His Absolute Insistence: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #2)

by du Lys, Cerys

  I whimpered beneath his hand, licking at his palm. Inside me, his cock twitched, sending small spurts of cum to join with the aftermath of my quivering orgasm. I tried to whisper to him, but my words came out as muffled nothingness.

  He moved his hand away and kissed my neck. I shivered, a tingling sensation coursing through me.

  "You aren't mad?" I asked, voice soft.

  "Mad?" he asked, confused.

  "I uh..." Well, what had I done? "You were sleeping and..."

  Asher shrugged, squeezing me in his arms. "I wouldn't mind waking up like that every day," he said. His lips formed a grin as he kissed the side of my neck. "Besides, we—"

  A commotion in the hallway cut him off. It sounded like some kind of riot. In the hospital? It didn't make much sense, to be honest. Footsteps pounded outside the door; someone running down the hall. Then they stopped outside our door, swung it wide open, and came in.

  Thankfully Asher and I were beneath the blankets, but he still shouldn't have been in the hospital bed with me.

  A wide-eyed, frightened looking nurse rushed in and slammed the door behind her. Her fingers trembled and searched for the lock above the doorhandle. Her eyes obviously saw it, but she couldn't seem to make her hand twist the lock to lock the door. It took her a moment and she didn't even seem to notice me and Asher in the room with her.

  Asher took that moment to slip himself out of me. I sort of wished this could have been done in any other way. Face scrunched up, I tried ignoring everything uncomfortable about this situation and moved my panties back into place. Quickly, Asher climbed out of his side of the bed and fixed his underwear, then snuck over to grab his pants. He had them halfway on and up by the time the nurse locked the door and turned around to greet us.

  She stared at him in disbelief as he fixed his underwear, pulled up his pants, and buttoned and zipped them.

  "Hello," I said to the nurse, offering a light wave. I decided maybe it was best if I stayed in bed for the time being.

  Asher nodded to her, too. "Good morning. Is there a problem?" he asked.

  The nurse opened her mouth to speak, but then she stopped. I hadn't been able to see it when she was trying to lock the door, but she had something gripped in her other hand, held tight against her stomach. She tried to speak again, mouth opening and then closing, but then she gave up. Thrusting her arm out, she handed Asher the rolled up newspaper.

  Asher took it, unrolled it, started reading it, stared at the front page, and...

  He almost fell. Stumbling backwards, he hit the edge of the hospital bed and sat down. He kept staring at the paper, confused. I couldn't see what was so wrong with it, what had the nurse and Asher unable to speak. I tried to look, tried to grab it from him, and he pulled it away from me sharply, not letting me have it.

  "Asher, can you tell me what's going on?" I asked, my tone more than a demand.

  This was a hospital! We were being interrupted by some random nurse, of all people. Granted, we probably shouldn't have been sleeping together in the hospital bed, and Asher shouldn't have stayed overnight like that, and the sex was definitely not a hospital-approved activity, but still. We should at least have some sort of privacy. What was that riotous clamor coming from the halls before, too? It still sounded really loud.

  I didn't know. I could hear voices, people shouting, something happening.

  Asher smiled wanly at the nurse. "Maybe you should sit down and explain this," he said to her.

  "Explain what?" I asked; he ignored me.

  I sat up, angry. I didn't want to be angry, but how else was I supposed to feel right now? Refusing to accept this, unable to understand, I grabbed Asher's arm and tore the paper from his hands before he could stop me. Oh, he tried, too. He tried to take it back, he tried to stop me from reading it, but I didn't even have to read much of anything.

  Right there, right on the front page, was a picture. This wasn't a regular newspaper, but one of those sensationalized ones for gossip and rumors.

  It didn't matter what it was, though. In huge print, with a large picture right below it, were the words:

  JESSIKA LANDSEER SEX TAPE REVEALED

  The picture was of me. Me and Asher. I recognized it immediately because I'd seen this picture before. Asher's hips were pressed against me with half of his cock inside me, my hands on my breasts, squeezing them together. They used stars to censor out my breasts, Asher's cock, and my pussy, but it was fairly obvious what was going on in the image.

