He glanced behind him to the security guards.
“Fine,” he said. “But you don’t leave the picnic table, you stay close to me, and if I tell you we have to go back to the plane, you go, no questions asked.”
“Fine.”
He opened the gate in the chain link fence and we stepped through and onto the grass. I was wearing a pair of flip flops that I’d found in the front pocket of my suitcase, the kind of flip flops that were supposed to look chic and casual but probably cost a hundred dollars. They had some kind of insignia in the middle of the toe strap that was made of gold and looked fancy. I didn’t recognize the designer, but I had a feeling she or he was someone important. The grass was dewy – the humidity in the air was non-existent, so it must have rained earlier, and the wet blades licked against the arches of my feet.
Liam took my hand and helped me up so that we were sitting on top of the table, our knees bent, resting our feet on the top of the bench below us.
“So,” I said.
“So.”
I took a deep breath. “If I stay with you, I want there to be new rules.”
“Like?”
“First, I want my phone back. Permanently.”
“No.”
“Aren’t you even going to ask me why?”
“Why? So you can post selfies to your instagram and drive college men crazy?” He was referring to the selfie Maddie had posted to my account that day, the one that my lab partner James had left a comment on, and I shook my head.
“That guy wasn’t driven crazy,” I said. “He’s my lab partner, he’s not even –“
“No male lab partners.”
I stared at him incredulously. “Wow,” I said. “I understand now why you’re one of the most successful men on the planet.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I brought you out here to tell you my demands, and within the first five seconds, you’ve somehow turned it back around so that you’re telling me what I can and can’t do.”
“That’s how it has to be.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
I looked at him, sitting there in his Stanford sweatshirt, a baseball hat on his head, turned backward, his jaw dusted with stubble. He looked more like a sexy catalogue model who’d stepped out of the pages of a tailgating spread rather than a powerful billionaire.
“I can’t accept that,” I said, frustrated. “I love you. I want this to be real.”He didn’t say anything.
“And if you can’t do that, then I have to leave.” It wasn’t a threat. It was the truth. I couldn’t do this anymore. It was one thing when we’d just started out, when he’d kidnapped me. But now he’d paid off my ransom. There was no reason to stay with him now, not like this, except maybe for the fact that Robbie had threatened me. But something told me that if I wasn’t with Liam, that particular problem would go away.
I waited another moment for him to respond, and when he didn’t, I stood up. Conversation over.
“Wait.” He tugged my hand, pulling me back onto the picnic table. “Fine,” he conceded. “You can have your phone back. But no social media. And I will have a tracker on it, access to all emails, text messages, and anything else.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his hand up, stopping me. “It’s for your protection, Emery.”
“Fine.” I licked my bottom lip, emboldened by this victory.
“Anything else?”
“Oh, we’re just getting started.”
“Sounds good to me,” he growled. His hand was on my leg, pushing the bottom of my shorts up and exposing more of my thigh. I grabbed his hand and removed it. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to have this conversation inside.”
“You think being outside is going to stop me?” His tone was teasing, but his voice was sexy and low and laced with promise.
I shook my head.
“This is serious, Liam.”
“Oh, I’m being serious.” His hand slid the cloth up further, and his touch on my skin burned through me.
“I’m not done.”
“There’s more?”
“Yes!”
“Fine. Continue with your bargaining, Ms. Waters.”
“Thank you,” I said automatically, before I realized I was acquiescing to him again. He’d stopped moving his hand on my leg, but kept it there, the pressure of him letting me know that he might be seemingly open to talking, but my command of this conversation was still very fragile.
“I want dates.”
“Dates?” He said the word distastefully, as if it were some kind of old-fashioned institution that he’d never heard of.