Montgomery Billionaire Series

by Michelle Love

  “We’ll get her therapy to get her back on track. That’s all we’ll have to do. You have a family who will jump in and help you both with your children. That’s what families do for each other after all, Benjamin. We’re here for you all.” He pats my back as I sob and cry so much harder than I ever have before.

  Not even when I was little, do I recall crying like this. Then it hits me that I have to be strong for Angel and our kids now. So I suck it up.

  I can fall apart later. Right now they need me to be their rock. I pull out of my grandfather’s arms and pat him on the shoulder. “Thank you, Grandfather. Thank you for being here for me and my family at such a hard time. Thank you for showing me what it means to be the man of the family. Without your influence, I’d have no idea of how to be a man, a husband, or a father.”

  “You’ve become a man I’m proud to call my grandson, Benjamin. No matter what happens, I know you can handle it the best way possible.” He takes my hand and pulls me back to sit down between him and Rebecca.

  I see how pale she is, and it suddenly dawns on me how frightened she must be for her granddaughter. I take her hand and hold it. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. I think that girl always runs on higher octane than most, anyway.”

  She nods her head and looks at me. “I’m sure you’re right. She has always been a little high strung and quick tempered. Maybe that spike looked big to them but not so much to her.”

  I nod and hope we’re right about that.

  Because I don’t know what I’d do without her being her anymore.

  ANGEL

  A bright light flashes into my eyes as someone asks me, “Mrs. Worthington can you see me?”

  “No,” I answer in a scratchy voice that makes my throat hurt very bad. “There’s a light in my eyes.”

  The light goes away and there’s a shadowy figure in front of me. “Good.”

  “Her voice sounds clear,” I hear some man say from the corner of the room. “The scan is up on the monitor, Doctor.”

  I watch the blurry figure move away from me and go towards a box with gray fuzzy stuff on it. I close my eyes to try to get the blurriness to go away as I listen to them talk.

  “Okay, I see no damage,” the doctor says.

  “Damage?” I ask. I open my eyes and blink and things start looking normal. “To what?”

  He comes back to me and looks down at me then removes the strap that’s holding my head down. “You had a spike in your blood pressure. We had to check for signs of a stroke. How do you feel?”

  “Like shit, to be honest.”

  He laughs and moves the bed up just a little. “Yeah, that’s normal. Can you think and focus?”

  “Yes.” I look around and can see everything clear. “So, how’d the surgery go? Are my little girls two separate kids now?”

  He nods. “It all went really well. The interns are going over the video in the gallery right now. They’re excited to see the procedure. I think you’ll be really happy to see your babies when they arrive. I foresee little to no scarring. It’s amazing really.”

  “What about my husband?” I ask. “And did you guys tell him about thinking I had a stroke?”

  He nods and I feel awful. “You need to hurry up and let him know I’m fine. He’ll be worried sick. I can’t imagine what all went through his head. What torture.”

  He looks over at the nurse. “Go get her family, will you?”

  The nurse hurries out and I ask, “So when can I get the hell out of here?”

  “After the babies are born,” he says.

  “What?” I shake my head. “That’s like a month away.”

  “Didn’t your doctor tell you that?”

  “No. Damn!”

  The door opens and Benny comes in alone. “Angel?”

  I nod and he comes to me and leans over the bed, rubbing my shoulder and I see his eyes are all red and his nose is too. “Benny, you’ve been crying.”

  “You’re damn right I have. I was worried sick about you.” His hand rubs my shoulder harder like he’s trying to tell himself I’m really okay.

  “Sorry,” I say with a little smile. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  He kisses my forehead. “Well, you did. And I don’t want you to do that anymore. I’m never going to ask you to do this again. This will be our last pregnancy.”

  “Hold up there, Big Daddy.” I take his hand in mine and give it a little squeeze. “That’s jumping to conclusions. We can see how things go. I’m not getting on that wagon just yet.”

