by Melinda Minx
“You need to leave me alone,” I say in what I hope is a calm voice, taking another step back.
“Amber,” he says, his voice suddenly sounding whiny and pleading. “I wasn’t saying I love you, I know that would be weird. I was saying that I would love you, if you gave me a chance.”
“I’m engaged,” I say.
“Where’s the ring?” he asks.
I bite my lip. Liam told me to wear it to class, but I pocketed it. I was too embarrassed and didn’t want to draw attention to myself. Not like that worked anyway.
I reach into my bag, feel around until I find the huge diamond, and slide it onto my finger. “Here, see?” I hold my finger up to show him the ring. “Now go away, Anton. You’ll find someone else to fall in love with. That girl is not me, even without Liam, and it was never going to be me.”
He scowls at the diamond sparkling in the sunlight. “Love can’t be bought, Amber.”
I shake my head and throw up my hands. “I’m not asking you again, Anton. Leave me alone. And stop skipping class on account of me. There is nothing between us, and there will never be. Just leave it.”
I turn my back to him and start walking.
I’ve tried being nice to Anton. I really tried, and that’s what put me in this situation before. I don’t want to be a bitch to him—I really don’t. It kills me to do it, but I have to make a clean break from him. If I’m not direct to him, I’m only going to hurt him more. I have to be a bitch and rip the Band-Aid off.
My heart is pounding. I waited too long to do this, and I feel like he’s already crossed a line at this point, and I’m worried he’s going to follow me. If I had been nice to him again and then told him I needed to go, he wouldn’t have followed me. But then I’d be making everything worse, and this would never end.
I’m afraid to look back, so I just keep walking as fast as I can, looking forward the whole way, standing straight and confidently, with my chin up.
I finally dare to look back after a full minute has passed. Anton is about two hundred feet behind me, his fists balled up and his head down. He’s definitely following me.
13
Liam
“Take the afternoon off, Hans,” I say into my cellphone. “I’m going to pick Amber up myself.”
“Thanks, boss,” Hans says. “I dropped her off near the bridge.”
“That’s not even on campus,” I say.
“She insisted,” Hans says apologetically. “She didn’t want her classmates to see her arriving in a limo.”
I roll my eyes. There’s no way she’s going to be able to keep this news from her classmates. Everyone is going to know by this afternoon. Nothing spreads faster than gossip, especially when it’s a secret engagement.
My lawyers said that will work in our favor, making the whole thing appear more legitimate. I’ll have to get Amber on board for all those tedious TV appearances, media interviews, and events. We need to be seen together as often as possible, the happy celebrity couple, the kind that people say “seems like a real couple” and “are made for one another.”
Picking Amber up myself today was part of that plan, but if she’s going to be hanging out near the bridge, no one is going to see us.
Though “being seen” was only part of my intention. I have barely seen Amber since the party, and I want to see her. Even though it’s a business arrangement, I find myself missing her, as stupid as that might sound.
The conversation I had with her on the bench in the garden made me feel something I hadn’t felt in a long time. I was talking openly and honestly with another person who didn’t know who I was. It was just two people holding a real conversation with neither wanting anything from the other besides talking. As conceited as it might sound, everyone always wants something from Liam Lions.
I cross the bridge and pull over, parking along the roadside.
I get out of the car and look around, but I don’t see Amber anywhere.
I wanted to surprise her by showing up in person, but I don’t have time to stand around worrying that I’m waiting in the wrong place.
Then I see her. She’s walking way faster than normal.
I wave, and she breaks into a run.
Heh, I guess she’s happy to see me.
It’s then I get a look at her face, and it looks like she’s crying.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, but then I see it. Or, I should say, I see him. The guy coming up fast behind her.
“He won’t leave me alone,” she says, breathless. She has a frantic look on her face.
I take her by the shoulders, squeeze her protectively, and lock eyes with her. “You’re safe. I’ll deal with this. Get in the car.”
I open the door, not looking away from her. She nods, and I help her into the car. I shut the door firmly behind her.
Then I shift my focus to the asshole, who is still charging toward me.
I start moving toward him. He’s a big guy, but I’m bigger. And stronger.
“You’ll never treat her as good as I will!” he says, jabbing a finger in my direction. “I don’t care how fucking rich you are!”
“Who the fuck are you?” I ask, stopping short of him. He’s about five feet away from me now, and he stops, too. Of course, he’s not willing to get any closer. He fears me. He should fear me.
He adjusts the collar of his shirt, straightens his posture, and says, “Valencia.” He stares me down, narrowing his eyes. “Anton Valencia.”
I laugh. “You think you’re fucking James Bond? With that cheap shirt?”
His eyes widen in fury, and he thrusts a finger at me. “You think you can buy everything in the world! But Amber is too good for you, you fucking asshole! I know how you treat women! I read all about it, your ex-girlfriend faked her own death just to get away from you!”
“Did you spend all morning reading my Wikipedia page or something?” I ask, scoffing. “I’m guessing you don’t even have a Wikipedia page, so sorry, I don’t know shit about you. All I know is you need to get fucking lost, and if you so much as look at my fiancée again, I’ll beat the shit out of you.”
