Chapter 23 Liam #3
I liked her like this—fearless and impossible to control. Like she had been at the art gallery.
This woman I’d taken to lunch after the lift fell.
The same sexy woman I’d slept with afterward because I couldn’t resist her.
The woman I had no choice but to resist now.
Leaning against the drinks console, Ben was watching me, arms folded. He raised a single brow.
Ben knew.
He knew it was fake.
But that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was that even though Andrea was hot and cold, I could still remember the taste of the hot version of her. When she’d clung to me in her sleep as if letting me go was the last thing on her mind.
But I had to protect my heart.
Because losing it was a risk I didn’t know how to mitigate.
*
“Lovely evening, Liam.” Hugo was leaning back in his chair, enjoying a port. The plates had been taken; faint noises of clearing up still drifted through from the kitchen, where the staff were finishing. Except for Kai—he’d been sent home in a taxi.
“Glad you enjoyed it,” I said. We’d dodged a couple of bullets there. I was sure my brother would grill me later, though.
“So, Hugo,” said Ben. “Tell me about the wedding. What’s Nick got planned? I assume it won’t be a modest affair.”
Miranda laughed. “Our son doesn’t do modest, I’m afraid.”
“Neither do you, dear,” said Hugo.
The room filled with easy laughter. Where was Andrea? She’d mumbled something about Mr. Darcy’s meds, but she’d been a while.
“Be right back,” I said.
Inside the safe room, she was on her knees, making kissing sounds at the carpet.
“Everything all right?”
“Oh.” She jumped up and brushed her hands down her legs. “Not really. He’s gone behind the sofa, and it’s too heavy for me to move. He really hates injections.”
“Mind if I—?”
She nodded. “I could do with a hand, to be honest, but I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“You can always interrupt if you need me.” Of course she could—I hated she didn’t know that.
“Oh. Okay.”
I shifted the heavy couch away from the wall. The cat cowered in the corner, looking distinctly unhappy.
“Not having a great day, is he?” I asked.
“He’ll be fine once I’ve given him the shot. Actually … have you got a towel? It’ll help with holding him, and I forgot to bring one.”
“Sure.” I went out and grabbed her one from the bathroom.
“Before I try to pick him up, could you shut the door?” she said. “He might dart out, and I don’t want to be chasing him all over your flat.”
“Good point.” The heavy door slid shut behind us, sealing the small room in a hush of engineered privacy. Now there was nothing between us and the rest of the apartment but reinforced steel and fifty thousand pounds’ worth of security.
Mr. Darcy stayed wedged behind the couch, tail twitching with what looked like quiet fury. Andrea crouched again, towel ready. “You distract him,” she whispered. “No sudden movements.”
I knelt next to her and tried making the carpet kissing sound. Her eyes slid sideways, mouth curling into a smile. “Wow, impressive technique, Liam. Do they cover distressed house pets in officer training now?”
“Natural affinity for cats,” I said.
She snorted.
I reached out slowly, pointing one finger toward Mr. Darcy’s nose like I’d seen her do.
Just when he looked like he might be about to sniff it, he caught sight of Andrea sneaking up on his left and bolted.
My hand shot out on instinct, closing gently but decisively around a fistful of fur.
In a flash, Andrea had dashed between my knees and dropped the towel on him.
She kneeled there, repositioning the fabric, as Mr. Darcy mewed pathetically.
“Not much like his namesake, is he?” I suggested, keeping my hand on the cat.
“How dare you?” she replied, smiling as she wrapped the towel under him.
“He’s got his prejudice game well under control, even if he’s a bit short on pride.
” She raised a brow at me. “And he’s a very handsome boy.
” She leaned forward and picked him up in the towel, kissing him on the top of his head.
We were very close now. The room was so silent that every twitch of the cat in her arms was amplified. As she adjusted her position on her knees, she slipped slightly, and her thigh brushed against the inside of mine. I pretended not to notice, but every nerve in my body registered it.
“Oops,” she said.
“It’s all right.”
Neither of us moved.
“Thanks for grabbing him.” She shifted the towel so the cat could see out better. “That’s twice now.” She laughed.
“What is?”
