“Liam, we’re in your car,” I whispered, like he needed reminding.
He stared into my eyes, his breath on my face as his lips trailed from mine, down my cheekbone, my neck, coming to rest at the base of my neck as his hands worked between us. I could feel his blood coursing through him as he pushed intimately against me. Recognizing he was free of his pants, my heart raced as I realized what we were about to do.
“I’ve never wanted you so badly, Kel,” he whispered in my ear. Sliding his hands around my backside, he lifted me up as he skimmed his thumb around my thigh and down between my legs. He hooked it inside my panties, pulling them to the side and easing me down. I couldn’t breathe, the feeling was so erotic. I could feel the cold, rough metal of his zipper against my bare skin. My brain was screaming “Stop him! Don’t do this. Nothing’s changed,” but I couldn’t stop once we’d started. Every ounce of my being was screaming for him to touch me--to take me to that place that only he could, where we became one, body, mind and soul.
As I hesitated, he thrust up into me, holding me by my hips as he moved me rhythmically against him.
“Kel, you feel amazing. I need you,” he whispered against my neck. “I need you near me. I almost can’t breathe without you. I can’t stand the thought of you unprotected, especially now.”
Sitting on him in such a position, I’d never felt him so deep inside. He was everywhere at once--under me, around me. I was consumed with him, his heart beating fiercely in rhythm with mine.
“You’re mine, Kel. I can’t stand being away from you, not knowing if you’re okay. I can’t think about anything else but you when we’re apart. You feel so good. You feel like I’m home, Kel. Let me love you, baby.”
“Yes, please,” I whispered, losing myself in him. I felt alive again for the first time since I’d left his hotel room the night of the news story about Reeves. Liam’s lips moved over my forehead, down my jawline, around to my lips. His mouth covered mine in a fiery, needy kiss. My mind reeled. I felt the familiar quickening of my core from the anticipation of what I knew would be an intense orgasm.
“Yes, Hellcat. All. Mine,” he whispered, sliding his fingers into my hairline and holding my face as his gaze pierced me. I stilled, clutching the muscles in his shoulders as waves of pleasure washed over both of us. Pushing my hands against his chest, I chased the last pulses of our shared orgasm. He leaned his forehead against mine, taking several moments to still his breathing. I closed my own eyes, knowing that this feeling of euphoria would only last a few moments.
“Kelly, come back with me to the hotel,” he murmured, grasping my face gently in his hands as he kissed my eyelids, down my nose to my lips, hovering there.
He was still inside me asking me to come back to him. As I came back to my senses, my equilibrium restored--my heart ached. Nothing has changed, my mind screamed out once more. Whore! You can’t say no. You have to have the sex to feel complete. Don’t do this! You’re just like her. You’re your mother, all over again.
“No,” I choked out as I pushed against him. He’d done everything but bare his soul to me. I wanted to lose myself in the fantasy of us. And that’s exactly what we were together--a fantasy. I’d ruin Liam’s hopes and dreams, and he’d resent me in the end.
I slid my leg across him and turned to sit in the passenger seat. The rain subsided and sunlight broke through the clouds, the brightness inside his SUV shedding light on my emotions. It was how I felt inside, exposed and wet, my bare ass against the leather of the seat. I sobbed out loud as I pulled my skirt down and tried to pull myself together.
“Kelly, damn it! What is it? What’s wrong?” he exploded.
“Nothing! This was…it was a mistake,” I breathed deeply, determined to get myself together. Kelly, the girl who never cried plus Liam, the one man who always got me emotional, we were a lethal combination.
“A mistake? I just told you how much I want you.”
“Please. Stop! Just take me home. I need to go home and get myself together,” I said numbly, forcing the tears back.
“I brought you here to talk. I’m not taking you anywhere until we have this thing between us resolved.”
