by J. S. Scott
“I would have never given up,” he grumbled.
He fed her another chocolate, preventing her from responding. Eventually, they needed to talk about his plans to take her home with him. Until then, she’d savor both the sweet treat and the man who had given it to her.
His desire to help her, and his gruff tenderness, were a side of Zane she’d never seen before. Of course, she’d seen little of him since he’d left for college, and he’d turned into one hell of a grown man. She’d just never spent enough time with him to realize just how special he’d grown up to be.
However, he’d done enough for her, and he’d eventually see the sense in her staying with Aileen until she was fully recovered. The media would find another story and stop hounding her after a while.
She knew she’d have to stop depending on Zane. He’d been her rescuer, and that was enough. Somehow, she’d pick herself up and recover from the damage that had been done to her body, mind, and soul.
As he offered her another piece of candy, she shook her head. She was going to have to learn to resist temptation. Somehow, she was pretty certain that avoiding chocolate wouldn’t be her most difficult test in the near future, but it was definitely a place to start.
Two days later, Ellie still hadn’t convinced Zane to be more reasonable or sensible. Exactly when he had become so hardheaded and bossy she wasn’t certain, but he could be relentless and uncompromising when he really wanted something, or thought it was the best solution.
She knew she had to either cut her ties to him now, or she’d end up needing to see him every time she was afraid.
“I’m not going home with you,” Ellie told him stubbornly as a nurse pushed her toward the elevator in a wheelchair after she was discharged.
“I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice. I’m your ride out of here. The media is still camped outside the hospital. I guess you’ll have to stay,” Zane answered matter-of-factly as he walked beside her wheelchair.
Ellie crossed her arms and glared up at him. “You set this all up. Aileen hasn’t answered her phone, and I haven’t seen Tate and Lara in two days.”
Zane shrugged a little too innocently. “Maybe they’re busy.”
Ellie liked Zane, but he was being unreasonable and somewhat manipulative, too. “I used to like you,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Did you say something?” he inquired politely.
“No. Look, you know I want to go back to Rocky Springs. You’re probably needed here in your lab. It makes no sense for me to stay at your place alone. I don’t even have a car anymore, and I need to be able to get around. I have to look for a job, straighten out everything that was left undone. This isn’t even reasonable. You’ve done enough for me, Zane.”
“Until you’re better, I’ll be there, Ellie,” Zane rasped as they exited up a ramp and onto the rooftop. He plucked her out of the wheelchair, nodded to the nurse, a woman who had been completely silent and disappeared just as quietly.
Ellie was confused as Zane deposited her into a sleek helicopter, dropped her bag with what few belongings she had with her in the backseat, and then hopped into the pilot’s position.
“We’re really flying home?” she squeaked, still stunned as he put on a pair of headphones with a microphone attached, and carefully placed another on her head.
“It’s a long drive. I’m not going to make you go through the media mob and then have you sit in a vehicle that long.” He methodically buckled her in, and then secured his own straps. “I told you we’d fly out.”
She startled as she heard his low, husky voice through the headphones. Zane had told her that he’d fly her from a helicopter off the roof, but the reality of that scenario had never registered with Ellie. Because Chloe had been her friend most of their lives, it was easy to forget just how ridiculously wealthy the Colter family really was. For being ultra-rich, most of the family was down-to-earth. Sure, they owned a large amount of property, but none of them acted like wealthy snobs. Chloe was the sweetest woman Ellie had ever known, and she hated the lives of the super-rich. Her friend would rather be with her beloved horses than at a party with other rich people.
As the aircraft started up, she asked him curiously, “Can you really pilot this thing?” Didn’t most rich guys have a pilot?
He shrugged. “Of course. It makes it more efficient to get around. I have a pilot for my jet, but I generally fly myself in the helicopter and small planes. I might not be the hotshot pilot that Tate is, but I’m competent enough.” He started doing checks, and communicating with what she assumed was some kind of air traffic control center.
Ellie had no doubt Zane was skilled at everything he did. When they finally lifted off, her stomach felt like it had dropped to her feet. “Oh, God. I’ve never flown before.” She put a hand to her belly.
“Are you going to be okay?” His voice sounded concerned.
When they leveled off, Ellie’s fear started to drift away as she looked down at the scenery below after they left the Denver metro area. “Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to get sick or anything. This is just…different.”
“Hang in there. It’s not that long by helicopter.”
“Take your time,” she said breathlessly, overwhelmed by the experience of viewing Colorado from so high up. “It’s kind of amazing.”
“You’ve really never flown before? Not even in a commercial plane?”
“No. I’ve never been out of Colorado.” Honestly, she’d never gone far from her hometown. “When things got really bad and I was sure I was going to die, one of my regrets was that I never got to see much outside of Rocky Springs.”
“What other regrets did you have?” he asked hoarsely.
That I never got to kiss you!
Ellie wasn’t about to reveal all of the epiphanies she’d had when she thought her time on Earth was done. “Lots of things. It’s strange what you think about when you suddenly realize how little you’ve done in your life, and you’re pretty sure you’re going to die.”
