Stripped

by Abby Niles

  She pushed open the door and stepped out of the car. She was barely halfway up the walkway to the front door when the wails drifted from the house. Jaxon heard them too if the way he froze was any indication.

  “Shit,” she muttered.

  “Is that Faith?” he asked.

  She didn’t bother to respond. She broke into a run, her heels clacking on the cement. Jaxon trotted behind her.

  He’d already witnessed this once. The poor man shouldn’t have to deal with it again. She had no idea what was going on with her daughter, but this had gone on for too long. She didn’t give a rat’s ass if the doctor didn’t seem concerned and said it could wait until they could see her next week, she was taking her daughter to the E.R. tonight.

  Yanking open the front door, she found Faith standing in the middle of the living room, howling her head off, fists clenched tight at her sides, body tight and shaking.

  “What happened?” Madison yelled over her daughter’s inconsolable sobbing to the older lady.

  A helpless expression came over the woman’s face as she lifted her arms. “I told her you’d be here any minute and to put her shoes on.”

  Madison stared at Faith, for the first time at a loss as to what to do with her daughter. She’d never seen her like this.

  “Faith,” she said, moving closer to the little girl.

  Faith snapped her mouth shut suddenly. Too suddenly. Her eyes popped open. Then rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the floor. Her body convulsed in a severity that Madison had never seen. The violent jerks stunned her for a split second.

  Then Jaxon rushed forward, reaching for the child.

  “Don’t touch her!” Madison pushed past him and blocked him by dropping beside her daughter.

  As she turned Faith onto her side, not needing to worry with loosening any clothes since she wore a tank top, she glanced frantically around, finding a clock nowhere. “What time is it?”

  Jaxon, who’d moved to the other side of Faith, looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “What the hell, Madison?”

  “What fucking time is it?”

  He glanced at his watch. “6:23.”

  She sat back on her heels, fisted her hands in the front of her hair. The convulsions continued. It had never been this bad. This violent. Time slowed to a crawl.

  Please stop. Please stop.

  But they continued.

  Tears blurred her vision. “Time?”

  “6:24. Madison. What are you doing?”

  She blinked, not caring that it released the tears down her cheeks. She needed to be able to see her daughter’s chest. Needed to see if she was breathing.

  “Madison?”

  She ignored him. Please stop. Please stop.

  Faith had just had a seizure a week ago. She never had grand mals this close together. Never.

  “Madison?” There was a frustrated angry edge to his voice now.

  She lifted her gaze, and yelled, “Time?”

  He stared at her a moment, then glanced at his watch, “6:25.”

  A sob pushed out of her mouth. “Call an ambulance.”

  An agonizingly long minute later, the seizure lifted. Faith opened her eyes. She was dazed and completely out of it, but the relief that hit Madison was so overwhelming, she couldn’t keep it together any more. She fell back on her butt onto the carpet, pressed the back of her hand to her lips and sobbed.

  Strong arms wrapped around her. She didn’t resist them. She pressed her face into the hard chest, taking his warmth, his strength, because right now, she needed to syphon it from someone else. Hers was depleted.

  ***

  Call an ambulance.

  That had been the moment Jaxon had realized that Madison was not having some crazy mother moment where she’d frozen. Until he’d heard those three words, he’d been struggling between listening to Madison and an overwhelming instinct to grab a hold of Faith so she didn’t hurt herself from the seizure.

  Which he learned from Madison a little while ago was the exact opposite thing he was supposed to do. Restraining a seizing person could actually inflict harm.

  Carrying two cups of the hospital’s shitty free coffee, he hurried down the hospital corridor back to Faith’s room. He’d followed the ambulance in Madison’s car so she could ride with her daughter. Noah had stayed the night with Racheal’s mother.

  When they’d decided to keep Faith overnight for observation, Madison had tried to get him to take her car and go home. He wasn’t going anywhere. She might not want to admit it, but she needed him. He’d held her sobbing frame as the last of her resolve had crumbled with her daughter coming out of her seizure.

  Epilepsy.

  Faith had epilepsy.

  As if the list of things Madison dealt with wasn’t long enough, she had a child with a medical condition. From what Madison told him, Faith had started having seizures about a year ago. They were trying a new medication because the one they had her on originally had stopped working.

  As he stepped into Faith’s hospital room, his heart clenched tight at the mother lying beside her daughter in the hospital bed. Faith was asleep, which Madison said she would likely do for the next twenty-four hours. The seizures exhausted the little girl. Madison was stretched out beside her, lovingly running her hand down her daughter’s hair. Every few moments she’d dash the back of her hand across her cheek.

  Not wanting to surprise her, he cleared his throat to signal his presence then stepped inside the room. Madison started, then looked toward the door. When she saw him, she immediately glanced down as she scooted off the bed. Always trying to hide the tears. Why? Because she thought it was a weakness?

  The fact that she had that moment earlier today had been an anomaly. One he may never see again. And as much as he hated the circumstance it happened under, Madison had willingly allowed him to support her, had accepted his comfort and strength without hesitation.