I’m famous for my temper, and it’s flaring hot right now. I know I’m crossing a line I shouldn’t, but fuck this guy for making Amber cry.
He takes a lunging step toward me.
All right, he’s either crazy, or he’s got brass balls. Neither of which are going to get me to back off.
“I’ll fight you,” he says.
I look at him like he’s an idiot. He is an idiot.
“Fight me?” I ask. “Even if you won--which you wouldn’t--she’s not going--”
He takes a swing at me, and I dodge it effortlessly.
He put some serious weight into the punch, and his body flies right past me as I step aside.
If I was really trying to insult the guy, I’d take my time with this, but I don’t have time for this shit. Aside from that, I just want him to get a very clear message: Stay the fuck away from Amber. The clearest way to deliver that message is with a solid and efficient takedown.
I slam his ribs with an uppercut just as he passes by me, and it sends him sprawling back and off-balance.
Before he can even react, I’m on top of him, and I slam a solid fist right into his jaw.
He tips backward and collapses to the ground.
I hear the car door open behind me. “Liam, don’t!”
I put a hand back, signaling for Amber to stay the hell back.
“Relax,” I say. “He’s down. And he’s not going to as much as look at you again. Right, Anton?”
“Amber said I should go to class again!” he shouts through a bloodied lip. He’s holding his hands up to defend his face; the fight is beaten out of him.
I look at Amber and cock an eyebrow.
“That was before he chased after me and scared the shit out of me,” Amber says.
“Drop the class,” I hiss down at him. “If you see Amber on campus, you turn around and walk the other way. Got it?”
“But--”
I kick him in the ribs, right where I punched him earlier. He wails.
“Got it?” I shout.
“I got it!” he squeals in agony.
I turn my back to him and get into the car.
“Jesus,” Amber says. “You didn’t have to--”
“I did,” I say. “Even if you’re not really my fiancée, no one treats you like that. You shouldn’t have to feel scared while you’re engaged to me.”
“You hit him really hard…” Amber says.
“Better than him eventually hurting you. Guys like that are ticking time bombs. I just defused him.”
“Where did you learn to fight like that?” she asks.
“I took judo in high school. I was really into it.”
“Isn’t judo like, throwing people?”
I shrug. “Yeah, but throwing him around wasn’t going to send the right message. Sometimes you just have to punch a guy square in the face.”
I expect her to roll her eyes, or give me a hard time, but she just slouches down in her seat and lets out a deep, relieved sigh. “Thanks, Liam.”
“No need to thank me,” I say, shifting the car into first gear and driving toward the bridge in the direction of the city.
14
Amber
“The lawyers have advised me to lie to my parents.”
I frown. “Does that mean I have to lie to mine, too?”
He nods.
“Oh, well,” I say. “I guess they’ll get over it when they figure out how much money I made out of the deal.”
I still can’t get over the way Liam handled the Anton situation. I’d given him so much crap for never doing anything himself, so it was honestly the last thing I expected: Liam punching Anton in the face to protect me. He didn’t get James to send a guy to do it, he didn’t sic his lawyers on it; he just got himself between me and Anton, and took care of it quickly and efficiently.
I never was the kind of girl that wanted guys to fight over her, but given the situation with Anton and the way Liam handled it...I can make an exception this time.
“What is your mom like?” I ask.
“She’s…” Liam says, his face scrunching up as he thinks. “Sad?”
“Sad?” I ask. “That’s not a nice thing to say about your mom--”
“My father hung himself,” Liam says. “I don’t mean that she is a sad type of person, just that she feels sad…”
“Oh,” I say, frowning. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” Liam says. “She’ll light up when she sees you.”
“Why is that?” I ask.
“Because…” then he trails off.
“Because she thinks you’re finally settling down?” I ask. “And then when she finds out that you aren’t?”
Liam sighs. “We’ll have to deal with that later. She’d be more sad if she found out I was marrying Cynthia because of some business contract.”
“Okay,” I say, sounding unconvinced. When I agreed to this deal, I didn’t stop to consider how many people I might be hurting along the way.
“Did James get you a dress?” Liam asks.
I nod. “He offered me choices. Too many choices.”
“Too many?” Liam asks.
“Someone once conducted a study on choice. If you have a choice between going to Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Panda Express, how do you choose which one to go to?”
“I have a chef,” Liam says.
I roll my eyes. “Pretend you are a plebe, a peasant--”
He laughs. “Panda Express then,” he says. “Assuming they have good Chinese food.”
“Now, imagine you have to choose between four different Chinese restaurants, four Tex-Mex restaurants, and four different hamburger places. How do you choose?”
He shrugs. “I guess I’d have to read up on each one--”
“Right,” I say. “You’re overwhelmed, and it makes choosing much more difficult. James gave me a closet full of expensive dresses. I don’t even know where to start.”
“Hmmm,” Liam says. “Want me to pick one out for you?”
“Not really,” I say. “I’m relying on you enough as it is. I need to do something on my own.”