  No one should have this. No one but us. There weren't copies available anywhere. The only place the picture existed was...

  ...on the SD card in Asher's camera...

  The camera I found in disarray yesterday afternoon in Asher's guest house, everything scrambled and out of place, one of the SD cards missing. Yes, that exact camera.

  I stared at the newspaper for a second, unable to think. Asher pulled it away from me, trying to hide it. A whole lot of good that did; I'd already seen everything I needed to see. Was there more? More pictures inside to go with the article? I didn't want to know. Part of me needed to know, though, while another part wanted to pretend none of this had happened.

  It didn't exist. If I forgot about it, it didn't exist. Right?

  My face burned bright red but the rest of me felt bloodless. I didn't understand how any of this could have happened.

  ***

  Asher sat with Jessika on the bed while the nurse explained what was going on with the situation in the halls. None of it sounded good.

  "I don't really know," the nurse said. "One of the receptionists received some phone calls asking about Mrs. Landseer. Usually we give out patient room number information to anyone who asks, since it's policy unless confidentiality is requested when you check in. Normally only friends or family call about that, so it's not a problem. Of course, this situation is a little different, so I don't think she did that, but—"

  He interrupted. "You don't think she did?"

  "I..." The nurse balked, looking away from him. Instead, she turned her gaze towards Jessika. This was probably for the best, considering Asher was extremely frustrated at the moment and Jessika kept staring at her lap, refusing to look up.

  "I don't know," the nurse continued. "She didn't the first time. Other people called. We have more than one receptionist, but after the first few calls, because of Mrs. Landseer's status, everyone was told to keep the information confidential until we could talk to her, um—you." She glanced towards Jessika, but his wife was still staring at her lap. "It didn't really work, though. Reporters showed up and started standing around outside. I didn't think anything of it at first. They do news reports sometimes, and I thought maybe they just wanted to do a live report in front of the hospital? It happens and it's not a problem when it does."

  "If no one mentioned her room number or that she was here," Asher said, "how exactly did they find out?"

  "Oh," the nurse said. She'd been so caught up in explaining everything from the absolute beginning that she didn't seem to think the rest of it was important. "Someone must have told someone," she said, as if this made perfect sense. "Not through the hospital phone lines, though. I was sent to make sure Jessika was fine and to keep everything under wraps, but one of the receptionists, or maybe another nurse, or I guess a doctor—"

  "A private text message or phone call?" Asher guessed.

  "Yes, that's most likely what happened," she agreed with a nod.

  Jessika didn't say anything. Asher couldn't really blame her. After everything she'd been through with the media, and then the situation in her office yesterday when someone broke in, the fire at their home, and now this? He wished he could make it all vanish into thin air. How, though?

  "There are reporters outside right now, then?" Asher asked.

  The nurse frowned. "Someone was trying to get them to leave. I... or, we, really. We should know soon. I think they're going to call the room once everything is cleared up."

  "Someone?" Asher asked
. "Someone's going to get them to leave and you think they're going to call the room? You don't know who and you aren't sure if they will, though? Do I have that right?"

  "Y-yes..." the nurse stammered.

  This nurse, despite the possibility of her being higher up in the chain of command, wasn't exactly what Asher would have called competent. She must have done her job well, and for daily affairs he might have appreciated her efforts, but right now he wasn't in the mood.

  "Do you mind waiting in the bathroom?" Asher asked. With a curt wave, he gestured towards the private bathroom near the door to the hall. "Can my wife and I have some privacy?"

  "I... what?" the nurse asked. She stared blankly, clearly never having received a request like this before.

  "Asher, don't," Jessika said. "Stop it. Don't be like that. Please. It's not her fault."

  Asher muttered under his breath. "Jessika, I understand, but she's not helping matters. There should be stricter protocol. I'm not threatening to sue the hospital, I'm just asking her to wait in the bathroom until after this is cleared up and we can leave. Staying overnight was obviously a mistake."

