Chapter Fifteen
Ari
I don’t go after her. A display of significant will as I want nothing more than to grab her by her arm and drag her back in here.
I stare at the empty door Diana just walked through.
Slowly gather my anger and shove it down as deep as I can before I turn to my brother.
The brother who is innocent in all of this.
The brother whose face I wanted to pummel when I walked in and saw him holding her.
Telling her he hoped it wasn’t too late.
Liam is glaring at me.
“What did you do to her?”
“You heard her.” I walk over to the cart and pick up the whiskey decanter. “We slept together.”
“How…? When did you two even meet?”
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the day before you and I had dinner.” Whiskey splashes into the glass. I focus on it, the play of light through a fall of amber. “A chance encounter. We talked, we had dinner, we had sex.”
I turn back just in time to see Liam make a face.
“Okay, can you stop saying that?”
Guilt creeps in. I take a long drink, savor the burn down my throat.
“Had I known anything about her, Liam, including that you two were close enough to get engaged the following day, I never would have—”
“Wait.” Liam holds up a hand. “Did she not tell you?”
My fingers tighten on the glass. Of course Diana has more secrets.
“I can only imagine what else she’s kept from me.”
“Bet you can’t,” Liam muttered as he runs a hand through his hair.
“Then, enlighten me.”
He looks at me then, our mother’s eyes staring out of a face so similar it’s disconcerting.
“The engagement was fake.”
For a moment, there’s nothing. Slowly, I become aware of a dull roaring in my ears, a pounding in my chest as I stare at my brother.
“What?”
“My engagement to Diana was fake.”
I take another sip of whiskey. Puzzle pieces that never quite fit suddenly fall into place. Beneath the logic is a tangle of emotions: relief, shock, anger. I’m not sure which one to unravel first.
“Hmm.”
Liam explodes. “That’s all you have to say?” He stalks toward me, jaw tense, blue eyes livid. My baby brother has a temper. “You sleep with the woman who’s like a little sister to me and all you have to say is ‘hmm’?”
I’m trying to pay attention to Liam while I process the magnitude of what he’s just divulged.
“Yes.”
He pushes me. I hold up my drink, barely keep the whiskey from sloshing over the rim.
“Damn you.” He’s fired up, his chest rising and falling, his eyes slits. “Do you have any idea what she’s been through?”
Anger takes over. I raise myself up to my full height. Even though he’s only an inch or two shorter than me, I stare down at him.
“Don’t you dare suggest I’d do anything to hurt her.”
Haven’t you? a nasty voice whispers in my head as I think back to those first few days when I raked her over the coals.
“You don’t know what she survived in foster care—”
“If you even think of comparing me to Dale Cliffton, I will break your nose.”
Liam stares at me. “She told you?”
“She did.”
“And Lucy?”
I think of Diana, nearly a woman but still a child, huddled over a shivering dog, whimpering in pain and fear, even as she uses her own body as a shield. Think of the silver heart hanging from her wrist with the etched name that’s starting to blur.
“Yes.” The word comes out like it’s been scraped over rocks.
“Wow. Just…” Liam takes a couple aimless steps to the side before stopping and running his hands through his hair. “Wow.”
“Once you’ve recovered your ability to do more than repeat a couple words, enlighten me as to what the hell has been going on for the past three months.”
Liam turns back to me.
“She really didn’t tell you?”
“No,” I bark.
So he tells me. He tells me about Aislinn and how she slowly slipped away until she cut Liam and Diana out of her life completely.
There’s pain in his voice when he talks about Aislinn’s husband threatening to destroy all three of them if there was any hint of an affair between Liam and Aislinn.
How Liam lied about an engagement to protect them from Dexter’s wrath and buy himself some time to look deeper into the man’s background.
And how even after Dexter’s sudden death, Aislinn still refused to speak to them.
Knowing Diana’s history, I can only imagine how deeply her friend’s sudden and unexplained withdrawal hurt her.
I listen. I absorb every detail. His story deepens my understanding, along with my respect for Diana. I had accused her of switching loyalties in the blink of an eye, of not being able to honor a commitment.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
As I listen, a primal part of me is surging to life. One I’ve been denying for so long. One that makes my blood race and my body hard even as my chest starts to ache, an ache that spreads until my whole body is throbbing with the need to touch her.
“God, I’m an idiot,” Liam mutters more to himself than to me as he paces in front of the fire. “I knew something was wrong. I knew it and I didn’t push because I was so focused on keeping Dexter at bay and finding out what was wrong with Aislinn that I just ignored Diana.”
