by Paula Cox
“So you’ve got another piece of the puzzle, eh?” Ellis said.
Liana handed over the piece of paper. “Apparently, Michael was receiving these in the weeks prior to his death,” she explained. “Cliff wanted to call it straight away, but I thought there might be something you could find out about it first.”
Ellis smoothed the note out in front of him and turned to his computer, tapping away at the keys. “Normally we can find something on a landline, but if it’s a cell phone that will likely lead nowhere.”
Cliff turned and smirked at Liana. Just as he’d expected. She resolutely ignored him and looked forward.
“And is it a cell phone?” she asked.
He nodded. “Unfortunately. But I’ll see if anything comes up. Give me a minute.”
In the meantime, Cliff watched Liana and waited for her to glance over at him. She knew he was watching. He could see it in the determined tightness in her jaw and the way she blinked, twice as much as usual, like she was trying to blot him out.
She could try, but she’d never accomplish it. Not if he had anything to do with it.
A moment later, Ellis sighed and sank back in his chair. “Nothing, my friend. I’ve got zilch in my database on this number. It must be a burner phone.”
Liana shifted in her seat. “So it’s probably not even in use anymore?”
Ellis shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
Cliff snickered, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
“Don’t gloat,” Liana snapped. “It’s not attractive.”
“Neither is whining,” Cliff retorted. “But yet you seem to be proficient at it.”
Ellis had never looked more uncomfortable. “Maybe we should just get on with calling it,” he said. “Instead of sitting here and bickering.”
Cliff sighed. He had a point. “Fine,” he said. “Read the number out to me.”
Ellis did as instructed, and Cliff tapped in each number with precision and then double-checked to ensure all the digits were correct. Then he hit the button to call, setting the phone down on the desk on speaker.
The phone rang for so long that Cliff was ready to end the call and ditch this whole process. It was a burner phone, after all. It had been weeks since the note was received.
But then the line stopped ringing and started laughing. Or, rather, the man on the other end of the line started laughing. Cliff’s face immediately began to heat with anger. Who the fuck did this guy think he was?
Liana flinched at the sound. Ellis just looked worried. But Cliff? Cliff was furious.
“Who the fuck are you?” Cliff demanded.
The laughter ceased. “You’re not following my instructions,” the man—Lando, Cliff presumed—taunted. “That’s a dangerous game to play.”
“Well, I’m done playing,” Cliff spat. “Come out and face me like a man if you have a problem with me.”
Lando completely ignored Cliff. “There’s something very frustrating about having your instructions not only ignored but completely disrespected,” he mused. “You’re supposed to be staying away, Liana. Not getting closer.”
Cliff’s rage only grew. Landos’ guess that Liana would be listening was a lucky one, but it must have been chilling for the girl all the same. She shrank back in her chair and drew her knees to her chest. Cliff rested a hand on her knee and barked into the receiver, “If you touch her—”
“Goodbye, Cliff.”
The line clicked, and Lando was gone.
***
Liana had downed two gin and cranberries and still wasn’t feeling any better. She paced around Cliff’s study, fists clenched at her side as she tried to calm down. She was feeling too many things. Too many to explain. Too many to grasp. She was a ball of emotion, and nothing was working to calm her down.
Cliff watched coolly from his chair. They’d gotten back home half an hour ago, and he’d been doing that the whole time. Wasn’t he upset? Wasn’t he angry? Sad? Anything? She would have accepted frivolity at this point if it meant she wasn’t the only one who was affected by the phone call with Lando. But for some reason she was.
“I’m really getting tired of watching you pace,” Cliff said. “Sit down.”
“I can’t,” Liana replied, turning on her heel and walking back toward him. “There’s a madman out there who wants me dead.”
“And your plan is to pace so much that you create a trench to hide in?” Cliff postulated.
Liana stopped and glared at him. “Can you at least pretend to give a shit about what happened during that phone call?”
Cliff took a sip of his scotch. “Not a lot happened, Liana. The phone call lasted less than a minute.”
“And during that time we found out that the man who wants me dead is batshit insane. Doesn’t that chill you a little?”
Cliff took another sip, eyes dark and steady. “Of course that chills me,” he said. He rose from the chair, stepping toward her. “It does all sorts of things to me. And when I catch Lando, I’m going to rip his head from his neck with my bare hands. But storming around my study until you fall into a coma from exhaustion won’t help anyone.”
“You don’t seem very affected,” Liana defended. “You’ve been sitting there this whole time looking bored. You haven’t done anything. You haven’t said anything. What am I supposed to think?”
Cliff took another step forward. He was so close. His heady scent invaded her nostrils, sending her drifting into memories of how that masculine smell had surrounded her while they kissed. It was a smell she would dream of for the rest of her life. She wanted to bury her face in his chest and have his arms and scent wrap around her and erase her from the world. Then she wouldn’t have to deal with how surreal her world had gotten.
