His heart pounded harder than it had when he’d seen Iono take aim at her or when he’d been away from her and news was delivered about Jessup’s escape.
Her only promise had been that she wouldn’t leave until things were cleared up. With the danger eliminated and the surgery done, she only had to recover enough to leave. Other than desire, he had no assurance she would stay.
She turned her head toward him and smiled drunkenly. “Liam,” she slurred.
“Grey.” He sat on the edge of her bed, careful not to jostle her. “How do you feel?”
“Ready to face a wolf.”
“Well, maybe you should wait awhile. At least until you can shoot a man two inches above his heart on purpose.” The shot she’d made wouldn’t be difficult for someone with real training, but for a woman facing down the man who’d tried to kill her… It had been impressive.
“I wanted to kill him.”
“I know the feeling.” Liam wanted to go back in time to kill Jessup, Micah and the ass that had outed her to Jessup. “I think we’ll have to settle for the way it ended.”
“Nope.” She rubbed her tongue along her teeth as if she was trying to get something off it, probably that drugged cotton-mouth feeling that was so irritating. “It’s not ended.”
“What’s not ended?”
“Liam.” Her eyes drifted closed and she slipped back to sleep.
Grey had been pretty amenable given the circumstances they’d been facing the last few days. With drugs coursing through her system, she was incapable of argument. Now would be the time to get her to agree to stay forever, assuming she was awake, but that wouldn’t be playing fair. Liam liked watching her fight a fair fight too much to rob her of one.
To make sure he was there when she woke up, he stretched out beside her. He’d thought he would fall asleep the moment he knew she was safe and he stopped moving. He was wrong, because all he could do was watch her.
He watched her eyes move rapidly behind her closed lids. He watched the rise and fall of her chest. He watched her nostrils flare with each breath.
He watched the woman who’d turned his world upside down and formulated his next proposal. It would have to be a damn good one to convince her to give him a chance.
Grey stood on the back porch of Liam’s home and shook her head at the transformation Lori and her team from Tulle and Tulips Designer Weddings had engineered.
Tabatha, the one they referred to as the Queen of Venues, had designed a glass type walkway that extended over the zero edge swimming pool. Guests would sit on the lawn, and it would look for all the universe like the bride and groom were standing on water.
It was a fitting visual, because that was how they felt about each other.
Misty, florist extraordinaire, had wrapped the most fragile-looking rosebuds around the strands of twinkle lights that her friend’s fiancé, Burton, had strung after building the glass platform.
Lori had designed an amazing gown that had been polished off with the perfect amount of bling, or so stated Darci. Hair and makeup were in the hands of Isabella, a sweet woman who had to buy her clothes from a renaissance festival catalog.
Gisella and Tess were in the kitchen sparring for space while they created masterpieces in the cake and food departments. Kayla wandered around all of them snapping pictures of everything and everyone.
They were noisy and chaotic, raunchy and brazen, and Grey found herself relaxing among them.
“This is going to be a beautiful wedding.”
Grey turned to see Liam’s mother standing a few feet away. Only a few inches shy of Liam’s height, with a slender build and soft curves, Mrs. Burgess had been on hand since Liam had brought Grey and Ruby home from the hospital two weeks earlier. She’d apparently been at the house since the day after the surgery to make sure things were set up for when they were released.
“Only the best, right?”
Mrs. Burgess shrugged. “It was nice of Liam to open the place up for H and Ava.”
“Yeah. It was nice, and it was his idea.”
Unlike the mothers-in-law horror stories were built on, Mrs. Burgess had stayed in the background, giving Grey space to heal. They’d sat in silence to watch movie after movie. They’d talked amiably while she taught Grey to knit. Grey had walked her through several chocolate dishes. Gorgonzola dolce with dark chocolate, a chocolate soufflé with caramel sauce and lemon drizzles with sunken dark chocolate chunks had been the favorites.
Not once had Mrs. Burgess asked about her past or her future plans. She’d made no mention of grandchildren and though Grey suspected some disappointment that she and Liam hadn’t had a traditional wedding, she never said so.
“Do you think a fancy wedding is necessary for a strong marriage?” Grey asked, turning back to look at the view.
“No.” Mrs. Burgess moved closer. Her smile was so much like Liam’s and her eyes were the same warm brown. “If you ask me, I think too often too much effort is put into the wedding and in the process people lose sight of what’s important.”
“What’s that?”
“That.” Mrs. Burgess pointed a little ways away.
Grey followed her gaze and saw Liam crossing the lawn toward them. “I don’t understand.”
“The way Liam looks at you. The way you look at him. You two can be in a room full of people but when you see each other everyone and everything around you fades away.”
“He’s pretty great.”
“He’s said the same thing about you. That is what matters to a marriage. That and honesty.”
Mrs. Burgess took Grey’s hand in hers and laced their fingers. She didn’t hold Grey’s hand longer than it took to squeeze once. As smoothly as she’d touched, she released. As Liam grew closer, his mother walked away with a parting, “Tell him what he’s doing to you.”
