Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
L iam
My breath catches as I stare at Elisabetta as she lies there, panting, her fingers touching places I wish I could. She opens her eyes slowly, languidly, and offers me a small little smile. She’s not embarrassed at all. In fact, I think she’s getting off on this performance.
I want to step forward. I want to tell her that I want her. I want her to beg me, to let me take her. I want to show her that whatever she can do is nothing like what I can do to her.
I’m about to risk it all when my phone starts beeping. I frown slightly. It’s a special tone. I know who it is.
“Sorry. I have to take this.”
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and wave it around.
Elisabetta frowns slightly. I can tell she’s annoyed.
“You’re really gonna take that? Right now?” She blinks at me, and I shrug as I look at the screen.
“I’m sorry, but…” I answer the phone. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Liam.” Lucinda’s voice is short and sassy.
“This is me.”
“I’ve been trying to call you for the last hour,” she says. “Where have you been?”
“Umm…I’ve been working. What’s going on?”
“We need to talk.”
“Okay. Hold on a second.” I place my hand over the mouthpiece and look over at Elisabetta. She’s frowning now, staring up at me with wide, innocent eyes. She looks absolutely stunning. Her naked body is beautiful, and I want to reach down and kiss her.
“I’m sorry. I have to take this.”
She doesn’t say anything in response; she just shakes her head and looks out the window. I grab her hand and pull her up slightly.
“What are you doing?” she says, glaring at me.
“I just want you to know that I thought that was an absolutely fantastic performance.” I grin at her, and she blushes slightly.
I stare down at her naked breasts, and then… “Even though…” I swallow hard and shift. “I am ready to break free out of my pants and?—.”
“So, then, why are you taking the call?” she says, sitting up.
I think she knows what she’s doing to me because she shifts closer.
I run my finger down the side of her face and through her long, dark, silky hair.
“I have to take this; it’s important,”
“And you have to leave the room?” She raises a single eyebrow.
I’m uncomfortable then because I didn’t expect her to say that. I did need to leave the room for this call. It is not something I want her to hear, yet I don’t want her to be suspicious.
“I mean, I don’t have to, but I don’t want to be rude.”
“Then take the call here,” she says. “I don’t mind. You can even put it on speakerphone if you want.”
“I’m not going to put it on speakerphone,” I say and try to suppress a sigh. “Can we pause this, then?”
“We’re not pausing anything,” she says as she lies back. Her fingers slide down between her belly and between her breasts. “I mean, that call’s more important than me, right?”
I bite down on my lower lip and grunt. “That’s not true.” I go and walk toward the corner of the room.
She looks at me, disappointment on her face.
“Sorry about that,” I say into the phone.
“Are you with someone?” Lucinda says, sounding annoyed.
“What do you want?” I say, trying not to snap.
“We need to talk.”
“And I’m on the phone, so talk.”
“There’s been a complication.”
“What do you mean, there’s been a complication?”
“I need to come; I need to see you.”
“What? Why?”
Lucinda sighs deeply. “Liam, this is really important. I…” She pauses. “This is something that needs to be said face-to-face.”
“Lucinda, can’t you tell me what’s going on?” I say angrily, and then I realize I’m still in the same room with Elisabetta, and I can tell that she is desperately trying to pretend that she’s not listening, but she definitely is. I can see from the snarl on her face that she is 100 percent invested in this conversation.
I turn around and look out the window and lower my voice. “What’s going on?”
“I know you wanted me to keep it a secret, but…”
I sigh. “Can we not have this conversation now?”
“We need to.”
“No, we don’t. I already…”
“I just don’t feel right about this, Liam.”
“You don’t feel right about what?”
“About what you’re doing, about my role. Are you…” She sounds irritated as she pauses. “Look, do you care about me at all?”
I swallow hard, “You know I do.”
I look over my shoulder and stare at Elisabetta, who is looking at me with veiled eyes. If she knew what this conversation was about, she would kill me. In fact, if I were her, I’d kill me. A feeling of consternation and anger passes through me. For a few moments, I don’t even know what I’m doing or why I’m doing this. But then I remember the deal. It’s all about the deal.