I shook my head. As I said the words in my head first, my heart ripped wide open. “There shouldn’t be anything between us. I won’t keep doing this to you. I have no control when I’m with you, that’s why we need to…I need to go,” I whispered finally. He sat silently gripping the steering wheel. After several moments, he released his grip, tucked his shirt in his waistband, and zipped his pants. He turned the ignition key violently, and then slammed the gear into reverse. The tires squealed on the wet pavement as he wheeled around and exited the parking lot.
“Please, Liam…don’t mistake what you feel, I mean…we have this intense connection. Don’t mistake this wild, physical attraction we have for something that binds you,” I murmured.
“What the hell does that mean?” he exploded as he stared at me.
“We have this intense, explosive relationship,” I began.
“And that’s all this has been to you?” Liam asked disbelievingly, his voice dripping contempt.
“NO! That’s not what I mean! God, Liam! I’m all twisted up inside. I can’t explain it,” I stammered as he continued to search my eyes. “I don’t want you to make some sort of commitment to me that you can’t back out of later. I know you will realize that it’s too much for you to handle…that I’m not good for you,” I whispered.
He shook his head. “Not good enough for me,” he murmured under his breath.
He drove another five miles, silently staring at the road ahead of us.
“I’m damaged. I’m messed-up, inside and out. There is still so much you don’t know…”
“Then explain it to me! Kelly, what haven’t you told me?” he asked, exasperated.
“I can’t. It doesn’t matter anyway. You can’t fix me,” I stated, finding my calm, emotionless place. I was in the Kelly cocoon, where I didn’t feel the pain until I was alone. I’d finally perfected it--calling on the numbness to coat my heart until I let down my guard.
Liam shook his head. “Cat, I thought we’d established that we loved each other, that my family will accept you, and that I don’t care about what has happened to you or where you came from.”
“I know,” I whispered. “But it’s always there. There’s this image I have of me next to you in my head. I know you’re good with it. I’m not. I’m the problem.” I stared out the side window, my posture stone-like in the heavy silence. As he pulled up outside my apartment, he finally turned to me.
“Kelly, this thing isn’t done,” he began.
I stayed silent, pulling the handle to exit his SUV.
“I’m giving you space. I’m going to be in San Antonio the next couple of days at my Dad’s office, but for my peace of mind, I’m sending Scott over to watch your apartment. If you won’t be with me, then I’m watching you. I’ll send him by to pick you up in the morning. Once again, you have no car.”
“Thanks for reminding me, but that’s okay. I’ll ride with Tana,” I murmured, refusing to look up into his intensely blue eyes.
Twenty
“Hey, Sanger. What’s the news? Got Covington with you?” Blake Dulaney was friendlier to me since Carter had been fired, and I was puzzled about it. But he seemed nice enough, and was a VP who worked well alongside his colleagues.
“No, not this morning, Blake.” Hearing Liam’s name out loud still ripped the hole in my heart a little wider. I swallowed a rather large lump and proceeded to my desk.
“Well, Stuart is behind closed doors this morning with the other Execs, and there is supposed to be some big announcement today. You, Kim and Gabby will have to be ready. Stuart said he’ll need press releases around 1:00. Keep your ear to the ground.”
“Sure, Blake,” I replied, wondering what could possibly be up. A similar call from Tana ten short minutes later clued me in that the other half of the building was expecting the sam
e.
Kim and Gabby worked on finishing up the Austin Nightlife ad proposals and PowerPoint presentations while I worked on other loose ends. Everyone was speculating as to the big announcement and wondering where Liam was. They all assumed I should know.
At promptly eleven fifty-five a.m., the door to the executive suite opened and Stuart strode out into the outer office.
“Miss Sanger, we need the following statement sent to the local news stations and to the Austin newspaper.” He handed me a short, hand-typed statement. “Please tell them that we will send a detailed report later this afternoon for them to make their late-night deadlines. Then prepare an inter-office memo to go out immediately. End it by saying there will be no more personnel changes in the near future.”
