“Leem?” she prompted.
“I only want you to know you have options. Even if you’re pregnant, we can—”
“I’m not pregnant, Liam,” Jenna said in as sharp a tone as she ever took with him. “Would you please relax? It’s going to be fine. After all, you said so, and who would dare defy you?” She sighed. “We’ll be there soon, Liam. Please stop worrying. Mike is my one. I know what I’m doing.”
Liam remained silent, unsure what to say in the face of her frustrated plea.
Jenna took the decision out of his hands, disconnecting the call without a goodbye.
Liam was left holding the phone, still wondering what he should’ve—could’ve—said that stood even a remote chance of making things better between him and Jenna. Things couldn’t be broken now, before the rug was pulled out from under her.
With their father gone and her groom likely to bail when things got tough, Liam would be the only one there to help her pick up the pieces of her dream.
Even though he was the one who would shatter it.
CHAPTER NINE
ELLA SAT AT the beachside bar, the seating chart for the wedding dinner spread out in front of her. Her initial notes had stipulated no bride and groom table—Jenna and Mike had wanted to sit with their guests. The revised arrangement had guests clearly segregated, each one labeled “B” for bride or “G” for groom. The two groups had been seated in different locations, each one opposite the new table where the bride and groom sat. Alone. The arrangement made little sense. It felt wrong, far too unlike the original plans.
Shoving her hands through her hair, a low growl escaped her. Should she follow Liam’s revised plans and ignore the inner voice that was screaming at her to disregard his changes? Surely Liam wouldn’t screw her over. What could he possibly gain from ruining his sister’s wedding? More than once he’d said that he wanted his sister’s happiness above all else.
But things weren’t adding up, and Ella couldn’t swing many more changes. Not with the wedding so close. The resort—thanks to her relationship with Arvin—had been willing to extend a significant rate reduction for horseback riding on the beach. Liam had never answered her about substituting horseback riding or parasailing for the dive trip, so she’d chosen horseback riding based on his notes. No one indicated a fear of animals. No one claimed any allergies. So she’d offer two excursions, each with the bride and groom present, and guests could choose which one they wanted to participate in. That would work.
Letting her gaze drift over the seating arrangement, Ella traced her fingers along the far table, the one labeled with the groom’s guests, then finger-walked across to the bride’s guest table. The groups were small, but... “This can’t be right.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
She looked up sharply into eyes the color of luxurious dark chocolate—sweet but with a bite.
Liam’s brows drew together. “Ella?”
Shaking off the ridiculous wanderings of her mind, she focused on the moment at hand. Now was the time to get this mess straightened out. Ella had a short window of time left to make sure everything was in order for the Wednesday morning walk-through and Wednesday afternoon excursions. Then? The wedding.
Two. Days.
The butterflies in her stomach took up dogfight maneuvers, zipping left and then right, flying up only to plummet to the depths of her belly. Rather sickening, all in all.
“Ella?” Liam repeated.
“I have two days to piece together what you say your sister wants versus what her personal assistant said she wants. I have to make sense of this and make it work, Liam, because anything less could potentially doom me to planning children’s parties for the rest of my life.” Running her hands over her face, she traced the lines marring her forehead and the grooves etched alongside her mouth. She had to look as haggard as she felt. “This is wrecking me. I’m going to need a week at a spa just to undo the damage the stress is doing to my skin. I swear I’ve aged five years in four days. This is ridiculous, Liam.”
He sank into a canvas sling chair and scooted forward, pulling together the plans she’d scattered around her. It took him seconds to organize them, but then he seemed to hesitate. With careful consideration, he folded up the sheet he’d given her and moved the original plan to the top of the pile. “Trash the seating plan I gave you and go with the one my sister’s assistant originally laid out.”
Ella started and then sank back into her chair. “What? Why?”
“Because this is more in line with what she truly wants.” Liam looked at her, smile sardonic and eyes sad. “It’s something I shouldn’t have messed with.”
The knot that had formed in Ella’s stomach unraveled, and she drew her first full breath since hearing Liam had a modified wish list. Until now, she hadn’t realized exactly how messed up she’d been. Not really. But this...this sudden about-face Liam was pulling? It eased her fears. Surely there was a reason behind it, but she wasn’t going to look for it. All that mattered was she’d suddenly found the confidence to move forward. “So what would you say to horseback riding on the beach or parasailing instead of snorkeling and diving?”
He was shaking his head before she had finished asking the question. “Groom has allergies. I’m not sure if horses fall under that umbrella, but I’d avoid it just to be safe.”
“Good to know.” Reaching across the table, she laid her hand over his, which was resting on the original seating chart. “Thank you, Liam.” There was more to those words than courtesy. There were layers of gratitude and an acknowledgment that she knew this was hard for him. She wanted him to know, to realize she understood he was struggling.
He squeezed her hand in return before pulling away. Looking out over the quiet beach, his mind seemed even farther away than his gaze. “Ella, do you know who my sister is?”
No reason to play games or be coy. “I have an idea.”
“Who do you think she is?”
“I’m guessing she’s Paige Jennings.”