  His wife finally looked up, confronting the situation head on. "It doesn't matter where we stayed. The situation would be the same. The papers still would have..." She trailed off, and he thought she'd stop right there, but after a moment's pause she continued. "The article still would have been printed and we'd be hounded at home instead of here, except it's not safe there, either. The police might be able to keep people away, but if they're investigating our house, we wouldn't have any privacy. At least here we have a little bit."

  "Possibly," he admitted. He didn't want to admit it, but she had a point. One incompetent nurse was better than a house full of investigating officers and detectives, or a mass of media newspeople assaulting them with questions.

  "We'll just wait," she said to the nurse. "Thank you for coming and letting us know. We're sorry for the inconvenience. The hospital staff must be on edge, too."

  "Oh, it's... it's nothing," the nurse said. "It's a little disruptive, but I'm sure everything will be taken care of soon. The police should be able to shoo everyone away when they get a chance to—"

  The woman kept talking and Jessika listened intently at his side, despite her firm, nervous grip on his arm. He appreciated and adored that about her. No matter her situation, regardless of the worry and anxiety it caused her, she always tried to be understanding and accepting. Too much sometimes, he thought, but he was that way, too. He trusted people too easily and it had caused issues in the past, but he kept doing it. He didn't want to not trust people if he could, because then what sort of person would he be?

  Paranoid, hateful, unpleasant. A lot more than that, too.

  While the nurse and Jessika talked, Asher grabbed his phone. He had a lot of missed calls, but he ignored every single one of them. Instead, he went to dial Lucent's number. If anyone could get this resolved sooner rather than later, it was him.

  He dialed, hit send, and the phone rang once. Then he hung up.

  He couldn't call Lucent. Lucent had issues of his own. This was a multi-tiered issue in dire need of escalation to someone who could resolve it, but currently he had no one he could rely on. The thought bothered him more than he wanted to let on.

  He put the phone at his side and smiled at Jessika. As soon as they could leave, he'd bring her away from here and to somewhere safer and more private. He didn't know where that was yet, considering every place he would have thought was safe was currently being torn apart by someone or had been torn through in the recent past, but he'd figure it out on the way.

  The phone rang, vibrating at his side. Asher grabbed it to shut it up, with plans to ignore whoever wanted to talk to him, but he stopped just before he hit the button to quiet the buzzing. It was Jeremy.

  He accepted the call. "Hey, Jeremy. What's going on?"

  "Hey, Asher," Jeremy said. "Not much? You? I hear there's a horde of newspeople at the hospital. Wow. You guys are all over the news, did you know?"

  "Yes, actually," Asher said. "We saw."

  "Jessika freaked out, huh?"

  At his side, Jessika hissed into Asher's ear. "Don't tell him I freaked out."

  "She said not to tell you she freaked out," Asher said.

  "Asher!" Her palm slapped against his back.

  "Yeah, I figured as much," Jeremy said. "I can understand. Anyways, I thought you guys might want some help? I'm out back, by the dumpsters, if you want to sneak away."

  "Nice," Asher said. His idea of a good day wasn't typically one that started with taking a trip past dumpsters, but it would have to do. "That'd be great, except we're stuck in the hospital room at the moment. There are reporters everywhere. They don't have many security measures in here for preventing situations like that, I'm told."

  "Asher, be nice," Jessika said, hitting him on the shoulder.

  "Yeah, I thought about that," Jeremy said. "What you could do is..."

  ***

  "Asher," I said. "I don't think this is going to work."

  "It's going to work fine," he said to me. To the nurse across from us, he added, "Can you do this one thing, please? That's all I'm asking for."

  He was being kind of testy with the nurse. I understood some of the reason for it, but I thought he could at least treat her a little nicer. It really wasn't her fault for what happened. In all honesty, I doubted she ever thought she'd be put in a situation like this. That's how I felt on an almost daily basis after marrying Asher, too. How did this happen to me? A simple question, but one that didn't have an easy answer.