Stuart turned, and disappeared into the executive offices. I looked down at the note in my hand as the girls read it over my shoulder.
“As of 9:00 a.m. this morning, Austin Management, Inc., and Austin by Design are now subsidiaries of Whelan, Inc. We will continue to operate as we have been, serving our same client base we’ve built over the years, but we will now be adding the large dossier of Whelan to our extensive list. We will be serving as their in-house advertising, promotion and financial management for all Whelan subsidiaries. There will be announcements as to re-organization in the coming weeks.”
I blinked. I blinked again. Whelan…Graham “Tex” Whelan was known all over Texas as THE financial go-to guru. Presidents had consulted him about the economy. He owned a baseball team. He owned a hockey team. And he had his hands in every kind of oil deal and energy plan in the country. Now he owned our company.
Whelan…Oh, God. Liam WHELAN Covington.
“Liam Whelan Covington,” I murmured as Kim looked up at me. “His family bought Austin, Inc. He’s our boss,” I whispered as her eyes widened.
I stood motionless, staring through her. She nodded at me as I found my voice again. “Kim, can you handle the press releases?”
“We’re already on it, and we’ll make the five o’clock news with all of this. Just go,” she urged as I grabbed my purse and ran to Tana’s office.
“Tana, I need a favor,” I said breathlessly. She cocked a perfectly arched eyebrow at me.
“I need to go to San Antonio now. Can I borrow your car?”
“No problem, Kel. I’ll catch a ride home,” she replied as she pitched me her keys.
“Covington?” she asked as I broke for the door.
“Yeah,” I retorted.
“Just tell me you’ll give me all the disgusting details about the make-up sex,” she called out as I slammed her office door.
A mere hour and fifteen minutes later, I was on the outskirts of San Antonio, simmering just beneath the surface and wondering what I was going to say to him once I got to Whelan Inc. As I marched into the large stone building in downtown San Antonio, I still didn’t have a plan. Finding listings for the executive offices on the top floor, I stepped in to the elevator and pushed “17.” When the doors pinged open, I glanced around. There were three small offices opposite the elevators, and three large offices, one to the right, two smaller to the left.
“Call our guys in Dallas and see if they’re interested. I don’t care; cite corporate law or something. Isn’t that what we pay you for? Update me in the morning,” Liam’s voice drifted from the left side, so I turned and hurried past the petit blonde receptionist seated in the foyer.
“Ma’am…you can’t go in there! Ma’am, you don’t have an appointment!” she yelled as I rushed through Liam’s partially opened doorway. I startled him, and as his mouth opened to speak, I rushed at him, my palm meeting his cheek with a resounding “smack!”
“You son-of-a-bitch,” I hissed as he pulled the phone headset off and slung it on his desk.
“What the hell was that for?” he demanded, his eyes blazing. I could see the imprint of my hand on his cheek.
“You bought out Austin, Inc.? You’ve been sleeping with me, condescendingly pushing me forward and manipulating me. All the while I’m asking questions! ‘What is your role at the company?” A consultant? I walk in today, and now you’re the boss! I look like a complete freaking idiot!”
A muscle twitched in Liam’s neck, betraying just how hard he was trying to control his emotions.
“Lower your voice, Kelly. And that language doesn’t flatter you in the least,” he mocked as I continued to glare at him.
“Your grandfather is Tex Whelan?” I demanded.
“Yep, last time I checked. Although I could be out of the will at any moment, I’m sure,” he replied snidely.
“And you didn’t feel you could tell me any of this? Not even when you had me on my back--or on my knees?” I hissed. “I feel betrayed, Liam! I was sleeping with the boss! Everyone’s been whispering about it since they let Carter go and practically put me in charge of the department. Now it’s official!” I exploded, throwing my arm out at him.
“Kelly, is that what this is about? Give me a name, I want to know who said it,” he ground through his teeth, a deadly look in his eyes. “Give me a name, because the son-of-a-bitch no longer works for the company.”
