REX (The Billionaire Croft Brothers, Book Three)

by Paige North

  They look surprised when I walk back in with Addison by my side. I introduce her to Kin, Wong, Helen, Queenie and the others, and Addison makes pleasant apologies about her tardiness. When she tells them she was at an acting audition, you’d think she just said she was Meryl Streep herself.

  “Wow, an actor,” Helen says. “You come to Los Angeles and all you hear about is the movie industry. You think you’ll get lucky enough to see someone famous but look at us—sitting at a table with an actual actor!”

  “Well, I’m working at it,” Addison says. “Still auditioning. But I did get a callback today.”

  I’m pretty sure she says this to get back at me for not congratulating her enough. Luckily Kin is there to dig the knife in a little deeper.

  “Congratulations!” he says. “That’s extraordinary. I’ve certainly heard how competitive the field is. Rex, you must be so proud.”

  Addison turns her eyes to me and awaits my praise.

  “Of course I am,” I say. “I plan on taking her out tonight for a special celebration.”

  “Can you tell us about the role?” Queenie asks, leaning closer to hear all the details.

  “It’s a small part,” Addison begins.

  “No small parts,” Helen says knowingly. “Only small actors. Isn’t that how the saying goes?”

  “Exactly right,” Addison tells her. She begins telling the table about the role. Turns out it’s a bit bigger than I had originally thought. Still small, but she has more than one line.

  As I listen to her tell everyone about the part, I get distracted by sudden murmurs throughout the restaurant. I look around and notice that a lot of people are casting looks at our table. As I listen closely to the talk, I notice something on someone’s phone—I see a picture of Addison and me. I also see the headline.

  CROFT’S COURTESAN!

  “Excuse me,” I say at once. “I’m just going to step off to the men’s room.”

  They hardly notice me they’re all so interested in Addison’s life as an actor.

  I stand out of sight in a hallway near the restrooms. I find the article on my phone by searching that hideous headline.

  We never would have thought that playboy billionaire Rex Croft, 25, would need to pay for a beautiful women to enjoy his company but sources say that’s the case with his new lady love, Addison Gilmour, a struggling actress from Oregon. While Croft has more money than Gates and better looks than Clooney it seems that he can’t get a date the old-fashioned way and has resorted to paying an escort service to find a girl. Gilmour, a striking, curvaceous woman to be sure, has been spotted out and about with Croft in recent weeks, lending the new romance to something of a Pretty Woman vibe.

  “He met her at a pick-and-choose party,” says an insider. “Rich men go to a secret, invitation-only party where there is no shortage of beautiful—and willing—women. He had an instant connection with Addison and took her home that night.”

  Not a bad gig for Gilmour, who is a struggling actor and lives near the abandoned warehouses in downtown.

  “She’ll do whatever she can to get out of poverty and into the movies,” said another insider.

  “Hey, you.”

  I turn quickly from the horrendous, lying article when I hear Addison’s voice.

  “You okay? You dashed off so fast.”

  The fact that she’s checking on me, worried, so soon after an epic fight cracks my heart. She doesn’t deserve this.

  “What is that?” she asks, looking at my phone. “Is that a picture of me…?”

  I didn’t turn my phone away from her fast enough, and now she’s seen it. She snatches my phone right out of my hand and is reading the article, her face full of disbelief and maybe a bit of shame, although she has nothing to be ashamed of.

  “Don’t worry,” I tell her. “It’s all lies, and we both know it.”

  “But it’s not all lies,” she says. “That’s what makes it so awful. Oh my god…”

  “I’m calling my lawyer right now,” I tell her, taking my phone back. “We’ll sue the shit out of them.”

  “You can’t just throw a lawsuit at this and hope it goes away, Rex,” she says. “That’s it.” She gestures to the phone. “It’s out there. It’s on people’s minds. It’ll be on the casting director’s mind when she sees me at the callback.”

