Taming the Carefree Billionaire - Marie Higgins Page 0,56

gaze jumped to Percy who stood in front of the table. Lying flat on the table was the remote, and Percy’s finger moved from one button to the next. The volume grew louder, and the music turned to rap.

“No, no, no!” Thomas yelled as he hurried to the little man. “Leave that alone!” He grabbed the remote away from Percy, and quickly turned off the music. “I think you need to leave.” Thomas glared at Percy.

“Thomas?” Morgan’s voice shook with concern. “You want me to leave?”

Groaning, Thomas closed his eyes. What have I done? He quickly turned to Morgan. “No, not you, sweetness.” Thomas tried to smooth over his embarrassment the best he could. “I was saying I think we should leave the music off.”

“Thomas, you seem pretty distracted.” Morgan stood up. “Maybe I should leave. After all, I have to get up early tomorrow for work, so maybe you should take me home.”

Thomas quickly moved beside her, wrapping his arms around her.

“It’s too early, please stay.” He kissed her lips gently, but he knew deep down inside, the mood was gone. Percy ruined everything.

“I’ll stay longer another night. It’s okay. Dinner was wonderful. We can pick this up another night.”

“Promise?” Thomas asked sadly.

“Yes, I promise.” She leaned in and gave him a brief kiss.

He took her hand and led her to the door. Thomas glanced over his shoulder and Percy smiled a victorious smile. He would deal with Percy later, and the so-called angel had better be from Heaven, because Thomas was tempted to send the little devil elsewhere.

TWENTY

Morgan wandered through the first part of the morning confused, especially when she thought of her date last night. Everything seemed to be going well, and then it was as if Thomas had a dual personality. It was as if he was talking to himself... or someone who wasn’t there. His voice was angry and irritated when he talked to this other person, but when he looked back at her, his voice softened, and he became apologetic. Something – or someone – had upset him, but he wouldn’t tell her what it was about, even after she’d attempted to get him to open up. He laughed it off, but she still felt like it was very strange for him to be like that.

Around ten o’clock in the morning, Morgan’s phone rang, startling her. She’d been staring at her computer screen without doing anything. As she blinked back to reality, she glanced at the number displayed on her phone. Although she didn’t recognize the number, she went ahead and answered it.

“Morgan Foster here.”

“Hello, this is Mark Greer, the financial assistant at Bowen’s Art Gallery. I’m calling to let you know that your photo of the San Francisco Bridge sold for $250,000.”

Morgan gasped loudly and nearly dropped her phone. She clutched it with both hands – now shaking – and held it up to her ear. “What? Is this a joke?”

“It’s no joke, Miss Foster. But we need a current address so we can send you this money, or if you can provide us with a secure wire transfer account, that would make it easier.”

She glanced around the office, waiting for someone to jump out and surprise her with this ridiculous prank, but all of her coworkers seemed to be busy this morning and didn’t give her a sideways glance.

“You’re telling me,” she lowered her voice a little, “that my picture sold for...” She licked her suddenly dry lips. “$250,000?” Her mind spun with ideas of how to use it, but first and foremost, she needed to pay off the loan on her parents’ home. “I’ll have to call you back,” she said in a warbled voice, “and I’ll get you that wire transfer number.”

This was a scam. It had to be. Things like this just didn’t happen to her... or anyone else she knew, for that matter. But in the back of her mind, she recalled Thomas telling her that people purchased art at the museum and paid top dollar for it.

Her heartbeat raced so fast she thought she’d pass out. Trying to breathe slowly, she forced herself to think rationally. The first thing that needed to be done was to find out if this place was legit. Thomas would know. She’d wait until around two o’clock before making an excuse to leave early, but when after an hour and time wasn’t moving any faster, she went into her boss’ office to tell him she felt sick to her stomach. That wasn’t