by Melody Anne
“I have a feeling that you’re not telling the full truth. I can’t imagine you taking up any new task without mastering it,” she said.
He only smiled at her.
They circled the dance floor for the next half hour, and Whitney was surprised to find herself making fewer and fewer mistakes as she learned first a simple dance and then a more complicated one, and without any harm to his feet.
“Many things have changed around here since your arrival,” Liam told her.
Did he consider this good or bad? She had to wonder.
“I hope I haven’t been causing too much trouble,” she finally murmured.
“Trouble is exactly what you’re causing,” he said. “I’m thinking that we might never let you leave.” He spun her in a fast circle, taking her breath away.
“I don’t think you’d be allowed to lock me away, either in an attic or in one of your dungeons,” she said once her head also stopped spinning.
“Don’t be too hasty. You know what ‘they’ say about assumptions.”
“I wouldn’t do well locked away from the rest of the world. How would I ever be able to dance then, especially since I’m getting so good at it?” she said. Their banter was making her let down her guard even further.
“That would be a true tragedy — you’re obviously so good at dancing around subjects.”
“You’re a very good teacher,” she told him.
He pulled her a bit closer, and those butterflies in her stomach flew off in a flurry.
“I couldn’t teach someone who was unwilling to learn,” he said, and it took her a moment to remember what they were talking about.
But the music stopped playing, and it was time for Ally to have her piano lesson. Whitney’s moment with Liam was broken, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she gave him a look that had him gazing back at her suspiciously. “What are you up to, Ms. Steele?” he asked warily.
“How about I teach you a few of my dance moves?”
“I suspect that’s not something I want to learn.”
“Oh, my goodness, let down your hair for a few moments and allow yourself to have some fun.” Whitney walked over to the mp3 player and switched the music to one of her nephew’s hip-hop songs. She turned back toward Liam and chuckled quietly to herself over the horrified look on his face.
“You can do this. It’s very easy, really. You just move your hips to the beat,” she told him, and she started swaying her body in a way that had a new light shining in his eyes.
He looked at her for a moment longer before he joined her in what wouldn’t count as the greatest attempt at hip-hop dancing known to man, or woman.
A few songs later, though, they were both laughing and sweaty, and she was having more fun than she’d experienced since the moment she had lost her sister. Then he grabbed her hands and swung her under his arm, and they did a blend of waltz and hip-hop, neither of them aware of the rest of the world.
When he tripped and fell to the floor, Whitney couldn’t keep the laughter from spilling out. Snooty Liam Felton was filled with surprises, and she was beginning to succumb to his spell.
As the song ended, a throat clearing alerted them they were no longer alone. They both turned to find Alexandra, that starchy aristocrap … oops, aristocrat … Whitney had met several days ago, standing next to the door with a look of horror on her face.
“What are you two doing?”
“That is none of your concern,” Liam said. He stood up, and ice filled his eyes as he began straightening his clothing.
“Considering that you have kept me waiting, I believe it is my concern,” she snapped, sending a fiery look Whitney’s way.
“Waiting? For what?”
“We have a meeting,” she reminded him.
“I’ve scheduled nothing with you,” he told her, his voice growing slightly more fierce.
“Maybe if you weren’t playing with the commoners, you would remember what’s important,” she said.
Whitney didn’t know what to say or think about that statement. But she didn’t have to respond. Fury ignited in Liam’s eyes, making Whitney wish she was anywhere but where she was right at that moment.
“You will leave now, Alexandra,” Liam told her in a voice Whitney had never heard him use before. It made her decide, right then and there, that she never wanted to be on his bad side. Did she want to be on any of his sides?
With a final outraged glance sent Whitney’s way, Alexandria turned and swept from the room, grace in every step she took. Sophisticated women like her never did any stomping.
“I apologize for that,” Liam said to Whitney. “I allowed the time to get away from me.” He left the gigantic ballroom and followed Alexandra.
For just a small moment in time Whitney had forgotten that she had decisions to make, forgotten that she shouldn’t flirt with this man — particularly this man — and that she shouldn’t enjoy his company, that it was selfish to feel anything other than concern for her sister’s children.
She couldn’t allow such a memory lapse again — after all, she was nothing more than a commoner.
Chapter Fourteen
Whitney was engrossed in a book when Liam interrupted her later that afternoon.
“Let’s go for another walk,” he said. When she looked up, her cheeks were flushed and she seemed … embarrassed.
“What did you say, Liam?”
“I’m feeling cooped up. I want to get out of the house for a while.”
“I thought you had plans with Alexandra.”
Liam studied her as she said that, and it was apparent that his ex-girlfriend had embarrassed Whitney. That’s not what he wanted.
“That was all in her head. She and I broke up over six months ago. Apparently she’s having a difficult time accepting that fact.” He didn’t need to add anything more to that statement. Women he’d dated in the past were none of anyone’s business.