  “I thought you’d be the one telling me that, to be honest. I was just wanting you to know I’m onboard with that idea. My heart nearly gave out, and this thing isn’t even all the way over yet.” He kisses my forehead again. “I’m not cut out for this.”

  I laugh then stop as it hurts pretty damn bad. “It’s just life, Benny. I had a dream while I was under. And in that dream, there was another son. He looked like you. I can’t think of not having another kid right now.”

  He pats my shoulder and smiles. “Okay then. I’m leaving that all up to you, Sugarplum.”

  “Good.”

  Somehow I think everything’s going to work out fine.

  BLAZE

  “Hush, girls,” I hiss as Serenity and Harmony run into the nursery where I’m rocking the latest edition to our little family.

  “Daddy, I want to hold him. You’ve been hogging him for over an hour,” Serenity gripes as she puts her hands on her hips.

  The girls look just like me only with feminine qualities. They just turned sixteen last week and think they’re grown.

  Harmony holds out her arms. “No, Daddy, give him to me. She held him last. Oh, and Mom wants you, anyway. Woody took your old Harley out last night and he accidentally ran over something. She wants you to see what happened before she fixes it.”

  I set my jaw and get up out of the rocking chair. It’s the same large wooden chair I rocked all of my kids in. Harmony sits down, and I put little Ronald Reagan Worthington in her arms.

  Grandfather has passed on, but he told Angel his favorite president was Ronald Reagan just before he died. She was adamant our last son would carry on the tradition he started. We call him Ronnie.

  Her grandmother joined my grandfather in the hereafter only three months after he left us. I guess she just didn’t want to go on without him.

  I make my way down the stairs and out to the shop to find Woody and Angel looking over the bike I had when I meet the mother of my children and love of my life.

  “Gross!” I shout as I see blood covering the front fender. “What the hell, Son?”

  Woody shrugs his shoulders. “I think it was a jack-a-lope, Dad.”

  “It bent the rim a little, Baby,” Angel tells me. “I have one I can swap it out with. But I wanted your permission first.”

  I look at her with a lopsided grin. “Baby, when will you understand that I completely trust your judgment where any bike of mine is concerned. You are the top designer of the lightweight Harley, you know. Your call is always great with me.”

  She smiles back at me and nods. “Okay then. If you’re sure.”

  I walk over and pull her into my arms as Woody makes a face. “Geez, when will you two get too old for this mushy crap? I’m out of here. Sorry about your bike, Dad.”

  Angel cocks her head as she asks, “Are we ever going to get too old for this, Benny?”

  “I sure as hell hope not, my Angel.” I kiss her and her sweet mouth still takes me to the place it always has.

  Beyond this place and time to another world where only she and I exist. And hopefully, it always will.

  And we all lived happily ever after…

  The End

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  QUARTET

  By Michelle Love

  Fire for You

  Quartet

  By Michelle Love

  Seattle

  After their CEO, Tomas, strives to find a
new act to mentor, he lucks out in Seattle where he discovers a covers band, The 9th & Pine, that has built up a cult following, mostly due to the singer, Bay, being an incredible singer. Off-stage, however, Tom finds that she is a shy, solitary creature and their immediate attraction sends her running for cover. Her band mates, Kym, and Pete, convince Bay to allow Tom to help her write original material for the band and slowly, she begins to grow in confidence. She discovers that under the Harvard billionaire exterior lies the soul of a true music geek and in turn, he wins her trust enough that she tells him why she held back from getting involved with him; the suicide of her younger brother, Ravi. Soon they cannot deny their attraction and their relationship turns sexual. Tom and Bay fall in love but their happiness is marred by Kym's boyfriend, Stu, the band's de facto manager, who becomes increasingly convinced that Tom is grooming Bay for solo success, and begins to turn Kym against her best friend...

  The note hung in the air, pure and clear. As it faded out, the singer drew in a deep breath then brought her hand down and the crowd leaped as one, moving with the swell of the beat, arms in the air, the sweltering heat of the auditorium pulsating through their limbs.

