In Bed with the Devil: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance

by Tia Siren

  “Mother,” I said calmly, “I don’t like to make threats like this. You know how much I love you, but I won’t let this girl lose everything because I had her over for dinner. Believe it or not, Father has a greater motive behind this than some ridiculous family feud.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked.

  “It’s not important right now,” I said. “What is important is that you understand how serious I am about this. You know if I told Father this, he would let me go, and I know that isn’t what you want.”

  “Mason, you need to fix this,” she said. “You need to do it, and you need to do it before your father finds out about this conversation. You know he will not negotiate with you.”

  “I’ll fix it,” I said. “But not in the way you want me to.”

  I hung up the phone and dropped it on the couch, rubbing my hands over my face. I groaned. Everything that had been so perfect had suddenly blown up right in my face. Ready or not, I had to make a move. There was no choice in the matter. I had to do everything I could to protect Ava.

  Chapter 26

  Ava

  It was the first day of my break for the year and I was so excited to sleep in with no alarms, no Blair banging on the door, and no absolute necessity for coffee because I hadn’t slept in three days. It was just going to be me and my pillows and, of course, my comforter wrapped tightly around me, not letting any of the sun shining through my blinds touch my skin. I smiled and snuggled in, thinking I was in the clear until my phone began ringing above my head. I groaned and reached up blindly, grabbing it and bringing it back under the covers with me. It was my mom.

  “Good morning, Mommy.” I yawned happily. “I have to say you are one lucky woman. I wasn’t planning on opening my eyes for any—”

  “Ava Spencer,” my mother said angrily. “Ava Spencer, I don’t even know what words to say to you right now. I am so angry that I am literally sitting here shaking. And your father—well, he just walked out of the house this morning and went to work without a single damn word. We both know what it means when he leaves like that.”

  “Mom,” I said, sitting up in bed. “Calm down.”

  “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down,” she said. “You of all people now have no place to tell me to do a damn thing. You have gone against everything you and your family have stood for over the last ten years. You have betrayed this family, and I am beyond words. I cannot believe you would do something like this, something so egregious and deceitful. I didn’t even think it was possible from you.”

  “Mom, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” I said.

  “You don’t? Why don’t you ask the Yorks since they seem to be your new family,” she spat.

  “The Yorks? I—” I stopped dead in my tracks.

  The flash from the night before when leaving Mason’s place pulsed through my memory. The sound of shouting paparazzi and me speeding off in a cab reminded me exactly what she was talking about. I scooted forward and flipped on my television, scanning the channels. Finally, I landed on the tabloid channel and watched in horror as a video of me leaving the York Hotel flashed across the screen. The reporter was talking about Mason and me being a couple, and I clicked it off, feeling a cringe run up the back of my neck. I had really fucked up.

  “Mom,” I said. “I can explain.”

  “Explain what?” she shouted. “That the entire time you told us you were hell-bent on breaking that family to pieces, you were screwing their son? How could you be so stupid?”

  “No. That’s not at all how it went,” I said.

  “How long have you been playing this game?” she said angrily. “Have you even been modeling, or was that all a lie too?”

  “Of course that wasn’t a lie,” I said. “I haven’t lied to you.”

  “I would call slinking around Mason York and not telling us a lie, Ava Spencer,” she said. “We told you from the beginning to stay away from him and his family. We told you they were bad news and you needed to keep yourself on whatever track for the future you wanted. For God’s sake, you told us you were going to destroy York Hotels. How will you do that with Mason at your damn side?”

  “Mom, please, I need you to calm down,” I said. “If you would just take a deep breath and understand there is more to this than you think. That tabloid made up the story. I was only up there to talk about Spencer Hotels.”

  “Just stop.” My mother huffed angrily. “I am so tired of your lies and bullshit. This family has made it as far as we have for two reasons: one, because your father has busted his ass to make sure we have food on the table even before you moved out and started taking care of yourself, and two, because we always tell each other the truth. We never lie to each other, Ava, and that means not hiding things like this. You betrayed us in the worst way possible. I hate to say this, but your father feels the same way. You’re no longer welcome in our home.”

  “Mom, you don’t mean that,” I said.

  “No. I more than mean that, young lady,” she said angrily. “There is no room in our lives for someone who can’t be honest and truthful with us. We can’t have you running around, smearing our good name, and showing off with the people who ripped your father’s company right out of his hands. Mason’s father didn’t care what happened to us or to you, and you know very well that if he would go to those lengths to keep you from Mason, God only knows what he will do now. We don’t want any part of it.”

  “This isn’t fair,” I yelled. “You haven’t even heard my side of the story. You won’t even take two seconds to calm down and listen to me. I can explain.”

  “The tabloids have done enough explaining for you,” she said before hanging up the phone.

  I sat there fuming mad, completely unable to form words for what I was feeling. My mother had told me I wasn’t welcome in my own family. Tears started to burn at the corners of my eyes, but I breathed deeply, looking down at my phone. Mason’s name popped up on the screen.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said when I answered.

