I Kissed A Playboy (16 page)

She kissed him long and hard. The flames of fire in his heart ignited his love and passion for the unique woman.

‘Can you explain one thing to me?’ he asked holding her back to not get lost in their physical and sexual whims.

‘Anything.’

‘Why did the wheelchair soccer cause you to flip out?’

‘Since the auction, since the funds were cut I’ve become a tiresome bore. Gabriel’s my age, he has a fiancé, a baby on the way, and a social life. I expend all my energies trying to raise funds for a cure. I want Gabe cured. I don’t want to worry about a gene I may or may not have and a condition my children may or may not inherit. When Gabe talks soccer his eyes come alive. Even when he was the supportive brother, I knew what you were focusing on was relevant because of the immediacy of its effects.

‘How did I miss all that? How did the idea of love and children and being an aunt register so low on my list of priorities. Saying it aloud, I know it’s not me. With my Dad and Gabe, I guess I’ve spent too much time around people with the disorder, all I saw was the suffering and a cure as the only possible solution. I refused to consider any other option.

‘You spent a week there and saw how you could distract the suffering to bring genuine regular happiness to their lives. I’ve wasted my time. I was angry at me, not you. Wasted efforts because I wouldn’t listen to those that had the syndrome, I assumed I knew best as a carer.’

‘You haven’t wasted your time, Faith. I meant every word in that interview in respect to the value of research, but yeah I like to see people smiling and sometimes you can do that with minor things. I mean Paris was great, but I’d love to go to Paulo’s tonight for a pizza. I have an immense amount of money, but it tore me away from my family.

‘You and Gabe may not be millionaires but the way you support and look out for each other, you can’t put a price on. It’s crazy how you’re the person who told me to look for the little things in life bring joy but are blinkered when it comes to your brother’s condition.’

‘I’ve acted like a mad woman this week. I was completely out of my depth in your world. Then to fall in love with the knowledge that being together would necessitate my fitting into your way of living. It was overwhelming, frightening, amazing and exciting all at once.’

‘I didn’t have to come here. Looking at the jigsaw pieces of our relationship. This week you’ve put me down publicly in an interview, blown hot and cold with me, berating me for my wealth one minute, then using it for your own means the next, gone crazy any time the l.o.v.e word was mentioned. Looking at the big picture, with the all the fragments combined. I see is a twenty-three year old girl, juggling the worries and responsibilities of someone way beyond her years.

‘I see someone who is making changes in the world and it inspires me. I had to raise the soccer team in the interview. It wasn’t to steal the limelight, it was to demonstrate that I had been affected by what you offered at the auction. I wanted to show it was important enough for a cad like me to invest his own money in.’

‘Does your Dad know?’

‘Having read the interview, yes.’

‘I wanted to give much more than just that, Faith. I wanted Porterhouse Media to look at corporate responsibility and become fully involved with the hospital and all its wards and research. I’d love my family name to represent something other than money and power. I want the company to be a contributing part of society. I love you, Gabe’s condition will always be a priority, but my family have the means of branching out to contribute and cultivate all kinds of worthy endeavors to benefit a range of charities and causes.’

‘Why didn’t you say all that in the interview?’

‘Because my Dad laughed me out of the office when I put the proposal to him. However he has agreed to meet me in six weeks on the proviso that I haven’t lost interest in it. Strangely after your call to him he was more open-minded to the idea. He’s going to be in for a shock when I do turn up, but in the long run, it’ll benefit the family, the business, the hospital and us.’

‘How will it be benefit us?’

‘I sort of like the idea of working normal hours then, coming home to you, cooking dinner, snuggling up in front of the TV and then having rampant sex with you.’

‘Your place or mine?’ asked Faith.

Chapter Eighteen

‘You nervous?’ asked Faith in the elevator has they headed to the top floor of Porterhouse Media office building.

‘A tiny bit,’ said Brian frankly.

‘What are you most nervous about telling him?’

‘Not sure, but I figure after I tell him we married last week at a cheap tacky Elvis chapel in Vegas, then land the bombshell that he’s going to become a grandfather, agreeing to the ‘Corporate Responsibility’ policy and its implementation will be a cinch.’

‘Let’s go deliver the good news,’ said Faith, taking Brian’s hand as they stepped out of the elevator.