CHAPTER
ELEVEN
LIAM
She pulled to a quick stop as soon as she reached the sliding doors that opened into the dining area and kitchen.
Slowly, her eyes wandered around the large space. She didn’t have to look at me or say anything to show her shock at the spread I had laid out after my shower. As soon as I stepped out, I planned on going to her, taking her.
Then I remembered my plan to seduce her. Win her. Tempt her. The victory after a hard-fought long game was always sweeter than a quick claiming, anyway. Still didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy watching her blush as I brought it up, though.
So, yeah, I was starting with dinner. I wasn’t just hungry, I had an unexplainable urge to prove to her I wasn’t some jackass rock star.
Despite the fame and the money and the multiple houses and all the amazing shit, sometimes just shitty shit, that came with my life, I was still just a guy raised in Kansas with decent fucking morals. I just happened to have a killer voice, hard work ethic, and a body that I worked hard to drive the ladies wild.
So, I’d let her run. She couldn’t go far and I’d bide my time. While waiting, I’d prepared the prawns that I’d throw on the grill soon. Then I made a Caesar salad, chopped up a bowl of fruit, and drizzled asparagus with garlic and coconut oil.
Next to all of it, sitting in a silver bucket filled with ice was a bottle of white wine.
“I’m impressed,” she said quietly, stepping up to the kitchen island. “And your island here is larger than my entire kitchen in New York.”
“Everything’s small in New York besides the city itself and the size of people’s egos and dreams.”
She shot me a look. I took off my sunglasses and shrugged. It was true. Most big cities felt that way to me.
“True,” she mumbled and turned back to the food. “Did you prepare this all yourself?”
I reached for the wine and glasses and grinned.
“What?”
“You ask a lot of questions for someone who gives very few answers.” Based on her flinch, I’d scored a direct hit. I filled the glasses with wine and set one in front of her. “You wanted to talk?”
Her thin fingers, nails painted the lightest pink color imaginable traced the edge of the wine glass before she took a sip. “I do.”
She faced me then, eyes raking over my face, my ink. Every time she stared at me, I felt it in my balls, especially when she always ended up gazing at the letters on my knuckles like she wanted to kiss each and every one.
I let her look. I was proud of my ink, and I liked the attention. She was the only one embarrassed whenever she realized what she was doing, but to me, she was playing right into my hand.
Shaking her head, the lust in her eyes cleared and she took another sip of wine. Before she set it on the counter, she said, “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Who I am, where I come from. There’s a lot you don’t know and I don’t think Karen told you. I’m enjoying my day here, but you might change your mind when I tell you that I’m probably the last person alive who can help you with your image you’re trying to fix.”
What the hell? My jaw tightened and I took a sip of my own glass of wine before moving to the fridge and grabbing the bowl of prawns. “I need food in me for this, don’t I?”
“Probably.”
“Then grab the food. Once we’re settled on the dining table outside, you can tell me what you think will shock the shit out of me so much that I’ll send home the woman I want in my bed.”
I winked, watched her blush spread to her throat and her hand reached up as if to stop the spread of heat.
What the fuck ever. She could have killed a man for all I knew and I wouldn’t give a shit.
I also knew the contract with Infidelity was ironclad. The only way out was through physical abuse for her and since I wasn’t going to lay a hand on Claudia in any way she didn’t enjoy, it wasn’t an issue.
Whatever the perfectly mannered beauty thought she could tell me wouldn’t matter. It would just make more work for not only my PR team, but Infidelity’s.
