by Katie Dowe
She laughed, the sound brittle even to her own ears. “You thought I had changed my mind and decided to pick up where we left off?”
“Yes dammit! And I was angry when I saw you with Derek. He had his hands all over you.”
She lifted her head and stared at him in amusement. “You were jealous?”
He dropped his hands as he stared at her. “I don’t get jealous.”
“So after one kiss you think you own me? Is that it?”
“Dammit I was jealous!” he admitted tightly. “How could you let him touch you after –” he broke off and plunged agitated fingers through his curling hair.
She turned to leave and he grabbed her arm. He was neglecting his guests but he could not bear the thought of leaving. “Come to me later!” he urged. “I have an apartment uptown-“
“No,” she told him decisively. “I already told you my position on the matter Liam and it has not changed.”
“What is it going to take to show you how serious I am?” he demanded imperiously.
“I will let you know when I am there.” She pulled her arm away.
“I need to see you again, Amani.” He called after her.
She turned and looked at him. “Call me later.”
*****
This was the time she wished she had female friends! She drove around restlessly and stopped at the mall, wandering into various stores. She had changed in her car and was wearing a snug pair of fitted denims with a black t-shirt. Her hair was already dry and she had slid her fingers through the short strands to give it some semblance of order. She could not go to Hanson because he would take one look at her and know that she had gotten involved! She stepped into a lingerie store and shook her head as the eager sales assistant started forward. He had kissed her and she had been lost. She did not doubt that it was due mostly to the fact that he was an expert in the art of lovemaking. He had had years to hone his skills in that department and he had used it on her, and to her shame she had responded. She was going to have to come up with a way to not be so affected but she had a feeling that it was too late. She could always tell Hanson that she was going to call it off because she did not have the heart to continue, but knowing him he would press her until he got the truth out of her. Knowing him, he had already taken a percentage of the money from the client, which meant she was stuck! She owed him too much and she had promised that she would pull off this one job and be done with it! She fingered a rich lace teddy and considered buying it and watching Liam’s reaction as she stood before him wearing only the skimpy material. She put it aside firmly and walked out of the store, heading straight to her car in the parking lot. She was going home to drown herself in several glasses of wine and then go to bed. She was sitting in the car when her phone rang. She looked at the screen and closed her eyes in defeat. “I said later –”
“I know.” His deep voice caused the shiver to run up and down her spine. “I miss you and I wanted to assure you again that nothing happened in the cabin. I know that you said that you don’t want anything to happen between us Amani, but for the life of me I cannot get you out of my head and I want you to think about that.”
“Do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Just let us hang out for a bit and see where it goes. I cannot handle anything right now, Liam.”
He sighed. “I am not going to stop trying Amani.”
“It’s the thrill of the chase, Liam.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But I know that I want you and I am not going to stop.”
“I am sure you won’t,” she said with a breezy laugh. “It’s not who you are.”
“How about going to the museum opening with me on Wednesday?”
“I will let you know.” She hung up from him and sat there staring at nothing. She had a feeling that this was going to be hardest job she was ever going to do!
Chapter 5
Amani stared at the paper in dismay. She had made the society pages again! An over zealous reporter had snapped their pictures as they sat together talking at the art gallery. He had also managed to snap another one of Liam holding her elbow and looking down at her in an intimate manner along with photos of the other people who had been gathered there for the party on Saturday. The story read: Entitled multi-billionaire collector of beautiful things including women seen here with a mysterious African American beauty who seems to be his latest love interest by the way he is looking at her! Sources reveal that her name is Amani Smith and the two has also been to dinner at the well-known restaurant: The Water Shack…
Amani folded the paper and put it back on Hanson’s desk, too dismayed and disgusted to read more. “I cannot go to that museum opening with him on Wednesday.” She walked over to one of the comfortable chairs and sat there, crossing her long legs. He had been calling her and she had been avoiding his calls, but very soon she would have to answer him – just not now! She had spent Sunday night turning restlessly on her bed as her mind went unbidden to the moments spent inside his arms and her reactions to his mouth on her body. The situation was getting out of control and aside from telling Hanson that she was no longer able to carry through with it, she had no idea what to do next! “I should not have gone to that damned party on his yacht!”
