by Vivian Wood
She accepted a glass of champagne from Liam with a sigh, and turned to look out the window at the darkening city streets. Surely that was it. Liam was an opportunist, looking at whatever girls happened to be at hand, and there was nothing more there than that.
Thinking anything else was straying into dangerous territory…
They pulled up in front of Jack’s condo building. The door beside Audrey opened immediately, and a blonde woman stuck her head inside, giving Audrey and Liam a big, toothy grin.
“Hey, y’all! Nice limo! This is pretty PIMP!” she shouted, almost in Audrey’s face.
“Macy,” Audrey said, trying to keep her expression friendly. “Nice to see you.”
“Scooch over!” Macy said, flapping her hand at Audrey.
“Can you not go in the middle door?” Liam tried, but Macy was already barreling into the limo, trampling on Audrey’s feet.
Jack came in through the middle door, as Liam advised. He crawled in, brushing off his dark suit, then looked up at Audrey with a wincing smile.
Audrey and Liam both gaped at him. Jack had a serious black eye, plus his mouth was a little red on one side.
“Jack, what the hell?” Audrey hissed. “What happened to your eye?”
“Oh…” Jack said with a shrug. “Got in a little argument at the bar, no big deal.”
“No big deal? Are you kidding me right now?” Audrey opened her clutch and pulled out a tube of concealer. “Let me at least try to cover it up, Jack.”
“I said it’s fine!” Jack snapped, bringing everything in the back of the car to a standstill.
“Don’t yell at her, mate,” Liam said.
Jack glanced at Liam, then dropped his gaze and mumbled an apology. The car started moving, forcing Jack and Macy back into their seats. When Jack leaned back, he flinched.
“Your ribs too, eh?” Liam said.
Audrey watched Liam size Jack up and wondered what conclusions Liam was drawing. Liam might be an arrogant prick, but behind that thick Cockney accent he was sharper than a fresh razor blade.
“Aww, yeah, the other guy got a few good ones in,” Jack said. “Watch it, Macy, your elbows are sharp as hell.”
Macy was leaning over Jack’s lap, reaching for the champagne. Her sparkly silver mini-dress rode up to show her ass, including her neon pink thong. Liam gave her ass a speculative look, and Audrey gave him his own elbow in the ribs.
Liam glanced down at Audrey, cocking a brow. “Jealous?” he asked, quiet enough that only Audrey could hear it.
Audrey sniffed, but as she turned away she caught Jack giving them both an odd look.
“Haven’t seen you in a couple days, Aud,” Jack said, a little too loud. “Where’ve you been?”
“Well…” Audrey started, unsure how she wanted to phrase it. I’ve moved in with your high school friend, and we can’t stop eye-fucking each other didn’t seem like quite the right thing.
“She’s been working,” Liam said, crossing his arms. “Unlike some people.”
Audrey looked between Liam and Jack.
“Jack, you haven’t been at practice?” she asked.
“Not in this condition, no,” Jack said mildly. “Macy, honey, you’re spilling that stuff on your dress.”
Macy was pouring champagne into her glass, letting it overflow. Macy looked a little dazed, and Audrey wondered if Macy hadn’t already been drinking quite a bit before getting into the limo.
Everyone was quiet for the last few minutes of the ride. The gala was hosted at The Fox Theatre downtown, and when the limo pulled up Audrey stepped out onto an actual red carpet.
Fancy, she thought. Liam climbed out and offered Audrey his arm, then escorted her down the carpet through a wall of photo flashes and chattering reporters.
“Wow, I had no idea that there was going to be press,” Audrey said.
“Football’s finally gaining traction here,” Liam said, giving her a hawkish smile that she couldn’t help but return. “Real football, I mean, not that American nonsense.”
“I wouldn’t let anyone hear you say that,” Audrey said as they swept in through the Theatre’s front doors.
