His Forever Family(15)

"I'm not good for you," she warned him even as her hands moved,  touching his face, feeling the slight prick of his stubble against her  palm. A sign that he wasn't some perfect god of a man but someone real  and warm and hers. Hers, but not for the taking. "I'm not."

"Then be bad for me," he murmured against her lips.

All at once, he was kissing her and God help her, Liberty was kissing  him back. Her first real kiss. She so desperately wanted to catalog each  moment to remember it for all time-she was kissing Marcus Warren!

But any hope of memorizing the moment disappeared under the pressure of  his skin against hers. Touching Marcus, tasting him-she couldn't think,  couldn't rationalize. This was really happening, she thought over and  over. Heat burned through her limbs, making her fall into him.

This was weakness, temptation-things she'd always been above because  survival was more important than a kiss. But she'd come to a place where  she wasn't on the ragged edge anymore-thanks to him.

His lips moved over hers gently at first and she instinctively opened  her mouth for him. She wanted this-him. She was horribly afraid she  might need him.                       
       
           



       

When his tongue swept into her mouth, she jolted in her seat. The shock  of the intimacy was enough to pull her out of the moment, and the  weight of what she was doing hit her like a hammer to the chest. "I  can't do this," she sputtered, pulling away from him. She fumbled for  the seat belt but she was so disorientated that it took several tries  before she clicked the right button.

"Wait-what?" He latched onto her forearm, halting her before she could get the door open. "Can't-or won't?"

She jerked her arm out of his grasp and somehow let herself out of the  car. Then she was walking up the sidewalk, her head down and her steps  quick. She didn't have his money and, when he touched her like that, she  didn't have much air, either.

She heard his car door open behind her but she didn't slow down and she didn't look back.

"Liberty?"

She didn't answer. What could she say? I want you? I've fantasized  about you for years? I would do anything you ask of me-just don't ask me  about my past?

He trusted her. He thought she was honest with him.

If anyone saw them together and did a little digging, she could ruin him.

And she cared too much about him to see him hurt like that.

So she walked away from him.

It was all she could do.





Nine

"Mr. Warren," the security guard said, standing to attention when Marcus walked into the building.

"Hello..." He leaned forward to read the guard's name tag. "Lester."

He knew the guards who were in the lobby every weekday, but he couldn't  remember the last time he'd dropped by the office on a weekend. When he  worked on the weekend, it was reading reports Liberty had prepared for  him from the comfort of his sofa, usually with a game on in the  background. "Were you the one I talked to earlier today?"

"Yes, sir," the older man said, still standing smartly at attention. Maybe he was a former military man?

"Ah, good. Is Ms. Reese still here?"

"Yes, sir," Lester repeated. "Ms. Liberty got here at eight thirty, like she does every Saturday."

Marcus got the feeling that Liberty wouldn't have had to look at Lester's name tag. "And she stays until..."

"Three, three thirty," Lester said warmly. "A hard worker, that one."

"Yes," Marcus agreed. He was beginning to realize exactly how hard Liberty worked.

Every Saturday for close to three years, she had worked an extra seven hours.

He definitely didn't pay her enough.

"Thanks, Lester," Marcus said, heading for the elevators.

The ride up to his floor had never felt so long. Hell, the whole  morning had been long. He'd wanted to get here first thing, but even he  saw the folly of that. If he burst into the office right after Liberty  got there, she'd most likely panic and bolt on him.

Just as she'd done last night.

Jesus, this was a mess. And the hell of it was, he wasn't sure he'd do  anything different. Well, maybe he wouldn't take her to that restaurant.  But everything else?

He'd wanted to go with her to see the baby.

He'd wanted to take her to dinner.

He'd wanted to kiss her.

And what a kiss it'd been. Raw need had coursed through his body at the  touch of her lips against his, her skin in his hands. He'd wanted to  strip her out of her sensible skirt suit and lay her out on a bed and  lavish her with attention until she was crying out his name.

He still wanted that. But he didn't think he was going to get it.

The elevator doors opened and he strode out into Warren Capital's  offices. Somehow everything felt different on the weekend. The heat of  summer seemed to seep in through the windows and pop music played in the  background. He saw an open snack container on a desk.

Liberty was not at her desk.

Marcus stared at the empty chair, not grasping what he saw. She was  here. Lester had said so. He peeked into his office-maybe she was in  there? No. The place was empty. Where could she have gone?

Then behind him he heard the door to the bathroom open. Before he could  turn around, Liberty exclaimed, "Marcus! What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you," he said. And then he saw her.

Instead of the woman in the running shorts and a shapeless unisex  T-shirt or the woman in the business suits, Liberty stood before him in a  short khaki skirt, flip-flops and a sleeveless shirt covered in a  brightly colored pattern. The only part of her that was the same as ever  was her hair, but even that was different. Instead of her polished buns  or sleek ponytails, her hair was messily knotted at the nape of her  neck.                       
       
           



       

She looked young and sweet and everything about her made him want to pull her into his arms and kiss her all over again.

"I didn't expect-I mean, you never come in-oh," she finally said and  stopped talking. Her gaze swept up and down his body and he could guess  that she was having the same reaction he was. She'd probably never seen  him in a T-shirt, cargo shorts and deck shoes. She crossed her arms over  her chest and rubbed her bare skin as if she were suddenly cold.

"I needed to come in today," he said, clenching his hands at his sides  so he wouldn't rub her arms for her. "I needed to talk to you."

"Is this about work? I'm getting caught up."

"You work every Saturday," he reminded her, wondering why she phrased it like that. "This isn't about work. We have a problem."

"Oh?" she asked drily, which made him grin. "Only one?"

"One big problem, which spawns several smaller issues."

She looked at him wryly. "And that is?"

"You care for me." She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn't give her the chance to deny it. "And I care for you."

"Oh." The word rushed out of her in a burst of air, but that was all  she said. She didn't try to talk her way out of it or make excuses.

He couldn't tell if that was a good oh or a bad one. "Yes. And you seem to think that it's a problem."

This time, when she exhaled, it was clearly in frustration. "Because it  is, Marcus. You saw where I live. You saw how I couldn't even navigate  dinner at a restaurant where they know you by name. The only way our  worlds ever cross is in this office or on the jogging path. It doesn't  matter how I feel about you, and believe it or not, it doesn't matter  how you feel about me. It simply won't work."

That answer made him mad. It didn't matter how he felt? How she felt?  That sounded like something his mother would say-something she had said  when the Lillibeth situation had blown up. It hadn't mattered that he'd  been hurting. What had mattered was putting on a good face for the  public.

"The kiss last night-are you telling me it didn't matter?"

She touched the tips of her fingers to her lips. "It doesn't change anything."

"The hell it doesn't, Liberty. Did you want to kiss me last night?"  Because the thought niggled at him: Had he kissed her against her will?

He wasn't going to prey on his assistant, not as his father preyed on his secretaries.

"That's not important," she said in a shaky voice. "What I want isn't important."

"Don't give me that crap. What you want is just as important as what I  want." She opened her mouth to argue with him but he wasn't having it.  "Answer the damned question, Liberty. Did you want the kiss?" She looked  at him as if he were making for her fingernails with a pair of pliers,  but he couldn't walk away from this-from her. He had to know. "Do you  want me?"

The silence hung in the air for a beat too long as they stared at each  other. "Of course," she whispered, all the blood draining out of her  face. "Of course I do. But-"