“I may be calm,” Cliff said in a low tone, “but do not mistake that for boredom. I’m thinking. Strategizing. And yes, fuming. A crazy asshole is threatening me, but that’s nothing new. My life means there is always a threat.”
He reached for her, holding her in place by her forearms as he lowered his face until they were nose to nose. Liana didn’t even dare to breathe. Her body reacted all its own—breasts tight, core hot, skin tingling. She shouldn’t have been thinking about how soft his lips looked. She shouldn’t have been wondering if he was thinking about her lips too.
“But the fact that Lando is threatening you absolutely fucking drives me crazy. Because you’re an innocent in all this. You never asked for this. And you don’t fucking deserve it.”
Liana breath caught in her throat. “You can’t possibly mean all that.”
Cliff furrowed his brow. “Of course I can,” he replied. “You are innocent. Why wouldn’t I mean it?”
“No.” She shook her head. “The part about it driving you crazy,” she explained. “My life doesn't mean that much to you, remember? So don’t use me as an excuse to feel more anger.”
“Of course your life means something to me.” Cliff studied her, the light from the fireplace glancing off his hair, shaggy from him running his hands through it. “You’re annoying as hell, but I’m not going to sit by and watch someone hurt you.”
“Because I can recognize the person,” she filled in. “Because I’m a resource.”
Cliff growled. “Because you’re mine.”
His lips descended on Liana’s, possessive and fierce. Where had all this come from? He had been the one to say they needed to stay away from each other. He had been the one who had avoided her all week. Why this? Why now?
But like hell was Liana going to ask any of those questions. Not when his kiss was heaven, and his hands were pulling her tightly against his chest. And most certainly not when she disappeared into him again, folded in his embrace and hidden from the world.
His mouth was so hot against hers; the faint trace of stubble on his chin scratching her and making her toes curl in delight. Cliff was an expert kisser. He was an expert at lots of things, and Liana wondered if he was just as good at everything else. Her core turne
d molten at the thought.
Cliff’s hands slid down to cup Liana’s butt through her tight jeans and she moaned with pleasure. He squeezed and pulled her tighter against his rock hard chest. She grasped the front of his shirt in her fists, unable to do anything else in the confined space. The knowledge that he had her, and that he could do anything he wanted with her, thrilled Liana. She licked his lips and dared him.
“Woman,” he breathed, “You make me so fucking angry.”
Liana pulled back and stared up at him. His eyes shot arrows of lust through her. “You don’t seem very angry,” she said, chuckling.
He squeezed her butt harder, grinding her against the bulge in his pants. He was rock hard. Not angry at all, it would seem.
“Do you understand that nobody makes me as angry as you do and lives?” he growled, grinding against her again.
Liana moaned. The biting edge of his voice, normally reserved for when they bickered, sounded hotter than hell when he was using it like this.
“I’m sure there’s a point you’re getting to here,” Liana replied, feigning nonchalance.
Inside she was a puddle of lava.
Cliff leaned down and nipped at her neck. “The point I’m getting at is you’re in deep fucking trouble.”
His words sent a wave of pleasure through Liana. Her breath caught in her throat again, and she let out an involuntary moan. Nobody had ever affected her like this. Nobody had ever had her this aroused before her clothes even came off. If he could do this to her without barely touching her, what could Cliff do when he did?
“I think you’re all talk,” Liana challenged.
In an instant, Cliff turned her around roughly until her back was pressed against his chest. One arm wrapped around Liana’s middle, securing her arms to her side. The other held her chin.
His breath tickled her earlobe, lips just brushing her neck. “Silly girl.”
He released her chin and moved his hand down to the front of her jeans, rubbing against her pussy. Liana moaned again, but this time wiggled her ass against his erection to drive him crazy too. He kissed and bit at her neck as he rubbed her, groaning with each gyration of her hips. They were doing a slow and sensual dance together, one that Liana worried would end in her fainting. Surely she couldn’t hope to stay conscious when her body was so hot?
“What are you going to do to me?” Liana asked.
Her voice was shaky, but they both knew it had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with blinding arousal.
Cliff’s dark chuckle sent shivers up her spine. “Everything.”
Chapter 12
Cliff practically threw Liana on his bed. She even bounced a little from the force of it, her eyes wide with shock. He didn’t care. He needed her now. He’d needed her from the moment he caught eyes with her at the wedding. And now he was going to have her.
The heat of her pussy against his hand had threatened to drive him to insanity in the study. And still, she goaded him. Always goading him. And he fucking loved it.
“Need a minute to catch your breath?” Liana asked, smiling up at him through her lashes.