The whole place was done in a 1920s jazz theme for the event, with champagne in coupe glasses and a jazz band playing at one end of the ballroom.
“Put your best smile on, because it’s all press interviews from now till supper,” Liam said, once they had drinks. “Only four big names on the whole team, so I’m bound to be popular tonight.”
He sipped from his tumbler of whiskey and winked at her. Audrey rolled her eyes, but Liam wasn’t the least bit wrong about it. The next hour and a half were nothing but Atlanta Unified’s PR team bringing up reporters for introductions, stepping back for a few minutes, then bringing up a fresh face with the same questions.
How are you enjoying Atlanta after playing in London so long?
Is it true you were bounced from the England Nationals team?
Will you stay in Atlanta for longer than this season?
Liam played along, giving the same answers over and over. He’d clearly been coached at some point prior, and he stuck to the script perfectly.
At last, food was served. An attendant showed them to their table, right in the center of the room. Jack and Macy were stuck at a table all the way in the corner, which irked Audrey a little, but she wasn’t about to make a scene.
She’d watched Liam and Jack both at practice earlier in the week, and it was readily apparent that there was a reason why Liam was so highly regarded by Atlanta Unified.
He was crazy good at the game, and he worked his ass off. He deserved to be the center of attention, in this context.
During dinner Liam had another player sitting to his left, with whom he promptly struck up a conversation, something about penalty kicks. Audrey understood roughly a quarter of what they said, and soon lost interest.
To Audrey’s left was the wife of one of the team owners, a beautiful young socialite named Emily. To Audrey’s surprise, the other woman turned out to be extremely smart and funny, and her banter about local politics carried Audrey through the whole meal.
A couple drinks later, the tables were cleared away and people started to migrate to the dance floor. Audrey saw that Jack and Macy were some of the first to cut loose, and boy did they ever. They were both drunk as skunks, but they seemed to be behaving and having a good time.
Audrey headed for the bar, then smiled at herself. It was hardly fair to pick on Jack and his new girlfriend for having a few drinks when Audrey herself was making a beeline for the booze.
Could she really blame anybody for knocking back a couple too many? So far, this gala event had proven to be fairly boring.
“You don’t have to babysit him, you know,” Liam whispered, suddenly just behind her.
Audrey stiffened and turned her head an inch, giving him a smirk.
“I know,” she said, turning back to accept her cocktail from the bartender.
“I hear you saying the words, but I don’t think you mean them,” Liam said.
“I do! I just… I worry about him, you know?”
“Yeah, but he’s the older of you. He should be caring for you, not the other way around.”
“Well, that’s not how it goes in our family. We didn’t come from some… posh London blood, okay?” she said, feeling a little prickly.
Liam gave her an amused look, like he was enjoying some inside joke.
“Maybe you just don’t give him enough to worry about,” he suggested, as if her snide remark had never happened. “I’m willing to bet that if you did, Jack would be there for you in an eye’s blink.”
“Maybe,” Audrey said with a shrug. “I don’t want to find out.”
“You’re such a prude,” he sighed.
“I— I am not!” she growled. “I just don’t want to be someone’s one night stand. That’s not a crime, surely.”
Liam signaled the bartender for another drink and picked up Audrey’s cocktail,
taking a sip.
“Hey! That’s mine!” she protested.
“Yeah, but I’m the reason this event is happening,” he said with a grin.
“Full of yourself, much?” she snorted.
“Only because I have the goods to back it up,” he said.
Audrey’s cheeks flushed. “Don’t be crass.”
“I was talking about my skills on the pitch. What were you talking about, Ginger?”
“Don’t start with that again,” she said, taking her drink back from him.
“Mmm,” he said noncommittally, swigging back his whole dram of whiskey.
“Slam that back, let’s have a dance,” he said. “Or are you just going to stand here all night and fret about your brother?”
“No…” Audrey said.
“Up and back, then,” he said, mimicking chugging a drink. “Don’t be a little girl about it, Ginger.”