Hanson studied her for a moment, his light blue eyes scrutinizing her exquisite features and noticing the frown between her tapered brows. “He is on the hook, the only thing you have to do is reel him in. I am surprised he has not asked you back to his apartment yet.”
Amani laughed briefly. “He invited me to the apartment in town where he takes the women he is interested in.”
“You are getting closer. All you have to do is continue playing along for a few more times and you will achieve your objective.”
Amani got to her feet abruptly, her movement restless as she wandered over to the window. The sun was still high in the sky even though it was almost seven, and the slight breeze was stirring the leaves of the maple tree in the parking lot below. Mystique Gallery was situated in the middle of a circular piece of property and located conveniently in the center of a bustling uptown area. Hanson had used the money he had inherited from an aunt, along with the questionable earnings he had gotten from the items he had had stolen throughout the years, from the very people he socialized with, to turned the gallery into a thriving one. The view from his second-floor office was spectacular, affording the mesmerizing look of bright splashes of flowers from a nearby park, and further along a scenic look of the harbor where gently swaying boats dotted the body of water . It looked peaceful and serene, and had always managed to soothe Amani’s nerves, but not now! Now the emotions swirling inside her body were unlike anything she had ever experienced before. If she allowed herself to be alone with Liam, she was definitely going to succumb to his expertise as a well-documented lover! And when that happened it will be all over for her!
“Amani?” Hanson’s voice broke into her reverie and had her turning to face him.
“I am going to have to curtail future meetings to somewhere private and try and keep out of the camera.” She took a deep breath. “With that in mind I won’t be able to go to the museum with him.” She had no idea how disappointed she sounded but Hanson heard it.
“You could go by yourself.” He suggested.
She shook her head immediately. “A reporter will be bound to recognize me.”
He started to say something, but her phone rang just then. She fished it out of her pocket and closed her eyes briefly as she recognized the number. “It’s him,” she whispered just before she answered.
“Darling you have been avoiding me.” His deep voice was light, but she heard the puzzled note. “Have I done something to offend you?”
“If persistence is an offense, then I have to say yes.” She turned her back to Hanson and walked over to the window. “I have been busy.”
“Too busy to return my calls?”
“What do you want, Liam?”
“You. Isn’t
it obvious to you by now?” His deep voice had dropped suddenly, and the seductive tone played on her nerve endings.
“That’s too damned bad!” she muttered, feeling her heart increase its pace. “I asked you to slow things down, Liam.”
He sighed at that. “Okay darling, you win. Slow it is, but I need to see you. Are you coming on Wednesday?”
“No.”
“Why not?” he demanded imperiously.
“I know you are not used to women having a mind of their own as far as you are concerned, Liam. But I happen to have one and I do not owe you an explanation.”
The silence went on for so long that Amani wondered if he was going to say anything.
“Suit yourself!” he told her curtly before hanging up the phone! Amani listened to the dial tone in shock, before removing the phone from her ear and turning back to Hanson.
“He hung up on me.”
“So I gather.”
“I don’t think he is going to call me again.”
Hanson looked at her in amusement. “Oh, he is going to call you again darling! He is going to cool his heels for a couple of days and brood about the difficulty he is having where you are concerned, and then he is going to tell himself that he is better off without you. Then he is going to go to one of the many eager women who are ready to fall into his arms but he is not going to be able to get you out of his mind, so that is not going to work. When he discovers that, he is going to call you and insist on seeing you.”
Amani eyed him wryly. “You seem to be quite an expert in all this.”
“I am.” Hanson waved a slender hand in a desultory manner. “I used to date a Liam when I was much younger. He was not as wealthy and certainly not as gorgeous as your Liam, but handsome and really well aware of his charms. I realized that in order to get him to notice me I was going to have to play by my rules and not his.”
“So what did you do?”