It probably did look odd that he was just standing there, watching her, but the sight of her in his bed was something he wanted to commit to memory. This was a mistake. She would see that soon, and she’d never come back to his bed again. Cliff was dangerous. He couldn’t offer her the stability and safety she needed. And when she realized that, she’d be gone.
But tonight she was his.
“Stop chatting and take your clothes off,” Cliff instructed.
He began to undress, watching with keen interest as Liana followed his order without complaint. Who knew that all he had to do to get her comply was to get her in bed?
Her body was every bit as beautiful as he imagined it would be. Long, lean legs. A tight belly and high, pert breasts. Her nipples were pink against her creamy skin, and it was an effort to keep himself from capturing them in his mouth right now. But he wanted to remember her like this too.
Her ash brown hair splayed across his pillow. Her face flushed with arousal. The nervousness in her eyes. She was trying so hard to pretend that she wasn’t nervous. And she looked heavenly.
She returned her full attention to him once she was fully nude. He lapped it up, loving each shiver as it danced across her skin. And he kept undressing, letting her watch. This part would be slow. He wanted to always remember this and to be able to feel this moment over and over again. The first time he saw his beautiful Liana nude and ready for him. Likely the last time, too.
But the slowness would not last. He was counting on it.
Liana’s eyes widened as Cliff removed his shirt, exposing the muscles he’d worked damned hard to tone at the boxing gym for the past ten years. And when he began to unbutton his pants, another shiver of anticipation wracked through her. He watched her flinch as the sensation drilled her.
“Do you like what you see, darling?” Cliff asked.
Liana swallowed and nodded. “You’re exquisite.”
“No, Liana,” Cliff breathed. He dropped his pants and boxers to the floor and stepped out of them, his erect length bobbing ahead of him. “You’re exquisite.” Climbing onto the bed, Cliff added, “And I’m going to fuck you senseless.”
All the hesitation and nervousness in Liana’s body evaporated the moment he laid his hand on her thigh and pulled her to the edge of the bed. The rough movement elicited a yelp of surprise, but it turned into a moan as soon as Cliff lowered his face to that sweet spot between her legs.
Liana tasted divine. Her musk was so feminine and dizzying that he wished he could spend forever between her thighs. He licked and sucked at the delicate nub of her clit, holding her steady as she bucked and trembled with pleasure. Cliff had always loved eating women out. It was like being given control over her body. Each stroke of his tongue sent her further into bliss.
Liana’s moans were music to Cliff’s ears. He began to slide a finger into the silken heat of her as he lapped away at her beautiful pussy. She was so wet and ready for him. He couldn’t wait to get inside of her and make her beg for his cock. But he was going to make her cum first.
“Oh, Cliff!” she moaned. “I’m so close!’
She didn’t have to tell him for him to know. Her body was trembling now, toes curled and back arched. She ground a slow circle against his lips and tongue, matching the steady thrust of his finger. He kept up his pace until she cried out in rapture, her body clenching around his digit.
It was the hottest thing he’d ever seen.
Cliff could have given her time to recover but he didn’t. Now it was his turn. He was finally going to claim his woman.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart,” he murmured as he rose above her, lifting her legs over his shoulders.
Liana’s eyelids fluttered open. Her breasts heaved as she panted; face and chest flushed with excitement. She looked so fucking good.
Cliff lined up with her pussy and drove into the slick and searing heat of her core. She flung her head back and cried out. Cliff was tempted to do the same. Her body fit perfectly with his, and each pump of his hips made his balls zing with pleasure. He became lost in the moment, in the rhythm of his thrusts. He became lost in her.
There was little Liana could do from where she lay on the bed. He’d done it that way on purpose. While he longed to have her reach for him, he knew he’d never stand a chance of lasting if she did. It was a miracle he hadn’t blown his load already just from how fucking hot her orgasm had been. A girl like Liana was a treasure to be savored. Cliff just wished he had more time to savor her.
But Cliff was a sucker for punishment, so he leaned down and captured her lips with his, pressing a torturous and passionate kiss on them. She grabbed at his back, urging him closer. Cliff was pleasantly surprised at how flexible she was. She was nearly bent in goddamn half.
“Oh God,” Liana whispered against his lips. “Oh God. Please. Please. Please.”
“Plea
se what, darling?”
Her eyes flicked open. “Please don’t stop.”
Cliff growled in delight and continued hammering into her, even as he felt his own pleasure climb. She was close, and he was going to give her release again before he reached it himself.
She pulled him down for another kiss, punctuated by moans as their hips crashed together. He was cresting on that sweet finale. Fuck.
And then Liana screamed and clenched around him like a vice.
Cliff roared and buried into her, their bodies spasming in time with each other. His panting breaths blew against her neck. He couldn’t think of anything but breathing.