As Whitney slammed her book shut and tucked it beside her in the chair, he decided he’d really like to know what had her so hot and bothered. Or at least bothered. Hot wasn’t in his usual vocabulary, though it was starting to show up.
“I guess I could stretch my muscles. It seems I’ve lost track of time,” she said. “But let me run upstairs first. I’m not dressed for this chilly weather.” She almost scampered from the room.
Liam walked over and picked up her forgotten book. He opened the pages to the one she had marked and began reading. He felt his body tighten at the words on the page and suddenly understood her flushed cheeks.
He closed the book and put it back down. It wouldn’t do him any good to read about throbbing arousals and swollen buds in some cheesy paperback right before spending time alone with this compelling woman. He already wanted Whitney far too much, even though he knew the situation was impossible.
He couldn’t be with a woman like her, not for long, at least. She was too naïve, too innocent, not to mention the aunt of the children that he and his father had decided would be much better off raised here, by their father’s relatives. With them, the kids would have unlimited opportunities for advancement. For him to even consider a fling with a woman of her sort was ridiculous. And yet he still found himself wanting her with a passion that bordered on obsession.
He flicked the book away and, after striding purposefully over to the drinks cabinet, poured himself a shot of scotch. That was better. The liquid made a fiery path down his throat and helped ease the tension in his stomach. At least it softened the longing until Whitney came back into the room.
“Sorry I took so long,” she said as she came to stand beside him. “I had a hard time finding my boots.”
“You took hardly any time at all,” he told her. If she’d taken longer, he might have gotten his libido under control, dammit.
“So what is this all about, Liam? Is it about the children?” she asked as they stepped through the doors into the cold late afternoon air. A few snow flurries were falling arou
nd them, but not enough to force them back inside.
He didn’t answer. He’d never felt so terrible before about doing what he knew to be right. It was the best for everyone concerned. So why in the world was he feeling any guilt at all? Was a woman like this going to make him a better person somehow?
No. That was ridiculous. What was wrong with who he was? He was powerful, determined, and successful in all he attempted. Should he change who he was or what he was about? Absurd. Absurd in the extreme.
Whitney seemed to stiffen as she walked beside him. Perhaps she knew what was to come. But instead of pressing him, she backed away and changed the subject. “It’s so beautiful today. Every time I look out the windows here or step through the front doors, I’m reminded of a ‘Winter Wonderland.’ We get snow in Oregon, but not much at all where I live.”
“Being with you and the children is an entirely new experience for my father and me. I hate to say it, but for a long time, we’d rarely noticed the beauty around us. The children are somehow altering the way we see things, giving us a new and fresh perspective.”
She smiled up at him, light shining in her eyes, and he couldn’t help but touch her. He placed her arm through his and took her on a path that led them to a cave, one he’d always enjoyed playing in as a child. Well, to be honest, a cave he’d enjoyed playing in until he’d realized that playtime was unproductive.
The two of them walked in silence while he thought about his life, thought about what was to come. There was so much he needed to say to this woman, and yet he was reluctant to do anything right then except hold on to her arm and attempt to see things through her eyes.
When Whitney gasped a few minutes later as a herd of deer passed by, his cold heart leapt a bit in his chest.
“Surely you see deer in Oregon,” he said with a scoffing sort of laugh.
“Oh, yes, of course I do. But these bucks are huge and so close.” And she also laughed, but in a different way, as the deer looked at them fearlessly.
“There’s no hunting allowed in this area,” Liam told her. “The animals aren’t afraid of humans. And they definitely reproduce.”
“I’m not against hunting, at least when it’s done for food or for other good reasons, but I just couldn’t be the one to pull the trigger,” Whitney said. “Deer are just too majestic — and then, of course, there’s Bambi. And his poor mother.”
“We should have brought some hay in our pockets, Whitney. They most likely would have wandered over and taken it from you.” As soon as the sentence was out, Liam was questioning who in the hell he was. He didn’t make statements like that, didn’t stroll down paths and feed hay to wild animals.
“That would have been amazing.”
“Next time we’ll remember.” He gave up. His mouth obviously had a mind of its own right now. But even he knew what it really wanted to be doing.
“I don’t know if there will be a next time. I’m leaving soon,” she said, and gave a sad sigh.
Those words didn’t make Liam happy, but why should he care? He shouldn’t. That was the short answer. She hadn’t said, “We’re leaving soon,” so maybe she understood what was going to happen with the children.
But because he was in some sort of internal turmoil — he didn’t want to analyze it — he used a bit more force than necessary when he tugged on her arm. He wanted to show her his cave.
“I’m taking you to a place that has very special meaning to me,” he said as they reached the end of the trail.
“Oh, Liam, this is spectacular,” she said as she gazed at what seemed like a giant cavern.
“Beware,” he told her.
“Why?”
“My great-great-grandfather blocked this off at one time. The cave is rumored to have magical powers and was always a favorite place for all the Felton children to hide out or play in.”
“Magical powers?”
