Sinful Rapture
Page 8
“I wanted her to come to me,” he said, scrubbing his hands over his face. God, he missed Holly. Even though they’d shared less than twenty-four hours together, he’d become accustomed to having her near. Now he didn’t know where she was. Or even if she was okay. Dammit. “To accept that she loved me without having to expose Theodore. Foolish, I suppose.”
“No, not foolish. Hell, I even admire the sentiment,” Luc assured him. “But right now you have to hope she can forgive you long enough to explain.”
Liam turned, and with one violent jerk of his arm sent the empty beer bottle sailing into the fireplace.
It exploded into a thousand shards, representing the pieces of his broken heart.
“Shit,” he breathed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Holly ordered the taxi to take her to the Playhouse.
In part, because she was afraid that Liam would follow her to her apartment. But mainly because she needed the comfort of her best friend.
Thank god Sasha had come in early to deal with paperwork.
With her usual efficiency she had Holly whisked into her small office and a plate of fudge brownies shoved into her hands.
Now Holly paced the hand-woven carpet that matched the surprisingly delicate Louis XIV furnishings. The rest of the club was so…modern and bold and intensely sensual. It was always a shock to get a glimpse of the traditional, hardheaded businesswoman beneath the dominatrix façade.
“Men suck,” Holly muttered, licking the chocolate from her fingers.
She’d had three brownies, but everyone knew that the calories didn’t count when a man had pissed you off.
Leaning against the desk, Sasha was casually dressed in yoga pants and oversized T-shirt.
Her usual uniform of black leather and tight bustier would be put on before the customers started to arrive.
“Preaching to the choir, sister,” she assured Holly.
Holly turned to pace to the other end of the office. “A woman would have to be an idiot to trust them.”
“True.”
“They claim to love you and then…” With a dramatic motion, Holly slammed her fist into the palm of her hand. “Bam.”
“Love?” Sasha didn’t bother to hide the shock in her voice. “Are you referring to Liam?”
Holly glanced at her friend in confusion. “Of course.”
“He actually said the L word?”
A renegade warmth flooded through Holly’s heart at the memory of Liam’s expression as he’d insisted he loved her. He’d looked so…fierce. So desperate for her to believe him.
Abruptly she slammed the door on the painful image.
“Focus, Sasha,” she snapped, speaking more to herself than her friend. “He set me up to be jilted.”
“Technically, Ted was the one who jilted you,” Sasha gently pointed out. “The selfish dick.”
Holly halted her pacing to glare at her supposed friend.
What was wrong with the woman?
She’d come here for a thorough, epic male-bashing session.
“You’re not defending him, are you?” she asked.
Sasha reached for a brownie, nibbling at the corner. “No, I’m just pointing out that it wasn’t Liam who asked you to be his wife while he was making babies with his mistress. Or decided to make a fool of you by not showing up for his own wedding.”
Okay. It was true that Liam hadn’t been the one to jilt her. But he was at least partially responsible for her being so publically humiliated.
“He should have told me,” she said.
“Absolutely,” Sasha readily agreed.
“Instead he—”
“Gave you a night of mad, crazy passion and told you he loved you?” her companion interrupted with an overly innocent smile.
Holly threw her hands up in exasperation. “Sasha.”
“Sorry.”
Holly frowned. Her friend didn’t sound very damned sorry.
In fact, Holly was beginning to suspect that Sasha was feeling unexpected sympathy toward Liam.
“You don’t think I have a right to be angry?” she demanded.
“Hell, a woman always has a right to be angry,” she assured Holly. “And I totally intend to kick Liam’s ass when I see him. He should have told me what Junior was up to. I wouldn’t have hesitated to share the jackass’s secret life.”
Holly grimaced. She didn’t doubt for a minute that Sasha would have relished the opportunity to expose Ted as a faithless, spineless, pathetic worm.
“That I believe.”
Sasha took another bite of brownie. “Did you tell him that you loved him?”
Holly stiffened at the unexpected question. “What?”
“You said that Liam confessed his love,” Sasha pressed. “Did you say it back?”
What the hell? Holly shifted from foot to foot, feeling ridiculously exposed.
“What makes you think I love him?”
Sasha lifted her brows. “Don’t you?”
Damn. This wasn’t going at all like it was supposed to.
Well, the brownies were predictable. And no doubt Sasha had a bottle of vodka chilling in the small fridge next to the bar.
But instead of jumping onto the we-hate-Liam bandwagon, her friend was bringing up all sorts of stuff she didn’t want to think about.
“He makes me crazy,” she at last confessed.
“Good crazy or bad crazy?”
Holly wrinkled her nose. “Both.”
“And that scares you?”
Scared her? It terrified her on a bone-deep level.
“Yes.”
Sasha swallowed the last of her brownie before licking the chocolate from her lips.
“Why?”
It was a question that Holly had never been able to answer.
Oh, she had a dozen excuses.
Beyond the fact he’d taken her father’s business, he was too arrogant. Too bossy. Too vibrantly male.
But over the past few hours she’d been forced to acknowledge the real reason she’d found him so frightening.
“Because he matters.”
Sasha frowned at the unmistakable edge in Holly’s voice.
“Why would that scare you?”