  She turns and storms through the restaurant. I follow her.

  “Addison, slow down,” I say, following her outside. She’s already handing her ticket to the valet. “It’s just a story. I can get it retracted. It’s just some petty site trying to make money off of lies.” Then I realize where the story came from. “That pencil dick Damien,” I mutter. He’s behind this, I’d bet my house on it. “He did this because of me. He’s trying to get me back because I refused to pay him off. Addison, I’ll take care of this. I promise.”

  “Yeah, sure. You and your money are going to take care of a problem that you and your money created,” she says. She gets her keys from the valet and snaps at me when I try to pay. “I should have known better. From the beginning I knew this was a mistake but I let myself get sucked in by you. I compromised what I knew was right and wrong and now look at me. I’m going to be famous for being a whore to Rex Croft.”

  “Addison, no,” I say. “Don’t say that. It’s not true.” It’s crushing me to see her so pained, and knowing that I did this to her only makes it ten times worse.

  “I’m done, Rex,” Addison says. “This is the last straw. I’m not doing this anymore.”

  “Addison, wait. We can talk about it,” I tell her as she gets in her car. “Please.” But she slams her door shut on me.

  I stand on the sidewalk and watch as she drives away, feeling shocked and helpless. She doesn’t mean she’s done with us. She’s just stunned and upset over that article, which she has every right to be. She’ll calm down. I’ll talk to my lawyer and he’ll clear this all up. I’ll go see her tonight and tell her everything will be fine, because it will. It has to be. I won’t accept anything less.

  I make new excuses for Addison to my lunch guests. They seem genuinely disappointed to see her go so quickly but all I want is to get out of here and start taking care of things with Addison. It’s all I can think about. Throughout the rest of lunch I keep checking my phone for a text from her, hoping she’s okay, hoping she didn’t really just leave me.

  That night, after giving her a little space, I call her. She doesn’t answer. I send her a text. She doesn’t respond. I go by her apartment but she doesn’t answer the door. I can see a light on upstairs in her window but she doesn’t make a sound. I stand at her door, my hand flat on it as if I might be able to feel her through it. I stand there long enough that I think I hear soft footsteps on the other side of the door.

  “Addison?” I say, listening closely. “It’s me.”

  But all I hear again is silence. She’s iced me out.

  I go home alone, the realization finally washing over me. She’s gone. And I pushed her away. I got her in such a mess and fucked up her reputation for good.

  As much joy as she’s brought me, I worry that I have given her too much pain in return. That’s not fair to her. She deserves so much better. She works so hard, lives in that tiny little shithole, barely gets by but I’ve never once heard her complain.

  As much as I’ve given her—all the clothes and jewelry and showoff dates—she never expected any of it. In fact, I’d started to get the feeling that she was even a little bothered at the extravagance of it all. I just wanted her to have the best, but maybe all she wanted was for me to be loving as well as supportive. I think back to our fight, and how I ruined her excitement over getting a callback.

  What an ass I was.

  Over the next couple of days I stay in a funk. My mind keeps wandering back to Addison. My lawyer is taking care of that article, but Addison is right—it’s not enough. Who even reads retracted statements?

  For the first time in my life, I don’t care about work. That ki
ller instinct that overwhelms me every morning before the sun comes up has vanished. I wake late, feeling hung-over, overcome with thoughts of Addison. My mind goes over every single detail of our relationship. To say that I miss her would be a joke of a statement. I am lost without her. I need her—her absence is so physical that I feel like a limb has been cut from my body.

  I realize, finally, not just what I’ve done but what I had in Addison. This stupid feud with my brothers means nothing to me. Either one of them can have the company. I don’t care. I don’t want anything; Addison is all that matters.

  I have to show her that I get it now. I may have given her lots of things but I treated her like she was my property. I was condescending to her, expecting her to be at my beck and call and ignoring the fact that she has ambitions of her own. I didn’t respect that. I didn’t respect her. Now I have to show her that I’m all in. I will give her everything she deserves, and that doesn’t just mean material things. I’m ready to give her my heart.

