by Joss Wood
John gave it some thought. “I remember her being in a snit, for days, because Linus wanted to pay him a whack of cash for something—a formula?—and Catherine objected because Linus had what he needed from St. Claire already. I remember arguing about who owned the rights to intellectual property, the individual or the company.”
Holy, holy smokes. Around the time he was born, his dad had launched the tech division of Christopher Corporation, the division that eventually became the heart of the company. And Nigel St. Claire must have developed the code for their biggest selling product, a software program that revolutionized web security. The software that made the Christophers rich beyond belief.
“What else do you remember about him?”
“St. Claire? Mmm, let me think. He left the country for some reason and I think that one or both of your parents made it difficult for the guy to come back to the States. Something about knowing someone in Immigration and St. Claire’s expired visa, I think. Catherine mentioned something about him not being able to sue them if he was out of the country.”
Liam gripped the edges of his nose, trying to control his anger. His parents kept Nigel from his kids. Man, his image of his parents was tarnishing minute by minute. But his father—Linus—obviously felt guilty about it because he’d tried to make restitution to Nigel’s family by leaving Teresa the shares.
Crap, what a tangled, complicated mess.
When he told Teresa why her dad didn’t come home, why he couldn’t come home for so long, she was going to flip. Catherine had already tried to mess with her life, to ruin her reputation and torch her business, but Teresa had handled that. But Catherine, or Linus, or both, had conspired to keep her father from returning to the States. That she wouldn’t forgive. Everybody had issues with their partner’s families but this was beyond what was acceptable.
He’d have to tell her but he knew that it would be the mortal blow that would fracture their already fragile relationship. How would she be able to live with and love the man whose family destroyed hers?
“Liam, look at me.”
Liam forced his eyes up, surprised at the forceful note in John’s voice, the determination in his eyes.
“What your parents did does not reflect on you. You are only responsible for the things you do and the things you say. You are your own man.”
“But I’m dealing with the consequences of their actions,” Liam pointed out.
John grimaced. “For that I am sorry. I’m also sorry I didn’t fight harder for you. I genuinely believed that they could give you what I couldn’t.”
Liam felt a surge of anger, for the reserved, scared, frequently overwhelmed kid he’d been. “Yeah, John, I had the latest toys and the brand-name clothing and the holidays in exotic places. But you know what I didn’t have? I didn’t have a father who came to my sports matches or who spent any time throwing a ball. Praise was given when I achieved an A and withdrawn when I messed up. I handed my mother tissues when she cried over something my father would or wouldn’t do and I handed him the whiskey bottle when he bitched about her.”
Liam stood up, unable to deal with any more, feeling emotionally shattered. “But you know, I had the toys and the clothes and the holidays.”
John scrambled to his feet and placed his hand on Liam’s arm. “Don’t rush off, Liam. Let’s talk.”
Liam stared at a point behind his shoulder, not seeing the gold and pink sunset, the soft sea. He stepped back and shook his head. “I can’t. Not anymore.”
Liam picked up his brown envelope, sent another look at the files and shook his head. He needed to go; he couldn’t take any more and he definitely needed to leave. And God, he needed another drink. Or ten.
“Am I going to see you again?” John asked, his green eyes worried.
“I don’t know, John,” Liam replied, walking away. All he knew for sure is that he needed some quiet, some peace and to stop thinking.
But more than anything he needed Teresa.
* * *
Teresa ran her hand over her hip and looked down at the satin material below her hand. The designer dress, the one she last wore at Hunter and Jenna’s wedding, was the purest shade of daffodil yellow and the color, along with its deep neckline, body-skimming shape and shortish skirt was a weapon set to stun. She knew that the yellow brought out the blue of her eyes and she’d deliberately applied more eyeshadow than normal, creating a deep and sexy smoky eye effect. She’d contoured her cheekbones and swiped a thin layer of pink gloss over her lips. Under her dress she only wore ludicrously expensive French perfume.
She intended to seduce the hell out of Liam Christopher.
She wanted him cross-eyed and naked. And, preferably, so discombobulated that he’d drop his guard and tell her how much he loved her and how he couldn’t live without her. She wanted him to tell her about meeting his father, and how he felt about the past.
Though, in all honesty, if she just got him to forget to ask how she knew he was in Hawaii, she’d take that as a minor win.
Taking a breath, Teresa knocked on the door to the presidential suite and when he didn’t answer, knocked again. If he wasn’t in his suite, she had no idea how to find him. And she didn’t have a place to go since she hadn’t reserved a hotel room. She supposed she could go and hang out in the bar and try again later. But what if Liam had left and was on his way back to Seattle?
No, she refused to accept that she’d wasted the flight and this dress. Teresa banged on the door again and nearly wept when she heard male footsteps on the other side of the door.
“I didn’t order room service—” Liam said as he opened the door. Teresa had planned on saying something sexy like “Let’s misbehave” but her words dried on her tongue. A wet Liam, wearing just a white towel around his hips, glowered down at her, acres and acres of tanned skin just waiting to be touched. His eyes were wide with shock and he placed a hand on the door frame as if to steady himself.