He smiled. “Nope. Guess again.”
Ella sat farther forward and rested her crossed arms on the table’s edge. “I almost asked if you were sure,” she said with a small smile. “I was pretty sure myself.”
Liam’s gaze came back to her. “No idea, then?”
“I suppose she could be any number of starlets in Hollywood.”
He grinned. “Don’t let her hear you say that.”
“Now you’re scaring me.”
“My sister is Jenna Williams. Her fiancé—”
“Is Mike Feigenbaum.” Ella swallowed hard. “Award-winning actress meets the rookie MVP for minor league baseball and starting pitcher for Utah’s triple-A team, the Hellcats. An insanely fast, well-publicized romance follows, culminating in a proposal right before Mike opts out of his contract negotiations and very publicly becomes a free agent. He then moves to Hollywood to be with Jenna.” Flopping back into her chair, she shook her head. Or maybe it was her whole body shaking. Yeah, that was more likely. “Jenna Williams is your sister?”
“My father married Jenna’s mother when I was seven. They had Jenna when I was nine.” One corner of his mouth curled up in a tender smile. “I couldn’t stand her when she was born. But then, when she was about nine months old, she took her first steps...and they were toward me. She followed me everywhere after that. And when she began to talk? Good God, she chattered at me nonstop. It didn’t matter if I understood a single word she said. Like everyone she meets, she won me over by simply being herself.”
“Jenna Williams,” Ella repeated through numb lips.
“You’ll love her.” It was half statement, half command.
“I’m sure I will—if she’s even half as lovely in person as she has been in every interview I’ve ever seen. But why tell me now?”
She watched as something haunted passed through his eyes. “
You need to know who she is.”
Ella heard the two words he’d left unspoken. To me. You need to know who she is to me. She scooted her chair closer to the edge of the pavilion and wiggled her toes until they were buried in the sand. There were a hundred things she could say, at least two dozen she probably should say, and not a single one seemed absolutely right.
As if he read her mind, Liam said, “I expected something...more.”
“More?”
“In your reaction to my sister’s fame.”
Ella shrugged. “I’ve dealt with celebrities before. And everything I know about her indicates she’s a delightful woman. I don’t know much about her fiancé, but I’ll meet him soon enough.”
At the mention of the groom, Liam’s face clouded over.
“So it was an understatement when you said you’re not his biggest fan.” Ella leaned over and picked up her mimosa, sipping the drink slowly as she considered what to say next. She needn’t have bothered, as Liam plowed through the opening she’d provided.
“There aren’t civil words strong enough to accurately convey my feelings toward the groom,” he snapped.
“Good thing you’re not the one marrying him, then.” The words hung between them before falling with an inaudible splat.
“No, I’m not.” He stood, brushing invisible lint off his shorts before tugging at his linen shirt. “But the most important person to me in the whole world is, and she deserves better.”
“Is she happy?” Ella asked quietly, the knots that had unraveled beginning to bind themselves all over again just behind her belly button.
Liam slipped his sunglasses on and looked at her, eyes blocked by the dark lenses. “If he’s not good enough for her, if all he’s doing is riding her coattails to fame and fortune, does it matter?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but he waved her off, spun and, with a spine that appeared totally unbending, stalked away.
Despite the fact that he couldn’t hear her answer, she offered it anyway. “I’d be willing to bet it matters the world to her.”
* * *
Liam stomped into the bungalow, his insides a bloody riot of opposition. He wanted to throttle himself for thinking he could disrupt a wedding by giving poorly placed and outright gaudy suggestions.
He wanted to strangle Mike Feigenbaum when he got off the plane. Liam would send the body to some remote region to be dumped. He had the funds to pay people who knew people.
He stumbled to a halt. Sweet mother of God, what was he thinking? He’d never order a murder even under the worst of conditions.
Doesn’t this qualify—breaking a deathbed vow?
He shook the thought off and then stilled as he realized what he really wanted to do: grab Ella Montgomery and run. He wanted to stay in bed with her for a week, to talk and make love and order room service and, shockingly, talk some more. Everything about her calmed him. She was the counterbalance to his personal crazy, and he craved her nearness, hungered for her touch, longed for the scent of her perfume on his pillow. All that and more. So much more. Emotions he refused to look at head-on and was unwilling to name thundered around him in a war chant, demanding he take up the fight to win her, claim her and, above all, keep her.
But it would never happen. Liam wasn’t programmed for happily-ever-afters. Hell, he was trying to stop that very thing from happening because if life had taught him anything, it was that fairy tales were best suited to paperbacks and afternoon matinees. They didn’t hold a place in the real world because they weren’t real.
He’d seen friends marry and divorce and become bitter shells of their former selves.
He’d seen heartbreak and hurt in abundance, but never had he seen that thing called love, romantic love, rise above any given situation and conquer all.
It simply didn’t happen.
Loyalty was a far more desirable trait. Tangible. Reliable. Measurable.
Liam rolled shoulders gone tight with that bevy of emotions. What lay ahead of him was a combination of obligation and love of family. That kind of love could be compared to loyalty, and Liam was comfortable with that. It was, after all, the characteristic he valued most.