  Not long after she stormed out of my life, I head back over to her apartment. I already know she won’t let me in or answer my calls, so I wait for her outside. It’s a little on the stalker side, but I’ve realized I only have one shot to get her back, and I can’t take it if she won’t see me.

  So I wait.

  My heart skips a beat when I see her emerge from her building. Her hair is wild and flowing and she’s wearing a long dress that almost skims the ground. The woman is absolutely beautiful, in every way possible.

  I hurry across the street toward her, nearly bumping into a woman walking her dog and another out on a run.

  “Addison, wait,” I say as she heads to her car. Her head jerks at my voice, and when she sees me I look closely for pause of relief or happiness or something. Instead her eyes go cold, and she turns away from me. I walk in front of her, cutting her off. “Please, just hear me out. Then you can go and I promise I’ll never bother you again—as much as that would pain me.”

  She stops, crossing her arms and fixing her eyes on me. “I really don’t think there’s anything left to say, Rex. I think we got it all out in front of that restaurant.”

  “No, there’s more,” I say. “I was terrible to you that day. I really am proud of you, Addison, and happy for you that you got that callback. I know how hard you work—it’s one of the things I admire about you most.”

  She coughs out a laugh. “Yeah, well. A lot of good all that hard work has done me. The casting director cancelled my callback after that article came out.”

  “Oh, Addison,” I say, my heart breaking for her.

  “So say what you came here to say,” she says. “I’ve got a lot of ground to make up.”

  “I love you.”

  The words come out so simply and suddenly that they even surprise me. I mean the words—with every fiber of my being—but I hadn’t planned on blurting them out like that either. Addison seems just as shocked.

  “I do, Addison,” I say. “I love you. I’ve been in love with you for some time now. I was just too stupid to understand it. I want you to know that I truly never thought I’d fall in love with someone. It’s not how I was raised. My father thought love equaled weakness, and I believed him. I don’t anymore—finally.

  “Listen, I know I haven’t been good to you, but I want to spend the rest of my life proving that I deserve you. And I don’t want you to give up your passions—I want to encourage you, support you. I’m determined to prove my worthiness to you every single day. If you’ll let me.”

  “I don’t…Rex, I don’t understand,” she says. Her walls are coming down, but now she’s just confused. Whatever she was expecting me to say, that wasn’t it. “You’re just going to show up here in front of my building and say all these things which, by the way, I’ve wanted to hear you say for a long time now. It might be too late, though. You broke my heart. Don’t you get that? I fell for you hard. I trusted you. And then you just brushed aside my own feelings because you wanted me to be your little pet. You made me feel like my acting was just some hobby I do to keep from getting bored. I just think we want different things. You want someone who will be by your side when you want them to be, but I need someone who takes me and what I do seriously.”

  “We do want the same things,” I say. “We both want to succeed. But, I have to admit, you go about it in a much more dignified way than I do. I could really take a few lessons from you, Addison. You make me want to be better. As for your acting, I want you to succeed. To prove it, I got you this.” I take the business card out of my jacket pocket and hand it to her.

  “What’s this?” she asks, taking the card. “Reynolds Myer? He’s a major talent agent.”

  “I know,” I say. “And he wants to represent you.”

  Addison looks at me suspiciously. “I don’t need this, Rex.”

  “Look, I went online and got your acting reel. I wish I’d seen it sooner because you really are incredible. You have such range, Addison. I passed it along to Reynolds and he knew he’d be stupid not to try to snatch you up. All you have to do is call him.”

  “Forget it,” she says. “He’s probably on your payroll.”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “Then you paid him off or threatened him or something.”