It was the first time Mrs. Burgess had offered a touch beyond a handshake at their initial meeting. Its simplicity overtook Grey, because in the simplicity rested something she’d thought impossible.
Tears pooled on Grey’s bottom lids and she sniffed. Liam’s brow pinched together as he joined her. “You okay? You’re not hurting, are you? Mom didn’t say anything to upset you?”
Unable to speak, she shook her head. In his silent way, Liam pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. He’d been careful with her since she’d been released from the hospital.
He held her at night and chased away her nightmares, though they were fading. He kissed her every morning before going to work and every night before going to sleep. He’d run baths for her, cooked for her. He’d even read to her while she’d been in the hospital.
He’d been the definition of sweet. Just like his mother. If their plan was to undermine her willpower and talk her into staying, they were miscalculating. She wasn’t a delicate bloom that would wilt or fall off the stem at the slightest breeze. It was important they came to understand that. Especially Liam.
Grey pulled back and looked up at him. “Do you know what today is?”
He dipped his head and whispered seductively along her ear. “It’s the day before the wedding that’s the day before all these people leave us alone.”
“You say that like you might want to be alone with me.”
“I always want to be alone with you.”
“Yet, it’s been three weeks since we’ve been alone.”
“We’re alone every night.”
“Liam.” She shook her head.
“What? If something is bothering you, tell me.”
“You want to know? Do you really want to know?” Exhausted with being sheltered and protected, she welcomed the invitation to speak her mind.
“Yes.”
“Fine. I went from being guarded by a man who in the end was willing to sell me out for money to being guarded by you. I confronted Jessup and then went into the hospital for surgery. I woke up with you there, and don’t get me wrong that was great.”
“Doesn’t sound like you think so.”
&nb
sp; “During my hospital stay, my room door opened a minimum of forty-eight times a day. Most days it was closer to seventy-four.”
“You counted?”
“There’s little else to do in a hospital bed for seven days.”
“You said once you liked the idea of close friends.”
“I did. And the friends actually didn’t annoy me.”
He backed up a step and crossed his arms over his chest. His head moved up and down in a slow nod. “I’ve been annoying you.”
“You’ve been sheltering me like I’m too fragile to do anything for myself.” She propped her hands on her hips and glared up at him. She was getting on a roll and wanted to air it all. “Do you know what I wanted to do the day I got out of the hospital?”
“Sleep.”
“That’s what I came home and did, but it’s not what I wanted to do.”
“What did you want to do, Grey?”
She waved at the house, frustrated. “I wanted to sit in the kitchen and watch you cook. I wanted to curl up on the couch and watch a movie with you.”
“You could have done that.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t, because Ruby and Simon and your mother and Gara were here. They, or someone else, has been here every moment of every day since we came home. And then there are the wedding plans.”
“They’re here to help you while I’m at work. And I’m not going to apologize for letting Ava get married here. This place holds a lot of shitty memories for her. She deserves some happy ones.”
“I know, and I appreciate every bit of that. I do. But, Liam, I’m feeling claustrophobic. In your huge house I’m feeling smothered.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Yeah? Even Ruby, who hates to go out, has been out.”
“Yeah.”
“Look around right this second. How many people do you see?”
He looked around and counted the people in the lawn, setting up for the wedding. “Six.”
“You missed your mother watching us from the living room window, which proves my point. I am being constantly monitored. I’m not sure if you think I’m going to keel over and die as a result of the surgery or if you’re afraid I’m going to bolt.”
“Both,” he admitted under his breath.
“Well get over it, damn it.”
“You’ve never said you want to stay.” He towered over her, but still he didn’t raise his voice or wave his arms in aggravation. “You’ve never said you want me.”
“I asked you one time why you wanted me here.”
He nodded.
“You told me if I ever decided I was really ready for the answer you’d tell me.”
He nodded.
“Liam, I dare you to send everyone away. Let it be just you and me with no one to watch through windows or listen from the next room. Let it be just you and me so we can talk or yell if we want to. Get rid of your buffers and when you do, if you do, I’ll be ready to ask my question again.”
Without another word, she turned and walked into the house.
His mother turned from the window and smiled. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Grey shook her head with her own smile tugging at her lips. She couldn’t have dropped a heavier gauntlet at his feet if she were Thor’s sister. The question was whether or not he’d pick it up.
Chapter Eighteen
Every step Grey took away from him was a shaft of agony. She’d just stood before him, taken everything he’d done to help her and thrown it in his face. How she could bitch about his actions in one breath and tell him she appreciated them in the next made no sense. Except she was a woman and that sort of logic was a woman’s prerogative.
Watching her through the windows, he watched her smile at his mother. Then he noticed something. His mother was feeling proud, like she always did when she won a match with one of them. And Grey, when she looked at his mom, looked victorious.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered to himself.
Grey hadn’t been complaining about the help he’d provided. She’d been complaining that he was smothering her, giving her no choices, and she was right. He had taken away every decision she could need to make, because he’d wanted to show her how much he cared.
