Page 81 of The Billionaire Experience

Brody frowned.

“And it is!” she added. “But, you know, I’d like to keep what you and I have clean.”

“Clean?” He looked thoughtful for a moment but then quipped, “I like to be dirty with you.”

She let him have the out. It was an out for her too. “I make no promises on my stamina,” she whispered against his lips.

He lit her on fire with a series of deep kisses that she felt between her legs. Then he rolled her onto her back, his body covering hers as he kicked the blanket to the floor. When she reached for him, her arm became entangled in her purse strap. It took longer than it should have to free herself, which had them both laughing.

She was setting it aside when her phone rang from an exterior pocket.

“No work after nine p.m.,” he murmured as he lifted her shirt and kissed her stomach.

“I don’t know this number. I’ll get rid of them.”

“Be fast.” He kissed higher, his hand cupping her breast over her bra, which was wonderfully distracting. She tapped the phone’s screen and answered with a slightly breathless, “Hello?”

“Hello, is this Reagan Palmer?”

The formality in the woman’s voice sent her stomach to her toes. “This is she.”

Brody must’ve sensed the change in the atmosphere. He stopped kissing her as she sat up on the bed.

“Hi, Reagan, this is Pamela Young at Sandy Springs Retirement. You are Ike Palmer’s emergency contact, so I wanted to…”

The sloshing of her heartbeat in her eardrums drowned out whatever the woman was saying. Reagan’s mind raced to make sense of the news. She ended the call with, “Okay, thank you,” said through partially numb lips. Brody’s handsome face blurred as tears filled her eyes.

“Reagan.” Both palms on either side of her face, he forced her attention on him. “Honey, talk to me. What happened?”

“Ike’s at the hospital. He collapsed and they transported him by ambulance.” Her robotic tone held no emotion. Time and space seemed to fragment around her as she had her own metaphorical collapse.

Brody was already out of bed, pulling on jeans and stuffing his feet into a pair of shoes. He tugged a shirt over his shoulders and was working the buttons while she sat frozen in place. How would she make it alone in the world? How she could exist without the one man who’d kept her on it like gravity most of her life?

“Which hospital?” Brody asked.

She let him help her stand as she mumbled the name of the nearby hospital. “I don’t know the room number.”

“We’ll find out when we get there.” His hand in hers, he practically dragged her out of the house, helped her into his SUV, and buckled her seatbelt. Trancelike, she watched the reflection of the streetlights streak across the windshield and over the hood of his SUV.

They arrived at the hospital in less than ten minutes. At the nurse’s desk, Brody asked about Ike Palmer. They were informed that he’d been brought into the ER but had been moved to a room for observation. They could see him right away.

“He has a room. That’s good,” Brody reassured her as they followed the signs to Room 603. “If he’s in a room, that means he’s not in emergency surgery.”

She refused to believe the news was good until she saw for herself that he was okay. A minute later, she stepped into his room. Ike was propped up in bed and smiled when he saw her. “Hey, sweetheart.”

She rushed over and fell into his arms, her tears finally breaking free. He patted her head while she soaked his hospital gown. She was careful not to hurt him but refused to move from the cage of his arms.

“There, there, sweet girl. I asked the nurse not to call you. I didn’t want you to worry. No emergency here. I’m fine.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Reagan pulled her tear-streaked face from Ike’s chest to study him. Brody looked with her, consoled by the fact that the older man’s color was good—not that the muted green hospital gown was doing him any favors.

“What h-happened?” she asked with a sniffle.

“Overexertion. Dehydration.” Almost too quiet to hear, Ike added, “That’s the polite way to put it.” He looked past Reagan to Brody and winked. “You’re not the only ladies’ man, hotshot.”

Brody bit his lip to keep from smiling.

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