  “No,” I say. “I swear. I’ve never met him. Maybe he agreed to look at your reel because Rex Croft asked him to, but this guy doesn’t sign someone just because someone asks him to—he’s one of the most powerful men in the industry. He wouldn't waste his time. Reynolds knows talent when he sees it. He also knows that with talent comes big money, of which he’ll certainly take his cut. But he wants to represent you. It’s up to you what to do next.”

  Addison eyes me, and I can practically see the wheels turning in her head. She holds up the card. “Does this make you feel better? Doing this bit of charity for me?”

  “It’s not charity,” I say. “And, if I’m being honest, then yes. It does make me feel better. All you needed was a foot in the door and if I could help with that then yes—it makes me feel better.” I step closer to her, hoping she doesn’t bolt—or slug me. She stays put. “I’ll do whatever I can to support you in making your dreams come true, and if you’ll have me, I’ll be here waiting for you when you come back from an audition or shooting a T.V. show in New York or a movie in Greece. Wherever you go, whatever you achieve, I want to be here with you. Helping you if I can but mainly just supporting you.”

  Her face has softened, and she’s really hearing me.

  “You mean all that?” she asks. “You’re willing to be supportive, even if I go on a hundred auditions and don’t get a single role?”

  “I know how talented you are and yes, I’ll be supportive. I’ll be whatever you need me to be. Including your date to the Oscars when you land your big role and everyone realizes how talented you are.”

  “Ha,” she says.

  “I’ve missed you,” I say. “I hate being without you.”

  “I missed you too,” she admits finally, and her eyes are filling. “So much.”

  “I don’t ever want to be without you again,” I say. I get down on one knee right there on the sidewalk. A woman with a stroller slows down but goes around me. “If you’ll have me, I’ll spend every day for the rest of my life proving to you how much you mean to me. Addison Gilmour,” I say, opening up the small box with the large diamond inside. “Will you marry me?”

  She gasps, her hand slowly covering her mouth. Tears begin rolling down her cheeks and her eyes are darting from the diamond ring to my eyes, which are getting a little misty as well. “Rex, are you…?”

  “I’m very serious. Will you marry me?” I ask again.

  She’s nodding her head before a sound comes from her mouth. “Yes. Oh my god, yes. Rex I will marry you.”

  I take her hand, which is shaking with nerves and excitement, and slip the ring on her finger.

  A perfect fit.

  ADDISON

  Days later I’m on a privat
e jet with Rex headed off on our honeymoon.

  I realized as he stood there on the sidewalk outside my apartment that he really does get it.

  Something inside him has finally shifted, opened up.

  His eyes are accessible now, he’s not holding himself back from me anymore.

  He wants to support me, and I don’t mean financially. I’m not afraid to be poor, and I made sure he understood that. What I need, and what he is now willing to give me, is emotional support. Once he had made that promise, all my walls fell back down again.

  “Tell me that one thing again,” I said once he’d put the ring on my finger.

  “What thing?” he asked. “That I’ll be here waiting for you for as long as you need?”

  “No, that part about you being in love with me.”

  He grinned. “I love you, Addison,” he said softly. “I love you, I love you, I love you…”

  “All this to ourselves?” I ask as we take our seats on the private plane.

  “Aside from two pilots and one attendant,” he says. “All for us.”

  “You always have to have help around, don’t you?” I tease.

  “But I promise you,” he says, “that they will not be seen unless we want to see them.”

  I know what he’s getting at. I blush just thinking. The truth is, I’ve been dying to get my hands on him all day. Apparently being married to Rex makes me extremely…passionate.

  We’re going to Swanwick Island, his private island, for five days. Five whole days of nothing but the sun and ocean and gourmet food prepared by a private chef and lots and lots of Rex. Sounds like heaven to me.

  Once the plane is cruising, Rex slips off his seatbelt and gets on his knees in front of me. I lean over and kiss him.

  “I can’t believe we did it,” I say. “Married. Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

  “Are you kidding me?” he says. He begins trailing kisses down my neck. “Never for a second.”