  She was a strong, willful woman. He was not naïve in underestimating what that moment had meant.

  Madison was beginning to allow him in.

  As she stepped up to him, he handed her one of the coffees.

  “Thanks,” she said, taking it. “The doctor just left.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He’s not too happy with Faith’s regular doctor, that’s for sure.” She laughed, but it sounded forced, hollow. “The outbursts she’s been having seems to be some kind of side effect of the new medication. He thinks that since she has had two grand mals so close together, which is not common with her off medication in addition to the outbursts, that the medication is not a good match and she needs to be taken off it immediately. He also recommended I get a new doctor.” She sent him a strained smile. “When we first started this journey, he was the only neurologist around that was in network on my crappy insurance.”

  It sounded like she was blaming herself. “You’re doing everything you can, Madison.”

  She shrugged at that, and he had no idea how to help her.

  “Is Faith okay?” he finally asked.

  “Yeah. Tests came back fine. They’ll release her in the morning.” She swallowed and scuffed her feet on the floor.

  There was something more she wasn’t telling him.

  “What?”

  “They’re putting her on a new medicine.” She sighed. “Because of her reaction to the last one, they want someone with her who knows her behavior. She needs to be watched for the next ten days.” There was such a look of helplessness on her face as she looked up at him, then her shoulders slumped. She ducked her head, and he was positive it was to hide tears again. “Racheal won’t be back until Saturday. Even after she’s back, she hasn’t been around for all this. What if she misses something? What if something is different? A milder symptom?” She rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know what to do.”

  She was worried about taking time off from work—from him? Then it hit him. No. It wasn’t the time. It was the money. Losing ten days’ pay on top of
her other income was going to completely fuck her up. It killed him inside that while her daughter was lying in a hospital bed, she was worrying about whether to stay home with her daughter or pay her bills. A choice no one should have to make.

  He put his arm around her shoulders, pulled her to his chest and kissed her forehead.

  “Don’t worry about anything, Madison. I’ve got this.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Eleven days.

  That was how long it had been since Madison had been to work. Of course, that was counting weekends, when she didn’t work, but still, eleven days of no alarm clocks, schedules, or mad morning rushes to get the kids over to Racheal’s.

  And, boy, it didn’t take long to get out of practice. She hopped on one foot as she slipped a high heel on the other. “Faith, make sure you and your brother brush your teeth.”

  After the hospital had released Faith, Jaxon had tried to move them into his condo, but she had refused to uproot her kids and take them somewhere strange. Besides, she highly doubted his place was kid friendly. So he’d brought them back to her apartment, where he’d also taken the Thursday and Friday following Faith’s seizure off.

  Not only had he kept Noah occupied so she could give Faith her complete attention, he did all the cooking and catered to any errand she had needed. At night, she’d slept in Noah’s bed, Noah slept in her bed and Jaxon slept on the couch.

  She couldn’t express how much all his help had meant to her, how much every little thing he did, without asking, without prodding, dug straight into her heart and nestled there. By the time Racheal and her family returned and Jaxon had no reason to stay since Faith was doing so much better, Madison was in “uh-oh” territory with the man.

  So his departure came at a good time.

  She needed distance. He’d offered to let her take an advance on her vacation time as she had not accrued enough so she could stay home with Faith for the seven work days, so she believed she’d get it. That hadn’t happened though. Every day after work, he stopped by with take-out for her and the kids then kissed her on the forehead and went home.

  And now he was nestled so deep she worried about how painful it was going to be when he was ripped out. Because there was no way this was going to end well.

  He was back full throttle into his lifestyle. The fact he’d bought take-out every night last week had been a reminder of that. No thought to money, to a budget. Though it had been a nice change and she hadn’t had to worry about cooking, she couldn’t stop mentally calculating how much he’d spent on each dinner or the feeling of anxiety when she came up with the total. And the difference between the two of them couldn’t be more obvious.

  She would always be the broke mother of two who’d, in his eyes, resorted to stripping to make ends meet, but in truth, stripped to make a living. A stripper with a billionaire—those were two words that didn’t go together at all. Now socialite and billionaire…that made sense.

  Eventually he’d see that too. But Madison had made the decision to enjoy Jaxon for as long as he decided to stick around, just on her terms. She never wanted either of them to look back on this…whatever this was between them and feel like he’d been used for his money.

  With Faith responding well to this new medication, now was a great time to delve into a little selfish time. Her daughter had only been on the new drug for five days and Madison was already seeing a decrease in the petit mals Faith had throughout the day. Fingers crossed maybe they’d found the correct drug she needed to keep the condition under control.

  “Come on, guys!” she yelled when they still hadn’t come out of the bathroom. “I’m running late.”

  She usually brought the kids over to Racheal in the morning, so her neighbor didn’t have to do a mad morning rush. Both kids finally came running out of the bathroom and she opened the front door. They hurried across the hall, banged on the door, it instantly opened and they went straight inside.