“Even though I was eager to become his, I pretended like mad that I did not find him in the least bit desirable. I would flirt with all and sundry and pretended that he was not there. I piqued his interest. When he started to notice me, I gave him only a casual and slightly disdainful hint of my attention, and that made him more interested. Then when he asked me out, I went with him and I was charming and flirtatious but nothing more. By the fourth date he was stymied and frustrated!”
“Then?” Amani had gone over to the chair she had abandoned and sat down, her eyes bright with curiosity. Hanson had never revealed his love interests to her or to anyone, and she had always suspected that it was because he was a very private person and also because of what he did for a living.
Hanson smiled at her and leaning back in his high back chair as he said whimsically. “He told me he never wanted to see me again and I told him that was fine with me. I walked away from him without a backward look, all the time wanting to turn back and fling myself into his strong muscular arms!”
“But you did not.”
“No, instead I went back home and cried myself to sleep. He did not call me for a week, and I contemplated trampling my pride and calling him but before I could do so he called me and said he wanted to see me.”
“What did you do?”
“Oh, I was cool and controlled and told him that I would think about it.”
Amani stared at the suave and sophisticated man in front of her and laughed. “Then what happened?”
“He called me the next day and I told him I had thought about it and I would go out with him.”
“What happened to him?”
Hanson took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. “The relationship lasted for two glorious years and then he died.”
Amani looked at him in horror. “Oh, Hanson I am so sorry!”
He nodded with a grim smile. “He was the love of my life, but Toby was promiscuous and careless. He had full blown Aids shortly after we had been together, and it shortened his lifespan.”
“But you don’t –”
“Even though I was madly in love with him, I insisted that we always used protection, so I was spared the unpleasantness of catching that disease.” His eyes brightened with tears and he lowered his lids to hide it from her. “That was thirty years ago, and I have not been able to love anyone the way I loved him.”
Amani sat there in silence for a moment, waiting for the man to regain his composure, her mind reeling! She had never known that about him and she had lived with him for years!
“So, you are saying that I should behave casually when he calls me again? And I should believe that he is going to call?” she asked him lightly, wanting to steer him away from his depressing memories.
He laughed suddenly. “Exactly darling. He won’t be able to help himself!”
*****
Liam invited someone else to the opening and he made sure they were both captured on camera. His arm draped intimately around the stunning blonde’s waist, his dark head bent to her as if he was imparting something of great importance and titillating enough to cause the woman to lift her perfectly made up face to his, a delighted smile on her lips! He had given her an unwitting invitation that he was perfectly willing to take her to his bed as soon as the function had ended. He further cemented it when he kept her at his side as he made his rounds through the museum that his family’s money had outfitted, including the paintings that had been loaned to the museum for an indefinite period of time. His mother was making the rounds as well, her polite smile touching all she came into contact with. A number of the men from his club and their wives were also present, and as soon as Liam saw the distinctly beautiful African American women who made news everywhere they went, his mind flashed back to Amani and he felt the unfamiliar piercing of his heart. He deliberately shook it off and turned his dazzling charms to the woman clinging to his arm, even though he was getting decidedly bored with her agreeing to everything he said and gazing at him as if he was her treasured possession! Amani would have been debating the merits of the dazzling sapphire that was enclosed in a glass case and highly fortified with enough sensors to give credit to an entire building! She would not have been clinging to his arm like a damned limpet! She would be having a conversation with him, maybe arguing with him – he shook his head and concentrated fiercely on what the Mayor was saying to him. The former First Lady was also present, and he smiled at her pleasantly before disengaging himself from Angela to go and get himself a drink of champagne and some less suffocating company. It had been two days since he had hung up on her. He had waited for her to call him back, but she had not done so, and he had no intention of calling her back either. He was not in the habit of running after a woman and he was not going to start with her!
He sipped the champagne moodily and frowned as he noticed that Angela was making her way purposefully towards him. Thinking quickly, he walked over to Amber who was standing with Leesa and Kelly and pulled her next to him, his hand sliding around her waist. “I know that Adam is your friend honey but as much as he likes you, he is not going to be happy to see your arm around me.”
Liam grinned at the rest of the women and kept his arm around her waist. “I needed rescuing and you were the person nearest to me. And I am a little intimidated by Kane,” he added, grinning at Kelly.
