36. Liam
LIAM
By the time the early trades start ticking through, I’m already in my office, suit on, tie straight. The weekend has been packed down and put away.
Except it hasn’t.
The American Hotel suite presses into my concentration, pulling me back to her against the white linen. My skin still remembers her, and my name returns exactly as she spoke it, called out because she couldn’t keep it in.
I made a concerted effort to suppress it. Because at 7:32 a.m., I’m on my first call with the lender who thought issuing a pre-foreclosure notice against her home was a move.
They didn’t account for me.
I ask them to walk me through a subsection of their loan agreement.
I let them hear themselves explain the accelerated penalty trigger and exploitative clauses.
Then I dismantle them. By the end of the second call, they’ve agreed to my proposal in principle.
But I don’t sign anything for her. So I call her.
She answers on the third ring. “Hello?” A low, sleep-warmed voice.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“A little sore,” she admits. “But…is it normal that I still kind of feel turned on?”
A laugh stumbles out of me. “Normal? Probably not. But then again, you’re Hellion.”
“How about you?”
My body reacts before my mind can regulate it. I adjust in my chair. “You have no idea.”
“Oh, I think I do,” she counters. “We can do phone sex.”
“Helena!” The warning leaves my mouth automatically, but my cock completely disagrees.
“What?” she teases. “You sound tense.”
I exhale slowly, leaving it ambiguous whether I’m proving her wrong or showing her why I’m tense.
“Hey, did you read the article?” she asks.
“About what?”
“About Sag Harbor clearing its calendar for someone?”
I chuckle. “I don’t read gossips.”
“Well, if it’s gossip, then you and I are the headline.”
I should care, but I don’t. I’ve learned to ignore speculation about my extracurricular interests. But this time, the idea of being seen with her doesn’t irritate me. It does the opposite.
“Just so you know,” she says, her voice dropping, “I’m naked.”
Christ, this woman.
I don’t know what’s worse—hearing her voice like that or having her in front of me in that exact condition. My cock doesn’t seem to care about the distinction.
“Helena, serious now,” I warn, repositioning in my chair like that might solve anything. “Your mortgage. I spoke to the bank.”
Her tone shifts immediately. “What did they say?”
“They agreed in principle to revised terms. I want your approval before anything formal moves forward.”
“Okay,” she says after a moment. “Tell me.”
“There was an accelerated penalty clause tied to valuation review. It’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Gone.”
I swivel my chair, eyes on the skyline.
“The adjustable rate is now fixed for eighteen months.”
“That’s…that’s huge.”
“It’s reasonable.”
“And the pre-foreclosure?”
“Suspended.”
A small, broken sound reaches me before she speaks. “You bought me time.”
“I made them reconsider,” I correct.
Chuckling, she says, “That’s an elegant way of saying you scared them.”
“I didn’t. They frightened themselves.”
“Thank you, Liam.” There’s a hitch in it. “You know, with the contracts I’m landing, and my plan to hire a full-time assistant, I’ll be able to expand. Olivia found a better job too. She won’t be relying on me for housing next year.”
“Good,” I say. “That’s good. If you need anything else, you tell me. Even if it’s two million dollars. You know I’ll do it. If you let me.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“I just want you to know.”
There’s an edge to her breathing now. “I swear I want that woman out of my life!”
Anna.
“If that were my life, she wouldn’t still be in it,” I mutter. “But you’re not me.”
“I’m not a saint, Liam. I have so many things I want to do to her, but…” she trails off.
“Actually, there’s one more thing. Something to think about, okay?” I say, feeling the injustice of it all. “But I strongly recommend you take up on this offer.”
“And what is that?”
“I can find out where Anna invested your money into. Not hers, as you told me. It’s your and Olivia’s money.”
“What good would it be? It’s gone.”
“What if I told you I could retrieve it?”
She doesn’t answer.
“You won’t have to kick her out or anything,” I say. “It just means the money is back where it belonged, to the property.”
“You could do that?”
To anyone else, I’d say my name is Liam Hunt and I can flick a finger and things happen. But to her, I say, “For you, I’ll do anything.”
“Okay. As long as, nobody gets harmed, okay? Not you, not Anna. Not me or Olivia.”
“I promise.”
“Thank you, Liam. Honestly.”
“You’re welcome.”
I keep the line open and let her have the silence, picturing her gathering herself.
“So,” she drawls, “about that phone sex idea…”
I shut my eyes. That’s one way to gather yourself.
“Helena.”
“Yes?”
“It’s nine in the morning.”
“And?”
“And I have a lender who still thinks this was a mutual agreement.”
She laughs.
Despite the contracts waiting on my desk, my mind keeps circling back to the sound of her voice stripping me to the bone. Right here, in the place I have never let myself come undone.