I don’t know at what point in my life everything became about money, but I’m not sure I like who I am at that moment.
“Liam, there’s something you don’t know, something that could change everything,” Lucinda says.
I groan. “I can’t have this conversation right now. I’m sorry.”
“But I think it’s important before you go any further with…”
“Please, can we talk about this later?”
“Not really,” she says. “You have to listen to me for once. I know that you think I’m just…”
“Not now,” I say. “I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll fly over, then,” she says. “I’ll be on the first plane in the morning, and I’ll fly first class on your credit card.”
“I didn’t give you the credit card to fly first class,” I say angrily.
“Well then, you better call me before 8:00 p.m. your time. If not, I’m catching a flight in the morning.”
“Who do you think you are that you’re?—"
“I know you’re not speaking to me like that, Liam.” She cuts me off and laughs angrily. “Not after all these years.”
“Lucinda, look. It’s…”
“I know, I know. You’re the sort of man who doesn’t have feelings. You’re the sort of man who doesn’t care about anyone. You’re the sort of man who takes what he wants without thinking about anything else. But I’m here to tell you that those days are over. You’re going to have to think about someone else for a second.”
“I think about plenty of other people. I think about Daisy. I think about Harriet.”
“There are more people in the world than your sister and your niece, Liam.” She says somberly. “I hate to break that to you.”
“They are my family, and I love them.”
“You can love other people.”
“I suppose that’s always a possibility, but it’s never really happened.”
She sighs. “You know what? Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know you, even though…”
“Even though what?” I say. “What are you trying to say to me, Lucinda? Please tell me that you’re not going to cross the line here.”
“I’m not crossing any line,” she says. “You know what? You do you, Liam Gallagher.”
“Thank you, I will. Is that all?”
“Call me by 8:00, or I’m flying out tomorrow,” she says and then hangs up.
I hold the phone to my ear for a couple of seconds, take a few deep breaths, and then turn around. Elisabetta is staring at me now, and she looks pissed. She’s no longer lying naked on top of the bed; instead, she’s under the sheets, and she’s shaking.
“Who was that?”
“Uh, what do you mean?” I asked her, feigning ignorance.
“Who is Lucinda?”
“Umm, why do you ask?”
“Because listening to your conversation just now, it seems like she could be your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.” I blink and head toward the bed. “Like I said, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She just stares at me for a couple of seconds.
“Then why did she need to speak to you so badly, and why does she want to see you?”
“I don’t know,” I say, shrugging. “She’s a drama queen.”
“How do you know her?” She blinks.
I stare at her for a couple of moments, but I realize I cannot tell her the truth. If I tell her the truth, everything will come crashing down around me. For a few minutes, I wonder if I should risk it. If I should tell her everything. But a little voice in the back of my head says it would be the worst mistake of my life.
Another little voice, another part of me that I don’t really like, asks me why I would even consider telling her in the first place.
“Liam, we just had a moment, and I feel like you’re not being honest with me.”
“We didn’t just have anything,” I say, blinking and taking a step back. “You got into my bed and took your clothes off, and you started playing with yourself. You may or may not have come. I couldn’t tell. Your screams were a little weak.” I shrugged.
She stares at me and shakes her head. “Really?”
“You had a couple of moans, but that was it.”
“Whatever.” She rolls her eyes.
“I’m just saying, if it were me inside of you, as opposed to your own fingers, you would have been screaming so loud that the police would have shown up because there would have been complaints from neighbors about a noise disturbance.”
She stares at me for a few seconds. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“No, I’m just honest.”
“If you’re so honest, tell me who Lucinda is.”
I stare at her for a couple of seconds and shake my head. “She’s someone in my life, and that’s all you need to know.”
“She’s the woman you’re sleeping with?” she prods.
“Do you care?” I ask her. “Is that why you want to know?”
“I don’t care. I’m just curious. I mean, here we are, flirting up a storm, and you’ve got a woman in England who is waiting for you.”
