by Lily LaVae
Amanda was only saying what Eloise had already begun to believe. She’d been too rash. She’d slept with him when she’d had too much to drink—not that she wouldn’t do it again—and he’d been hot on her all that day. But she must have disappointed him. Other than his brief talk with her before leaving the bus, she’d hardly talked to him since.
“Hey, don’t take it too hard. You aren’t quite a woman if you haven’t been screwed over by Morgan. I wish I could say I was sorry, but I’m not. If Morgan wouldn’t have hired me, I wouldn’t have found Kent.”
At least Eloise didn’t have to worry about competition. She couldn’t compete with the pretty Amanda.
“How long after did he fire you?”
“Within two days of sleeping with him, he started making my life hell. I quit about two weeks later. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stayed a total of three weeks.”
Three weeks. She hadn’t even been there that long, only about half that. He still had time to treat her like crap and force her to quit. If she did, he’d agreed to only a tiny severance. She was stuck.
“Thanks for warning me.” She didn’t know what else to say to the woman who’d just told her she would lose everything, and didn’t seem to care. But Amanda didn’t know the stakes. She had no idea what would be lost if Eloise left.
Amanda left the bus and Eloise went to her little built-in dresser beside her bunk. She dug through all of her clothes until she found Ed’s card, buried amidst her underwear. Her phone was there, too, and she slid it into her back pocket as she headed for the only private place in the whole moving city that was the Turner motorcade—Morgan’s room.
She shut his door and flopped on her stomach on his bed. She’d made it enough, and been there once, she needed personal space and the desk just wouldn’t do. The card was crumpled and bent, but still easily read. Eloise dialed and waited.
“Dr. Johnson.”
She sighed. “Ed, I’m so glad I caught you. This is Eloise.”
“Fontaine, how are you holding up?”
She bit her lip. How to answer that?
He cleared his throat, sounding a little nervous. “How did your job search go?” His voice crackled a little over the connection.
She needed to get out, get away. Her heart would be in pieces if she didn’t. “I got a job, but I need you to think of a way to get me out of this.” Leaving Morgan was the only way, no matter how much it hurt. She had to cut ties with him, if she didn’t and he hurt her, it would ruin the one good memory she had.
“Are you hurt? What’s wrong?” His voice was all business now. She’d forgotten that he was a required reporter.
“I’m not being abused, Ed. I’m just in over my head. I’m in Nashville and my…boss. He…” How could she say what needed to be said? She couldn’t lie about Morgan and she didn’t want to tarnish his name.
“You don’t have to say another word. I’m on my way. I’ll catch a flight and come get you. You’re only a few hours away. Where can I find you?”
“I’m at the Arena. You’ll see all the buses in the back. I’m in the biggest one.”
The connection was silent for a moment. “You’re on a bus?”
“It’s hard to explain, you’ll understand when you get here.” She bit her lip. Please don’t give up on me, Ed.
“See you soon.” He killed the line.
“So, going back to the lover that left you? The one who took your kid? He treated you like garbage and you’re calling him? From my bed?” Morgan was furious. His face was pinched and the muscles of his shoulders bunched.
“My son?” She’d mentioned she’d been in labor, but had never told him her child had died. “He doesn’t have my son. Ed is not my lover and never was.”
Morgan crossed his arms and glared at her. “I gave you space. I didn’t want to. I wanted to see what you were all about, find out about you. I wanted you with me all the time, but you pulled away. You didn’t screw up the job, so I figured you’d been too drunk and were regretting what we’d done. Fine. But this shit? Going behind my back and calling for help? What the hell did I do?”
He hadn’t done anything, not yet. But he would. He always did. “Amanda was here, she—”
“Fuck Amanda. I’m not with her. I was trying to be with you. I want to be with you.” His rage exploded. “Just don’t leave without talking to me. Give me at least that courtesy so I know where you are.” He slid his leather coat off and threw it on the couch, then stared at her.
Did she dare give him that promise? It would be hours before Ed got there. “I can’t. I have no idea where you’ll be when he gets here.”
“I just don’t get it. I’ve treated you better than anyone. I wanted to give you even more. I wanted to give you everything.”
His past had ruined that, how could she trust him when he’d tossed aside everyone else? What did she have that they didn’t? Nothing but a contract and that’s all he was looking to keep.
He strode up to her and dove his hand into her short hair, she gasped but didn’t pull away.
“I care about you, Eloise. You make me feel things—want things—I haven’t wanted in years. I have no way to show you.”
He kissed her, not with sexy passion like he had before, but with a need that matched the look in his eyes. The look she hadn’t been able to name. Her heart ached for the very same thing… Home. Family. Connection. But connection to him would hurt too much. She pulled away and rested her hand against his chest, tracing his cross tattoo through his thin tee.
“I can’t stay, Morgan. It hurts too much. I can’t take it if you turn on me.”
He sighed and slid his hand to the back of her head as he tugged her forehead to his lips. The kiss was warm, soft, more tender than she ever expected from the likes of Morgan Turner. Then he was gone.