“That you’ve grabbed him making a break for it. Last time was—”
She went very still.
Last time was in her flat.
The thought settled quietly between us, both conscious it was there. Was she remembering it the same way I was? An image of her leaning back onto her bed, her white pants wet from wanting me, her beautiful, full breasts falling free when she slipped out of her bra—
Fuck.
How could I be getting hard?
I was stuck in a safe room with a wonky cat and a cabinet minister in the next room.
But I was.
Because I was there with her.
“It was your place,” I said. “Where he ran away.”
She didn’t reply, but I saw her bite her bottom lip.
The last time I’d really felt close to her. And then I’d left and fucked everything up, because I didn’t have a plan for how to handle it.
“Yes,” she murmured.
Screw Bonnie and her insistence that I didn’t apologize. That was wrong. I’d been wrong. And in a way that had nothing to do with admitting liability or putting Novexia at risk.
“I’m sorry I left so quickly, Andrea,” I said. “I didn’t know you worked there, and it … surprised me.”
I hadn’t known what to do, and I’d lost control of the situation. And I hated that more than anything.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I didn’t expect you to stay anyway.”
I felt an immediate pressure on my chest. I’d hurt her.
“I’m not explaining myself well.” I took a deep breath. “I wanted to stay, Andrea. But hearing you say my name … my father’s name—” Fuck. That was the heart of it. “It threw me. I thought if I told you I was the one who’d bought the company, that you might—”
Reject me like the capitalist pig you thought I was?
Or was I more worried she’d change if she knew? That I wasn’t just Liam from the lift—that I was rich and connected, and could do things for her that had nothing to do with whether she liked me or not?
I’d seen it before, too many times. The change, the calculation.
And I hadn’t wanted to see that in her eyes.
“What?” she said.
I couldn’t find the words. “That it might … ruin things.”
Fuck. Things sounded like I thought we were involved. It had just been one afternoon, but it felt like more than that. At least, it did for me.
“It kind of got ruined anyway,” she said.
I looked at my hands. The cat on her knee had gone to sleep.
“I know. I just … wanted to tell you I was sorry,” I said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“It’s okay. It got complicated.”
“You could say that.” I laughed softly, then paused. “I’m sorry about the meeting thing, too. If I’d told you who I was before I showed up at Novexia, none of this—”
“It’s fine, Liam. I know you didn’t mean for that to happen.”
I nodded. We both sat there quietly for a minute. From somewhere on the other side of the door, I heard someone laugh distantly. Were Hugo and Miranda okay? We’d been here a while now, and it was starting to look rude. But I didn’t want to leave.
“There was something else,” I said. “Back there. With the waiter, Kai.”
She inhaled quietly.
“Is Rudy someone I should be aware of?” I kept my voice even. I didn’t have the right to ask, but I had to know. “Is he a risk … for the ruse with Hugo, I mean?”
Not just the ruse with Hugo.
“He’s my ex,” she said. “We broke up the day before you and I … met.”
Relief moved through me. Stupid. I knew I had no claim on her at all.
“Right,” I said.
Another quiet stretch of air. Her leg was so close to mine I could feel its warmth, smell her perfume clinging to her skin. It was fresh and clean, with sweetness under it.
“Thank you,” she said. “For saying what you did. It … helped.”
Why had I left it so long?
My hand itched to pull her against me and stroke her hair. I turned slightly so I could see her face better.
“Andrea,” I said. “If I hadn’t done what I—”
A soft whoosh and the door slid open. Eliza looked into the dim room like she expected to see something she shouldn’t. Andrea immediately hopped away from me so fast the cat’s eyes shot open, and he gave a weak mew.
“Oh, here you are,” she said.
“We were just doing his injection,” Andrea said. The vial sat unopened on the floor next to her.
“You’ve been a while.” Eliza looked from Andrea to me, taking in the closeness, the awkward look on her sister’s face, then the untouched medicine. “Do you want me to act like I didn’t interrupt something you’re both trying to pretend didn’t happen?”
I stood. “That would be helpful, Eliza. Thank you.”
By the time we reached the living room, I had my control back.
My composure.
My plan.
What I didn’t have anymore was any real certainty I wanted them.