalp, running his fingers through her hair while he spoke to her in a soothing voice, telling her that everything would be all right, that she was safe, and that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.