He stared at me. “You’re joking.”
“Not at all. I’ve programmed these to look for the text of the emails you’ve gotten from the blackmailer. If it finds an exact match, then it will take a dump of all the information on that device it can find and send it to my phone. That way, I can see whose device contains the email and what else they might have on there.”
As if on cue, my phone chimed.
“I thought you didn’t have signal,” Liam said.
I smiled. “I don’t.”
With a quick movement, I took out my phone and unlocked it, displaying the screen to Liam.
“Because you have a copy of the email on your phone, it executed the attack and delivered your data to mine. It works locally, so I don’t need signal for it to do its job—perfect in case you need it on the Tube.”
Liam squinted at the bug as if he could penetrate the casing and view the insides. “All that, from this little thing. That is incredible. Absolutely incredible. Addison, I always knew you were intelligent, and James sang your praises, but this? This is the most ingenius thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
His praise lifted my spirits more than even his presence alone did. “Thank you, Liam. That’s very kind of you to say. I’m very proud of it, but it’s not like I did everything from scratch. I took bits of knowledge from here and there, along with my own discoveries, and combined them into this whole.”
He put his hand under my chin to tilt it up as he kissed my lips with a soft touch. “Genius. Brilliant. I love you, Addison.”
My heart thudded against my chest. “Oh, Liam. I love you, too. So much. So fucking much.”
Our lips met again, with more force. The day apart, with all the drama and suspense and conflict, was more than I ever wanted to spend away from him.
By the time we broke apart, my chest heaved from the intensity of our passion.
“We should finish this meeting,” Liam said. “Figure out what our plan is from here. And then, I’ll be taking you into the bedroom and having my way with you.”
His words sent a shot of adrenaline through my heart and made it even harder to focus.
“I have to pair your phone with the bug, and then that’s it from a technical standpoint. I made two, so we’ll each have one. Just in case Carla isn’t the blackmailer, or she’s difficult to track, we’ll have two eyes looking.”
As I went through the process with his phone, we planned the next step.
“I should go after her,” I told Liam. “We’ve talked three times now, and my story is solid with her. It makes sense I would seek her out to talk more. I can go, let the bug do its job, and then we’ll meet up to dissect the data and figure out the next step.”
Liam shook his head. “Absolutely not. We can’t know that she hasn’t been playing us. What if she finds out we haven’t broken up? Or if she attacks you for no reason at all? She sounds unstable, now… and she wasn’t exactly the height of sensibility when we dated.”
He had a point, but I wouldn’t concede. “If she sees you, then she’ll definitely know something is up. I’ve told her you don’t know we talked, so why would you go looking for her? It will bring the whole situation to a head, whether we like it or not. We aren’t ready for that, not until we find out what we can do to keep her quiet.”
Arguing over who should take the risk and the danger was getting me riled up.
Or maybe it was Liam’s hand that had found my inner thigh, or his eyes so piercingly blue that I could hardly draw breath.
The meeting came to a sudden halt when the tension reached a tipping point. I hopped onto his lap and wrapped my legs around his waist as he brought me to him. Seconds later, my shirt was on the ground, and my bra immediately after.
“We’ll talk later,” he said in the brief moment between his lips leaving mine and locking onto my nipple.
“Ah, yes. Later.”
I ran my fingers through his hair and let my eyes drift closed to concentrate on the way his tongue swirled around its target.
With determination, I used my grip in his hair to force his head back.
“You didn’t let me last time, but this time, I’m returning the favor.”
I let my body turn to liquid, sliding down his body until I puddled on the floor between his feet. I gave him my sultriest look as I pulled at his belt, undoing it and taking his pants off at record speed.
“Addison,” Liam said, the word a bare whisper as I lowered my hot mouth to his thigh.
We’d started so quickly that he wasn’t yet hard, but that rapidly changed as I wrapped my hand around his cock. I watched in fascination as the shaft grew firm and rigid, growing in length and girth until it was the impressive specimen I’d dreamed about for two months.
I found Liam’s eyes on me and teased him as I used my tongue to flick the tip of his manhood. It jerked in my hand. I laughed, delighted at how responsive he was to my actions.
Having such complete control over my love was the ultimate rush, and I luxuriated in the power as I tasted him in broad, long licks up the side. His groans fueled my arousal, each ragged gasp flooding my panties with need.
When I spread my lips to take the head in my mouth, Liam’s head dropped back, and he grunted.
“Fuck, yes, Addison. That feels so good.”
It was hard to smile with his cock in my mouth, but I couldn’t stop trying.
I used both hands to work him, coaxing his pleasure along as I took him as deep into my mouth as I could.
After a few minutes of steady attention, Liam put his hands under my shoulders and lifted me off him.
“If you keep doing that, I’ll burst. And I’m not ready for that to happen yet.”
His strong hands took hold of my sides and lifted me to my feet as he stood. A firm touch turned me toward the table, and another bent me forward until my elbows rested on the smooth wooden surface.