“Let me make this very clear. I don’t have a woman anywhere that is waiting for me.”
“So, Lucinda was not just pissed off at you that she hasn’t heard from you or seen you in a long time?”
“I can 100 percent emphatically state that Lucinda does not care if she’s seen me or not.” I stare at her. “You can believe that or not; it’s up to you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“I mean, it’s your choice. If you think I’m a liar, you’re going to think I’m a liar. But if you think that I’m inherently a good person, an honest person, then you will understand that Lucinda is not my woman and leave it at that.”
“Then why won’t you tell me who she is?”
“Why do you care? Do you want this to go somewhere?” I ask her honestly. “Are you doing more here than just playing games?”
She juts her chin out. “What if I were to say yes? What if I were to say I want you to be my boyfriend? I want to marry you; I want to have your babies; I want...”
I burst out laughing. “We both know that you don’t want that.”
She stares at me and rolls her eyes. “You got that right. You’re the last man I would choose to be the father of my kids.”
“Am I the last man you would choose to give you the orgasm of your life?” I ask her, leaning forward.
She stares at me for a couple of seconds and doesn’t say anything.
I reach up and grab the top of the sheet. She looks at me boldly. I move it down a couple of inches.
“Are you going to stop me?” I asked curiously.
“Why would I stop you?” She shrugs. “You’ve already seen me naked.”
“Exactly,” I say as I pull the sheet completely off of her and throw it to the floor. I stare at her naked body and lick my lips.
“You’re divine. You know that, right?”
“I don’t, but thank you,” she says with a half smile.
I stare at her belly button and then at the top of her head.
She reaches up, grabs my tie, and pulls me down.
“You wanna kiss me, don’t you?” she says, eyes twinkling.
“Maybe,” I say nonchalantly.
“You wanna touch me, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” I say, pretending I don’t care. I pretend that my heart isn’t racing. I pretend that the sight of her hard nipples isn’t making me harder than I’ve ever been in my life.
“I think that you so badly want to be inside of me with your tongue or your finger, maybe even something else.”
“What else is there?” I say, feigning ignorance.
“We both know,” she grins. “A little Mr. Gallagher.”
“There’s nothing little about Mr. Gallagher,” I whisper. I run my fingers across her trembling lips, and she just stares at me. My hand moves down to her neck and then her collarbone. She starts breathing rapidly now. My finger runs down her collarbone toward the valley between her breasts and moves over to the right. She gasps. My thumb gently caresses her nipple, and she stares at me. I wonder if she’s going to stop me.
“What are you doing, Liam?”
“I think we both know what I’m doing. The question is, do you want me to stop?”
She licks her lips slowly, grabs my tie again, and pulls me down so that my lips are mere inches from hers.
“Listen to me very closely,” she says, as she pulls me down even further, and now my lips are grazing hers. She leans up and presses her lips against me. It’s such a sweet, surprising moment that, for one moment, I absolutely lose my mind. I kiss her back, my fingers running through her hair. My hand grazes the side of her breast. I groan as she reaches up and runs her fingers down the side of my neck.
“You want to be inside of me, don’t you?” she moans against my lips.
I feel her teeth biting down on my lower lip, and I grunt as I nod my assent.
I reach down and play with her belly button, my fingers moving further still. I want to touch her. I want to bring her to orgasm. I want her to know that my fingers can do things that her fingers didn’t even know existed. They move down a couple more inches, and I’m just about to slide between her legs to meet paradise when she bursts out laughing and pushes me away.
“Like I said before, Liam. You can look, but you cannot touch.” She sits up and runs her fingers through her hair.
“I had a very nice and amazing orgasm all by myself,” she said, smiling. “And, unlike Lucinda, I don’t give a shit about you and what you can do or where you are or why you haven’t called me. So, now, I think I’m going to put my clothes back on, and we can go back to the office to do some work. Sound good?”
She winks at me, and I stare at her, flabbergasted. She knows that she’s won this one.