He opened his hands in supplication. “I’m an open book. Ask away.”
“Who do you love more than anyone else on Earth?”
His answer was automatic when he said, “My thirteen-year-old daughter, Abigail.”
Oh wow, she hadn’t seen that one coming, and she didn’t know why it hit her like a blow to the solar plexus that he had a daughter with another woman. “So, you were married before?”
He smirked. “No, just involved with a woman hoping to marry my money. She thought getting pregnant with my child would help her secure a place in my life.” He looked her directly in the eye when he said, “She thought wrong.”
Alisa indulged in a sip of wine as she tried to decide how best to respond to that. “So your ex-girlfriend isn’t a part of your life?”
“Nor is she a part of Abby’s. It turns out the idea of being a mother was more appealing than the job itself.”
Her heart went out to him and his daughter when she thought of how much that betrayal must have cost them both. “I’m sorry.”
Liam kissed her hand. “Thank you, but I’m not. Abby’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I thank God for her every day.”
Alisa was suddenly grateful she was only spending one night in this man’s company. Someone who managed to run a billion dollar company and love his daughter with his whole heart would be difficult, if not impossible, to resist. “She lives with you, I take it?”
“Yes, I have a live-in housekeeper, so there’s always someone there with her when I’m out of town. My mother lives nearby as well; she stops by to check on her.”
Alisa smiled. “That’s so nice. I have a close relationship with my grandparents as well.”
“I gathered that when I saw you admiring the ring earlier.”
“Do you have a picture of her… your daughter?” Alisa suddenly had a compelling urge to see the face of the child he’d helped create.
He grinned for the first time and his whole face lit up, making him look years younger. “Of course, what kind of father would I be if I didn’t?” He reached into the breast pocket of his suit and pulled out his phone. He held it out so she could see his screensaver.
“Oh,” Alisa whispered. “She’s beautiful.” She looked up at the man sitting across from her and tried to picture him as a doting father. Surprisingly, she found it easy to imagine. “She looks just like you.”
“Yes, she does.” He slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Now, tell me about yourself.”
“Um, well, there’s not much to tell. You know that I modeled when I was teenager, but I decided to take my leave before they forced me out for being too old.” She tried not to let bitterness creep into her voice, but she sensed he was intuitive enough to hear it anyway. “I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it was time for me to find something new to focus my attention on.” She cleared her throat. “I was going through a difficult time after my engagement ended, and I was doing some pretty self-destructive things just to prove a point to my ex.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing serious, just drinking a bit too much, partying too hard… dating a lot of different men.”
He brought his wine glass to his lips. “You must have loved him very much.”
“I did.” She never thought she would get over the pain of knowing he’d betrayed her, but each passing month made it a little easier to accept. “I believed we were going to be together forever.” She looked up to find him scrutinizing her and she drew a deep breath before she admitted, “He wants me back.”
“Don’t go back to him.”
She tried to laugh off his quiet command, expecting him to join in her amusement, but when she read the sincerity in his eyes, she realized he wasn’t kidding. “Why should it matter to you whether I take him back?”
He stared at his wine glass a long time before he said, “I don’t know. It just does.”
Liam could barely control his temper when he thought about the man who’d captured her heart. He could see it in her eyes when she talked about him; she still had feelings for him, and that should have served as a red flag. “You deserve a man who’ll appreciate you. Your ex obviously didn’t or you would never have left him.”
“He cheated on me,” she said quietly, before downing the rest of her wine. “With his ex-girlfriend. He broke my heart.”
He wanted to comfort her, but he wouldn’t allow her to cry on his shoulder over a man who didn’t deserve her tears. “That says it all, doesn’t it?” He refilled her wine glass and watched her take another deep swallow. He knew he should dissuade her from drowning her sorrows in alcohol, but he wasn’t her keeper or her moral compass. He was just a man who was falling deeper in lust with her with every passing moment.
“I guess it does.”
“Have you let him back into your bed since he cheated on you?”
She raised her head, a scowl marring her beautiful face. “Of course not, but—”
“But you’ve been tempted?” He should just walk away now, before he got in too deep. He could see she still had a long way to go before she was over her feelings for her ex, and he had never been, nor did he ever want to be the rebound man.
“I’d built my life around this man for two years before he… betrayed me.”
“You were too damn inexperienced to be thinking about forever. I’m sure it was for the best.”
Alisa remained quiet while the waiter placed their appetizers in front of them and left the room. “Who are you to tell me what’s best for me? You don’t even know me.”
He was getting a sense of who she was and what she needed, and it definitely wasn’t a philandering country singer with a wandering eye. “We both know I’m right. When you meet the right man, you’ll realize it wasn’t him.”
Their eyes locked across the table and she asked, “How do you know?”
“You’ll feel it when he touches you,” he whispered. “You’ll see it when he looks at you…” He tried to stop the words from spilling out, but his restraint was nowhere to be found when he needed it most. “You’ll know that he could never do to you what that bastard did because you’re the only one he wants, the only one he’ll ever need.”