The light dress I wore came only to the tops of my thighs when bent over in this position, and Liam flipped the hem up the rest of the way until it settled on my lower back. He pulled my panties down, not bothering to take them all the way to the floor—they hung around my knees.
“You look so sexy waiting for me like that,” Liam said. “I want to fuck you, but I need a taste, first.”
He knelt behind me and wasted no time in giving my pussy a long lick from behind. The soft pressure from his tongue sent shivers up my body, my lips swollen with arousal.
“Liam… wow.”
After a few slow licks, Liam stood and his cock rubbed around the outside of my entrance.
The sharp pleasure as he entered was becoming familiar, but not mundane. I craved the way his hard flesh spread me open. I was so wet, he slid into my depths without a single hitch, filling me until his hips pressed into my ass.
“Mmm.” We groaned in unison at the sensation of total immersion.
Our lust was too great to remain at a slow pace for long. This was the first time Liam had ever entered me from behind, and the way he hit a spot deep inside me was so intense that I had to bite my lip to prevent a steady scream from escaping my lips.
“Fuck, yes! Harder!”
I urged Liam on, asking for more even though I wasn’t certain I could take it. He gave me what I wanted, thrusting into me so hard that the sound of our bodies slapping together sounded like applause.
“I’m right there, Liam. Fuck the shit out of me!”
Our mating was animalistic—rough and hard and quick—and it rapidly brought me to a climax so large that I clawed at the table to try to deal with the tsunami of pleasure.
“Fuck!” Liam yelled as he slammed into me one last time.
The pulsing of his manhood deep within me signaled his own orgasm, and the knowledge that my body had driven him over the edge extended my own. My knees weakened, and I nearly dropped to the floor before Liam wrapped an arm around me to help keep me on my feet.
Our sharp gasps filled the kitchen, along with the scent of hot sex.
“I guess we didn’t make it to the bedroom, did we?” I asked.
Liam bent over me and nipped my ear with a playful bite.
“Not yet. Don’t think we’re anywhere near finished.”
I wiggled my ass against him, moving on the shaft still buried within me.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
20
~ Liam ~
The bright early morning sunlight streaming through the car window was painful to my eyes.
After hours of the best sex I’d ever had in my life, Addison and I parted ways once more. She had to return to the hotel to keep up the fiction of our separation, while I returned to the empty bed in my too-large apartment.
The only good thing was that it gave me the space I needed to take care of my problems without dragging Addison into it and risking her life.
Gerald pulled the car up to the house, idling for a moment.
“Thank you, Gerald. I will send you a message when I’m ready for you to come and pick me up. This shouldn’t take long.”
The charming little apartment was becoming too familiar. I’d visited it to make sure it met our needs, then to set it up and make sure it was ready for meeting with Addison, and then again when Addison met me there for a blissful reunion yesterday.
She wouldn’t learn about this meeting until it was too late.
I smiled when I opened the door, pleased to see he was already there.
“Arthur. It’s great to see you, as always. Thank you for coming.”
“Liam,” the older man took my hand in a firm handshake. “Anything for my favorite cousin’s son. What was so important that we couldn’t discuss it over the phone?”
I frowned. How could I tell Arthur that I may not be his cousin’s son? The thought that my family might not be my family was beyond troubling.
“Can we have some tea and take a seat? There is much to go over, and I don’t want to keep you standing in the foyer while we discuss it.”
“Of course, of course.”
With my hands wrapped around a steaming cup of tea, the revelations of the prior days were easier to contemplate.
“So, what’s troubling you?” Arthur looked at me with eyes that reassured me everything would be all right.
“Arthur, you’ve been a fantastic support for me throughout my life—you were there for my parents, too. Did you ever see them have any… troubles?”
Arthur leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. I tried to ignore what Addison and I had done on that table yesterday. “Troubles? Of what kind, Liam? Married people always have some issues here or there. It’s a natural part of what happens when two people spend their lives together—no pair of people is one hundred percent alike.”
I sighed. It was hard enough to broach the topic without having to spell it out. “I don’t mean the day-to-day stuff, Arthur. I mean foundation-shaking, marriage-threatening problems. Growing up, they seemed to love each other without fail, but now…”
Arthur frowned. “Why would your opinion change after all this time? What happened? Is this related to your breakup with Addison? I heard about that—I’m awfully sorry, lad.”
That’s right. Of course he’d heard. The whole point was to make it obvious that Addison and I were no longer a couple. Just because I hadn’t told family didn’t mean they wouldn’t find out the same way everyone else would.
“Oh, right.” I eyed Arthur. I could trust him. He was the one family member I could tell anything. Even that we may not actually be family. That’s why he was here. “That’s not the issue. Addison and I are fine.”
“You are?” Arthur’s eyebrows shot up and he sat up straighter. “That’s… unexpected. It’s great, of course, but what happened? I thought you two were done, based on what I was told.”
I shook my head. “It’s much more complicated than you could guess, Arthur. There’s a person out there trying to blackmail me, and they told me to get Addison out of the picture. Otherwise, she might get hurt.”