And a bit of the world she thought she was saving, crumbled.
11
Morgan stared out at the crowd, but it wasn’t the same as usual. Oh, they screamed his name the same and begged for more the same, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want to be there. Eloise had still been in his trailer when he’d gone in to warm up. She’d be gone now.
He stepped back from the mic and waved as he left the stage. They were happy, euphoric really. Why couldn’t he join them, why couldn’t he let her go? She was just an assistant, like every other. Only she’d had a sweet innocence about her that made him protective, and he couldn’t quite be the jerk to her that he’d been to everyone else and still feel good about himself. She’d treated him like a person, not a star, and that had made him feel at home with her.
Then there were her little insecurities that probably annoyed her, but he found gorgeous. The way she brushed her hair from her face and tilted her head when she was nervous, and the way her eyes flashed if he made her mad. He’d never found his other assistant’s anger particularly likable. Maybe she wasn’t just another assistant. Maybe the Diamond Bridal Agency had known what he needed all along. Someone to call home. A wife.
He jogged off the stage and ignored the calls from everyone as he ran to his bus. There were no lights on and he cursed. The door swung open and a man in a suit stepped out. This had to be Ed, the one Eloise had been calling so frequently before she’d met Morgan. He held up his hand in greeting, but Morgan wasn’t up for pleasantries.
“Where is she?”
“She’s still here, in your bus, despite my counsel to leave. I’m Dr. Ed Johnson, Psychiatrist.”
A doctor wouldn’t have said all those terrible things to Eloise, and wouldn’t have left her in labor… “How do you know her?” Mrs. Creed had only told him what she could glean from records. If Eloise had been hurt by her former lover, she may have needed a counselor. “I’m not trying to hurt her. I just want to see her, and she is in my trailer.”
Ed remained in his way on the stairs to his bus. “Can we talk out here for moment first?” The doctor was a little too casual for Morgan’s liking, he looked like the kind of guy who wou
ld sip martinis while reading Forbes and considering his golf swing.
“Whatever, as long as Eloise is still in there.”
Ed smiled and glanced behind him. “She is. She agreed to let me talk to you first after I had a conversation with her that lasted pretty much from your first set to your last.”
“Fine, what do you want to talk about.” He’d had just about enough emotion for one night.
“Eloise finally told me why she’d been having so much trouble with anger and after she told me why she was having so much trouble leaving you, I decided to stay and see if I couldn’t work this out.”
“It’s about her kid, isn’t it? She doesn’t want to be away from him anymore.” He’d been thinking about it the whole afternoon as he was setting up. She missed her kid. Maybe she couldn’t get custody back if she took up with another guy. It was possible. The courts did some crazy things with custody battles. He’d come up with every possible reason she would have for wanting to leave and that’s what he kept coming back to.
“Partly, but there is no way she can be with her son this side of eternity. So, tread lightly when you make accusations like that.”
The news was a direct hit to his gut. The anger was explainable; avoiding alcohol for two years made perfect sense if she’d been pregnant. Only touched by one man, because that man had left her to have a baby who wouldn’t survive. “Who was he?”
Dr. Johnson tilted his head and leaned against the bus. “Who?”
“Who was the father?”
He sighed. “She never said and it really doesn’t matter. What matters is right now. She wants to stay with you, but doesn’t. She’s frightened. If you want her to stay, you’re going to have to convince her that you want her to. If she still can’t decide, I’ll make the decision for her and take her home. It isn’t like you don’t know where she is, since you hired her.”
Except he had no clue. The agency never gave him her home address—it hadn’t mattered. He couldn’t even ask his driver, because his driver had called an uber for her before he’d fired the lazy jerk.
“Can you give me ten minutes with her, alone?” He hated to pour out his heart at all, but he wasn’t about to do it in front of some suit.
“Ten minutes.” Dr. Johnson tapped his watch and Morgan headed for the bus.
Eloise sat in a sea of tissues on his leather couch. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face pink, making her hair bright white.
Normally, he’d have told her to come to him. It was just his way. He’d give attention on his terms, but tonight she needed him to be what he normally wasn’t—thoughtful. He brushed a bunch of the tissues on the floor and sat next to her. Though he wanted to slide his arm around her, he held off.
“I talked to the doctor.” He took a deep breath. Apologies didn’t come easy when he never gave them. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier, about your son. I didn’t know. I thought Ed was the father and that he had custody.”
Eloise stared at him and wiped her nose with a delicate sniffle.
“I don’t want you to go. I had the worst show ever tonight because I couldn’t stop thinking about you—that you were leaving and I hadn’t done anything to prevent it. That all my asshole behavior up until now made you think I’d treat you that way. I know it’s not right, but if I hadn’t gone through all those other assistants and thought I was at the end of my rope, then I never would’ve found you.”
There. That was as mushy as he was going to get.
“I don’t want to leave you, Morgan.”
He held up his hand, because he had to know for sure. “Are you staying because of the money, or because you actually want to stay?”
