by Lori Wilde
Liam shifted, uncomfortable in the hot seat. “I fixed up my first car when I was a kid, sold it for double what I paid for it. Did that enough times until I could afford to by a small house and I renovated it. Then I flipped it, reinvested the money in a new house and the rest is history.”
“Goodness,” said Nancy Clarkson, fanning herself. “He’s wealthy, handsome, passionate and hardworking. Hang on to this one, Katie. He’s a keeper.”
“Your initiative is impressive,” Delancy said.
Liam glared down the end of the table. He contemplated blurting out the mayor’s dirty secret right then and there, and he took perverse delight in imagining the shocked reactions.
But then his gaze caught Katie’s. The last thing he wanted was to look like anything less than a hero in her eyes. The realization bothered him, but it was the truth.
“I read in the Young Bostonian article that you grew up in a South Boston housing project,” Delancy said.
The hairs on his forearms lifted. He drilled his gaze into the mayor’s, holding on tight to his anger. “That’s right.”
Katie was watching.
“You’d be the perfect person to introduce me at this year’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for my Habitat for Humanity project,” Delancy continued. “Local gang-banger not only turns good but becomes a multimillionaire in the process.”
Rage tinged with degradation froze Liam’s blood. He curled his fingers around the silver spoon in his hand. Could Delancy have figured out who he was? Could that be the real reason he’d been invited here tonight?
“Has a certain cachet, don’t you think?”
Liam forced a slow smile, smacking his gaze hard against Delancy’s, giving the mayor a menacing, predatory stare. “How do you know I was in a gang?”
Delancy’s returning smile was uncertain. “Why, Katie told me a few minutes ago.”
Liam swung his stare around to capture Katie with it. Nervously, she licked her lips. “I…didn’t know your past was a secret.”
Her betrayal of his confidence wounded like a razor’s blade. He bit down the inside of his cheek, mentally berating himself for having trusted her.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, but had the strength of courage to hold his gaze.
He realized then he’d been looking at her the same way he’d been looking at Delancy. As if she were the enemy. Her blue eyes pleaded with him for forgiveness. God, how could he hold a grudge when she looked so remorseful and beautiful?
Liam shrugged, softened his gaze. “It wasn’t a secret,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Then you’ll introduce me at the Habitat for Humanity ceremony?” Delancy prodded.
Liam kept his eyes on Katie. It was the only way he could hold his contempt for the man in check. “All right.”
What was it about Katie Winfield that twisted his insides into knots? Just the act of tracking the snowy skin between her pear-studded earlobes and slender collarbone made Liam forget everything except pressing his lips to that vulnerable spot.
“It’s settled, then.” Delancy dusted his palms together. “The ribbon-cutting ceremony is on the twentieth at noon. Make sure to mark your calendar.”
“I won’t forget.” Liam looked back at Delancy, silently acknowledging that he’d just agreed to do a favor for the creep. Tension locked his neck muscles. But then it occurred to him that the ceremony—complete with media coverage—was the prime opportunity and the perfect venue to exact his revenge upon Delancy.
The maid reappeared to clear the soup bowls and to ask if anyone needed fresh drinks.
“Could I have another whiskey, please?” Liam asked. It was the only way he was going to make it through this damnable dinner.
Katie, Liam noted, missed nothing. He could see it in her eyes and the way she held herself with a calm stillness. She might be young, but in some ways she was much more worldly than him.
She put a smile on her face and lavishly praised the Caesar salad that was served as their second course.
By the end of the meal, Katie had managed to defuse any tension running through the room, although there was still plenty of tension coursing inside Liam that even two tumblers of the finest whiskey in the world could not stop.
“It was so interesting to meet you,” Sutton said as she ushered her guests toward the front door. She took Liam’s hand in hers and squeezed it. “I’m so looking forward to the Habitat for Humanity ceremony.”
After a round of goodbyes with everyone who was still there, Katie took Liam firmly by the elbow and escorted him out the front door. The valet brought his car around and handed Liam the keys.
But as he reached for the door, Katie closed her hand around his.
“Give me your keys,” she demanded, and held out her palm. “You’ve had too much to drink and I’m driving you home.”
“You could take me back to your place and have your way with me.” He winked.
She wrinkled her nose. “Given the circumstances, I’ll pass. Keys, please.”
“Have you ever driven a Lamborghini?”
“No, but it can’t be that hard.”
He didn’t want to give up control, but the determined set to her chin told him she was right. He shouldn’t be driving. Not so much from the whiskey, but more from the distracted edginess lingering inside him. The last thing the streets of Boston needed was one more case of road rage.
“This point is nonnegotiable.” She looked him in the face, a combination of concern, disappointment and resolve written in the depths of her blue eyes. “Give me your keys, Liam, or I’m calling the cops.”
He laughed at her. She looked so fierce.
“I’m not kidding.”
“When you put it like that, what choice do I have?”
“Precisely.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “But let this serve as a warning. You wreck my car and you’ll live to regret it, Winfield,” he said before handing over his car keys and opening the driver-side door for her.