  “You’ve seen it,” he said.

  “The whole damn world has seen it, Mason,” I said angrily. “The tabloids are making me look like some whore who fucked you and left.”

  “Are you okay? I mean, we can fix this,” he said.

  “No, I’m not okay! I’m not anywhere close to okay,” I said. “I was sleeping in on my first day off from everything, and I get a screaming call from my mother. She wouldn’t even let me explain what happened. She wouldn’t let me tell her we had dinner, that you were leaving your father’s company, that you just found out what he did. She wouldn’t let me say anything. She just screamed and told me I’m not welcome in her and my father’s house anymore.”

  I grasped my hands tightly, trying to stop them from shaking. I held the phone between my shoulder and ear and tried to breathe. I was so angry, angrier than I had been in a long time. I knew it wasn’t Mason’s fault. He didn’t know the press were downstairs waiting to catch me doing something I wasn’t doing. I knew he was as mortified and thrown off as I was, but still, I couldn’t curb my anger.

  Why did these crazy things keep happening to me? All I wanted was to avenge my father, and now I wasn’t even welcome in his home. On top of all of that, I had feelings for Mason, no matter how hard I tried to push them down. I had strong, no-turning-back feelings for him. I had no idea what to do about everything. If I went to the press and told them it wasn’t true, I felt like it would make things even worse for all of us. I would only look like I was protecting him. If I tried to talk to my parents, they would continue to scream at me—if they even took my call or accepted a visit. Everything had blown up in my face, and all because I hadn’t paid attention when I walked out of that building. If I had, I would have seen them and gone out the side entrance and straight into the parking garage.

  “I woke up the same way as you this morning, only my parents had both called me about ten times and left terribly angry messages,” I
said. “I couldn’t even understand them except for your name and tabloid, so I turned on the television and there it was, the video that brought both of us down. My father served me an eviction notice. I have to clear out of my place immediately.”

  “What? Are you serious?” I said. “Why? I never thought your mother would allow that.”

  “You know my father makes the rules in that house,” he said. “They wanted me to do something terrible, and I refused.”

  “What? What did they want you to do?”

  “My mother wanted me to call her friend at the paper and tell her you were a crazy stalker hell-bent on ruining my life,” he said. “They wanted me to make you look as bad as possible to restore their name. I refused. There was no way I could do that to you, especially since my family already did so many horrible things to your family. It wasn’t even a choice. I told them I would handle it my way. I guessed that wasn’t good enough for my father. It was his way or the highway, so that’s where I’m at, packing boxes.”

  “Oh my god,” I said. “Your father doesn’t know when to stop. He is determined to ruin my life. I guess I should have expected it. He did destroy my father because of me.”

  “It wasn’t because of you,” he said. “It was because he couldn’t be in control of who I loved, and that drove him nuts. Literally, he is a crazy, insane man.”

  “I’m so sorry, Mason, truly. I never meant for any of this to happen,” I said. “This was not the way things were supposed to go. I had a plan, and I wasn’t supposed to see you again. I definitely wasn’t supposed to see you and then keep seeing you. We should have never met up again. We should have kept that Friday as a good memory and moved on.”

  “You know that was never going to happen,” he said sweetly.

  “It’s what should have happened,” I said, “whether we wanted it that way or not. We should have known that being anything other than enemies was not in the cards for us.”

  “Ava, you need to stop blaming yourself,” he said. “If you remember correctly, I’m the one who chased you down, pretty much forced you to be part of my life. You were doing a good job staying away from me. I don’t regret seeing you or being with you. I regret not paying closer attention to the media so I would know what was a good idea and a bad one, but I don’t regret anything else. This was my fault. I pushed for what I wanted, and I got greedy. I’m not going to let everything go down like this. I’m going to fix it, no matter what I have to do.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, sighing. “Maybe it’s best we keep our distance, just drop everything and let our parents cool down. Pushing it further is only going to make it worse.”

  “I won’t accept that,” he said.

  “You might have to,” I replied. “I’m going to go. Good-bye, Mason.”

  I hung up the phone before he could fight me on it. As I stared down at the phone clutched tightly in my hands, tears began to pour down my face. I couldn’t hold them back any longer. Everything had gone wrong. I had opened myself up to a man I knew I shouldn’t have. My heart was broken once again, and over the same guy even, Mason York.

  Chapter 27

  Mason

  When I got off the phone with Ava the day before, I knew more than ever that I had to make a move to fix everything. She was too important to let go that easily, but I still had no idea what to do. My first move was to get out of the penthouse as fast as I could. I didn’t want my father to go there and start an argument. I had called John, and he let me move in with him. I stayed up all night and then moved my things in that morning. John’s place was amazing, with a huge layout, tons of extra space, and a pool like mine. It was a real bachelor pad, except decorated to the hilt because he was the son of one of the wealthiest men in the world. Still, I didn’t want to move in with John. I had done that in college, and it was great, but I was growing up, and I didn’t want to be sucked back into John’s lifestyle. I really didn’t have another option right now though. I had money, of course, but it was for the new business, and I didn’t want to spend it all getting a new place.

