Chapter Sixteen
I wake the next morning to the sound of a cell phone ringing, and I
am naked, on my stomach, and Liam’s heavy leg is draped over mine. Liam
groans and opens his eyes. “If I ignore it, it will end.”
I laugh. “But it will ring again, and don’t you have meetings?”
“The alarm hasn’t gone off. I’m not leaving this bed with you one
second before I have to.” The cell stops ringing and the alarm goes off. He
groans again. “I think I’ll call in sick.” The cell starts ringing again. “Oh, well
hell.” He rolls over and answers the call. “What do you mean he’s not
here?” He moves to lean on the headboard and I lift up on my elbows, my
gaze riveted by the tattoo. That sexy, wonderful tattoo I could happily wake
up to every morning.
“Emergency my ass,” Liam continues. “This is a power play of some
sort. Oh, come on.
You know it is. And no, I’m not coming in until he’s back. That’s the
intention. Get me committed to the project and I’ll do it his way. I won’t.
Meeting with anyone else before he and I come to terms is a waste of
everyone’s time.”
I can’t help myself. I inch over to Liam and begin kissing his stomach.
Liam glances down at me, his eyes simmering with heat and the sheet
begins to lift. I laugh and lick the 3.14 numbers above the “pi” sign.
“I’m staying and not because of him,” Liam tells Derek, or I assume
it’s Derek. “Call me when he gets back. We’ll go from there.” He ends the
call, tosses the phone, and drags me up his body before rolling me to my
back.
“Oh, the things I can do to you with a full day in bed.” It’s a wicked
warning and a promise of punishment in the most pleasurable of ways. He
proved this to me last night. He’ll torment me. He’ll take me to the edge
and make me wait. He’ll make me ask for things I never thought I could ask
for. But he will make me forget everything but him. And right now, I need
that more than answers. I need him.
***
Mid-afternoon finds Liam and me downtown at a high-rise building
on the top floor, snuggled into the cozy chairs of a coffee shop that
overlooks the site where the new shopping complex is supposed to be
located. I’m dressed in a pair of black shorts and a pink tank Liam has
forced me to buy by dragging me in a store, slapping down a card, and
telling me to spend a ridiculous figure or he’d spend it for me. I still can’t
believe he did it—or that I ultimately let him.
I study him now, removing things from a sleek leather briefcase,
dressed in a casual pair of dark blue jeans and a snug blue pullover that
makes his eyes inhumanly blue. He begins to pull his drafting pad out of a
slim case, and in an act I’m finding familiar, he runs his fingers over his
goatee. My gaze falls on a watch he’s wearing that I have not seen until
today. It has a thick silver band and a brand that probably means it costs as
much as some people’s houses.
He glances up to catch me watching him, leaning in to give me a
quick, hot brush of his lips against mine. He then offers me my computer
from inside his bag. “Thank you,” I say, accepting it, wishing I didn’t have to
think about the reason I have it.
“What exactly are you working on?”
“Property listings. Boring stuff.”
“And what did you do in New York?”
“Research and admin work. Boring.”
“What kind of research?”
I hate this. I hate it so much. I just want to tell him everything. “It
really depended on what my boss had going on. Nothing as exciting as
pyramids. I wish.”
“You like history.”
“History that is a mystery.”
“Like the pyramids.”
This is a connection to my past. I should change the subject. I don’t.
“Yes. Like the pyramids.”
“Why a history teacher and not an archeologist?”
“I did what felt right at the time.”
“After you lost your family.”
“Yes. I went on to college, but…I just went through the motions. By
the time I woke up it felt like I just needed my degree and a higher income.”
I shake off what could turn into a flashback and more information than I
should tell him. “Tell me about your plans for the building. What are you
drafting today?”
“I’m going to do the underground tunnels from the pyramid to the
various other buildings.”
“Like the real ones.”
“Exactly. And glass blocks will create the actual pyramid.” He flips his
design around for me to see. “I was thinking about a-hole’s argument that
pyramids have been done, and he’s right.
They have. But I have this idea to design two pyramids on top of the
main structure. It’s never been done.”
“I can’t picture it.”
He quickly sketches a small drawing, simple, but enough for me to
understand. “Like you’re stacking the pyramids. Can that actually work? It
seems unstable.”
“They won’t be stacked. They’ll be structures within structures.”
“I’m intrigued. I can’t wait to see it. I hope you build it.”
“If that doesn’t win over a-hole, then I’ll take it somewhere else and
build it. Then you can see it. Maybe we can go see the real pyramids
together.”
Like I am going to be around no matter where he is, and when he
builds it, and to travel with him. Maybe I should be worried that he is so
invested in me in such a short window of time, but I am not. I feel the
connection between us and I do not believe it is something anyone could
fake. And maybe I should worry that he is so interested in something
connected to my past, but again, I’m just not. Right or wrong, I trust Liam
and I am hungry for every moment I have with him. I want to find a way to
make it last.
I smile. “So you can seduce me in a pyramid?”
He laughs. “That sounds worth the trip, don’t you think?”
My cell phone rings and I stiffen, my playful mood evaporating
instantly.
Liam picks my phone up from the table between us where I’ve set it
and slides it into my hand. “I’m right here, you know,” he says, reminding
me that he remembers all too well how I’d freaked out over a phone call
the night before.
And it‘s comforting. He’s right here. I am not alone. I glance at the
number and feel my shoulders visibly relax. “Meg,” I say. “You met her at
the restaurant.” Liam visibly relaxes as well, settling back in his chair and I
answer the call. “Hi, Meg.”