10
KATIE’S FOREARM burned from the brush of Liam’s knuckles as he closed the car door. Her breath hung as she watched him hurry around to the passenger side and then climb in beside her. It took him a couple of seconds of fumbling before he had his seat belt locked securely in place.
She stuck the key in the ignition and the Lamborghini’s powerful engine rumbled to life. The leather seats wrapped around her. She reached over and snapped on the radio. Classical music poured from the stereo speakers. Mozart, she recognized. One of his more gallopy tunes.
“It’s a manual,” Liam said. “Six-speed. You know how to handle a stick?”
She lowered her lashes, slanted him a surreptitious look. “I know my way around a gearshift.”
A whiskey-laced smile languidly curled his lips. “What about a five-hundred-horsepower, ten-cylinder big block engine? Know how to handle one of those?”
“You tell me after the ride.”
“You know these babies go from zero to sixty in four seconds.”
Katie licked her lips. “That’s a lot of thrust.”
“It is.”
“Impressive,” she said. “But there is something to be said for a more leisurely ascent.”
“Top speed is a hundred-and-ninety-two miles an hour.” She could hear the smile in his tone.
“You’ve been holding out on me, James.”
“How’s that?”
“Pretending that you’re staid Mister Workaholic without an adventuresome bone in his body, but then you’re driving a work of art like this.” She patted the leather dashboard. “There’s danger lurking in your soul. You’ve been covering it up.”
“You think so?”
“I know so, and I intend on rocking your world.”
“You already have,” he said. “So don’t rock my car.”
She laughed and put the Lamborghini in Drive. Her nipples tightened, part excitement, part fear. She was glad he could only see her profile, glad the night was d
ark. But even as she told herself this, she couldn’t help turning her head for a better look at him.
His shoulders were angled toward her, his gaze beaded on her. The glow from the dashboard light threw shadows over his angular jaw. His scent heightened her awareness. Expensive whiskey, combined with woodsy cologne and the rich smell of leather. Her father used to have a similar fragrance—manly, grounded, trustworthy.
Liam was looking at her with a kind of wonder.
In the dimness, his face appeared craggier, more rugged than in light. His thick dark hair stood up slightly in the back, an errant lock refusing to stay down. The look in his eyes changed. And along with it the intensity of the tugging sensation in her belly increased. There was a flicker of something golden in his eyes, something wild and unexpected.
The form of his lips changed, his posture, the slant of his eyebrows. He was someone else entirely. Bachelor of the year no more, this man was darker. He’d seen things, dark things. She thought of his childhood brush with street gangs and her heart tweaked.
Katie was thankful for the console that kept their thighs from touching. Otherwise, she doubted she could have kept all four tires on the road.
Her fingers gripped the smooth ball of the gearshift head and slipped it into the next gear as they left the driveway and merged onto the street.
LIAM SAT beside Katie, his pulse pumping faster than the Lamborghini’s heated pistons. He didn’t like being in the passenger seat at the mercy of her driving skills, out of control of his own vehicle. He wished he could edge her aside and slip behind the wheel, but she was right. He’d had too much to drink and his reaction time wasn’t what it should be.
Neither were his cognitive skills, because he found himself thinking thoughts that were better left suppressed. Enticing, dangerous thoughts about what it would feel like to ride in the car beside her every day for the rest of his life.
“You wanna see how I handle big boys’ toys?” She challenged and, without waiting for his reply, hit the freeway doing seventy.
She tossed her head like a high-spirited filly. Her hair fell forward, the tips of the light blond strands grazing the top of her cleavage. She reached up to slide a lock of hair behind one pearl-studded ear.
Liam felt the rhythm of her movements rush straight through his stomach and into his groin. Something about the way she handled the quivering thrust of his V10 engine inflamed him. She was like a luxury sports car herself, with fine rounded curves and bosoms protruding like headlights.
Enveloped in their cocoon of precision machinery, she rushed him through time and space. Speed, wrapped inextricably with sexual need, gushed through his brain, his limbs and his entire body. She was fast and adventuresome and exciting. And he worshipped her in an orgy of pure velocity.
Liam was so busy filling up with testosterone that her next comment took him by surprise.
“You want to tell me what happened back there with the mayor?” Katie asked. “Or are you just going to let me believe you’re a total horse’s ass?”
“You picked up on that?”
Katie grinned. “Give me some credit, will you? A blind woman could have picked up on your animosity toward Delancy. Thing is, I get the distinct impression he has no idea that you hate him.”
“You’re very perceptive.”
“Don’t sound so amazed. Just because I like to keep to the lighter side of things doesn’t mean I’m clueless.”
“I never said you were clueless.”
“You thought it.”
“Never. Impetuous yes, clueless never,” he admitted.
“I also noticed that you didn’t answer my question,” she prodded.
“Which question was that?”
“Why do you hate Finn Delancy?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Guyspeak for you don’t want to talk about it.”
“Yeah.”
“Why not?”
“Why not what?”
She cocked her head and gave him a piercing glance before returning her attention to the road. “Why don’t you want to talk about it?”