  He moved through the crowd, never taking his eyes from the beautiful brunette at the front of the stage. Despite her small size, the command she had over the audience, the presence was palpable. Their eyes met…and held. A shock passed through him, his breath caught, his groin tightened. Time stopped.

  As quickly as it happened, she looked away and he realized, that in this melee, in this beautiful old building, Seattle’s Paramount on the corner of Ninth and Pine, she could be looking at anyone. He watched as the band, the brunette, the blond guitarist who looked faintly familiar, the huge, bearded drummer who was grinning madly as he pounded the drums. They were all so different he thought, his gaze returning to the singer. Her dark hair tumbled down her back, strands sticking to the sheen of sweat on her lovely face, her smile joyous and infectious. There was a woman, he thought, who was doing the thing she loved the most, her reason for being, her passion.

  That was the moment Tomas Meir fell in love with Bay Tambe.

  It had been his idea, his dream, his vision. Nearing forty and bored as hell at his own successful law firm, Tomas Meir had woken night after night with the crushing feeling of disappointment in his own life, that somehow, it was all slipping away with nothing to show. Typical mid-life crisis, he’d tried to reason. After all, he was Harvard-educated, still only in his twenties when he’d started the entertainment law firm that had made him a billionaire before thirty. He knew where it had stemmed from, this feeling of dissatisfaction.

  It had been his thirty-fourth birthday and he’d gone to Boston. He’d gotten together with his three best friends, his buddies from Harvard: Sam Hamilton, marketing guru to the fashion industry and Otis and Roman Ford, twin geniuses from old money, superstar surgeon and businessman respectively.

  It had been a riot, a night of busting each other’s chops, catching up and reminiscing.

  It had only been later when they’d settled into Tom’s hotel lounge with heavy glasses of sour mash in their hands that Sam had told them.

  Cancer. Six months. Their hearts were broken.

  In the end, it was only four months, the cancer spreading through Sam’s previously athletic body like wildfire. At the funeral, Sam’s only living relative, his younger brother Dash, had pleaded with them to stay in touch – his only link to his family.

  They’d done more than that. When Tomas had the idea to start the record company, a seed that had been planted in their Harvard days when they would commandeer one of the music rooms and jam for hours when they should have been studying. They were obsessed with music – ate, slept, drank it every minute they weren’t being primed for a life of law and medicine by their ambitious fathers.

  After Sam’s funeral, Tom stayed in Boston to talk to Dash. He told him that he and the Ford Brothers were starting a new venture together – a record company and they wanted Dash to join them. He’d barely gotten the words out before Dash said yes.

  Now, the fledgling company was competing with the big boys. Tom’s unerring eye for talent had secured him some of the best new acts around and for the last two years, he’d been so busy with them that he’d pushed his scouting to the backburner. It itched at him, though, the thrill of discovery. When his assistant, Meg, had mentioned a weekend in Seattle and seeing, as she had put it, ‘the most rocking covers band I’ve ever seen’, he couldn’t resist.

  Now as he filed out with rest of the audience into the cold Seattle night, his heart was pounding, his senses in overdrive. He knew without a doubt they were the ones; the band he would personally champion to superstardom. He had found them.

  He had found her…

  Bay stood under the shower in the dressing room, letting the hot water soothe and cleanse her tired body. She massaged shampoo into her long, dark hair, feeling the water glide through the wet strands. Friday nights at the Ninth & Pine club were never boring. The band’s reputation in Seattle now was such that people booked well in advance to see them. Bay shook her head, smiling. She couldn’t get over it – they were just a local covers band, for Christ sakes, but their gigs, every second Friday after midnight, were always packed.

  Bay stepped out of the shower and quickly dried and dressed. A loud rapping and her best friend Kym, the band’s guitarist, stuck her head around the door.

  ‘Stu says the guy’s waiting for us in the bar.’

  ‘I’ll be two minutes.’