“Teresa? You’re here?”
“I’m here,” Teresa said, ducking under his arm. Inside the suite, she sucked in a breath at the luxury furnishings—damn, she always forgot how rich Liam was—before turning around to see Liam stalking toward her.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?” Teresa asked, then did a mental facepalm. She didn’t want him asking questions, not yet anyway.
Later, when she’d loved him so thoroughly and fried his brain, she’d tell him that their being apart was ridiculous and that they were supposed to be together. She’d ask him about his dad...
“I don’t give a rat’s ass why you’re here. I was in the shower, wishing you were with me,” Liam growled. He reached her and cupped her face, his fingers pushing into her hair, which she’d left to flow down her shoulders. Liam picked up a strand and ran it through his fingers. “I always forget how long it is. How silky.”
Teresa placed her hands on his waist and drew circles on his bare skin with her thumbs. She turned her mouth to kiss his palm and kept her eyes connected with him. “And just what were you doing in the shower while you were thinking of me?”
“You know what I was doing,” Liam muttered, taking her hand and placing it on his hard cock. He felt hard and full and desperate beneath her hand and Teresa released a low hum of approval. Liam placed his forehead against hers and sighed. “You’re really here.”
Teresa briefly wondered why he kept saying that, why he was acting like having her here was like a dream he expected to be jerked from. Teresa’s eyes connected with his and saw misery and confusion and a whole bunch of regret. Dammit. Needing to chase his ghosts away, Teresa linked her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes—her nude high heels, as sexy as they were, still didn’t give her the height she needed—and rested her mouth against his. Speaking softly, she whispered the words against his lips. “If you need me, Liam, take me.”
“You might regret sayin
g that,” Liam muttered as his hand drifted over her ass.
“I’ll never regret anything to do with you,” Teresa told him.
Liam released a short, harsh laugh but before she could comment on his cynicism, he covered her mouth with his and twisted his tongue around hers. His strong arms pulled her into him and her breasts pushed into hard chest, instantly dampening her dress from a combination of heat and lust and shower droplets.
Liam held her head so that he could possess her mouth, pulling her bottom lip between his teeth. As if he couldn’t get enough, he yanked his mouth away to nibble her jaw, to that sexy place where her jawbone met her ear and then down the cord of her neck. Teresa felt her eyes cross and she grabbed his chin, wanting more of his mouth, his lips, his tongue. Liam fed her what she wanted, what she craved: long, hot, drugging, push-reality-away kisses.
Conscious of her swimming head, Teresa whimpered when he pulled away from her to run a finger down the deep vee of her neckline.
“Love this dress but it would be so much better on the floor.”
The thought—that the dress was too expensive and too precious to end up on any floor—whispered past her and evaporated when Liam turned her around and placed his fingers on the zipper. She felt his breath on her back following the zip down her body and shuddered when his mouth kissed her lower spine. She was already wet and pulsing. It wouldn’t take much for her to come...
Liam straightened, brushed the dress from her shoulders and Teresa heard his appreciative gasp when he realized that she was come-take-me-baby naked beneath the dress.
“I’m liking that dress better and better,” Liam said, his hand coming across her torso to cup her breast. He lightly pinched her nipple and Teresa bucked, more from pleasure than pain.
“You are so beautiful. You’re everything I want.”
Liam murmured in her ear as he lifted her hair to kiss the back of her neck. She felt his mouth moving down her spine again, his hands sliding over her stomach, over her thin patch of hair and down the front of her thighs. Needing him, needing more, Teresa spun around.
Liam, now on his knees, looked up at her. “Perfect. You’re exactly where I wanted you.”
Teresa stared down at his dark head as he spread her folds and gently kissed her mound. Teresa felt her legs wobble and locked her knees, sighing when Liam’s clever fingers slipped into her heat. Teresa pushed her fingers into his hair, tugging him closer, silently demanding more. When Teresa didn’t think she could take his teasing any longer, Liam licked her, his hot tongue creating a blazing trail. A finger, then another, slid inside her and Teresa whipped her head from side to side. It was too much; she’d wanted to love him like this; she’d wanted to drive him crazy, take him outside himself, but she was on the receiving end.
She wasn’t strong enough to ask him to stop.
Liam’s tongue flicked her clit, his fingers twisted inside her and Teresa felt herself spinning away, a hot, whirling dervish of pure sensation. Teresa peaked, sank, peaked again and as she was falling back, Liam grabbed her ass, boosted her up his body and entered her with one long, hard stroke. She was so wet, so turned on, that her eyes rolled back in her head and her inner muscles clenched, wanting more. Wanting it all.
Again.
Liam moved her dead weight as if she were a piece of lint and sank down onto the closest chair. Teresa used her knees to lift herself up so that she just had his tip inside her before sliding back down again. Opening her eyes, she looked into his foggy gaze and thought that this was love. This perfect jumble of sensations—lust, excitement, passion, trust—this was love.
Love was also waking up with him every morning, giving him a child, making him feel like he was the most important part of her day, that he was her world.
Because he was. Tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks and Liam brushed them away with his fingers. “Teresa? What’s wrong?”