“You need rescuing from the empty-headed blonde who had been attached to you like an extension of your other arm?” Leesa asked him dryly. “Darling I thought she was your latest fling?” She gave the woman coming towards them a hard stare that had her turning back the way she came.
“No wonder Bradley is so intimidated by you,” Liam said with a roguish grin, as he bent and kissed the top of Amber’s head. She pushed him away from her and with a bow he started to move away. “I have to go and clean up the mess I made.” With a salute he sauntered away leaving the three women staring after his tuxedo clad figure.
“Were our husbands ever that impossible?” Kelly wondered.
“Mine was,” Amber said with a slight smile as she loo
ked for him. He was standing next to a case holding a glittering tiara, matching earrings and a necklace with a large oval diamond pendant suspended around dazzling platinum. He was talking to his father, as well as Kane and Bradley. He looked up and caught her eyes. Lifting his champagne glass in a silent toast, his eyes wandered over her face with an expression of so much love and possessiveness that it had her catching her breath! She could not believe she was married to that incredibly beautiful man standing well over six feet tall and that he belonged to her exclusively. “You know what they say about reformed rakes…”
*****
Amani paced the length of her living room, restlessly. If he did not call, she was going to have to call him and that would put the ball entirely in his court and change the game plan. She had seen the pictures of the museum opening and had seen him cozy up with that beautiful blonde. He had moved on from her. Whatever it was that had been between them was finished and she would never get another chance with him again. She refused to acknowledge the voice whispering inside her head that it was not just the job that she was concerned about.
It was Friday night and he still had not called her. She had told Hanson that it was a job to her, but the truth of the matter was: she was attracted to him in the worst way, which did not surprise her considering who he was. Liam Moses attracted women like moths to a very dangerous flame. He was not only incredibly handsome, but he was charming and apparently he knew how to make a woman feel needed. When he had kissed her in that cabin, he had brought out feelings that she never knew existed and that was the main reason she had ran! She could not afford to get involved, knowing what she had planned for him. And she could not get involved with him knowing that she would probably last a month or less. He had a problem committing and that was not her concern, because even in normal circumstances she was not in Liam’s league. He was an extremely wealthy man with an impeccable bloodline and wealth dating back hundreds of years. She was a ‘nobody’ with parents she had never met before. She was a product of two people who had created her and never saw it fit to raise her. She had no idea what the circumstances had been, but she certainly knew that she could never give birth to a child and leave it at the mercy of the state. She had spent her first fifteen years in group homes, enduring the pain being passed over for adoption and feeling the sting of rejection over and over again! Over the years she had put on an act, like she did not give a crap that she was never adopted. Her own parents had not wanted her, so why would complete strangers want to have anything to do with her! She had become belligerent and hard, hiding extreme hurt beneath a very hard and cynical shell. She had learned to be one of the ‘guys’, demanding to be taught how to do illegal things, and she had been a very fast learner. They had gone from wanting to get into her pants to relying completely on her. When she was experienced enough, she had decided to do things on her own. She hated groups anyway and was only really comfortable on her own. When Hanson had ‘rescued’ her she had decided that she was done with living in a home and would be going out on her own. She had saved up enough money to do so and had already made the decision. When she had gone to live with Hanson, it had taken a long time, and numerous sarcastic comments from him, to get her to open up to him. And even so, she still kept a part of herself closed off. She did not believe in the comradery of ‘girlfriends’, and even though she had several of them in high school and college, she never revealed any secrets and had severed all connections to them as soon as she had graduated. With their proper lives and coming from their proper homes, they did not have anything in common with her and she was not about to share confidences with them. She had a past she did not know about and her present life was not up for discussion. She was a con artist who had lived in a group home and had been raised by a con man who was also gay. She was anything but normal and she had a feeling that if she shared anything with anyone of the proper women she had gone to college with, they would have shunned her immediately! The same thing had happened when she got involved with Troy in college. He had been a nice enough guy with an intense way about him, but he had started to get too serious and curious about her past.