“Diana is not one to share her feelings.”
“No,” Liam agreed. “She’s not.”
He suddenly grimaces.
“What?”
“Sorry. It’s just…” He waves a hand in my direction. “She’s like a little sister to me. The thought of you and her…” He shudders. “I know she’s not… I know she’s had…” He holds up both hands. “I’m just not going to think about it.”
“That would be wise.”
Liam sits on one of the tufted chairs, leans forward and props his arms on his knees.
“I’ve been watching out for Diana, and Aislinn, for years. Those girls…” His voice trails off. He clears his throat. “I loved the people I knew as my mom and dad. They never hid my adoption from me, but they loved me like I was their own.”
I remember the picture he messaged me when we first started talking. Robert and Norrine Whitlock, a sweet-faced older couple with their arms wrapped around a grinning baby Liam.
“I’m glad you had that,” I say quietly.
I mean it. Liam received far more love with Robert and Norrine than he ever would have growing up in our house.
“But when they died…” He stares into the fire.
“The first year was the hardest. Going from having a home of your own to being shuffled around while the state tried to track down family to take me in. When they didn’t, I got used to it.
But then I met Aislinn and Diana.” His smile is lightning fast and just as bright.
“They brought me back to life. Diana went through so much, and yet she was always sneaking me little gifts, things I needed like pencils or notebooks at school. She baked a cake for my birthday. First one I’d had in eight years. ”
I take in every detail, hunger for more. Relish the insight into this woman who’s been haunting me for the past three months, into the brother who rallied against the odds.
“She’s very loyal.”
A trait I both respect and loathe right now. How much anger could have been spared if one of them had simply told me the truth?
Liam sits up. “I want to know you more. Your history with Diana doesn’t change that for me.”
His words wipe away my frustration. The massive chain that’s been wrapped around my chest for months loosens.
“I’d like that.”
“Your relationship with Diana is none of my business. But she’s incredible, Ari.” He looks at me then with a cold anger that reveals the cutthroat lawyer I read about. “If you hurt her, I will find ways to bleed your personal finances dry before I cut you out of my life without a backward glance.”
“Noted.” I toss back the rest of my whiskey and stand. “Now, if you’re done playing overly protective big brother, there’s someone I have to see.”
Diana
I’m steps away from my bed when the knock sounds at my door. My head lolls back as I let out a groan. There are only two people who would be knocking on my door this late. I don’t have any interest in seeing either one of them.
I trudge over to the door, peek through the hole. Ari’s handsome face fills my vision.
I lean back, heart pounding. I hadn’t really believed he would seek me out. Not tonight, perhaps not ever, with how angry he’d been right before I dropped my bombshell.
“I know you’re awake.”
I close my eyes and lean my forehead against the door.
“Liam told me everything.”
I freeze.
“The fake engagement. Aislinn. Everything.”
My stomach sinks. “Is Liam mad?”
“He’s mad you didn’t tell him about us.”
“There is no us.” I clear my throat. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“Don’t lie, Diana. Not to yourself and not to me.”
Pain stabs deep. “Haven’t you heard? I’m really good at it.”
Silence. For a moment, I wonder if he’s left.
“I didn’t take you for a coward.”
Irritation makes me stand up straight. “What?”
“A coward,” Ari repeats. “Afraid you won’t be able to keep your hands off me?”
I wrench open the door, hoping he’s leaning against it and he’ll fall flat on his rear.
Unfortunately, he’s standing straight and tall in the hall, dominating the space with his massive shoulders and looking stupidly handsome as I hover there in a bathrobe with my hair falling in a wild cloud around my face.
I hold up my hands, wiggle my fingers.
“No trouble at all.”
He arches one brow before he just walks right into my hotel room. Before I can tell him to get out, another door opens down the hall. I quickly close mine.
“Afraid to be seen with me?”
I whir around, furious to see a mocking smile hovering about his lips.
“What if someone recognizes you? Snaps a photo of you outside my room, or starts to ask questions about us?”
“None of their business.”
Frustrated, I step back, circle behind the couch. A physical barrier between us.
“Do you have any idea what would happen if even a whiff of scandal got back to my boss?”
“Us nearly having sex in a sauna in a national park wasn’t scandalous enough?”
My cheeks, and a significant portion of my body, flush with heat.
“This isn’t a joke, Ari. This is my career. My life.”