Trusting Liam(31)

June 13

Liam

I’D BEEN TRYING to find Kennedy and Kira for the past twenty minutes. It shouldn’t have been hard, we were all in my apartment . . . but so were about thirty other people. It only took five minutes for me to regret letting everyone come back here after our day at the beach. I should have known that our group of fifteen would quickly double in number, and the last thing I wanted was to act like I was actually enjoying the night when all I wanted was a chance to talk to Kennedy alone.

A pair of arms wrapped around my waist. Fingertips found their way into the band of my shorts, and I bit back a groan. Okay, I also wanted Cecily to stop trying to maul me every chance she got . . . which was also part of the reason I needed to talk to Kennedy. I hadn’t missed the way she’d been looking at me earlier after Cecily had kissed me—it’d been impossible to. Just like it had been impossible to figure out why Cecily was trying to bring back our relationship and make it public suddenly.

Sure, some people at work had known . . . but that had been it. Even if we had been at the same event or party, we stayed away from each other. That was the agreement. We only did anything in my office, or when we were alone in either of our places. Nothing more.

Grabbing her searching hands, I pushed them away and turned to look at her. Her dark eyes were pinned to me, the challenge in them clear. She wanted Kennedy to see this; she also wanted me to give in to her as much as she wanted me to publicly announce what we’d once had. I held her stare until I was sure she was listening to what I was about to say. “Cecily, you have to stop. Whatever it was we had is over—I thought I’d made that clear the other day.”

Her eyes narrowed marginally at my soft tone, and when her next questions came out louder than necessary, I knew I’d been right. She wanted a public scene—and she wanted one girl in particular to get a front-row seat. “Since when, Liam? What is your deal lately? You have never once tried to push me away from you, and don’t try to deny it. There are plenty of people who remember you pulling me into your office and the noises you had me making not long after.”

I grabbed the back of her neck and brought her close to me. “You really want to start this shit? No one will look bad after this except for you, believe that if nothing else.” Her eyes widened, and I knew I had her. She would do anything as long as she came out on top, and I would make sure she wouldn’t this time. With a heavy sigh, I released her and took a step away. “You know why things have changed, and you know they changed awhile ago. This weekend isn’t anything new. What I don’t get is why you’re suddenly letting someone make you act like you’re some insecure girl who’s been burned when there was never anything between us to burn.”

Her expression went flat, and just when I saw her anger coming through and prepared myself for whatever she would say, she turned and pushed through the people behind her—making her way to the door.

“Whew. Talk about drama,” a husky voice said next to me.

I turned and jerked back when I saw Kennedy standing directly beside me. But at second glance, my body relaxed when I realized the wrong sister was standing next to me. “Where’s Kennedy?”

Kira shrugged and turned to look behind her. “Dancing . . . somewhere. I don’t know, I lost her a little while ago.”

“I’m gonna go look for her.”

“You gonna save her from all the big and bad guys at your place, Liam?”

I smirked and gave her a questioning look. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

She held up her hands in mock surrender. “Didn’t say that. You just might want to be prepared for what she throws at you after what happened at the beach. I may have heard what just went down between you and that girl, but she didn’t, and I know she isn’t forgetting what she saw earlier.”

If Kira was warning me, I could only imagine how bad it was about to be. Turning around, I moved slowly through the people standing around drinking and dancing. I was just about to turn around to go back to where I’d left Kira when everything in me halted, and my blood boiled. My hands clenched into fists, and I had to force myself to stay where I was instead of going over to punch a guy sitting on the arm of one of my couches.

Kennedy was practically fucking his thigh along to the music, and his hand started wandering up her skirt as I sat there watching them. I knew I needed to turn around and go someplace where I couldn’t see them. I didn’t have a right to make her stop what she was doing, especially after she watched me with Cecily, but that wasn’t stopping me from feeling like it was my right.