I shook my head furiously. “Not on your life, Covington. I just wanted you to be aware of what is going through everybody’s mind whether they’ve said anything or not. What will really make it funny to them will be the fact I didn’t even know I was sleeping with the boss. Lucky little slut!” I finished as he grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
“I swear to you, Kelly, if I ever hear you refer to yourself in those terms again, I’ll shake you until I knock some sense into that beautiful head of yours!” His fingers bit into my arms, his face only inches from mine. We stood toe to toe, both of our chests heaving with fury. He suddenly fisted his hand in my hair, pulling my face back to look into my eyes.
“What has you the most worked up, Hellcat? The fact my family bought your company or the fact I kept you in the dark? Because the implications of all of this…of our being intimate and now I’m the boss…that’s something that will be nothing more than old news in a week.”
I relaxed a bit, my breathing becoming more even. He smelled so good; so like the man I craved to be with. I closed my eyes, willing myself not to think about his arms around me and his lips a breath away from mine.
“I’m sorry, Kelly. All parties involved wanted to keep everything silent until we could get a feel of what was going on. We had to decide before hand where we needed to cut and re-organize. If I had it to do over again, I would tell you. I trust you, Kel.”
As angry as I was, I was suddenly drained---tired and stripped bare. I realized I was weak with need for him and the way he made me feel when he made love to me. I desperately wanted to believe him. Everything about his manner was so sincere. I could feel he needed me to believe him. I could feel the barriers I’d constructed around my heart begin to crumble.
“Kelly, open your eyes and look at me,” Liam commanded. I opened them slowly to find his eyes softer, rounder with emotion. “Staying away from you the past few days was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. If it hadn’t been for everything going down, keeping my attention averted, I would have cracked before now. I gave you some space. I didn’t come after you immediately. What’s it going to be, Kelly? Are you going to stay with me, make this thing between us work? Because I don’t think I can live without you. I can’t stand the thought of not being with you.”
I shook my head, the tears stinging the back of my eyes and nose. The emotionless girl who never cried found herself in a relationship with the one man who could make her cry--make her do anything he wanted.
“You know I love you. I’m just afraid that I will stand in the way of everything that should be in your future--politics, a high-profile family life, and kids. You aren’t going to have any of that if I’m in your life. That newscast was just a small dose of what you’ll get if we stay together.”
“Kelly, my dad is all over that news station about the pict
ure they ran of your mother and the speculation they put out there about you. I’m surprised you haven’t gotten a formal apology from them by now. Our lawyers are eating them alive.”
“They are?”
“Yes. As usual, you didn’t stick around long enough for us to talk everything out after I got off the phone with dad. You can’t run when things get rough. I have to be able to talk to you. When you feel inferior, for whatever reason, you bolt. You have to stop doing that if we’re going to work. And I’m determined for us to work.”
“I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you, Liam,” I whispered.
Liam smiled, the corners of his mouth rising ever so slightly. “Never going to happen, Hellcat. You’re exactly the kind of woman I want at my side no matter what I decide to do, politics or otherwise. You aren’t the type to just be a trophy wife. I think you’re more likely to run for office than I am. What a team we would make,” he paused, loosening his grip on my face as he trailed his thumb across my bottom lip. “And you’re exactly who I want to have babies with,” he whispered, his lips covering mine. My heart stuttered to a halt. I broke off a sob and pulled away from him, whirling around to stare out of his office windows. The entire city of San Antonio sprawled before us.
“What is it, Hellcat? I know I’ve never talked about marriage before, but you know how much I love you,” he said, placing his arms around my waist.
I held my breath as a sick sort of dread washed over me. My deepest, darkest secret, the worst of everything that had happened with Reeves, the one thing I’d tried to block out of my mind was surfacing, and I had no idea how I was going to tell him.
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