  “I’m running late, Rach,” she said as she started backing down the hall. She hated dropping the kids off and splitting. It always felt rude.

  “Go.” Racheal waved her on, smiling. “Have fun today.”

  Have fun?

  She shot the other woman a confused look but shook it off and hurried down the hall. As she rushed outside, she stumbled to a halt when she saw a black stretch limo parked by the curb. A chauffeur opened the back door. She expected to see a pair of shiny expensive shoes emerge and lower to the pavement first, but instead it was a leather flip-flop—a familiar flip-flop.

  Her heart jumped.

  A blonde head popped up. Sunglasses hiding his eyes, Jaxon leaned his forearm on top of the door, flashing a grin. “Morning, sexy. How about we take a ride?”

  This was so not the morning she was expecting. Her mouth popped open. “But I’ve got to get to work.”

  What a stupid comment.

  His low chuckle confirmed that thought. “I happen to know your boss personally and he told me to tell you to get your hot ass in this limo.”

  A smile stretched her lips as excitement made her stomach flutter. What was the delicious man planning? He slipped back into the limo and she hopped in beside him. The black leather insides left her wowed. She’d never been inside a limo before.

  “Where’re we going?” she asked.

  That question led to a three-hour adventure. The limo took them to the airport, where they boarded Jaxon’s private plane. After a short flight, they landed in Atlanta, Georgia. Another limo drove them deep into the country until they reached the main lodge of Historic Banning Mills.

  She had never heard of this place, but it didn’t look like a quick day trip. “Jaxon, what are we doing here?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Up until now she really hadn’t questioned what was going on. Since it looked like he had gone out of his way to plan something special, she’d gone along with it. But she’d assumed he was flying her off to do something that would take an hour or two and then they’d be back home in time for her to pick up the kids.

  They were deep in the country at a place that looked like a bed and breakfast. She was dressed in a skirt and blouse with five-inch heels on her feet. She couldn’t go hiking for God’s sake.

  The limo stopped in front of the main lodge. A few moments later the chauffeur opened the door and she scooted out, Jaxon right behind her. She glanced around.

  Yep. Deep in the mountains. In heels. What the hell?

  She sent Jaxon, who was dressed for a day of fun, a strained smile. The driver opened the trunk and withdrew two suitcases. She blinked at them as he set them down on the pavement.

  “Uh. What’s going on?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?” Jaxon asked, innocently. Too innocently.

  “Jaxon. The kids. I can’t stay overnight.”

  “Yes, you can. I’ve taken care of everything.” Smiling, he kissed her softly on the lips. “Now relax and enjoy yourself. You deserve it.”

  Turning, he went inside the main lodge and she stared after him. Have fun today, Racheal had said. God, she wanted to tackle hug her friend right now. A romantic getaway with Jaxon. No kids. No responsibility. A yummy man. Just fun. A sign caught her attention and she blinked.

  Certain she was seeing things, she stepped closer. Re-reading the title a second, third and fourth time. The words never changed.

  Home of the World’s Best and Longest Zip Line Canopy Tour

  No flipping way!

  Jaxon stepped back out of the main lodge, holding a key in his hand. Her gaze snapped to his. Her look must have freaked him out a little, because he froze in place as both his eyebrows rose. “What?”

  She didn’t say a word, simply rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her back. “Thank you,” she finally managed to get past her tight throat.

  “For what?”

  “For all this. You don’t even want to go zip-lining.”

  He gave her a tight squeeze then set her back gently. �
�But you do, and that’s all that matters.”

  God, she loved this man.

  Loved!

  Everything in her froze at the realization. Deep down, she had always known, but to have it come to the surface, to have to face it. To worry about losing it…

  She swallowed hard. No, not today. Today, she didn’t think. She didn’t worry. She simply lived in the moment.

  “Come on,” he said. “We have enough time to get changed before we start our tour.”

  After they followed a trail, they came to a wood bridge. On the other side was a small octagon-shaped structure in a tree. Again, her mouth popped open. “Are you serious? We’re staying in a tree house?” Even she could hear the excitement in her voice.

  A pleased smile came to Jaxon’s lips. “You like?”

  “Like? I love!”

  There. She’d said the L word out loud. Even if she wasn’t referring to how she felt about him, it was somehow cathartic to blurt it out.

  “Good.”

  He placed his hand on the small of her back and gently pushed her ahead of him. They crossed the bridge. As she stepped inside the small cabin, she gasped. While it was small, it was beautiful. Right inside the door on the left was a two-person jetted tub set in a private nook, because there were so many windows. A king-sized bed was in the middle of the room, and a small dining table with two chairs was pushed up against one of the windows. There was a small bathroom with a stand-up shower, toilet and sink. Another door led to a deck that gave a spectacular view of the mountains.

  “What do you think?” Jaxon asked, and she detected a hint of vulnerability in the question.

  This was a man used to buying the best of the best for women who probably expected the best of the best. While this place was amazing to her and was way outside her budget, this had probably been a no-tell motel compared to his normal standard.