Arthur stared at me. “So you didn’t break up, after all? It was a ruse to fool this person?”
“That’s right. The blackmailer doesn’t know any better, and we’re trying our best to keep it that way. They want two hundred million pounds, Arthur.”
“Two hundred million? That’s a vast sum of money, Liam. Are you planning to give it to them?”
It would have been nearly impossible to consider giving the money away without a fight under any circumstances, but the blackmailer made a grievous error.
“Not a chance. Not after they threatened Addison. They can say anything they want about me, but to plan harm to her… no. I will do everything in my power to take them down so hard that they will never recover. Their life will be misery until the day they die.”
Arthur had leaned back in his chair, away from me. He looked at me like a favored pet that had turned feral. “That’s a very strong vow, lad. You shouldn’t take such a hard stance without knowing all the facts.”
“Facts? Arthur, they threatened Addison. They say they have all this information on Mother—”
“Denise? What about her?”
I took a sip of the tea to give me time to put the thoughts together. I’d had everything laid out how I wanted to broach the subject, but we’d gotten sidetracked and the mention of the threats on Addison had distracted me.
“The blackmailer claims they have proof Mother had an affair.”
Arthur didn’t look as shocked as I expected. “How could they possibly prove that?”
I set the tea on the table. “Arthur. Did my mother have an affair?”
He didn’t answer right away, but looked to the side as though he found the small apartment fascinating.
“Arthur. You said my parents only had small arguments. Was that a lie? Did Mother have an affair?”
He sighed. “I’d shielded you from it for this long. It’s been second nature to hide it.”
My jaw dropped. Even after the photos sent by the blackmailer, I hadn’t believed it. A few pictures of two people talking or walking into a building proved nothing.
“She did?”
The sudden regularity with which I faced massive revelations couldn’t be good for my brain. Thoughts were fuzzy and impossible to follow to their end.
“It was a short fling. A week of indiscretion. Your father knew, and while he was angry, they reconciled. From that point on, they were a perfect couple, right until their death.”
I couldn’t seem to close my mouth. “And you knew? This whole time? Did she—was I… am I really my father’s son?”
“I’ll be honest with you, Liam. I don’t know. No one does. Your parents had been trying to conceive, and it had taken longer than they wanted. Especially when they could never have another child, it seemed silly to look a gift horse in the mouth. You were a very handsome child even from an early age, and very bright and intelligent.”
I tapped the table with a fingertip in a steady beat. “So I might not be related to the royal family. To you. I could be just a random person with nothing special about me at all.”
“That’s not true,” Arthur said. “Your mother was the heiress to a banking empire, Liam. Even if you don’t have royal blood, you will always have a legitimate claim to the company you helped build to such heights.”
He was right, but I couldn’t help but focus on the other half of my heritage. It was like a chunk of who I am had been torn out and discarded.
“I need to know.”
Arthur shook his head. “It’s not worth it, Liam. Just let things lie. No one will ever wonder if the status quo isn’t disturbed. It might be worth paying off this blackmailer just so that the information never sees the light of day. Two hundred million pounds is a lot of money, but it’s not the end of the world for you. You can afford it.”
“I can…”
“If you can just send a payment and this all goes away, that would probably be for the best. Who knows what else might get dug up if this
blackmailer doesn’t get what they want?”
The finger kept tapping the table like it had a mind of its own. Arthur made it sound so reasonable. Just pay the fee and continue living my life exactly as I had been. I could afford it.
The finger stopped. It wasn’t a matter of whether I could afford it. It was a matter of principle.
“No. No, they messed with the wrong man—with the wrong family. I think I know who they are, Arthur. And I will make sure they know exactly how badly they fucked up.”
“Liam—”
“I’ve decided, Arthur. You can give me advice, but it’s my choice whether to follow it or not. This is what I’m doing, but I’ll need your help.”
Arthur folded his hands on the table. “What do you need?”
“Addison will be here in half an hour. She’s expecting me to be here so we can spend time together and plan our next moves, but I won’t be. I know where the blackmailer is, and I will go confront them. I need you to make sure Addison stays here and doesn’t come after me or do anything hasty.”
“Why would she follow you? How could she know where you’re going?”
It was time for the final revelation. “Addison is a hacker, and a damned good one. She knows who we suspect, and I bet she could figure out where I am in no time at all.”
“She’s a hacker?” For the first time, Arthur seemed genuinely surprised.
I nodded. “I brought her here to help me catch the blackmailer—us falling in love was just an accident. She’s built these little devices that should help us track down the person and prove it’s them. Here…” I searched in my pocket, but the bug wasn’t there. “I left it in the car. But it’s brilliant, Arthur.”
“That is… something, Liam. I’ll do this for you—wait for Addison and make sure she doesn’t leave. It’s the least I could do for my favorite cousin’s son.”
I reached out to put my hand on his forearm. “Thank you, Arthur. I mean it. Now, it’s time for me to put an end to this.”
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