Bedding the Billionaire

Sutton

A loud crash woke me from my sleep. Out of instinct I grabbed the bat by my doorway and raced into the kitchen. In horror, I saw that Mark lying spread eagle on the floor with a nasty gash on his head. That wasn’t the only surprise, either. My neighbor Earl also had a bat in his hands, it was clear what had clobbered Mark, and it looked like Earl might be going in for another swing.

“Stop!” I yelled, causing Earl to pause in his assault.

“Sutton, this here is a burglar,” Earl explained. “It’s called self-defense.”

“No, he’s not a burglar. I invited him to stay for the night!”

Earl’s eyes bobbed between Mark prostrate on the floor and me standing across from him. “Oh,” he murmured, slowly lowering the bat. “I must not have heard that part. Thought he snuck back in.”

“Earl, put that away, and then come and help me see if you’ve killed him.”

“I’m not dead,” Mark mumbled from the floor. I watched as he raised his hands to the bump and noticed that they came away sticky with blood.

“Maybe we should call an ambulance,” Earl suggested as he came back into the room without the baseball bat.

“Earl, where are your pants?’

I had just noticed that Earl was in his tighty-whitey undies and that they were in serious need of a washing. I was a little surprised that he had managed to knock Mark down so readily. Of course, Earl was swinging a Louisville Slugger and Mark was an innocent party not expecting the blow.

Sinking to my knees, I looked into Mark’s eyes. I knew from the emergency room that dilated pupils or uneven dilation could indicate a concussion. “Are you alright?” I asked, hating how my voice shook a little.

Mark looked at me for a long moment. I decided that his pupils looked fairly normal, but still wondered if we should call an ambulance. Mark had sat up and seemed to be gathering his wits.

“What was that?” he asked.

“An old Louisville Slugger,” Earl replied helpfully. “One of those boyfriends left a few when he moved out several years back.”

Mark looked to me with a raised brow. It looked rather ridiculous with his injured forehead. “Not my old boyfriend,” I answered Mark’s unspoken question. “It was one of Mama’s.”

Earl laughed. “Sutton doesn’t have boyfriends. She’s a good girl. Never had any trouble out of her. You should ask my Martha.”

I shook my head. “This is crazy. Mark, are you alright? I can drive you to the hospital in your car or we can call an ambulance if that makes you more comfortable.”

“Never been better,” Mark croaked as he forced himself to stand. At first there was a bit of wobble to his stance, but I noticed that his snark was right on point.

Grabbing some paper towels, I thrust some into Mark’s hand and moved to the sink to get more of them wet. Then I guided him over to a chair and told him to sit. We needed to mop off his injury to see if he needed stitches. I also sent Earl after the first aid kit, just in case.

what in the bloody hell was

said, moving in close so that I could start cleaning him up. I tried to ignore the fact that I was in teeny tiny pajamas

stay often?”

would you ask that?” I paused in my ministering to his head

breasts, and I noticed that he seemed rather intrigued with the fact that I don’t sleep

what Mark had asked, I answered his question with a question. “I don’t know. How often

He grunted something unintelligible that I was

stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. I helped him up into a standing position. I tried not to think about the proximity of our bodies as we stood there in

Mr. Williams rolled his eyes. “No, that’s not at all often.”

in truth, it

“I hit the counter on the way down,” he said by way of

nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. He wouldn’t

scratching his left butt cheek and holding the kit in his right hand.

Mr. Williams suggested deadpan.

we are being specific. I felt a jolt of energy zip from my

allowed myself to take in the way his white t-shirt stretched nicely over his muscular chest. Shit, if I wasn’t careful, I would soon be drooling. Hot damn! Who would have thought that the overly stuffy Mr. Williams would have all these delicious bad

the bandage. He was a very good patient, but I wasn’t sure if he would accept that as a compliment or not, so I kept it to myself.

I did say, “I am terribly sorry this happened.”

soon enough,” he said gruffly.

better if

“Have you ever gotten a cut, Miss

have,” I retorted.

he continued, “scrapes or tears of

little bit of irritation slipping in. What was

I,” he said tersely. “Accidents happen.”

in the wee hours of the morning was your typical run of the mill

had been using. I threw away

through me. I was tired as fuck and beyond cranky, but shit if the man didn’t

may have come out sharper than I intended. Mr. Williams made me extremely nervous, and we were both

almost as if it were forced from his

him. “For making you come to Otterville Falls to fetch me? Or for forcing you to wait through my entire shift? Perhaps because of the way I let you sleep on

and a small smile

Suddenly my irritation faded as quickly has

said with a twinkle in his eye that I

and the misses, are you sir?” Earl asked shakily.

imagined that there was nothing Earl possessed that would be the slightest

no, Earl. You were just protecting Miss Landry. I understand.”