  “Hey, man.” John poked his head into my new room. “You get all settled in yet?”

  “Just about,” I said. “I have one more box to go. Listen, thanks so much for letting me do this. I didn’t know where else to turn.”

  “It’s fine,” he said. “This place is too big for one person anyway, and we can relive our glory days in college.”

  “Yeah.” I laughed. “Minus the puking and beer bongs.”

  “Hey, don’t cross anything off the list yet,” he said with a wide grin. “I was coming in to see if you wanted to go out with me to the bar.”

  “Sure,” I said, smiling, not wanting to go but knowing I didn’t have a choice.

  “Sweet. I’m just gonna change my shirt and we can head out,” he said, taking off down the hall.

  I sighed and finished unpacking my box, really starting to regret moving in with John. When he was ready, we headed out, walking two blocks to a pub I knew he frequented. I pulled myself up to the bar and ordered a beer and a shot, figuring it was time to try to relax, or at least make it through the night without exploding on someone. I sat at the bar, drinking and watching the crowd move around me, wondering how I had done this for so many years. I used to love to be out at places like this, looking for the next girl to take home. Tonight, though, I was not interested in claiming any pussy or even talking to any girls for that matter.

  As I sat there, several hot girls came up to me and tried to spark a conversation. I tried with the first one, but all I could think about was Ava and how she was handling everything. For the rest of the evening, I pushed the girls away, not wanting to be rude but not in the mood to be friendly. I stared up at the television above the bar, not actually watching what was on the screen but instead trying to move past the angst I felt. Everything had gotten so fucked up and derailed, and I had been so damn close to being where I wanted to be before bringing the house down on my father. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my messages with Ava before calling her. To my surprise, she answered right away.

  “Hey,” she said, sounding gloomy.

  “Hey,” I said in the same tone. “What are you doing?”

  “Just going through some old textbooks, trying to figure out which books to sell,” she said. “Where are you? It’s loud.”

  “Oh, I moved in with John. I had no other choice,” I said. “He dragged me out to a pub down the street, and I am not feeling it at all. The truth is, I was calling because I want to see you, like now. Like I don’t care about any of the bullshit. I just want to be near you.”

  “Okay,” she said with a laugh. “Are you drunk? You sound like you’ve been hitting the whiskey a little too hard. I’m not judging. I could definitely go for a drink right now, but you definitely wouldn’t have said that sober.”

  “Not drunk per say.” I hedged a bit. “Just buzzed. I’ve had two beers and two shots.”

  “When did you get there?”

  “About two hours ago.” I said. “But I’m in complete control of myself. I could walk the line and everything.”

  “But the question is, could you say the alphabet backward?”

  “Who can really do that? Besides you, which you proved to me when we were wasted at the Empire State Building, like, thirteen years ago.” I loved being able to pull these memories up again.

  “I am a pro at that,” she said. “Though luckily, I have never had to test that theory.”

  “Because you live in New York, and though you are one of the only people I know who drives in this city, there are cabs aplenty when we need them,” I pointed out. “If you lived in the suburbs, that might be a different story.”

  “No. I’m responsible, unlike some people we know.” She giggled. “And I don’t have a fleet of cars waiting to chauffeur me around.”

  “One, are you calling me irresponsible?” I laughed. “Two, I used to have a fleet of cars waiting to chauffeur me around. Now I have the Ne
w York City cab system and the transit system if I am really feeling wild.”

  “Oh, yeah. How is all that anyway?”

  “Same.” I sighed. “I haven’t talked to either of them since they kicked me out. My mom tried to call me, but I wasn’t feeling it, so I ignored the call. That ultimately led me to John’s, which then led me to this bar I don’t even know the name of. I quit drinking twenty minutes ago, though. I’m not feeling it at all, and John wandered off with some girl, which is good because I wasn’t feeling him either.”

  “So you called me,” she said.

  “So I called you, yes,” I said. “But because I can’t get you off my mind.” There was a pause. “Uh-oh, the whiskey is talking again.”

  She laughed. “You are too much.”

  “I’m just glad to hear you laugh,” I said seriously. “I’m really worried about you. I know this has been a hard situation for you.”

  “Don’t be worried about me,” she said. “I’m tough, and I’ve been through hell before. This isn’t nearly as bad as the hotel thing. I’m hoping time will heal this wound, time and a whole lot of begging my parents.”

  “You shouldn’t have to beg,” I said.

  “And you shouldn’t have to sit at a bar being miserable.” She chuckled. “So get in a cab and come over. I’ll text you my address.”

  “Yes,” I said, putting my arms in the air. “I’ll be there soon.”

  “Okay.” She laughed and hung up the phone.

  I ordered one more shot from the bartender and threw it back, paid my tab, and stood up, looking around the bar. In the corner, trying to teach a girl to play pool in the most cliché manner, was John. I rubbed my hands together and walked over to him, waiting for him to finish.