She stared him in the eyes and he could’ve kissed her for making it so easy to read her. “I want to stay because being with you feels like coming home, but without actually going home.”
He slid his arm around her and tucked her into his side. She rested her head on his shoulder. “I feel like I could face my family, even with the horrible things they said, with you by my side.”
He laughed. “If they didn’t like guy number one, they probably won’t like me, either.”
She laughed as she slid her arm around his stomach and clung to him. He’d felt desired and idolized for much of his life, but never had he felt a sense of love that gave as much as he did—not until Eloise.
“You’ll stay?”
She nodded into his chest.
“Good. Now throw away that book Amanda left behind and quit listening to her.” He leaned over and Eloise released her hold on him. He took his acoustic guitar and strummed, giving it a quick tune. His mother’s song was on his mind and he thrummed the cords, then played it for the first time in years. While his mother had never loved it, Eloise swayed to the music and had tears running down her face by the end.
“I’ve never heard that one. Did you make that up just now?” She wiped her eyes.
He wished he could tell her he had. If it had been another woman, one he didn’t care about, he’d have lied. “I wrote that song for my mother, before I met with a record executive in Nashville. She hated it, and I haven’t played it since.”
He played the chorus one more time and then leaned over and kissed her. “Tonight, I dedicate the song to you.”
She gave him a tremulous smile and bit her lip. “Can we make this work, Morgan?”
He chuckled and set the guitar aside. “We promised each other one year. Let’s give it that and see where we are.” He couldn’t predict the future, but he could try.
Epilogue
One year later, Eloise stood at the patio doors of her parents’ house. Her mother pinned her veil behind her ears.
“I still can’t believe you keep it so short now.”
Her mother had been fussing over her for weeks—what she would wear, where they would have the ceremony, how Morgan would dress. She’d finally told her mother to just let Morgan be who he was and be happy about it.
Her father was outside, putting up a shade tent for the bride, groom, and officiant to stand under. Jordan leaned against a kitchen counter.
“I can’t believe you’re marrying Clyde.”
“Morgan.” She corrected him. He’d already told her many times that he legally changed his name and wanted nothing to do with the one his mother had given him. He’d tried to see her, to make contact, but his mother didn’t even want to see him. Although, they both suspected that would change if she knew how much money he was worth.
“I just want to say I’m sorry, again, squirt.” He ducked his head. “I’m not proud of the fact that it was my fault you ran away. We were all worried about you. The police wouldn’t file a missing person’s report because of your age. They said you were capable of leaving all on your own, but that didn’t make us worry any less.”
Eloise had talked to her parents for hours about it. While it hadn’t been the best decision she ever made, she’d needed a fresh start. She couldn’t have gotten it if her family had known where she was.
“It doesn’t matter now. I’m sorry I worried all of you, but I firmly believed you didn’t care and didn’t want me around.”
Her mother squeezed her shoulders. “Nothing could be farther from the truth, but depression will have you believing anything.”
Morgan came in through the front and though she was turned from him, she knew it immediately. She turned and he gave her one of his rare smiles. It melted her from her head to her weak knees.
“I’ll go make sure everything is ready out there.” Her mother slid the door open and motioned for Jordan to follow.
Eloise held her breath as Morgan strode toward her. He wore black slacks and a white button up shirt, which was about as polished as she was going to get him.
“Would you take a look at you.” He held her waist and instead of actually looking at her dress, his gaze took in her face, enjoying every inch.
“My face hasn’t changed.”
“I would disagree. You have a rosiness to yo
ur cheeks today that isn’t usually there.”
He kissed her neck and mumbled, “So I don’t mess up your makeup.”
She laughed. “How thoughtful of you.” He was thoughtful, but not in the way most men were. He’d probably never forget her birthday or her favorite song, but she wouldn’t hear ‘I love you’ every day. He’d actually yet to say it at all. The closest he’d come was on the day he’d proposed, but that just didn’t count.
He took her hand. “Are you ready to do this? It’ll be the biggest gig ever.”
She glanced out at the twenty or so people seating themselves in her yard, most of whom were his bandmates. “Biggest, huh?”
He pulled her close to his side and smiled once more. “Love doesn’t need a big house or lots of fans. It only needs two.”
She cupped his cheeks squealed, laughing as he cringed. “I love you, too, babe.”
“You can squeal all you want, as long as you don’t mind me stopping a few of them.”
She smiled, because she knew just where this was going and she licked her lips. “And just how do plan do that?”
He grinned again. “I’ll show you when I’m not about to walk out in front of everyone. I don’t look good in that shade of lipstick.”
He handed her the bouquet of white roses on the table, picked from her mother’s garden and he held out his arm for her.
“Let’s rock this.”
Eloise laughed as she linked her arm with his. “I do.”
Also by Lily LaVae
Billionaire Bachelor: William
Billionaire Bachelor: Clint
Other Diamond Bridal Agency Titles
Billionaire Bachelor: Michael
Billionaire Bachelor: Vitali
Billionaire Bachelor: Justin
Billionaire Bachelor: Sean
Billionaire Bachelor: Alex