“Because it’s none of your business.”
“It might not be any of my business, but you certainly look like you need to talk about it.”
“I don’t need to talk about it.”
“How long have you kept this—” she waved a hand “—complicated thing bottled up?”
“All my life,” he said, and then immediately regretted it.
“You’ve got a dark secret.”
“Not really. Just something I’m not particularly proud of.”
“You might feel better if you got it off your chest,” she ventured.
“I seriously doubt it.”
“The thing about secrets is,” she went on, ignoring his denial that he had a secret, “once you tell someone about them, they no longer hold any power over your life.”
“I don’t have any secrets. In fact,” he said, “I hate secrets and dishonest people.”
“So is Delancy the dishonest person with the secret?” she guessed. “Do you have something on him?”
“Sort of.”
“And you don’t approve of him.”
“I hate him.”
“If you dislike the man so much, how come you accepted his dinner invitation? How come you agreed to introduce him at the Habitat for Humanity event?”
“Can we not talk about Delancy?”
“Okay.” She surprised him by suddenly letting go of the conversation.
Silence fell. All they could hear were engine sounds and road noises.
From the time his mother had told him his father’s identity when he was sixteen, Liam had plotted and schemed and planned for his success. He’d studied hard in school, played every sport Fernwood Academy offered and did lots of volunteer work. He got straight A’s and won a merit scholarship to Harvard. He cut clippings of his achievements and made scrapbooks. He’d graduated cum laude from Harvard Business School, all the while buying run-down houses in South Boston and restoring them for resale.
Because of his achievements, women were crazy for him. And other than his glorious mistake with Arianna, there hadn’t been room in his life for romance. He’d had a few girlfriends, yes. But somehow he’d managed to always keep things casual. It was easier that way. Nobody got hurt.
The truth was, he secretly longed for a family of his own while at the same time he feared it. What did he know about being a good father? He’d certainly had no role models. And what if he couldn’t stop his workaholic pace? His work had always defined him. If he wasn’t driven to succeed, then who was he?
And Liam had been keeping his relationships superficial for so long, he realized he didn’t know how to take things deeper with a woman. He didn’t know how to let go of his work and enjoy his life, mainly, because real estate was his life.
Liam watched her downshift around a corner. She almost ran a red light, the yellow slipping to crimson just as she made it through the intersection.
“Yellow means slow down, not go faster,” he said.
“Not in a Lamborghini it doesn’t.” She grinned wickedly.
His heart chugged. “You’re one sexy woman, Katie Winfield.”
“Oh, don’t start. You’re drunk and I’m pissed off at you for not trusting me with your dark secret.”
“I’m not that drunk.” He reached over to lightly finger a strand of hair curling at her shoulder. “And you’re not that pissed off.”
“I am,” she asserted.
“What will it take to get you unpissed?”
“Tell me what’s going on inside that head of yours. What’s your beef with Finn Delancy?”
Liam cocked his head and studied her for a long moment. Confess. Maybe this was what he needed to do in order to take things to a new level with her. “You really want to hear the whole sordid story?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Promise you won’t pity me?”
“I promise.
”
He took a deep breath. “Pull over.”
“I’m not letting you behind the wheel.”
“I don’t want to drive, just find a place to pull over. I need to get out and walk.”
“Are you sick?”
“I’m not sick. I just…I’ve never told this story to anyone and I need to get out of the car, clear my head, make sure I want to do this.”
She obeyed his command, slowing down, driving through a residential neighborhood until she found a community park. She pulled into the vacant lot near some swings and parked beneath a maple tree near a streetlamp. She cut the engine and leaned back in the seat.
“Let’s walk,” he said.
They got out. The air was nippy, but not uncomfortably so. He headed for the jogging trail, Katie at his side. They walked for several minutes without speaking.
“I’m a bastard.” Liam found himself saying in a calm, unemotional voice.
Katie clicked her tongue in sympathy. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. So you had a little too much to drink and looked a bit sketchy in front of the mayor and his guests. Don’t worry about it.”
“No, I’m a bastard. For real.” He laughed harshly. “Although some people might argue I’m the other kind of bastard, as well.”
“You’re saying your mother wasn’t married to your father when you were born?”
“That’s right.”
“Big deal.”
“Big deal?”
“I read something like thirty percent of children are born out of wedlock these days. No one cares.”
“Spoken like someone who grew up in a loving, nuclear family.”
“Hey, my life hasn’t been a bed of roses. My father was strict military and a prominent member of Boston society. You have no idea the expectations that entails. Plus, I’ve lost both my parents within the past five years. Everyone has their cross to bear, Liam.”
KATIE BURROWED deeper into her coat and scurried to keep up with his long-legged stride. Liam had increased the pace. In the distance a dog barked and a porch light went on. He was clearly ambivalent about this subject. “You don’t have to tell me any more about it, Liam. Forget it. I don’t want to be the cause of you having to have therapy.”
“No, no.” He stopped walking and made an about-face to stare at her. “I want to tell you.”