“Close your eyes,” Liam says, “and just point blindly. Whatever you point at is what you wear.”
“Do you do that?”
“No,” Liam says. “I enjoy picking out a suit.”
“You would,” I say, grinning.
“Once you stop judging me from your…”
“From my sewer pond?” I ask.
“I was going to say something nicer,” he says. “But judgement goes both ways; you’re judging me for being rich, have I judged you for being…”
“Poor?” I ask.
He grins.
“I guess you haven’t,” I say. “Not really.”
“So maybe take your time,” he says. “Enjoy it. Try on all the dresses you want, feel the fabric against your skin…”
I see his eyes looking down at my body, and I suddenly feel very self-conscious.
“I felt weird in the dress at the party,” I say. “Like I didn’t fill it--”
He looks at my breasts, and his mouth drops open. “You... uh--”
I blush. “I don’t mean physically! I mean like--”
“Don’t judge yourself either, Amber. You are as you see yourself. If you let Cynthia get in your head and see yourself as a sewer fish, then you’ll feel like one. If you ignore her entirely and see yourself for who you really are, then you can just laugh it off.”
“Who I really am?” I ask. “What’s that? A part-time student and part-time bartender?”
“I mean who you are as a person.”
He jabs his finger into my chest, right where my heart is. And it’s pounding.
“All this money and fame,” Liam says. “It can drown you. You can lose sight of who or what you really are. I fight every day to keep track of myself. Don’t let things around you or other people’s opinions define you. That’s all I mean.”
“Deep,” I say. “Did you write that down, or memorize it, or--”
He shakes his head. “Remind me not to be serious again, if you’re just going to make fun of me for it.”
He grins, and I bite my lip.
“Sorry,” I say. “Your advice is noted.”
“Noted,” he says, smiling. “That means you’re not planning to follow it.”
“It means I’ve taken note of it,” I say. “And will apply it as needed.”
“Sure you will,” he says. “Now stop procrastinating and go pick out a dress.”
I decide to go for the eeny, meeny, miny, moe method, or picking a dress basically at random.
I end up with a banana yellow dress encrusted with white, expensive-looking jewels of some kind. I scowl at it, doubting that I should wear it. But then I shake my head and take it out of the closet. I’ve chosen at random specifically to avoid overanalyzing or getting paralyzed by indecision. This is it. This is the dress.
I squeeze myself into it. It’s sleeveless, but the dress part is absolutely huge. It completely swallows up my legs and even my feet.
The top is at least low-cut, and it shows off my cleavage, which is bordered by the fancy jewels.
I look at myself in the mirror, and the dress looks almost...familiar to me. It’s like a dress I’ve seen before, which is ridiculous, because I’ve never so much as glanced at a dress this nice. There’s no way I’ve seen anything like it. It almost reminds me of dresses we’d wear to prom in high school, but this one is more legit, less tacky. Or maybe I’m just saying it’s less tacky because I know how much it costs? Am I doing what people who like fancy wine do? They imagine tastes that aren’t there just because they know how expensive the bottle is?
“Stop. Over. Analyzing,” I say to myself in the mirror. I say it like I’m casting a spell, forcing myself to just settle on this stupid dress that makes me look like a banana with clea
vage.
If James put it in the closet, it must be suitable for a “high-class lady,” and my own analysis of high fashion cannot be trusted.
There’s a knock on the door, and I hear James’ voice.
“Almost ready? Liam’s mum is pulling up to the gate.”
Shit, I haven’t even done my makeup yet.
“Can you…” I shout through the door. “Stall her, or something? I need like fifteen more minutes.”
“That’s what the receiving room is for,” James says. “Though you’ve talked so much shite about it--”
“Got it!” I shout, ignoring his rant, “You can stall her, and I’ll be down ASAP!”
I start applying my makeup, terrified I’ll mess something up. I get the crazy thought that I should “have someone” do this for me, but I push that thought away as soon as it comes. I’ve been living in Liam’s mansion for two days, and already I’m thinking I need servants to do things I’m perfectly capable of doing on my own.
I lose track of time, and soon I hear another knock. “Amber, are you ready yet?”
“I’ll be in the receiving room in three minutes, James.”
“I’ll tell Liam,” he says. “Heads up, by the way, Liam’s mum brought a date.”
A date? I smile. That takes a lot of pressure off of me, doesn’t it? As far as I knew, Liam didn’t know his mom was dating. He’ll probably be totally focused on that, and there will be a lot less scrutiny of Liam and me.
I sigh in relief, and I check my hair one last time before heading out into the hallway.
When I walk into the receiving room, I see Liam in his suit and tie, an older couple sitting across from him--and James in the corner fussing with the teapot.
Liam’s mom smiles at me, and the man with her nods politely. I notice that Liam’s mom is wearing a pearl necklace, but aside from that she’s wearing a simple blouse and knee-length skirt, while I’ve got on some crazy-looking evening gown.
Liam and James turn toward me, and they both widen their eyes. Liam smiles at me wide, in what looks to me like a strange mix of adoration and condescension.
