A Billionaire for Christmas

“That’s why we’re keeping it quiet. We aren’t telling anyone at all. Admit nothing. Deny everything.” A video popped up on her phone. “Here’s a vid of Xan. Watch.” Raji held the phone out.

“Oh, my God. It looks like him.” From where she was lying on the wooden sauna bench, Beth held the phone above her face and scrutinized the screen. “Sweet Tap-Dancing Baby Jesus, Raji. That is Alexandre Grimaldi.”

“Yeah, that’s the name Peyton said. How do you know about him?”

Beth propped herself up on her elbows. “Are you telling me that the rock star Xan Valentine used to be Alexandre Grimaldi, the violinist?”

“Yep. It came out when they were over in Europe last year, but the American papers didn’t pick it up.”

“This is insane. This is sheer insanity, Raji.”

“Peyton is kind of afraid of him. Not in a wussy way, just aware that Xan is delicately balanced. He manages Xan. He says it’s like having a tiger for a lead singer. Most days, Xan looks pretty and roars on cue, but if you take your eyes off of him, he might eat a trainer.”

“Raji, you have to stop seeing this guy.”

“Peyton isn’t the steroid-addicted nutcase or the crazed druggie. He’s a classical musician who accidentally joined a rock band. He’s perfectly normal.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I’m not in any danger. I don’t ever see Xan Valentine. Peyton isn’t telling anyone about us, either.”

“Peyton joined a rock band to be with his ex, who is married to the lead singer,” Beth sighed. “You don’t need to be involved in a love triangle when you aren’t even one of the three points. That’s a recipe for heartbreak.”

“There isn’t a love triangle. Peyton says Georgie belongs with Xan and that he’s let her go.”

“Yeah, right.” Beth’s words dripped sarcasm. “You need to tell him to fuck off now, tonight, before your reputation suffers any more or he breaks your heart because he’s still in love with another woman.”

“My heart is not going to get broken, Beth. I’m a surgeon, a cold-blooded, heartless lizard person, just like you. I can fuck this guy until I get tired of him and walk away any time I want to.”

Except that Raji had just been confronted with evidence that her relationship with Peyton was hurting her career, and she wasn’t going to immediately break it off.

She wasn’t planning to break it off at all.

That was a bad sign.

Yeah, well, the sex was phenomenal. Who would want to give that up?

Beth shook her head. “Raji, this is a bad situation.”

“It’s not. I’m just relieving some stress in a way that doesn’t involve drinking to excess like everyone else. I would have thought that you would be supportive.”

“This is dumb. You should stop.”

“I’m not stopping, and you’re going to cover for me. From now on, when I need to switch shifts, you’ll switch with someone, and then I’ll switch with you to cover my tracks.”

Beth fell back on the bench. “I cannot believe I’m doing this, but fine. Maybe in a few months, you’ll get tired of this bullshit and drop him. A few seasons of estrogen-fueled insanity shouldn’t derail your career.”

Raji grinned. “Thank you, Beth. I owe you.”

“I’m warning you, though. You need to hide the shit out of it.”

“I am. We have been.”

Beth shook her head. “Not well enough. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. You’re taking some huge chances here, missy. I hope the fucking is worth it.”

Raji grinned. “Yeah. It is.”

“What on Earth could he do so well that it’s worth risking your career this way?” Beth asked, aghast.

“Well—” Raji thought for a moment, taking a mental inventory of Peyton’s ripped, chiseled abs, long thighs, and broad chest, not to mention his strong shoulders, bulging biceps, or the thick and rosy length of his cock that hit all the right spots inside her. Or his talented tongue.

Raji edited that in her head.

She said, “He’s gorgeous. I mean, those incredible eyes of his, just an amazing blue-green that practically glows, and those cheekbones and square jawline, and he works out in the hotel gyms a lot while he’s on tour. You have to respect his commitment to exercise. And he’s tall. Really, really tall. He had to have been healthy and well-fed growing up, signs of good genes and high social status. No stunting in evidence at all. You can tell that his genes are all adaptive and evolutionarily conserved, nothing deleterious. To put it in biological terms, he’s a healthy specimen and of high-value for breeding purposes.”

“Now that’s my cold-blooded lizard friend talking,” Beth said. “Tell me about his evolutionary fitness, baby, but do it slowly.”

Raji mused, “In the hospital, I’m responsible for so much, all the time. People’s lives hang on my diagnoses and surgical technique every minute of the day, and I’m here every day, all day, and then overnight. I mean, we’re in the hospital right now, even though we’re in the gym. We could get paged at any minute and have to sprint to scrub in for surgery. I saw two of our attendings while I was on the treadmill, and I swear to the gods that they were watching to make sure I didn’t spend too much time working out that could be better spent on rounds. I can’t relax, ever. I have to constantly be on. I have to constantly be perfect or a patient will die and everyone will talk about how it takes me an hour to exercise when everyone else only takes forty-five minutes off.”