“I’m just telling you the story. I don’t in any way believe in such things,” he made sure to inform her. “I’m definitely not a romantic.”
And yet he was finding it difficult not to believe in magic. A break in the clouds let the sun shine directly down upon her, causing her hair to glow and her eyes to light up even more. Was she a Good Witch of the West? Or a reincarnation of Glinda? Yeah, sure.
“I’m relieved to hear you say that. The order of the world might change if superbusinessman Liam Felton believed in something so silly as magic.”
Though she was joking with him, her words stung just a bit. No, he didn’t believe in things that weren’t there. No. He couldn’t do that. So he decided to carry on with his story.
“Here’s the family tragedy. My great-great-grandfather’s oldest son came out here the night before his eighteenth birthday. He was to be made a partner in the company the next day. But he was never seen again.”
“How do you know he didn’t just run away?”
“About half a mile inside the cave, blood was found, along with his jacket and the satchel he carried his art supplies in. He loved painting more than anything else, or so I’ve been told.”
“Maybe that was all a setup. Maybe he just didn’t know how to tell his father what he really wanted out of life, and he went on to be an artist.”
“No. That’s ridiculous. It couldn’t have happened that way,” he told her, though his mind was reeling.
“I think the story is far more romantic that way.”
“This is the way we know the story. He was taken into another world but his spirit still resides here, to protect future generations of children from dying as tragically as he did.”
“That makes quite a touching ending to the story too, but I like my version better,” she told him as she stepped inside the cave. “He felt trapped, and he went off to pursue what he loved.”
Liam felt mesmerized by this woman and her odd perspective on things. What if she were right and his great-uncle had decided to run away and start over? If only there were any way to find out, but there wasn’t. Suddenly his words poured out.
“Vince and I never wanted this kind of life. We never wanted to work seven days a week and turn into the man our father used to be. We would come to this cave and plan on running away, living on the land, maybe even becoming cowboys. Anything seemed better than this.”
“I’m so sorry, Liam, for all the responsibility heaped on your shoulders.”
“I don’t need sympathy, Whitney. That was just a foolish thought from when we were younger.”
“It obviously matters to you if you’re telling me this now.”
“Just learning of my brother’s death is probably playing with the way I see things. I’m sure I’ll be back to my normal self in no time,” he told her.
“I rather like this guy who’s not so normal.”
She shivered.
“I’m sorry for keeping you out here for so long in this weather.”
“I’m okay, really,” she said. “I want to enjoy this peace and quiet for a few more moments.”
He looked down at her red nose and open expression, and he couldn’t help himself. He had to taste her lips again.
So he wrapped his arms around her waist and watched as awareness flashed through her eyes. He bent forward and finally their lips connected. He’d meant it to be short and sweet, just a simple touch, just something to ease the ache. But as soon as his mouth met hers, he lost control.
Her tongue was soft and wet against his lips. She darted it out, more like a question than a demand. He answered her in the only way he knew how, and oh how he enjoyed the contours of her mouth. He wished these thick layers of clothing weren’t between them, because he wanted to feel her skin, all of it, with no barriers. She clung to his shoulders as he cupped her backside and drew her against him.
He deepened the kiss, sliding farther inside the warm recesses of her mouth and moving his fingers desperately through the silky strands of her hair. He’d only wanted one simple kiss, to prove he was in control. He was being proven wrong.
“Let go of me,” she said breathlessly. “Please. NOW.”
He looked into her flushed face and groaned. Her eyes were dilated in passion and she was breathing heavily. It would be so easy to seduce her into continuing, but he wasn’t about to force her. Still, he had to say something in his frustration.
“I don’t know why we keep stopping.”
“Because this can’t go anywhere. That shouldn’t have happened again,” she told him. She turned and, once more, ran away from him.
He wanted to chase her, but she was right. This couldn’t possibly go anywhere. It would be for the best if he forgot about her, forgot about this feeling inside him, and simply carried out his plans.
Chapter Fifteen
Liam put his head in his hands, and though he fought it, he gave out a deep sigh.
“Is everything all right, son?” Frederick asked as he entered the room.
“Yes. I just …” Liam just bailed out with a sentence fragment. What could he say? Nothing. There was no rational solution. “It’s nothing. Too much work,” he lied.
Two days had passed since he’d shared that kiss with Whitney in the cave. After that, she’d taken pains to avoid him, and his body had burned with need for her. The need extended beyond mere lust, though, beyond the hope for a simple exchange of bodily pleasure. The needs tormenting him were to talk to her, share with her, learn about her.
And those sorry needs weren’t getting met.
“I see,” his father said in a knowing voice, one that immediately grated on Liam’s nerves.
It was time to change the subject. “Did you want me for something, Father?” Liam spoke far more sharply than he should have, but he didn’t want Frederick intruding into his personal life.
“No, not really. I was just checking in with you. Whitney has a caller in the main hall,” Frederick said offhandedly.