“What?” he persisted.
Ellie sighed. “I was just starting a small side business when James abducted me. It wasn’t doing a lot, but it was slowly growing. I was sorry I hadn’t started it earlier so I could see how people liked my products.” She paused before adding, “And I’ve never really been in love, or had a guy who was crazy enough about me to actually romance me.” She’d never gotten flowers or even a romantic dinner. “And I’ve never been kissed so passionately that I could forget the rest of the world and come out of it breathless,” she admitted reluctantly.
“You’ve dated,” Zane argued.
“Some,” she conceded. “But it was all pretty casual. I was overweight, so I wasn’t exactly attractive enough to turn many heads, and the guys who wanted to go out with me got bored pretty quickly. I don’t exactly lead an exciting life, and I was usually more interested in working on my new business than going out.”
“You’ve always been beautiful, Ell. What kind of business?”
There was that intimate nickname again, and his casual comment about how she looked surprised her.
“Just a little online thing. I make candles, essential oils, lotions, and soaps. I dabble a little with personal fragrances, but most of it revolves around aromatherapy.” She looked out the window, noticing that they were getting into areas with sparser populations, and she was awed by the view of the snow-covered peaks of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Even though she saw them all the time, they looked different from the air.
“You believe in the healing powers of scents?”
Ellie couldn’t tell if Zane was laughing at her or just curious. “To a point,” she answered honestly. “I don’t think it’s actually a cure for diseases, but I think certain scents can affect moods and create a sense of well-being. It’s something I’ve been interested in for years, and everything I know is fr
om self-study. But I love making the products. I love making people feel…happier.”
“You did all that from that tiny apartment?” Zane started to descend once he reached the valleys in between the peaks.
“Yeah. It wasn’t easy. I’m pretty sure all of my supplies and equipment are gone now.”
“They will be at my house,” he assured her. “Nothing got thrown away.”
“I’m sure I got hammered in emails by a few customers since there were some orders that I didn’t deliver since I was…” She swallowed hard. “Unavailable.”
Zane expertly maneuvered the aircraft onto the small airstrip and set them gently down on the ground.
“Everything will be okay,” he said confidently. “Give it time, Ellie.”
She pulled off her headphones, wondering how Zane always seemed to know what she was thinking. Her insecurity must be showing, because she still felt lost. And for some odd reason, Zane seemed to sense it.
Someone must have dropped off his vehicle, because he shifted her directly from the seat of the helicopter into a black SUV.
Reflexively, she briefly flinched as he swept her into his strong arms, a knee-jerk reaction that she hadn’t been able to completely lose when anybody touched her. Her heart lurched as she relaxed and put her arms around his neck, her face so close to him that she could get drunk on his masculine scent. “I am capable of walking, you know,” she told him nervously. The feel of his powerful body cradling her in his arms felt way too good, way too safe.
He scowled down at her. “In those flimsy shoes? Not happening.”
What she was wearing was little more than slippers, but there was no snow on the runway.
She didn’t argue as he put her in the passenger seat of his SUV as some guy she didn’t know came jogging out of a hangar to take care of the helicopter. Most likely, he was an employee. Since she had spent zero time at the airfield on Colter land, she wasn’t sure.
Zane’s vehicle was running and warm, and Ellie was starting to get overheated from the layers of clothing Zane had insisted she wear because it was a cold day. She pulled the hat off her head and unwrapped the scarf around her neck, placing both items in her lap before unzipping her down jacket. They were all items Zane had brought with him to take her home.
Zane slid into the driver’s seat and quickly closed the door. “We’ll be home shortly. Are you okay?”
“Fine,” she reassured him. “But I don’t really have a home anymore.”
“You have mine,” Zane growled as he put the vehicle in motion. “You don’t have to be so damn stubborn. It’s the safest place for you to be right now.”
“I’m not trying to be stubborn or morose. It’s just really disorienting to know I really have nowhere to go that’s actually mine anymore. Can’t you understand that?”
“Yes. It’s understandable. But it’s one thing you really don’t need to consider right now. You’ll get better, and then you can take on the world.”
Ellie sat back in the seat, knowing she was going to have to accept her temporary home with Zane. Obviously his family was in agreement with his plan, and had cooperated so he could get what he wanted. Although she was angry because Zane was so highhanded, she was still grateful that he cared enough to open his home to her. How many busy, rich guys would make the time for her that Zane had? Why he was taking so much time and effort for her she still didn’t understand, but she couldn’t just discard his kindness. “Thank you.”
“It’s no trouble. I have to be here for the rest of the holidays, and I have a small lab here where I can work.”
“You work here, too?”
“Yeah. Mostly personal projects, things that are going to take ongoing study and replication.”
“Like what?” she asked curiously. “Do you like what you’re doing? I know you were obsessed with changing the world with science when we were younger. Are you still?”