  I loved Asher so much. I wanted to be with him. We had passion and spark, but also intimacy and understanding. He was so fun to spend time with and I could watch a movie while snuggled in his arms for hours. We could talk about it after, still cuddling, too. We both liked books and reading. He preferred to read on one of his eReaders, but sometimes I liked the feel of a real book in my hands. It was fun, I thought. Just the idea of it, the presence and the memories when we sat in bed together, cuddled close, each of us reading something different, but doing it at the same time.

  I smiled inwardly, thinking about it. Asher and I liked to point out parts of books that we really liked. Sometimes he teased me for what I showed him, but he read his fair share of all sorts of fiction and non-fiction, so he wasn't one to talk. I definitely caught him reading a romance novel now and again, and after I secretly went through his Kindle and found a few sensual and emotional scenes he'd highlighted from one of the books I'd just read and suggested to him, I poked fun at him back. He started sharing more of the passages he liked after that.

  Sometimes we played at re-enacting them. It was more than a little silly, but I liked it. Asher, my hero, my prince, rescuing me from distress and then there I was in his bed, shy and nervous, but wanting to offer him his rightful reward. My body, his hands, our lips.

  Our souls, together, and sometimes no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of us separating. It was like trying to imagine a world without a sun. It was possible to think of, but impossible to truly believe.

  Yes, Asher had issues of his own. He didn't quite understand all forms of intimacy all the time. He'd been denied it in his previous marriage, only offered occasional bouts of false love. He thought it was his duty to marry the woman he did, and after that he should carry on with his life as if that was that. They rarely saw each other. They didn't enjoy spending time together. She did everything within her power to stay away from him, claiming to visit friends or going on trips for this or that reason.

  I didn't hate her, but I didn't understand her, either. Asher was capable of so much love and intensity that sometimes it almost hurt to think of him being denied that. I wanted to give him just as much passion and love as he was willing to give. And he always offered all of himself to me. It wasn't always good, but I knew that and I knew that maybe sometimes I wasn't always good, either. We were good for each other, though. Complements, crea
ting one union, two parts of something bigger and greater.

  Believing this, knowing it as an absolute fact, I gave in and agreed to what he and Jeremy had in mind. It was a simple plan, but I didn't know if it would work.

  Asher picked up the phone on the hospital bedside table and offered it to the nurse. She took it, clearly nervous. I didn't blame her; Asher made lots of people nervous. He didn't mean to, and most of the time he was very friendly, but being in the presence of a billionaire put unreal expectations and thoughts in people's minds.

  The nurse dialed a number and called someone from the front desk. She told them what Asher had told her to say, and then she hung up. Within a minute or so, it began.

  The hospital speaker system crackled to life. Generally reserved for medical announcements, today they'd decided to offer an alternative message.

  "Attention, please. Members of the media currently inside of the hospital. Asher Landseer, the CEO of Landseer Enterprises, has informed us that he'll be arriving out front shortly. He'll offer a brief interview and Q&A session with everyone who is willing to leave the hospital. I've been asked to relay this message so that the hospital won't have to resort to police intervention. Please, if you'll kindly go to the front entrance and wait patiently outside, Asher Landseer, the CEO of Landseer Enterprises, will be here to meet with you shortly and answer any questions you might have."

  There was a commotion in the halls again and it sounded like a lot of people were hurrying to leave. Thankfully, Jeremy ended up being right; no one actually knew Asher was here, they only expected to find me. In reality, he shouldn't be here anyways. He could have waited in one of the waiting areas overnight, I supposed. He'd waited in bed with me instead, and I loved him more for it, but it wasn't exactly in accordance with the hospital's rules and regulations.

  "I don't know how you're going to fool them into thinking you arrived by car when you're going to join them from inside the building," I said.

  Asher shrugged. "I don't care. No one lied, did they? I'll arrive out front shortly. That's the truth. I wouldn't be doing this if they stayed in the halls, so it's a better offer than they would have received."