His Property(37)

It was like she was broadcasting to the world that she had a wild streak, that underneath all that polish and perfection she was the kind of girl who would give you a killer blowjob.

Or maybe I was reading too much into it.

I waited until I heard the sound of them disappearing into the boardroom before I crept back to my bed. A second later, I heard Liam coming back down the hall. I waited, hoping he was going to come and check on me, that he was going to tell me that he was sorry for the intrusion, that Vienna was here, that she meant nothing to him, that he was just putting up with her until he could send her away again.

But Liam didn’t come in.

Instead, he shut the door firmly, as if to shut me out even more.

It infuriated me.

After what had just happened, all the closeness I’d felt with him, for him to shut me out was not acceptable.

I got out of bed, opened the bedroom door and walked down the hall toward the closed door of the boardroom.

I wasn’t sure what my plan was. In my head, I had the idea of walking in on them, knocking on the door and busting in, demanding to know what was going on. But that would have made me look a little psycho. Plus I was wearing a t-shirt and pretty much nothing else, and I was sure I had sex hair. There was no way I wanted to go in there looking like a mess next to the sophisticated and mysterious Vienna.

But did I really care?

I hardly knew her, and I was on a high from what I’d done earlier, when I’d been outside with Liam on the picnic table. If I meant what I’d said – that I wanted this to be real, that I wanted to know things about him or this was never going to work-- then I needed to stick with it.

I told him I loved him, and I’d meant it.

And I had a feeling he loved me too, even if he hadn’t said it yet.

I reached up and went to knock on the boardroom door.

But then I heard the soft murmur of Vienna’s voice, and I froze.

“You’re being so stubborn,” she said.

“It’s not your decision,” Liam said. I heard the clink of a glass. God, was he serving her a drink? When he’d gone to the front door of the jet, he’d sounded like maybe he hadn’t been that happy to see her, almost annoyed. And now he was serving her drinks?

Had that posturing before been for my benefit? Had he known I could hear, and now that he was alone with Vienna, that he knew I wasn’t near, he was going to reveal how he really felt?

I froze.

I didn’t mean to snoop, it was just… hard not to.

“I know it’s not my decision, Liam, that’s why I’m here.”

“Then you should stay out of it.”

Yes, I thought, even though I had no idea what they were talking about, you should stay out of it.

“It’s not that easy.” She lowered her voice and I strained to hear what she was saying, but the tone of her voice had changed. The volume was lower, and she sounded more contrite, her tone a little more… soothing, or dare I say it, sexy.

Liam said something back, but the tenor of his voice was so low there was no way I was going to be able to hear what he said.

All I could hear was bits and pieces of what Vienna was saying.

“…a long time, Liam…what was I supposed to do, what did you expect…”

After each murmured phrase there was a response from Liam, totally unintelligible, until finally they both went quiet.

I stood there in the hallway, telling myself to knock on the door, telling myself to go inside, and yet not wanting to do it, not wanting to see what it was they were doing. Was he holding her? Was she holding him? Kissing him? Whispering in his ear, telling him that it was going to be okay, that whatever thing she’d come here to talk about could be fixed?

My stomach turned and rolled, and when he started to talk again, I couldn’t take it anymore.

I reached out and turned the knob, pushed into the room, ready to see whatever it was that I was going to see.

Liam stood at the head of the table, bent over, his hands gripping the edge of the wood. In front of him, on a coaster, was a tumbler of clear liquid. Whiskey or vodka, I wasn’t sure.

Vienna sat in one of the chairs on the side of the table, the first one closest to Liam, her hand on his forearm. She had no drink in front of her, and I wasn’t sure what would have been worse, him serving her a drink, making it clear he wanted her to stay, or the fact that he obviously thought he needed to drink for some reason. Why was she driving him to drink?

Liam’s head was bowed, but when I walked into the room, it snapped up.

His eyes locked on mine, any trace of the tenderness he’d shown me gone as his face turned to steel.

“Hi,” I said, realizing I should have had a plan before I barged in here. “I heard voices.”