A tear slipped down her cheek as she closed her eyes. “How do I know I’ll ever find someone who feels that way about me?”
You already have. “Trust me, you will.”
They ate in silence for a few moments before he realized his opinion came at a price. “You’re angry with me?”
“No, why would I be?” She reached for her wine glass and he noted the slight tremble as she brought the glass to her lips. “You were simply stating your opinion… even though I didn’t ask for it.”
“Do you want me to tell you everyone makes mistakes? That you should give him another chance? Because I won’t.” He was past the point of caring whether he offended her, so long as he prevented her from making a mistake she would live to regret. As far as he was concerned, a man stupid enough to cheat on a woman like Alisa didn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
“You’ve never made a mistake?”
The telltale sign of her whitening knuckles on the cut crystal glass told him he’d be wise to tread lightly, but he never backed down in the face of a challenge. “Of course, I’ve made mistakes, but I’m not a cheater or a liar.”
She covered her mouth with one hand as she set her glass down with the other. “How can you say that? You tried to deceive me about who you are.”
“No, I didn’t,” he said carefully. “You didn’t ask my last name, so I didn’t volunteer it, nor did I ask yours. I told you I was in the hospitality industry, which is true.” He took a moment to spear a piece of calamari. “And I don’t appreciate being lumped in the same category with a man who would slip a ring on your finger with the promise of making you his wife, only to cheat on you before you’d even taken your vows.”
“Did I say you were anything like Nick?”
Just the sound of his name
got under Liam’s skin. “Given the fact your father’s so protective, I can’t imagine he was too happy with your lover’s little mistake.”
“He wasn’t.”
When he saw her take another sip of wine, he gestured to her plate. “You really should eat something. Drinking on an empty stomach is probably not the best idea.” Especially when he was so desperate to finish what they’d started in the limousine.
Instead of taking his advice, she sat back and watched him as she took another sip of the expensive merlot. “You’re used to being in control, aren’t you? You ask someone to do something and you expect them to do it, no questions asked, am I right?”
“Alisa, my company employs thousands of people worldwide. If I didn’t give people direction, what kind of CEO would I be?”
“That extends to your personal relationships, as well?” Her tongue darted out to lick the wine residue from her lips. “You like women who follow your lead?”
Against his better judgement, he refilled her wine glass and gestured to one of the two waiters hovering outside the door, waiting for him to beckon. “Another bottle, please.”
“Right away, sir.”
“Do I like women who follow my lead?”
He watched her carefully, trying to read her expression. He could tell she was intrigued, perhaps aroused, but he knew he couldn’t act on it while she was under the influence, which frustrated him to no end. For once, he wished he were one of those men who seemed willing to take sex any way he could get it. Perhaps, if he wasn’t the father of a teen daughter who could very well be taken advantage of by an over-sexed boy while under the influence.
“I haven’t given it much thought. I seem to be attracted to a certain type of woman, if that’s what you mean.”
She propped her chin in her hand and looked at him. “Describe her, your ideal woman.”
He was looking at her, but he couldn’t tell her that. “My ideal woman or the type of woman I usually date? There’s a difference.”
One waiter returned to clear the plates while another opened a second bottle of wine and refilled their glasses.
“Your fantasy woman.” She brought the glass to her lips again, and he was sorely tempted to take it away from her.
“I don’t have time to waste fantasizing, Alisa.”
She ran her fingers through her long blond hair as her tongue outlined her full lips. “Not even when you’re lying in your big bed all alone at night and you’re on the verge of falling asleep? Doesn’t an image of her ever enter your mind when you’re…” Her cheeks colored as she dipped her head. “You know…”
Liam chuckled, caught off-guard by her candor. “I know who I’ll be imagining now.” He wasn’t trying to feed her ego; he was serious. The sight of her with all that long blond hair tumbling around her shoulders, her cheeks flushed, her blue eyes heavy… that’s the image he would take to bed with him tonight, and he suspected every night for a long time to come.
She eased the pointed toe of her designer shoe up the inside of his thigh as he shifted in his seat. “You know exactly what to say, when to say it, don’t you? You’re always so composed, but I’d love to see you lose control.”
He closed his eyes as he tried to curb his body’s reaction to her merciless teasing. “Sweetheart, this is a bad idea.” He slid his chair back, trying to put some distance between them, but she slid her shoe off and zeroed in on her intended target.
“Oh, excuse me, sir,” Robert said, backing out of the room when he saw them.
“You are a very naughty girl,” Liam said, pointing at her. He was more aroused than he could ever remember being, and the fact that she seemed totally unaffected by being caught in the act of trying to seduce him only turned him on more. Before he could consider the implications, he got up, crossed the room, and locked the double doors. “My staff doesn’t need to be in on this.”
Alisa stood up and moved in behind his chair. “I agree.” She patted the gilded chair. “Take your jacket off and have a seat, Liam.”
