REMEMBER US: A Billionaire Romance (Part One) Read Free Page B

dropping my eyes to her cleavage.
    “Stop!” she said, giggling again as she slapped the back of my hand. “Is that really all you think about?”
    “Only when I’m with you.”
    She shook her head, another blush darkening her skin.
    “So, Philip and I dated until just before my college graduation. Someone told me he was going to propose after the ceremony. Instead, two days before, someone emailed me an engagement announcement that appeared in the Houston newspaper a week before. Philip was engaged to a girl from his hometown.”
    “You’re kidding!”
    “He told me that his father arranged the whole thing, something about her father having influence over his father’s bid for the state senate, and he intended to break it off before it went much further.”
    “Did you believe him?”
    “No. And even if I had, he was still engaged to someone else when I’d been expecting a ring on my finger at any moment. I couldn’t forgive that.”
    “So you ended it.”
    “I did.”
    “And then?”
    She shook her head. “There is no ‘and then’ to this story. That was the last of it.”
    “What about other guys?”
    “I haven’t really dated that much since then. I’ve been busy with my career.”
    “I don’t believe that. A girl as pretty as you? I’m sure there’ve been plenty of opportunities.”
    “None I was interested in.”
    I sat back and studied her, truly shocked at the lack of experience she had. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five—I learned later she was twenty-three—yet she had only been involved in one serious relationship. Only one lover. At least…I assumed. Compared to my romantic history, she was just a baby.
    “What about you?” she asked.
    How was I supposed to tell her about all my conquests when she was so pure? I was suddenly a little uncomfortable, a little ashamed of my past.
    What would she think when I began telling her my story?

Chapter 3
     
    Xander
    Hours passed in a matter of minutes. Nurse Franklin came in to check…something. She touched Harley’s IV, her monitors, her leads. Then she looked at me and offered a soft smile.
    “Is there anything I can get for you?”
    I shook my head. “I’m fine. Thank you.”
    “Well, if you want to stretch out, that chair over there pulls out into a small lounger.”
    “Thank you.”
    She picked up the iPad she’d been noting Harley’s vitals in and began to cross the room. As I watched her go, a thought crossed my mind. “Can I ask you something?”
    “Of course.”
    “How did you know to call me? I mean, she was jogging, and you said she was unconscious when the paramedics arrived…”
    “Oh. There was an emergency contact card in her fanny pack.” She set the iPad on the end of the bed and went to the small wardrobe next to the door. From there, she retrieved a small, black and red fanny pack that was very familiar to me. I’d actually bought it. “I think her cellphone is in there, too.”
    “Thank you,” I said for the third time, suddenly feeling like I was a parrot repeating the same phrases over and over.
    She touched my shoulder lightly. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”
    I waited until she left before I looked at the bag she’d handed me. A sharpness cut through me when I realized the dark spots on the front of the bag were blood. She’d been wearing this around her waist when she was hit. Somehow, the sight of her drying blood made the whole thing a little less surreal than the sight of her injuries.
    I unzipped the top of the bag and slipped her cellphone out. Her earphones were still lodged inside the jack. The phone’s screen was cracked, but it still had a little more than half its battery charge. I almost smiled when I saw that she was listening to a Drake song when…well, she was listening to Drake. My taste in music was beginning to wear off on her.
    Her driver’s license was in the bag, too, with the address of my L.A. house on it. And the emergency contact card I