Finding Forever(34)

Whitney came dashing down the stairs. She was running late and didn’t want to make Sam wait. And she in no way wanted him to be left alone with Liam if he showed up somehow. She wasn’t sure what he might say to Sam, especially after that kiss the night before. Well, to be honest, it was a hell of a lot more than a kiss. That was par for the course when she was with him.

She heard talking in the front foyer and scurried around the corner, slightly out of breath. Just her luck. Liam was standing there with Sam, and Sam didn’t look all too happy. She slowed her pace.

“I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting, Sam,” Whitney said as she walked up to the two men.

“It’s always a pleasure to wait on a beautiful woman,” Sam told her, and taking her hand, he brought it to his lips. She noticed the way Liam’s eyes narrowed.

“That was certainly the right thing to say,” she told him with a small laugh.

“I hear you’re going to the local Christmas concert,” Liam said unexpectedly. “I may see you there.” He was acting as if he were trying to make polite conversation, but his words came out more like a threat.

“I didn’t know you were thinking of attending,” Whitney remarked. “But a lot of people will be there, so the chances of our running into each other will surely be slim.”

“We’ll just have to see. Do have a wonderful evening,” he replied before striding off.

She let out the breath she’d been holding.

“Are you ready to leave, Whit?” Sam obviously wanted to get out of this hellhole as much as she did.

“Yes, of course,” Whitney said.

He placed his hand on her back and led her toward his waiting car. This time it wasn’t a limousine, but a silver Jaguar, and it gleamed in the setting sun. The vehicle was beautiful, one that absolutely screamed money, which meant that the fellow was trying to impress her once again. Anyone could rent a limo, but this was different.

He helped her inside, and she sank into the soft leather seat. Screw Liam and his intoxicating kisses. She was going to put some effort into this date. Sam surely couldn’t be boring two dates in a row — not if the fates cared at all about her.

The drive wasn’t bad, most likely because they didn’t do much talking. The flashy car had a high-end music system, and they took full advantage of it while making their way to the concert. Still, Sam was gentleman enough to open her door for her when they arrived at the hall. How many men still did that?

They made their way toward the front of the indoor concert arena. Soon, everyone was on their feet while a band played Christmas songs in a far more lively way than she’d ever heard them before. At the intermission, she and Sam had a few drinks, and she noticed he was starting to look a little green around the gills, so to speak.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“I’ll be fine, Whitney. Something I ate must be disagreeing with me.”

They went toward some unoccupied benches. She felt bad that she wasn’t more concerned about him, but she really wanted to enjoy the show, not babysit her date. No. She couldn’t think like that. She’d been brought up to do the right thing.

“Would you like to leave, Sam?”

“Of course not. I’ll just sit down for a few moments and I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“A few moments” stretched out. Ugh. But at least Liam wasn’t there to see her second failed date in a row with this man. That would have been too much icing on his cake.





Chapter Eighteen


Would you two like to go to a concert with me?” Liam had asked Brayden and Ally.

They’d readily agreed, of course. Liam knew that it was ridiculous to crash Whitney’s date, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He’d have the children as buffers, however, so she might not be quite as upset as she deserved to be.

The bigger problem was why he was doing this. He didn’t chase women, especially women he planned to pretty much screw — both literally and figuratively. If she came to understand his plans to take the children, she would hate him, and justifiably so.

But for all that, he somehow couldn’t stop himself from crashing the damned date.

When they arrived at the concert, he was starting to worry about what he’d just done. The place was unusually crowded. He had on a baseball cap, jeans, and an old college sweater, an effort to disguise himself, but all it would take was one person to figure out who he was and then he’d be mobbed.

That article about him in People magazine had made his life a living hell. Who in the world cared about the fifty most eligible business bachelors anyway? Okay, a lot of people did when those bachelors were billionaires. Hordes of desperate women went into full salivation mode.