She’d dared him to send everyone away, which he would do as soon as Ava and H were married and order was restored to his house. No. Their house. She’d called it home in the middle of her rant.
He smiled.
He couldn’t take their venue away from them at this point, not that he thought that was what Grey wanted. No, he couldn’t give her privacy in the house, but that didn’t mean he was out of options.
He met his mother’s gaze through the window and sent her one of her own victorious smiles as he pulled his phone from his pocket. She wasn’t the only one who could make things happen.
Lori had decided after making chocolates with Grey that she should make confections for weddings. It was a brilliant idea, and one he would use, because there’d been a time when Grey had wanted to be a chef.
After a couple of quick phone calls, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and headed inside.
“Mother.” He nodded as he passed his mother.
She nodded in return. “Son.”
“You’re a troublemaker,” he told her as he continued past.
“Only when trouble is what’s needed.”
He laughed as he ran up the stairs, skipping every other one. He pushed open the door to the room he’d shared with Grey. She looked up, wide-eyed, from the book she was reading. Her whole argument had been about him suffocating her and giving her no choices.
What he was doing was risky, because she could see it as more of the same. It was a gamble he was willing to make.
He stalked across the room, pulled the book from her hand and tossed it on the bed. He swept her into his arms and headed downstairs.
“Hey!”
Yeah. She’d gotten good and fired up. So had he. “You had your turn to speak. I’ll have mine.”
“This is so not what I did, or had in mind.”
“You asked me a question. I’m going to answer it.”
“By acting like a caveman?”
He grinned. “You can’t dictate how a message will be delivered, Grey.”
“You are being ridiculous.” She smacked his shoulder. “Put me down.”
“No.”
His mother opened the door to the garage for him and then pressed the button for the garage door. With a nod toward the convertible, that had its top down though it had been up when he’d gotten home, she chuckled. “Key’s in the ignition.”
“Mrs. Burgess,” Grey pled. “Tell him to put me down.”
“He’s pretty great, huh?” his mother asked as she closed the door with a wink.
Grey smacked his shoulder again, which only made Liam want to laugh more. At the convertible, he lowered her over the side, not bothering with the door. When she started to scramble out, he dropped a hand on her shoulder. “Stay.”
One look in his eyes was enough to quell her fight. At least for the moment. After they were on the road and he didn’t have to worry about her bolting, he began to explain. “You wanted me to send everyone away, but I think we both know I can’t make that happen until after the wedding.”
“I know.” She sighed a petulant sigh.
“I can still give you some of what you’re asking for.”
“This should be good.”
The drive was a short one, only ten minutes. It seemed interminable though, because he was getting excited about the idea of being alone with her. Completely alone.
He pulled into the shopping center and parked in front of a vacant storefront. Grey looked from the store to him and frowned. “What are we doing here?”
“I’m explaining.” He leaned over, pressed a kiss to the bottom of her jaw and opened her door for her. “If you let me.”
“I should give you a time limit,” she groused.
He smiled as he joined her by the hood of the car. He took her hand in his and led her to the front door that had been covered with newspapers. It was the only shop in the strip that sat empty.
She stopped, refusing to take another step. “I don’t want to be here, Liam.”
It was a huge gamble to take her back to the beginning, but he believed she was strong enough to face it, to overcome it. “Give me two minutes inside and if you still feel that way we’ll leave.”
“Two minutes.”
He didn’t think it would take that long. He’d gotten to know her pretty well. She froze right inside the door. He stopped with her and kept her hand in his. “The shop’s been empty since that night.”
She rubbed her chest, but said nothing.
“You’ve mentioned, more than once, how you’d wanted to be a chef and how you enjoyed working with chocolate.” He waved a hand at the displays. “Nasty shit aside, this is where you fell in love for the first time. If you were to want to open a chocolatier shop, it’s yours. These cases could be filled with your creations.”
“Liam.”
“You have an amazing talent, Grey. I haven’t signed any papers, so there’s no commitment on the line here, but if you want to start over, maybe you’ll consider starting over where you began. Where you became the woman you are today. Kind of like Ava and H are by getting married at the house.”
She looked up at him with tears glimmering. “I’m not as strong as Ava. I can’t allow this place back into my life.”
“I disagree with the strength argument.” He didn’t move toward the backroom. Even he struggled with going into the backroom and seeing where she’d been attacked, so if she couldn’t do it he wouldn’t force it. “But consider something for me.”
“What?”
“When you were last here, you lacked the inner strength to stand against stress. You struggled with drugs and because of that you feel you lost everything.”
“Yeah.”
“That girl died in this store. A woman walked out, but not just any woman. A one of a kind woman a man considers himself blessed to know.”
She shook her head.
“The woman who rose up from the ashes of this place was strong enough to start over in a new city with no friends. Every pressure she failed to overcome when she was here was magnified a hundred times over. She got clean and stayed clean. She stayed away from her sister when she realized what she’d lost, because she knew it was safer that way. Then, she risked everything in a daring move to save that same sister’s life.”
Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops) Page 16