She hunched her shoulders, suddenly wishing she hadn’t eaten so many brownies.
She had a queasy sensation in the pit of her stomach.
“I always knew that my father never truly loved me, so when he walked away it hurt, but it didn’t destroy me,” she admitted, slowly returning to her pacing. “And the same was true with Ted. I was embarrassed at being jilted, but it didn’t touch my heart. But Liam—”
Her words were cut off as there was a sudden buzz through the intercom. They both turned to glance at the monitor on the wall that revealed the iron gates in front of the club.
Holly’s heart skipped a beat, her breath ragged as she caught sight of the impossibly beautiful man with russet hair and a lean face that was tight with obvious strain.
“Speak of the devil,” Sasha smirked. She pressed a button on her desk. “We’re closed.”
Liam tilted back his head, searching for the hidden camera. “I know that Holly’s here.”
Holly frowned, wondering how the hell he’d managed to follow her.
Then she gave an exclamation of disgust.
The uniformed doorman had been helping her into the taxi when she’d given the address to the Playhouse. Clearly he’d passed along the information to his employer.
A mysterious smile played around Sasha’s lips as she glanced toward Holly’s pale face.
“She doesn’t want to talk with you.”
Liam grabbed the bars of the gate, his voice harsh. “I just need to make sure that she’s okay.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you shoved a knife in her back,” Sasha drawled.
“Damn it.” Liam forced himself to leash his anger, his knuckles white as he gripped the bars he clearly wanted to bust through. “Just tell me that she�
��s okay and I’ll go away.”
“Well?” Sasha demanded of Holly.
Holly bit her bottom lip.
She’d been furious when she’d fled Liam’s penthouse.
More than that, she’d been ashamed.
Not just because he’d kept the truth about Ted from her. But because he’d known her so well he’d realized that she’d eagerly blame him for revealing her ex-fiancé’s treachery rather than face the truth of her feelings for him.
She’d been a coward, too afraid of being hurt to expose her heart.
“I’ll talk to him.” She grudgingly gave in to the inevitable.
Sasha pushed the button that would allow the gates to open.
“Come to the office,” she commanded Liam, before moving to place a hand on Holly’s arm. “If you need me just give a shout. I haven’t had the chance to kick anyone’s ass all week.”
Holly watched her friend sashay from the room with a wry smile.
She could only wish she had Sasha’s confidence.
Maybe then she wouldn’t have made such a freaking mess of her life.
Certainly she wouldn’t have wasted so many years trying to earn the love of a man who didn’t know the meaning of the word.
With a shake of her head she moved to the center of the office, prepared when Liam burst into the room.
She wasn’t prepared, however, for him to charge forward, wrapping his arms tightly around her.
“Please, let me hold you,” he muttered as she stiffened in shock. “I need to feel you in my arms.”
Tentatively her hands lifted to his shoulders, her body instinctively arching toward him.
“I’m still pissed,” she warned, ignoring the fact that she’d already ruined her image of feminine outrage by clinging to him like a barnacle.
“I know.” He buried his face in her hair, his hands running a compulsive path up and down her spine. “I completely screwed up.”
“You did.”
“And I intend to make it up to you,” he swore.
“How?”
He slowly lifted his head, his expression somber. “Tell me what you need,” he urged. “I’ll do whatever you demand to earn your forgiveness.”
“Will you walk away?” she asked in soft tones.
“No.” The denial came without hesitation. “That I can’t do.” His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb tracing her lower lip. “I’m sorry, princess, but I’ll never leave you. Not so long as there’s even a chance I can win your heart.”
It was exactly what she needed to hear.
Something inside her melted as Liam held her gaze, his expression stark with determination.
This man was nothing like her father.
Or Ted.
He wasn’t with her because he could use her for some hidden agenda. All he wanted from her was her heart.
Her hands shifted to tangle in his hair, the last of the wariness seared away by the soul-deep emotion that openly blazed in his eyes.
“Then love me,” she pleaded.
He blinked. Then blinked again. “Holly?”
“That’s all I need from you.”
“Christ.” Swooping down, he seared her lips in a kiss of blatant possession. “I’ve waited so long.”
Holly shivered, a joy she never even knew existed exploding through her body.
“Do you still have the key to our room upstairs?” she whispered against his lips. “I have a sudden desire for handcuffs and blindfolds.”
The words had barely left her lips when she was being scooped off her feet and carried out of the office.
“I’ll kick down the damned door if I have to,” he growled.
Holly chuckled. “Very manly.”
He held her gaze as they moved through the empty club.
“Nothing is going to stop me from being with you, princess,” he swore. “Not ever again.”
About The Author
Alexandra Ivy is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Guardians of Eternity series, as well as the Sentinels. After majoring in theatre she decided she prefers to bring her characters to life on paper rather than stage. She lives in Missouri with her family. Visit her website at alexandraivy.com.
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“In book after book, Ivy builds a fascinatingly complex, ever-evolving mythology where dynamic and sometimes stubborn characters collide—with epic results.”
—RT Book Reviews on Darkness Avenged
“Captivating, sexy, and with a sinful bite like rich dark chocolate.”
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Contents
Title page
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
About The Author
Other Books by Alexandra Ivy