Audrey glanced at her glass, then shrugged and knocked the whole drink back in a couple big gulps. She winced and gasped at the end, and Liam swept the glass from her hand with a grin.
“Atta girl,” he said, putting the glass aside. “Now let’s hit the dance floor.”
“I don’t really dance,” Audrey said as he led her toward the band.
“Oh, you forget. I know for a fact that’s not the case, because I’ve seen you dance. Up close and very, very personal, I might add.”
Audrey went beet red. “Is there ever going to be a point when you stop teasing me about that? It was one silly mistake.”
“Never,” Liam said, and he looked entirely serious. He twirled her with ease, then pulled her into his arms just as the band started playing a sultry jazz number.
“Well, I wish you would,” she said.
To her surprise, Liam was a very good dance partner, leading her with ease.
She supposed it shouldn’t be a surprise at all. He spent half his days doing agility drills on the soccer field, and he was naturally dominant in personality.
Liam pulled her closer by degrees, until they were pressed hip to hip, until he seemed to take up all the space in Audrey’s world.
“I’m convinced that I saw the real you that night, or a part of you at least,” Liam said.
“Sorry?” Audrey said, blinking.
“I think you spend all this time buttoning yourself up, trying to control everything in your life.”
“Thanks,” Audrey said sarcastically.
“I wasn’t finished. I think you do that because there’s a wildness inside you, and the harder it fights to get out, the more you shove it back down.”
Audrey laughed. “Oh, how very deep and insightful. I think you’d like me to have a wild side.”
Liam leaned down a couple of inches, bringing his lips to Audrey’s ear.
“Why would I want that, Ginger?”
When his lips grazed her throat Audrey shivered, letting her head fall back so that she could watch him. He straightened, his big hand splayed low on her back, pressing her into his body.
“Ummm…” she said, trying to answer his question. “Because you’re a man whore?”
She could feel him growing hard against her belly, and the way he stared down at her, his eyes going dark as pine needles…
Something wild did stir within her, just then. A wicked grin spread over Liam’s face, and he slowed, then pulled her off the dance floor.
“What are you doing?” Audrey asked as he towed her toward the ballroom’s exit.
Liam paused to grab two glasses of champagne, then gave her a devilish grin. “I don’t feel like dancing anymore.”
Audrey couldn’t find it within herself to protest, so she let him lead her out of the crowded exit.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Damned if I know, I’ve never been here before. This looks promising, though…” he said, leading her through a set of double doors.
They stepped out onto a small stone balcony, only a story up from the street but quiet enough.
“Perfect,” Liam said, pulling her over to the railing. He released her hand and gave her one of the wine glasses, then raised his own. “A toast?”
“To what?” Audrey said, glancing nervously away to the street below.
“To discovering just what you’re meant to, when you open yourself to the possibility.”
Audrey’s gaze snapped back to Liam’s. He was entirely serious, not teasing her in the least. He raised his glass another inch, and she chimed the rim of hers to it.
“Cheers,” she said. She took a long sip of champagne, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back, as the tart bubbles burst over her tongue.
In the next moment, Liam took the glass from her fingers. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. Her eyes opened as Liam lifted her, and she leaned in toward him.
Their lips crushed together, and they both moaned. Audrey’s fingers knotted at Liam’s nape; his free hand ran up and down her side, exploring her ribs and hip before dipping back to shape her ass.
They kissed as if their lives depended on it, starving for each other, as if they were condemned to hellfire and the only salvation lay in one another. When Liam cupped Audrey’s breast through her dress, finding and rolling her nipple with deft fingers, she gasped and pushed up onto her tiptoes to nibble at his ear.
Liam’s lips on her collarbone, his teeth scoring the sensitive spot below her ear, his hard body pressed against hers.
Yes, she thought. Maybe I am a little wild. Just right now, just with Liam.