The latch on the door snicked open, and Liam turned, expecting housekeeping. What he found was a wedding planner, arms overflowing with fresh flowers and a flush of sun on her skin.
“Hey. I wanted to tell you I didn’t mean for us to part like that earlier. I really—oomph!”
He crossed the room and pulled her into his arms, crushing delicate blooms between them so that the spicy fragrances swirled around them like nature’s perfume. His mouth found hers and swallowed her gasp of surprise even as one hand grabbed her ass to pull her closer and the other hand relieved her of the floral bounty. One word repeated through his mind.
Mine.
There were whispers of other words, words he’d spent the last hour denying.
Liam didn’t care.
The only thing that mattered was finding the solace he’d been so sure he could do without. Solace only this woman offered him. He needed it like a diver needed air.
Their tongues dueled in the most intimate dance—thrust, parry, retreat. She met him move for move, never backing down, never giving him permission to take the lead. No, not this woman. She was fierce. A woman who held her own, and he found her strength, her determination, her give-as-good-as-she-got absolutely sexy as hell.
Her hands went to his chest and yanked at his shirt. Buttons flew, plinking across the hardwood floor. She shoved the destroyed garment off his shoulders, her hands roving over his upper body with a possessiveness he’d never cared for...until now. She nipped his bottom lip before breaking the kiss, her mouth tracing his jaw, down his neck, between his pecs—all with stinging nips followed by soothing kisses.
A wildcat. That’s what she was.
And he loved it.
Reaching his pants, she made an inarticulate sound of frustration when the tie at his board shorts knotted. He tried to help, but she pushed his hands away. Warm feminine hands and nimble fingers slipped underneath the waistband of his shorts and the fabric slithered down his legs, setting his cock free.
Ella dropped to her knees and, before Liam could say a word, she took the length of him in her mouth. Deep, so deep. The head of his cock bumped the back of her throat and she hummed around him with pleasure as he shouted out the same. She swallowed his length even deeper, cupping the ridged underside of his cock with her tongue as she worked him slowly, so slowly. Then she eased off and started all over again.
Clever fingers slipped up his legs, higher and higher until she parked one on his thigh for support and the other—
Liam shouted again, louder this time.
Ella gently cupped his balls, rolling them deftly between her fingers as she squeezed tenderly and pulled on his sac. Never did she cease laving him from root to tip, cheeks hollowing as she sucked him deep, tongue working magic he had never fathomed she possessed.
Winding his hands through her hair, he found himself mesmerized by the sight of her kneeling before him, surrounded by the flotsam of scattered flowers. She’d spread her knees, bracketing his feet. Her hair mounded around his hands. Her breasts were lush. Sun kissed. He knew what they tasted like, knew the way her nipples felt as they pearled on his tongue. Knew the way her breath hitched if he drew a bit stronger, if he let his lips pluck at the hypersensitive skin before letting go to breathe cool air across their tips.
He was torn between wanting to experience Ella’s gifted mouth and wanting to lose himself in the pleasures of her body. Watching her for another moment made up his mind.
He reached down and lifted her chin.
She let his cock go with a soft sound of disapproval.
“Up,” he ordered.
“Bossy bastard. I’m not done.”
“While I appreciate you
r damn fine skills, we’ll get there together or not at all.” He let go of her hair to grasp her arms and pull her to her feet. Their mouths fused once more, her lips swollen, and he pulled her close, groaning when she shimmied out of her bikini bottoms without breaking the kiss.
Wrapping a long leg around his waist, she ground her sex against his. His grip on her tightened as her desire slickened his shaft. Passion fogged his mind.
“Take me to bed, Liam.”
“As my lady commands.”
Without warning, he swept her up in his arms, grinning at her alarmed squeak. He delivered her to the bed, setting her down with tender care, and left a trail of kisses in his wake as he moved up her body. They fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, his cock nestled against the apex of her thighs, his forearms resting comfortably on either side of her shoulders.
She wrapped one leg around him and, with a swift push-pull, reversed their position so she straddled him.
Resting his hands on her hips, he stared up at her. “My body is yours, Ella.”
A shadow crossed her face, so fleeting he half wondered if he’d imagined it, particularly when she took his hands and moved them to cup her breasts. But he knew what he’d seen. “What’s wrong, love?”
She shook her head, her hair tumbling around her shoulders. “Not a thing.”
Rising, she let him slip the condom on before she took over again, gripping his cock at the base and positioning him between her slick folds. With careful control, she slid down his length, her heavy-lidded gaze locked on his.
Liam took hold of her hips and thrust up, the move driven by sheer instinct.
She squeezed her thighs around his hips. Hard. “Uh-uh. I’m in control here. Patience.”
He growled, the sound reverberating deep in his chest. Patience wasn’t what he was after. He wanted fast, hard, blank-the-mind sex. He wanted to make love to her with mind-numbing results. Instead, she was the one working him over, demanding his body acquiesce to her demands, attentions, skills. Then she wrecked him.
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