“Hi, Amy. Did you get the executed lease Luke dropped by?”
My unease is instant. “Yes. I got it. Tell him thank you.”
“And you’re doing fine? He said Mr. Williams wanted to be sure.”
“Yes. I am, but I have some questions. Would you have a number for
Mr. Williams?”
There is a moment of silence. “No. No number.” She lowers her
voice. “Luke is weird with Dermit Williams. Apparently the guy is loaded
and Luke doesn’t trust me enough with his info.”
“Can you ask Luke to call me?”
“Sure. He’s out of town again, though. I swear I am going to go nuts
in this office alone.
How about happy hour?”
I glance at Liam, and find his head buried in his drafting pad, his
brows dipped in deep thought, and I want nothing more than to hang up
the phone and get lost in watching him create his masterpiece. “Not
tonight.” But I know she holds a key to my new boss. “Soon. Maybe
tomorrow. I’ll call you then, if that works?”
“Sure. Call me.”
“And you’ll have Luke call me?”
“When he gets back into town.”
“Which will be when?”
“Next week.”
Next week? “If he calls in can you ask him for Mr. Williams’ number?”
“I’ll see what mood he’s in.”
I sigh. “Okay. Thanks.”
I hang up the call and set my phone down and Liam glances up at me.
“Who are Luke and Mr. Williams?”
“And here I thought you were lost in your work.”
“I can multitask. I think you know that.”
I blush at his reference to the many naughty things he did to me the
night before and this morning. “Luke is the realtor and Mr. Williams is my
boss.”
“Who you can’t reach?”
“He’s out of the country.”
He narrows his gaze on me. “Everything okay, Amy?”
And I know it’s a prod for me to share more with him, but I care too
much for Liam to be any more selfish than I already have. “Yes,” I say, and if
my life wasn’t a big circus and I didn’t have this gnawing sensation that I’m
about to turn his life into one too, it would be.
He takes my hand and pulls me to him. “Make a doctor’s
appointment. I want to be as naked inside you as you make me feel. As I
want you to trust me enough to be with me.”
It is the most erotic, seductive thing anyone has ever said to me. “I
do trust you.”
And I see in his face that he believes this is a lie when it is the truth.
It’s not about trust.
It’s about danger.
***
The real world crashes down on me when I wake up Wednesday
morning and the “a-hole” investor returns and Liam has to go to work.
Having showered and dressed before Liam, at his urging and insistence—he
would not make his meeting if I was still in bed where he wanted to be with
me—I sit at the dining table of the hotel suite, coffee in hand, wishing the
clawing sensation in my gut would go away. Having Liam to myself these
past few days has been an escape, and other than checking my empty email
yesterday, I didn’t let myself think of anything but him. He didn’t give me
time. We’d gone to the movies and I’d had another acupuncture
appointment and we’d even worked out together.
“I guess it’s time to get this over with,” Liam says, walking into the
room, and he is dark good looks personified, absolutely stunning in a light
gray suit, his shirt starched and white, perfect, like he is to me. My eyes
gravitate to the matching gray silk tie and I feel my body heat.
He closes the distance between us and pulls me to my feet. “You
want me to tie you up again.”
It’s not a question. Embarrassed, I look down. His finger slides under
my chin, lifting my gaze to his. “Don’t be shy. It’s just you and me, baby.
Nothing we do goes beyond us. Nothing you tell me goes beyond me.”
I wish that were true, but the more I know him, the more I know he
will go after whoever is after me. And they will go after him. “Yesterday you
were…different when we, ah…”
“Yesterday you didn’t need me to force you to let go. You were
already relaxed. Today, you’re on edge. Why?”
I shut my eyes a moment. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t want to be alone.”
“I’m good at being alone, Liam.”
“I don’t want you to be good at being alone. You aren’t alone
anymore.”
“It’s too early for you to make promises like that.”
“No. It’s not. This thing between us isn’t going away, but I’ve had
more time in life to figure that out and you’re afraid to count on me and us.
We’ll get by those things.”
“You’re so confident.”
“About what I feel for you, yes.”
“About everything.”
“Not everything,” he assures me. “You have this deer-in-headlights
look sometimes that I’m sure means you’re going to run. Run to me, Amy,
not from me.”
I wish I could promise him I would. Instead, I glower. “You are going
to be late.”
He doesn’t budge, and the look on his face tells me he notices how
I’ve avoided a promise I might not be able to keep. “Come with me to my
meetings. There’s a restaurant and shopping strip nearby you can hang out
at, or I’ll get you an office to work in.”
My heart squeezes at his protectiveness. “I have a doctor’s
appointment you insisted on, and yes, I have work I’ve neglected that I’ll
end up not doing. Stop worrying about me. Your new design has you talking
about this project all the time. You’re passionate about it now. Go make it
happen. Then you can stay here with me for a while.”
“I keep telling you. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes, you are. To your meeting so I can make my doctor’s
appointment.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“It’s two blocks. I’ll walk. Go to your meetings, Liam.”
“I’ll be back as soon as possible.” He runs his hand down the lavender
silk blouse that matches my new lavender shorts, and I feel his touch in
every part of me. I do not want him to go.
“Just seal the deal.” I kiss him.
His hand goes to the back of my head and he slants his mouth over
mine, deepening the kiss and leaving me breathless. “I plan to, baby,” he
assures me and sets me free, grabbing his briefcase and heading to the
door. And I know he’s not talking about the building. He’s talking about me
and him, and that sets me in action. I need a plan. A way out of this mess
once and for all. No more waiting on someone else to make it go away.
That hasn’t worked.
Today I have a mission. Answers.