Teresa just shook her head.
“Do you want to stop?”
Teresa shook her head and pushed down on him, making him groan. Her man...only Liam would offer to stop at the sight of her tears, even though he was so deep inside her she wasn’t sure where he ended and she began, that he was trembling as he tried to keep control.
She loved him. Up until that moment, she never understood how much, but now she could feel it in every cell, every heartbeat, every look and stroke and kiss.
“Let go, Liam,” she murmured, gently touching his face, running her thumb along his jawline. “Let go and take me with you.”
Liam launched himself upward and using his core muscles picked her up and whipped her off the chair. The floor was the closest horizontal surface and he laid her on the Persian carpet, picked up her one leg and slammed into her.
“Not going to be able to wait.”
Teresa felt that delicious curling sensation deep within her and knew that she was a heartbeat behind him. She felt Liam tense, heard his guttural moan and then his hand was between them and his thumb flicked her bead and her soul shattered.
This, this was love and it was wonderful.
So, in fact, were her multiple, earth-shattering orgasms.
* * *
Liam ran his hand down Teresa’s spine, feeling every bump and dip. Her skin was utterly flawless except for three freckles perfectly placed under her right shoulder blade. Maybe there were more on her body; he’d have to check. But not, unfortunately, now. They needed to talk.
He didn’t want to but he was an adult and adults did what they needed to do. Adults like his parents did what they wanted to do and damn the consequences. He would not be following in their footsteps. But Linus and Catherine weren’t his only parents; he also had John, whose shoes, from the little he knew of him, might be worth stepping into.
Or maybe he could just wear his own. Create his own path, strike out on his own, be exactly the person he was. The thought was liberating. And thrilling. But would he be walking that path alone? Teresa had said she’d loved him but, after hearing about the role his family played in her father’s life, would she still?
There was only one way to find out.
As if she’d heard his silent plea for her attention, Teresa rolled over and sent him a soft smile. “We made love for most of the night so I suppose I must pay the piper.”
“What do you mean?”
“We need to talk, Teresa.”
They, very unfortunately, did. Teresa sat up and pulled the sheet up, covering her beautiful breasts, a crime beyond comprehension. Then again, there was no way he could concentrate on any conversation while she was naked.
Hell, even knowing she was naked under the bedclothes was messing with his head.
“Let’s order some coffee and take it onto the balcony,” Liam suggested, rolling out of bed. He yanked on a pair of boxer shorts he’d left on the chair and fished in the chest of drawers for a T-shirt, which he tossed her way. Leaving the bedroom, he walked into the lounge, knowing that if he stayed, they’d be making love again. The longer she stayed, the harder it would be for him to watch her walk away.
And she’d walk away. That was a given.
Liam ordered coffee from his personal concierge and opened the floor-to-ceiling doors that led onto the private balcony. He gripped the railing and sighed when Teresa wound her arms around his waist and buried her face in the hollow of his spine. She felt so tiny against him, so feminine.
“Please don’t fire Duncan for telling me where you are.”
Liam frowned and turned around. He almost laughed at Teresa’s face, her expression a perfect combination of guilt and mischief. “I threatened the hell out of him if he didn’t tell me.”
Okay, this was going to be good. Duncan was not a pushover and he knew the rules. “Okay. What did you threaten him with?”
Teresa drew patterns on the tiles with her big toe. “Your mother. Well, not precise
ly your mother.” She blushed, which he found adorable. “I told him that if he didn’t tell me I would make his life a living hell, acting ten times worse than Catherine, after we were married.”
His heart bounced at the thought of marriage. “I should fire him,” Liam teased, happy to have a moment of levity before the storm crashed over them. “My privacy is sacrosanct.”
“But if you fire him then I have to hire him and give him a ten percent raise. I can’t afford him!” Teresa wailed.
Liam threw his head back and laughed. Nobody but Teresa could amuse him and make him as happy and horny as she did. What if he didn’t tell her about her dad? What if he took this moment, told her he loved her and took every other moment from here on out to be happy? It was so damn tempting but Liam knew that a relationship could not be built on a foundation of lies.
It wasn’t really a lie but an omission...
And he was splitting hairs. His self-respect and his immense respect for her, for everything she’d done for her family, demanded that she know the truth.
Liam heard the door to the suite open and he pushed Teresa behind him, hiding her with his bulk as the concierge pushed a trolley laden with a silver coffeepot, bone china cups and a pile of fresh-baked pastries and a bowl of refreshing fruit salad. Coffee, thank God.
Once the concierge left, Teresa immediately picked up a croissant and lifted it to her nose. “Heavenly.”
Liam poured coffee while Teresa pulled small chunks from the croissant and lifted them to her mouth. Liam handed her a cup of coffee and gestured for her to take a seat on the lounger.
Sitting opposite her, he cradled his cup in his hand and thought that her eyes were the exact color of the Pacific Ocean below them.
“I met my dad yesterday, my biological father.”
Teresa immediately put her croissant on a plate and placed her cup on the table between them. She crossed her legs and leaned forward, every strand of her DNA focused on him as he explained the recent events.