His Property(36)

“Sorry, Mr. Rutherford,” one of the guards said. “We weren’t sure what to do, she said you would want to see her.”

“It’s fine, Jerry,” Liam said. Whoever this woman was, he obviously knew her. “Let her in.”

“Thank you,” the woman said, but she didn’t sound like she was sorry at all.

My hands gripped the blanket. I wasn’t sure why but I hated her, whoever she was. She sounded like a stuck-up bitch, and Liam was treating her with familiarity, and I didn’t like that, either.

The sound of the jet door sliding closed echoed through the plane.

The door to the bedroom had been left open slightly when Liam left.

“What are you doing here, Vienna?” His voice boomed through the jet, and fingers of anxiety slid up my spine. Vienna. The mysterious woman who’d I’d heard on the phone when I’d answered Liam’s phone and talked to Penelope, his mother.

Vienna, the woman my stylists, Tevi and Marnie, had told me about, the one London Banks was always getting jealous about.

Whoever this woman was, she was deeply intertwined with Liam. So much so that she apparently was friends with his parents and also felt comfortable enough to talk her way onto his private jet.

I slipped out of bed, pulling on Liam’s t-shirt and creeping toward the door.

I couldn’t see anything – the bedroom was off the hallway, and they were standing in the front part of the plane.

“I came to talk to you,” Vienna said. She had the polished sound of someone who’d grown up with money. Her cadence was clipped and it was hard to tell if she had an accent or was just… posh. She sounded like she’d spent summers in England growing up or something, and had picked up half of an English accent.

“What could possibly be so important that it couldn’t wait until later today? You know I’ll be in California later.”

“So you’re still coming?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Because we weren’t sure. You were supposed to be there yesterday.”

“Something came up.”

I stood by the door, transfixed by their conversation, wondering if Liam was going to bring me up, wondering if Vienna even knew who I was, wondering what was so god damn important she had to show up here at the crack of dawn, trying to get Liam to talk to her.

“Your mother said you’re bringing someone.”

“Yes.” I waited for him to elaborate, and apparently so did Vienna, since she stayed quiet.

Tell her about me, I screamed inside, like a high school student wanting her boyfriend to tell the pretty cheerleader he was taken.

“Can we go…can we sit down somewhere and talk?” she asked.

Liam sighed. “Can we do this another time?”

“No, I need to do it now. When we don’t have your family and… other people around.”

Other people? Did she mean me?

“Fine.” Liam sighed again. “We can go to the board room.”

To get to the board room they’d have to pass by the bedroom door, which I’d cracked open even further in order to hear better. I knew I should have run back to bed – Liam had told me not to get up, and I’d agreed.

Whatever Vienna had come to talk to him about, it was obviously something he didn’t want me to hear.

He was taking her to the back of the plane so that I couldn’t overhear. I should have gone back to bed. But my curiosity got the better of me. I needed to see her. I wanted to see what she looked like, what she acted like, if Liam was walking next to her.

I held my breath, not making a sound, flattening myself against the tiny alcove just inside the bedroom so that he wouldn’t see me if he happened to glance in when he walked by.

I watched, holding my breath, as their footsteps got closer.

He passed first, and a second later, I got my first glimpse of Vienna.

It was worst than I’d expected.

She was beautiful. So beautiful that she almost knocked the breath out of me, and I was a heterosexual female, so I could only imagine the effect she had on men. She was long-legged and graceful, with long wavy blonde hair, and a tiny waist that was encased in a navy sundress that nipped in at the waist. The top of her dress was a little slouchy by design, but it did nothing to hide her enviable body. She was tall, her legs seemingly that of a gazelle, and her skin was a deep golden California tan.

She wore a pair of high sandals with straps that crisscrossed up her delicate ankles and a spike heel. Despite the highness of her heels, she walked effortlessly.

Her hair was pulled back from her face into a smooth and loose chignon, her lips full and her face flawless. The last glimpse I got of her was her toes, which were painted a shocking hot pink, which contradicted the sophisticated elegance that the rest of her outfit gave off.