“I’d like to rip this bloody dress off you,” Liam growled, running a hand down her side and tugging at the skintight fabric. “If I could do it without anyone else seeing you later…”
He reached up to pinch her nipple again, and Audrey blushed a little as she melted into him. The timbre of his voice, the darkness in his gaze, the roughness of his touch when he handled her…
No one had ever made her feel this way. No man had ever managed to get her this excited, and she had the feeling that Liam had barely begun.
When his fingertips trailed down, down, to brush closer and closer to that aching place between her thighs, Audrey could feel her panties grow damp. If Liam stripped her bare and touched her right now, made her come the way he had at the club that first night…
If he did, she’d give him everything. She’d fuck him, right here and now, repercussions be damned.
To discovering just what you’re meant to, when you open yourself to the possibility… his toast rang in her head, and she felt drunk with the rightness of his words.
Just then the door behind them swung open and a well-t0-d0 gentleman stepped outside with a cigar between his lips. Audrey sprung back from Liam, brushing at her dress.
The gentleman in the suit looked between Liam and Audrey, pulling the cigar from his mouth. “Apologies. Am I interrupting?”
“Yes,” Liam said at the same time Audrey blurted, “No!”
There was an awkward moment. Audrey cleared her throat.
“So, um, that’s all I needed to tell you. About that work thing,” she said.
Liam arched a brow, making her flush even redder.
“I’ll, um… okay,” she said, then turned and fled from the balcony.
To her relief, Liam didn’t follow her. She went straight to the bar again, but this time she ordered two bottles of water and drank them both down on the spot.
What had she been thinking? A wild side, discovering possibilities?
That was probably the kind of crap that Liam said to every single girl he met, and she was a fool for listening to it. Just because he had a sexy English accent didn’t mean he was genuine.
You’re a fool, Audrey Cross. Guys like Liam… they’re not after girls like you. And even if they were… all they’d want is a night in bed, nothing more. Get that through your thick head, she scolded herself.
“Miss Cross?”
She looked up and found their limo driver standing in front of her.
“Mr. Packham and the rest of the party are waiting for you in the car, ma’am,” he said.
“Oh! Right.”
Audrey rushed to collect her coat and purse, then headed out to the limo. Liam was standing by the car, waiting for her.
“There you are,” he said.
“Don’t,” Audrey said, holding up a hand to stop him. “Seriously, Liam. Just leave it.”
His smile dropped away, and he shrugged.
“As you like,” he said, opening the door. He offered her a hand in, which she ignored in favor of awkwardly launching herself into the car.
She ignored Liam’s pained sigh, and ignored his presence through the car ride home. Liam didn’t push it, chatting with Jack, who held a passed-out Macy on his lap.
The ride was over soon enough, as the driver dropped Liam and Audrey off first. The second she hit the front door, Audrey practically ran for the sanctity of her new bedroom.
“Audrey!” Liam called, his voice tinged with steel.
She paused at her door, then turned to glance at him. “Yes?”
“Do we need to talk about this?” he asked, giving her a suspicious glance.
“There’s nothing to talk to about, Liam. It was just the champagne.”
He stared at her for a long beat, then shook his head and turned away. A few seconds later his bedroom door slammed.
Audrey walked into her room, kicked off her heels, and shut the door. After painstakingly peeling herself out of the designer dress, she took a couple minutes to wipe her makeup off and brush her teeth.
Then she crawled into her new bed. The comforter, at least, was her own. She’d owned it for years. Wrapping herself in it, she closed her eyes and sighed.
Images of her kissing Liam began to play in her head, like a movie detailing the night’s mistakes. She blew out a breath.
It would be easy to drown in self-disappointment and recriminations, but it would be better to just make a simple promise to herself.
“It will not happen again”, she said aloud. “I will not kiss Liam again. I know it’s bad, and wrong. I deserve someone who will think I’m special, not some hot guy who will never call me again.”
She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but it was a long time before sleep dragged her down into darkness.