Zane shrugged. “Pretty much. But I was pretty naïve, even when I was in college. I didn’t realize how much crap can go along with science.”
“What?” Scientific study had always been Zane’s life. Ellie had never heard him talk about the downside.
“Irresponsible studies. Bullshit reports. Some places putting out supposed scientific studies without enough evidence and no replication. No real control groups and not big enough groups to even be accurate. So many scientific studies are badly conducted just for sensationalism or monetary gain. Just because a single test on mice or rats shows something that’s a possibility doesn’t mean it’s always true for humans, but the media will blow it up until everything is skewed to be taken as the truth.”
“But businesses want to be profitable, I suppose,” Ellie mused, touched by how seriously Zane took his profession.
“My lab is very profitable, but it can be profitable and ethical at the same time,” Zane said adamantly.
“So my being at your home won’t really make you wish you could be at your main lab because you have one set up at home?”
“Even if I didn’t, my priority is to see you recover. Nobody deserves what happened to you. And you were completely faultless. Wrong place at the wrong damn time.”
“Why are you doing all of this? I don’t understand,” she finally asked. “It’s not like we’ve seen much of each other since you graduated from high school. We really aren’t friends.”
“Because I want to,” he answered enigmatically.
“Why?” She leaned her head back against the headrest, feeling both emotionally and physically tired.
“You may not consider me your friend, but I’ve never stopped thinking of you as mine. You’ve helped me in the past. You never treated me differently in high school even though I was a weird science nerd. You helped me organize some of my high school research projects, and you were always nice to me. I never stopped being your friend just because I moved away,” he said huskily.
Ellie’s heart melted as she sensed the insecurity in his words. Zane had been a loner when he was a teen, mostly because he was more interested in science than people. But not many of the kids at school had really gotten to know him. Deep inside, Zane had been a kind, quirky, intelligent adolescent, and as he matured, he obviously hadn’t changed. Granted, he’d become a lot bossier and determined to have his way. But the heart of the young man she’d known hadn’t really altered.
“I never stopped thinking of you as a friend, either,” she admitted, knowing she had thought about him a lot more than she should have over the years. “You were always nice to me, too, even though I was overweight and not very popular in high school. It meant a lot to me.”
Actually, all of Chloe’s brothers had been nice. But since Marcus and Blake were older, they’d been graduating when she and Chloe were just starting high school. Tate had always been sweet, but the girls had always been drawn to him, and he’d practically had his own harem, even in high school. Since Chloe, Tate, and Zane were so close in age, Ellie had always wondered how Chloe’s mom could have survived being constantly pregnant for well over two years.
Tate was younger, closer in age to her and Chloe, but she’d never had more than a casual acquaintance with him. It was Zane who had caught her attention back then, probably because he was so much more approachable, so much more like her. He was almost always alone, and probably felt like he didn’t fit in. They’d struck up a friendship when she’d seen his frustration at the tediousness of organizing his research. She’d offered to help put everything in a likely order after questioning him about the different portions of his notes. Even though the material was way over her head, she had put things in a logical order, which didn’t take a genius.
He shrugged. “I liked you. And I don’t like all that many people.”
Ellie laughed at his bluntness, a part of Zane she secretly adored. He wasn’t much for small talk. If he appeared socially awkward sometimes,
she attributed that to his intelligence. He didn’t communicate on the same level as most people did. It wasn’t that he couldn’t; he just didn’t, probably because most people were too intimidated to have a conversation with him. If she didn’t know him, Ellie wondered how daunting it might be to approach a man who had one of the smartest scientific brains in the country. Fortunately, she knew there was so much more to him than just the geeky science nerd he claimed to be.
As Ellie thought about all of the things Chloe had shared with her about her brothers over the years, she suddenly remembered something, a fact that had eluded her until today. “Don’t you have a girlfriend who’ll be upset if I’m staying with you? Isn’t she coming here for the holidays?” she asked curiously.
“No. I’m not interested in a woman who just pretends to like me for my money or Colter status.”
Her heart sank as she thought about the fact that women probably did pursue him just because he was a billionaire Colter. “Not all women are like that, Zane. Haven’t you met somebody you just connected with on another level?”
“No,” he said simply.
“But you’ve dated. Chloe told me you had a girlfriend at one time.” Ellie could still remember how she’d felt when she knew Zane was getting serious with a woman from Denver. Even though she hadn’t seen him in a long time, Ellie had still felt an odd sense of…loss.
“I did. But it didn’t last long. She got bored and moved on to someone else. She found out I didn’t live a glamorous life full of endless parties and exotic vacations. After a while, she figured out I actually worked. A lot. I gave her all of the material things and money she wanted, but not the lifestyle she’d dreamed about.”
Ellie crossed her arms angrily. “Then she wasn’t worthy of you. Good riddance, I say.” She hesitated before asking, “Did she hurt you?”
He was silent for a moment, as though he was considering her question. Finally, he said, “Not really. That was when I figured out I was better off without a relationship. Now I just fuck and forget about anything long-term.”