  ‘Cool.’ Kym’s head disappeared. Bay sighed. She hated anything to do with Stu Lawson, Kym’s long-term English boyfriend. Oily, smarmy creep. Bay grinned to herself. Whoever this latest guy was that Stu wanted them to meet – to further the band’s success, he’d put it – was bound to be another low rent shyster looking to exploit them. Bay dried her hair quickly, pulling it into a messy bun at the nape of her neck, then smoothed her tea dress down over her curves. She glanced at the clock – it was after two a.m. now and she would meet this guy then head home. The store would have to be opened at eight – she calculated she would have about four hours sleep maximum and the thought made her faintly nauseous.

  She pulled the dressing room door shut behind her and made her way slowly to the bar. Pete, the big bear heart of their band, met her halfway, throwing a huge arm across her shoulders. He had about the same regard for Stu as she did and they exchanged a loaded grin now as they walked into the bar. Stu was standing at the bar, his back turned as he chatted to the record company guy. Bay felt a little flip in her stomach as she realized who it was. The guy from the crowd. She’d seen him before, at their last two gigs, – she could hardly miss him, he was so tall he towered over the rest of the crowd – but tonight, as she’d sung the final notes of the song, their eyes had met and she’d felt it…everywhere. A sledgehammer to her chest, a frantic pulse between her legs. She took a deep breath in now as they approached the men and they turned to greet them. Stu made the introductions but she barely heard him except for the guy’s name – Tomas. Tom smiled down at her, his green eyes intense, focused entirely on hers. He didn’t rake his eyes up and down her body in that sleazy way Stu always did but kept his eyes locked on hers. It was incredibly sensual and Bay could imagine him leaning in, pressing those cool lips to hers and…

  ‘Hey, space cadet.’ Kym nudged her and Bay blinked. ‘Let’s grab a table.’

  As they made their way to one of the booths, she heard Stu remark. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said to Tomas, ‘...it’s her artistic temperament.’

  Turning to shoot him a death stare, Bay flushed at Stu’s rudeness and Tomas’s eyes narrowed at Stu before he smiled down at Bay. ‘Nothing to apologize for. I’m always daydreaming – best way to filter out the crap some people talk.’

  Bay snorted with laughter and Tomas grinned at her. They all sat down in one of the booths and Bay couldn’t help the little thrill passing through her at Tomas deliberately putting himself
between her and Stu. Sitting so closely together, she could feel the heat of his body, his big thigh against hers in the cramped table. God, she wanted to touch it, wanted him to touch her. She’d been exhausted after the gig but now every cell in her body was alive, sparking with excitement and arousal.

  Tomas began to talk about his project and suddenly she was interested; he wanted to champion the band into a major recording deal.

  ‘The fact your gigs are always packed has gotten a lot of buzz in the industry,’ he told them, ‘nowadays when the recording industry is flooded with manufactured, plasticized bands or whiny little mean girls’ – Bay had to laugh at that one, Pete grinned too, ‘what we’re looking for is to develop a band whose innate talent is…well, I’m not going to say wasted, not after that incredible gig, but whose talent could be developed into something quite extraordinary and lucrative. I don’t see why there can’t be both music of real quality and genuine talent to go along with record sales.’

  Bay was impressed and she looked over to Kym and Pete who both looked excited.

  ‘And you think we’re the band to do that with?’ Pete asked Tomas, who nodded.

  ‘Absolutely. If one gig can have that effect on me…’ He looked back at Bay now, and a smile creased his handsome face. She felt her stomach do that flippy thing again and pressed her hand against it to quell the sensation.

  ‘What label are you with?’ She felt like she was gibbering, so distracting was this man. Before he could answer, Stu cursed loudly.

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Bay, do you have to be so clueless? Tom is Quartet Records.’

  Tom narrowed his eyes at Stu. ‘Watch your mouth, Lawson. Remind me again what it is you do?’ As he came to her defense, a squirming Bay felt his hand close over hers, hidden by the table. He held it for a brief second – I got your back – then let it go. Her skin burned where he touched her and she smiled at him gratefully.