He didn’t hesitate to comply. Whatever she had in store for him, he was more than ready. Anything she wanted or needed… he was her man.
Chapter Six
Alisa had never felt so free or uninhibited in her life. Knowing that they only had one night together made her want to make the most of it. Everything about this man turned her on, from the glint in his eyes when she toyed with him, to the tense set of his jaw when she angered him. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on him, to see him snap… lose control.
She’d never engaged in a reckless one-night stand before and perhaps it was the fine wine helping to lower her inhibitions, or the promise of uninhibited sex with a wealthy, powerful stranger… She didn’t know or care. She just wanted this feeling to last forever.
When she had him seated in the chair, she reached over to loosen his tie, blanketing his chest with her long hair. “I just want you to relax,” she whispered. “You helped to ease my tension in the car; I’d like to return the favor.”
“Sweetheart, it would take a team of massage therapists at least a week to work the tension out of my body right now,” he said through gritted teeth.
“No,” she murmured, licking a path from his neck to his ear. “It’ll only take one woman and a few mind-blowing orgasms to help you unwind.” She’d never been so brazen with a lover, and knowing the power this man usually wielded over people made her want to tame him even more. She worked the buttons running the length of his custom-made, monogrammed shirt and slid a hand inside the opening.
He set his head back on the chair and closed his eyes. “God, Alisa, I want you…”
“All in due time,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his ear as her hands began to caress his broad shoulders. It seemed a shame to hide a body like his under tailored business suits. “It’s never been like this for me…”
He grabbed her wrist and swung her around, pulling her into his lap to straddle him. He slid her snug black dress up and began to slide his hands up and down her outer thighs. “And it never will be again. What we have is different. It’s…”—he buried his head in her neck and placed moist kisses along her collarbone—“bizarre.”
That was the only word to describe the perplexing change in her, prompting her to do and say things she wouldn’t normally, especially with a man she hadn’t even known twenty-four hours ago. She plunged her hands into his hair and tilted his head back before kissing him with the passion of a woman who’d been waiting a lifetime to find the right lover.
“Let’s take this upstairs, sweetheart,” he whispered between kisses. “I need you, now.”
“Letting the anticipation build is half the fun. We only have one night; let’s make the most of it.” She saw a dark flash of some raw emotion she couldn’t decipher in his eyes: anger, frustration… hurt? “Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked, smiling. “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
He smirked as he drew her in closer, enveloping her in his spicy scent and muscular arms. “I think that’s supposed to be my line.”
She wiggled in his lap as she giggled at the tortured expression on his handsome face.
“You think this is funny?” He smacked her behind before lifting her off of him. “Two can play at this game, my love.” The endearment clearly slipped past his lips before he’d had time to censor it because when he realized what he said, he glided a finger down her cheek and looked into her eyes. “You would be an easy woman to love, Alisa.”
The last man who’d told her he loved her clearly didn’t, and she knew it would be a long time before she could trust someone else with her heart. “Tonight isn’t about sweet words or false promises. It’s about escaping the stress of our day-to-day lives for a while. Can we just leave it at that? Please?”
His harsh expression gave her a glimpse into the merciless mogul who’d dominated boardrooms to build his fortune. “It can be anything you want it to be. I told you, this is your night.” He held her chair out for he
r before he crossed the room to unlock the door.
She heard him utter a few soft words to one of the wait staff before he reclaimed the seat across from her. She saw the look of disapproval as he watched her refill her wine glass, but she hadn’t had a drop to drink in months, and since this night was about letting loose, she intended to do just that. “Is there a problem?”
He crossed his arms. “I don’t want you to have any regrets in the morning.”
“I won’t.” She couldn’t imagine a woman alive who would regret sharing a bed with Liam.
“You never said what brings you to Vegas,” he said, setting the linen napkin in his lap.
“I have a meeting with a handbag designer in the morning. If her designs are as impressive as her online portfolio, I’d like to feature her work in my boutique.” She could hear the slight slur to her words, but instead of reaching for her water, she lifted the wine glass.
“Do you travel a lot for business?”
“I have been lately, but now that I have the major suppliers in place, I imagine it will be much less moving forward. I’ll go to the major shows, of course, and occasional trips to visit the designers I’m featuring, but that won’t be more than a few times a year.”
He’d obviously been visiting Nashville on business, and she knew he had a hotel there, but she didn’t want to make it awkward between them by asking when he was planning a return visit. “You must travel a lot for business. It can’t be easy, raising a daughter by yourself and traveling so much.”
“It isn’t easy, but nothing worth having is ever easy, is it?” He smiled at her over the rim of his wine glass. “I love my business and I love my little girl, so I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Her heart melted when he spoke of his daughter. Safeguarding her heart against the aloof CEO was easy, but when she stole a glimpse of him as a doting father, her imagination kicked into overdrive. She couldn’t help but fantasize about being the woman he showered with his undivided attention and affection. “Your daughter’s very lucky to have you in her life.”
High Stakes Page 5